News On Japan

Aichi Prefectural Police on Monday arrested the chairman of the key affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi and five others in the extortion of a restaurant in Nagoya's Naka Ward, reports Jiji Press (tokyoreporter.com)

Hyogo Prefectural Police have launched a manhunt after a shooting incident in Kobe left a man believed to be a bodyguard of the boss of a rival gang to the Yamaguchi-gumi dead, likely the result of a yakuza feud, reports NHK (tokyoreporter.com)

A cave in Okinawa that commemorates the civilian victims of a mass suicide on the southern Japanese island during the closing days of World War Two has been found vandalized. (NHK)

Toshiba has decided to re-engage US private-equity firm Bain Capital as the preferred bidder in the sale of its chip unit. (NHK)

Japan's Board of Audit has found that no Japanese-made parts were used in state-of-the-art F-35 fighter jets, violating a contract with the United States. (NHK)

The city of Kyoto will propose collecting a minimum 200 yen per night tax on guests staying at hotels or other lodgings in the popular tourist area, municipal officials said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

Emperor Akihito has harvested rice at a paddy field in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, as part of an annual event. (NHK)

A 3-year-old girl from Tokyo who ate deli food believed to be linked to a series of infection cases involving the highly toxic E. coli O-157 bacteria has died. (NHK)

Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido is recalling about 400,000 eyeliner sticks. Officials at the firm say plastic splinters have been found in some items. (NHK)

A very strong typhoon is moving in a northerly direction along the coast of Japan's southwestern prefecture of Okinawa. (NHK)

A North Korean government panel threatened to sink Japan into the sea with a nuclear bomb, accusing it of taking part in U.S. efforts for the adoption of the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. (Jiji)

Osaka Prefectural Police have launched an investigation into Keisuke Koide over an alleged “inappropriate relationship” with a girl under the age of 18, the details of which appeared in a weekly magazine last month, reports Nippon News Network (July 13). (tokyoreporter.com)

The Japanese government has revised its wording of alert messages sent out when a foreign missile is launched in Japan's direction. (NHK)

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is supplying fuel to U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships in the Sea of Japan, in a sign of deepening co-operation between the allies amid the growing threat from North Korea, a source said. (Japan Today)

Japan is working itself to death. The frequently recurring term karoshi (death from overwork) suggests as much. It's an indirect rather than a direct cause of death, which makes statistical precision difficult, but, as a rough standard, 80 hours a month of overtime work in the months leading up to a victim's death from a heart attack or stroke or suicide will back a claim for karoshi compensation. (Japan Today)

Mazda Motor Corp. said Thursday it will launch a high-end large sport-utility vehicle in Japan on Dec. 14. (the-japan-news.com)

The name boards of two unmanned stations in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, that are popular among railway enthusiasts as secluded stations, have been stolen. (Jiji)

Japan's space agency has unveiled a new observation satellite designed to allow more accurate predictions of global climate change. (NHK)

A 48-year-old man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of fatally stabbing a woman and seriously injuring her 4-year-old daughter in Osaka Prefecture, investigators said. (Japan Times)

A team of Japanese and other researchers won this year's Ig Nobel Biology Prize on Thursday for discovering an insect with sex-reversed genitals. (Jiji)

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