News On Japan

New rules requiring greater scrutiny of applicants from five countries have landed Japanese-language schools with that little bit more paperwork. (Japan Times)

Retailer Takashimaya has opened a specialty section in one of its Tokyo department stores that sells only robots. Most of them cost between 900 and 2,700 dollars. (NHK)

Tokyo 2020 Olympic organizers said on Wednesday that tests showed levels of E. Coli up to 20 times above the accepted limit and fecal coliform bacteria seven times higher than agreed at the planned venue for marathon swimming and triathlon. (Japan Today)

Japan Broadcasting Corp., or NHK, revealed Wednesday that a female reporter in Tokyo died due to overwork in July 2013. (Jiji)

Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have started what they say is the world's first clinical trial of medicine found through iPS cell studies. (NHK)

Google and LINE have announced that they will each launch AI speakers that handle the Japanese language. (NHK)

The sale of old manhole covers by a city north of Tokyo has attracted many buyers amid the growing popularity in the metal lids featuring designs inspired by local landmarks and specialties. (NHK)

Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for his book “The Remains of the Day,” has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. (the-japan-news.com)

Law enforcement her on Thursday revealed the arrest of the manager of a popular ramen shop in Taisho Ward for the possession of marijuana, reports Mainichi Broadcasting System (tokyoreporter.com)

Six people were found dead after a fire engulfed an apartment in Ibaraki Prefecture early Friday morning, and a 32-year-old man who claimed to have deliberately started the blaze turned himself in to police. (Japan Times)

A new party led by Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike has unveiled policies it dubs "Yurinomics" that aim to revitalise the economy and cut reliance on fiscal spending and monetary easing, seeking to distance itself from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's more aggressive stimulus measures. (Japan Today)

The National Police Agency revealed on Thursday that the number of arrests for marijuana-related crimes surged by nearly 20 percent over the first half of the year compared to 2016, reports the Nikkei Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

Japanese beef bowl purveyor Yoshinoya Holdings posted its biggest first-half profit in a decade Friday, thanks to a spiced-up menu, putting the company on the road to shedding its underdog status among industry peers. (Nikkei)

As Japan moves within striking distance of beating the deflation that has plagued the nation for so many years, the leading parties in the Oct. 22 general election have laid out platforms that lean worryingly close to populism rather than offer ways to parlay this progress into stable economic growth. (Nikkei)

Following Kazuo Ishiguro's winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2017 the previous day, Hayakawa Publishing Corp., which sells translated editions of novels by the Japan-born British author in Japan, was busy Friday dealing with orders from bookstores nationwide. (Jiji)

About 500 people enjoyed the first outdoor ski run of the season in Japan at a resort at the base of Mt. Fuji. The slope in Susono City in Shizuoka Prefecture opened on Friday. (NHK)

Dentsu Inc was fined just 500,000 yen after a Tokyo court ruled it had made employees work overtime beyond legal limits - a case that followed a high profile death from overwork at the advertising giant. (Japan Today)

A drunk university student caused a delay in railway services after he was seen walking along a track bed in west Tokyo on Friday, reports the Asahi Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

A magnitude 5-point-9 earthquake has struck northeastern Japan. (NHK)

Japanese Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Norio Maruyama on Sunday issued a statement noting the country's shared objective with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. (Jiji)

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