News On Japan

Kanagawa Prefectural Police suspect that a 24-year-old man committed suicide at a dam in the village of Kiyokawa in 2003 after murdering a woman at the restaurant where she worked, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday that he plans to take up the issue of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals decades ago at his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Jiji)

A Japanese court dismissed on Tuesday a damages suit filed by a man accused in a fraud case, after cash confiscated from him and kept in a police safe was stolen. (Japan Today)

Education minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has used an official ministry car to visit a "sexy yoga" studio in Tokyo, a weekly magazine said Tuesday, in another apparent scandal to hit the government. (Japan Today)

Orders for Japanese machine tools hit a record high for the first time in a decade in fiscal 2017, backed by strong demand from smartphone makers and others in China, industry data showed Tuesday. (Jiji)

Japan's cabinet on Tuesday approved the resignation of Vice Minister of Finance Junichi Fukuda, 58, who last week offered to quit over his alleged sexually harassing remarks. (Jiji)

The sun appears to shimmer both above and below Mt. Fuji while reflected on the surface of Tanukiko lake in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Thursday morning. (the-japan-news.com)

A SoftBank Group Corp. subsidiary and two other firms have developed a prototype of a two-seat humanoid robot that can transform into a car for use in amusement parks, the companies said Thursday. (Japan Times)

Japanese airline All Nippon Airways is planning to introduce a new type of Airbus A380 with cabins that are equipped with novel bench-style seats. (NHK)

Japan's fast food sector is set to get more competitive with the arrival of another player from the US. Fatburger is the latest in a line of foreign chains aiming to take a bite out of the market. (NHK)

A 69-year-old man from Osaka Prefecture filed a lawsuit Thursday against his deceased same-sex partner’s sister, seeking assets left behind by his late partner and damages for being barred from attending his cremation. (Japan Times)

Teary-eyed and his voice shaking, pop star Tatsuya Yamaguchi apologized Thursday for kissing and engaging in indecent behavior with a high school-aged girl in a career-crushing scandal leading to his indefinite suspension from show business. (Japan Times)

Local governments are agonizing over how to deal with a series of cases in which foreigners have flown drones in tourist spots. (the-japan-news.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the manager of a so-called “JK” school girl business who is suspected of employing minors to provide sex, reports the Sankei Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

Mount Ioyama in southwestern Japan has erupted again a week after its first eruption in 250 years. (NHK)

Sendai High Court on Thursday ordered the Miyagi prefectural and Ishinomaki municipal governments to pay a total of some 1,436 million yen in damages to the families of 23 elementary school children killed in the March 2011 tsunami, slightly raising the compensation amount from that set by a lower court. (Jiji)

Sony has logged its first record full-year operating profit in two decades as the electronics and media giant's shift to an online content distribution model for gaming bears fruit. (Nikkei)

Subaru Corp. said in a report to the government Friday that mileage and emissions data for 903 new cars were systematically rigged at one of its plants and that the malpractice may have started around 2002. (Japan Times)

Japan's Cabinet approved a bill to regulate casino operations on Friday. The proposed legislation lays the groundwork for the opening of "integrated resorts" that include casinos. (NHK)

A Japanese TV network has released a statement by an employee who is believed to have been sexually harassed by a former Finance Ministry top bureaucrat. (NHK)

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