News On Japan

The employment rate for people who graduated from Japanese universities in spring this year came to 98.0 pct as of April 1, the highest since the survey started in 1997, the labor and education ministries said Friday. (Jiji)

Narita International Airport is set to mark on Sunday the 40th anniversary of launching operations, at a time when airports in Asia are fiercely competing for the status of transport hub in the region. (Jiji)

Japanese teenage shogi chess sensation Sota Fujii has set a new record. The 15-year-old high school freshman has become the youngest player to achieve the rank of 7th-dan. (NHK)

Aichi Prefectural Police have arrested a 22-year-old man over the fatal stabbing of another customer at an internet cafe in Nagoya on Thursday, reports NHK (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan's lower house on Friday passed a bill to ratify the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact, paving the way for its enactment before the current Diet session ends in June. (Japan Today)

The Japanese government has presented a plan to add the subject of information to university entrance examinations, in order to test skills such as programming. (Jiji)

Crowds of people have gathered in Tokyo's Asakusa district to watch a traditional Shinto festival that heralds the arrival of early summer. (NHK)

An international organization has halted its screening to name a geological period 126,000 to 770,000 years ago after Japan's Chiba Prefecture due to a data falsification allegation, a Japanese study team said Friday. (Jiji)

The Taiwanese government has fined a local unit of Japanese 100-yen shop operator Daiso Industries Co. 41.64 million new Taiwan dollars, or about 150 million yen, for illegal imports, it was learned Wednesday. (Jiji)

Tomomasa Nakagawa, a former senior member of doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo now on death row, has published a research paper on the deadly VX nerve agent, it was learned Wednesday. (Jiji)

Embattled former Nihon University American football top coach Masato Uchida and incumbent assistant coach Tsutomu Inoue on Wednesday denied having instructed a player of the university team to injure a rival team's quarterback. (Jiji)

Two graduate students have been arrested for sitting around a traditional Japanese heated table they set up at the center of a busy intersection in western Japan, police said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

As a nation, Japan is more connected to the internet than almost any other country in the world. According to statistics from Statista, 91% of the country's 104 million internet users are going online every day. (newsonjapan.com)

Last week, Tokyo police announced the bust of a so-called “delivery health” out-call business in the Uguisudani area of Taito Ward. (tokyoreporter.com)

Corrosion and holes have been found in ventilation ducts at 12 reactors at seven nuclear plants across Japan, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday, raising concerns that workers could be exposed to radiation in the event of an accident. (Japan Today)

Chinese money is pouring into Hokkaido at a much greater scale than imagined. In his recent visit to the island prefecture, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended a forum of Japanese prefectural and Chinese provincial governors in Sapporo on May 11, but a Chinese diplomatic source said he was just using the meeting as an excuse for touring the island. (Japan Times)

Andrés Iniesta has signed for the Japanese side Vissel Kobe after bringing down the curtain on his brilliant Barcelona career. (theguardian.com)

A district court has ordered the government to pay 400,000 yen in damages to an inmate who was unjustifiably held for months in a cell for solitary confinement equipped with a surveillance camera. (Japan Today)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 57-year-old man who admits to having posed as a talent scout in molesting women, reports TBS News (tokyoreporter.com)

Pigs raised at a farm in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, have tested negative for hog cholera after receiving a through antibody test at a national research institute, the agriculture ministry said Thursday. (Jiji)

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