News On Japan

Hundreds of runners have carried small bells to scare away bears during a marathon on a small island in northern Japan. (NHK)

Tokyo police have arrested a woman on suspicion of abandoning the body of her baby daughter in a coin-operated locker. (NHK)

In the vast ecosystem of costumed mascots in Japan, the Kumamoto Prefectural character Kumamon probably stands at the top of the food chain. His empire has been estimated well into the billions of yen annually and he has even gained a following in China. (Japan Today)

Railway service has been stopped for almost 3 hours as a man climbed a transmission pole at a station in Chiba Prefecture near Tokyo. Around 30,000 passengers were affected. (NHK)

Japan, the United States and South Korea stopped short of referring to maximum pressure on North Korea in a joint statement released after a meeting of their defense ministers Sunday. (Jiji)

Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai and 2 crewmembers have returned to Earth after completing their mission at the International Space Station. (NHK)

Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso says he will forfeit one year's ministerial salary and take responsibility for his ministry's role in document tampering. (NHK)

Toshiba Memory Corp., the world's second-largest maker of NAND flash memory chips, is considering changing its name in 2019 as it seeks to introduce a new brand and raise its profile in the intensely competitive market. (Japan Times)

Fukuoka Prefectural Police have arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly beating his mother with a hammer at their residence in the town of Oki, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

Just like when the anime heroine came back from the dead, Sailor Moon the Miracle 4-D isn't going down so easily. (soranews24.com)

A man who was head of the parents' association at an elementary school in the city of Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo denied on Monday that he killed a Vietnamese girl attending the school and abandoned her body in March last year. (Jiji)

Police are investigating the sudden death in May of a wealthy man in western Japan, dubbed a Japanese "Don Juan" for being a womanizer, as possible murder after stimulants were detected in his body, investigative sources said Monday. (Kyodo)

A senior official of the Kobe Board of Education instructed a junior high school principal to cover up interview-based memos that proved a student who committed suicide in 2016 was bullied. (Japan Times)

A 23-year-old man who has been held for abandoning and damaging the body of a seven-year-old girl in Niigata Prefecture, central Japan was served a fresh arrest warrant on Monday for allegedly killing her last month. (Jiji)

Central Japan Railway Co. showed a new shinkansen bullet train model to the media during a test run on Tuesday. (Japan Times)

Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito has said he wants to present a "silver medal" to Crown Princess Masako to express his appreciation for her support over 25 years of marriage. (Jiji)

Airbnb says it has been obliged by Japanese authorities to cancel thousands of bookings ahead of the introduction of new rules. (NHK)

Police in Japan have arrested a man suspected of stabbing 3 passengers on a Shinkansen bullet train. One man died and 2 women were wounded. (NHK)

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attended an annual national tree-planting festival, the last such event for the couple, in the tsunami-hit city of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Sunday. (Japan Times)

A passenger car crashed into a supermarket in the city of Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, eastern Japan, on Sunday afternoon, injuring a total of 14 people including shoppers (Jiji)

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