News On Japan

The Japanese education ministry plans to promote the use of information and communications technology in order to improve the English language skills of schoolchildren, informed sources said Wednesday. (Jiji)

A suspect who has been on the run for more than 2 weeks in Osaka Prefecture is found to have kept a memo of which police officers were on guard duty and when. (NHK)

East Japan Railway Company held the first media preview on Wednesday of its new station being built in central Tokyo. (NHK)

Keio University senior Kanako Date is Japan's representative to the Miss World 2018 competition to be held on China's Hainan Island from Nov. 9 to Dec. 8. (Kyodo)

The Japan Basketball Association on Wednesday decided to suspend four male professional players from official matches for one year for misconduct, including buying sex, in Jakarta earlier this month while they were participating in the ongoing Asian Games. (Jiji)

Japan's Ministry of Justice on Thursday requested its largest-ever budget for fiscal 2019, including 58.8 billion yen ($528 million) to create a new agency dedicated to immigration services and to add more than 500 staffers to handle the expanded role. (Nikkei)

Amazon.com will help Japan's small and midsize businesses ship to 100 overseas markets through its online mall, taking care of customs and other matters for fees comparable to domestic orders. (Nikkei)

Police in Sapporo said Thursday they have arrested a 49-year-old man on suspicion of killing his 23-year-old pregnant wife in a ward office car parking lot. (Japan Today)

A high court upheld Thursday a lower court ruling that found constitutional a legal provision that allows only men to file lawsuits denying legal fatherhood, dismissing a damages suit filed by a family against the state. (Japan Today)

Japan's social security costs hit record high in fiscal 2016 of more than one trillion dollars as the population continues to age. (NHK)

Japan and China have agreed to step up their economic and financial cooperation. (NHK)

The Okinawa prefectural government on Friday canceled its permission for landfill work for the construction of a U.S. military facility in the Henoko coastal area in Nago in the southernmost Japan prefecture. (Jiji)

Six teenagers died and two other teenage girls were injured in an accident involving three motorcycles in Nara, western Japan, early on Friday, police said. (Jiji)

Japan's Defense Ministry plans to request a record budget to address security issues, such as North Korea's ballistic missile program and China's maritime activities. (NHK)

A record amount of cocaine was seized from a freighter that arrived at the Port of Yokohama earlier this month, customs officials said on Friday, reports Kyodo News (tokyoreporter.com)

More teenagers are becoming addicted to the internet with an estimated 930,000 junior high and high school students nationwide overusing online services, a health ministry team said Friday. (Japan Times)

The life and times of Japan's first golfer: AMSTERDAM, 1606 (thesamuraigolfer.com)

Weather officials suggest a powerful typhoon could come very close to Japan next week. (NHK)

The Japanese government will put in place an online system for accepting tourist visa applications, starting with Chinese traveling in groups in fiscal 2020, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. (Nikkei)

Many train services in western Japan will be cancelled on Tuesday due to Typhoon Jebi. (NHK)

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