Suicide leap at disciplinary school
A 21-year-old man jumped to his death Monday in an apparent suicide at a sailing school in Mihama, Aichi Prefecture, that is known for its strict education program for troubled young people, police...
View ArticleMickey, Minnie greet new adults at Tokyo Disneyland
About 1.22 million people born in 1991 who had reached the age of 20 before January celebrated the Coming of Age holiday on Monday. Their ranks totaled 20,000 less than in 2010. The figure reset the...
View ArticleInternational education a triple-A investment in your child's - and Japan's -...
Bicultural families are on the rise in Japan. In 1970, less than 6,000 "international marriages" - where one partner is non-Japanese - were registered, or 0.5 percent of the total. In 2000, the...
View ArticleSumo: Kotoshogiku rebounds from opening-day defeat
Kotoshogiku rebounded from an opening day loss, ozeki debutant Kisenosato steamrolled another would-be opponent, and Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho ruled with an iron fist on the second day of the New Year...
View ArticleOlympus sues own execs over loss-hiding
Olympus Corp. has filed a lawsuit against former and incumbent executives of the company, including former Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and President Shuichi Takayama, over their alleged involvement in...
View ArticlePension 'trump card' goes unplayed / System to forcibly collect unpaid...
The system touted as a "trump card" for halting the decline in contributions to the government-run pension scheme has not been used since its creation two years ago, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned....
View ArticlePolice to question Aum founder / Former cultists: Hirata present at meetings...
Police plan to question Chizuo Matsumoto, founder of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, regarding former Aum member Makoto Hirata's statement that he was unaware of plans to abduct a Tokyo notary public, it...
View ArticleJapan to release 3 activists who boarded whaler
An Australian customs ship was steaming toward a Japanese whaling vessel to collect three activists after Tokyo decided on Tuesday to release them without charges over their surprise boarding off...
View ArticleSaudi: 'Internal' matter if Japan buys Iran oil
A Saudi oil official said that whether Japan or other countries continue to buy Iranian oil was an "internal matter," reflecting the unease in many nations after the latest U.S. sanctions on Tehran and...
View ArticleTwitter is huge in Japan - bigger than Facebook, actually
Twitter is getting to be kind of a big deal globally, at least among marketers and the digerati. But in Japan, the microblogging service already trumps Facebook in traffic. According to stats from...
View ArticleN. Koreans sent home after 'drifting' to Japan
Three North Korean men, who reached Japan in a small wooden boat last week, were sent home Monday under an agreement between Pyongyang and Tokyo, the Japanese foreign ministry said. The trio were found...
View ArticleJapan, China, S. Korea to kick off FTA talks
Japan, China and South Korea are expected to start negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement in the first half of this year, possibly in May, a Chinese newspaper reported Monday. "If there is...
View ArticleUnruly air passenger from Japan arrested in Hawaii
A 65-year-old Japanese man has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a flight attendant aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S....
View ArticleJapanese shares close 0.38% higher
Japanese shares have closed 0.38 per cent higher but investors remained wary over eurozone risks ahead of bond auctions in Italy and Spain later in the week. The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock...
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In Japan, a rebuilt island serves as a cautionary tale
On the night of July 12, 1993, the remote island of Okushiri was ripped apart by a huge earthquake and tsunami that now seem an eerie harbinger of the much larger disaster that struck northeastern...
View ArticleWoman denies killing three men
A woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murdering three male acquaintances in the course of swindling them in 2009 in a series of killings that drew huge public attention. Kanae Kijima, 37, entered the...
View ArticleJapan arrests woman who lived with cult fugitive
A woman claiming to have lived with a senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways turned herself in and was arrested Tuesday for helping him evade police for...
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Japanese stores offering foreigner-only discounts
In the latest in a very long line of moves designed to encourage overseas tourists to return to Japan post-March 11, several major retailers have decided to offer discounts to shoppers based on the...
View ArticleGSDF faces challenges in S. Sudan mission
The Ground Self-Defense Force's nation-building activity as part of a U.N. peacekeeping operation in South Sudan is likely to take a long time and face various challenges. In mid-January, the first...
View ArticleFood exports plunged due to nuclear crisis
The ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has affected the exports of farm and marine products from eastern Japan. According to the estimates of the Agriculture, Forestry and...
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