Uniqlo scores in bet Sony, Adidas missed on tennis ace Nishikori
Japan's No. 1 tennis player Kei Nishikori's historic run at the Australian Open won a torrent of publicity for sponsor Fast Retailing Co., attention Sony Corp. and Adidas AG missed by not renewing...
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Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die
When you stand in the center of Japan's exclusion zone, there is absolute silence. The exclusion zone is the 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an area of high...
View ArticleChina 0vertakes Japan as world's top coal importer
While China has long been the world's top producer and overall consumer of coal, the country also became the largest importer of the resource last year, overtaking a position held by Japan since at...
View ArticleKDDI net profit falls 17%
Japanese telecom operator KDDI said Thursday net profit for the December quarter fell 17 percent on falling income from voice calls but raised its full-year revenue outlook thanks to iPhone 4S sales....
View ArticleJapan prices fall, mild deflation to persist
Japan's core consumer prices fell for the third consecutive month in the year to December, and mild deflation is expected to persist this year as energy prices stabilize and worries about Europe's debt...
View ArticleGovt failed to keep records of key nuke meetings
Japan's deputy prime minister acknowledged Friday that the government failed to take minutes of 10 meetings last year on the response to the country's disasters and nuclear crisis and called for...
View ArticleNintendo chief promises to do Wii U launch right
Nintendo's chief is determined to get right the launch of its next game machine, Wii U, set for this year's holiday shopping season, and acknowledged Friday some mistakes with selling its 3DS handheld....
View ArticleTokyo stocks close flat
Tokyo stocks have closed flat as investors cautiously looked to a European Union leaders meeting next week. The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange edged down 0.09 per cent or 8.25 points to...
View ArticleJapan movie box-office revenues plunge 17.9% in 2011
Movie box-office revenues in Japan last year plunged 17.9 percent from an all-time high in the previous year to 181.2 billion yen due to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated...
View ArticleChinese man charged for Japan embassy attack in S Korea
Prosecutors in South Korea have charged a Chinese man with attempted arson for hurling Molotov cocktails at the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The 38-year-old from Guangzhou in southern China was...
View ArticleKorean War criminals tried as Japanese
Hiromura Gakurai was a prison guard at the Hintok work camp along the Thailand-Burma "death railway," infamous for the extremely high human toll on the Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and local Asian...
View ArticleCabinet OKs child allowance bill; fight looms to gain passage by March
The Cabinet approved a bill Friday to create a new child allowance system starting April 1, replacing the present framework that expires at the end of March. Although the ruling Democratic Party of...
View ArticleEagles' star pitcher to wed celebrity
Rakuten Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is set to tie the knot with TV celebrity and singer Mai Satoda. The Sendai-based baseball team announced Thursday that 23-year-old Tanaka and Satoda, 27, plan to...
View ArticleHuge Yamanashi solar farm online
A solar power plant with a capacity of 10 megawatts began operating Friday in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. The Komekurayama power station, built by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on a 12.5-hectare site, is...
View ArticleGlitches to cost DoCoMo execs
NTT DoCoMo Inc. President Ryuji Yamada and five other executives will face a pay cut over a series of communications service disruptions since last year, the company said Friday, while announcing a...
View Article1 killed, 21 injured in vehicle collision in SW Japan
One person was killed and 21 others were injured in a collision involving a truck of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and a tourist bus Saturday morning in Kumamato Prefecture in southwestern Japan,...
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Active 200-km fault found off Honshu's Kii Peninsula
An active fault around 200 km long that is believed to have been a source of huge quakes in the past has been found off Honshu's Kii Peninsula, according to researchers at the University of Tokyo. If...
View ArticleTalent agency's charity to provide billions for pandas
A charity established by a talent agency to support reconstruction in the northeast expects to shoulder several billion yen of the cost of leasing giant pandas from China for a zoo in Sendai. Singer...
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Fish tales of Tsukiji
Streets are bathed in indigo hues when I emerge from the Hibiya subway line's Tsukiji Station, heading for Tsukiji Oroshiuri Shijo which, though its name translates simply as "Tsukiji Wholesale...
View ArticleIn disparity-ridden Japan, don't mind the gaps - just get out of them
When the term kakusa shakai came into vogue in 2006 - a fairly self-explanatory expression given that kakusa means "gap" or "disparity," and shakai means "society" - it was a clear sign of Japanese...
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