Taiwanese-Japanese star implicated in beating
Prosecutors say Taiwanese-Japanese starlet Makiyo has been barred from leaving Taiwan pending an investigation into her alleged involvement in the beating of a taxi driver in Taipei. The Taipei...
View ArticleCat cafes bare fangs over 'curfew'
Operators of so-called cat cafes, where visitors can play with cats in a relaxing atmosphere, are upset over a revision of the enforcement regulations of the Animal Protection Law that would prohibit...
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Skating: Mao's push for third world title starts at Four Continents
Mao Asada ended last year with a month of triumph and tragedy that are hard to imagine. Just two weeks after her mother Kyoko passed away at 48 on Dec. 9, Mao laced up the boots again and showed the...
View ArticleOutline approved for Hague treaty bills
A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday gave the green light for the ministry to write bills for new domestic laws in preparation for signing the Hague Convention, which would theoretically promise other...
View ArticleBullying rose 6.7% in 2010 school year
The number of bullying cases recognized by public and private elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide in the 2010 academic year rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier to 77,630, according to...
View ArticleNew fish markets planned for Tsukiji
The Tokyo metropolitan government and the Chuo Ward Office came to a broad agreement Tuesday to open a fresh-fish market in the current Tsukiji wholesale market--scheduled to be relocated--it was...
View ArticleHashimoto group claims union tried to tip election
Osaka Municipal Assembly members from Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group are pursuing allegations that a city labor union attempted to gather votes for Hashimoto's opponent in...
View ArticleMatsui remains option for Yanks
The New York Yankees may add one of the three most prominent remaining free agents - Raul Ibanez, Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui - within a week, according to an ESPN report. "The Yankees are...
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Shops selling dried herbs spiked with stimulant chemicals on the increase
Dried herbs mixed with stimulant chemicals carefully packaged to dodge drug laws are gaining in popularity among young Japanese, leading in turn to a drastic increase in the shops selling such...
View ArticleHigh cesium found in earthworms
Earthworms collected in Kawauchi, a village near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, have cesium levels averaging some 20,000 becquerels per kilogram, government researchers said. The finding indicates...
View ArticleNation's bullet train blues
The central government has decided to start construction work on three sections of three planned Shinkansen bullet train lines - the Shin Hakodate-Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, the...
View ArticleRenault-Nissan to buy Russian firm in stages
Renault SA and affiliate Nissan Motor Co. may pay for their planned 50 percent stake in OAO AvtoVAZ over two years as goals are met, according to an executive at the Russian carmaker's second-biggest...
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Lollipop Chainsaw gets censored edition in Japan
Looking for the full gory experience of Lollipop Chainsaw? You'll have to buy the premium edition. Reports have emerged that the regular SKU of the next title from Japanese developer Grasshopper...
View ArticleToyota lifts profit forecast as disaster woes fade
Toyota's quarterly profit slid 13.5 percent on production setbacks caused by last year's tsunami disaster and the flooding in Thailand, but Japan's top automaker raised its annual earnings forecast,...
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Otaku band AKB48 morphs into $200M business
What if the vice president of your university were a genius producer who had put together an insanely successful pop group of 90 singers and then approved the creation of identical doll versions of...
View ArticleJapan's perverse message; just tax the corporate cash mountains even more
Everyone thinks of Japan as a nation of savers. Stop the blighters from saving and get them to spend instead, it is often said, and the country's economic woes would be over. In reality, it's a bit...
View ArticleThailand a miracle cure for Japanese drug makers
More than a dozen Japanese pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are exploring business opportunities in Thailand as a way of increasing their Asian presence, a seminar heard yesterday....
View ArticlePair indicted over murder of Nepalese man in Osaka
Prosecutors in Osaka on Tuesday indicted a man and a woman over the murder of a Nepali man in Osaka on Jan 16. Hiroki Shiraishi, 21, a tattoo artist, and Miyoko Shiraishi, 22, are charged with being...
View ArticleApple offers clues to where Sony needs to go: William Pesek
Kazuo Hirai, charged with halting Sony Corp. (6758)'s downward spiral, could be excused for asking: Do I really want this job? Last week, the consumer-electronics giant said it expects a $2.9 billion...
View ArticleJapan finds a key to unlock philanthropy
Japan's universities and research institutes have long had to make do with few philanthropic donations. Strict laws governing university finances, and the lack of a philanthropic tradition, have...
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