Crown Prince cancels France visit
Crown Prince Naruhito has canceled a plan to visit France this month for the World Water Forum to be held in Marseille, the Imperial Household Agency said Monday. The Crown Prince will concentrate on...
View ArticleDPJ leaders propose slashing lawmaker salaries by 14%
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan's executive members decided Monday to slash legislators' salaries by about 14 percent - nearly double the 7.8 percent pay cut for civil servants approved by the...
View ArticleMyanmar refugees set for new life
Eighteen Myanmar refugees consisting of four families, who arrived in Japan from a camp in Thailand last year, completed a language and cultural acclimation program Friday and are looking forward to...
View ArticleBuyers of new bonds to get special coin at term maturity
Japan began selling special government bonds Monday aimed at raising funds for reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, saying it will present buyers with commemorative gold coins...
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Berlitz court ruling unequivocal on basic right to strike
After hearing more than three years of testimony, the judge took only a minute to read the court's verdict rejecting Berlitz Japan's ¥110 million lawsuit against striking teachers and their union and...
View ArticleJapan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail
Last December, the Japanese government announced that a new visa regime with a "points system" would be introduced this spring. It is designed to attract 2,000 non-Japanese (NJ) with a "high degree of...
View ArticleMiyagi city to build huge solar plant
The Iwanuma city government plans to build a mega solar power plant on farmland rendered useless by salt damage and subsidence as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The plant, which would...
View ArticlePolice from 3 prefectures apologize for inability to stop stalker killing 2...
Police officials from Nagasaki, Chiba and Mie prefectures on Monday apologized at a joint news conference for their inability to prevent a known stalker from killing two women last December. Mitsuko...
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Spider silk spun into violin strings
A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings. The strings are said to have a "soft and profound timbre" relative to traditional gut or steel...
View ArticleParty for baby whose birth saved father from Japan tsunami
Searching through piles of bodies after Japan's March 11 tsunami, Kenji Sato was struck by the thought -- he could easily have been one of them, had it not been for his son born earlier that day. In a...
View ArticleJapan watchdog files criminal charge against Olympus
Japan's securities watchdog said on Tuesday that it was filing criminal complaints against medical equipment maker Olympus Corp and its former executives and outside advisers over the company's $1.7...
View ArticleNikkei slips for 2nd day; bridge makers soar
Japan's Nikkei share average slipped for a second day on Tuesday as investors bagged profits on blue chip stocks following February's 10.5 percent rally, although some attractive valuations and a...
View ArticleNoda tells Putin Japan wants to start afresh in territorial talks
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday expressed hope to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the two countries will start afresh in talks over a long-standing territorial dispute concerning...
View ArticleTwo men taken to hospital after smoking 'legal herbs'
Police said Tuesday that two men in Tokyo's Sumida Ward were taken to hospital on Monday after smoking herb-like substances. According to police, a group of six men checked into a hotel room at around...
View ArticleTruck driver found stabbed to death in company parking lot in Mie
Police said Tuesday that a 39-year-old man was found dead in his truck in the parking lot of a transport company in Matsuzaka City in Mie Prefecture on Monday. According to police, the victim,...
View ArticleReal-time online tsunami feed starts
Weathernews Inc. has started a new service that provides tsunami information online using radars that can detect the waves within 30 km of the coast and capture images of them as fast as 15 minutes...
View ArticleJapan investors count cost of falling double-decker returns
The double-decker thrill ride for Japanese retail investors may be over after a depreciation in emerging market high-yield currencies shattered profits and regulators stiffened rules. Asia Risk...
View ArticleJapanese tea master appointed as UNESCO ambassador
UNESCO appointed Japanese tea ceremony master Sen Genshitsu as its second goodwill ambassador from Japan. "I feel a great responsibility as I did when I succeeded the grand master of the Ura Senke...
View ArticleJapan's declining economy
Japan shows no signs of emerging from its recession, according to Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist of Credit Suisse in Japan. However, the government is attempting to make substantial steps to...
View ArticleTsuruga nuke plant sits atop major fault
An active fault running under reactors 1 and 2 at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture is much longer than previously thought and could trigger a 7.4-magnitude earthquake, larger than earlier...
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