O-157 discovery may spur ban on raw beef liver
The health ministry said Thursday it has detected E. coli inside beef liver for the first time, raising the likelihood that raw liver may soon be banned from the dining table. The findings, to be...
View ArticleJapanese anime fans set new Twitter record
Last weekend, a Japanese television broadcast of classic Studio Ghibli anime Castle in the Sky prompted more than 11,349 tweets per second at a key moment in the movie. This perfect storm of tweets...
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Imperial law revisited as family shrinks, Emperor ages
It's not an easy job, being the emperor of Japan. Besides hosting dozens of Imperial court ceremonies year-round, Emperor Akihito - alongside Empress Michiko - has to attend numerous meetings and...
View ArticleJapan traders eye $200 billion power market post-Fukushima
Japan's trading companies own enough electricity capacity to supply more than 40 percent of the country's homes. Problem is, their generators aren't in Japan. Mitsui & Co., the second-largest...
View ArticleFlotsam from Japanese tsunami reaches NW coast
Some debris from the March tsunami in Japan is already reaching the Northwest coast. A large black float about the size of a 55-gallon drum was found two weeks ago by a crew cleaning a beach a few...
View ArticleFutenma base relocation has little hope left
The political games being played in Washington and Tokyo regarding whether the U.S. will fund the transfer of Okinawa-based U.S. Marines to Guam are of no consequence, experts say, because the 2006...
View ArticleJapan's tourism industry looks forward to a bright, trouble-free 2012
The Japanese capital is all dressed up for the holidays and people are bundling up to head out and enjoy the sights. Many flock to the brick-lined Yebisu Garden Place to see its solar-powered Christmas...
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Escaped ostriches wandering around no-go zone
The agriculture ministry is trying to round up more than 10 ostriches that ran off from a farm in the 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. The wayward birds are wandering...
View ArticleBaby survives 10-story fall; dad held
A 1-year-old boy survived a 10-story fall from a Tokyo apartment building Thursday after his disturbed father allegedly tossed him out a window in the morning, police said. The baby survived after...
View ArticleIAEA not told of enriched nuclear waste
The government failed to tell the International Atomic Energy Agency about unaccounted-for or unreported amounts of enriched plutonium and uranium it has found in nuclear waste produced by its own...
View ArticleYakuza involved in Fukushima clean-up: reporter
A Japanese journalist who worked at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant this summer claimed Thursday that Japan's yakuza crime syndicates were involved in supplying clean-up crews. "Roughly 10% of...
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The hermit of Fukushima 'staying put' despite risks
Naoto Matsumura is tired of being accused of madness for refusing to leave his farm in the shadow of Japan's still-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant. "I'm not crazy," insists the 52-year-old, who claims...
View ArticleFukushima cold shutdown: An inside look
Japanese authorities are set to announce Friday that they have brought the Fukushima Daiichi complex's devastated reactors to a state called cold shutdown, a milestone in stabilizing the site of the...
View ArticleOsaka Prison food poisoning sickens 1,000 inmates
A bout of food poisoning sickened 1,074 inmates at Osaka Prison in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, from Tuesday to Wednesday, forcing it to serve preserved food stored for emergency use, prison and local...
View ArticleJapan says stricken nuclear power plant in cold shutdown
Japan declared its tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant to be in cold shutdown on Friday in a major step toward resolving the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. The Fukushima Daiichi...
View ArticleTokyo shares mixed to close amid eurozone fears
Japanese stocks ended mixed Friday as a smooth Spanish bond auction and better-than-expected jobs data in the United States were tempered by ongoing eurozone fears. The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock...
View ArticleTis the season to tell stories
The warmth of the holiday season often cooks up a nice story - a helping of good will to be served with turkey and plum pudding, osechi and omochi or whatever other delicacies might grace your...
View ArticleCitigroup sanctioned by FSA
Citigroup Inc. has been ordered to suspend some derivative transactions by the Financial Services Agency, the regulator said Friday. Citigroup's Japan banking unit also had some of its retail...
View ArticleHerbivorous men, where's the beef?
My single Japanese girlfriends complain that there are no interesting guys out there. Could they be right? It seems that these days the average Japanese guy is, well, you know, kinda boring. Kinda...
View ArticleCabinet OKs tax-hiking budget plan
The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda agreed Friday on a guideline for compiling the fiscal 2012 budget with a focus on "Japan revitalization" following the March quake-tsunami and amid the...
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