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Veteran Japanese investors are split over whether to put their money into Chinese bonds.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 27, 2023

Friends who help manage $640 billion clash on China bonds

While they’ve been friends for at least a decade, their take on trading China bonds couldn’t be more diametrically opposed.
The Takahama No. 1 reactor (right) is the oldest of Japan's nuclear reactors not set for decommissioning.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2023

Kansai Electric restarts 48-year-old Takahama reactor

It is the second time that a reactor over 40 years old has been reactivated, after the restart of the No. 3 reactor at Kansai Electric's Mihama plant, also in Fukui.
Storage tanks for radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2023

No change in plan to release treated water, minister says

Japan's industry minister says there is no change to plan to start releasing treated water from Fukushima nuclear plant this summer.
A court illustration shows Kyota Hattori at the Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa branch on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 31, 2023

Tokyo ‘Joker’ train attacker sentenced to 23-year prison term

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Kyota Hattori stabbed a 72-year-old man and intended to murder 12 passengers by lighting a fire.
Seiji Kihara
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2023

Kishida aide Kihara sidesteps reporters after wife in the spotlight

Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Kihara's wife had been questioned by Tokyo Metro Police on a voluntary basis.
Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke IV bows in front of media after being released on bail set at ¥5 million.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2023

Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke IV released on ¥5 million bail

Suspected of helping his parents commit suicide, Kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke IV was released on Monday, with bail set at ¥5 million.
Rui Matsukawa (center), a Liberal Democratic Party member of the Upper House, is seen in a picture taken in Paris. Matsukawa posted the picture on social media and later deleted it.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2023

LDP lawmaker cautioned by party executive over France visit photo

The photo, in which Rui Matsukawa mimics the shape of the Eiffel Tower in front of the landmark, has already been deleted after drawing strong criticism.
A conveyor belt sushi restaurant chain uses a light emitting ultraviolet rays to kill the coronavirus in 2020.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 2, 2023

Sushi chain drops suit against teen over prank video

“The customer has admitted his responsibility and we have reached a settlement with reasonable details that are acceptable to us,” a spokesperson said.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in June raised its stake in Japan's five major trading firms. All of them beat net-income estimates for the first quarter of the fiscal year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2023

Buffett’s favored Japan trading firms post solid earnings

The five major trading firms all beat net-income estimates for the first quarter of the fiscal year in reports issued this week.
Tokyo Metropolitan Police investigators search the dormitory of Nihon University's American football team in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2023

Illegal stimulants found in Nihon University football player dorm

Police are planning to conduct a further investigation into the 21-year-old male football player who is suspected of possessing them.
Mariko Hayashi, chairwoman of the board of trustees at Nihon University, bows to the media after giving a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 8, 2023

Nihon University chairwoman apologizes for student drug scandal

Mariko Hayashi denied reports that she was kept in the dark about facts surrounding the case, which involves the university's American football team.
Speculation over the timing of an anticipated cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida puts it somewhere from mid-September to late in the month.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 10, 2023

Schedule tightens for Kishida to reshuffle Cabinet and LDP chiefs

The prime minister plans to use the reshuffle as an opportunity to boost his popularity, people familiar with his thinking said.
Logistics companies have started asking truck drivers to use sleep-tracking devices.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 10, 2023

Japan truck industry monitors drivers' sleep ahead of overtime cap

Firms are asking drivers to use mattress sleep trackers and wearables as they ready for an expected industry-wide crunch once overtime is limited.
Travellers walk through Beijing Daxing International Airport on April 24.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 11, 2023

China reopened its doors, but tourists are staying away

A rebound in domestic tourism hasn't been mirrored by inbound tourists, with several barriers harming the country's appeal.
Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito (left) speaks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida before a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in July.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 14, 2023

LDP increasingly wants land minister post back from Komeito

Calls are growing within the LDP to get the post of land minister back from Komeito just as Kishida considers a possible Cabinet reshuffle.
The image of schools as exploitive workplaces where labor regulations are habitually flouted is seen as the biggest factor putting off job applicants for teaching positions.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2023

Japan panel weighs raising overtime pay for teachers

The government is set to discuss an increase in overtime pay for teachers in a bid to compensate them for long working hours and attract new applicants.
The South Korean Embassy in Tokyo's Minato Ward
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2023

South Korean embassy in Tokyo reports bomb threat

The embassy is investigating the possibility of the threat being a hoax, but it has also asked Japanese police to provide stepped up security.
Junior high school students participate in a community-based club activity without any instructors in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Aug 15, 2023

Facing long hours, teacher pushes for data-driven reforms

Given the long working hours for Japan's schoolteachers, one educator from Gifu Prefecture is leading initiatives for teachers’ work-style reforms.
Pictures of pilots who undertook suicide attack missions are among the items kept at the Chiran Peace Museum in Minamikyushu, Kagoshima Prefecture.
JAPAN / History
Aug 15, 2023

Museums struggle to preserve suicide notes of Japanese WWII pilots

Over time, the materials have deteriorated and the color of the ink has changed.
A special committee of the assembly of the southwestern city of Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, voted Wednesday to adopt a petition calling on the city to accept a survey to examine whether it is suited to host a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear plants.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2023

Tsushima panel adopts petition for nuclear waste site survey

Such surveys are currently being conducted in the town of Suttsu and the village of Kamoenai, both in Hokkaido.
The government plans to make it mandatory for staff candidates at children's facilities, including those for children with disabilities, to submit a certificate of no sex crime record.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2023

Japan considers mandatory sex crime record checks by schools

The government plans to include the requirements in a bill it expects to submit to parliament as early as this fall.
Wataru Endo (left) in action for VfB Stuttgart in April
SOCCER
Aug 18, 2023

Liverpool sign Japan midfielder Wataru Endo from Stuttgart

Financial details were not disclosed but British media reported Liverpool offered around £16 million ($20.33 million) to sign the 30-year-old.
Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki (left) and the party's deputy leader, Seiji Maehara, pose following a news conference at the Diet building in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 21, 2023

DPP leadership race officially begins ahead of Sept. 2 vote

Incumbent party leader Yuichiro Tamaki is facing off against No. 2 Seiji Maehara in a race that could affect the landscape of the next Lower House poll.
Japan's major paper manufacturers are developing a new fiber to expand the use of wood amid a decline in domestic demand for paper.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2023

Japan paper industry to develop new wood fiber material

With demand for paper in the doldrums, the industry is looking to expand the use of wood, a renewable resource, beyond paper products.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida enters his office on June 15, just before telling reporters that he had no intention to dissolve the Lower House.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 22, 2023

CDP eyes bill to limit PM's power to dissolve Lower House

By introducing stricter procedures, the main opposition force aims to highlight its efforts to prevent the prime minister from abusing such powers.
As long as there’s a power plant sitting on its coast and as long as the treated water is being disposed of locally, Fukushima will continue to battle the same problems it has faced for the past 12 years, says Sakurai.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 24, 2023

Fukushima water plan 'complete opposite' of recovery: former mayor

Discharging treated water from the plant only communicates a drive to sustain nuclear power and profit while dismissing the concerns of locals, he said.
Yuka Saso leads the CPKC Women's Open after one round at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club in Vancouver on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS / Golf
Aug 25, 2023

Japan's Yuka Saso grabs first round lead at CPKC Women's Open

The U.S. Women's Open in 2021, came alive with four straight birdies and added two more to ensure a one-stroke lead over Sweden's Linn Grant.
Koji Suzuki rides on his surfboard in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2023

Fukushima surfer hangs loose about treated water release

Koji Suzuki, 68, fled the tsunami in his car but was back riding the waves off Minamisoma four months after the disaster.
Visitors to Dateka Vegefuru, a farmers market in Koori, Fukushima Prefecture, line up to purchase Akatsuki peaches on Aug. 3.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 28, 2023

Climate change upends Fukushima peach harvest season

One farmer said around 30% of his peaches couldn’t be shipped as the intense heat made the fruit too ripe.
The Environment Ministry plans to launch a survey in fiscal 2024 on how manufacturers recycle plastics and metals contained in industrial waste.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2023

Japan to conduct survey on closed-loop recycling

Closed-loop recycling is spreading in recent years on the back of improvements in technology to remove impurities from recyclable waste.

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Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat