North Korea reportedly launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Sunday morning, boosting tensions ahead of another round of talks Tuesday with Tokyo on the abduction issue.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, South Korean military officials said two missiles with a range of 500 km were fired from Wonsan, on North Korea’s eastern coast, between 4:50 a.m. and 4:58 a.m.
Farmers in Fukushima try to convince skeptical visitors that their crops are safe from radiation. Blood trickles from the nose of a reporter who visits the area.
These are two story lines found in manga — those ubiquitous comics for adults and teens — that have taken up Fukushima on an unprecedented scale even as Japanese film largely avoids the topic.
The deeply indebted public entity concurrently running two airports in the Kansai area might set a minimum bid of over ¥2 trillion when it puts the rights to operate the facilities up for sale, sources familiar with the matter said Sunday.
The money will allow New Kansai International Airport Co., which runs Kansai International Airport and Osaka International Airport, to pay off about ¥1.2 trillion in debt, the sources said.
Power utilities are increasingly worried that their aging thermal power plants will start developing problems in the summer, when electricity demand is at its peak, as they attempt to offset the loss of nuclear power caused by the Fukushima disaster.
In fiscal 2013, glitches and other problems caused a total of 169 shutdowns at thermal power plants, according to reports from nine of the country’s 10 regional utilities, excluding Okinawa Electric Power Co.
Japan has failed to address deficiencies in its measures to halt money laundering and terrorist financing, and should step up its efforts to do so, the Financial Action Task Force said.
The measures should include “necessary legislation,” the FATF, which is sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said in a statement posted on its website.
You might think the world of high-end earphones and headphones is only for audiophiles, but the smartphone boom has drastically expanded the market, if the turnout at the Portable Audio Festival in Tokyo was any indication.
Industry insiders say casual music lovers are spending more money on headgear in recent years because smartphones have made it easier to use music as a lifestyle or fashion statement.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. can’t confirm whether the groundwater bypass operation at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is working, Tepco officials said.
The operation is intended to reduce the tons of radiation-tainted water being generated by the plant each day. The melted reactor fuel at the plant, which was heavily damaged by three core meltdowns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, must be perpetually cooled by water that then leaks into the basements and taints incoming groundwater from the hills behind the plant.
North Korea fired two short-range missiles into its eastern waters Sunday, a South Korean official said, an apparent test fire that comes just days after the country tested what it called new precision-guided missiles.
The Defense Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department rules, said the missiles were fired from Wonsan in Gangwon province and are presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles. The official said North Korea fired the missiles without designating no-sail zones, which the South Korean military views as a clear provocation. South Korean media quoted officials as saying the projectiles appeared to be Scud missiles.
The ruling coalition came close to agreement Friday on three new standards under which the Self-Defense Forces could use force in circumstances other than when Japan is under direct attack.
Amid heated debate on whether the government, rather than the people, should reinterpret the pacifist Constitution, Japan is now a step closer to overhauling its defense-focused posture, with the Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito set to approve a draft statement that incorporates the three points, thus allowing Japan to enact collective self-defense. The concept has been taboo since Japan lost the war.
Japanese women are giving their husbands larger monthly allowances to offset the sales tax hike that kicked off the start of the financial year.
Spending money, often set by wives who control the family budget, rose 2.9 percent to ¥39,572 from last year, said Shinsei Bank Ltd., a Tokyo-based lender whose data go back to 1979. Salarymen spent more on drinking sessions, spending ¥3,483 an average of 2.4 times a month.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric ratcheted up the pressure Friday on lawmakers to agree on a prime minister before the newly elected parliament meets next week, trying to avert months of wrangling in the face of a Sunni insurgent blitz over huge tracts in the country’s north and west.
The United States, meanwhile, started flying armed drones over Baghdad to protect American civilians and newly deployed U.S. military forces in the capital.
Eccentric inventor Yoshiro Nakamatsu, popularly known as Dr. NakaMats, has revealed that he has terminal cancer and is expected to live a year and a half.
Nakamatsu said at a news conference Thursday that he was diagnosed with ductal prostate cancer in December and was told by doctors that he was expected to live no longer than until the end of 2015.
Bobby Womack, a colorful and highly influential R&B singer-songwriter who influenced artists from the Rolling Stones to Damon Albarn, has died. He was 70.
Womack’s publicist, Sonya Kolowrat, said Friday that the singer had died, but she could provide no other details.
MANAUS, BRAZIL – Xherdan Shaqiri’s hat trick put Switzerland into the second round of the World Cup, and kept coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gainfully employed for at least a few more days.
Shaqiri scored a pair of first-half goals and added another in the second Wednesday to give Switzerland a 3-0 victory over Honduras, a result that put the Swiss in second place in Group E behind France.
Jeers, sneers, and even discriminatory remarks in the assembly hall aren’t rare in the world of Japanese politics.
But the recent sexist slurs by a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker that made headlines around the world offer Japan a chance to end this shameful tradition, an expert says.
Groggy fans reacted with sadness early Wednesday after watching the national team exit soccer’s World Cup, some deciding to numb the pain after the horror show with one more drink.
Having watched Samurai Blue get crushed 4-1 by a rampant Colombia, it was little wonder that blue-clad fans who had been drinking all night opted to have another for the road.
Japan’s population as of Jan. 1 was down 0.19 percent from a year before at 126.4 million, falling for the fifth straight year, the internal affairs ministry said Wednesday in a report.
The figure uses data from Japan’s resident registry system and does not include foreign residents.
Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes agreed Wednesday to improve the investment climate in the South American country in an effort to attract more Japanese firms.
“Japanese companies have created jobs for our young people,” Cartes said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following summit talks in Tokyo. “We’ve also received cooperation from Japan for a wide range of development projects.”
Japanese teachers work an average of 53.9 hours per week, the highest figure among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 34 member countries, according to a survey released Wednesday.
The figure for Japan was well above the average of 38.3 hours among OECD members, according to the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), which Japan participated in for the first time.
The sexist taunting of a female politician during a recent session of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly drew rapid condemnation from some quarters, but little disbelief.
The problem is long-running and many victims tend to accept it and suffer in silence, some assembly members say.
