Snow festival opens in Sapporo

More than a dozen people were injured after a massive rope suddenly snapped during a tug-of-war at a festival in Kitami, Hokkaido, sending participants falling backward onto an asphalt road.

A public housing complex in Aichi Prefecture where about 70% of households are occupied by foreign residents is showing signs of improvement after introducing multilingual communication, foreign-led neighborhood activities and a 3,000-yen fine for residents who skip community cleaning duties.

A fire that broke out at the long-established Echigo Tsurukame sake brewery in a densely populated residential district of Niigata City on July 19 destroyed the brewery and spread to at least six nearby homes, with firefighters still unable to declare the blaze fully extinguished by noon on July 20.

Two people found dead in a collapsed home following a landslide in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, have been identified as a married couple in their 60s who lived at the property, city officials said.

Bacteria found in excrement on the uniform of a former nurse arrested on suspicion of killing a hospital patient by contaminating his intravenous drip matched bacteria detected in the victim's blood, investigators have found.

A man accused of leading a group assault that killed a university student apologized to the victim and his family in court, saying he had acted out of what he described as a "distorted sense of justice."

Police are investigating a yakuza gang in Hiroshima after its members allegedly cleared about 3,000 square meters of privately owned forest and used heavy machinery to build an unauthorized access road.

A former nurse accused of killing a hospitalized patient by mixing human waste into his intravenous drip had searched online for whether injecting feces could cause death, investigators have found.