Japan Today

An 84-year-old woman was discovered by her neighbors after being buried in snow outside her house for over four hours in Mogami, Yamagata Prefecture, police said Saturday. The woman, who has been named as Kikuto Saito, told police she left her house at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday to check…

A vacant lot beside a canal near an elementary school in Yokohama's Seya Ward, has been designated a no-entry area following the detection of high levels of radiative cesium. According to Yokohama authorities, topsoil to a depth of 1 cm was found to be emitting 6.85 microsieverts per hour, almost…

A company in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, has lost 500 grams of potassium cyanide, police said. The industrial plating company, Tanaka Plating Co, reported the loss to police on Thursday, Fuji TV reported. According to police, the potassium cyanide was being stored in a plastic container. A company spokesperson told police…

Panasonic on Friday warned it would see its worst-ever net loss of 780 billion yen for the year to March, blaming the strong yen, flooding in Thailand, and acquisition costs. The electronics giant said the huge net loss -- which would be one of the worst ever recorded by any…

Japan Airlines, which went bankrupt two years ago in one of the country's biggest-ever corporate failures, reported a nine-month profit of 146 billion yen Thursday, in part thanks to the strong yen. The carrier was bailed out by the government after filing for bankruptcy with debts of about 2.32 trillion…

Heavy snow that has blanketed northern Japan for weeks, triggering avalanches and affecting transport networks, has left at least 55 people dead, officials said Thursday. In one of the country's coldest winters in recent years, 43 people have died as they removed snow from roofs or roads, while seven more…

A Tochigi court on Wednesday sentenced a 30-year-old woman to 4 1/2 years in prison after she was found guilty of breaking the legs of four babies. The sentence was handed down at the Ashikaga branch of the Utsunomiya District Court. The court heard that Yuko Saotome approached mothers in…

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was forced to suspend trading in the shares of 241 companies including blue-chips Sony and Hitachi for the whole of the morning session Thursday due to a computer glitch. In the latest embarrassing system error to hit Asia's largest bourse by market capitalisation, the TSE suspended…

Third-year university student Saki Fujii flips through a meticulously kept diary of her six-month job hunt and eyes the busy week of interviews ahead -- another step on the treadmill for one of Japan's would-be workers. The 22-year-old knows her best hope of finding a full-time position is by doing…

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has released its latest figures on habitual cigarette smoking in Japan. According to research conducted by the ministry, the percentage of people smoking in Japan has fallen below 20% for the first time since records began, Sankei Shimbun reported Wednesday. The ministry's research…

The cabinet approved bills Tuesday aimed at bolstering nuclear safety regulations following last year's Fukushima disaster, including one that would put a 40-year cap on the operational life of nuclear reactors. The approval came as a team of International Atomic Energy Agency experts generally endorsed "stress test" results at two…

Battered by the strong yen and supply disruptions from Thailand's floods, Honda said Tuesday that its net earnings in the October-December quarter tumbled 41% to 47.6 billion yen and projected a sharply lower full-year profit. The Japanese automobile and motorcycle maker forecast it would earn 215 billion yen for the…

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog on Tuesday gave its seal of approval to Japan's reactor safety checks, but said utilities should beef up plans for managing disasters in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns. A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in the country at the government's invitation…

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has released its first ever definition of the term "power harassment." The number of people seeking counseling or advice, claiming to be victims of power harassment ("pawahara" in Japanese) has been on the increase, says the ministry. In 2010, the ministry said that…

Scientists are studying how radiation has affected plants and animals living near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an official said Monday. Researchers are examining field mice, red pine trees, a certain type of shellfish and other wild flora and fauna in and around the 20-kilometer no-go zone surrounding the plant,…

The first 95 applicants for the health ministry's care worker training program took the written certification exam on Sunday. The health ministry said that the 94 Indonesians and one Filipino, who arrived in 2008 and 2009, are allowed to stay in Japan for four years in total, but that in…

The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said the agency will open a branch office in Fukushima to monitor efforts to contain the world's worst atomic energy accident since Chernobyl, a report said Saturday. The government has struggled with public trust over the nuclear energy issue since the March 11…

The number of influenza patients admitted to medical facilities for treatment in Japan reached 1.11 million in the week leading up to Jan 22, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases reported on Friday. The institute says that the increase in the number of infections was due in part to the…

A magnitude-5.5 earthquake rattled Yamanashi Prefecture and the Kanto region on Saturday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The temblor was some 20 kilometers deep and hit at 7:43 a.m., the agency said. The agency also said that there is a…

South Korean prosecutors Friday brought charges against a Chinese man accused of hurling petrol bombs at the Japanese embassy in Seoul because his grandmother was forced into wartime sex slavery. The 38-year-old surnamed Liu was charged with attempted arson, prosecutors at the Seoul central district office said. Liu has been…