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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The buyer of a $145,000 tuna at Tokyo’s traditional New Year auction said Wednesday he hoped the purchase would “brighten” a Covid-hit 2022. The top price paid for a tuna at the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market fell for the third year running, with demand hit by the pandemic. The 16.88 million yen shelled out jointly by a restaurant operator and a wholesaler for the huge […]
by Sunghee Hwang North Korea has fired a projectile into the sea, the South’s military and the Japanese coast guard said Wednesday, in what would be the first such launch by Pyongyang this year. In the decade since Kim Jong Un took power, North Korea has seen rapid progress in its military technology at the cost of international sanctions. Despite severe economic difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic, Kim said last week the country would continue […]
A 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit remote Japanese islands in the Pacific early Tuesday, but there was no tsunami warning, officials said. The underwater quake, measuring 43.4 kilometres (27.0 miles) in depth, hit at 6:08 am (2108 GMT Monday) near Bonin Islands, locally known as Ogasawara Islands, the United States Geological Survey said. The islands are some 1,000 kilometres south of the main urban area of Tokyo, which administers them. The Japan Meteorological Agency said its […]
Japan’s imperial family is facing extinction due to a shortage of eligible emperors, but some experts say the ideas floated in a government inquiry for boosting the dwindling number of royals are out of touch. With women barred from the throne under male-only succession rules, the place of Emperor Naruhito, 61, will one day be filled by his nephew Prince Hisahito instead of his only child Princess Aiko. But if 15-year-old Hisahito does not have […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A 61-year-old man suspected of starting a fire at a Japanese mental health clinic that claimed 25 lives died in hospital on Thursday, local media said. Morio Tanimoto had been in critical condition due to burns and carbon monoxide poisoning following the deadly attack in Osaka on December 17. Tanimoto, a former patient of the clinic, died without being interrogated by police, public broadcaster NHK said, citing investigative sources. An Osaka […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has “no plans to send government officials” to February’s Beijing Olympics, Tokyo said Friday, after the US and other countries announced diplomatic boycotts over rights concerns. Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto and Japanese Olympic Committee head Yasuhiro Yamashita will attend the Winter Olympics in the Chinese capital, top government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said. The United States, Britain, Australia and Canada this month announced diplomatic boycotts of the Games over what […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s core consumer prices rose 0.5 percent year-on-year in November, the third monthly increase after two modest hikes of 0.1 percent driven partly by higher fuel prices, government data showed Friday. The advances follow 18 months of declines or stagnation during the depths of the pandemic, and Friday’s reading beat economist expectations of a 0.4 percent rise. The core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices but includes fuel […]
by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France Presse Japan on Tuesday executed three prisoners on death row, the first since December 2019, local media reported citing unnamed sources including from the justice ministry. The executions were the first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October and won a general election the same month. When contacted by AFP, the ministry did not immediately confirm the reports by multiple major media outlets, which did not […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A Japanese billionaire was to return to Earth Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station, where he made videos about performing mundane tasks in space including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom. Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano, who will be shepherded home by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, are set to parachute onto Kazakhstan’s steppe at 0313 GMT Monday. Their journey marked Russia’s […]
by Harumi OZAWA with Hiroshi HIYAMA in Tokyo Agence France Presse OSAKA, Japan (AFP) — At least 24 people were killed after a blaze gutted a mental health clinic in a commercial building in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, local media said, with police reportedly considering it a possible arson case. The fire broke out mid-morning and raged for half an hour on the fourth floor of the clinic, which also provided […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Twenty-seven people were feared dead after a blaze at a building in a commercial district of the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, the local fire department said. TV footage showed dozens of firefighters working inside and outside the eight-storey building after the blaze was extinguished. The charred interior of the fourth floor of the narrow office building was visible through broken and blackened windows. The floor housed a clinic that […]
by Mathias CENA HAMAMATSU, Japan (AFP) — Tsuyoshi Hachisuka gently places skewered eel on a grill, preparing a much-loved Japanese delicacy that is now so endangered it commands eyewatering prices and the attention of international traffickers. Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and perhaps nowhere more so than Japan, where remains found in tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years. Despite its enduring popularity, much about the […]
