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TOKYO, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – Akira Toriyama was already famous to comic fans in the early 1980s with “Dr. Slump” but he won manga immortality with the global sensation and Japanese success story that is “Dragon Ball”. But as his creation and his fame exploded when his creation won over kids the world over, Toriyama, who has died in Japan aged 68, shunned the limelight and preferred to focus on drawing. “‘Dragon Ball’ is […]
By Tomohiro OSAKI, Natsuko FUKUE TOKYO, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – The creator of Japan’s hugely popular and influential “Dragon Ball” comics and anime cartoons, Akira Toriyama, has died aged 68, his production team said Friday. First serialised in 1984, “Dragon Ball” is one of the best-selling manga franchises of all time and has spawned countless anime series, films and video games. Toriyama died on March 1 because of a blood clot on his […]
LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – A Boeing 777 jetliner bound for Japan had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff Thursday, after a wheel fell off and plunged into an airport parking lot. Video posted online shows the wheel dropping seconds after the United Airlines plane gets off the ground at San Francisco International Airport. The wheel bounced into a car park used by airport employees, the local KRON4 outlet reported, […]
TOKYO, March 2, 2024 (AFP) – Japan’s Moon lander has been put back to sleep after it surprisingly survived the freezing, two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency said, with another operation attempt scheduled for later this month. The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down in January at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. As the sun’s angle shifted, it came back to life for two […]
TOKYO, March 1, 2024 (AFP) – The resignation of a Japanese mayor facing 99 allegations of sexual harassment sparked anger on social media on Friday, after he denied some cases and wept at a press conference. An official investigation accused Hideo Kojima, the mayor of a town in central Gifu region, of several incidents of harassment, including touching a colleague’s breasts and buttocks. The 74-year-old said Thursday he would quit, a day after wiping away […]
Nissan is planning to launch a self-driving taxi service in Japan in the financial year starting April 2027, the auto giant said Wednesday. The company said it will begin trials of the commercial service in the upcoming financial year from April, using minivans in an area of Yokohama, south of Tokyo. “Local communities have been facing several mobility challenges, such as driver shortages, which are a result of an ageing population,” Nissan said in a […]
TOKYO, Feb 27, 2024 (AFP) – DNA analysis has confirmed that a 70-year-old man who confessed on his hospital deathbed last month to being one of Japan’s most-wanted fugitives was indeed the suspect, police said Tuesday. Satoshi Kirishima, a former member of a Japanese radical leftist group behind deadly bomb attacks in the 1970s, was wanted for nearly 50 years, with his bespectacled, smiling mugshots almost omnipresent outside police stations across Japan. The saga took […]
By Kyoko HASEGAWA TOKYO, Feb 27, 2024 (AFP) – Japanese inflation slowed less than expected to two percent in January, data showed Tuesday, hitting the central bank’s target and firming expectations of an end to its outlier negative rates policy. Other major central banks including the US Federal Reserve have hiked borrowing costs because of rising prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, and may soon start cutting again. But haunted by […]
TOKYO, Feb 24, 2024 (AFP) – A popular Hello Kitty-themed amusement park in Japan closed for the day on Saturday after receiving an “email threatening terrorism”, its operator said. Sanrio Puroland in the capital Tokyo is known for its rides, shows and cutesy cartoon mascots including the beloved feline-like heroine. “We decided to temporarily close for the day because the safety of visitors, performers and staff cannot be guaranteed at the moment,” the indoor theme […]
NEW YORK, Feb 21, 2024 (AFP) – US authorities said Wednesday they had charged a member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld with handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal. According to a superseding indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court, yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri had previously been charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms offenses, and both were remanded. […]
KIKUYO, Japan, Feb 22, 2024 (AFP) – Surrounded by fields of carrots and cabbages, workers are putting the finishing touches to a factory opening on Saturday that is a milestone for both US ally Japan and Taiwanese chip giant TSMC. The $8.6-billion facility in the southern Kumamoto region showcases TSMC’s efforts to make some of its strategically crucial chips elsewhere than hotspot Taiwan, as well as Japan’s push to revive its once-dominant semiconductor sector. The […]
TOKYO, Feb 20, 2024 (AFP) – Hirotake Yano, the Japanese 100-yen shop pioneer and founder of the Daiso chain, has died, the company said. The billionaire “passed away due to heart failure at the age of 80 in Hiroshima” on February 12, Daiso said in a statement on Monday. After unsuccessful stints at his father-in-law’s fish business and peddling encyclopedias, Yano started selling goods from a street stall in 1972. Five years later, tired of […]
