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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido Thursday but there was no tsunami warning and no reports of injuries or damage to property, authorities said. The quake struck at 9:22 pm local time (1222 GMT) at a depth of 41kilometers (25 miles), according to the US Geological Survey. The epicenter was around 55 km (35 miles) southeast of the city of Sapporo, the USGS added. The Japanese meteorological agency confirmed […]
by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese probe is expected to land on a distant asteroid Friday, aiming to blast a “bullet” into the surface to collect clues about the origins of Earth and the solar system. The Hayabusa2 probe is scheduled to touch down at 8:25 am local time (2325 GMT Thursday) on the Ryugu asteroid, some 300 million kilometers from the Earth, according to officials at the Japan […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, supported by a solid performance on Wall Street and hopes for progress in US-China trade talks. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.60 percent, or 128.84 points, to close at 21,431.49 while the broader Topix index was up 0.43 percent, or 6.95 points, at 1,613.47. “Investors were encouraged by growing expectations that the US-China trade talks will make progress,” Toshikazu Horiuchi, a […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese court Wednesday awarded nearly $4 million in fresh damages to scores of residents forced to flee their homes after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown. The Yokohama district court ordered the government and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) to pay 419.6 million yen ($3.8 million) to 152 local residents, a court spokeswoman told AFP. The verdict was the fifth time the government has been ruled liable for the disaster […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened lower on Tuesday as investors were seen taking a wait-and-see attitude after a holiday in the US market with a lack of fresh clues for trading. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.12 percent or 25.75 points at 21,256.10 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was lower by 0.10 percent or 1.61 points at 1,600.35. “Japanese shares are dominated by a wait-and-see attitude after the […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Japanese car giant Honda is expected to announce the shutdown of its plant in south west England in 2022, putting 3,500 jobs at risk, media reports said Monday. The carmaker is to announce the closure of its Swindon plant on Tuesday, according to Sky News, but still keep its European headquarters in nearby Bracknell. Nissan and Ford have also warned that jobs could be lost at British plants as Britain […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — With an eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Japanese researchers are developing a new system to accurately forecast torrential downpours — known in Japan as ‘guerilla rainstorms’ — 30 minutes before they strike. Scientists have created a high-tech radar capable of producing a three-dimensional map of a rain cloud in 30 to 60 seconds. They say this is a significant improvement on existing systems that measure only parts of a cloud […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan’s government introduced a bill Friday to recognize the country’s ethnic Ainu minority as an “indigenous” people for the first time, after decades of discrimination against the group. The Ainu people — many of whom live in northern Hokkaido — have long suffered the effects of a policy of forced assimilation, and while discrimination has receded gradually, income and education gaps with the rest of Japan persist. “It is important to […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian stocks retreated Friday as concern grew over reports of an impasse in China-US trade talks in Beijing, and Wall Street was hit by weak US retail sales. Bourses across the region posted losses as investors shrugged off news that US President Donald Trump would sign a massive spending bill to avert a government shutdown, while Chinese inflation eased more than expected. Top US economic officials were due to meet […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Environmental campaigners have filed an unprecedented lawsuit in a bid to halt the so-called “drive hunting” of dolphins in Japan, arguing the practice is cruel and illegal. In drive hunting, fishermen force dolphins into a cove by beating on boats to disorient them. The panicked animals often get tangled in nets, suffocate and drown. Activists say some dolphins smash into rocks and die of injuries, while others are killed by fishermen […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A robot arm has successfully picked up pebble-sized pieces of radioactive fuel at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in a complex operation seen as key to clean-up efforts after the 2011 meltdown, officials said Thursday. Operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) on Wednesday sent down a remote-controlled probe to the melted fuel at the bottom of the plant’s reactor 2, one of three that melted down after a massive earthquake and tsunami […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian stocks eased Thursday as traders anxiously awaited news from high-level US-China trade talks starting in Beijing. Negotiators from the two economic superpowers kicked off discussions in the Chinese capital aimed at defusing a row that has already triggered tariffs on billions of dollars worth of exports and threatened to stymie global growth. Failure to resolve the dispute would initiate a sharp hike in US tariffs on $200 billion of […]
