Category Archives: Japan

Sperm donor who claims he fathered more than 180 children loses custody battle

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UK judge rejects Robert Albon’s application for parental right of three-year-old girl he had with woman in Durham

An unregistered sperm donor who says he has fathered more than 180 children has failed to gain custody of a three-year-old child he had with a Durham woman, who said she was left “broken” and “suicidal” by their encounter.

Robert Albon, who goes by the pseudonym “Joe Donor” and has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary, applied to have the girl live with him after a court deemed her mother was unable to look after her.

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Man admitted to Japan’s 2025 World Expo with 85-year-old ticket

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Collector of Expo memorabilia had a ticket to the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan, which was postponed indefinitely due to the war

A man was admitted to the World Expo in Japan using a ticket to the 1940 Grand International Exposition of Japan, an event that was called off as war escalated, organisers said.

Tickets for the Grand International Exposition of Japan in Tokyo were released in 1938 but the event was postponed indefinitely as Japan became embroiled in the second world war.

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Japanese police arrest man after alleged car attack on schoolchildren, say reports

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Motorist held in Osaka on suspicion of attempted murder after seven children injured, according to local media

Police in the Japanese city of Osaka have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder after he drove his car into seven schoolchildren, according to local media.

The children were walking home from school when the suspect appeared to deliberately drive the car at them on a quiet residential street at about 1.30pm local time, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

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Snake on a train line: Japan’s busiest bullet train route brought to a halt

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Outage occurred between Maibara and Gifu-Hashima stations after the snake appeared to have climbed an electricity pole

Japan’s busiest bullet train line was brought to a halt on Wednesday after a metre-long snake wrapped itself around a power line, shorting the electricity supply and stranding hundreds of passengers.

Shinkansen trains running between Tokyo and Osaka were brought to a standstill by the snake, with news reports showing footage of people inside trains waiting for services to resume. Power did not appear to have been cut inside trains, with lights and air conditioning still functioning, according to passengers.

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Student rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week

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Chinese national, 27, reportedly returned to Japan’s highest mountain days after first rescue to retrieve his phone

A university student has been rescued from the slopes of Mount Fuji twice in the space of a week – the second time during an attempt to retrieve his mobile phone.

The hapless climber, a 27-year-old Chinese national who has not been named, was airlifted from Japan’s highest mountain last week, only to be the subject of a second search four days later.

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Oranges are not the only fruit: Cumbrian marmalade awards offer unusual blends

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Winning Japanese preserve features pear and yuzu, while entry in ‘interesting additions’ includes peanut butter

Marmalade was never really my jam, but at the world marmalade awards at Dalemain house on the edge of the Lake District, I found myself a convert.

The experience has given weight to my theory that you might fall in love with any food if you try it at its finest. Hate tomatoes? Go to Italy. Not a fan of marmalade? Savour a spoonful in the presence of beaming marmalade fanatics who have spent their lives devoted to creating the tangiest, sweetest, jelly-ish version of the preserve.

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California’s economy surpasses Japan’s as it becomes fourth largest in world

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State’s nominal GDP reaches $4.1tn, edging out Japan’s $4.02tn, ranking it behind the US, China and Germany

California’s economy has surpassed Japan’s, making the Golden state the fourth largest economy in the world, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday.

The state’s nominal GDP reached $4.1tn, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, edging out Japan’s $4.02tn nominal GDP. California now ranks behind the US at $29.18tn, China at $18.74tn and Germany at $4.65tn.

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Two US marines investigated over alleged rape at military base in Okinawa

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Allegations come days after Japanese authorities increased efforts to deter crimes by US servicemen on island

Two US marines based on the Japanese island of Okinawa are being investigated for alleged rape, days after local authorities stepped up efforts to deter sexual and other crimes by US service personnel.

A marine in his 20s is suspected of raping a Japanese woman in a bathroom at a US military base last month, while a second man, also a marine in his 20s, allegedly raped a woman at a base in January, according to media reports.

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Rice crisis: Japan imports grain from South Korea for first time in more than 25 years

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Japanese consumers who used to treat foreign-grown rice with scepticism have been forced to develop a taste for it amid domestic shortage

Japan has imported rice from South Korea for the first time in a quarter of a century in an attempt to address soaring prices and growing consumer anger.

South Korean rice arrived in Japan last month for the first time since 1999, according to media reports, as the price of domestically produced grain continued to rise, despite government attempts to relieve the pressure on shoppers.

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New daily weight-loss pill shows success at clinical trial

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Orforglipron also reduced blood sugar levels in participants with type 2 diabetes

A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.

People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.

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Japan’s World Expo: a positive vision of the future for our divided world?

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Fifty-five years since Osaka last hosted, rocks from Mars, domestic androids and artificial hearts are part of showcase on ‘unloved’ island

As clunky as it sounds, “designing a future society for our lives” isn’t a bad ambition for the world in these troubled times. From this Sunday, organisers of the 2025 Exposition in Osaka will be hoping that appeal will put the event’s unsettled preparations in the shade for a six-month celebration of our common humanity.

The western Japan city is preparing to host its second World Expo, 55 years after the first was held in a country eager to capitalise on fading memories of the second world war as it embarked on its postwar journey to become an industrial and technological powerhouse.

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Will Trump’s tariff chaos be China’s gain in global trade wars?

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As China retaliates against tariffs, it is also making strategic manoeuvres on EU and Asia to maximise opportunities

On the basis of Napoleon’s dictum “never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”, there was a large incentive for China to do precisely nothing as Donald Trump displayed his determination to lose friends and induce market panic. Indeed, the Chinese advocates of passivity cited a social media meme attributed to President Xi Jinping: “Do nothing. Win.”

Initially it was tempting for China to sit back and watch the US’s former allies recoil at Trump’s disruptive war on globalisation and let them realise that, by comparison, China represented an oasis of stability, modernity and predictability.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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Asian markets plunge further amid tariff fallout; Trump says ‘sometimes you have to take medicine’ – business live

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Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbles nearly 9% on Monday as Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 8% and South Korea trading temporarily halted amid Trump tariff concerns

Hong Kong stocks have plummeted more than 9% at open, while Singapore stocks dropped over 7%, according to reports.

Hong Kong and Chinese stocks dived on Monday as markets around the world crumbled in the face of the widening global trade war and fears it will unleash a deep recession, Reuters says.

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End of an era for Canada-US ties, says Carney, as allies worldwide decry Trump’s car tariffs

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Canadian PM says Donald Trump has permanently altered relations, as countries around the globe insist import taxes are harmful to all, including Washington

Canada’s prime minister has said the era of deep ties with the US “is over”, as governments from Tokyo to Berlin to Paris sharply criticised Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports, with some threatening retaliatory action.

Mark Carney warned Canadians that Trump had permanently altered relations and that, regardless of any future trade deals, there would be “no turning back”.

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Tokyo court orders dissolution of ‘Moonies’ Unification church

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Assassination of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe spurred official request for closure of South Korea-based sect

A court in Japan has ordered the Unification church to be dissolved after a government request spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the “Moonies” after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon, is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members, although it has denied any wrongdoing.

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Exonerated prisoner awarded $1.4m after 46 years spent on death row in Japan

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Iwao Hakamada, the world’s longest serving death row prisoner, had been wrongly convicted of a quadruple murder

A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded $1.4m in compensation, an official has said.

The payout represents 12,500 yen ($83) for each day of the 46 years that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last.

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Japan to deploy long-range missiles able to hit North Korea and China

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Planned missiles on Kyushu said to be part of ‘counterstrike capabilities’, as fears grow over US security pact

Japan is planning to deploy long-range missiles on its southern island of Kyushu amid concerns around the Trump administration’s stance towards its security pacts and continuing regional tensions.

The missiles, with a range of about 1,000km, would be capable of hitting targets in North Korea and China’s coastal regions, and are due to be deployed next year in two bases with existing missile garrisons. They would bolster the defences of the strategically important Okinawa island chain and are part of Japan’s development of “counterstrike capabilities” in the event it is attacked, according to reports from Kyodo News agency, citing government sources.

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Japan battles largest wildfire in decades

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More than a thousand people have been evacuated near forest of Ofunato in northern region of Iwate

More than a thousand people have been evacuated as Japan battles its largest wildfire in more than three decades.

The flames are estimated to have spread over about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) in the forest of Ofunato in the northern region of Iwate since a fire broke out on Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

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Three resort workers die in suspected gas poisoning near hot spring in Japan

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Hydrogen sulphide gives Takayu Onsen its unmistakable sulphurous smell but can be dangerous if inhaled in high enough concentrations

Three people have died in north-east Japan in an accident that authorities suspect is linked to the inhalation of deadly gas found in the country’s famed hot spring resorts.

Japanese media said the three men, who all worked at a nearby hotel, were found in a mountainous area near the city of Fukushima on Tuesday. They were discovered in an area of Takayu Onsen (hot spring) where high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide, a toxic byproduct of volcanic hot springs, have been recorded.

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