Category Archives: Japan

Japan orders people to evacuate after 7.6-magnitude quake hits west coast

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Major tsunami warnings downgraded but residents in coastal areas told not to return to homes

A powerful earthquake has struck central Japan’s western coastline, triggering waves over a metre high and prompting tsunami alerts and warnings for people to evacuate.

The quake, which is estimated to have been magnitude 7.6, struck the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture on the main central island of Honshu at about 4.10pm local time (07.10 GMT). It knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes and disrupted flights and rail services.

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Japan earthquake news – as it happened: highest-level tsunami warning dropped

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Buildings collapse, trapping residents, and fires break out but tsunami warning lowered after series of major earthquakes in Japan

The first reports of injuries are coming in from hospitals, including broken bones, but no fatalities have been confirmed so far.

Fires have broken out in what appear to be homes on the Noto peninsula.

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‘How can such a tiny woman drive a big truck?’ Japan’s labour shortage forces it to rethink gender stereotypes

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Freight and logistics sector is turning to women to fill gap as demand for drivers grows alongside cap on overtime

When Mayumi Watanabe tells people what she does for a living, most struggle to hide their surprise, and not just because of her diminutive stature. As a truck driver with 23 years behind the wheel, she is one of a small but growing number of women coming to the rescue of an industry that is the beating heart of Japan’s economy.

“I can see they’re thinking, ‘How can such a tiny woman drive a big truck?’ ” Watanabe, who is 152cm (5ft) tall, told the Observer as she prepared for the busy run-up to the end of the year. “But I’ve always loved cars, so it felt natural to want to be a truck driver.”

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End of era as Toshiba delists from Tokyo stock exchange after 74 years

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Electronics firm taken private in £11bn deal by consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners

Toshiba, the Japanese company synonymous with the country’s 20th-century dominance of electronics, has delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange after 74 years.

The manufacturer, associated in the UK with its 1980s “Ello Tosh, gotta Toshiba” advertising campaign, was taken private on Wednesday in an £11bn deal by a consortium of investors led by the private equity investor Japan Industrial Partners (JIP).

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Japan’s ruling party engulfed by political fundraising scandal

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Four ministers resign amid reports that prosecutors were poised to raid offices of dozens of ruling party MPs

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is battling to contain the fallout from a political fundraising scandal that forced the resignations of four of his ministers, amid reports that prosecutors were poised to raid the offices of dozens of ruling party MPs.

The chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, confirmed that he was stepping down, while the economy and industry minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the internal affairs minister, Junji Suzuki, and the agriculture minister, Ichiro Miyashita, have also resigned.

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‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Japan says reason behind 1,200 tonnes of fish washing ashore is unknown

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The sardines and mackerel were found floating on the surface of the sea near the fishing port of Hakodate in Hokkaido

Officials in Japan have admitted they are struggling to determine why hundreds of tonnes of fish have washed ashore in recent days.

Earlier this month, an estimated 1,200 tonnes of sardines and mackerel were found floating on the surface of the sea off the fishing port of Hakodate in Hokkaido, forming a silver blanket stretching for more than a kilometre.

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Japan chooses ‘tax’ as kanji of the year amid concern over cost of living

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Competition winner reflects growing anxiety about tax rises, while second place for word of the year went to ‘hot’ after a sweltering summer

The kanji character for “tax” has been chosen as Japan’s word of the year, in a reflection of growing public anxiety over the cost of living and impending tax rises.

The single character – which can be read as zei or mitsugi – was unveiled this week at Kiyomizu Buddhist temple in Kyoto, whose head priest, Seihan Mori, reproduced it with a huge brush on a white washi paper canvas.

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Rina Gonoi sexual assault: Japan court finds soldiers guilty in landmark case

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Victory for former self-defence forces member after fight for justice that challenged taboos in male-dominated society

A court in Japan has found three former male soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting a female colleague, in what is being seen as a rare victory for survivors and a challenge to taboos surrounding abuse.

The Fukushima district court sentenced Shutaro Shibuya, Akito Sekine and Yusuke Kimezawa to two years in prison, suspended for four years, for “forced indecency” against Rina Gonoi during a military drill in 2021.

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Japan zoo investigates possible mass squirrel poisoning

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Dozens of the animals died after they were treated with anti-parasitic medicine

A Japanese zoo has launched an investigation after apparently killing 31 of its 40 squirrels by mistake with treatments meant to kill parasites, officials said.

Keepers at the Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo treated the animals with anti-parasitic medicine on 4 December as part of a sanitary precaution, while also spraying insecticide over their nest boxes.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘final’ film The Boy and the Heron hits No 1 at North American box office

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The Japanese director’s animation beats The Hunger Games prequel and Godzilla Minus One on its opening weekend in the US and Canada

The Boy and the Heron, reportedly the final film from Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki, has taken the number one spot at the box office on its North American release, as well as achieving record figures for the director.

Preliminary box office returns report that The Boy and the Heron took $12.8m in the US and Canada on its opening weekend, putting it a significant distance ahead of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which managed $9.4m. In third place was another Japanese film, the monster movie Godzilla Minus One, on $8.3m.

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Kyoto Animation fire: Japan prosecutors seek death penalty over blaze that killed 36

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Shinji Aoba has admitted starting fire but has pleaded not guilty, saying a psychological disorder makes him incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong

Prosecutors in Japan are seeking the death penalty for the suspect in an arson attack in 2019 that killed 36 people in one of the country’s deadliest crimes for decades.

Shinji Aoba, who was not arrested until he had recovered from the burns he sustained in the attack on an animation studio in Kyoto, admitted in court in September 2023 to starting the fire.

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Oppenheimer to finally be released in Japan after ‘Barbenheimer’ backlash

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Internet references conflating the two films drew anger in Japan, which was twice attacked by nuclear weapons during the second world war

Audiences in Japan will finally get to see Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan’s hit biopic about the creator of the nuclear bomb – following criticism that it was marketed in a way that trivialised the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The movie’s distributor in Japan, Bitters End, said on Thursday that the film, which examines L. Robert Oppenheimer’s moral quandary over his key role in the world’s first nuclear attack on 6 August 1945, would be released in 2024.

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Tokyo taxi driver arrested, accused of running over pigeon

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Atsushi Ozawa accused of using car to kill common pigeon, which vets said died of traumatic shock

To some, they are another species of feathered friend; to others, they are rats with wings whose droppings deface historic buildings.

But in Japan, pigeons may have become the victims of crime, after police arrested a Tokyo taxi driver on suspicion of deliberately driving into a flock of the birds, killing one of them.

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Australia urged not to rely on ‘drug dealer’s defence’ for gas exports and help wean Japan off fossil fuels

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Diplomats for Climate group says if government wants to use that defence ‘it needs to be the dealer who takes their clients to rehab and supports them off their habit’

The Albanese government should do more to leverage its relationship with Japan – arguably the world’s most important energy partnership – to help its trading partner move away from gas and towards a rapid and ambitious decarbonisation, former diplomats say.

Diplomats for Climate, an organisation supported by more than 100 former Australian officials, says “the future of gas lies in the ground”, but that a ban on new fossil fuel developments – the focus of a growing community campaign backed by scientific evidence – would not cut global emissions unless international demand was reduced.

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US air force Osprey crash wreckage and remains of five crew found off Japan

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Aircraft crashed last week off south-western Japan carrying eight American personnel on training mission

US and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and remains of five crew members from a US air force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off south-western Japan, the air force announced on Monday.

The CV-22 Osprey carrying eight American personnel crashed last Wednesday off Yakushima island during a training mission. The body of one victim was recovered and identified earlier.

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Bear attacks in Japan hit record high as hunger forces some to delay hibernation

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Six people have been killed and more than 200 injured since April, with warnings of more to come during winter

The number of people injured or killed in bear attacks in Japan this year exceeded 200 for the first time, as experts warned of more encounters during the winter, when the animals are supposed to hibernate.

The environment ministry said 212 people were attacked in the eight months from April, including 30 in November alone, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

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Philippines earthquake: woman killed by collapsed wall as fleeing residents return home

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The magnitude 7.5 quake in Mindanao triggered tsunami warnings in Japan and more than 600 aftershocks

Philippine residents were allowed to return to their homes on Sunday after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the country’s south, killing at least one person, with disaster officials reporting minor damage to some infrastructure.

The Saturday night quake shook parts of Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces, triggering coastal evacuations and tsunami alerts in the country and in Japan.

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World’s biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor launched in Japan

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Joint project with EU involves more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies

The world’s biggest operational experimental nuclear fusion reactor – a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity’s future energy needs – has been inaugurated in Naka, Japan.

Fusion differs from fission, the technique used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.

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Foiled robbery attempt sees demand for ancient samurai weapon soar in Japan

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Defensive weapon called a sasumata gains popular appeal after jewellery store owner uses one to fend off attackers

An employee at a jewellery shop in Tokyo has been hailed a hero after thwarting an attempted robbery and giving chase after the three suspects fled. But the hero of the hour wasn’t armed with a Taser or pepper spray, but with a weapon invented hundreds of years by samurai warriors: the sasumata, a pole with two prongs attached to the end.

After footage of the attempted robbery early on Sunday evening attracted attention online, an auto parts manufacturer that also makes the forked pole reported a deluge of requests for the traditional weapon.

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At least one dead after US military plane crashes off Japanese coast

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Status of five other personnel aboard Osprey aircraft not known after incident off Yakushima island, off southern Kyushu coast

A crew member who was recovered from the ocean after a US military Osprey aircraft carrying six people crashed on Wednesday off southern Japan has been pronounced dead, coast guard officials said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the five others on the aircraft were not immediately known, a coastguard spokesperson, Kazuo Ogawa, said. Initial reports said the aircraft was carrying eight people, but the US military later revised the number to six, he said.

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