Japan’s government is planning to offer an incentive to hotels and inns for upgrading their facilities. A subsidy to cover part of the improvement costs is aimed at expanding the amount of accommodation available to a growing number of foreign tourists. The number of foreign travelers to Japan has been surging, helped in part by […]
Police in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, have arrested a 23-year-old woman on suspicion of abandoning the corpse of her newborn baby in a paper bag last month. According to police, Atsuko Tanaka, who is a nurse, gave birth to a baby girl at her apartment between Nov 17 and 19, Sankei Shimbun reported. She placed the […]
Japan’s education ministry is considering ways to improve the English language ability of junior high school students. The ways may include requiring students to take new kinds of speaking tests. The ministry plans to introduce a nationwide English examination as early as fiscal 2019. That exam will assess junior high school seniors on their listening, […]
Railway workers in Japan have devised an ingenious scheme to prevent daredevil turtles from meeting a grisly end—and delaying trains—while crossing train tracks. The slow-moving reptiles in Nara Prefecture were responsible for 13 disruptions to train services between 2002 and 2014 after tumbling into the spaces between rail switches and getting squashed, according to West […]
In an annual year-end event, the 10 most memorable words and phrases of the year in Japan were announced on Tuesday. The top award went to 2 phrases. One is a baseball term, “triple three,” which means that a player had a batting average exceeding .300 , 30 homeruns and 30 stolen bases in a […]
The plaintiffs claim that the new system infringes privacy rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Around 150 citizens filed lawsuits Tuesday with five regional courts in Japan demanding the government suspend the use of identification numbers under the new My Number social security and tax number system due to be launched in 2016. The plaintiffs claim […]
Japanese banks are trying to improve services to accommodate a growing number of foreign visitors, after many have pointed out inconveniences. Seven Bank is set to increase the number of languages available at its ATMs by mid-December. The bank operates over 20,000 cash dispensers nationwide, mostly at 7-Eleven stores.Currently users can choose to conduct their […]
Tochigi Prefectural Police on Monday arrested a 33-year-old housewife in Utsunomiya City for attempting to kill her estranged husband by poisoning his alcohol, reports Nippon News Network (Nov. 30). Yoko Kage is alleged to have entered the kitchen of her husband, a 34-year-old member of the Ground Self-Defense Forces, and inserted the poison ricin, which she had […]
Isang nakakaaliw at masisteng badya na kamakailan lang ay ipinamalas ng mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc. ng ibinahagi nito ang isang bidyo hinggil sa isang pulutong ng mga kawal na Samurai sa kanilang paglalakbay tutok sa kanilang mga smartphones. Maging ang mga kawal na ito’y hindi ligtas sakaling sila’y nakababad sa kani-kanilang mga smartphones habang […]
Japanese companies will check their employees’ stress levels, starting on Tuesday, as part of efforts to prevent work-related mental disorders. The government is requiring firms to make the checks because of the increasing number of workers who fall ill due to stress in their places of work. Firms with 50 or more employees will have […]
