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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
KYOTO — For most people, tearing down a perfectly good house to build a new one may not seem all that environmentally friendly. But for Nagoya University professor Satoru Ikeuchi, the completion in 1998 of his new home in Kyoto’s Nishigyo Ward allowed him ...
OSAKA — Anyone for a dip? The Dotonbori River has been running through the center of Osaka’s bustling Namba district since it was diverted as a waterway in the early 16th century. But the filth in the river makes the idea of holding a ...
HIRAKATA, Osaka Pref. — At first glance, it looks like a soccer ball, and you might even try to kick it. But the maker of this “ball” would beg you not to, because it is in fact a patented lampshade built of stained glass. ...
OSAKA — During the four years since the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, athletes have tried hard to improve for next month’s games in Salt Lake City. A Mizuno employee shows off part of a speedskating suit featuring the firm’s newly developed Aero ...
OSAKA — Osaka’s Kuromon Market has never ceased to fire the Japanese public imagination in its 180 years of existence. Back in the 1940s, it was described in Sakunosuke Oda’s novels, including his well-known “Meotozenzai.” And these days, Kuromon is on television, in a ...
AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. — To enter the Takla Makan Desert in China’s Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region may mean to never return. At least, that is what the name of one of the world’s largest deserts is said to mean in the Uighur language. But in ...
OSAKA — Amid nationwide jubilation on Dec. 1 over the birth of a daughter to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, coffee shop owner Koji Fukushima of Osaka felt he had little to celebrate. This was because of the day’s big sporting story from ...
KYOTO — Having practiced kendo for over a decade, Alexander Bennett and Hamish Robison have long been aware of the lack of English reading material on the sport, aside from technical manuals. The two New Zealanders thus decided to rectify the situation. Kendo World ...
OSAKA — Soccer is a sport that relies heavily on coordination between the eye and foot. Imagine playing it with one of those elements removed. According to Kazuhiko Iwai, director of Nippon Lighthouse Welfare Center for the Blind, an Osaka-based social welfare corporation, the ...
NOSE, Osaka Pref. — The economic malaise is affecting not only humans, but animals as well. Indirectly, pets — especially older ones — have become casualties of the protracted downturn, according to an Osaka nonprofit organization. Elizabeth Oliver and her staff at Animal Refuge ...
OMI-HACHIMAN, Shiga Pref. — The 20th century socioeconomic system saw most people consumed with the pursuit of profit. Today’s businesspeople, however, must re-examine their raison d’etre as the idea of corporate responsibility takes hold. Visitors view artifacts in the home of Kobayashi Ginemon, a ...
OSAKA — Universal Studios Japan, which opened in Osaka in March, draws around 1 million visitors every month, many of them from outside the prefecture. But while these visitors get a taste of Hollywood and the U.S., the theme park is largely devoid of ...