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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.
After three straight years in the red, Sony Corp. faces another rough year ahead as the electronics giant struggles to make its mainstay television business profitable amid a host of challenges. Like its Japanese peers, Sony’s business performance was affected by the March 11 ...
One month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, apparent self-restraint is still keeping people away from the country’s major sightseeing spots, including foreigners, who are steering clear of Japan as it struggles with its nuclear crisis. The tourism industry will likely take a ...
As Japan’s big manufacturers shift output abroad, taking much of their business with them, small parts makers in Ota Ward, Tokyo, are starting to think they may need to cross the waters too if they’re going to get any new orders. In this, they ...
Two tiny parties that clashed with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan over policy and then made different decisions on whether to stay in the DPJ-led bloc face a fight for survival in the Upper House election. The Social Democratic Party took the more ...
Tokyo’s Aoyama shopping district, home to numerous luxury brand stores, hosts an open-air farmers market every weekend, finding favor with customers increasingly conscious about what they eat. “Vegetables here taste just like those grown in my hometown in the countryside,” said 40-year-old Yuka Kubota, ...
Chie Miyagi, an English teacher in Okinawa, has published an English-language picture book to teach her students about the mass suicides involving local civilians during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. “A Letter from Okinawa” depicts a girl whose parents kill themselves under orders from ...
Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako marked their 15th wedding anniversary Monday, but their initial hopes of engaging in “Imperial diplomacy” are yet to be achieved. From November 1994 to December 2002, the couple made five official overseas trips, but since then they ...
HIROSHIMA — Emiko Okada, an atomic-bomb survivor from Hiroshima, sent letters to the governments of the Group of Eight major economies, inviting their leaders to visit the bomb site when they come to Japan to attend the G8 summit in Hokkaido in July. To ...
Half-used candles left over from Japanese funeral ceremonies are helping children in Afghanistan who are having difficulties studying after dark due to poverty and bad living conditions. “Children use the candles well and the candles help them to study in the absence of light ...
Hashime Sato, a 60-year-old resident of the city of Ichinoseki, climbed up a hill with her son in her hometown on a sunny day in late November to pay respects to her late husband, Sadao, whose ashes are contained in a “grave” but without ...
Yasuji Hirasawa is longing to return to his home in Ibaraki Prefecture and see his parents’ grave, but it is an impossible dream for the 80-year-old former Hansen’s disease patient. “My siblings won’t allow me to do so, and my brother’s wife probably does ...
After shying away from eating in restaurants and staying at hotels by themselves, Japanese women are beginning to seek more time alone. Japanese businesses are setting out the welcome mat for this group of savvy consumers with money to burn. “I don’t mind spending ...