17
RAIN
Farmers in the city of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, have begun planting rice in a district once designated a no-go zone because of radioactive fallout ejected by the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, 早根早起 （Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity.
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune “Only Teardrops,” despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, ...
One team’s quest for a first title has ended. The other team’s fight will continue next season. The Yokohama B-Corsairs outplayed the Rizing Fukuoka in Sunday’s bj-league championship game, controlling the tempo for larger stretches and making enough timely baskets to fill an instructional ...
Google Inc. must respect requests to remove autocomplete entries from its search bar in Germany if they are defamatory, a German court ruled Tuesday. The Federal Court of Justice upheld a complaint from an unidentified company selling nutritional supplements and its founder, identified only ...
The European Commission has carried out surprise inspections at several major oil companies over possible price-fixing in breach of EU antitrust rules. The commission did not name any of the companies involved in Tuesday’s raids but British energy giant BP, Shell and Norway’s Statoil ...
The dollar temporarily rose above ¥102.50 for the first time in four years and seven months in Tokyo trading Wednesday, supported by increasing optimism about the U.S. economy. At 5 p.m., the dollar was quoted at ¥102.35-43, up from ¥101.37-38 at the same time ...
The Nikkei 225 average rose sharply Wednesday and ended above 15,000 for the first time in more than 64 months, thanks mainly to the weaker yen. The Nikkei closed 337.61 points, or 2.29 percent, higher at 15,096.03, its best closing level since Dec. 28, ...
The U.S. stock market marched back into record territory Tuesday as investors seized on encouraging news about the economy. This time, it was a report on the health of small businesses. Small business owners were slightly more optimistic in April, according to a survey ...
Small change in the euro, 1 and 2 cent coins, expensive to make and a nuisance for many, may have no future, the European Commission said Tuesday. Small and awkward they may be, but they have cost the eurozone about ?1.4 billion since 2002, ...
The yen’s exchange rate is returning to a level suitable for competition, Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn said, adding that his company will continue domestic output of the Infiniti luxury models for export. Ghosn was speaking to reporters Tuesday at the company’s factory ...
The recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro extended into its sixth quarter — longer than the calamitous one that hit the euro area during the financial crisis of 2008-9. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said Wednesday ...
Honda Motor Co. will return to Formula One racing in 2015 as an engine supplier to its former partner, McLaren of Britain, sources said Wednesday. Honda President Takanobu Ito will officially announce the move as early as this week, they said. The company plans ...
Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it will build a plant in Ohio to produce the second-generation model of its NSX sports car. Production is slated to start in 2015, according to the major automaker. The plant, the firm’s fifth vehicle production base in the ...
New Zealand gave the green light Wednesday to an alliance between Qantas and Emirates. Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said he had no objection to a deal, unveiled earlier this year, allowing the airlines to cooperate on passenger and cargo operations for an initial period ...
Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. announced they have reached an agreement for Nissan to supply GM with a small cargo vehicle model for sale in the United States and Canada. In what Nissan says is the first cooperation by the two carmakers ...