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DRIZZLE/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 ...
The drafting of a bill to transfer the functions of regional bureaus of three central government ministries to federations of local governments is being delayed due to resistance from the ministries concerned and some Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers. Associations of city, town and ...
The Noda administration has drafted a plan to transfer regional bureaus and offices of central government ministries to regional administrative bodies, and is expected to submit a related bill to the Diet in May. If such transfers are carried out in a genuine manner, ...
In December 2010, the government adopted an action plan to transfer regional bureaus of central government ministries to local governments to help the latter carry out “comprehensive” administrative work for local residents. But it is unclear whether the proposal made in late December by ...