Female civil servant sues over 'institutional sexism' in her ministry
In what may be a legal first, a female civil servant sues the government over what she calls institutional sexism at the ministry she works for, citing almost two decades of blocked promotions and pay raises.
New ministers pledge no interruption to nuclear policy, female empowerment
On his first day in his new job, industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa said Tuesday he will soon be ready to visit communities near nuclear power plants, apparently pledging to maintain the momentum for reactor restarts. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has cleared the Sendai nuclear power ...
Female hunter-trapper offers Tottori lodgers wild-meat cuisine
An enthusiastic female hunter-trapper in Tottori Prefecture has a tempting offer for people staying at her guesthouse: wild-animal cuisine. Satoko Umeno, 30, originally from Fukuoka, runs Ba-Bar, an inn converted from a 40-year-old house in a suburb of the city of Tottori. She cooks dishes using ...
The Cabinet decided Tuesday to extend the Self-Defense Forces deployment in South Sudan by four months to the end of February. The decision came after the U.N. Security Council extended the operation of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, which the SDF personnel are part ...
Japan has sounded out North Korea about sending a delegation next Monday to check its investigation into the fate of people abducted by Pyongyang decades ago, government sources said Tuesday. The delegation, to be led by Junichi Ihara, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian ...
Japan nominates three regions for agricultural heritage status
The farm ministry on Tuesday nominated three areas in Gifu, Wakayama and Miyazaki prefectures for addition to the world list of agricultural heritage. Their candidacy will be considered next year at an international conference on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. Wakayama was put forward for its ...
Fans reportedly handed out by Matsushima prove hot auction items
Fans boasted as having been handed out by ex-Justice Minister Midori Matsushima in her Tokyo electoral district are fetching more than ¥10,000 on a major Internet auction site. The "uchiwa" started appearing on Yahuoku (Yahoo Japan's online auction site) soon after the Democratic Party of ...
The man arrested on suspicion of killing a 6-year-old girl in Kobe has confessed to the crime, his lawyer said Tuesday. Yasuhiro Kimino, an unemployed resident of the city who was arrested last month, had initially remained silent over the allegation that he murdered Mirei ...
Thirty-three people showed symptoms of food poisoning after eating boxed lunches made at a supermarket in Seto, Aichi Prefecture, the prefectural government said. Officials ordered the Shinsen Ichiba Iseya supermarket to suspend operations on Monday after the cases came to light. Participants at a residents' sports ...
Japanese IBM engineers produced pioneering network for '64 Tokyo Olympics
Half a century ago, a team of young Japanese IBM engineers built a computerized real-time results service for the Tokyo Olympics, a breakthrough that led to modern-day networks such as ATMs and travel reservation systems. The order came in early 1962, when an executive at ...
The Japanese and U.S. governments have effectively agreed on a new accord that allows local Japanese officials to enter U.S. military bases to conduct environmental surveys of land expected to be returned to Japanese control.
Abductees' families still skeptical on sending reps to N. Korea
Many relatives of abductees said Monday they remain skeptical about the government's decision to send officials to Pyongyang to learn firsthand the status of North Korea's latest probe into the victims' fates. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced earlier in the day that the government ...
