National Mar 2, 2021
Although she is a centenarian in human years, the koala named Midori is doing fine with no serious health problems, according to Awaji Farm Park England Hill.
National Oct 8, 2020
Japanese theme park unveils world's first 'life-size' Godzilla
A Japanese theme park on Thursday took the wraps off what it calls the world's first "life-size" statue of Godzilla to be installed permanently. The replica of the fictional monster, which is supposed to be 120 meters long, is set up at the Nijigen no ...
National / Crime & Legal Jan 27, 2020
High court throws out lay judge death sentence over murders of five in 2015
A high court scrapped on Monday a lower court ruling that had sentenced a man to death for killing five people on Awaji Island in 2015, sentencing him instead to life in prison after reviewing his mental state at the time. The Osaka High Court ...
National Aug 6, 2019
Two people were injured Tuesday when a college rowing cutter capsized between Tomogashima groups of islands near the city of Wakayama and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, pitching the 23 people aboard into the ocean. One crew member clung to the hull and was rescued ...
National Aug 24, 2018
Awaji Island wind turbine topples over as typhoon cuts through western Japan
A 60-meter-high wind turbine erected in a park on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture toppled over in the early hours of Friday as powerful Typhoon Cimaron passed through western Japan. No injuries were reported, local authorities said. The wind turbine was built in 2002 to ...
Business May 22, 2018
Uber taps Awaji Island for first taxi-hailing service in Japan
Uber Technologies Inc. said Tuesday it will start its first taxi-hailing service in Japan this summer on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, targeting foreign tourists and residents in a step toward a full-fledged entry into the country's huge taxi market. In collaboration with the Hyogo ...
National Jun 1, 2017
Eleven shrines in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture, were hit by graffiti vandals from Tuesday to Wednesday and police suspect the same party was behind each case. The Awaji Police Department said the graffiti were first discovered at Izanagi Jingu Shrine on Tuesday afternoon. The daily Asahi ...
National / Crime & Legal Mar 22, 2017
Man draws death sentence for 2015 slaying of five on Awaji Island
A 42-year-old man has been sentenced to death for killing five people on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture in 2015. Tatsuhiko Hirano's mental condition was "normal" when he carried out the killings, Presiding Judge Hidenori Nagai said Wednesday in handing down the ruling at the ...
National Oct 27, 2015
Anticipating more muscular missions, MSDF launches new minesweeper
by Reiji Yoshida
Amid the national debate over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proactive security policy and newly enacted laws, a state-of-the-art minesweeper built for the Maritime Self-Defense Force was launched Tuesday in a ceremony in Yokohama. The 690-ton Awaji is the first of three planned Awaji-class minesweepers, which ...
National / History May 20, 2015
Seven bell-shaped bronze vessels from the early Yayoi Period (200 B.C. to A.D. 250) have been found in sand collected by a stone processing firm on Awajishima Island, Hyogo Prefecture. The vessels, the oldest of them assumed to be from the second century B.C., were ...
National / Crime & Legal Mar 17, 2015
Prosecutors plan psychiatric tests to see whether a 40-year-old man can be held criminally responsible for a stabbing spree that left five people dead on Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture, earlier this month, investigative sources said. Tatsuhiko Hirano is under arrest on suspicion of killing three ...
National | View from Osaka Jan 17, 2015
Reflections on the Kobe quake two decades on
by Eric Johnston
This year, thousands of Japanese around the country celebrated Coming-of-Age Day. In Kobe, however, the occasion was especially poignant, as those who will turn 20 this year were just days old or, most likely, born after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of Jan. 17, 1995. ...