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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Anticipating more muscular missions, MSDF launches new minesweeper
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Reflections on the Kobe quake two decades on
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. ...
Awaji Island quake museum offers shocks and survivors
At age 79, Yoshiko Negita's mind is alert and her memory is laser-sharp. There is, too, a sense of urgency in her voice as this resident of Awaji Island in the Seto Inland Sea speaks to visitors at its Hokudan Earthquake Memorial Park. There, ...
