Tag - hokkaido

 
 

HOKKAIDO

Double trailers will be allowed to run on the Hokkaido Expressway for the first time as part of measures to cope with a truck driver shortage.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2024
Japan to open up more expressways to double trailers
The move aims to address disruptions in cargo transport services caused by truck driver shortages due to a new overtime regulation introduced in April.
A German Air Force Eurofighter jet takes off from Chitose Airbase in Hokkaido during Germany and Japan's first-ever bilateral fighter exercise, which ran from Monday to Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2024
Japan and Germany elevate ties with first joint fighter exercise
Named Nippon Skies, the aerial maneuvers took place in the airspace around the Air Self-Defense Force’s Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido.
The Kestrel I Suborbital Launch Vehicle, operated by AtSpace, sister company of Taiwanese rocket startup TiSpace, at an AtSpace facility in Queensland, Australia, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Jul 25, 2024
Taiwanese rocket startup may bolster Japan's space hub ambitions
A planned launch has faced regulatory hurdles and delays amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business as it works to grow its space industry.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida inspects a new plant of Rapidus under construction in Chitose, Hokkaido, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2024
Kishida vows new law for next-gen chip production
Japan has decided to provide up to ¥920 billion to Tokyo-based company Rapidus, which aims to start mass production of chips in 2027.
A conceptual design of a potential Hokkaido Spaceport (HOSPO). HOSPO is aiming to become one of Japan’s major domestic spaceports for launching satellite-equipped rockets and spacecraft as well as for the aerospace industry to conduct research and development.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jul 22, 2024
Small Hokkaido town looks to the stars for future growth
Taiki, population 5,300, is home to what is billed as Asia’s first privately operated spaceport — Hokkaido Spaceport.
A record 219 people were attacked by bears across Japan in fiscal 2023.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 22, 2024
Hokkaido city deploys drones for bear management
The city of Nayoro will use drones — equipped with cameras and speakers — to locate bears when sightings are reported and help direct residents to safety.
Officials of the Tokyo Public Prosecutor's Office raid the office of Lower House member Manabu Horii in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 22, 2024
Lawmaker Horii knew funeral money handouts were illegal: sources
Prosecutors raided Horii's offices in Tokyo and Hokkaido as well as his home, on suspicion of violating the public offices election law.
Tokyo prosecutors raid the Noboribetsu, Hokkaido office of Lower House member Manabu Horii on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 21, 2024
Lawmaker Horii may have used kickbacks to pay funeral money
Politicians are prohibited from giving donations to voters in their districts except as consolation at funerals that they themselves attend.
House of Representatives lawmaker Manabu Horii, 52, quit the Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday after his offices were raided by prosecutors. He said last month that he will not run in the next Lower House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2024
Prosecutors raid offices of LDP lawmaker Manabu Horii
He is being investigated over allegations that he gave funeral money to voters in his constituency in Hokkaido.
Japan's annual quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna catches were raised at an international meeting held in Hokkaido on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2024
Japan's Pacific bluefin tuna catch quotas set to rise
The bluefin tuna population has been recovering in recent years from overfishing.
International talks on Pacific bluefin tuna catches began in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2024
International talks on bluefin tuna catches begin in Japan
Japan is seeking to more than double the annual quota for large bluefin tuna in the central and western Pacific and increase the quota for smaller fish by 30%.
A team of lawyers representing bereaved families of victims of the 2022 sightseeing tour boat accident off Hokkaido heads to the Sapporo District Court in Sapporo to file a lawsuit on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 4, 2024
Bereaved families sue operator over Hokkaido boat accident
The 29 family members of 14 passengers of the sunken boat are seeking ¥1.5 billion ($9.2 million) in damages from the boat operator and its president.
Naoki Ogi (second from left), head of a committee set up by the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, to reinvestigate the death of a 14-year-old junior high school girl reports the results to Asahikawa Mayor Hirosuke Imazu (left) in Asahikawa on Sunday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 1, 2024
Reinvestigation finds Hokkaido girl's suicide caused by bullying
The reinvestigation committee said the girl, who was found frozen at a park in Asahikawa in March 2021, developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the bullying.
A potato field in summer in Hokkaido. The prefecture is a significant source of food and produced 81% of Japan's potatoes in 2022.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jun 24, 2024
Hokkaido's farmers look for a silver lining to climate change disruption
As the prefecture becomes warmer, it could produce more apples and sweet potatoes, agricultural cooperative officials say.
Recently, Japan designated Hokkaido Prefecture (including its capital, Sapporo), Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka as special zones for financial and asset management businesses. Kumamoto Prefecture was also named a national strategic zone for semiconductors.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 14, 2024
International social infrastructure key to Japan’s high-tech future
Across the globe there is an ongoing search for talent, especially in high-tech sectors, and Japan is no different.
Hokkaido police are investigating the sequence of events leading to the victim's death.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2024
Suspects in high school girl’s murder used social media to extort her
The victim is believed to have used a picture of one of the suspects on social media without permission, which led to the extortion.
The Hokkaido police headquarters in Sapporo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 12, 2024
Hokkaido police arrest two women over killing of 17-year-old
The two women are suspected of pushing Runa Murayama, a high school student, off a bridge into a river in Asahikawa in April.
Colin Croy's Japanese is still a work in progress, but he hasn't had much trouble communicating with local customers in Sapporo due to the mutual language of musical performance.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jun 10, 2024
Colin Croy: 'After I built my first pedal, I just kept making more and more'
A St. Louis transplant in Sapporo serves the Hokkaido capital's music scene with equipment repairs, upgrades and customizations.
Yuichi Nishimura is taken into police custody in Tokyo on Wednesday on suspicion of attempted fraud.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2024
Hokkaido man arrested for defrauding ‘fiancee’ with fake kidnapping scheme
The suspect, Yuichi Nishimura, allegedly enticed the victim with promises of marriage while concealing the fact that he was already married.
A white-tailed eagle is released backed to the wild in Hokkaido in February after having been treated for bird flu with human-use influenza drug.
JAPAN / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 6, 2024
White-tailed eagle treated with human drug returns to wild
After having been released in the wild in February, subsequent tracking verified that the bird was successfully living independently in its natural habitat.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals