National Jan 3, 2019
Quake-battered Kumamoto shaken by temblor with intensity of lower 6
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government had established an emergency task force at the Prime Minister's Office to deal with the quake.
National Aug 22, 2018
Kumamon, the popular black bear mascot of Kumamoto Prefecture, will debut as a YouTuber next month, sharing online its experiences with sports, arts and crafts in multiple languages, the local government said Wednesday. Starting Sept. 3, a two-minute video featuring the official mascot of the ...
Language | NEWS IN NIHONGO Jul 9, 2018
UNESCO has decided to add 12 sites in southwestern Japan linked to the history of the country's persecuted Christians to the World Heritage list.
Language | NEWS IN NIHONGO Jan 15, 2018
Kumamoto Prefecture announces that it will lift a ban that prohibits overseas companies from making and selling products using the official prefectural mascot, Kumamon.
Baseball / Japanese Baseball Apr 18, 2017
A little more than a year after earthquakes rocked Kumamoto, Tomoyuki Sugano had local fans rocking as he pitched the Yomiuri Giants to a 3-0 Central League win over the Tokyo Yakult Swallows on Tuesday. Submarine right-hander Hirofumi Yamanaka (0-1), a native of Kumamoto Prefecture, ...
National Dec 21, 2016
The Meteorological Agency has lowered its alert level for Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture, citing diminished volcanic activity following its explosive eruption in October. With no major eruptions observed since then, the Meteorological Agency on Tuesday lowered the alert level for the 1,592-meter peak from ...
Soccer / J. League Sep 9, 2016
JFA makes ¥30 million donation to quake-hit Kumamoto Prefecture
The Japan Football Association on Thursday donated over ¥30 million ($295,000) to Kumamoto Prefecture after it has been struck by two massive earthquakes in April, leaving about 50 dead. Money from the JFA has been presented, along with donations from the Japan national team players ...
Travel May 14, 2016
A landscape of life and death in Kyushu
by Mandy Bartok
Despite my short stature, I have to bend nearly in half to enter the underground chamber of reconstructed fifth-century tomb in the Kumamoto Prefecture Decorative Tumulus Museum. The entire tomb is modeled after an actual mound in the nearby city of Yamaga, and inside ...
Voices | FOREIGN AGENDA May 8, 2016
Media show Kumamoto was woefully ill-prepared for disabled evacuees
by Michael Gillan Peckitt
It was heartening to see newspapers focusing on the difficulties disabled people face when disaster strikes, but far less heartening to hear what they had to say about the facts on the ground in Kumamoto.
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT May 1, 2016
Foreign volunteers helping to rebuild lives in Kumamoto
by Shaun O'dwyer
The truth is, as many volunteers are needed as can help the many homeowners who want possessions recovered from destroyed homes, or who need trash and heavy broken appliances pulled out of their otherwise intact dwellings.
National / Social Issues Apr 21, 2016
Sixty years on, justice eludes Minamata residents poisoned with mercury
by Keiji Hirano
In the early 1970s, when the country was gripped by student unrest, it was the sight of a sit-in by Minamata disease sufferers outside the headquarters of Chisso Corp. in central Tokyo that gave high schooler Yuta Jitsukawa his cause. The chemicals company had dumped ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Apr 20, 2016
Dispatches from the Kumamoto quake zone
by Sean Michael Wilson, Noel Vincent, Daisuke Kikuchi and Liam Nolan
Personal accounts relate tales of kindness and resilience after the initial confusion and panic of last week's deadly temblors.