NEWSWORTHY
Municipalities in quake-hit Kumamoto vie to host one of eight planned 'One Piece' statues
The Kumamoto Prefectural Government plans to set up more statues related to "One Piece," a hugely popular manga series, to cheer up local residents in the prefecture, which was hit by powerful earthquakes in 2016 and another one just last week. The venues for the ...
Statue of 'One Piece' character Monkey D. Luffy unveiled in Kumamoto
A statue of cartoon character Luffy from megahit comic and animated TV series "One Piece" was unveiled Friday in front of the Kumamato Prefectural Government building. The 174-centimeter-tall statue, matching the height of Monkey D. Luffy, the main character in the story, has been erected ...
Quake-hit Kumamoto looks to reopen access to tourist attractions in time for Rugby World Cup
The city of Kumamoto plans to take advantage of next year's Rugby World Cup to revive its struggling tourism industry by offering visitors special access to a famous castle currently undergoing repairs following a pair of powerful earthquakes in 2016. The quakes, which both measured ...
Kumamoto grateful for opportunity to host Rugby World Cup matches
Hideomi Ryu played a central role in getting his native city of Kumamoto elected to host games for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, even when naysayers thought it was no more than a pipe dream in a community dominated by baseball. The 75-year-old chairman of ...
Kumamoto Municipal Assembly kicks female member out for sucking on cough drop during session
Should cough drops be allowed or not? That is the question that took center stage in the Kumamoto Municipal Assembly on Friday, forcing it to suspend deliberation for about eight hours. Yuka Ogata, 43, an assembly member who attracted attention last year for bringing her newborn ...
Students develop fertilizer from shōchū distillation remnants
Students in Kumamoto Prefecture have developed a low-cost method to cultivate photosynthetic bacteria for use as fertilizer using the distillation remnants of shōchū, a traditional Japanese liquor. The student researchers, led by Aoi Koga, 24, from Sojo University's Graduate School of Engineering in the city ...
Foreign interns face specter of abuse at labor-hungry Kumamoto quake sites
Kumamoto has seen so many foreign laborers lately that it is raising suspicions Japan’s internship recruits are again being exploited as cheap labor.
Kumamoto, remembering quake aid, returns favor by helping flood areas
Kumamoto Prefectural Government officials are supporting disaster relief activities in downpour-hit western prefectures to return the favor they received following powerful earthquakes in 2016. Kumamoto Prefecture and nine local governments have sent more than 160 personnel to help out in Hiroshima Prefecture and elsewhere, capitalizing ...
Seven plaintiffs have now filed sterilization lawsuits against the government since January.
'Drum tower' collapses at earthquake-hit Kumamoto Castle after heavy downpours
A tower at the historic, quake-damaged Kumamoto Castle in southern Japan — one of the country's three premier castles and once a major tourist attraction — has collapsed, an official said Thursday. Heavy rain at the castle — originally built in 1607 during Japan's feudal ...
Kumamoto company turns to brown rice paste in bid to revive Japan's abandoned farmland
Alarmed by an increase in abandoned rice paddies amid the Westernization of the Japanese diet and a graying population, a Kyushu dealer of major agricultural machinery-maker Kubota Corp. began producing rice flour in 2010 as an ingredient for bread and pasta to make up ...
Man shot dead by police after knife attack in southwestern Japan
A man wielding a knife was shot by police and pronounced dead in a hospital Monday after he attacked a man and a police officer in the city of Kumamoto, the police said. Two officers responded to an emergency call from a 65-year-old man, who ...
