NEWSWORTHY
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 ...
Ministry declares 'serious incident' after police say parts fell from Japan Airlines plane
A day after engine parts from an airliner reportedly damaged a car and a clinic in Kumamoto, the transport ministry is calling the mishap a “serious incident.”
Japanese government ordered to pay damages over inmate's solitary confinement
A district court on Wednesday ordered the government to pay ¥400,000 in damages to an inmate who was unjustifiably held for months in solitary confinement in a cell equipped with a surveillance camera. The Kumamoto District Court ruled it was unlawful to continue holding the ...
Documentary to chronicle Kumamoto village's travails recovering from 2016 quakes
A filmmaker is working on a documentary about people fighting to rebuild their community following the powerful earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture two years ago. "I want to pass on to future generations the efforts by the local people who are struggling to move forward," says ...
U.S. military helicopter makes emergency landing at Kumamoto Airport
A U.S. military helicopter made an emergency landing at Kumamoto Prefecture's main airport on Wednesday afternoon with no casualties or air traffic disruption reported, the Defense Ministry said. An oil cooling system apparently malfunctioned on the UH-1 multipurpose helicopter, forcing it to land to avoid ...
