{mosgoogle right}YOKOHAMA -- The Yokohama Municipal Board of Education has dismissed an elementary school teacher who wrote on an Internet blog that he wanted to kill his boss, it has been learned.
The 29-year-old teacher at the municipal elementary school in Yokohama's Tsurumi-ku was discharged on Thursday.
Board officials said that from about June, the teacher, whose name has been withheld, wrote in a blog that he wanted to "eliminate" the school's vice-principal and wrote "die" 51 times... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}Actress Mikako Tabe will star in NHK's morning serial drama to start next spring, the public broadcaster has announced.
Tabe, 19, will play the role of a woman who dreams of succeeding at establishing a Japanese-style confectionary store in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, in the morning drama, "Tsubasa," the broadcaster said on Thursday.
It is the first time that a NHK morning drama series will be set in Saitama Prefecture. All other prefectures in Japan have hosted NHK morning... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}NAGOYA, Japan (AP) -- Grand champion Hakuho won his bout at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on Friday to secure his seventh Emperor's Cup.
The Mongolian fought off several arm thrusts from ozeki Kaio and then calmly forced his opponent out to improve to 13-0 and wrap up the title with two days left in the 15-day competition at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium.
Kaio dropped to 8-5.
With Mongolian compatriot and grand champion Asashoryu absent after pulling out with injuries a... Read Full Story
{mosimage}Fukushu-en (Fukushu Garden) is a Chinese-style garden located in Naha City. It was constructed to celebrate the city’s historical ties to China’s Fujian province and current relationship with the city of Fuzhou.For hundreds of years, the Ryukyu Kingdom had solid trade relations with China. Thousands of vessels moved back and forth between the nations, not only carrying goods such as Chinese porcelain but also ferrying passengers, including emissaries wishing to better understand... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}CHIBA -- Chiba police arrested a 60-year-old Hyogo resident on Thursday for making phone threats against the president of Tokyo-based Yamazaki Baking Co.
Suspect Tsutomu Kashimoto told police: "I had a grudge against the company." He was arrested for intimidation.
Kashimoto made nine threatening phone calls from public payphones in Amagasaki and other locations to Yamazaki President Nobuhiro Iijima, 66, at his home in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, between Aug. 1, 2007 and May... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}A Seibu Kanko tourist bus ran off the road into a forest while traveling along Route 352 near the village of Hinoemata in Fukushima Prefecture on Thursday, leaving one person with a bone fracture and 26 others with minor injuries.
An investigation by Minamiaizu Police showed that driver Kazuyoshi Taki, 54, failed to negotiate a sharp downhill left-hander, sending the bus off the opposite side of the road and down a 10-meter slope into a forest below.
The bus was carrying 28... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}TAKO, Chiba -- Four bodies were found in the charred remains of a house after it caught fire early on Friday morning, police said.
A mother and her three children living in the house are missing, and police are trying to identify the bodies, as well as the cause of the fire.
According to police, a fire broke out at the house of Koji Uchida, 39, an elementary school teacher, in Tako at around 9 a.m. on Friday. The fire consumed the entire two-story house before it was... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}Prosecutors have started procedures to repay about 2.9 billion yen in confiscated funds from abroad to victims of loan shark schemes carried out by a criminal syndicate.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Friday initiated procedures to return to the victims the criminal profits collected by the former Goryokai-affiliated gang under loan shark schemes after the money was returned by the Zurich state government in Switzerland to Japan. The gang was affiliated with... Read Full Story
mosgoogle right}Most young people take the meaning of certain old-style expressions in Japanese in the opposite way from their original meaning, a government study has found.
A poll by the Agency for Cultural Affairs revealed that 70 percent of those between their 10s and 30s think the meaning of the Japanese expression "nitsumaru" is "to fall into an inconclusive situation." In fact, the expression means "to get closer to conclusion after discussion."
In contrast, over 70 percent of those... Read Full Story
{mosgoogle right}Toyota Motor Corp. is considering boosting domestic vehicle prices by 1 to 3 percent, mainly for its high-end cars, to respond to steep rises in the costs of steel products and other raw materials, it has been learned.
It is extremely rare for an automaker to increase prices other than when it is upgrading a vehicle line. The company is considering introducing the price rise as early as August, and if prices do go up, a ripple effect may be observed among other manufacturers... Read Full Story
