Japan

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US Troops Confined to Base in Japanese Uproar

Military personnel confined to bases indefinitely

(Newser) - The US military has ordered 45,000 American troops, civilian employees and their families in Japan restricted to their military bases, homes and workplaces in a move to quell growing Japanese outrage at problem Marines. The orders, in place indefinitely, will effectively bar Marines nationwide and all military personnel on...

4 More US Marines Face Rape Charges in Japan

Men busted just days after arrest in separate case involving 14-year-old girl

(Newser) - US military authorities are charging four Marines with raping a young Japanese woman, just days after a Marine was arrested by Japanese authorities and charged with raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl in a separate case. The four men are accused of assaulting a 19-year-old woman in October after meeting her at...

Okinawa Rape Case Reignites Anti-US Ire

Citing discipline lack, angry Japanese want less military presence

(Newser) - The arrest this week of a US Marine on charges of raping a 14-year-old girl on the Japanese island of Okinawa has stirred long-simmering resentment of the nearly 50,000 American troops stationed there, Reuters reports. “Considering that such vicious, atrocious incidents have never ceased to occur, we must...

Japanese Dolphin Cuisine: Cruelty or Culture?

Activists have no right to decry slaughter of Flipper's brethren, locals say

(Newser) - One activist calls the Japanese city of Taiji "ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth," but locals want him and his cohorts to mind their own business. Residents of Taiji have been eating dolphin meat for hundreds of years and say they have as...

Russian Bombers Harry US Ship
Russian Bombers Harry US Ship

Russian Bombers Harry US Ship

Yank fighters scramble to intercept jets

(Newser) - US fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers near the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz south of Japan today, Reuters reports. In an apparently tense moment, one of the Russian "Bear" bombers flew over the deck of the carrier. Four US F18 fighters took off from the Nimitz to escort the hostile...

Japanese Fury Mounts Over US Marine Rape Case

'Unforgivable' crime threatens alliance

(Newser) - Tensions continued to mount in Japan today in the aftermath of the arrest of a US Marine accused of raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa. "It is unforgivable," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told a parliamentary panel. "It has happened over and over again in the past and...

US Marine Busted in Rape of Okinawa Schoolgirl

Governor furious as marine denies crime

(Newser) - A US Marine has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa, where resentment is already running high against American military presence, Reuters reports. The 38-year-old Marine allegedly raped the teen in a car yesterday, officials said. "This kind of crime cannot be forgiven, especially...

Firm Pays Off Disappointed Bald Man

Japanese company couldn't deliver on hair-growth claims, pays $40K

(Newser) - If you were considering doling out 4.9 million yen (approximately $45,990) for an extensive regimen of hair-growth treatment, you might want to think again. Japan’s best-known hair-growth company, Reve 21, has agreed to pay a 4.3 million yen settlement to a man who spent four years...

Looking for a Real Recession? Try Japan

Once-booming economy stumbles, yet people are 'indifferent'

(Newser) - While economists squabble over a possible US recession, Japan has quietly slipped into one. The country’s postwar riches have all but vanished, the Washington Post reports, as its GDP tumbles from fourth to twentieth among the world’s countries and its share of the world’s economy dips from...

Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes
Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes

Whales Fall as Hunt Resumes

With Greenpeace gone to refuel, fleet harpoons 5 more

(Newser) - Japanese whalers have resumed their hunt in Antarctic waters, killing at least five whales when protest ships pulled back to refuel, the Australian News Network reports. Witnesses reported seeing the whales harpooned in the Southern Ocean after ships from Greenpeace and another protest group withdrew. In Tokyo, the Australian foreign...

Japan Sends Out Sushi Squad
Japan Sends Out Sushi Squad

Japan Sends Out Sushi Squad

Tokyo to certify 'authentic' restaurants around the world

(Newser) - Japan, worried that the globalization of sushi is embarrassing its national cuisine—think California rolls—is about to start certifying which of the estimated 25,000 Japanese restaurants around the world are authentic. Experts based in major cities, including London, Paris, and Los Angeles, will give eateries that pass muster...

Earth's Mystery Core Plumbed
Earth's Mystery Core Plumbed

Earth's Mystery Core Plumbed

Japanese geophysicist floats theory of lifecycle for Earth's plates

(Newser) - Climate change has sparked heated debate about the Earth’s surface, but a controversial new theory is directing scientists to its core, Der Spiegel reports. To explain why contintental plates drift on the surface of the Earth's molten mantle, Maruyama Shigenori, a leading geophysicist, argues that continents actually have life...

'Sushi Capital' Japan Isn't Sweating Tuna Scare

Sushi capital continues to eat up

(Newser) - New Yorkers may be in the throes of a sushi scare after the Times reported on the dangerous mercury levels in tuna, but the Japanese aren't batting an eyelid. One official's biggest concern was that the controversy would ignite "groundless rumors" about a healthy food, AP reports. "We're...

Nagasaki Mayor's Killer Confesses
Nagasaki Mayor's Killer Confesses

Nagasaki Mayor's Killer Confesses

Alleged gangster apologizes in court as trial opens

(Newser) - The Japanese man accused of killing the mayor of Nagasaki last April has admitted to the crime, the BBC reports. "I apologize to Mayor Iccho Ito and his family from the bottom of my heart," Tetsuya Shiroo said today on the first day of his trial. An alleged...

Asian Stocks Continue Plunge
Asian Stocks Continue Plunge
UPDATED

Asian Stocks Continue Plunge

Stocks tumble for second straight day

(Newser) - Jitters over the US economy led to a major sell-off in Asian markets for the second straight day, with Australia's benchmark index closing down 7.1%—the biggest single-day loss in nearly 20 years. India's Sensex index skidded 10%, triggering a shutdown, but rallied to close down 4.6%. Japan's...

Cell Phone Novels Take Japan by Storm

Audience, sales huge for works written, read on handsets

(Newser) - Japan’s literary world has been rocked by the ascendancy of cell phone novels: serial works written mainly by young women on their phone keypads. The New York Times reports five of 2007’s 10 bestsellers were cell phone novels reprinted as conventional books—despite the fact that the country’...

10 Best Bookstores on Earth
10 Best Bookstores on Earth

10 Best Bookstores on Earth

From the Netherlands to Japan to L.A., a Guardian scribe picks his faves

(Newser) - Not all bookstores are mega-style these days. Some are even built in churches, theaters, and 19-century buildings. A Guardian scribe lists his top 10 booksellers worldwide:
  1. Maastricht, Netherlands: Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen. Owners converted an 800-year-old church into a divine bookstore.
  2. Buenos Aires' El Ateneo. Once a theater, its stage is
...

Aussies Demand Whalers Release Eco-Warriors

Australian goverment moves to free men from belly of whaling ship

(Newser) - An Australian customs ship is steaming on it way to pick up two protesters being held on board a Japanese whaling ship, where they were lashed to a railing, CNN reports. The activists were seized by the ship's crew Tuesday after they boarded to deliver a protest letter saying that...

For Hurting US Companies, World Supplies Band-Aid

In economic sea change, 'we need the money,' one US Rep. says

(Newser) - The subprime collapse has US financial institutions in uncharted waters—asking for help from foreign investors and governments, the Wall Street Journal reports. Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley all have recently sought bailouts, a dramatic switch from a tradition that saw US banks coming to the “rescue of...

Judge Bans Japanese Whalers in Aussie Waters

Eco-warriors 'kidnapped,' tied to ship's mast

(Newser) - An Australian judge has banned hunting by Japanese whalers in a large section of their traditional grounds in Australian-claimed waters off Antarctica. The ruling came today just hours after crew members of a militant eco-ship boarded a Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean to deliver a protest note—then...

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