HDR Okinawa, Japan Travel News Photography Maps A

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Man nabbed for squirting high schoolgirls with soy sauce-filled water pisto
2008-05-29 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}MAEBASHI -- A man suspected of squirting soy sauce over high school girls using a water pistol to "blow off steam" has been arrested, police said.The 22-year-old man, Kenichi Ogawa, was arrested on suspicion of assault. He has reportedly admitted to the allegations, telling police he did it to relieve his stress.Police said that several high school girls in Maebashi had been attacked in similar incidents this month, and police are investigating a possibl ...
More About: Water , High , Sauce

Shaolin Temple Grand Master arrested for tax evasion
2008-05-29 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}Qin Xiping, the self-professed 34th Grand Master of the Shaolin Temple famous for its long martial arts history, was arrested Wednesday for tax evasion, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said.Qin, 49, was arrested for breaking the Income Tax Law by allegedly failing to pay about 38 million yen in taxes by purportedly failing to report 129 million yen in income obtained over a three-year period up to 2005.Prosecutors raided the All Japan Shaoli ...
More About: Arrested

Baseball star Luis Gonzalez given 1-year ban for failing drug test
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}TOKYO (AP) -- Venezuelan native Luis Gonzalez of Japan's Yomiuri Giants has been given a one-year suspension for failing a drug test, the commissioner of Japanese professional baseball announced Monday.Gonzalez, an infielder with the Giants who formerly played with the Colorado Rockies, was given a drug test on April 30 after a game between the Giants and the Hiroshima Carp.Results of the test showed that Gonzalez had clobenzorex, amphetamine, and p-hydr ...
More About: Baseball , Star , Test , Drug , Year

Several Japanese alive in North Korea, ready to be sent home, Pyongyang tel
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}North Korea has given the United States information about several Japanese believed to be abductees, saying there are still a number of them in North Korea , and hinted at its willingness to send them home, Japanese government sources said Tuesday.The people mentioned by North Korea are believed to be separate from the group of 12 Japanese that Tokyo recognizes as abduction victims.It is believed that by suggesting the return of the abductees, North Korea ...
More About: Home

Convicted stalker gets 4th prison sentence over postcards slandering same w
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}A man convicted of defaming a woman he formerly dated by sending slanderous postcards about her to neighboring residents was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment in a ruling at the Tokyo District Court.Handed the sentence was 46-year-old Tsuyoshi Kariya, a resident of Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture. Kariya had reportedly been stalking the woman since about 1993, and had received three prison sentences for his actions in the past."The harassment that continue ...
More About: Prison , Stalker , Sentence

Prison sentenced confirmed for fallen pop star Yuki Goto
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}The prison sentence handed down to former pop star Yuki Goto has been confirmed after both prosecutors and defense lawyers abandoned their right to appeal.The Tokyo District Court had earlier sentenced Goto, 21, to 5 1/2 years in prison after finding him guilty of theft, robbery and assault over cases in which Goto beat a security guard and stole power cables from construction sites in Tokyo.Both prosecutors and Goto's lawyers dropped their right to appe ...
More About: Star , Prison , Fallen , Sentenced

Japan urges limits to youngsters' cell phone use as panel notes dangers of
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}TOKYO (AP) -- Japan ese youngsters are getting so addicted to Internet-linking cell phones that the government is starting a program warning parents and schools to limit their use among children.The government is worried about elementary and junior high school students getting sucked into cyberspace crimes, spending long hours exchanging mobile e-mails and suffering other negative effects of cell phone overuse, Masaharu Kuba, a government official overseeing the ini ...
More About: Phone , Cell Phone , Cell , Notes

Man nabbed for abducting 10-year-old girl
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}KORIYAMA, Fukushima -- A man was arrested Tuesday for abducting a 10-year-old girl, investigators said.The 27-year-old man from Koriyama, whose name was not immediately disclosed, stands accused of the abduction of a minor. The man was taken into custody after he turned himself in at a police box earlier in the day and admitted to taking the girl away.According to local police, the 10-year-old girl from Koriyama went missing after she left school on Mond ...
More About: Girl , Year

Old farmers take out national paddy planting championships
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}OSHU, Iwate -- A group of 70-something local farmers has taken out the open division of the national paddy planting championships held here.The septuagenarian pastoralists completed planting their allotted paddy almost 30 minutes quicker than the winning high school team.Mizusawa Prefectural agricultural High School started the national rice paddy planting championships a decade ago and it has grown to include 23 teams this year, including three from out ...
More About: National , Paddy , Championships , Planting , Farmers

Murakami's next epic poised to become his biggest ever
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}As those familiar with his writing would know, Haruki Murakami pens short stories, novellas, novels and epics such as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka On The Shore."During an exclusive interview recently with the Mainichi, Murakami revealed he is working on a new and long-awaited epic."I started writing it around the Christmas of 2006 and have spent the past year and five months working on it," he says, adding that it should surpass "The Wind-Up B ...
More About: Epic

Saitama's serial nudist mugger finally collared
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}KOSHIGAYA, Saitama -- A man arrested Tuesday is suspected of being the mugger who has targeted Saitama area women over the past few years while wearing nothing but a hood covering his face, police said.Masatsugu Fukui, 36, a truck driver from Koshigaya, was arrested for robbery after he allegedly mugged a woman.He admits to the allegation and has hinted in involvement in some of at least 10 incidents in the area since 2005 where a naked man has accosted ...
More About: Finally , Serial

Chiba childcare worker exposes private parts on train
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}CHIBA -- A Chiba Municipal Government childcare section worker has been arrested after he unzipped his trousers and exposed his private parts to a woman traveling on the same JR Keiyo Line train, police said.Kunihiko Fuse, 34, the official from Chiba, was arrested for indecent exposure.Fuse, who was sober at the time of the Tuesday night incident, denies the allegations."It's true my private parts were exposed, but it wasn't because I wanted t ...
More About: Train , Private , Parts , Worker , Private Parts

Vocational college deputy head caught filming up teen's skirt on train
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}YOKKAICHI, Mie -- The deputy principal of a government-run technical vocational college has been arrested after he was caught filming up the skirt of a young woman riding on the same train, police said.Hiroshi Nagai, 59, the deputy principal of the Aichi Prefectural Nagoya Vocational Train ing Institute, was arrested for breaking a Mie Prefectural Government ordinance outlawing people from creating a public nuisance.Nagai, of Yokkaichi, admits to the alle ...
More About: College , Skirt , Head , Caught

Man arrested for killing wife, claiming she committed suicide
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka -- A man has been arrested for murdering his wife, but only after he first claimed she had taken her own life, police said.Hiroyuki Kawashima, 36, was arrested Tuesday for the murder of his 34-year-old wife, Sayako.Kawashima admits to the allegations, but initially told the police his wife had committed suicide."I killed her myself," he told investigators. "I strangled her with a power cord."Police said Kawashima ...
More About: Arrested , Wife , Suicide , Killing , Committed

Woman nabbed for throwing sick mom to death from hospital window
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima -- A woman who threw her senile dementia-afflicted mother to her death from a hospital window has been arrested after surviving an attempt to take her own life, police said.Michiko Yokota, 58, unemployed of Fukuyama, was arrested Tuesday for the murder of her 85-year-old mother, Ritsuko Ono.Yokota, who jumped from the same window from which she is alleged to have hurled her mother but survived the plunge with only minor injuries, admi ...
More About: Hospital , Death , Woman , Window , Sick

Pedestrian attacks schoolgirl cyclists
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}NAGOYA -- Two high school girls cycling to school were slightly injured after being pushed down by a middle-aged man on a street here early Wednesday morning, police said.Local police are treating the case as inflicting bodily injury, and are searching for the assailant. The victims say he appeared to be about 50 years old, approximately 180 centimeters tall and had gray hair.At around 6:05 a.m., a man suddenly pushed the bicycle of a 17-year-old high sc ...
More About: Attacks , Cyclists

Actress Ryoko Yonekura promotes birthplace Yokohama
2008-05-28 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}Actress Ryoko Yonekura promoted the charm of her birthplace Yokohama at an event held in Tokyo on Wednesday for next year's "Yokohama Port Opening 150th Anniversary" festival."When I need to calm myself down, I often drive over the Bay Bridge (a landmark in Yokohama). Yokohama is the place to take a break for me. Every area in the city is really exotic, but has a different atmosphere. I think that makes Yokohama so special," said the 32-year-old Yonekura wearing a ...

Man admits forcing neighbor into his apartment, fatally stabbing her
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}A man who has admitted fatally stabbing a neighbor has told police that he threatened the victim with a fruit knife and forced her into his apartment, police said.Investigators are questioning Takanori Hoshijima, 33, a temporary worker from Tokyo's Koto-ku, over the details of how he killed his 23-year-old neighbor, Rurika Tojo, and mutilated her body.Bloodstains found in his apartment match Tojo's DNA, investigators said.Hoshijima, who is und ...

Ex-student convicted of killing sister gets 7 years behind bars
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}A 23-year-old man accused of murdering his younger sister and mutilating her body was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in a ruling at the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday.The defendant, Yuki Muto, was convicted of murdering his 20-year-old sister Azumi at their home in Tokyo's Shibuya-ku in 2006, but was found not guilty of the crime of mutilating her body.During the trial, a doctor who conducted a psychiatric evaluation on the defendant said that a ...
More About: Student , Bars , Years , Sister , Killing

Finance worker arrested for using computer to defraud customer out of point
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}NAGOYA -- A woman was arrested Tuesday for illegally operating a computer at a financial institution where she worked to defraud a customer out of his accumulated points, police said.Mika Nakamura, 41, a former temporary worker at Toyota Finance Corp., stands accused of violating the Unauthorized Computer Access Law and fraud. She admitted to the allegations, police said.She is suspected of defrauding other customers, mostly those who asked that their co ...
More About: Arrested , Customer , Point

Elementary school principal hit with wage cut for assaulting 9 students
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}KITAKYUSHU -- An elementary school principal has been slapped with a wage cut for hitting nine children as punishment for leaving their seats during classes, local education authorities said.The Kitakyushu Municipal Board of Education slashed the wages of the 53-year-old principal of a municipal elementary school in the city's Yahatahigashi-ku by 10 percent for one month on disciplinary grounds.The principal, whose name was not immediately disclosed, rep ...
More About: Students , School , Principal

Hospital to pay compensation over series of blunders, 2 of them fatal
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}OGAKI, Gifu -- A local hospital has apologized over a series of medical blunders, two of them fatal, and agreed to pay 120 million yen in compensation.There were four medical blunders at the Ogaki Municipal Hospital , with two of them fatal, hospital officials admitted. It has reached settlements with the patients who suffered in the aftermath of the mistakes and the bereaved families of the patients who died in the accidents."We are taking these (medical ...
More About: Series , Compensation , Fatal

Pin found in sliced ham sold at supermarket in Niigata Prefecture
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}KASHIWAZAKI, Niigata -- A pin has been found in sliced ham sold at a supermarket here, police said.A housewife living in Kashiwazaki felt a foreign object like a fish bone in her mouth when she ate ham on Monday, and alerted a supermarket where she bought it, local police said. The foreign object turned out to be a small pin.She was not injured in the incident. Local police are treating the case as forcible obstruction of business.The woman ha ...
More About: Sold , Supermarket

Cyclist scratches woman's neck on street in Aichi
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}TOYOHASHI, Aichi -- A cyclist scratched a woman's neck on her way home from work here in an apparent random attack, leaving her with slight injuries, police said.At around 8:55 p.m. on Monday, a thin man riding on a bicycle approached a 25-year-old woman on a street in Toyohashi from behind, and scratched the back part of her neck with what looked like a metal object, local police said. She suffered slight injuries in the attack.The man appeared to be ag ...
More About: Street , Neck

Man slashes junior high school boy's shirt in Gifu
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}GIFU -- A man has slashed a junior high school boy's shirt while he was on his way home, police said.At around 5:55 p.m. on Monday, the 13-year-old boy was walking on a municipal road in Gifu when the man approached him and suddenly slashed his shirt with what appeared to be a paper cutter, local police said. The boy was not injured.Investigators who examined the shirt said a 12-centimeter part of the left sleeve had been cut.Police are search ...
More About: School , High School , Shirt , High

Murakami says American contemporary classics 'really significant' for his w
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}Writer Haruki Murakami told the Mainichi in an exclusive interview that the four contemporary American classics he has spent the past few years translating -- J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" and Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- have "really significant meaning" for his own writing."I realized even more that a story's framework needs to be solid in a physical sense," ...
More About: Classics , Contemporary

TV star commits suicide
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}TV presenter Ako Kawada apparently committed suicide Monday by inhaling a lethal amount of toxic carbon monoxide gas, police said.The 29-year-old freelance presenter's body was found in a car belonging to her talent agency in Tokyo's Minato-ku on Monday morning.A suicide note addressed to the TV personality's parents was found on the dashboard of the car.Police said Kawada's note thanked her parents, but did not mention what had been worrying ...
More About: Star , Suicide

Haruki Murakami opens up about translating America's literary giants
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}Acclaimed author Haruki Murakami took time out from writing his first full-length novel since 2002's "Kafka On The Shore" to talk exclusively to the Mainichi.Murakami spoke on a broad spectrum of topics ranging from recent Japanese translation trends -- including his own work on contemporary classics -- to awareness in the post-Sept. 11 world.Murakami has accompanied his own writing with translations of American literature.Over the past few ye ...
More About: Giants , Literary

Customs lose hash stash planted in traveler's luggage to train sniffer dogs
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}NARITA -- Customs officials have lost 124 grams of hashish they planted in an unknowing traveler's luggage to train drug sniffing dogs, the head of Narita Customs said Monday.Customs officials are banned from using travelers' luggage for training practices, but one worker said it was common practice."We want to improve the sniffer dogs' ability, so we have practiced this way several times in the past," the official said on condition of anonymity. ...
More About: Dogs , Train , Luggage , Sniffer

Gallows await Nagasaki mayor's yakuza assassin
2008-05-27 00:00:00
{mosgoogle right}NAGASAKI -- The yakuza gunman who assassinated Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito as he campaigned for re-election in April last year was Monday handed the death sentence by the Nagasaki District Court for a crime prosecutors said "shook the foundations of democracy."Tetsuya Shiroo, the former high-ranking member of a designated crime syndicate, was found guilty of murdering the mayor and ordered to pay the ultimate penalty."You aimed to halt the mayor's re-electi ...
More About: Assassin , Gallows