BBC
 
A zoo in Japan has confirmed that a hippopotamus thought for seven years to be a he is, in fact, a she.
 A DNA test was carried out after zookeepers noticed that 12-year-old Gen-chan did not display typical male hippo behaviour.
 Gen-chan arrived in Osaka from Mexico in 2017, and customs do...

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JAPAN TIMES
 
The National Police Agency disclosed a plan Thursday to increase the minimum amount of state benefits paid to bereaved families of crime victims.
Under the plan to revise the benefit system, the minimum amount will be raised from ¥3.2 million to ¥10.6 million in principle. The NPA a...

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JAPAN TIMES
 
The Nagoya District Court on Monday imposed a nine-year prison term and an ¥8 million ($51,700) fine on a 25-year-old woman — who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri” — for swindling three men out of ¥156 million through a romance scam and for selling a manual on how to commit simi...

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BBC
 
The Japanese navy is continuing its search for seven crew in the Pacific Ocean after the apparent crash of two helicopters on Saturday night, which killed at least one crewman.Rescuers have so far recovered the body of one man, as well as black boxes and debris, but are yet to find the othe...

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JAPAN TIMES
 
The government said Monday it was closely monitoring reports that a Chinese professor at a Japanese university has been missing since he took a trip home over a year ago.
Fan Yuntao, 61, "has been engaged in teaching at a university in Japan for a long time, and the matter could con...

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KYODO NEWS
 
North Korea on Monday fired at least one ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan, but no damage was reported as it fell into waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Japanese government said.
The missile, launched in a northeasterly direction at around 3 p.m., is estimat...

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KYODO NEWS
 
A van carrying five Japanese nationals was attacked by a suicide bomber and a gunman in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Friday morning, killing a local security guard and injuring another guard and a bystander as well as one Japanese, according to Pakistani media, police ...

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OLYMPICS
 
The two-time world champion says his last duty for the national team will be the 27 April-5 May Thomas & Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
Brutally honest as he announced his decision to retire from international badminton on Thursday (18 April), Momota Kento admi...

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CNA
 
A court in Japan dismissed a bid by Ainu Indigenous people to reclaim rights over river fishing for salmon, an official said on Thursday (Apr 18).
It was the first court decision on Indigenous rights related to Ainu people, who traditionally lived in what is now northern Japan as well as in...

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CNA
 
Eight people were reported injured on Thursday (Apr 18) after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off southwestern Japan, but there appeared to be no major damage or tsunami.
The epicentre of the quake, which hit at 11.14 pm (10.14pm, Singapore time) on Wednesday, was located between the isla...

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