SWISS INFO
 
Britain and Italy's defence chiefs will visit Japan this week to hold meetings with their local counterpart, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, Japan said on Tuesday.
The three nations announced in December the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) venture to develop by 2035 a next-gener...

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NEW YORK TIMES
 
He introduced the American chain 7-Eleven to the country, covering the landscape with thousands of outlets and starting a retail revolution there.
Masatoshi Ito, who built a Japanese retail empire and helped fundamentally change the country’s consumer culture with the introductio...

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BBC
 
A Japanese man who was on death row for nearly half a century has been granted a retrial.
Iwao Hakamada, now 87, is the world's longest-serving death row inmate, according to Amnesty International.
He was sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering his boss, the man's wife and their two childr...

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KYODO NEWS
 
The former head of the operator of a southwestern Japan inn, who came under fire for only changing hot spring bathwater twice a year, allowing legionella bacteria to proliferate beyond the allowable limit, has died in a suspected suicide, police said Sunday.
Makoto Yamada, 70, was fo...

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ASAHI SHINBUN
 
For the first time, a panel of experts advising the health ministry has not ruled out the possibility that a COVID-19 vaccine may have contributed to a 42-year-old woman's death in November 2022.
The panel has been assessing the causal relationship between the COVID-19 vaccine and...

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NAVAL NEWS
 
Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Maritime Systems Co., Ltd. held a delivery ceremony and a "self-defense ship flag raising ceremony" today for the ‘Mikuma’ (みくま).
The event means the ship, the fourth Mogami-class FFM, was officially commissioned with the Japan Mari...

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KYODO NEWS
 
Police have arrested three people on suspicion of involvement in nuisance crimes such as licking a shared soy sauce bottle at a sushi restaurant and posting a video of the act online.
The move, made public by the police on Wednesday, is believed to be the first instance of customer a...

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BBC
 
Satoko Kishimoto finds running one of Tokyo's main districts to be a lonely job.
Back in June, the 48-year-old became the first female mayor in the history of Suginami.
The former environmental activist and democracy advocate managed to beat the conservative incumbent by just 200 votes - a ...

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REUTERS
 
The towering wave next to Mt Fuji – doesn’t it just remind you of Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave off Kanagawa’?
Call us biased but Japan does get all the good stuff. From Starbucks's exclusive cherry blossom drinkware collections to unique KitKat flavours, Japan offers a host of covetable souven...

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BBC
 
Japan was forced to blow up its new rocket during a failed launch on Tuesday, setting back efforts to crack a market led by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Its space agency had to send a self-destruct command to the H3 rocket when its second-stage engine failed minutes after lift-off.
Observers say it ...

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