BBC
 
A small van has ploughed into pedestrians celebrating the New Year on one of Tokyo's most famous streets.
Eight people were injured, one seriously, by the attacker who struck in the Harajuku fashion district shortly after midnight.
The street, which was sealed off to traffic, was packed wit...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - Year-end train services were greatly disrupted in Tokyo and its vicinity Sunday due mainly to a fault detected on a shinkansen bullet train car at Tokyo Station, affecting nearly 228,700 passengers, the operator said.
A total of 376 bullet trains were suspended or delayed fo...

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ARAMA JAPAN
 
Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most exemplary Asian singers of all time. On December 9th, 1998 Utada Hikaru released her debut Japanese single “Automatic/time will tell“.
Shortly after the landscape of the J-pop and Asian music scene would be changed forever. “Automa...

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NST
 
TOKYO: A Strong influx of Muslim travellers is fuelling a boom in halal restaurants and syariah-compliant hotels in Japan, potentially a big market for Malaysian halal products.
To cater for Muslim needs, some Japanese have set up syariah-friendly hotels, including one at the foot of Mount...

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ROCKET  NEWS
 
Totoro, Kiki, and No Face are just some of the characters who’ve emerged from the moss-covered wall.
If you’ve watched any of the films from Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli, you’ll know just how integral the world of nature is to many of their plots and characters.
From the...

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JAPAN TIMES
 
For better or worse, the holidays bring people together.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather at the famed ‘scramble crossing’ in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo on Monday to count down the last moments of the year together.
However, problems can arise when so ma...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - It’s that time of year again when we get to spend our hard-earned yen on fukubukuro lucky bags, and some of Japan’s most well-known companies are getting in early, already releasing their special grab bags before the end of the year.
McDonald’s Japan is one of those companie...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
Osaka Metro has announced a large-scale plan to redevelop the Yumeshima area, which will host the World Expo in 2025.
Yumeshima (literally “dream island” and not to be confused with the similarly named Yumenoshima in Tokyo) is an artificial island, located in Konohana ward in the b...

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ASAHI
 
Prosecutors on Dec. 26 demanded five-year prison terms for three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. over the disaster caused by a tsunami slamming into the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
“It was easy to safeguard the plant against tsunami, but they kept operating the plan...

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JAPAN TODAY
 
TOKYO - As Japan prepares for the first imperial succession in about 200 years involving a living monarch this coming spring, it has yet to address concerns about the future of the imperial line and the shortage of royals performing official duties.
Emperor Akihito, 85, is set to ab...

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