WAKO, Japan: Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife. While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the Riken Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks...
SINGAPORE: After more than two years since she was last seen leaving a Nara guesthouse for a hiking trail in Japan, Patricia Wu-Murad, wife of a former Singapore women’s basketball coach, has been confirmed dead by her family. Her family received confirmation of her death on May 9, said her husband Kirk Murad. Pattie, as the Taiwanese-American...
TOKYO: Japan intends to push back against any US effort to bring it into an economic bloc aligned against China because of the importance of Tokyo’s trade ties with Beijing, according to current and former Japanese government officials. Like many other countries, Japan is trying to get permanent relief from President Donald Trump’s tariffs by addressing...
TOKYO: Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo's west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside...
SHANGHAI: A 27-year-old Japanese man has trended on social media because his unconventional name of “Happy” has brought him just the opposite. After Terauchi Happy’s story was reported by ABEMA Prime TV at the end of March, a heated discussion about unusual names was triggered on the internet. His name was given to him by his mother...
TOKYO: Increasingly, people are holding proper funerals when they lose their dog, cat or other beloved pet. The ceremonies may be attended by Buddhism priests who read out sutras, and memorial services may follow to mark religious milestones in the afterlife of the pet. Mourning a pet as you would a family member who has passed...
TOKYO: The man who allegedly killed a woman livestreaming on the streets of Tokyo reportedly said he came to Tokyo to search for her whereabouts while she was streaming. The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the details of the murder. The man, 42, is from Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture and allegedly killed the 22-year-old woman on...
TOKYO: Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said on Tuesday (March 4) that Russia's entry ban on him and eight other Japanese citizens was "unacceptable". The comments came a day after Russia's foreign ministry banned Iwaya, the ambassador of Japan to Ukraine and seven other Japanese from entering the country in retaliation to Tokyo's sanctions. Iwaya told reporters...
TOKYO: Japan’s government and ruling parties are considering raising the International Tourist Tax, which is currently 1,000 yen (US$6.67) per person and levied on people leaving Japan as a “departure tax”. The government intends to expand the purposes for which the tax revenue is used, such as measures against overtourism, which has become a problem in...
TOKYO (The Straits Times/ANN): A career-ending sex scandal involving one of Japan’s most bankable stars has snowballed into a corporate governance nightmare and a textbook cautionary tale of how crises should never be managed. The spiralling controversy involves Masahiro Nakai, the 52-year-old media personality who was the leader of defunct male idol group Smap, and mainstream...
