s Wii U video games console, intended to capitalise on the roaring success of 2006's Wii, has so far flopped – and is causing problems for the Japanese games company behind Mario the plumber. In an announcement on Friday announcement the company dramatically slashed the number of Wii Us it expects to sell in the 12 months to April from 9m to just 2.8m, and said that it will make an annual loss, with...
s none, pretty much. The only thing the government is saying is that [for] at least six years from the accident, you cannot go back to your own town," he told me. The refugees were given permits to return home to collect personal items, but only for two hours. Like Wilfred Burchett, Funahashi had to violate the government's ban on travel to a nuclear-devastated area in order to catch the poignant moments...
s safety and reliability about one year after the global 787 fleet was grounded by regulators following the overheating of two batteries. Boeing said it was "aware of the 787 issue that occurred Tuesday afternoon at Narita, which appears to have involved the venting of a single battery cell". It referred to the process of fumes and heat being channelled outside the aircraft. Boeing shares fell 0.6%...
A mammoth 163kg (360lb) squid has been captured accidentally by fishermen off the northern coast of Japan ...
s shareholders by overpaying for the sporty drink plus Ribena. Now Suntory itself, on a grander scale, is doing the same for investors in Beam, distiller of Maker's Mark, Teacher...
s and Laphroaig Scotch whiskies, has been sold in a $16bn deal The American drinks group behind Jim Beam bourbon as well as Scotch whiskies Teacher's and Laphroaig has been sold to Japanese whisky distiller Suntory as part of a $16bn deal. Illinois-based Beam Inc is best known as the maker of Kentucky bourbons such as Knob Creek and Maker's Mark, as well as the eponymous Jim Beam, but the group's drinks...
Sea Shepherd Australia says its vessel, the Bob Barker, was chased by Yushin Maru No 3 to the edge of maritime border ...
More than 10 people also injured in blast at Mitsubishi Materials Corp plant in Yokkaichi City An explosion at a chemical factory in central Japan has killed at least five people and injured more than 10 others, according to reports. Police say the explosion occurred at Japanese metal and chemical company Mitsubishi Materials Corp's Yokkaichi plant on Thursday afternoon during maintenance. Fire department...
Sumo wrestlers perform the Dohyo-iri new year ritual at Tokyo's Meiji shrine. The ceremony is performed every year by the Yokozuna ...
s biggest sporting event. What makes the Hakone Ekiden so compelling? In pictures: the Hakone Ekiden relay race The streets of central Tokyo are crammed five deep on both sides for miles, helicopters churn in the sky above, and trumpets and drums beat out a rhythm for squads of cheerleaders on every block. All this at 7am on a bank holiday. Meanwhile, in homes across the country, millions are tuning...
With a 30% TV audience share in Japan this long-distance relay race is Japan's biggest sporting event of the year Adharanand Finn ...
Firm is recalling 6.4m packages of frozen food after products found to contain high levels of pesticides Japan's public broadcaster says more than 350 people have fallen ill across the country after eating frozen food products that may have been tainted with pesticide. The foodmaker Maruha Nichiro began recalling 6.4m packages of frozen food on 29 December, saying it had found some products were tainted...
s ambassador to Britain has also invoked Harry Potter's arch-enemy to accuse Beijing of raising tensions amid disputes over territory and wartime history. In an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph , Keiichi Hayashi said China was attempting to use "coercion" to change the status quo in the Asia-Pacific region, and defended Japan's postwar commitment to peace, democracy and human rights. "Our maritime...
Activists report seeing four dead minke whales on board one of the vessels before it fled without confrontation Oliver Milman ...
Footage obtained from the Sea Shepherd appears to show evidence of Japanese whalers butchering protected minke whales on the deck of the Nisshin Maru ...
s celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market on Sunday – just 5% of what he paid a year earlier despite signs that the species is in serious decline. Kimura's record bid last year of Y154.4m (£900,000) for a 222kg fish drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, even for an auction that has always drawn high bids. Kimura also set the previous record of 56.4m yen at the 2012 auction....
s outrage at the Japanese prime minister's war shrine visit has some justification, but is China at its most unrelenting China and Japan began the 20th century locked in a struggle over supremacy in eastern Asia. That eventually led to a war which lasted almost 20 years, drew in America, Europe, and the Soviet Union, and ended in the devastation of both the Chinese and the Japanese homelands. From...
s Hebei province, departed from coastal Fujian province on Wednesday and flew for nearly seven- and-a-half hours before his balloon hit turbulence and suffered a mechanical breakdown. According to the Japanese coastguard, he crashed about 14 miles (22km) from the uninhabited islands, called the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan. Soon afterwards Taiwanese officials received a missing person report...
s envoy in London, says 'veneration of war criminals...
s defence spending has seen double-digit growth each year since 1989. They [Beijing] are not a responsible partner. US influence in the region is receding." Bad blood between Japan and China runs deep and, in the modern era, dates from the 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Following its defeat in 1945 and its adoption of a pacifist constitution, Japan became wholly dependent on the US for its defence. Some...