Toyoko Inn renovated 70 hotels in 25 prefectures illegally
January 31, 2006The number of hotels that budget hotel chain operator Toyoko Inn Co. developed and illegally renovated has reached 70 in 25 prefectures across Japan, a Kyodo News tally showed Tuesday. Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa said on the day that Toyoko Inn appears to have been violating the law for some time.
Japan promises to ask N. Korea about suspected Thai abductee
January 31, 2006Japan will ask North Korea in upcoming talks about a Thai woman suspected of having been abducted by the North, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe promised in meeting Tuesday with visiting Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak. Abe said in a press conference that he told Somkid that Japanese delegates to the talks starting Saturday in Beijing will try to resolve the case of Anocha Panchoi, who is believed to have been kidnapped from Macao in 1978.
43 arrested in theft ring
January 31, 2006A total of 43 people, including Japanese and Chinese citizens, have been arrested as members of a theft ring suspected of stealing cash and valuables worth some 580 million yen in more than 1,000 cases over the past two and a half years, police said Tuesday. Lin Moukang, 35, already convicted of theft, is suspected to have led the gang which is divided into four groups based in the Kanto area, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo Prefecture, according to the police.
14 H.K. tourists die in Egypt bus accident
January 31, 2006Fourteen Hong Kong tourists died in a bus accident on Tuesday in southeastern Egypt, their tour organizer said. Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported the same number of fatalities and added that about 30 people were injured in the accident, some of whom were hospitalized in critical condition,
Toshiba falsified TEPCO reactor's coolant flow meter data
January 31, 2006Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that major electronics maker Toshiba Corp. had falsified data on a coolant flow meter for one of the six reactors at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. But the data fabrication has posed no problem in legal terms or in the safe operation of the plant's No. 6 reactor with the output capacity of 1.1 million kilowatts, the company said.
Court bans importer from selling recycled ink cartridges
January 31, 2006The Intellectual Property High Court banned an importer from selling recycled ink cartridges for ink-jet printers on Tuesday in line with a demand by Canon Inc., the patent holder of the type of cartridges. The court ruled the patent holder is eligible to demand that the sale of the recycled product imported from China by Tokyo-based distributor Recycle Assist Co. is barred, saying that the product contained a key part of the patented invention that had been altered.