Heavy snow hits Sea of Japan coast, disrupting flights and train services
December 18, 2005Heavy snow fell along the Sea of Japan coast and other parts of the country Sunday as the coldest air mass so far this season hit the archipelago, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Temperatures fell to minus 2 C in Nagoya, minus 2.9 in Hiroshima,...
Freighter spills 1,000 logs into Sea of Japan
December 18, 2005A Cambodian-registered timber freighter spilled about 1,000 logs into the Sea of Japan early Saturday after it was whipped by strong winds and began to list, the Japan Coast Guard said. The 1,798-ton ship spilled about 750 of the logs from a deck...
ANA airplane struck by lightning
December 18, 2005An All Nippon Airways' flight from Tokyo's Haneda airport was struck by lightning shortly before it landed at Shonai airport in Yamagata Prefecture at around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, ANA said. While no one was injured among 97 passengers and six crew m...
Japan's population likely to start decreasing from 2006
December 18, 2005Japan's population is likely to start decreasing from next year, a year earlier than formerly projected, if the fertility rate continues to dwindle at the current pace, which marked a record low 1.29 in 2004, the government said in a report released...
Education ministry to start school bus service as crime-prevention measure
December 18, 2005The education ministry has included expenses for operational research into the introduction of school bus service in its budget request for fiscal 2006 in the face of recent murder cases involving elementary school children on their way home from sch...
2 fishermen missing off Wakayama
December 18, 2005Two fishermen went missing in the water off Wakayama Prefecture on Friday morning after one man fell off a tuna fishing boat and another dove into the ocean to rescue him, Japan Coast Guard said. Chief engineer Toshiyuki Koresawa, 47, fell off the...
Ministry says hotels not designed by Aneha also lacking in steel
December 18, 2005Hotels not designed by Hidetsugu Aneha, the disgraced architect at the center of a quake-proof data falsification scandal, but built by the now-defunct Kimura Construction Co also have less reinforcing steel than required by law, Land, Infrastructure...
Lebanese seeks Jenkins' help to repatriate daughter from N Korea
December 18, 2005A 69-year-old Lebanese woman sought help Friday from Charles Jenkins, a former U.S. Army deserter to North Korea who is the husband of a repatriated Japanese abductee, to get back her daughter who was apparently abducted to the North 27 years ago. ...
M6.2 quake jolts northeastern Japan
December 18, 2005An earthquake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, jolted northeastern Japan on Saturday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The 3:32 a.m. quake registered 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in northern Miyagi Prefectur...