The red rubber ball soared over a wall, traced an arc against the springtime Tokyo sky and fell -- ker-plump! -- into the playground of Takanawadai Elementary School. There, it was immediately put into motion by a throng of running, jumping, laughing children, who seemed ...
Retailers have long considered plastic bags basic to good service. Supermarket clerks toss tofu, eggs and ice cream into individual clear plastic bags to prevent a mess should the products' own wrapping somehow break. More plastic bags are often provided just in case, then ...
Child abuse in Japan may be expanding faster than social workers can keep pace, but there's another side to the story as well: Many people outside the government child-welfare system are working hard to push those figures down. Meet two of those people, lawyer ...
When Kazuko Sakamoto found herself unable to conceive a child, she and her husband figured there was more than one way to start a family. "It was my husband who first had the idea of becoming foster parents," Sakamoto recalled with a boisterous laugh. ...
Despite the understaffing and overcrowding, the atmosphere at the Kibo no Ie (House of Hope) residential home for children lives up to its name: It is a place of optimism, a place of warmth. Caregivers at this aging building in eastern Tokyo smile cheerfully as ...
It is a routine feature on television news: Another child has been strangled, starved, beaten or otherwise fatally abused-- at the hands of the parents. Equally routine but no less tragic is the fact that Japanese authorities in many cases knew the child was at ...
Caught between growing voices in Europe for a rate hike and domestic politicians pressuring against it, the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to 0.50 percent Wednesday. BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui signaled the impending rate hike from 0.25 percent, and the decision prevailed ...
in some Western countries, and laws and the some courts in Europe and the United States protect people who are sued in this way. Legal experts say Japan has no similar safeguards. The article at the center of the case, "The Lies Behind the Hits/Does ...
Midway through a visit to Tokyo to promote his environmental documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth," former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Monday made sure to praise Japan as the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol. Yet, earlier in the day Gore also prodded business leaders ...
A large supermarket chain in western Japan has permanently discontinued sales of dolphin meat after learning that mercury levels in a sample purchased at one of its outlets greatly exceeded government safety levels. Wakayama Prefecture-based supermarket chain Okuwa Co. pulled dolphin meat from shelves in ...
