News On Japan

Ryoko Yonekura, Masao Kusakari win Best Smile awards

Nov 10 (Japan Today) - Japanese actress Ryoko Yonekura, 42, has had a big week. On Monday, she was a guest at the dinner for U.S. Presidfent Donald Trump and his wife Melania. Then on Wednesday, she was a winner of the annual “Best Smile of the Year 2017” award, along with actor Masao Kusakari, 65.

When asked about her impression meeting the 45th president of the United States, Yonekura replied it was "a good experience" while flashing her "best smile."

The "Best Smile" award, whose concept is "good teeth, good smiles throughout Japan," honors celebrities with the "toothiest, shiniest smiles of the year" chosen by the Japan Dental Association.

Yonekura, who currently stars as the miniskirt-wearing doctor in the TV Asahi drama "Doctor X~surgeon Michiko Daimon" (Thursdays at 9 p.m.), humorously commented, "Lately, I've been told that I overuse my character's catchphrase, 'I never fail,' so I feel like I'm showing you all my stuck-up smirk."

Reporters also asked Kusakari, who co-stars with Yonekura in "Doctor X,"when he felt like he showed his "best smile," to which he replied, "When I first saw Ryoko Yonekura in a miniskirt on the set of 'Doctor X.'

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

The Japanese government on April 21 revised the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and related guidelines, in principle allowing the export of weapons with lethal capabilities. The move marks a major turning point in Japan's postwar security policy.

Footage released by the Nagano Prefectural Police mountain rescue unit captured the moment an earthquake struck during an operation to save two climbers who had fallen on a steep slope of Mount Shirouma in the Northern Alps.

Japan's weather agency and the Cabinet Office issued a 'Hokkaido-Sanriku Offshore Subsequent Earthquake Advisory' after an earthquake measuring upper 5 on Japan's seismic intensity scale struck off Sanriku.

JR East has launched a preview version of its new online Shinkansen booking platform, JRE GO, promising reservations in as little as one minute and easier handling of sudden schedule changes.

A bear that had remained in a residential area in central Sendai since early Sunday morning was euthanized last night in an emergency cull. No injuries were reported.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A fire broke out at a four-story apartment building in Okinawa City in the early hours of April 19th, leaving one person dead, with authorities suspecting the victim may be a man in his 70s who served as chairman of a local crime group.

A 37-year-old father arrested over the alleged abandonment of his son's body in a forest in Kyoto Prefecture may have contacted associates to say the child had gone missing before the boy's school informed the family, investigators said.

A 20-year-old university student has been arrested on suspicion of breaking into an apartment in Osaka and stealing cash, with police believing he played a key role in recruiting minors for illegal work schemes.

The annual spring garden party, held at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo, has once again drawn attention to a pressing issue facing Japan's Imperial Household: how to maintain the number of family members as it continues to decline whenever female royals marry.

Japan is often viewed abroad as a country with an unusually visible sexual culture, shaped by adult videos, erotic manga and a wide range of related subcultures. (Japanese Comedian Meshida)

A bear that had remained in a residential area in central Sendai since early Sunday morning was euthanized last night in an emergency cull. No injuries were reported.

The family of a man granted a retrial over a robbery-murder case in Shiga Prefecture has called for revisions to Japan's retrial system, saying he was wrongfully arrested despite having an alibi.

A former elementary school teacher who managed an online group of educators involved in covert filming and image sharing has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison, in a case that has also raised concerns at universities training future teachers.