A tablet computer owned by a passenger apparently caught fire aboard a shinkansen train Sunday, forcing an emergency halt to the train, police and the railway said. (Japan Times)

A machete-wielding man barged into the neighboring home of a family of four in Takamatsu City on Sunday and slashed them all. (tokyoreporter.com)

For six months, something felt just a little off in Tokyo. After years of drawing travelers to the capital’s Odaiba neighborhood, last March the full-scale statue of iconic anime robot Gundam was disassembled, and while the dismantling was handled in an awesome way, for half a year there’s been a mecha-sized hole in fans’ hearts. ()

A failure to follow protocol caused police officers in Kawanishi City to confuse the bodies of two elderly men, resulting in the wrong corpse undergoing an autopsy, it was learned on Friday, reports NHK (tokyoreporter.com)

Nara Prefectural Police have arrested a school teacher suspect in the repeated theft of women's underwear that he filmed before returning, reports Nikkan Sports (Sept. 21). (tokyoreporter.com)

Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a 48-year-old man who allegedly stabbed his common-law wife to death at their residence in Sakai City last week after a dispute about her bulimia-like behavior. The woman's daughter was also seriously injured in the incident, reports the Sankei Shimbun (tokyoreporter.com)

An English seminar for geisha has been held in Tokyo to help them communicate with foreign tourists and explain traditional Japanese entertainment culture. (NHK)

Officials have found that lunches served at two schools in the town of Oiso dating back to last year were contaminated with plastic fragments and bugs, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports (Sept. 16). (tokyoreporter.com)

Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association Chairman Hiroto Saikawa has called on the public to visit the Tokyo Motor Show, scheduled to be held from late October, to see the world’s latest technologies. (Japan Times)

Japan celebrated two years to the start of Rugby World Cup 2019 on Wednesday with the Webb Ellis Cup on display in Tokyo's Shibuya district ahead of a 46-day tour that will see it visit all 12 host cities from Sapporo in the north to Kumamoto in the south. (Japan Today)

The surf breaks of Okuragahama Beach in Miyazaki, Kyushu are set to welcome the world's top junior surfers Saturday at the 2017 VISSLA ISA World Junior Surfing Championships. (Kyodo)

Fears about foreign crime caused Tokyo Metropolitan Police to conduct searches through sex parlors in the Roppongi entertainment last week, an initiative that is part of law enforcement’s preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games, reports TV Asahi (tokyoreporter.com)

Fukuoka Prefectural Police have arrested a 36-year-old woman in Yukahashi City after she admitted to stabbing her husband, who himself told police his intestines were "coming out" in an emergency call. (tokyoreporter.com)

The Defense Ministry deployed Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, missile interceptors in the city of Hakodate, Hokkaido, on Tuesday after North Korea recently fired two missiles over the southern part of the northernmost prefecture. (the-japan-news.com)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 32-year-old man after a fire at a government-run apartment in Edogawa Ward on Monday resulted in injuries to himself and one other person, reports NHK (tokyoreporter.com)

Jurassic Park may be the first thing that comes to mind when you see Aogashima Island from the air - but yes, THIS IS TOKYO! (ONLY in JAPAN)

Toshiba Corp has decided to sell its chip unit to a Japan-U.S.-South Korean consortium for around 2.4 trillion yen ($21 billion) following months of talks involving other bidders, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

The U.S. government is sounding out Japan about a visit by President Donald Trump on Nov 5-7, including a plan to play golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on arrival day ahead of formal talks the next day, a diplomatic source said Monday. (Japan Today)

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on his way to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. (NHK)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a middle school counselor for allegedly having sex with a middle school student after promising a cash payment, reports TV Asahi (tokyoreporter.com)

Rumblings are building within Japan's government and ruling camp that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a snap election in the near future, The Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Japan's space agency has unveiled a new observation satellite designed to allow more accurate predictions of global climate change. (NHK)

Japan is working itself to death. The frequently recurring term karoshi (death from overwork) suggests as much. It's an indirect rather than a direct cause of death, which makes statistical precision difficult, but, as a rough standard, 80 hours a month of overtime work in the months leading up to a victim's death from a heart attack or stroke or suicide will back a claim for karoshi compensation. (Japan Today)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested two male Vietnamese nationals for allegedly stealing at least 200 million yen worth of items from empty homes in the Kanto region, reports TBS News (tokyoreporter.com)

A 3-year-old girl from Tokyo who ate deli food believed to be linked to a series of infection cases involving the highly toxic E. coli O-157 bacteria has died. (NHK)