TRAVEL

Photos showing Russian President Vladimir Putin playing with a puppy he received recently from Japan were posted on his official website Wednesday. (Yomiuri)

Despite a lack of experience in foreign policy, or any other kind of politics, Caroline Kennedy looks set to receive a warm reception in Japan if her appointment as the next US ambassador to the country is confirmed. (csmonitor.com)

A female Japanese tourist died Friday night in a roller coaster derailment at an amusement park in Cambodia, a local government official said Saturday. (Japan Times)

Hayabusa bullet trains began running Saturday at a new top speed of 320 kph on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line, equalling France's TGV as the world's fastest train in operation. (Japan Times)

Transport safety investigators on Sunday began examining a train that derailed during a blizzard on the Akita Shinkansen line in Daisen, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday, leaving 130 passengers and crew stranded for six hours. (Yomiuri)

If he lived today, Hachiko's chances of surviving long on the streets of Shibuya would be very slim, especially if he was picked up by the Tokyo government's animal control division. (Japan Times)

A 17-year-old boy turned himself in to Hiroshima police on Wednesday morning, saying that he murdered his grandparents. (Japan Today)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his defense minister on Tuesday to strengthen surveillance around islands at the heart of a territorial feud with China, Kyodo news agency reported. (Reuters)

The Japanese Foreign Ministry summoned China's ambassador on Tuesday after Chinese ships entered Japanese-controlled waters for 13 hours, a prolonged incursion that seemed to escalate a standoff over a group of disputed islands. (New York Times)

Police said Tuesday that 27 dachshund dogs have been found abandoned in streets and parks around Kitakyushu since early October. (Japan Today)

Aichi Prefecture and the city of Akita expressed their intention Monday to demand that education minister Makiko Tanaka retract her decision not to approve construction of new universities within their jurisdictions. (Japan Times)

Education Minister Makiko Tanaka rejected three applications seeking to create new universities Friday, breaking a 30-year stretch of 100 percent approval rates. (Yomiuri)

A Japanese team of researchers has found new deposits of a prospective new energy source called methane hydrate in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. The team says it's very likely deposits can be found in wide areas around Japan. (NHKReloaded)

A pet dog has saved the life of her teenage owner by jumping on her back when she started choking on her dinner. Sheba the Japanese Akita bounded into the room to help 18-year-old Aysha Perry when she began choking on a 1.5in piece of chicken which was stuck in her throat. (Daily Mail)

The geopolitics of the Asia-Pacific region is getting set for a significant makeover, with Russia and Japan embarking on a fresh dialogue at the diplomatic and political level. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is scheduled to visit Russia in December and preparatory working-level consultations were held in Tokyo this past weekend between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki. (Asia Times)

Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki and his Russian counterpart Igor Morgulov on Friday agreed both countries would hold meaningful discussions over a number of issues, including the prolonged territorial standoff. (Xinhua)

A Japanese drilling company says it has succeeded in extracting shale oil from underground in Japan for the first time. Shale oil is attracting attention as a new energy resource. (NHKReloaded)

The Environment Ministry has decided to exclude a freshwater salmon species known as "kunimasu" from the red list of extinct species and designate it as a species extinct in the wild, or a species that continues living in places other than its indigenous habitat, sources close to the issue said Saturday. (Mainichi)

An assistant inspector of the Akita prefectural police drove his car under the influence of alcohol and ran into a utility pole early Saturday, injuring himself, the police said. (Yomiuri)

A cat given by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Akita Gov. Norihisa Satake in return for the Akita dog Satake gave to Putin has been kept at Narita Airport since arriving in Japan as it has yet to meet quarantine requirements. (Yomiuri)

Japanese parents who want to give their kids a head start in life might consider educating their children in the far northern prefecture of Akita. (Asahi)

Police said Thursday that the body of a man was found in the trunk of a car abandoned on a forest path in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture. (Japan Today)

Takuya Niiyama, a sophomore at Akita International University, dreams of becoming an international tourism operator promoting the northern Japanese prefecture of Akita, leveraging his hard-earned language skills and a network of international students he befriended on campus. (New York Times)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has a new furry four-legged friend. A 3-month old Akita Inu puppy named Yume, a gift from the Japanese prefecture of Akita, arrived in Moscow aboard an Aeroflot flight from Tokyo. (abcnews.go.com)

Radioactive strontium, thought to have been released following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster last year, has been detected in 10 prefectures across Japan, the government said Wednesday. (Japan Today)