TRAVEL

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said Friday it's jumping into the battery business for electric vehicles in a development deal with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. It's the first EV battery deal with a major automaker for Toshiba, which already makes batteries for laptops and cell phones, said company spokesman Ken Shinjo. Production will start sometime next year, in a new facility in Niigata, northern Japan, according to Toshiba. (Mainichi)

About 7,000 fish died Friday in a water tank at an aquarium in Niigata after workers mistakenly poured in an antiseptic substance with too great a density. Workers at the Niigata City Aquarium noticed the fish, including sardines, damselfish and rays, were dying around 10 a.m. in the aquarium's largest water tank, about 30 minutes after the substance was added. (Japan Times)

An assistant police inspector under arrest for molesting a 15-year-old girl used a police database to obtain her contact information, senior officials said. Tsuyoshi Nishimura, 45, an assistant inspector at Niigata Prefectural Police's Chuo Station, was arrested last Saturday for allegedly molesting a first-year high school girl at a hotel room in Niigata on May 15, knowing she was still under 18 years old. (Mainichi)

A severed torso and legs that appear to be from a young man have been found near a national road here, police said. At around 10:35 a.m. on Tuesday, police received a call from a 58-year-old man who said that he had found a person's legs in a ditch while passing by in his car. The ditch was located at the side of a U-turn zone near Route 7 in the Niigata Prefecture city of Murakami. (Mainichi)

Local residents and groups across the nation are stepping up efforts to have their areas certified as global geoparks, where rare landscapes useful for learning how the Earth was formed will be preserved and utilized as natural parks. Preparations are under way in eight areas, such as Muroto in Kochi Prefecture, to follow in the footsteps of Itoigawa river in Niigata Prefecture, which became the nation's first global geopark last year. Associations to promote areas as global geoparks have been established in 20 regions, including the Chichibu area in Saitama Prefecture. Geoparks are areas that are internationally certified as geological inheritance parks, where precious geographical landscape or geological layers remain. (Yomiuri)

A crested ibis on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, threw the remaining egg out of its nest Thursday afternoon, the Environment Ministry said, dashing hopes for the first birth of an ibis chick in the wild in Japan in 34 years. The ministry said there are no more eggs in the nest of the 4-year-old male and 1-year-old female ibis, which threw out an egg a week ago and another on Monday. (AP)

A Japanese crested ibis has flung one of its own eggs from its nest, the Environment Ministry said. The ibis is a 1-year-old female in the Niigata Prefecture city of Sado that mated with a 3-year-old male ibis. The two were released into the wild in 2009 and 2008, respectively, according to the ministry. (Mainichi)

A 1-year-old crested ibis in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, was confirmed to have laid eggs, becoming the first to do so in the wild in Japan in 31 years, the Environment Ministry said Wednesday. A ministry official spotted two eggs in the nest of a 3-year-old male and 1-year-old female Tuesday. Speculation that the female had laid eggs mounted after the birds, released last year, were seen taking turns staying in the nest since March 28. (Japan Times)

Two 'toki' crested ibis pairs are nesting on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, the Environment Ministry said. Breeding could result in the first toki crested ibis to be born in the wild in Japan since 1974. The birds were among about 30 crested ibises released in 2008 and 2009 from the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center. They were offspring of birds presented by China to revive the population in Japan. (Asahi)

The Environment Ministry announced Thursday that a marten killed nine of 11 Japanese crested ibis that were being prepared to return to the wild in a cage in Sado, Niigata Prefecture. The ministry said it found the small carnivore's tracks inside the birds' cage at the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center on Sado Island. The 11 ibises were being kept in the large pen in preparation for their release into the wild in autumn. (Yomiuri)

A 3.4-meter-long dead squid has been found washed ashore on the coast of Niigata, a local aquarium said Saturday. Judging by the shape of the fin, the creature appears to be a giant squid, one of the world's biggest invertebrate animals, according to the Niigata City Aquarium. The squid weighs about 109 kg and its trunk alone is about 1.7 meters long, the aquarium said. (Japan Times)

Heavy snowfall and strong winds hit parts of northern to central Japan on Saturday, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning of continued snow and winds as well as high waves on Sunday. Heavy snow was seen in regions facing the Sea of Japan, including areas in Niigata, Aomori and Yamagata prefectures where close to 300 centimeters of snow had accumulated by Saturday evening, the agency said. Winds of more than 100 kilometers per hour blew through parts of Niigata and Akita prefectures on Saturday morning. (AP)

A new breed of express trains is bringing speeds previously only seen on Shinkansen lines to the rest of Japan's railway network. Keisei Electric Railway Co.'s new Tokyo to Narita limited-express, which will debut in July, will reach speeds of 160 kph. The Hakutaka limited-express in Niigata Prefecture has already clocked a similar pace. Keisei's new Narita Sky Access Skyliner will run from Keisei Ueno Station in Tokyo to Narita Airport from July. Travelers starting at Nippori Station in Tokyo will reach Narita's Terminal 2 in a mere 36 minutes. The current Keisei Skyliner takes 51 minutes. (Asahi)

Arisawa Manufacturing Co., the maker of display film, expects the success of James Cameron's "Avatar" to spur adoption of 3-D and help end losses at the company next year, its chief executive said. "The 'Avatar' effect is giving the industry a push," Chief Executive Officer Sanji Arisawa, 67, said Monday in an interview in Tokyo. The company's 3-D business should generate sales of about ¥2.5 billion in the year starting April 1 and help Arisawa break even, he said. (Japan Times)

Free papers that feature young women from certain areas as models and show off the appeal of those regions have exploded in popularity recently. The first "Bishojo Zukan" (pictorial books of young beauties) was published in Niigata in 2002 by local residents who felt it was time for some pride in the local scene and who wanted to change the attitude that only trends from Tokyo were worth watching. (Yomiuri)

The bulgyhead wrasse that lives in waters off Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, may not have classic movie star looks, but the bulbous-headed fish is set to make its big-screen debut on Jan. 22 when the documentary "Oceans" premieres in Japan and around the world, featuring a section about the fish. The bulgyhead wrasse species, or kobudai in Japanese, is affectionately known to local divers as the benkei fish because its head resembles a lump said to have been on the forehead of the legendary warrior monk Musashibo Benkei of the Heian period (794-1192). (Yomiuri)

Heavy snow continued to hit northern, eastern and western Japan on Saturday, causing traffic chaos in various parts of the country. Two men were injured in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, after three heavy trucks collided with another truck that skidded on the Joshinetsu Expressway's outbound lane at around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. (Mainichi)

Kashima Antlers moved to within 90 minutes of a ‘three-peat’ in Japan with a 5-1 thrashing of Gamba Osaka on Saturday. Kawasaki Frontale made sure that the destination of the title won’t be decided until the final day of the season with a 1-0 win over Albirex Niigata. (Goal.com)

Japan handed to China on Saturday 10 Japanese crested ibises that were born in central Japan to three ibises that were provided earlier by China, Japanese officials said. The Japanese Environment Ministry transported the 10 birds -- five males and five females born at the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center in Niigata Prefecture from last year -- from Sado Island to Niigata airport where a handover ceremony was held. (Kyodo)

Kodo, Japan's most famous taiko (drumming) troupe, will cap the year with a series of special concerts, showcasing the members' progress after an extensive worldwide tour. The 28-year-old, award-winning troupe will kick off its annual December Concerts on Kodo's home of Sado Island, then travel to Niigata, Okayama, Hiroshima, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo before concluding the 13-show run in Yokohama on Dec. 22. (Japan Times)

Smoke briefly emerged from a quake-stalled nuclear power reactor in Niigata Prefecture on Thursday morning, but no one was injured and there was no radiation leak, local government officials said. The incident took place in a turbine room at the No. 3 reactor of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant around 10 a.m., according to the officials of the Niigata prefectural government. (AP)

Some cities in the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan such as Morioka, Yamagata and Niigata observed the region's first snowfall of this season Tuesday as a cold air mass moved above the Japanese archipelago, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Many cities across the country also recorded their lowest temperatures of this season on Tuesday morning, with Asahikawa of Hokkaido logging minus 6.1 C and Sendai of Miyagi Prefecture at 3.4 C. (AP)

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) is set to operate a bullet train at a maximum speed of 330 kilometers per hour on a trial basis in November, company officials said. The previous speed record for a trial operation on the line, using vehicles for passenger services, was 325.7 kilometers per hour by a Series 300 in 1991. East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) posted a higher record; its Series E2 train hit 362 kilometers per hour between Urasa and Niigata on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line. (Mainichi)

Hanamaki Higashi High School left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, who is drawing the spotlight as he decides on whether he will attempt to join the major leagues or begin his career in Japanese pro baseball, pitched in front of scouts from both sides of the Pacific on Monday. Facing Chukyodai Chukyo, this year's national high school champion, the 18-year-old Kikuchi struck out three in a row in a scoreless ninth inning and clocked a 153 kilometer-per-hour fastball in the quarterfinal game in the National Sports Festival in Niigata. (AP)

A second batch of Japanese crested ibises will be released on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, on Tuesday, and observers are hoping the birds have more success in breeding than the original group. Of the 10 crested ibises released in September last year, only the whereabouts of seven is still known. There seems little likelihood any of the seven will pair, however, because all four of the males have remained on Sado while all three females have flown to Honshu. (Yomiuri)