TRAVEL

A crested ibis chick has hatched in the wild for the second straight year in Japan, the Environment Ministry said Sunday. (Jiji Press)

As pundits continue to discuss the impact of Japan's possible entry into the tariff-eliminating Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Shukan Taishu (Mar. 25) takes a look at the domestic porn industry. (Tokyo Reporter)

A 70-year-old Japanese man was so enraged at being rejected by a TV talent show that he allegedly threatened to blow up the program's broadcaster, police said Friday. (news.com.au)

Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced the arrest of Tsuyoshi Katsumata, a 39-year-old member of the Sumiyoshi-kai organized crime group, illicit drug sales on the Internet (Tokyo Reporter)

For Abe, joining the TPP negotiations is an integral part of his growth strategy, which is 'the third prong' of his economic policy. The first Abe administration of 2006-07 also emphasized the importance of making progress on Economic Partnership Agreements with other countries in East Asia in order to bolster economic growth in Japan by drawing in overseas demand for goods and services. (East Asia Forum)

Niigata and Fukushima prefectural police on Thursday arrested three suspects on fraud charges for allegedly using subsidized housing provided to evacuees for a sex business following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Feb. 15). (Tokyo Reporter)

Kunio Sekiya had to wait 15 years before his discovery of a new species of frog won international recognition. (Yomiuri)

Police said Wednesday that a body was found in a food warehouse freezer in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture. (Japan Today)

Former education minister Makiko Tanaka of the Democratic Party of Japan lost her seat in Niigata Prefecture in Sunday's general election. (Japan Times)

Shintaro Ishihara, leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), said he believes Megumi Yokota and other Japanese abducted by North Korea are dead and called for revising the pacifist Constitution to allow Japan to threaten to wage war against such countries. (Japan Times)

Travel agencies and transport companies scrambled to deal with cancellations and rerouting Monday after the deadly Sasago Tunnel accident closed off the Chuo Expressway in Yamanashi Prefecture - a major east-west artery. (Japan Times)

A wooden boat containing a male corpse was found Saturday in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, the coast guard reported. (Japan Times)

Five bodies have been found in a badly damaged boat with Korean language markings off Japan's west coast. The 10m vessel washed ashore on Sado Island, Niigata City in waters between Japan and the Korean peninsula. (BBC)

Rakuten Inc. will start selling its Kobo electronic book readers in bookstores in eastern and central Japan on Friday, an executive of the major online shopping mall operator said. (Japan Times)

Police in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, said Tuesday that five men turned themselves in, claiming to have dumped a co-worker's body in a storehouse. (Japan Today)

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)

Radiation doses beyond 30 km from four nuclear plants, including those in Niigata and Fukui prefectures, could reach 100 millisieverts in the first seven days amid a severe meltdown crisis like the one that started in March 2011 at the Fukushima No. 1 complex, according to estimates by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. (Japan Times)

Eleven students and teachers were stung by hornets in Shibata, Niigata Prefecture, on Saturday morning. (Japan Today)

A man and a woman were injured by a bear in two separate incidents on the outskirts of Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, on Saturday. (Japan Today)

THREE men accused of stewing the remains of their victim in a curry have been arrested by police in Japan. The trio used a hammer to dismember Kazuyuki Kobayashi, before grilling parts of his body and getting rid of it in mountains in rural Japan, a police spokesman told AFP on Thursday. (The Australian)

Mike Havenaar spared Japan's blushes with a 69th-minute winner to give the Asian champions a 1-0 victory over the United Arab Emirates in a World Cup qualifying warm-up on Thursday. (Japan Today)

In a notable role reversal, China is emerging as a major investor in Japan-a diminished status for the island-nation that is inflaming old animosities between two wary neighbors. (Wall Street Journal)

Five people were killed when a minivan crashed into a truck in Ojiyashi, Niigata Prefecture, on Friday. (Japan Today)

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5 struck Nagano Prefecture at 12:48 p.m. Tuesday, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. No tsunami alert was issued, the agency said. (Japan Today)

Production in Japan in fiscal 2011 dropped by an estimated 1.25 trillion yen, equivalent to 0.24 percent of its gross domestic product, due to the March 11, 2011, disaster, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry said in a white paper Friday. (Yomiuri)