News On Japan

Mitsui Fudosan to acquire Tokyo Dome

Jan 20, 2021 (NHK) - One of Japan's top sporting venues is about to get a new owner. The Tokyo Dome, home ground of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, will be part of real estate company Mitsui Fudosan's portfolio.

Mitsui says it made a successful bid for more than 84 percent of the shares in Tokyo Dome Corporation. That clears the two-thirds threshold to make the stadium operator its subsidiary.

Tokyo Dome also runs an amusement park, hotel and spa facility adjacent to the stadium. The complex attracts about 40 million visitors a year.

But the business has slumped as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Baseball teams have been playing to reduced crowds or empty stands.

Many events have been canceled. And the hotel has been running at low occupancy.

Mitsui plans to use its know-how in developing and operating commercial facilities to redevelop the Dome and turn the business around.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has drawn criticism over a social media post describing five hours of sleep as a rare luxury, as the extended Diet session prepares to begin Upper House debate on a controversial bill to establish secondary capitals outside Tokyo.

Japan began applying a new numerical alcohol threshold for dangerous driving offenses on July 21, introducing a clearer standard for cases involving impaired driving that could lead to fatal accidents.

Breathtaking 4K footage filmed from a helicopter offers a sweeping aerial view of Mount Fuji and its majestic surrounding landscape.

A covert network of shuttle tankers is carrying crude through the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran disrupts shipping and raises concerns over how Japan will secure the oil it needs.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has criticized moves by Japanese and Ukrainian companies to cooperate on drone technology, warning that such ties would be regarded by Moscow as a "clear hostile act."

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

A 27-year-old police officer arrested after crashing into a utility pole in Hiroshima was found to have been driving under the influence, with a blood test detecting nearly three times the legal alcohol limit.

A police officer fired a warning shot into the air after a 42-year-old woman approached officers while pointing a kitchen knife at them on a street in Eniwa, Hokkaido, on July 17.

A 45-year-old man was arrested early July 20 after allegedly crashing a passenger car into a convenience store in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and walking around the parking lot carrying a kitchen knife and a golf club.

A 42-year-old man was arrested after allegedly driving under the influence and intentionally ramming a motorcycle in Togitsu, Nagasaki Prefecture, leaving its rider seriously injured.

More than a dozen people were injured after a massive rope suddenly snapped during a tug-of-war at a festival in Kitami, Hokkaido, sending participants falling backward onto an asphalt road.

A public housing complex in Aichi Prefecture where about 70% of households are occupied by foreign residents is showing signs of improvement after introducing multilingual communication, foreign-led neighborhood activities and a 3,000-yen fine for residents who skip community cleaning duties.

A fire that broke out at the long-established Echigo Tsurukame sake brewery in a densely populated residential district of Niigata City on July 19 destroyed the brewery and spread to at least six nearby homes, with firefighters still unable to declare the blaze fully extinguished by noon on July 20.

Two people found dead in a collapsed home following a landslide in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, have been identified as a married couple in their 60s who lived at the property, city officials said.