News On Japan

Ohtani hits two 3-run homers

Jun 22 (NHK) - In Major League Baseball, Japanese star Ohtani Shohei hit a pair of 3-run-homers in Tuesday's game. But even "Sho-time" couldn't help the Los Angeles Angels secure victory in extra innings.

Ohtani was at-bat as the designated hitter as the Angels faced the Kansas City Royals. A homerun in the sixth inning marked his 14th overall for the season.

Ohtani did it again in the 9th, tying the game 10 to 10. And a sacrifice fly in the 11th inning set his career record of eight runs in a single game.

But the Royals managed to eke out the win, 12 to 11.

Meanwhile, Ohtani is now in second place as designated hitter in the All Star vote for the American League.

Right now, the Houston Astros' Yordan Alvarez tops that list. The first phase of voting lasts through the end of this month.

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Bear sightings across Japan have already climbed to nearly twice the level recorded during the same period last year, prompting entry bans in mountain areas behind Kyoto’s Ninna-ji Temple and the cancellation of hiking events in Kansai, while new research suggests that the key to reducing encounters may lie in understanding what bears eat in each region.

Copper roofing panels were stolen from several shrines in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, including a city-designated cultural property, in the latest case amid a nationwide surge in copper thefts targeting shrines and temples across Japan, where soaring metal prices have fueled crimes that leave historic religious buildings damaged, exposed to the elements, and facing repair costs of millions of yen.

Flames broke out on the morning of May 20th on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, home to one of Japan's World Heritage sites, destroying Reikado Hall near the summit of Mount Misen.

Uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect daily life in Japan, as concerns over crude oil supplies spread to restaurants, cleaning services and even household garbage disposal systems across the Kansai region.

A 25-year-old woman arrested as a suspected ringleader in a robbery-murder case in Tochigi Prefecture once posted cheerful dance videos on social media and was remembered by those who knew her as an energetic and outgoing young woman.

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