News On Japan

ANA blunder causes $13,000 Asia-US business class tickets to be sold for just $460

Apr 19, 2023 (straitstimes.com) - Eagle-eyed travellers have snapped up US$10,000 (S$13,300) business-class tickets on Japan’s ANA airline for just a few hundred dollars after a currency conversion blunder.

ANA has said it will honour the tickets for those people who saw the mistake and jumped on its website quickly to book and pay (the glitch was circulating widely on some social media platforms) but those who only reserved the tickets will have to pay a “just price”, according to an airline spokesman on Wednesday.

Most of the tickets were from travel starting in Jakarta, through to Japan and then onto New York and back again into various South-east Asia destinations, including Singapore and Bali – business class all the way.

The Japanese carrier said the mistake stemmed from an error on its Vietnam website, which listed an erroneous currency conversion. It did not state how many people had secured discount tickets, and added that it was “currently investigating the cause of the bug and the size of its damage”. ...continue reading

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A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said at around 2 p.m. on June 29 that the rainy season appeared to have ended in Okinawa, marking a later-than-usual start to summer after an especially wet period.

Japan’s weather agency carried out field inspections in Yamanashi Prefecture on June 28 after a powerful earthquake struck the Fuji Five Lakes area late on June 26, registering a lower 6 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale in Fujikawaguchiko and injuring six people.

According to updates on June 28, the double-typhoon system that brought record rain, flooding, landslides and fallen trees to parts of Japan has moved away, but Kanto remains under cloudy rainy-season skies, with intermittent rain still possible and saturated ground keeping the risk of landslides high in areas hit by heavy rain.

The Kanto region is experiencing an unusual June, with three typhoons approaching the area during the month and rainfall totals already reaching record levels in some locations.

Damage was reported across the Kansai region after a stationary seasonal rain front and an approaching typhoon brought torrential rain on June 26, triggering landslides in Seika, Kyoto Prefecture, flooding homes in Nara, and disrupting roads and railway services in Osaka and surrounding areas.

A powerful earthquake with a maximum seismic intensity of upper 6 struck off Iwate Prefecture at around 7:30 a.m. on June 25, shaking parts of Aomori Prefecture and leaving Hachinohe, which was hit by a similarly strong quake last December, facing fresh damage.

Rice field art depicting Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog Decoy is nearing its best viewing period in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, Ohtani’s hometown.