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At least one person has been found dead and 84 houses have been destroyed as another wildfire broke out Wednesday in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, with the fire department and the Self-Defense Forces continuing their efforts to contain the fire, authorities said Thursday. As some areas cannot yet be surveyed, the damage is expected to be more widespread. “Since the fire broke out yesterday, the fire department, the fire brigade and other volunteers worked tirelessly through the night to extinguish the fire. I would like to once again express my gratitude to those workers,” Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami said at a news conference Thursday morning. Source link

The Lower House budget committee’s questioning of Junichiro Matsumoto — the former accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by Shinzo Abe — on Thursday revealed little about the kickback scheme at the center of the slush funds scandal that dominated political debates last year. Budget committee chairman Jun Azumi told reporters that while Matsumoto did not reveal the name of the faction boss who instructed him to resume the kickback scheme in July 2022 following an initial halt ordered by Abe three months earlier, he admitted that the person is not a sitting lawmaker now. Azumi added that Matsumoto — who was given a suspended three-year prison term last September — said he had little choice but to follow the politician’s orders. Source link

Efforts to keep Seven & I Holdings in the founding family faltered after Japanese trading house Itochu failed to secure $58 billion for the deal in a joint management buyout bid that would have allowed the retail giant to go private, the companies said Thursday. The news would place Alimentation Couche-Tard’s offer back in the limelight. Shares of Seven & I Holdings dropped more than 12% on Thursday, closing at ¥2,118, down 10.95% from the day before. “There is no actionable proposal from Mr. Junro Ito and Ito-Kogyo for 7&i to consider at this time,” Seven & I said in a statement. Source link

A female pro-wrestler and her agency have reached a settlement with an individual who posted photos on social media focusing on her private parts during one of her matches, in a sexual harassment case that saw the individual agree to pay ¥1 million ($6,700), a lawyer of the plaintiffs said Thursday. The settlement was reached before the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 17 between the wrestler, whose name has been withheld for privacy reasons; World Woman Pro-wrestling Diana, the agency that manages her wrestling matches; and the individual. The identity of the defendant has been withheld in accordance with the settlement agreement. The plaintiffs sued the defendant in January 2024 for posting photos taken in a way that sexualized and emphasized parts of her body in April 2023, causing the woman to be “anxious to the point that she cannot concentrate during her matches.” The plaintiffs had sought ¥8.4 million in compensation. Source link

Amid a rift between the United States and Europe over Ukraine, Poland’s top diplomat has a message for Japan and other U.S. allies: spend more on defense. In view of the growing security challenges in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Thursday urged U.S. partners and allied nations, including Japan, to follow Warsaw’s example and increase military expenditure and preparedness. “My message (for Japan) is actually the same as that of U.S. President (Donald) Trump,” Sikorski told a press briefing in Tokyo, noting that the American leader was right in his first term when he urged allies to spend more on defense. Source link

In what is believed to be the first time in years that the Defense Ministry will collaborate with an overseas ship designer, shipbuilder Japan Marine United (JMU) and British-based maritime design and consultancy firm BMT have secured a multimillion-dollar contract to design and build next-generation, high-speed landing craft for the Self-Defense Forces. Awarded by the ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency, the contract announced Thursday by BMT is for three highly maneuverable landing craft, with a deal for a fourth one expected to be signed in fiscal 2025. The vessels will help improve the Ground Self-Defense Force’s ability to transport and mobilize troops, equipment and supplies to Japan’s island territories in a number of scenarios, including in the event of a conflict in the East China Sea or over Taiwan. Source link

A major Japanese labor union representing workers at manufacturing companies said its members are seeking a record wage increase in annual negotiations with employers, in an early sign of continued momentum for pay growth in the country. Some 1,416 labor unions under the umbrella of the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Union (JCM) requested a monthly base salary increase of ¥14,149 ($94.84) on average in talks expected to culminate with a deal next month, according to a tally released on Thursday. The demand marks a record high since 2014 when the union began tracking requests, and represents a 14% increase from the corresponding figure of ¥12,392 last year. “We want to see our unions achieve gains and the trend spread across the entire metal industry and economy,” said JCM Chair Akihiro Kaneko. “This year’s pay talks are very important to help a virtuous cycle take root in Japan.” Source link

Gene Hackman, the intense character actor who won two Oscars in a more than 60-year career, has died alongside his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at home, the sheriff’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico, said on Thursday. A statement from the sheriff said deputies had found the 95-year-old actor and Arakawa, 64, deceased on Wednesday afternoon at around 1:45 p.m. “Foul play is not suspected as a factor in those deaths at this time, however exact cause of death has not been determined. This is an active and ongoing investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office,” it said. Source link

Japan Post Holdings plans to sell a stake in Japan Post Bank that could raise ¥630 billion ($4.2 billion), the latest disposal in the former state-run giant’s decade-long privatization efforts. The company will sell as many as 416.1 million shares at a discount of 2% to 4% of the stock’s market price, according to a term sheet of the deal. Japan Post Bank plans to buy back as much as ¥60 billion of shares and cancel them. The sale could bring the holding company’s stake in the banking unit to below the 50% threshold it had pledged to do by the end of fiscal year ending March. That would give more autonomy to the bank, which is currently largely banned from lending business and manages most of its assets in securities such as foreign and domestic bonds. Source link

Otsu, Shiga Pref. – Police on Thursday arrested a 74-year-old man, already imprisoned for murder, on suspicion of another murder involving the dismemberment of a body found in Shiga Prefecture in 2008. Tomoyoshi Yuzuriha was a colleague of the victim at the same construction company, according to the prefectural police, which did not say whether he admitted the allegations. In May to June in 2008, the severed head, legs and other body parts of a man were found one after another on the shores of Lake Biwa. The victim, who was later identified as Hideyuki Kawamoto, a 39-year-old resident of the city of Yasu, died of suffocation. Yuzuriha has been convicted of killing a 69-year-old male acquaintance at his home in the city of Moriyama in 2018. Source link