Japan

TOKYO, Nov 7 (NNN-NHK) – Excessive levels of radioactive cesium were detected in locally grown mushroom, in Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture, government report showed today.

The sample of Cortinarius caperatus, a type of edible mushroom, in the prefecture’s Narusawa village, reported a cesium level of 150 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg), said the report, published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, on its official website.

The allowed cesium level on general food products stands at 100 Bq/kg in the country.

IWAKI, Japan (AP) — Local fishing communities feared the worst when the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant began discharging treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

Instead of a business calamity, however, consumers from across the nation have supported the region by eating more fish. Besides boosting a fragile industry, the demand has helped mitigate the impact of China’s ban on Japanese seafood, though there are worries about the future of the water release.

TOKYO, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Thursday started the third round of release of nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Despite concerns and opposition among local fishermen in Fukushima Prefecture as well as other countries, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant's operator, started discharging the radioactive wastewater at around 10:20 a.m. local time.

TOKYO, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A suspected gunman took at least two people hostage in a post office in Japan after wounding two other people in a shooting at a hospital, authorities and media said on Tuesday.

The government of the city of Warabi, just north of Tokyo, said in a statement an undetermined number of hostages were taken by a man "in possession of something like a handgun".

TOKYO, Oct 29 (NNN-NHK) – Japan has logged the 1,000th case of organ donations from brain-dead people, 26 years after the country’s organ transplant law came into force in 1997, according to the Japan Organ Transplant Network.

The 1,000th donor was a man in his 60s, who had been declared brain-dead at a hospital in western Japan, based on the law, the network said. His organs were harvested yesterday, and his heart, lungs, liver and kidneys were to be transplanted to recipients.

TOKYO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers called on Sunday for the "immediate repeal" of import curbs on Japanese food products, a reference to China's restrictions after Japan began releasing wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The G7 trade ministers, in a statement after a weekend meeting on Osaka, did not mention China but they also denounced what they consider its rising economic coercion through trade.

TOKYO, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Three foreign nationals have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling around 113 kilograms of stimulant drugs with a street value of about 7 billion yen (47 million U.S. dollars) from Mexico, police in central Japan said Thursday.

Police in Toyama prefecture believe the three suspects, a Ukrainian and two Russian men, smuggled the drugs through Narita airport near Tokyo in August by hiding them in air cargo, with the substances divided into clear plastic bags and carried in a large metal container.

ONJUKU, Japan (AP) — Scientists from the U.N. nuclear agency watched Friday as Japanese lab workers prepared samples of fish collected at a seafood market near the Fukushima nuclear plant to test the safety of treated radioactive wastewater released from the damaged plant into the sea.

The discharge of wastewater began on Aug. 24 and is expected to continue for decades. It has been strongly opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries, including China and Russia, which have banned all imports of Japanese seafood.

TOKYO, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan's largest labor union said on Thursday that it will seek a pay hike of at least 5 percent in annual wage negotiations next spring, strengthening its stance from this year to cope with persistent inflation.

In its basic policy for 2024 wage negotiations, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, also known as Rengo, decided to demand a pay hike of 5 percent or more, including a base-pay rise of 3 percent or more.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s government said Thursday it would ask a court to revoke the legal status of the Unification Church after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination raised questions about the group’s fundraising and recruitment tactics.

Education Minister Masahito Moriyama said the ministry proposed seeking the revocation after interviewing more than 170 people allegedly harmed by the fundraising tactics and other problems. The church failed to respond to dozens of questions during the seven inquiries, he said.