Japan

05 Jan 2019; DW: The quarter-ton bluefin tuna sold for more than double the previous record. The buyer was a Japanese sushi entrepreneur who calls himself the "Tuna King."

A 278-kilogram (610-pound) bluefin tuna sold for a record 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million, €2.7 million) in the first auction of Japan's new Toyosu market.

The fish, valued at 1.2 million yen per kilogram, was caught off the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. The buyer was Kiyoshi Kimura, president of the Sushi Zanmai restaurant chain.

TOKYO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- In the early hours of the new year, a man crashed his car into pedestrians in Shibuya Ward in Tokyo, injuring nine people in what he claimed to be a terrorist attack, local media reported Tuesday.

The attacker, 21-year-old Kazuhiro Kusakabe, was arrested by the police on suspicion of attempted murder.

The incident occurred on Takeshita Street in the Harajuku district, a famous and crowded shopping street on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, where vehicles were banned from entering on Monday night.

26 Dec 2018; DW: Japan will resume commercial whaling in July 2019. Tokyo has long deflected criticism for its commercial whaling activities, arguing that eating whale meat is a part of its culture.

Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a government spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. The move sets the stage for Japan to resume commercial whaling activities next year.

BEIJING (AP) — Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank.

The Nikkei 225 fell by an unusually wide margin of 4.8 percent to 19,189.00. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.3 percent to 2,469.28. Benchmarks in Thailand and Taiwan also declined.

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Emperor Akihito, marking his 85th birthday — his last before his upcoming abdication — said he feels relieved that his reign is coming to an end without having seen his country at war and that it is important to keep telling younger people about his nation’s wartime history.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is considering leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts, the Fisheries Agency said Thursday, after unsuccessfully campaigning for decades within the organization to gain support for the cause.

The agency said officials haven’t made a final decision but are considering the step.

Japan’s request for a resumption of commercial whaling was most recently denied at the IWC meeting in September. IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s due to dwindling stocks.

18 Dec 2018; AFP: Japan will get its first aircraft carriers since World War II and buy dozens of fighter jets under a new defence plan approved Tuesday that is intended to counter China's growing military power.

The new five-year defence plan calls for the upgrade of two existing helicopter carriers so that they can launch fighters, and is the latest in a series of steps under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost Japan's military.

TOKYO (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that five missing crew members have been declared dead after their refueling plane collided with a fighter jet last week off Japan’s southern coast, and that search and recovery operations have ended after finding only one survivor.

The five were on a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft that collided last Thursday with an F/A-18 Hornet during regular training. The warplanes crashed into the sea south of Japan’s Shikoku island.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan is set to approve legislation that would officially open the door to foreign workers to do unskilled jobs and possibly eventually become citizens.

Lawmakers were due to vote late Friday on a government proposal to allow hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers to live and work in a country that has long resisted accepting outsiders.

It’s seen as an unavoidable step as the country’s population rapidly ages and shrinks.

TOKYO (AP) — A Marine refueling plane and a fighter jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s southwestern coast after a midair collision early Thursday, and rescuers found one of the seven crew members in stable condition while searching for the others, officials said.

The U.S. Marine Corps said that the 2 a.m. crash involved an F/A-18 fighter jet and a KC-130 refueling aircraft during regular training after the planes took off from their base in Iwakuni, near Hiroshima in western Japan.

The crash took place 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the coast.