The Pigeon Express
State funeral for Japan’s slain former prime minister Shinzo Abe has gained opposition. Polls suggest Japanese people are not thrilled about it, not least because it’s estimated to cost $11.4 million. Over the last few weeks opposition to the state funeral has been growing. Polls suggest more than half of the country’s population is now […]
Five children aged between 11 and 13 have been identified as suspects in the search for who vandalised 20 cherry trees in a park, police have said. The trees, which gifted by Japan to celebrate 150 years of friendship with Wales, were damaged on Monday. They had been planted in Heath Park, Cardiff, as part […]
Local authorities hunting for a gang of monkeys who attacked and wounded nearly 50 people in western Japan have caught and killed one of the marauding primates, an official said Wednesday. The male simian was seized while roaming the grounds of a high school in Yamaguchi city. But it may not be the end of […]
Japan’s Sakurajima volcano, located on the island of Kyushu, erupted on Sunday, prompting evacuations in the region. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the volcano erupted around 8:05pm local time. Footage from the agency’s surveillance camera showed a cloud of smoke or ash rising from the volcano. JMA announced a Level 5 alert calling for […]
A Ground Self-Defense Force bomb disposal unit defused and removed a 1-ton live explosive from the wartime era that forced West Japan Railway Co. to suspend operations on two lines in Osaka Prefecture for three hours on July 24. The company announced that services resumed around 3:00pm after the GSDF declared the site safe at […]
Police in Japan are searching for a wild monkey that has attacked 10 people in the space of a fortnight. The attacks began on 8 July in the Ogori district of Yamaguchi prefecture in the country’s south-west. In the most serious incident, it badly scratched an infant after invading a family home. “I was vacuuming […]
More than 30 green sea turtles on the edge of death have been found around the island of Kumejima in Okinawa. Some of the turtles are reportedly already dead. The marine animals had wounds near the base of their necks where they had been stabbed with what appeared to be a blade. The Okinawa Prefectural […]
Japan’s ruling coalition swept to victory on Sunday in an upper house election that took on heightened significance following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, 67, was shot on Friday in the city of Nara while delivering a speech in support of candidates from his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a killing […]
Penguins at an aquarium in Japan are giving an icy reception to the cheaper fish that’s shown up on the menu in the face of rising costs. Hakone-en Aquarium in the country’s Kanagawa prefecture has typically fed its penguins and otters Japanese horse mackerel, but has started switching some of it out for a cheaper […]
Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died in hospital after he was shot at a political campaign event. Abe was shot at twice while he was giving a speech on a street in the city of Nara on Friday morning. Security officials at the scene tackled the gunman and a 41-year-old suspect is now […]
Japan is sweltering under the hottest day yet of its worst heatwave for almost 150 years. The blistering heat has drawn official warnings of a looming power shortage, and led to calls for people to conserve energy where possible. But the government is still advising people to use air conditioning to avoid heatstroke as cases […]
North Korea has accused the United States, Japan and South Korea for making moves to create an “Asian version of NATO.” The charge was made by state news agency KCNA on Wednesday, hours before Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, and Yoon Suk-yeol, the South Korean president, were due to meet US President Joe Biden as […]