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The rise and fall of the Roppongi Hills 'tribe'

TOKYO — Some think that Roppongi Hills is cursed. A real estate agent owner jokingly comments, “Recently, people say that residents of Roppongi Hills are doomed. You…

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Students using stand-ins for online employment exams

TOKYO — College juniors have begun hunting for jobs after graduation, while various government ministry officials are visiting the Chamber of Commerce and Industry requesting action to…

March is worst month for suicides of salaried workers

March is known as the month of the year with the highest suicide rate. For 12 consecutive years, suicide has risen in Japan, with 32,753…

Corporate 'blacklist' circulating among new graduates

These are hard times for new graduates in search of jobs, commonly described as the "employment ice age." The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare…

Over-enthusiastic train buffs continue to be a problem

On Feb 14, three individuals got on the railway tracks between Katakami and Sango stations on JR West’s Yamato line, stopping the special train Asuka,…

False emergency calls continue to come in to police and fire departments

On any given day, thousands of phone calls are received at emergency dispatcher stations across the nation. While most are cases requiring emergency assistance, in…

Law may be changed to reduce number of long holiday weekends

Question: Of the 15 national holidays in a year, how many of them are so-called “Happy Mondays?" The national holidays law was revised in 2000…

Religious leader 'speaks' as late Matsushita founder

TOKYO — It would have been interesting to seek the opinion of Matsushita (now Panasonic) founder Konosuke Matsushita (who died in 1989), a charismatic business leader respected…

Teenager’s domestic violence leads to murder and abduction

It was on the evening of Feb 7 that the shouting was heard by neighbors in the residential town near the fishing port of Ishinomaki,…

Father of Akihabara killer quits work; mother hospitalized

TOKYO — “Allow me to take this opportunity to express my apologies. To those who have lost their lives and have been injured, I am terribly sorry.”…