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/ 7 February 2006
Japan learned on Tuesday that the wife of the emperor’s second son is pregnant, throwing a sudden question mark over controversial moves to end male-only succession in the world’s oldest monarchy. No boy has been born to the imperial family since 1965, spelling crisis for an imperial line that legend holds has been uninterrupted for more than 2 600 years.
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/ 9 November 2005
On television around the world and even toasted by the Japanese embassy in Washington, Yumi Yoshimura and Ami Onuki, the two 30-something women who form the duo "Puffy," are learning the unlikely role of Japanese pop ambassadors. Puffy have suddenly succeeded where few Japanese pop artists have before — finding a fan base overseas.
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/ 22 September 2005
Sony boss Howard Stringer, under pressure to reverse a slump at the electronics icon, announced 10 000 job cuts on Thursday but renewed his vision of the group as an electronics-to-entertainment colossus. Sony also issued its second profit warning this year, forecasting a net loss of 10-billion yen (-million).
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/ 21 September 2005
Japan’s Parliament went to work on Wednesday on breaking up the massive post office after the landslide election victory of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose popularity keeps on rising. Hours before the 42-day special session opened, Koizumi’s Cabinet resigned, a formality in the wake of the September 11 general election, in which reforming the Japanese economy was the key issue.
Japanese scientists are preparing to dig deep inside the Earth for the first time in human history to unlock the mysteries of life in an attempt to figure out how civilisation came to be and how to save it. The researchers will collect the first samples of the Earth’s mantle for clues on the primitive organisms that were the forerunners of life.
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/ 8 December 2004
The delicate, human side of Godzilla played by a real actor has drawn crowds for 50 years and shows that high-tech Hollywood doesn’t have all the answers, the creators of the Japanese monster’s latest instalment said on Wednesday. True to tradition, the film was shot almost entirely with a man dressed up as the fire-breathing giant reptile.
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/ 8 November 2004
A series of powerful tremors on Monday rattled a central Japanese region still reeling from last month’s earthquake, slightly injuring 13 people just as the last schools shut by the tragedy reopened. Nineteen tremors, with the strongest measuring 5,9 on the Richter scale and felt in Tokyo, struck in Niigata prefecture.
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/ 20 October 2004
At least 15 people were killed and 20 others were missing on Wednesday as Japan’s biggest typhoon for more than a decade pounded the south of the country with heavy rain and powerful winds, officials said. Typhoon Tokage, which also injured at least 31 people, became the record 10th typhoon to land on the Japanese islands in a year.