Six-year-old Shino Katagiri does not start primary school until April, but her mother is already putting her into classes — on how to defend herself against violent attackers. As an adult self-defence instructor plays the bad guy, the terrified little girl huddles into a chair and refuses to take part in the lesson her mother has brought her to.
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/ 23 January 2006
Police on Monday raided Yamaha Motor on suspicion that the Japanese company tried to export illegally to China agricultural-use helicopters that can be converted for military purposes. While the major motorcycle maker denied any wrongdoing, police and customs mobilised 280 investigators to search 20 locations.
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/ 26 December 2005
Rescuers on Monday pulled the body of a fourth passenger from the twisted and snow-blown wreckage of a train that crashed in northern Japan after derailing during a blizzard. Five carriages of the six-carriage train left the tracks in strong winds late on Sunday north of Tokyo.
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/ 10 December 2005
United States software giant Microsoft went on the offensive on the home turf of its Japanese rivals on Saturday, launching its sleek new Xbox 360 console ahead of the holiday season. About 200 game fans queued up for the main launch event that began at 7am local time at a music store in central Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district.
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/ 4 November 2005
A self-confessed Japanese cartoon geek said on Friday he will become the world’s fourth space tourist late next year — and he wants to gaze down at the Earth dressed as an ace pilot from a hit animation series. The -million trip will take into space Daisuke Enomoto, a 34-year-old former board director of the Livedoor internet firm.
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/ 12 September 2005
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi went back to work on Monday with a powerful mandate to transform the nation’s economic and political landscape after racking up a historic election victory. Fresh from the triumph which even many of his supporters had doubted was possible, a confident-looking Koizumi, clad in an open-neck striped shirt, waved to reporters as he entered his official residence.
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/ 8 September 2005
Powerful Typhoon Nabi left Japan on Thursday after criss-crossing north to south in a path of destruction that left 32 dead or missing in Japan and South Korea and flooded thousands of homes. The worst-hit area remained Miyazaki province on the southern island of Kyushu, where rice fields were deluged by a powerful downpour.
Rescuers searched on Monday for survivors of a powerful earthquake in southern Japan that killed one woman, injured hundreds and caused several thousand people to flee their homes. More than 100 aftershocks were felt after Sunday’s earthquake, which measured seven on the Richter scale.
Shoko Asahara, whose charisma once drew thousands to his doomsday cult, has turned into a ”doll” in his decade of detention since the Tokyo subway attack, wearing diapers and mumbling incomprehensibly, his daughters say after a series of prison visits.
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/ 1 November 2004
African leaders pitched on Monday for more trade and investment from Asia, saying they were pushing through economic and political reforms that will open up business opportunities in the continent. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told the opening of the two-day conference in Tokyo that the continent of more than 750-million people was rich with resources for Asian investors.