Tokyo restaurants once again top the Michelin guide for three-star winners, Reuters reports

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo wins the top honor for the fifth year in a row as the world’s number one city for three-star restaurants according to the 2012 Michelin guide, Reuters reported.

Michelin awarded 16 restaurants the coveted three star rating–two more than Tokyo won last year. Fourteen of the three-star winners specialize in Japanese cuisine while the remaining two serve French, the news service said. Read more

Saitama man nabbed for sex with school girl in Yokohama park toilet

TOKYO (TR) – Kanagawa prefectural police arrested a male office worker from Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture for engaging in sex with a teenage prostitute, reports Nikkan Sports (Nov. 29). Read more

Ex-Tokyo Performance Doll member Chizuru Tanaka arrested for stimulant drug use

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the arrest of entertainer Chizuru Tanaka, 33, for violating the stimulants control law, reports Nikkan Sports (Nov. 29). Read more

Director of TEPCO’s damaged nuclear plant steps down with undisclosed illness, AFP says

TOKYO (TR) – The man charged with overseeing damage control at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been forced to step down due to an undisclosed illness, Agence France-Presse said, citing a spokesperson for the utility.

Masao Yoshida, 56, became the plant’s director eight months before the March 11, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. He’s been on site since the disaster, AFP said. Read more

Yakuza gangsters received loans in Miyagi after earthquake, prefeture demands return

TOKYO (TR) – The social welfare council of Miyagi Prefecture said on Tuesday that it is demanding the return of 20 loans distributed to gangsters following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Nov. 29). Read more

TEPCO study says no evidence explosion occurred at Fukushima No. 2 reactor, NHK reports

TOKYO (TR) – A report by Tokyo Electric Power Company questions whether an explosion occurred in the company’s No. 2 nuclear reactor of its damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

NHK says it obtained an interim report commissioned by TEPCO in June on the accident and aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. Read more

Gas Panic clubs in Roppongi raided for improper licensing, two arrested

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police raided two popular nightclubs within the Gas Panic chain in the Roppongi entertainment district early Sunday morning for improper licensing and took two employees into custody, reports TV Asahi (Nov. 28). Read more

Construction exec gunned down in Kyushu, yakuza involvement suspected

TOKYO (TR) – The president of a construction company located in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture was shot and killed outside his home Saturday evening, reports the Nikkei Shimbun (Nov. 28). Read more

Book by Lindsay Hawker murderer Tatsuya Ichihashi to become film, AFP says

TOKYO (TR) – The book written by a Japanese man who evaded police for two-and-a-half years after the murder of a young British English teacher is being made into a movie, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the producer.

Tatsuya Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murdered of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, at his apartment in the city of Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture on March 24, 2007. Ichihashi admitted to strangling Hawker accidently during the rape and later buried her naked body in a bathtub filled with sand, according to the AFP. Read more

Ex-Olympus chairman Woodford back in Japan, would consider return to helm

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, November 25, 2011)

TOKYO (TR) – Former Olympus president Michael Woodford said on Friday that he would consider a return to the top of the embattled camera and endoscope maker if the shareholders approved, though he is not obsessed by the idea.

“If I’m not wanted back, and the shareholders will make that decision, then that’s fine by me,” said the 53-year-old at a press conference at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo. “I’m prepared to go back, I have a commitment to the employees.” Read more

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