Japan News

SoftBank Group Corp. is seeking to raise ¥2.4 trillion in the initial public offering of its domestic telecommunications operations scheduled for Dec. 19. (Japan Times)

The Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo will be partially opened to the public early next month for autumn foliage viewing. (NHK)

Canned mackerel developed by high school students in central Japan has been officially certified as space food by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. (NHK)

A 71-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an assault on a woman in Yokohama, after he was apparently filmed walking right behind her with a stick. (NHK)

A capsule ejected from a space cargo vessel returned to Earth on Sunday, bringing back experiment samples from the International Space Station (ISS) in the first such mission for Japan. (Japan Times)

A whale shark believed to have strayed into a river in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, has been found dead. (NHK)

Police in Tokyo said Saturday they have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of killing an American airman in his 30s who was stationed at the U.S. military’s Yokota Air Base. (Japan Today)

The series of quality compliance scandals that has rocked Japanese manufacturing has unmasked the sobering truth that workers were often tempted to take shortcuts in quality testing as they struggled to keep up production at decaying and short-handed plants. (Nikkei)