Until a couple of months ago, Takashi Yamada had one of the most genteel jobs in Japan. Now, his days are so harried he doesn't have time to eat lunch. (Japan Times)

A teacher at a Saitama junior high school has been arrested for sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s on the street in January, police said Wednesday. (Japan Today)

The government pledged Wednesday to hammer out concrete tax measures by the autumn in an attempt to bolster business investment, after its growth strategy unveiled last week failed to meet market expectations, driving down stock prices. (Kyodo)

Beer and quasi-beer shipments in May rose 3.8 percent from a year earlier to 36.91 million cases, up for the second straight month, the biggest growth since October, data from major brewers showed Wednesday. (Yomiuri)

Japan's parliament passed a bill that would ramp up penalties against insider trading, bringing its law closer to international standards following a string of financial scandals last year. (Wall Street Journal)

Japanese baseball league officials are being criticized for introducing a new ball this season without notifying players. (usnews.com)

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) will in September begin test runs paving the way for the launch of a magnetically levitated train line between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027, marking a milestone in its half-century of efforts to develop an ultrahigh-speed superconducting train system. (Japan Times)

Japan's human rights envoy to the United Nations was Wednesday facing calls to quit over a video which showed him shouting at fellow diplomats to "shut up." (inquirer.net)

A Japanese carrier's Dreamliner had engine trouble before takeoff Wednesday, a day after a rival airline had a problem on another 787 plane. (foxnews.com)

Nikkei ended slightly lower Wednesday as selling triggered by the Bank of Japan's inaction was offset by buybacks on a halt in the yen's strength. (Xinhua)

Financial regulators on Wednesday raided the office of game software maker Index Corp. and related places, suspecting it window dressed its earnings by padding its sales. (Kyodo)

Japan enacted Wednesday a law needed to ratify an international treaty to help settle cross-border child custody disputes, paving the way for implementation of the pact in Japan possibly early next year. (Kyodo)

A weaker yen lifted business sentiment among major Japanese companies in the April-to-June period. This marked the second straight quarter of improvement. (NHK)

The number of rubella cases in Japan this year is about to top 10,000. An expert calls the situation critical. (NHK)

Japan ended Iraq's chances of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup by scoring late to win 1-0 in a match played in the neutral territory of Qatar. (The West)

Police said Tuesday they have arrested a 71-year-old man for attempting to murder his wife by pouring gasoline over her at their home in Nagano. (Japan Today)

Anyone analyzing a probability tree for how Abenomics will turn out could be forgiven for giving up, shutting their eyes, flipping a coin and praying. (Wall Street Journal)

The world's oldest person and the oldest man ever to have lived has died of natural causes aged 116 years, media reported Wednesday. (AFP)

Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling on Tuesday that found two former crew members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis destroyer Atago not guilty of causing a collision between the ship and a fishing boat in February 2008 that left two fishermen dead. (Jiji Press)

A giant panda at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is showing signs that she may give birth soon, the zoo said Tuesday. (Jiji Press)