A group of people searching for a missing man in a mountain forest in Aizumisato, Fukushima Prefecture, were attacked by a bear on Tuesday. (Japan Today)

A Tokyo court has dismissed a petition to allow married couples in Japan to have separate surnames. (NHK)

The anti-organized crime division of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on May 18 arrested the female manager of a hostess club for fraudulently collecting welfare payments. (Tokyo Reporter)

Shukan Asahi (May 31) doesn’t want to get carried away, but by all accounts there appears to be a subtle boom in pornographic films geared to the tastes of women. (Tokyo Reporter)

A man whose teenage son ran up a $54,000 credit card bill in a champagne-fuelled tour of Japanese hostess bars does not have to pay most of it back, a court has ruled. (AFP)

A man committed suicide in front of emergency services while his girlfriend lay dead in their apartment, police said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

Police in Higashi-Osaka are looking for a 49-year-old woman who has been missing since last week. (Japan Today)

Giant panda Shin Shin at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is showing signs of pregnancy and will be removed from display on June 4, the zoological park said Tuesday. (Yomiuri)

Japanese rescuers saved an American fighter pilot from the waters off southern Japan after his F-15 fighter crashed into the ocean early Tuesday, Japanese officials said. (New York Times)

The Fukushima Prefecture town of Futaba, the last remaining municipality in the no-entry zones set around Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, was reorganized Tuesday into new evacuation areas depending on the levels of radiation contamination. (Jiji Press)

Renowned Japanese climber Chizuko Kono is one of three people missing after an avalanche on Mount Dhaulagiri in Nepal, officials at the country's tourism agency and a climbers' association in Tokyo said Monday. (Japan Times)

Over the recent Golden Week holidays, a writer for weekly tabloid Shukan Taishu (May 20) began surfing the Net, whereby he discovered a number of adult video (AV) clips. Intrigued, the scribe, 56, searched on and eventually stumbled across entries for starlets like Maria Ozawa and Rin Aoki. (Tokyo Reporter)

Three managers at a popular Roppongi nightclub were arrested during a raid early Sunday for allegedly running a nightclub without a license, police said Monday. (Japan Times)

On May 5, a full house inside the Ueno Okura Theater enthusiastically paid tribute to the form of soft-core pornography known as pinku eiga (pink films). In its 25th year, the Pink Grand Prix, as hosted by industry publication PG, awards the top actors, actresses, directors, and personnel responsible for keeping the highly influential genre alive during 2012. (Tokyo Reporter)

In widening their investigation into a case of child prostitution, Fukuoka and Oita prefectural police on Thursday arrested an organized crime member. (Tokyo Reporter)

Police said Monday they have arrested a man and a youth in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, following a car crash which left a teenage girl in a serious condition. (Japan Today)

The tender, sensual lesbian romance "Blue is the Warmest Color: The Life of Adele" won the hearts of the 66th Cannes Film Festival, taking its top honor, the Palme d'Or. (Japan Today)

An 80-year-old Japanese adventurer, Yuichiro Miura, says he risked his life to climb and descend Mt Everest. Miura left the mountain on Sunday (NHK)

The My Number system, in which identification numbers will be assigned to citizens, is meant to make various administrative procedures smoother, as documents such as residency certificates will no longer be required for identity verification. (Yomiuri)

A newly chiseled Moai statue will be unveiled Saturday in the small northeastern fishing town of Minamisanriku more than 10,000 kilometers from the famous home of the stone sculptures on Easter Island. (Wall Street Journal)