A fire that scorched the exterior wall of a company operated by a Pakistani national was discovered in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, on March 1st, just one day after a mosque located about 400 meters away caught fire, prompting police to investigate the possibility that the two incidents may be connected. (News On Japan)

A company in Sapporo is opening its internal training room as temporary accommodation for university entrance exam students as a shortage of hotel rooms emerges ahead of the final tour of the idol group Arashi scheduled for next week. (News On Japan)

A Tokyo-based investment firm that had planned to take over the closed zoo North Safari Sapporo in Minami Ward, Sapporo, and develop a new zoological park has decided to scrap the plan as of March 3rd. (News On Japan)

The Osaka Loop Line, which circles central Osaka, has 19 stations and runs for about 21 kilometers. Despite its circular design, surprisingly few trains actually operate in a full loop. During daytime hours, only about one in three trains runs the complete circuit, while destination boards often display locations such as Nara or Wakayama—names that seem out of place on a circular urban railway. (News On Japan)

Police plan to arrest a Japanese doctor in his 60s who lives in the United States and is suspected of spraying an oil-like liquid at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple in Chiba Prefecture in 2015, with the suspect expected to arrive in Japan as early as March 4th, investigators said. (News On Japan)

PayPay’s market capitalization is expected to exceed 2 trillion yen as the company prepares for a listing on the U.S. Nasdaq exchange. (News On Japan)

Five people have been arrested after repeatedly performing dangerous drift driving on a road in Tokyo’s Ota Ward, sending up clouds of white smoke in the middle of the night and drawing police scrutiny. (News On Japan)

Large amounts of what appear to be illegally dumped garbage line the roadside at the Tokyo Metropolitan Kirigaoka Danchi in Kita Ward, where a decline in residents has left fewer eyes to monitor the sprawling public housing complex that first opened in the 1950s. (News On Japan)

During the first half of the twentieth century, the expansion of the Japanese Empire across Asia turned war into a landscape of systematic violence against civilian populations. (TRNGL)