Nintendo Switch console goes on sale in strategy reboot

Japanese shipping companies are looking to reduce their reliance on the Suez Canal. They are stepping up their search for an alternative route connecting East Asia to key markets in Europe.

He's 93 years old, but he's as fast as he ever was. After retiring from taxi driving, Ryuji Urabe gave up his driver's license, sit in the cockpit and became a YouTube sensation after his grandson started sharing online videos of grandpa racing in fancy sports cars.

Gotta catch 'em all! In a bid to attract customers, a Japanese airliner is inviting travellers to find hidden Pikachu monsters on board a newly decorated, Pokemon-themed Boeing 737-800. But first, ahead of a much-awaited congressional hearing, US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell says the US economy is continuing to show "sustained improvement" from the pandemic but that the recovery remains uneven, with unemployment still hitting low-paid workers.

Yoko Nishimura, a Japanese mother and housewife, recreates a dish to be served at the Olympic village. She was one of the winners in the Olympic village food recipe contest, in which her recipe was selected to bring the taste of Japan to athletes competing at the Games. The athletes will also be able to enjoy typical Japanese dishes such as tempura, ramen and wagyu beef -- but only at cafeterias inside the village due to tough virus restrictions.

A cartridge of Nintendo's classic video game "Super Mario 64" sets a world record, selling for $1.56 million (€1.32 million) after a 20% buyer's premium at the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The sale, the first ever of a game cartridge to surpass $1 million, came just two days after a sealed copy of "The Legend of Zelda", made for the old Nintendo NES console, sold for a then-record of $870,000.

Ryusei Ouchi looks like your average skateboarder -- the baggy T-shirt, the jeans, the baseball hat. But he also skates with something else: a cane. The 21-year-old, who goes by Jido, has lost 95 percent of his eyesight because of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

An energetic squad of cheerleaders whose average age is 70 train in Tokyo for their 25th anniversary performance. Cheerleading is a fun way to stay fit for the "Japan Pom Pom" girls, who get together once a week for a rigorous two-hour practice with almost no break.

 

North Korea escapee Hiroko Saito says she and 97,000 others were deceived into relocating to the North in the 1960s with promises of "paradise on Earth." Instead, she suffered starvation, repression and loss.

A boat crew casts a net into the seemingly clean waters off Japan's Izu peninsula, but not to catch fish -- they are scooping up microplastics to learn more about the pollution's impact on marine life.

After Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the US forcibly displaced 120,000 people of Japanese origin into 10 internment camps in the western United States. Eight decades on, our correspondents went to meet survivors, who reflected on their ordeal.

Japan's ageing society is forcing it to innovate in some unusual ways. Fifteen years ago, the western town of Hōki, where almost half the residents are aged over 65, started using recycled adult diapers to heat public baths and reduce energy bills. The project was highly successful and now the idea of turning diapers into fuel pellets has spread to other parts of Japan. Our correspondents report.