Wakayama Prefecture

Japanese police said on Sep. 1 they had arrested US animal rights activist Ric O'Barry, who trained dolphins for the TV show "Flipper", near the town of Taiji as it kicked off its controversial dolphin hunt.

Tama the stationmaster, Japan's feline star of a struggling local railway, was mourned by company officials and fans and elevated into a goddess at a funeral on June 28.

When almost 600 Ottoman sailors lost their lives in far-off Japan in 1890, few at the time would have thought that the tragedy would usher in more than a century of friendship.

A Japanese town notorious for killing dolphins may set up a dolphin breeding farm after zoos and aquariums decided to stop buying their animals caught in the wild, but it has no plans to halt the controversial hunt, its mayor said on May 21.