Yankees' Pitcher Tanaka Becomes Free Agent

Yankees' pitcher Tanaka becomes free agent

In Major League Baseball, Japanese pitcher Tanaka Masahiro has become a free agent after wrapping up his seven-year contract with the New York Yankees.

MLB teams were able to make one-year qualifying offers to eligible former players until Sunday.

Suga Becomes Japan's 99th Prime Minister

Suga becomes Japan's 99th prime minister

In a change of leadership in Japan, the head of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Suga Yoshihide, has been chosen as the country's new prime minister by the Diet.

The 71-year-old veteran politician is succeeding Abe Shinzo, who resigned to deal with health issues.

Nissan Nv400 Becomes Japan's First Electric Ambulance

Nissan NV400 becomes Japan's first electric ambulance

Consumer passenger cars aren't the only vehicles undergoing electric transformations. We've seen the introduction of early electric fire trucks, and now Japan is getting its first electric ambulance. It's a Nissan NV400, and it will be used by the Tokyo Fire Department at the Ikebukuro station.

Though badged as a Nissan, the NV400 is at its heart a Renault Master Z.E. electric van. The powertrain is the same as the French van with a 33-kilowatt-hour battery (7 kWhs less than the base Nissan Leaf) and a 55-kW motor driving the front wheels. That translates to 74 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. That doesn't sound like much, but in as dense a city as Tokyo, it's not likely the NV400 will be able to reach high speeds at all, even if it had a Hellcat engine.

Nissan Becomes Latest Oem To Pause Production Due To Coronavirus

Nissan becomes latest OEM to pause production due to coronavirus

TOKYO — Nissan will temporarily halt production at its plant in Kyushu, southwestern Japan, due to the coronavirus, the Nikkei newspaper said on Monday, as the outbreak starts to strain the global supply chain.

Nissan, the first automaker to halt production at a plant in Japan because of the outbreak, was finding it increasingly difficult to procure parts from China, the Nikkei said.

Orange Juice From Faucets Becomes Reality

Orange juice from faucets becomes reality

A long-running joke that orange juice flows like water in western Japan's Ehime Prefecture has come true.

Two faucets serving up the fruit juice have been set up at an orange festival that started in a department store in the city of Matsuyama on Saturday.