News Headlines - 22 December 2016

▽Catastrophic fire engulfs 140 buildings in Japan

A huge fire that spread to about 140 buildings in a small city on Japan's western coast was brought under control Thursday night after authorities called in extra firefighters to fight the blaze.

▽Swipe right? 'Toilet paper' for smartphones trialled in Japanese airport bathrooms | The Guardian

Japan has taken its reputation for hygiene up another notch with the introduction of “toilet paper” for smartphones inside toilets at Narita international airport.

▽Okinawa gets largest chunk of land back from U.S. military since '72 | The Japan Times

The government held a ceremony on Thursday to mark the U.S. military’s return of the largest tract of land in Okinawa in decades, despite last week’s ditching of a U.S. MV-22 Osprey off the coast that rattled residents’ nerves.

▽Japanese government says Monju will be scrapped

The Japanese government has made the formal decision that the Monju prototype fast breeder reactor (FBR) will not be restarted and steps will be taken to decommission it. However, the government also said the country's development of fast reactors would continue.

▽How One Japanese Company Is Tackling ‘Death by Overwork’ - WSJ

In recent weeks, it has lowered maximum overtime hours and said it would remove from company materials 10 principles encouraging hard work devised by a former president, Hideo Yoshida. These principles, written in 1951 and previously featured in notebooks issued to employees, include one that tells employees never to give up on a task. “Don’t let go, even if you are killed,” it said.