HOKKAIDO Sapporo-based confectioner Ishiya routinely falsified expiration dates for their popular Hokkaido souvenir chocolate “Shiroi Koibito” for 10 years with the consent of the company president, the company revealed at a press conference on Thursday.

See also: Ishiya mislabeled chocolate, found E. coli in popsicles

HOKKAIDO The Sapporo-based sweets manufacturer Ishiya Chocolate Factory Co. deliberatedly mislabeled the best-before date on chocolate from their popular brand “Shiroi Koibito,” the company revealed on Tuesday. (1)

HOKKAIDO A surprise urine test has found that an Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) officer at its base here had smoked cannabis, force officials said. [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Snow preserved since last winter was brought to a Sapporo zoo on Saturday for its “midsummer snow festival.“ [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The Kushiro marsh, which covers about 18,000 hectares of eastern Hokkaido, is the nation’s largest wetland, but it may not always be if damage continues to the river system that feeds it. (1) [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO A strong quake hit near Sakhalin island in Russia’s Far East on Thursday, reportedly killing one person and sending small tsunami waves to northern Japan. [MSNBC]

HOKKAIDO A municipal government official is being questioned over allegations that he attempted to secretly photograph a woman in a city hall elevator, officials said. (1) [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Hokkaido’s Chitose Institute of Science and Technology said the school will exempt students in four prefectures hit by major earthquakes or torrential rain from paying entrance fees and other first-year expenses. (1) [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Three people believed to be crew members of a fishing boat who went missing off Hokkaido on Friday after a fire broke out were found in the boat suffering from with cardiorespiratory arrest, a regional Japan Coast Guard headquarters said Saturday. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO A teacher at a prefectural high school here gave students reference material containing obscene expressions for their English homework for summer vacation, it emerged Friday. [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Three people are missing and one injured after a fire broke out on a fishing boat off Hokkaido, on Friday, according to the First Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Otaru in the prefecture. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi on Wednesday criticized Hokkaido Electric Power Co. for failing to prevent a series of suspected arson fires at a reactor construction site in its Tomari nuclear power plant. [KYODO]

HOKKAIDO A rare cucumber with a leaf growing out of it has been found in the vegetable garden of a 69-year-old man. [MSN MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The scandal-ridden Hokkaido meat processing company Meat Hope is considering to file bankruptcy, the company revealed during negotiations with the union. (1)

HOKKAIDO A woman called the police emergency line from Otsu harbor, Toyoroko, Hokkaido around 2 PM, Saturday, saying she had been bitten by a local harbor seal.

HOKKAIDO An earthquake with a prelimary magnitude of 5.6 shook eastern Hokkaido and some of Tohoku Sunday afternoon, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

HOKKAIDO Scandal-ridden Meat Hope Co. and food producer Hokkaido Katokichi Co. were involved in a two-year arrangement to resell tens of thousands of croquettes that should have been thrown away, sources said Sunday. [ASAHI]