HOKKAIDO A male student committed suicide inside a bathroom at a private high school in Memuro, Hokkaido, it was announced on Friday. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO A 24-year-old female janitor was found stabbed to death Thursday morning in the boiler room of an elementary school in Setana, Hokkaido. [ASAHI]

HOKKAIDO Monkeys are delighting visitors to a park in icy Hokkaido by climbing into a hot-spring pool and soaking in the steaming water with blissful looks on their faces. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU A youth arrested on suspicion of possessing a knife the day after three of his family members were found dead following a fire in their apartment in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, earlier this month, was rearrested Sunday on suspicion of murder, mutilation of a dead body and arson. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO The operating company of the Consadole Sapporo soccer team has deferred principal repayments on 1 billion yen in loans received without collateral and at preferential interests rates from the Hokkaido and Sapporo governments over the past 10 years, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO A tour bus burst into flames and was completely destroyed after one of its tires caught fire on a national road in Hokkaido. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO The amount of power used in Hokkaido reached a record high on Thursday, Hokkaido Electric Power Co. has announced. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU Police have found a composition describing a gory murder on a computer seized from the home of a youth suspected of stabbing three of his family members to death and setting fire to their apartment in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, earlier this month. [YOMIURI]

HOKKAIDO Five host clubs in Sapporo’s Susukino red-light district have been raided and cited with breaking the law governing adult entertainment, police said. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU An 18-year-old youth who is being questioned over the deadly stabbing and torching of his mother, brother and sister in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture has told investigators he hated his mother’s drinking habit. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Public broadcaster NHK accidentally set out an audio earthquake warning on four television channels when a worker pushed the wrong button. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO Schoolteachers and education officials across scandal-ridden Hokkaido have all been given a morality manual to prevent further outbreaks of shameful incidents. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU A 43-year-old woman, her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter were found dead after a fire in an apartment in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, on Wednesday night, and police arrested her 18-year-old son early Thursday. [KYODO]

TOHOKU East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) has rejected calls to stick up posters promoting a local “naked festival,” saying there are many women who aren’t comfortable seeing men naked. (1) [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU A 100-year-old-man was arrested Saturday in Sendai, Miyage Prefecture for driving without a driver’s license. The suspect said “I need the car, and driving has been my secret to longevity and to keeping senility away.” (1)

HOKKAIDO Four Japanese fishing boats were seized by Russian border security authorities early Thursday in waters off the disputed Kunashiri Island in the northern Pacific, government officials said. [KYODO]

TOHOKU The father of a murdered 7-year-old schoolboy asked the Akita District Court on Wednesday to hand down the death penalty to a 34-year-old woman on trial for the killing, saying he didn’t consider her to be human. [MAINICHI]

HOKKAIDO/TOHOKU Five bodies were found in a house gutted by a fire in Kamimachi, Miyagi Prefecture, early Monday, in what appeared to be a murder-suicide, the police said. [YOMIURI]

TOHOKU Two solid gold and silver kokeshi dolls have been auctioned off by the cash-strapped Kuroishi Municipal Government, despite reluctance from local residents, with the successful bidder forking out about 200 million yen. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU A 5.9 magnitude earhquake hit Fukushima Prefecture in northeastern Japan on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.