KANSAI A senior at Konan University was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fabricating with his girlfriend a molestation that allegedly occurred on a subway in Osaka in early February. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI More than one in 10 junior and senior high school students in the city of Osaka have been harassed or bad mouthed on Internet bulletin boards, blogs or via e-mail, according to a survey [MAINICHI]

KANSAI As a TV commentator, Toru Hashimoto gained fame for his radical words, blunt talk and confrontational remarks. But the new governor of Osaka is learning the hard way that such comments do not sit well with an audience that doesn’t care about TV ratings. [ASAHI]

KANSAI The Osaka municipal government announced Monday that the slush fund pooled by its officials totaled 281.2 million yen, and all but 49.87 million yen has been spent, with some used for officials’ personal expenses and allowances. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Customs officials at Kansai International Airport have stopped a series of attempts by departing passengers to smuggle Japanese beef on flights to China, sources said Friday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI Hydrogen fluoride gas leaked Saturday from a chemical plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, causing 23 people to suffer throat and eye pains, police said. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI The Osaka High Court on Thursday upheld a 12-year prison term given to a former manager of a restaurant in the Minami entertainment district of Chuo Ward, Osaka, on charges of abducting, raping and robbing a female customer in May. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI A Hyogo Prefecture man who fell ill last month at home got emergency medical care thanks to the intervention of an online game participant, who read a real-life SOS message the man posted in a gaming site’s chat room and alerted emergency workers. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI The Osaka prefectural government will be on the brink of bankruptcy in fiscal 2016 if its current fiscal plan is maintained due to sluggish prefectural tax revenues and rising social security costs, the prefectural government revealed on Wednesday. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI A teenager required hospitalization after swallowing a fishing hook left in a hamburger he bought from a convenience store in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI The wife and two daughters of a man who died from a type of lung cancer after retiring from an asbestos-related job filed a suit on Thursday against his former employer, Nippon Express Co., and the company where he was dispatched, Nichias Corp., demanding 47 million yen in compensation. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Toru Hashimoto took office Wednesday as the nation’s youngest governor, saying his first order of business is to cut Osaka Prefecture’s 5 trillion yen debt. [ASAHI]

KANSAI Twenty-nine hepatitis C sufferers settled damages suits filed against the government in Osaka and Fukuoka on Monday the first in a series of similar lawsuits filed by about 240 people nationwide since October 2002. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI An Osaka Prefecture supermarket sold 25 packages of possibly pesticide-tainted frozen “gyoza” dumplings imported from China in December even though an employee noticed problems with two other packages, health officials said. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

KANSAI The Kanto and Kansai regions differ significantly in public antismoking measures, as smoking in taxis and on private railway platforms has been banned in Tokyo, while smoking is still allowed in designated areas at many public facilities in Osaka. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Toru Hashimoto, a lawyer and TV personality backed by the prefectural chapters of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, won Sunday’s Osaka gubernatorial election. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI A graduate school student, arrested Thursday on suspicion of spreading a computer virus on the Internet via copyrighted animation footage, admitted that he created an earlier prototype virus, police said. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI Power supplies to Osaka Monorail’s entire network of train lines–28 kilometers in total–was cut off for 75 minutes from 11:50 a.m. Friday, Osaka-Monorail Co. said. [YOMIURI]

KANSAI The Osaka District Court gave suspended prison terms Friday to the president and an executive of a tour bus operator for forcing an overworked driver to drive a ski tour bus and causing an accident last year in Osaka Prefecture which left one person dead and 26 injured. [KYODO]

KANSAI A former member of Doshisha University’s rugby club was sentenced on Thursday to 18 months in prison, suspended for four years, for attempting to force a woman into a car to molest her. [YOMIURI]