TOHOKU The government stepped up its search on Wednesday for those who went missing following a powerful earthquake in the Tohoku region as heavy rain was forecast to hit the region. [MAINICHI]

CHUBU A fisheries cooperative in Isshiki, Aichi Prefecture sold tons of imported eels mislabeled as domestic, the agriculture and fisheries ministry said Tuesday. [ASAHI]

KANTO A Tokyo employment agency and its president face charges for evading approximately 120 million yen in consumption tax, taxation authorities said. [MAINICHI]

INTERNATIONAL Japanese government officials in Jakarta have begun interviewing Indonesians hoping to work as nurses or caregivers under the Japan-Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement. [ASAHI]

NATIONAL Two Japan Airlines pilot unions notified the airline’s management Tuesday that their members will gone on strike this week, likely leading to a series of cancellations and delays, company officials said. [KYODO]

NATIONAL The government has urged knife manufacturers and retailers to refrain from producing or selling daggers after the suspect in the Akihabara stabbing rampage used such a weapon in his attacks, officials said. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL Tsutomu Miyazaki, the notorious serial killer who butchered four girls and sent a letter and remains to a victim’s parents, was among three criminals executed Tuesday, the Justice Ministry said. [ASAHI]

CHUBU A man was arrested Tuesday for posting a message on a police Web site threatening to stab someone at a railway station near an airport in Aichi Prefecture, police said. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL The number of child abuse cases reported to consultation centers across the nation has topped 40,000 for the first time, a government survey has found. [MAINICHI]

KYUSHU The Okinawa Meteorological Observatory said Tuesday that this year’s rainy season in the Okinawa area appears to have ended, about six days earlier than usual and four days earlier than last year. [KYODO]

KANTO The owner of a Yokohama apartment complex that was gutted by a fire that killed three of its disabled inhabitants has told police she set fire to the structure after being harassed by its residents and administrator, investigators said. [MAINICHI]

KANSAI The Osaka Prefectural Board of Education will establish a high school, which is to be comparable to a high school attached to a university of education, will be the first of its kind attached to a local government, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.

KANTO Only two minutes passed from the time the suspected killer in the rampage in Akihabara, Tokyo, plowed a truck into people at an intersection until he was restrained by police, it has been learned. [YOMIURI]

INTERNATIONAL A 23-year-old Japanese tourist who was freed Saturday after being held captive since October by bandits in southeastern Iran apologized Monday for having caused trouble to the governments of Japan and Iran.

HOKKAIDO Prosecutors on Monday arrested a senior land ministry official and two construction company executives on suspicion of rigging the bidding process for a public river works project in 2005. [ASAHI]

CHUBU A man who threatened on the 2-Channel online bulletin board to unleash an attack to “kill 100 people” on the streets of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district was arrested Monday, police said. [MAINICHI]

TOHOKU A 10th victim of the deadly earthquake that struck the Tohoku Region was found here Monday morning as rescuers continued their desperate search for survivors. [MAINICHI]

KANTO The suspect in a mass slaying in Tokyo’s Akihabara district managed to attack 17 people in a space of roughly two minutes before his arrest, it has been learned. [MAINICHI]

KANTO Police in Ayase, Kanagawa Prefecture arrested Monday a woman who has admitted to setting fire to a social welfare facility for mentally disabled people on June 2, killing three residents, officials said. [ASAHI]

INTERNATIONAL North Korea has promised to reopen its investigation into Japanese abducted by state agents and cooperate in handing over four hijackers holed up in Pyongyang since 1970 after they commandeered a Japan Air Lines plane on a domestic flight. [ASAHI]