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]

HOKKAIDO A traditional ceremony in which Japan’s indigenous Ainu people expressed their happiness to gods and ancestors was held here, following a Diet resolution for Japan to formally recognize Ainu as being indigenous. [MAINICHI]

NATIONAL Japan News Review has not been updated the past two weeks because of a staff shortage, and will remain inactive for the next month. Service will be resumed on June 10. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

KANTO A U.S. Navy serviceman has admitted to fatally stabbing a taxi driver on March 19 near the Yokosuka Naval Base and could be handed over to Japanese authorities soon, police sources said Wednesday. (5) [ASAHI]

KANTO A team of doctors has requested that media organizations continue to refrain from covering the private activities of the ailing crown princess, Grand Master Issei Nomura of the Imperial Household Agency said Friday. (1) [KYODO]

CHUGOKU The family and colleagues of a man killed by a train after being pushed off a platform at JR Okayama Station on Tuesday were further pained to learn the suspect’s irrational motive. [YOMIURI]

INTERNATIONAL The appeal against the acquittal of Joji Obara on charges of being involved in the death of Lucie Blackman is dividing the parents of the slain Tokyo bar hostess. [KYODO]

NATIONAL The school textbook screening process in 2007 is coming under fire for nit-picking over trivial matters. The problem seems to have arisen because no social studies textbooks, a major source of controversy in past screenings, were submitted for approval last year. [YOMIURI]

INTERNATIONAL China’s evolving space development should be closely watched for its potential impact on the country’s military buildup, a Japanese Defense Ministry think tank report said Thursday. [KYODO]