By Hyun Oh

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – Japan is expecting a surge in Chinese visitors during the lunar New Year holiday period, with tourists eager to snap up electronics and other goods in a welcome boost for retailers.

A record 9.44 million foreigners visited Japan last year, with inbound Chinese tourists rising over 34 percent to about 1.6 million, surpassing Taiwan to become no. 2 after South Korea, the nation with the most visitors to Japan.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A 99-year-old woman writing about love, dreams and hanging on to hope has touched the hearts of Japanese worn out by years of a lagging economy, propelling her self-published poetry book onto bestseller lists.

Toyo Shibata’s success with her first anthology, titled “Don’t be Too Frustrated,” is all the more surprising because she only picked up her pen at the age of 92.

By Hyun Oh

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) – The brown-haired, brown-eyed woman made her Tokyo stage debut in a tearjerker about a girl suffering a fatal illness. Her voice was calm, but her performance a bit mechanical.

It wasn’t just first-night nerves. She was an android. Her name was Geminoid F.

TAIJI, Japan (Reuters) – One of the stars of “The Cove,” the controversial Oscar-winning documentary about a grisly annual dolphin hunt, on Tuesday boycotted a debate set up by the town made famous in the film, calling it “a sham.”

Taiji, a town in western Japan, remains a center of controversy in the wake of the film. Several NGOs camped out around Taiji say at least two dolphin hunts have taken place since the hunting season began in September.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese singer-actress famous in Asia for her sweet, girl-next-door image was given a suspended jail sentence on Monday for using illegal stimulants in the latest celebrity drugs case in Japan.

The court handed down an 18-month jail term, suspended for three years, to 38-year-old Noriko Sakai, who shot to fame in the late 1980s with pop songs and later turned to acting.