Japantoday.com reported, “Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki on Saturday released his first full-length film in four years, dropping computer graphics for his pencil to tell the story of a fish-girl and the sea.”

“Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea,” which the reclusive 67-year-old both wrote and directed, hit screens across Japan after weeks of intense media interest.

“Inspired by the 19th-century fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the story centers around a tiny fish-girl, Ponyo, who rides a jellyfish to escape her home in the sea.”

“She meets a five-year-old human boy, Sosuke, who vows to protect her, but Ponyo is taken back to the sea. Desperate to be a human and live with Sosuke, Ponyo heads to land again with help from her sisters.”

“Miyazaki is one of Japan’s biggest cultural exports. His last film, “Howl’s Moving Castle,” broke opening box office records at home in 2004 before winning a cult following in Western and Asian nations.”

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Mainichi Daily News reported, “Kyoko Okubo, president of Cominica Inc. — a company best-known for making the figurines of characters from the feted anime movies of Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki — has been convicted of tax evasion.”"Okubo, 52, was given a one year sentence, suspended for three years after she was found by the Tokyo District Court to have hidden 198 million yen in income and allowed Cominica to avoid paying 57 million yen in corporate taxes.”

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Mainichi Daily News reported, “A 79-year-old home in Tokyo’s Suginami-ku dubbed the “house where Totoro lives” after being praised by Hayao Miyazaki, director of the popular anime film “My Neighbor Totoro,” is set to be preserved.”

“The Suginami Ward Office has decided to make the house, whose future was previously uncertain, part of a park.”

“We want it to be a home that serves as a model of coexistence between humans and greenery,” a ward official said.

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