When lay judges hand down a prison term, many focus on the merits of the case itself and not about the life behind bars that awaits the guilty. One group of citizens who served as lay judges in criminal trials, however, took a tour ...

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, regional governments have been reviewing their disaster plans and enhancing preparations, from boosting buildings’ quake resistance to increasing their stockpiles of emergency food and blankets for immediate use. While taking such measures is undoubtedly crucial, Toshitaka Katada, a ...

Music has played an important role in easing the pain of many people in the Tohoku region whose lives were affected by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. But for Sendai-based violinist Satoko Sato and pianist Mitsuhiro Sakakibara, performing for the survivors ...

A mere 15 minutes before Azuma Konno, a Democratic Party of Japan candidate running in Sunday’s Lower House election, was set to make a stump speech in front of JR Sendai Station last Friday evening, a 7.4-magnitude quake struck deep off Miyagi’s shore, flooding ...

From Hokkaido to Okinawa Prefecture, 1,504 candidates are campaigning for the 480 seats up for grabs in Sunday’s Lower House election. During the 12-day campaigning period, which officially began last Tuesday, the candidates must strictly follow the rules stipulated by the Public Offices Election ...

Terue Ishimura has yet to decide which party she will vote for in the Dec. 16 general election. But one thing is clear — she won’t be supporting the ruling Democratic Party of Japan again. Ishimura, a Saitama Prefecture resident in her 60s, voted ...

Two recent high-profile exonerations have reignited calls by defense lawyers to require the full disclosure of evidence, and to let verdicts handed down by lay judges stand. The lawyers for Nepalese Govinda Prasad Mainali, who on Nov. 7 was finally exonerated in absentia of ...

A group of foreign residents who have overstayed their visas rallied in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district Sunday to call on the government to grant them special residency permits to remain in Japan and avoid disrupting the lives of their long-settled family members. Rally organizer ...