Astellas Pharma's headquarters in Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Chinese court jails Japanese executive after sudden detention for spying
The convicted man, an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, was detained in March 2023 and charged with espionage in October of that year.
A recent case involving teachers sharing voyeuristic images of schoolgirls has sparked national outrage.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jul 16, 2025
Teachers sharing illicit student images raises question of systemic failure
Japan’s sluggish policy response and deep-rooted cultural resistance to the concept of consent sets it apart from other countries.
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife
Chizuo Matsumoto was executed in 2018 over a series of incidents involving the cult, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2025
23-year sentence sought for senior member of 'Luffy' crime ring
"The cases have led to many copycat crimes, and the defendant should be punished severely," prosecutors stressed.
Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 12, 2025
Osaka police crack down on crime ring over underage prostitution
The group, made up of roughly 70 members, is suspected of recruiting about 130 underage girls for prostitution through social media.
The Osaka District Court ordered the man to have his son appear at a hearing, but the man failed to bring him on all three designated dates.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Osaka man detained for three weeks under human protection law
It is rare for a person to be detained under the human protection law, which has no clause on a specific period for such detentions, said an expert on Japan's family laws.
Defense lawyers countered in final arguments that Mai Nishitaka, who was dating Shuhei Iwaki at the time of the killing, had orchestrated the crime and manipulated him and her father into carrying it out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Two found guilty of killing man found in suitcase dumped in river near Tokyo
The duo — the father of the victim’s former girlfriend and a man who was dating the woman at the time of the incident — were jailed 13 years and 15 years, respectively.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan