Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
National Jul 9, 2013
Languishing 47 years on death row
by Hiroshi Hiyama
Iwao Hakamada worked at a miso processing company in Shizuoka Prefecture when he was arrested and later sentenced to death for the grisly murder of his boss, Fujio Hashimoto, as well as Hashimoto’s wife and their two children. Hakamada was 30 years old. The ...
National Jun 20, 2013
Death penalty from lay judge trial overturned
The Tokyo High Court overturns a lower court decision in a lay judge trial that sentenced a 62-year-old man to death for murder, commuting the sentence to life in prison.
Crime & Legal Mar 28, 2013
Malaysia court rejects Japanese woman's appeal of drug-smuggling death sentence
A 38-year-old Japanese woman sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle drugs into Malaysia on Wednesday lost her appeal. The three-man bench of the Court of Appeal, the second-highest court in the country, unanimously rejected Mariko Takeuchi’s appeal. Takeuchi was convicted and sentenced to ...
Crime & Legal Feb 16, 2013
Killer of one had no rap sheet, sentenced to hang
In a first for Japan's judicial system, a man is sentenced to hang for killing a woman even though there was only one victim and he had no prior criminal record.