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.
Crime & Legal Sep 20, 2013
Crimes linked to quasi-legal drugs triple in first half
Police dealt with 51 criminal cases linked to quasi-legal drugs in the first half of the year, according to official data from the National Police Agency. The number of cases is up 3.2-fold compared with the first half of 2012, reflecting tighter regulation of ...
Crime & Legal Aug 27, 2013
Six more police forces to receive DNA-testing gear
The National Police Agency will deploy automated DNA-profiling equipment to six more prefectural departments by next March to speed up criminal investigations and the identification of bodies recovered from disasters, police sources said Tuesday. As a result, 11 prefectural forces will have the equipment, ...
Issues | JUST BE CAUSE Jul 8, 2013
Police 'foreign crime wave' falsehoods fuel racism
by Debito Arudou
These Community pages have reported many times on how the National Police Agency (NPA) has manufactured the illusion of a “foreign crime wave,” depicting non-Japanese (NJ) as a threat to Japan’s public safety (see “Upping the fear factor,” Zeit Gist, Feb. 20, 2007; “Time ...
Crime & Legal Jun 29, 2013
Police put abductee info on Web
The National Police Agency said Friday it will have prefectural police forces start publishing online the names, pictures and other data about people possibly abducted by North Korea to solicit information from a wide range of sources, after obtaining consent from their relatives. The ...
Reference | FYI May 14, 2013
New thugs on block sidestep the usual suspects
by Tomohiro Osaki
Japan’s underworld, namely the “boryokudan” (gangster organizations) better known as yakuza, have been targeted with crackdowns in recent years focused on cutting their funding and expanding their criminal liability. But a new type of thug appears to be acting with impunity by operating in ...