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September 15, 2025
 

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Himari Semans
Tourists from the United States pose for a photo as they take part in a Japanese swordsmanship experience in Tokyo in September.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 16, 2024
Visitors to Japan in January-September top last year's total
Some 26.88 million foreign visitors arrived in Japan in the first nine months of this year, compared with 25.07 million in the whole of 2023.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends the East Asian Summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 15, 2024
Ishiba openness to nuke ban treaty involvement puts pact in spotlight
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has said his government will “seriously consider” participating as an observer in a conference of signatories to the U.N. treaty.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks at an event held in November at United Nations headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the second meeting of state parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2024
Nihon Hidankyo awarded Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to achieve nuclear-free world
The organization was given the honor for its work to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
An office worker inside a commercial building at night in Tokyo
JAPAN / Society
Oct 11, 2024
Widespread overwork and stress found in Japan's arts and health sectors
In the arts and entertainment sector, over 40% of technical staff and stage directors worked 60 hours or more in a week, a health ministry survey found.
Chinese residents living in Japan take part in a “white paper” protest in solidarity against China's COVID-19 lockdowns, in Tokyo in November 2022.
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2024
Chinese nationals in Japan testify to harassment by Beijing, report says
One man said Chinese police had used his relatives to try and lure him back to the country.
The University of Tokyo is ranked 28th in the latest World University Rankings, advancing one place from the previous rankings.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 9, 2024
University of Tokyo moves up a spot to 28th in World University Rankings
Many of Japan’s top universities moved up in the latest rankings announced on Wednesday, with five of them in the top 200.
Iwao Hakamata, together with his sister Hideko, speaks to his supporters on Sept. 29 in the city of Shizuoka after the Shizuoka District Court handed down a not-guilty verdict in a retrial of a 1966 quadruple murder case against him.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024
Ex-boxer Iwao Hakamata finally exonerated over 1966 murder case
Prosecutors have decided not to appeal against the Shizuoka District Court's not-guilty verdict at the end of a rare retrial, his lawyers said.
An Oct. 1 picture of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his Cabinet posted on the website of the Prime Minister's Office (right) appears slightly different from one taken by a media agency (left). Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi admitted on Monday that the photo underwent minor digital edits before being uploaded to the government website.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 7, 2024
New Cabinet photo on government website had minor edits, Hayashi admits
Media agencies had reported that their pictures appeared slightly different to what was posted on the website of the Prime Minister’s Office.
The National Police Agency has noted a major rise in online investment fraud cases, incidents of which have more than quadrupled in the first eight months of this year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024
Investment and romance fraud cases triple in first eight months of year
A total of 6,868 reports of scam cases involving losses amounting to nearly ¥88 billion ($600 million) have been reported, the National Police Agency said.
The Ishikawa Prefectural Government engaged KDDI SmartDrone to have its drone operators survey flood-hit areas in the cities of Wajima and Suzu in the prefecture last week.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 3, 2024
Private drone operators seek bigger role in disaster response
Establishing protocols with local governments and coordinating the use of drones with manned aircraft would make efforts more effective, they say.
Prices of nearly 3,000 food and beverage products will rise in October, due to the soaring costs of ingredients.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 30, 2024
Food price hikes in Japan in October to be largest so far in 2024
Prices of 2,911 products from 195 major food and beverage manufacturers will be raised in October, surpassing April’s figure.
Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Koizumi stressed that the granting of the special residency permits to children subjected to deportation orders was a one-time measure.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2024
Japan fine-tunes issuance of humanitarian visas
The move comes amid a near-tripling of technical intern trainees from Myanmar going missing from their programs in 2023.
Out of a total of 509,373 foreign technical trainees, 1.9% went missing in 2023, according to Immigration Services Agency data.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024
Record number of technical trainees go missing in Japan in 2023
Of the total, 1,765 were Myanmar nationals who had fled conflict in their home country.
Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024
In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders
Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Flowers are laid in front of a Japanese school in Shenzhen last Friday. A Japanese boy who was on his way to the school was fatally stabbed last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
Expat safety seen as a must for Japanese firms to keep doing business in China
Business leaders have underlined the duty of a host country to foreign firms in the wake of a fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba reacts during a news conference ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024
Why is Shigeru Ishiba so unpopular among his LDP peers?
The former defense minister is highly regarded among the public and local chapters of the ruling party, but it's a different story when it comes to LDP lawmakers.
The Meteorological Agency's Shigeki Aoki speaks a news conference on Tuesday morning about the tsunami advisory.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024
Advisory lifted after 50 cm tsunami reaches Hachijojima
The advisory had been issued for the Izu and Ogasawara islands following a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Thursday. The embassy and other organizations have urged swift and resolute actions to protect Japanese citizens in China.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2024
China works to avoid rift with Japan over killing of schoolchild
Beijing is characterizing the murder as a lone act and downplaying the political implications.
A re-creation of a scene in which an electric wheelchair tire has become stuck in a gutter
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024
Deaths among elderly people using electric wheelchairs on the rise
Accidents usually occur at railroad crossings, roadside ditches and on slopes, especially when elderly wheelchair-users are alone outdoors.
Takanori Takebe (behind the lectern) speaks after his team of researchers and he were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2024
Scientists win Ig Nobel for discovering anal breathing in mammals
The research team of Japanese and American scientists hope the discovery will help treat people with COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Strikes on Qatar and Poland shake U.S. sway among friend and foe
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Museum of the Bible in Washington on Sept. 8. Israeli strikes in Qatar and Russian drone incursions into Poland have challenged the U.S. leaders claims of global respect.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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