National

Top Japan news of 2018

Help wanted: Lawmakers tussle over a vote on a bill aimed at Japan's acceptance of more foreign workers in December. | KYODO

The Japan Times newsroom selected the following domestic news stories as the most important of 2018.

1. Help wanted: The Diet passed a controversial bill on Dec. 8 to overhaul the immigration control law, paving the way for an influx of an estimated 345,000 foreign workers in the five years after the new visa system comes into effect in April. Passions raged on both sides of the debate with protests breaking out in Tokyo.

Tetsuo Yukioka (left), managing director at Tokyo Medical University, and Keisuke Miyazawa, vice president of the university, bow before holding a news conference addressing the school’s maniputlation of exam scores. | KYODO

2. Hippocratic oafs: Tokyo Medical University admitted in August to having manipulated entrance exam scores for years to curb female enrollment. The move was aimed at preventing a shortage of doctors at affiliated hospitals, on the grounds that women tend to resign or take leaves of absence after getting married or giving birth.

Television screens at an electronics store in Tokyo broadcast the news of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara’s execution. | KYODO

3. Aum executions: All 13 former Aum Shinrikyo cult members on death row, founder Shoko Asahara among them, were hanged for their crimes, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 13 people and injured thousands of others.

The long game: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledges the applause of other lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after being re-elected its president in September. | KYODO

4. The long game: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was re-elected to a third term as Liberal Democratic Party president on Sept. 20, setting him on a course to become the nation’s longest serving prime minister ever. He has expressed his resolve to revise the war-renouncing Constitution during his term through September 2021.

A rescue team extracts a person from a badly flooded area of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, on July 7 following torrential rains. | KYODO

5. Weather woes: More than 200 people died from torrential rain that wreaked havoc across western Japan in July, causing floods and triggering landslides in prefectures including Hiroshima and Okayama. Heat waves that followed hindered reconstruction efforts by local residents and volunteers.

A home in Atsuma, Hokkaido, lies in ruins after a powerful earthquake rocked the country’s northernmost island in September. | KYODO

6. Terrifying temblor: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake — reaching the maximum 7 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale in some areas — hit Hokkaido, causing landslides that destroyed homes on Sept. 6. The morning quake also cut power to nearly 3 million homes, preventing local residents from getting emergency information.

Journalist Jumpei Yasuda speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on Nov. 2. | KYODO

7. No place like home: Journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who was captured by an armed group in Syria three years ago, returned to Japan in October after a Turkish-Qatari deal enabled his release. He later said he was confined in a small room where he was barely able to move and was forced to listen to other hostages being tortured.

Former National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa attends a session of the House of Representatives’ Budget Committee on March 27. | KYODO

8. Doctored documents: The Finance Ministry admitted in March that its officials doctored documents over the Moritomo Gakuen purchase deal, causing former senior ministry official Nobuhisa Sagawa, who oversaw the ministry bureau responsible for the scandal at the time, to resign as National Tax Agency chief.

An auctioneer yells during the final tuna auction at the landmark Tsukiji fish market on its last day of operations before it closed for relocation. | AFP-JIJI

9. Fish story: After 83 years of operation, the Tsukiji fish market was relocated to Toyosu in October. Having delayed the move for two years due to concerns over contamination, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike declared the new site safe in July. The new market is open to tourists, and its iconic tuna auction should go public in January.

Fans of pop star Namie Amuro gather in front of one of her posters after her final concert in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, in September. | KYODO

10. Last dance: Pop star Namie Amuro gave her final concert on Sept. 15 in her home prefecture of Okinawa. Dominating the spotlight since the 1990s in music, dance and fashion, for many her retirement symbolized something of an end to the Heisei Era, which officially comes to a close on April 30, 2019.