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May 20, 2025
 

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A blue car driving the wrong way on the Shin-Meishin Expressway in Mie Prefecture, on Sunday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Peruvian man arrested after hitting vehicles while driving the wrong way in Japan
The Mie Prefectural Police believe the suspect continued to drive in the wrong direction after causing collisions.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Random stabbing cases in Japan raise fears: Could the next victim be me?
Experts say these incidents often reflect a deeper issue at the societal level.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Police arrest Chinese man in Saitama hit-and-run case
The man turned himself in earlier in the day, and police are investigating his motives and his whereabouts since the incident.
Four people have been arrested on suspicion of transferring a food delivery driver account to a foreigner who is not qualified to work in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 16, 2025
Four arrested for letting Uzbek use their delivery driver account illegally
The suspects were arrested for allegedly creating a Demaecan driver account under a Japanese name on Oct. 21, 2023, then transferring it to an Uzbek national.
The Saitama Prefectural Police headquarters. A motorist plowed into a group of elementary school students in the city of Misato, Saitama Prefecture, on Wednesday afternoon, injuring four boys before fleeing.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2025
Four elementary students injured in Saitama hit-and-run
Four 11-year-old boys were injured in the incident on Wednesday, with one of them believed to have suffered a fractured leg, leaving him in serious condition.
Tokyo police arrested five people on suspicion of buying some 2,800 boxes of heated tobacco products, worth about ¥1.64 million, at a convenience store using the Apple Pay iD contactless payment service over 167 times from Nov. 8 to 10 last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2025
Five arrested for alleged credit card fraud over tobacco purchases
Offline payment, whose inappropriate use is unstoppable when smartphone signals are cut, was used for the crime.
In part due to low awareness that placing bets using overseas sports gambling sites is illegal, access to such platforms in Japan has surged in recent years.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2025
Illegal wagers on overseas sports betting sites top ¥6.4 trillion, study finds
By Jessica Speed
The findings, reported by a sports organization, comes after two baseball players were sent to prosecutors earlier this month for allegedly placing bets from Japan.
A 15-year-old boy, arrested for fatally stabbing an elderly woman in the city of Chiba, told authorities he committed the crime in hopes of being sent to a juvenile detention center to escape his difficult home life, according to investigators.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2025
Teen suspect in Chiba stabbing wanted to escape his home life, police say

The junior high school student allegedly attacked 84-year-old Yayoi Takahashi from behind with a knife at around 5 p.m. on Sunday.
A vehicle carrying a 15-year-old junior high school student leaves a Chiba police station on Tuesday to send him to prosecutors on suspicion of murder.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 13, 2025
Teen held in Chiba stabbing case says he ‘just wanted to kill someone'
According to his family, the boy had had behavioral problems, such as running away from home, and being taken to the police station about once a month.
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 12, 2025
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, 43, claimed he stabbed a student to show how academic pressure could push a child off course.

Australian firm produces heavy rare earth, in first outside China
The Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Random stabbing cases in Japan raise fears: Could the next victim be me?
Police officers stand guard on May 7 outside Todaimae Station in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward after a random stabbing that injured a University of Tokyo student.
Nissan to solicit early retirements while eyeing plant closures in Japan
Nissan's Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, may be closed as part of the struggling carmaker's streamlining efforts.
Man falls to his death from Osaka condo, killing cyclist below
Osaka's Kita Ward. Two men died Monday morning in the ward after a man fell from a high-rise condominium and struck a passing cyclist below, according to local police.
Police arrest Chinese man in Saitama hit-and-run case
Police questioned a man who turned himself in as he closely resembled the driver recorded on the dashcam of another vehicle that happened to pass by the scene of a hit-and-run incident in Saitama Prefecture.
Agnes b. Japan CEO hopes to evolve the brand with focus on sustainability
Laurent Patouillet, the CEO and president of Agnes b. Japan, says the focus of its business is to remain independent, and evolve and adapt.
In Nintendo’s backyard, foreign indie game devs are thriving
Kyoto's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo's headquarters, but a contingent of foreign-born indie developers is also working in the gaming giant's shadow.
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
"Jinsei," which follows its protagonist over a century, probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch. The director, however, says he created the story without knowing where it would lead.

Podcast

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

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

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