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Naoki Okamura, chief executive officer of Astellas Pharma, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024

Astellas seeks green light for eye drug Izervay in Europe and Japan

The drugmaker is in discussions with Japanese regulators about whether clinical trials for local patients are needed, Chief Executive Naoki Okamura said.
Emperor Naruhito (left) meets with Luxembourg's Crown Prince Guillaume at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2024

Emperor Naruhito meets with Luxembourg's crown prince

At the meeting the Emperor expressed his gratitude for the sympathy from Grand Duke of Luxembourg Henri for people and areas affected by the Noto quake.
Empress Emerita Michiko visits Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo in April.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2024

Japan's former Empress Michiko recovers from COVID-19

The former empress tested negative for the COVID on Monday morning.
Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi on Tuesday sought to allay the concerns of probation officers nationwide, saying it is important to create an environment in which they can work with peace of mind.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2024

Social media posts reveal potential motive in probation officer’s murder

Posts linked to the 35-year-old suspect suggest he was dissatisfied with his probation, police sources said.
Toyota Industries holds its shareholders meeting in Takahama, Aichi Prefecture, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024

Scandals and profitability in focus as Japan firms hold shareholders meetings

The strong interest in compliance follows a string of testing fraud scandals at automakers, while the focus on profitability has led to a flurry of shareholder proposals.
Kazuki Suzuki, one of the suspects, was taken into police custody in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2024

'Side job' fraud believed to have taken ¥1.9 billion from 8,600 victims

The fraud group ran multiple "side job" websites while recruiting members through social media and paying them an average of about ¥500,000 as monthly wages.
Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attends a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party chapter in the city of Kagoshima on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 11, 2024

Suga likely to be key player in LDP leadership race

Suga hopes to back a figure that can turn around the party from its woes linked to a political funds scandal, sources said.
Employees of a seafood restaurant work in their kitchen space at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. Side gigs are becoming increasingly common in Japan as companies look for flexible sources of labor while workers look to top up income in their spare time.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024

Japan spot work startup Timee targets July listing, sources say

The startup, founded in 2017, is aiming for a valuation of roughly $1 billion and the joint global coordinators are Daiwa Securities and Morgan Stanley, the people said.
Some overseas airlines scrapped plans to add or increase services to Japanese airports due to the uncertain jet fuel supply, trade minister Ken Saito acknowledged on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024

Jet fuel crunch sees airlines servicing Japan demand more supply

Eneos Holdings has been fielding calls from carriers and is working with the government to ease the problem, a spokesperson said via phone.
The corporate goods price index rose 2.4% in May from a year earlier, driven by higher prices for utilities, petroleum and chemical goods as well as nonferrous metals.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 12, 2024

Japan's wholesale inflation rose in May, complicating BOJ rate outlook

Price rises driven by cost pressures could cool consumption, and dampen the chances of achieving the demand-driven inflation the central bank is seeking to foster.
The Hokkaido police headquarters in Sapporo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 12, 2024

Hokkaido police arrest two women over killing of 17-year-old

The two women are suspected of pushing Runa Murayama, a high school student, off a bridge into a river in Asahikawa in April.
Otowayama stable wrestlers in front of their stable. It may come as a surprise to some, but the use of ring names between wrestlers in the same stable isn’t all that common.­
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 12, 2024

Burning questions (and their answers) new fans may have about sumo

The slow month of June is as good a time as any for our columnist to answer some of the fan questions that crop up with regularity.
A street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward near Okubo Park. Masahide Nanba, arrested on suspicion of robbery and sexual assault, is said to have approached the victim near the park before leading her to a nearby hotel.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 12, 2024

Man arrested over robbery and sexual assault in Tokyo's Kabukicho

The man is said to have approached a woman in her 20s near Okubo Park before leading her to a nearby hotel where he robbed and assaulted her.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike speaks to reporters Wednesday before declaring her candidacy for the gubernatorial election in the afternoon.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2024

It’s official: Koike will seek reelection as Tokyo governor in July

The incumbent governor finally declared her candidacy on the last day of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly session.
A survey has shown that 722 municipalities in Japan had made school lunch services free of charge as of September 2023. Of those, 547 provided such services at all elementary and junior high schools.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2024

Free school lunches offered in 40% of Japanese municipalities

Many places said that they wanted to reduce financial burdens on households through the initiative.
Tomiji Suzuki (back) attends a workshop in Tokyo. The 89-year-old is now making apps for the fast-growing elderly demographic, using ChatGPT to fine-tune his skills.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2024

ChatGPT a mentor for 89-year-old app developer

So far, Tomiji Suzuki has developed 11 free iPhone apps to help Japan's aging population.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during an Upper House committee session on Monday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 13, 2024

LDP allies concerned effort to improve funding transparency may be weakened

The House of Councilors began substantive deliberations on the legislation on Monday.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Kenta Izumi will hold a parliamentary debate with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2024

First Diet debate among party leaders in three years set for June 19

The debate is expected to focus on political reform following the LDP slush fund scandal.
Hokkaido police are investigating the sequence of events leading to the victim's death.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2024

Suspects in high school girl’s murder used social media to extort her

The victim is believed to have used a picture of one of the suspects on social media without permission, which led to the extortion.
Daichi Nomiyama, 30, had posed as a reporter from the Asahi Shimbun since April, conducting interviews with members of various university cheerleading teams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2024

Kamakura firefighter arrested for impersonating Asahi Shimbun reporter

The 30-year-old man passed himself off as a reporter for the newspaper to secure interviews with university baseball cheerleaders.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida listens to voters in the city of Kumamoto in April. Liberal Democratic Party politicians are afraid that Kishida's unpopularity could seal their own fates when they stand for local elections.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2024

Calls for Kishida to step down growing among local LDP chapters

They blame their party’s unpopularity on him over the way he handled the kickbacks scandal and the political funds bill aimed at toughening up rules in its wake.
"Doctor Yellow" inspection trains are set to be retired by 2027 due to their aging.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2024

'Doctor Yellow' test shinkansen trains set for retirement

JR Central and JR West currently own one Doctor Yellow train each.
Renho speaks to reporters on Wednesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 13, 2024

Renho, the liberal politician who might dethrone Tokyo's Koike

Her candidacy in July's gubernatorial race presents voters in the capital with two choices: Change or stability.
Former lawmaker Tomohiro Konno has been arrested for allegedly lending his name as a lawyer to other people to do legal work in violation of the attorney law.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 13, 2024

Ex-Japan Lower House member Konno arrested over name-lending

Konno allegedly lent his name to have other people do legal work to recover special fraud damage for five victims, with virtually no cases of damage recovery.
Fumio Kishida
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2024

Kishida Cabinet approval hits new low of 16.4%: Jiji poll

The result suggests that the Cabinet's efforts to revise the political funds control law in the wake of a slush fund scandal have not been well received by the public.
Gyaru Daijin poses in the city of Oita. Now a staffer at CGO.com, she has worked at Tenjin Core, a recently closed commercial complex in the city of Fukuoka that features gyaru fashion.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jun 24, 2024

‘Gyaru’ culture makes comeback as businesses aim to loosen up meetings

The subculture is attracting attention as a way to make unproductive meetings and boring presentations more interactive and flexible.
A statue of Santoku Taneda stands at Hofu Station in Hofu, Yamagata Prefecture,  where the Zen monk was born in 1882.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jun 14, 2024

The joy of Zen — Part 2: Poetry

Ryokan and Santoka lived in different times, connected by a knack for words but polar opposites when it came to the monk's life they both chose.
The Liberal Democratic Party's Gen Nakatani (center) speaks at the Lower House Constitution Commission on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 14, 2024

LDP scraps plan for constitution revision this Diet session

The conservative wing of the party is likely to lash out against the failure to achieve constitutional revision.
People offer prayers in September 2022 at a parking lot in Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture, where a 3-year-old girl died of heatstroke after being left in a school bus.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 14, 2024

30 months sought for ex-nursery head over girl's heatstroke death

Meanwhile, a prison term of one year was sought for a former teacher at the facility in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday after the central bank's policy meeting.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 14, 2024

Bank of Japan’s slow-walk on bond buying reduction rattles market

The yen fell over what the market saw as dithering on the central bank's reduction of its massive balance sheet.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years