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Kei Nishikori hits a return against Holger Rune during their Japan Open quarterfinal match on Sunday.
TENNIS
Sep 30, 2024

Kei Nishikori misses out on semifinal spot after Holger Rune fights back from brink

Rune, the No. 6 six seed, came back from the brink to win four straight games and end the Japanese veteran's challenge in front of a lively crowd in Tokyo.
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.
LDP policy chief Itsunori Onodera, Secretary-General Hiroshi Moriyama, Vice President Yoshihide Suga, Shunichi Suzuki, chairman of the general affairs council, and Shinjiro Koizumi, chairman of the election committee, at the party's headquarters on Monday
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 30, 2024

Ishiba announces new leadership lineup ahead of general election

The appointments seem to reflect Ishiba’s desire to maintain internal party harmony ahead of a general election and reward those who have supported him.
A room in a temporary shelter in Kanagawa Prefecture for young people who have run away from home due to abuse and other reasons
JAPAN / Society
Sep 30, 2024

Japan's children's agency looks to set up shelters for runaways

The agency has launched a project offering subsidies to prefectures and major cities that set up runaway shelters.
Ryuichi Takai holds an orange-colored "dementia help mark" during its unveiling event in Obu, Aichi Prefecture, on Sept. 21.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2024

City in Aichi Prefecture creates 'dementia help mark'

The mark is designed to signal that the holders may need help and consideration.
The Financial Services Agency is set to begin a review of cryptocurrency rules, opening up the possibility of lower taxes on digital assets.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 1, 2024

Japan crypto review may open door to lower taxes and dedicated ETFs

The Financial Services Agency in coming months will assess whether the current approach of regulating crypto under the payments law is adequate.
Takashi Kobayashi, a professor at Kyoto University Hospital's urology department, speaks at a news conference in Kyoto on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 1, 2024

Kidney transplant between same-sex couple conducted in Kyoto

This is the first time that a living organ transplant between same-sex partners has been disclosed in Japan.
JR Tokai officials send off the Nozomi No. 1 bullet train bound for Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, at Tokyo Station on Tuesday as the Tokaido Shinkansen marked the 60th anniversary of its services the same day.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2024

Tokaido Shinkansen marks 60th anniversary

A commemorative ceremony was held by Central Japan Railway at Tokyo Station to send off the first train of the day.
Firefighters continue to search for the missing along the flooded Tsukada River in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday, a week after a heavy rain disaster in the region.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2024

Body likely to be that of girl missing amid Noto floods, coast guard says

The overall death toll from the unprecedented downpour late last month has reached 13.
According to a man seeking compensation through the courts for his forced hospitalization at a psychiatric ward, it was clear from his medical records that there was no need for him to stay in hospital from 1988.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 1, 2024

Plaintiff denied compensation for decadeslong stay at hospital

Plaintiff Tokio Ito, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, claimed that he suffered emotional damage from the extremely long and involuntary stay.
A sunset in the Arctic Ocean observed from the Japanese oceanographic research ship Mirai on Sept. 24
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2024

Japanese ship Mirai ends this year's Arctic mission

The vessel left the city of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, in late August for the mission.
Temporary housing in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, where residents were forced to move out for restoration work after being flooded by heavy rain last month
JAPAN / Society
Oct 2, 2024

In Noto, fears rain will thwart recovery efforts 9 months after quake

Record rain pummeled the northern part of the peninsula last month, dealing another blow to those rebuilding their lives after the New Year's Day earthquake.
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2024

Three suspects arrested for violent robberies in Kanto area

The suspects were apparently not acquainted with each other and police believe that so-called tokuryū groups are involved.
A security camera footage shows a 17-year-old girl and a man entering a hotel in the city of Osaka on Saturday. She was found dead in the hotel room several hours later.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2024

17-year-old girl found dead in Osaka hotel room was strangled

Osaka police are on the hunt for a man who was seen entering the hotel in the city's Dotonbori area with the victim.
Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet is seen from Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, early Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2024

University of Tokyo captures images of Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet

The comet can be seen only this time as it does not approach periodically, unlike Halley's comet.
Labor union members rally and call for an increase of the average minimum wage in Tokyo in July.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 2, 2024

Japan’s new prime minister moots minimum wage moon shot

To achieve Ishiba’s target, increases of over 7% a year would be needed, which economists say would be a challenge.
A network camera installed at a nursery school in the city of Chiba monitors children.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2024

Network cameras offer better views in Japan

Cameras with built-in computing functions are gaining popularity as they allow users to easily check video feeds via the internet.
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.
Japan's new justice minister Hideki Makihara says abolishing the death penalty would be "inappropriate."
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

New justice minister says scrapping death penalty 'inappropriate'

Capital punishment has strong public support in Japan, where scrapping it is rarely discussed.
A male employee of Gunma Bank in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, allegedly swindled clients out of a total of ¥55.35 million ($377,000) by falsely claiming to exchange their old banknotes for new ones.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024

Gunma Bank dismisses employee over alleged ¥55 million scam

He allegedly took money from clients under the pretext of exchanging old banknotes for new ¥10,000 ones.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 3, 2024

Early Ishiba missteps add to anticipation over key policy speech

The prime minister's early days in power have been marked by a U-turn on the approach to a general election as well as challenges forming his government.
Analysts say Warren Buffett may be looking to buy Japanese financial firms and shipping companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 3, 2024

Buffett may target Japan banks or insurers for next purchase, analysts say

The billionaire’s company this week mandated banks to manage a yen bond sale in the global market, in a sign he may increase holdings in Japan.
A standard Chocozap location is small and unmanned, which has made it easy for Rizap to add locations amid a chronic labor shortage.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2024

Gyms in Japan offer laundry, karaoke and hair-removal machines

Chocozap's oddball gyms were created as an experiment during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bourgeois is perhaps best known among the general public for her giant steel spider sculptures, particularly in Tokyo, where a nearly 10-meter tall bronze cast of the original spider has loomed over the walkway in Roppongi Hills since 2003.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2024

Japan’s biggest Louise Bourgeois exhibit yet leans into ambivalence

At Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, a large-scale retrospective of the visionary artist emphasizes her complex feelings toward femininity, memory, parenthood and the human body.
An electronic ticker at the Tokyo Stock Exchange
BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2024

More stocks trade below book value in Japan despite reforms

About 38% of Topix 500 companies were trading below book value as of the end of September.
Nippon Ishin no Kai head Nobuyuki Baba (back left) and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Yoshihiko Noda (back right) discuss cooperation during the upcoming general election in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 4, 2024

Opposition parties have little time to form united front ahead of polls

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s surprise announcement of an Oct. 27 general election has left others scrambling to coordinate in order to avoid multi-cornered fights.
Children walk home from school in Ishikawa Prefecture on Sept. 26. Cases of hand, foot and mouth disease peaked a second time this year in the second week of September.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2024

Hand, foot and mouth disease rebounds in Japan

The latest data — for the week of Sept. 16 to 22 — showed cases averaging roughly six times the number from the same week last year.
A several-meter-wide hole at Miyazaki Airport caused by the explosion of an unexploded WWII bomb on Wednesday
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2024

Japanese airport reopens after WWII U.S. bomb blast

There were no reports of injuries but dozens of flights were cancelled on Wednesday.
Rikiya Morita, a suspect wanted in connection with a robbery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 4, 2024

Suspect in violent Kanto burglaries placed on public wanted list

Rikiya Morita and three other men allegedly broke into an elderly couple’s residence in the city of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
A lifeguard waving a tsunami flag during a demonstration
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2024

Meteorological agency ramps up 'tsunami flag' awareness efforts

Visual communication tools like tsunami flags are critical at swimming beaches, where sound can be obscured by waves and wind.

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