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The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months, shifting away from Japanese stocks’ past tendency to rise on a weaker yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 6, 2024

Cheap yen boost for Japan’s stocks shrinks to nil on hawkish BOJ

The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months.
Currently, if a hospital declines an organ due to logistical or other issues, it is instead offered to a patient at another facility.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 6, 2024

Multi-facility option set for patients awaiting organ transplants

The health ministry aims to address situations in which high-priority patients miss out on transplants due to logistical issues at their hospital.
Critics have said that drivers who were speeding well over the speed limit or those who were extremely drunk were not indicted for dangerous driving because of its vague definition.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Dec 6, 2024

What constitutes fatal dangerous driving in Japan?

Critics say its vague definition has often led prosecutors to indict offenders with less-serious charges of fatal negligent driving instead.
A Metropolitan Police Department flyer on high-paying illegal work advertised on social media, known as yami baito
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Police may be able to use fake IDs to investigate yami baito

The new measures would allow investigators to sign up for shady jobs with disguised identities and make contact with individuals behind the recruitment.
Yuta Takahashi (back center) with Sunao Tsuboi, former co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo (front, center), in December 2017
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2024

Japanese youth carries on message of prominent atomic bomb survivor

In giving Nihon Hidankyo the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee noted that "new generations in Japan are carrying forward the experience and the message of the witnesses."
The publisher in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, announced in 2016 that it would publish a reprinted version of a pre-World War II survey listing areas where the descendants of feudal outcasts lived. It published lists of the areas on its website.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024

Japan's top court finalizes order to erase feudal outcast area lists

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the publication of the lists violated their personal rights.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in parliament on Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2024

Ishiba raised most funds among Japanese party leaders in 2023

An LDP chief has topped the rankings list for 10 years in a row.
Employees at large Tokyo companies who travel to the office daily to work fell to 47.4% in 2024 from 53.1% in the previous year, a survey shows.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2024

Hybrid work on the rise for Tokyo’s office employees: NRI Survey

For the July 2024 Nomura Research Institute survey, the firm polled 3,091 people from ages 20-69 who work for large companies in Tokyo.
Terumi Tanaka, a co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo (center), and other members of the delegation prepare to depart from Haneda Airport for Oslo on Sunday to attend this year's Nobel Prize award ceremony.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2024

Hidankyo members leave for Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

The Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony will be held from 1 p.m. Tuesday, followed by a banquet.
The government's pension reform plan under consideration will make it easier for part-timers to join the kosei nenkin employee pension program.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 8, 2024

Japan to scrap ¥1.06 million employee pension threshold in 2026

The government also plans to abolish a requirement that companies must have at least 51 employees for employees to join the kosei nenkin program.
A variety of rice cookers at a home appliance store
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Dec 16, 2024

Companies rush to high-end rice cookers as consumer tastes change

Appliance-makers are working with rice growers to boost demand, as well as debuting products that focus on flavor and features.
Terumi Tanaka (front left), co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, and others arrive at Oslo Airport on Sunday. Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairperson Jorgen Watne Frydnes stands in the back row on the right.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024

Nihon Hidankyo delegation arrives in Oslo for Nobel Prize ceremony

The delegation comprises 30 people aged 32 to 92, including children and grandchildren of hibakusha.
Police officers reinvestigate a Tobu Tojo Line railroad crossing in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward on Dec. 27, 2023, after a man was fatally hit by a train weeks earlier.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 9, 2024

Tokyo police arrest four men on suspicion of staging colleague’s suicide

They allegedly coerced the 56-year-old victim into standing on railway tracks where he went on to be fatally struck by a train.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his policy speech at the Lower House on Nov. 29.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 9, 2024

Japan's government submits ¥13.9 trillion extra budget for fiscal 2024

The budget will finance a comprehensive economic package that includes measures to tackle inflation and aid for areas affected by natural disasters in the Noto Peninsula.
The number of bankruptcies in Japan is likely to exceed 10,000 for the first time since 2013.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 9, 2024

Japan's bankruptcies set to hit 11-year high in 2024, data shows

841 Japanese companies went bankrupt in November, bringing the January-November tally to 9,164, already exceeding last year's total.
Japan's current account surplus declined 13% in October from a year earlier to ¥2.46 trillion.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 9, 2024

Japan's current account surplus declined 13% in October

The country's trade deficit decreased to ¥155.7 billion from the year-before level of ¥487.4 billion.
Jiro Hamasumi, an assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks about radiation exposure in the womb in November in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024

Youngest hibakusha determined to continue fight for nuclear abolition

Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is "not the goal," said one hibakusha.
Students at Hiroshima University’s School of Dentistry offer silent prayers for the donors of bodies before they practice anatomy on the cadavers in late October.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Chugoku
Dec 16, 2024

In death, body donors become silent teachers for medical students

Practical training on cadavers significantly increases the understanding of the human body, says one professor.
The Liberal Democratic Party proposed abolishing the system of political activities funds — criticized as a hotbed for slush funds — and obligating party members to submit balance reports to a publicly accessible online database.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 9, 2024

LDP submits bill banning most political funding but leaves 'loophole'

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hopes to pass the bill this year, but that may not be possible with opposition parties holding out for a further ban on corporate donations.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is considering visiting Indonesia and Malaysia in early January, government sources have said.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024

Ishiba eyes visit to Indonesia and Malaysia in early January

Ishiba will postpone his planned visit to South Korea early next year due to political turmoil in the country.
The annual number of corporate bankruptices may top 10,000 for the first time in 11 years, Tokyo Shoko Research has said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 9, 2024

Japan's corporate bankruptcies increased 4.2% in November

The number of business failures grew for the third consecutive month amid a weak yen and soaring labor costs.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Nihon Hidankyo's representative Terumi Tanaka attends a news conference ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Nuclear weapons must never be used, hibakusha tells Putin before Nobel ceremony

Terumi Tanaka was referring to threats made by Putin and others to use nuclear bombs if necessary to counter what they see as a hostile West in the Ukraine war.
Students from Yamagata Prefectural Kamo Fisheries High School experience simulated pelagic tuna fishing using VR headsets in August.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

VR used to stir young people's interest in fishing industry

VR headsets allow users to see how workers catch tuna and do other work with a 360-degree view from aboard a ship.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says he will urge a stepped up debate on  allowing the option of dual surnames for married couples.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 10, 2024

Ishiba vows to spur LDP debate on dual surname option

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will urge a working group within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party "to increase the frequency and maturity of discussions."
Manabu Sasaki, who runs a painting company, is one of four suspects arrested on suspicion of murdering 56-year-old Osamu Takano.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 10, 2024

Victim of alleged staged suicide was subjected to years of abuse

Tokyo police arrested four men on Sunday on suspicion of murdering a colleague by staging a "suicide" on a railway crossing.
Kosuzu Harada has spent over a decade sharing the harrowing atomic bomb experiences of her late grandfather, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a double hibakusha.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Descendant of double A-bomb survivor hopes for nuclear-free future

Kosuzu Harada's late grandfather, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is one of the few individuals officially recognized as having survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
One of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024

Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo calls for a world without nukes

The atomic bomb survivors urged countries to abolish the weapons resurging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
A health ministry survey showed that 5,824 people age 65 and older died in a bathtub in their home or other residential facilities in 2022, more than double the number of people who died in a traffic accident.
JAPAN / Explainer
Dec 10, 2024

Winter chill, hot baths and the risk of heat shock: How to stay safe

Heat shock has come under the spotlight after popular actor and singer Miho Nakayama was found dead at her home last week.
A sign warns of a nearby bear sighting in Takikawa, Hokkaido, on Oct. 17.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Dec 30, 2024

Hokkaido 2024: Looking back on Rapidus, bears and shinkansen

The key topics are expected to continue making headlines in 2025.
The $8.2 billion deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2024

Nippon Life to buy Resolution in $8.2 billion deal as it pursues U.S. growth

The deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.

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