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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) speaks to officials of Miyada in Nagano Prefecture on Saturday during his visit to the village.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 17, 2025

Japan to extend financial aid to more people moving out of Tokyo

The government plans to expand eligibility to include people taking up jobs in agriculture, medicine and welfare, as well as those becoming self-employed.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Tokyo police have arrested a number of suspects this month in connection with home improvement scams.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 17, 2025

Police issue warning over home improvement scams

Such scams use similar tactics to those employed by fraudsters who impersonate relatives or public agency officials over the phone to defraud victims of their money.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba answers questions at a session of the Upper House Budget Committee in Tokyo. Approval ratings for Ishiba's government have dropped sharply, polls showed Monday, as the leader faces a backlash for distributing gift vouchers to rookie lawmakers in his ruling party.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 17, 2025

Approval rates for Ishiba's Cabinet plunge amid gift voucher snafu

Polls conducted by several newspapers over the weekend show public support tumbling to record lows.
One pub in Tokyo's Shimbashi district received more than 60 warnings from law enforcement for setting up tables on the street, blocking the way for traffic.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 17, 2025

Tokyo pub hit with first-ever closure order for illegal street tables

The pub repeatedly placed tables on the street between April 2023 and October 2024, despite receiving more than 60 warnings from law enforcement.
Tourists gather at the Fuji Subaru Line 5th station, which leads to the popular Yoshida Trail for hikers climbing Mount Fuji, ahead of its reopening for the season in Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture in June 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 17, 2025

Mount Fuji hikers to be charged ¥4,000 on all trails

Yamanashi Prefecture is doubling its ¥2,000 ($14) entry fee for the Yoshida Trail, while Shizuoka Prefecture will charge the same amount for its three trails.
Yuki Niimi, the widow of Tomomitsu Niimi, who was executed in 2018 along with other former members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo for their roles in the 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system, poses with a photo of her husband (front) with cult leader Shoko Asahara, in Osaka in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025

'Until the very end, he gave no apology': Widow of Aum killer speaks out

Tomomitsu Niimi was behind bars when he met Yuki Niimi, and when they married in 2011.
Tetsu Okumura, former emergency room physician at St. Luke's International Hospital, talks about how he treated the victims of the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system 30 years ago, during an interview last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025

Former ER doctor recalls fear treating victims in 1995 Tokyo sarin attack

At around 8 a.m. on March 20, 1995, cult members released sarin in train cars on three subway lines in Tokyo during the morning rush hour.
On Jan. 22 last year, the education ministry called on prefectural boards of education across the country to instruct schools to conduct annual checkups by, in principle, having students wear gym clothes or underwear during examinations and holding them separately for boys and girls under the supervision of teachers of the same gender.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025

School doctors still risk complaints from parents over health checkups

A survey shows many physicians do not want to be involved in schools' annual checkups out of concern that parents do not want their children's bodies to be shown to doctors.
Shares of major trading houses Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Mitsui, Itochu and Sumitomo climbed 4% Tuesday in Tokyo after Berkshire Hathaway increased its stakes in them.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 18, 2025

Berkshire Hathaway increases stakes in Japan’s biggest trading houses

Warren Buffett has indicated that the trading houses have agreed to 'moderately' relax a previous ceiling of 10% on his stakes, leaving room for further buying.
Chubu Electric Power removed the top lid of the No. 2 reactor at its Hamaoka plant Monday, marking the first time in Japan that the dismantling of a commercial nuclear reactor has begun.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025

Dismantling of reactor begins at Hamaoka nuclear plant

The dismantling process is the third stage of the decommissioning project at the plant in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Hidemasa Morita (right) celebrates scoring Japan’s fourth goal against Bahrain with Kaoru Mitoma (center) on Sep. 10, 2024.
SOCCER
Mar 18, 2025

Japan set to seal World Cup spot as Son aims to forget Spurs woes

Japan will seal its spot with three qualifying matches to go if, as expected, it beats Bahrain at home in Saitama on Thursday.
Akinori Nakayama, who has died at the age of 82, won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
OLYMPICS / Gymnastics
Mar 18, 2025

Japanese gymnastics great Akinori Nakayama dies aged 82

Nakayama won 10 Olympic medals and gave his name to a rings maneuver still performed by the world's top gymnasts. 
Locals fill up bottles from a communal water tank in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 30, 2024, following the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Lower House passes bill on peninsular disaster prevention

The bill is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of such regions.
Bags of the government's rice stockpile are shipped out of a warehouse in Saitama Prefecture on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025

Portion of government rice stockpile to hit shelves as early as next week

In a bid to stop the surging price of rice, the government auctioned off a portion of its emergency stockpile.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a session of the Upper House Budget Committee in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 18, 2025

Why ousting Ishiba could be a tricky task

Passing a no-confidence motion could result in the dissolution of the Lower House within 10 days, triggering another election the opposition might lose.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructs his government to develop a system to operate what are known as hospital ships by January 2026 at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025

Japan to begin hospital ship operations by next January

The program calls for using existing private-sector ships to transport patients from disaster-affected areas and provide medical care.
Snow falls on a narrow drinking alley in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward on Wednesday morning.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2025

Snowfall in Tokyo as storm sweeps country

A rapidly intensifying low-pressure system was unleashing heavy snow and strong winds across much of Japan.
A monument stands in Fujigane Park at the former site of an Aum Shinrikyo facility in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2025

Former member of Aum Shinrikyo expresses regret 30 years on

The 59-year-old man who has served time in prison admitted to following the doomsday cult's leader despite thinking it wasn't right.
A signed picture by photographer Joe Rosenthal of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima is shown as part of a display at the new National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, in November 2006.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 19, 2025

‘DEI’ purge prompts Pentagon to remove webpage on Iwo Jima flag-raiser

The Pentagon said that the page and others, which were removed under the Trump administration’s wide-ranging crackdown on diversity measures, were being restored.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waits for a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee to begin in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 19, 2025

What's the fuss over Ishiba's gift vouchers?

The prime minister's standing has worsened following reports that he handed out gift vouchers worth ¥100,000 ($668) each to rookie lawmakers from his party.
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 19, 2025

Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description

The lastest scandal comes amid broader concerns over the LDP's misuse of political funds, further damaging Prime Minister Ishiba’s reputation.
A vehicle carrying Kunihiko Katsuta enters the Hyogo Prefectural Police's Tatsuno Police Station in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture, in November following his arrest on suspicion of attempted murder.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 19, 2025

Man indicted over '06 and '07 Hyogo elementary school girl attacks

Both cases remained unsolved for years due to a lack of physical evidence, including the weapon used.
Visitors at Myoko Suginohara Ski Resort in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, on March 5
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025

Myoko ski resort area feels trepidation as foreign money pours in

Many locals fear Myoko could go the way of Niseko.
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave gift vouchers to lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party while he was in office, according to party sources.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 20, 2025

Kishida among several ex-PMs who gave gift vouchers to LDP lawmakers

The revelation emerges as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba comes under fire for distributing gift certificates worth ¥100,000 ($674) each to rookie LDP lawmakers.
Self-Defense Forces officers engage in the decontamination work of a train at Tsukiji Station on March 20, 1995, the day of a sarin nerve gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025

1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attack seen as a turning point for SDF

The sarin gas attack boosted the Ground Self-Defense Force's chemical weapons operations.
Shizue Takahashi offers flowers and pays tribute to the victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult during a memorial service at Kasumigaseki Station on Thursday. Her husband, Kazumasa, who was working as an assistant stationmaster at Kasumigaseki Station, was killed in the attack.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2025

Tokyo subway sarin gas attack remembered 30 years on

Many survivors of the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult still suffer from physical aftereffects and post-traumatic stress disorder.
While headline inflation cooled in February, underlying price pressure remains steady, raising concerns for households as real wages remain stagnant.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2025

Japan’s inflation slows less than expected, backing BOJ hikes

Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.0% from a year ago in February, decelerating from a 3.2% pace in January.
The Fukuoka Prefectural Police Headquarters. Between October 2022 and late September 2023, a Chinese couple developed about 2,300 square meters of land owned by 21 individuals without their consent and opened a campsite, according to police.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2025

Chinese couple arrested for opening campsite at historic Fukuoka ruins

A city official first spotted prefab huts erected at the castle ruins around October 2022 and demanded their removal, but the couple refused to comply, according to police.
The Saitama Prefectural Police will trial polo shirt-type uniforms with high breathability from May to help officers bear the scorching heat in summer.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2025

Police in Japan to abolish skirts in uniforms in April

The move reflects the fact that a vast majority of female police officers already opt to wear pants.
Citizens’ holdings of cash in the three months ended in December was down 3.4% from a year earlier in the biggest drop in the data going back to 1998.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2025

Japan’s households slash cash at record pace as inflation bites

The decline mostly likely reflects the wider adoption of cashless consumption as well as a rise in nominal consumer spending due to inflation.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo