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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 1, 2025

No rest for weary Ishiba as challenges await in parliament

After finally securing passage of the country's budget earlier this week, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba now faces an uphill battle to win back the public's trust.
Rozan Al-Khazendar (second from left), an entrepreneur from the Gaza Strip, speaks to Kiyomi Kitamura (left), her Japanese partner in a T-shirt venture to raise funds for the Palestinian enclave, during a meeting at her office in the outskirts of Cairo, last December.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 2, 2025

Gaza woman launches clothing brand with Japanese partner

Entrepreneur Rozan Al-Khazendar is collaborating with a mail-order business operator out of Shiga Prefecture to launch a website selling T-shirts to fund aid to the region.
A report from Dai-ichi Life Research Institute shows that the cost of typical food items eaten at the gatherings known as hanami has risen 21.4% in the past six years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

Inflation casts shadow over Japan’s cherry blossom season

A report shows that the cost of typical food items eaten at flower viewing gatherings has risen 21.4% in the past six years.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda told parliament on Wednesday that new U.S. tariffs could have a large impact on trade activities among nations, depending on their size and the area they cover.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

U.S. tariffs could have big impact on global trade, BOJ chief says

Gov. Kazuo Ueda also underlined the potential of such tariffs affecting households and business sentiment, which would go on to influence overall spending.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 2, 2025

A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers

Syndicates are increasingly targeting middle- to upper-class individuals from across the world through something as harmless as online video games.
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 3, 2025

Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments

NHK's new four-episode miniseries, “After the Quake,” probes the ripple effects of past major disasters across Japanese society.
Japan’s stocks plunged after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped the nation with a 24% levy as part of tariffs on trading partners worldwide.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 3, 2025

Japan’s stocks slump on Trump’s 24% tariffs and stronger yen

The Topix Index fell 4% to 2,544.41 as of 9:12 a.m. Tokyo time, while the blue-chip Nikkei declined 4.1% to 34,281.76.
Some students avoid using school restrooms altogether because of traditional squat toilets, a survey has found.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

For incoming first graders, a major hurdle awaits — Japanese squat toilets

According to one survey by the education ministry, roughly 1 in 4 students said they were unable to use the traditional toilets.
Teruki Hara (left) and Kazuyasu Takahashi in the city of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Jan. 27
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2025

14 years on: Teen from Tokyo begins fishing career in Fukushima

Teruki Hara remains initially discovered his love for fishing in the prefecture as a child.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Wednesday. The return of scandal-tainted Liberal Democratic Party members could make life tougher for Ishiba within the party.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2025

Ishiba to face more political headaches with return of scandal-hit LDP members

For an already-unpopular administration, the return of party members implicated in a slush funds scandal will create further political headaches.
Tokyo police on Thursday sent to public prosecutors papers on six comedians from major Japanese entertainment agency Yoshimoto Kogyo on suspicion of gambling via online casino services.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025

Papers on six Japanese comedians sent to prosecutors over online gambling

They are suspected of accessing and gambling on overseas online casino websites between January 2023 and December 2024.
Among those arrested, 1,011 were ringleaders or individuals who gave instructions. About 90% were perpetrators, including people who received defrauded money, and around 40% became involved in the crimes through recruitment via social media.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 3, 2025

New ‘tokuryū’ crime groups outpace yakuza in arrests

The term was coined by the National Police Agency to describe a new form of criminal group that has emerged as an alternative to traditional yakuza organizations.
Suntory President Nobuhiro Torii says the company has the option of simply changing the target market if prices of Hibiki and Yamazaki become up too high for U.S. consumers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2025

Suntory may shift focus to Japan, Asian markets to counter U.S. tariffs

Its president, Nobuhiro Torii, says it has the option of simply changing the target market if prices for its whiskys become too high for American consumers.
Aeon has released a ¥321 ($2.20) frozen bento boxed meal containing peperoncino pasta and a hamburger steak with tomato sauce, which went on sale on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2025

Japan retailers boost own-brand products amid inflation

Private-label products, which retailers develop with manufacturers, can be sold at lower prices than those of name-brand products because of reduced costs.
A child welfare center in Naha in May 1966
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 14, 2025

In Okinawa, war trauma carried by orphans still lingers

“War orphans were pushed to the margins of society after the war," says one academic.
The number of people who moved from urban to nonurban areas under a government program to help revitalize local communities increased by 710 in fiscal 2024 from the preceding year, according to the internal affairs ministry.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 4, 2025

Record 7,910 people served as 'community reactivators' in FY2024

About 70% of over 8,000 urban residents who moved to nonurban areas under the government program continued to live in areas where they served.
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Shinjiro Koizumi (center) meets with his counterparts from Komeito and the Democratic Party for the People in Tokyo on March 28.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 4, 2025

LDP reels in DPP to win political donation war against CDP

Partnering with the DPP gave the LDP much-needed momentum against the CDP this week, not to mention the votes to pass legislation.
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2025

Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs

It says it will maintain two shifts of production of its Rogue SUV at its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs on automobiles.
Some 100 people on Saturday mourned those who died in a mass suicide at the Chibichiri Gama cave in the village of Yomitan in Okinawa Prefecture 80 years ago in the final stages of World War II.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2025

Victims of WWII mass suicide mourned in Okinawa

The mass suicide occurred in April 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa, the largest ground battle in Japan during the war.
Prince Hisahito attends the entrance ceremony at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture on Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2025

Japan's Prince Hisahito starts college life

The nephew of Emperor Naruhito is enrolled in the University of Tsukuba's University's School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
ETC lanes are closed at a toll booth on the Chuo Expressway in the city of Mitaka in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2025

Malfunctioning tollbooths snarl traffic around Honshu

The Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system was unusable at over 90 tollbooths in seven prefectures — Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Aichi, Gifu, and Mie.
Former Prime Minister Taro Aso has the most assets among Lower House members, at ¥601.53 million ($4.1 million), according to a Jiji Press tally of asset reports filed after the general election in October last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 7, 2025

Lower House members' assets hit record low: Jiji

The decrease reflects the retirement or electoral defeat of major asset holders in last year's general election, and the debut of new lawmakers.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako lay flowers at the Iwoto Islander Peace Cemetery Park on Iwo Jima on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2025

Emperor and empress visit Iwo Jima battlefield to pay respects to war dead

Monday's trip to the island is the first by an emperor and an empress since the current Emperor Emeritus Akihito's and Empress Emerita Michiko's visit in 1994.
People walk to the Osaka Expo venues on the Yumeshima artificial island on Saturday to participate in a three-day test run involving visitors ahead of its grand opening next Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2025

Potentially explosive levels of methane gas detected at Osaka Expo site

Methane levels exceeding safety standards were found in an underground utility pit on the western side of the Yumeshima venue, officials said Monday.
A Fuchu expressway entrance in western Tokyo is closed Sunday due to a glitch in the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2025

Tollbooths now operational after ETC malfunction causes mass confusion

It was the first time such a large-scale problem involving the ETC system has occurred since Japanese expressways were privatized in 2005.
The Unification Church's Tokyo headquarters in Shibuya Ward. The group is appealing a district court order stripping it of its religious corporation status.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 7, 2025

Unification Church appeals stripping of religious corporation status

The group argued that the district court order was decided as a foregone conclusion and ignored law and the facts.
Kwai Chung container ports in Hong Kong earlier this month
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 7, 2025

East Asia tries a mix of measures to counter U.S. tariffs as markets suffer

U.S. President Donald Trump last week announced a raft of tariffs, with almost every country affected.
A person lays flowers for the crew members of the Imperial Japanese Navy's battleship Yamato who died in its sinking 80 years ago, during a memorial service held in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2025

Crew members of sunken battleship Yamato remembered on 80th anniversary

The ship sank off Cape Bonomisaki on Kagoshima's Satsuma Peninsula at 2:23 p.m. on April 7, 1945, with only 276 of the 3,332 crew members surviving.
Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami speaks during a news conference on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2025

Ofunato forest fire declared extinguished

Officials said Monday that there was no longer a risk of the fire breaking out again.
Yamaguchi-gumi executives (center and right) leave the Hyogo Prefectural Police headquarters in Kobe after submitting a pledge to end turf battles on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 8, 2025

Yamaguchi-gumi pledges end to yakuza war

The crime syndicate has been involved in turf battles with the rival Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, formed by more than a dozen gangs that splintered from it, since 2015.

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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