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Those who entered the job market from around 1993 to 2004, when long-term stagnation started, are likely to struggle even more to make ends meet after retirement.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 7, 2025

Japan's 'ice age' employment generation is at risk of poverty during retirement

Due to low wages the generation tends to earn and protracted pension adjustments, many may end up relying on welfare benefits.
Deceptive contractors prey on elderly homeowners and pressure them into signing contracts by making claims such as, "If you leave it unchanged, your house will tilt."
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
May 8, 2025

Japan struggles to crack down on home renovation scams

A senior police official said the rise in fraudulent renovation work is largely due to a legal loophole over small-scale construction work.
Carolina Kawakubo, head of the Japanese arm of NRW.Global Business GmbH, during an interview on April 28 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
BUSINESS
May 8, 2025

German agency to strengthen its support for Japan startups

The German agency plans to hold seminars in four cities across Japan through November to provide such companies with free expertise.
Liberal Democratic Party Upper House member Shoji Nishida answers questions from reporters in parliament on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 8, 2025

LDP lawmaker Shoji Nishida refuses to retract remarks over WWII exhibits

Nishida said that descriptions at a monument to commemorate the "Himeyuri" nursing corps who died in the Battle of Okinawa had rewritten history.
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
JAPAN / Politics
May 9, 2025

Who could become Japan's next prime minister?

Regardless of the outcome of July's Upper House election, the bar will be high for anyone seeking to unseat incumbent Shigeru Ishiba.
Japan Airport Terminal President Nobuaki Yokota and Chairman Isao Takashiro resigned amid an internal probe into favoritism toward a consulting firm led by a son of Makoto Koga, former secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, related to massage chair installations at the terminal buildings of an airport.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025

Japan Airport Terminal's top execs step down amid corruption scandal

The company said it accepted resignation offers from the two top executives the same day.
A security guard stands outside a branch of Yes Bank in New Delhi last August.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 10, 2025

Japan's SMBC to buy stake in India's Yes Bank

The Sumitomo Mitsui deal marks the biggest foreign investment in India’s banking sector, and is the latest move by Japanese lenders to expand in the country.
Hiroshi Nishi, dean of the Faculty of Dinosaur Paleontology at Fukui Prefectural University, in Eiheiji, Fukui Prefecture, in April
JAPAN
May 11, 2025

Japan's first dinosaur department opens at university in Fukui

Students in Fukui Prefectural University's Faculty of Dinosaur Paleontology will participate in cutting-edge research and fossil excavations.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) and Chilean President Gabriel Boric at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Tokyo on Sunday
JAPAN / Politics
May 11, 2025

Ishiba and Boric reaffirm importance of free trade

Ishiba told Boric that Japan wants to deepen bilateral cooperation with Chile in the mining sector, given that Chile is the largest source of copper and lithium for Japan.
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of Uotsuri Island, one of the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, in 2013.
JAPAN
May 11, 2025

Chinese research ship spotted in Japanese EEZ

The research ship sailed out of the Japan-China median line at about 1:20 p.m. after it was asked by a JCG patrol ship by radio to stop operating.
The operator of Tokyo's Haneda Airport has been warned by the government over its inappropriate transactions.
JAPAN
May 12, 2025

Transport ministry issues warning to Haneda Airport operator

The ministry summoned Japan Airport Terminal president Kazuhito Tanaka over misconduct related to a massage chair business in a terminal at Haneda Airport.
The Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue that was returned to the Kannonji Temple in Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Monday
JAPAN
May 12, 2025

Stolen Buddha statue returned to Japanese temple after 12 years

A ritual was held at Kannoji Temple on the island of Tsushima to mark the return of the Kanzeon Bodhisattva statue after more than 12 years.
Currently, Japanese nationals living abroad are required to receive residency certificates in person at overseas diplomatic missions even if applications are submitted online.
JAPAN
May 13, 2025

Japan to issue residency certificates online to nationals abroad

The Foreign Ministry said Monday that it will begin issuing residency certificates online to Japanese nationals living abroad through overseas diplomatic missions.
A Chinese national flag flies as people walk over a pedestrian bridge in Shanghai on April 15.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japanese man gets 12-year prison sentence in China over spying

The Japanese consul-general in Shanghai was allowed to observe the court hearing but has not disclosed details of the ruling.
Marta competes for Brazil in the gold medal match of the women's soccer tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 10.
SOCCER
May 14, 2025

Brazil legend Marta returns for Japan friendlies

Widely considered the greatest female soccer player of all time, Marta last wore the Brazil jersey in the Olympic final last August.
Takashi Hashimoto, who was rescued by the crew of an Okinawan fishing boat 45 years ago, on March 4 in Tokyo's Minato Ward
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Former Vietnamese refugee says he is thankful for Japan after 45 years

The native of now-defunct South Vietnam boarded a small bamboo boat crowded with 24 people in the central city of Da Nang in March 1980.
A copy of the international kilogram prototype made of platinum-iridium alloy (top right) is displayed in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Monday.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japan's meter and kilogram prototypes shown ahead of 150th anniversary

The original kilogram prototype has been kept in a temperature- and humidity-controlled steel safe at AIST, in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.
New research by a U.S. climate scientists’ group reveals that extreme heat has increased the risks of preterm births and other pregnancy complications in Japan, nearly doubling the number of days that are harmfully hot for pregnant women over the past five years.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025

Harmfully hot days for pregnant women in Japan nearly doubled over past five years

Heat stress can raise the risks of stillbirths, miscarriages, preterm births and low-weight births, as well as congenital abnormalities for the babies.
Japan ranked 14th out of 36 developed countries in the latest child well-being survey, improving from 20th place in the previous survey released in 2020, a report by a UNICEF research institute showed Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025

Japan ranks 14th in UNICEF child well-being survey

Top positions in the latest overall rankings were held by the Netherlands, Denmark and other European countries.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.
JAPAN
May 14, 2025

Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative

Major retailer Aeon announced Tuesday it will start selling the “Karoyaka” variety of California rice from June 6.
The government should "design a specific system by around fiscal 2026 to make standard childbirth expenses free of charge,” an expert panel said, as the aging nation seeks to reverse its declining population and shrinking pool of tax-paying workers.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Expert panel suggests Japan’s government make childbirth free

The proposal follows a child care policy package adopted in 2023 to reverse Japan’s declining birthrate by supporting families with young children.
Japan hopes to increase the number of cybersecurity experts in the country to 50,000 by 2030.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Japan looks to increase number of cybersecurity experts to 50,000 by 2030

A private survey has shown that Japan faces a cybersecurity expert shortage of about 110,000 people, highlighting an urgent need to nurture such professionals.
Scott Callon, CEO of Japan Display Inc, will step down on June 1 to take responsibility for the company's poor performance.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Japan Display to cut 1,500 jobs in Japan on consecutive years of losses

The struggling maker of small and midsize liquid crystal display panels reported a consolidated net loss of ¥78.2 billion ($538.7 million) for fiscal 2024.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Russia to conduct drill in waters near disputed island off Hokkaido

The Japanese government has lodged a protest with Russia over the planned drills near Shikotan.
A tricolored calico cat (left) and a tortoiseshell cat. A Japanese research team has discovered a gene that determines the fur color patterns of the two breeds of cats.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 16, 2025

Japan team finds gene that determines calico cats' color patterns

Researchers led by Kyushu University professor Hiroyuki Sasaki found that the coloring was decided by the ARHGAP36 gene on the X chromosome.
Japan is considering adding three more sectors, including distribution warehouse management, to its program to grant residency status to foreign workers with what are being called "specified skills."
JAPAN
May 16, 2025

Japan eyes three more sectors for foreign workers program

The three sectors — distribution warehouse management, services supplying sheets and towels to hotels, and resource recycling — are struggling to secure workers.
The draft of the government's defense white paper says China's moves to strengthen its cooperation with Russia are a serious concern for Japan's security, describing Beijing's military moves as the biggest strategic challenge ever.
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2025

Japan government paper to express concern over China-Russia ties

A draft of the defense white paper described Beijing's military moves as the biggest strategic challenge ever.
The Upper House passed the active cyberdefense bill on Friday with majority support spanning the ruling bloc and the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2025

Japan enacts active cyberdefense law

Through the law, the government aims to set up defenses against cyberattacks that are on par with or better than major Western countries.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other ministers ahead of a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
May 16, 2025

Japan enacts bills to make criminal procedures digital

The revised laws will make trial records digital to allow lawyers to view them online.
Houses along canal with heavy steam and mist in Beppu, Oita Prefecture. The Meteorological Agency announced the arrival of rainy season in the southern part of the Kyushu region, making it the first time the season began in the area before any other region since records began in 1951.
JAPAN
May 17, 2025

Japan's rainy season begins in southern Kyushu

This is the first time since statistics began in 1951 that southern Kyushu has entered the rainy season earlier than any other region in Japan.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes