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June 09, 2025
 

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FOREIGN

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during ministerial meeting meeting on foreign residents in Japan on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2025
Foreign tourists with unpaid medical bills in Japan to be denied entry
There have been growing calls for legislative reform to address unpaid medical fees and health care premiums — deficits filled by taxpayers' money.
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 5, 2025
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
Ideas range from stricter driver's license tests for foreign nationals to increasing taxes on foreign visitors.
Itsunori Onodera, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday visited the city of Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture to address issues between Kurdish residents and locals, including illegal waste dumping.
JAPAN
May 29, 2025
LDP policy chief visits Kawaguchi over reported problems with Kurdish residents
The problems reported include illegal waste dumping and foreigners illegally working.
Muneyuki Izawa, a chef at the Japanese ambassador's official residence in Phnom Penh, prepares Japanese cuisine dishes.
JAPAN
May 18, 2025
Japan working to improve treatment of 'culinary diplomats' in diplomatic missions
In July, the ministry will start accepting applications for chef positions under improved working conditions, with the improved treatment set to take effect next January.
Four people have been arrested on suspicion of transferring a food delivery driver account to a foreigner who is not qualified to work in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 16, 2025
Four arrested for letting Uzbek use their delivery driver account illegally
The suspects were arrested for allegedly creating a Demaecan driver account under a Japanese name on Oct. 21, 2023, then transferring it to an Uzbek national.
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.
Trainees from Indonesia and Vietnam learn about the mechanisms of train doors using a model at East Japan Railway's training center in Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
May 14, 2025
JR East to start training foreign nationals under new skills program
JR East aims to train around 100 people each year, and more than 10 railway operators have already expressed interest in joining the initiative.
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 recently enacted ordinance aimed at respecting individual differences in Sapporo has not been without controversy.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Apr 28, 2025
Sapporo enacts ordinance to foster diversity and inclusion
The number of foreign residents in Sapporo has doubled over the past decade, despite an overall population decline in the city.
Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks at a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2025
Japanese national confirmed dead in Myanmar quake
The Foreign Ministry had asked local authorities to search for the individual, and the person's body was found at the site of a collapsed building Saturday.
The 2025 Diplomatic Bluebook says that Tokyo will communicate closely with Washington over various issues facing the international community.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 8, 2025
Japan foreign policy report highlights importance of building ties with Trump
The 2025 Diplomatic Bluebook said that Tokyo will communicate closely with Washington over various issues facing the international community.
Rescue teams work to save residents trapped under the rubble of the destroyed Sky Villa Condominium development building in Mandalay on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 30, 2025
Aid rushes into Myanmar after earthquake kills over 1,700
Critical infrastructure — including bridges, highways, airports and railways — across the country of 55 million lay damaged, slowing humanitarian efforts.
The Immigration Services Agency in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025
Imabari Shipbuilding loses technical intern certification
The firm will be unable to accept foreign trainees for the next five years.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya has named the issue of fishery products imports as an important topic to be discussed with China.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 19, 2025
Japan, China and South Korea's top diplomats to meet in Tokyo
The last such trilateral meeting was held in November 2023 in the South Korean port city of Busan.
A Vietnamese worker harvests tomatoes at a farm in the city of Asahi, Chiba Prefecture, in 2018.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Amid labor shortage, Japan approves guidelines to upskill foreign workers
The new program aims to nurture trainees into skilled workers to motivate them to remain in the country.
Forbidden from seeing friends and forced to devote herself to housework, Reina (whose name has been changed), a 37-year-old Filipino national living in the city of Nagoya, became socially isolated.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2025
Foreign single mothers struggle with language barriers and visas
Experts are urging the government to create a safer environment where these women can continue living in Japan without fear.
The weak yen is often cited as one reason why many Japanese don't go abroad.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 25, 2025
Only 17% of Japanese people own passports, Foreign Ministry says
Around 3.7 million passports were issued domestically in 2024, a 8.8% increase from the year before but down 15.2% from prepandemic numbers in 2019.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya attends the Group of 20 foreign ministers' meeting at the Nasrec Expo Center in Johannesburg on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2025
At G20, Japan FM vows to continue support for Ukraine amid Trump tensions
The top diplomat reiterated the importance of standing up to Moscow, calling the war in Ukraine a “major challenge to the rule of law."
A Taliban security personnel stands guard as Afghan men wait to receive winter aid packages in Kandahar in January.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2025
Japan urges Taliban officials to cooperate with international society
The Taliban officials came to Japan at the invitation of the nonprofit Nippon Foundation.
Group of Seven top diplomats, including Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (second from left) and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right), meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in the German city on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 16, 2025
Japanese FM asks U.S. counterpart to exempt Tokyo from Trump tariffs
The foreign minister also said that he had broached the issue of Trump’s planned tariffs on automobiles imported to the U.S.
Japan won’t wait for G7 summit for possible U.S. trade deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top negotiator in tariff talks with the U.S. speaks to reporters at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
Japanese universities step up to help international students after Harvard ban
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University. U.S. President Donald Trump has barred Harvard from accepting international students, prompting Japanese universities to offer support.
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
Foreign tourists with unpaid medical bills in Japan to be denied entry
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during ministerial meeting meeting on foreign residents in Japan on Friday at the Prime Minister's Office.
Victims mourned 17 years after Akihabara indiscriminate attack
A mourner prays for the victims of an indiscriminate fatal attack on a street of Tokyo's Akihabara area on the 17th anniversary of the incident on Sunday.
What can Kenji Yanobe’s cosmic cats teach us about humanity?
Kenji Yanobe’s spacesuited cats are the main characters of “Ship’s Cat Island,” the inaugural exhibition at Hyper Museum Hanno in Saitama Prefecture.
From ridicule to redemption: Rice crisis returns Koizumi to the spotlight
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to the media as he inspects a warehouse storing stockpiled rice in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 30.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Accidents raise concern over how Japan vets foreign drivers
Keita Ueno (right), the owner of Kiki Driving School and an instructor who supports both foreign nationals and Japanese citizens returning from abroad in getting their foreign driver’s licenses converted, is worried about the current lax system for the process.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

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