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September 17, 2025
 

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JAPANESE

Composer Toru Fuyuki died of aspiration pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo on Thursday. He was 89.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 31, 2024
Toru Fuyuki, composer of 'Ultraseven' theme song, dies at 89
The "Father of Ultra Music" is known for his contributions to the special effects series, including the theme for "Return of Ultraman."
A stack of ¥10,000 bills equivalent to the year-end balance of banknotes in circulation would be 1,240 kilometers high, or about 328 times higher than the 3,776-meter Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2024
Japan's year-end banknote balance down for second straight year
The drop resulted from people increasingly opting for cashless payments.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the Nikkei stock average closing at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high marked in 1989.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 30, 2024
Japan's Nikkei ends 2024 with nearly 20% rise
At 39,894.54, the benchmark index finished at its best year-end level ever, topping the previous high from the end of 1989 at the height of the country's bubble economy.
Midori Kato has been voice acting the character Sazae Fuguta in the TV animation series "Sazae-san" since it started in 1969.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2024
Still sounding young at 85, Midori Kato is the voice of old Japan
The voice actor is the last original member of the cast of “Sazae-san,” a cartoon series that premiered in 1969 and never quite joined the modern world.
An advertisement in Tokyo's Kabukicho, Japan's largest red-light district. The country is home to a thriving adult entertainment industry and has recently seen a boom in sex tourism fueled by the weak yen and availability of red-light services.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 30, 2024
From geisha to oshikatsu, toxic tropes fuel sex industry
It isn't only the foreign gaze that produces stereotypes of Japanese women as submissive and promiscuous. Local laws and cultural norms play just as important a role.
Three children died after being found with head injuries at their house in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2024
Three children die of injuries sustained at home in Kanagawa
Police believe the children's mother was involved in the incident and plan to interview her.
According to the National Police Agency, a total of 3,326 romance scam were reported in the first 11 months of this year, more than double that in the same period of last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 30, 2024
'For our future together': The rising threat of romance scams in Japan
The prevalence of such scams, which prey on the lonely, has led authorities to step up measures to crack down on scammers who are often not even in the country.
Lacquerware maker Takaho Shoji is trying to bring life back to his remote community in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, after a devastating earthquake and subsequent floods on New Year's Day of 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 29, 2024
Japan's Wajima craftmakers see hope in disaster-hit region
Lacquerware makers are determined to bring life back to the remote community after a devastating New Year's Day earthquake, followed by severe floods.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo on Friday. Tokyo prosecutors have dropped charges against 65 current and former Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and their secretaries, including Ishiba, in relation to the party's slush funds scandal.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2024
Prosecutors drop cases against LDP lawmakers over slush fund scandal
With the decision, the LDP hopes to turn the page on the scandal, which heavily damaged public trust in the party.
Stefan Kaufmann, former president and CEO of Olympus, in 2022
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2024
Ex-Olympus CEO Kaufmann gets suspended sentence over drugs
The judge decided to suspend the sentence, given that the former Olympus CEO has been staying away from drugs.
Cabinet ministers at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Friday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2024
Japan's Cabinet approves ¥115.5 trillion budget
The proposal exceeded ¥110 trillion for the third consecutive year in order to increase spending on defense and social welfare costs.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo following a BOJ policy meeting on Dec. 19
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 27, 2024
Some BOJ policymakers called for rate hike soon, December summary shows
The Bank of Japan held interest rates steady at 0.25% at this month's meeting.
Iwao Hakamata (left) speaks to his supporters along with his sister Hideko in the city of Shizuoka on Sept. 29 after he was acquitted by the Shizuoka District Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2024
Top prosecutors office finds investigation of Hakamata insufficient
Iwao Hakamata was acquitted this year in his retrial for the murder of four people in 1966.
Dodgers announcers Stephen Nelson and Jessica Mendoza pose with Ichiro Suzuki before a game against the Mariners in Seattle in 2023.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 27, 2024
Dodgers voice Stephen Nelson paves way for Japanese Americans in media
Nelson strongly believes representation matters in media and is aware that he might be helping inspire the next generation of Asian Americans in sports media.
Inflation in Tokyo accelerated for a second month in December, as the government temporarily phased out utility subsidies, a result that will likely support expectations of an interest rate hike next year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 27, 2024
Inflation in Tokyo accelerates, keeping rate hike prospects intact
The Tokyo core consumer price index, which excludes volatile fresh food costs, rose 2.4% in December from a year earlier.
Death row inmate Chisako Kakehi, who was convicted of murdering three elderly men between 2012 and 2013 with the intent of inheriting their assets, has died, local media reported Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 26, 2024
Chisako Kakehi, sentenced to death for cyanide murders, dies in custody
The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering three men — her husband and two common-law spouses — to inherit their assets.
According to Teikoku Databank, January price markups will center on bread products.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024
Prices of 1,380 food items set to rise in Japan in January
According to a private research firm, January markups will center on bread products.
The Japanese economy is expected to grow 1.2% in fiscal 2025 in price-adjusted real terms, according to a government forecast.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024
Japan's government expects 1.2% economic growth for fiscal 2025
The government maintained its view that personal consumption will be solid thanks to stable inflation and the effects of its economic package.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Thursday at the Prime Minister's Office.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024
Japan wage growth projected to outpace inflation in fiscal 2025
In fiscal 2025, nominal wages are projected to increase 2.8% from the previous year, while the overall consumer price index is forecast to rise 2.0%.
The hands of dyeing craftsman Yoshiharu Okamoto are stained a deep blue by his work with indigo.
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 26, 2024
True blue tradition: How Japan's coveted jeans are made
Craftspeople in Okayama Prefecture are carrying on a centuries-old tradition of indigo dyeing that contrasts with contemporary fast fashion.
Haneda Airport security staff arrested over theft
Tokyo police have arrested a 21-year-old security inspector at Haneda Airport after he allegedly stole cash from a passenger during a baggage inspection.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
SDF spots China’s biggest aircraft carrier for first time
The Fujian aircraft carrier is seen in Shanghai in May 2024 as it leaves for its first sea trial.
White House threatens broad crackdown on liberal groups
FBI Director Kash Patel (right) listens to senior White House adviser Stephen Miller speak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
Why more hotels in Japan are offering room-only service
Nipponia Hotel Ise Kawasaki Merchant Town in Ise, Mie Prefecture
Pole vault rivals in awe after Duplantis has another historic night in Tokyo
Sweden's Armand Duplantis competes in the men's pole fault final during the World Athletics Championships at National Stadium in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

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