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October 08, 2025
 

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MLIT

A Self-Defense Forces member leads residents in Fukamimachi, a village in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, to a rescue helicopter, on a destroyed road in January last year.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2025
Japan to subsidize efforts to prevent emergency roads from collapsing
Many roads built on piled-up soil collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024.
A toilet container transported to the roadside station Anamizu for disaster relief in the aftermath of the Noto Peninsula earthquake, on Jan. 12, 2024, in Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2025
Japan to help roadside stations install portable containers for disaster use
Portable containers installed at evacuation centers after the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula in January 2024 were used for multiple purposes, including as medical offices.
Priority lanes for test runs of self-driving trucks will be introduced on a roughly 100-kilometer section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2025
Self-driving lanes to open on Japan's Shin-Tomei expressway
The move is part of a plan to create a road network that can handle so-called Level 4 autonomous driving amid labor shortages in the logistics industry.
The area near the site where the remains of a dismembered body was found in the city of Higashiosaka, on Jan. 30.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2025
Osaka police identify dismembered body as ministry official
The deceased, 52-year-old Takamichi Kamioka, had been missing since late last year, prompting his family to file a missing persons report.
A slope (left) is built at the intersection of a sunken road in Yashio City, Saitama Prefecture on Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2025
Slope built to reach man trapped in sinkhole in Saitama
Firefighters will now launch a full-scale effort to find the 74-year-old driver as soon as preparations are made.
A sinkhole at an intersection on a road in the city of Yashio, Saitama Prefecture, on Thursday morning
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2025
Heavy machinery to be deployed in bid to save man trapped in Saitama sinkhole
To stabilize the site and facilitate rescue efforts, crews are excavating a 4-meter-wide, 30-meter-long ramp to deploy heavy equipment and clear debris.
Efforts continued Thursday to rescue a 74-year-old truck driver trapped in a massive sinkhole in Yashio, Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2025
74-year-old truck driver trapped in Saitama sinkhole for third day
Witnesses reported that the ground collapsed moments before the truck drove over the area, sending the vehicle plummeting into the chasm.
A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism official explains a new system for detecting vacant houses, on Dec. 23.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2025
Government developing AI-based system to detect vacant houses
The aim of the system is to spot such properties at an early stage and make them available for sale or rent, or demolish them before they collapse.
A transport ministry panel experiments with a dummy to determine how quickly a person lying on the road during the night would be spotted when drivers use low and high beam lights.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2024
Japan drivers warned to steer clear of drunk pedestrians sleeping on road
Collisions involving pedestrians asleep on the road typically spike in December, when more people get imbibed at New Year's gatherings.
A strawberry sales area at the Motegi roadside rest station in the town of Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture. As part of measures to address the shortage of successors, the roadside rest station is collaborating with farmers and others to sell locally grown agricultural products.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024
Support planned for roadside rest stations as regional development hubs
The facilities, which started out mainly as rest places for drivers, have taken on wide-ranging roles, from tourism and agriculture to disaster prevention.
Workers repair a damaged road on Jan. 7 in the aftermath of an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2024
New minister promises ample budget for disaster resilience
"Improving the country's resilience is an extremely important task," Hiromasa Nakano said in an interview.
Delivery trucks in Chiba in 2023
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2024
Japan to promote the joint transportation of local goods
The measure is aimed at addressing the truck driver shortage in Japan.
A condo complex in Tokyo
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2024
Japan's land ministry eyes bill to prevent overpriced condo repairs
The ministry plans to impose supervisory penalties on companies that are found to be in violation of the rules.
A Class 4 railway crossing without alarms and circuit breakers in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, in June 2018.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2024
Government looks to improve safety at Japan's dangerous railway crossings
The ministry will support the installation of manually operated gates and fences at crossings that do not have alarms or barriers.
Japan Coast Guard officials search for missing people after the fatal sinking of the Kazu I tour boat off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2024
Japan to require passenger ships sailing in cold waters to carry life rafts
The move follows the deadly sinking of the Kazu I tour boat off Hokkaido in April 2022.
A ride-hailing service vehicle in Sendai. In times of disasters, such services will be available more widely.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024
Japan to allow use of ride-hailing services in disasters
Demand for transportation tends to increase during disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, as well as in the recovery and reconstruction process.
Demolition works were still being carried out on July 1 in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months after the New Year's Day earthquake in the Noto Peninsula.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2024
Land ministry highlights disaster reduction measures in budget request
The budget request is up 18.1% from the previous year at ¥7.03 trillion.
A huge seawall has been constructed along a coast in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2024
Infrastructure ministry to boost aid for port flood prevention
The ministry also plans to provide tax breaks to companies working on raising seawalls systematically.
High-rise buildings under construction in Tokyo in November last year
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2024
Japan looks to expand preferential measures for Flat 35 home loans
The measures to lower interest rates for those who acquire energy-efficient or earthquake-resistant houses are currently applied only to newly made loan contracts.
The land ministry is planning to create a system in which the central and local governments would evenly shoulder part of the demolition costs that condominium management associations should pay.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2024
Japanese government to subsidize demolition of old condo buildings
The land ministry is planning to subsidize such demolitions from the fiscal year beginning April 2025.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
Japanese immunologist among three Nobel medicine prize winners
Shimon Sakaguchi, an immunologist and distinguished professor at Osaka University, attends a news conference after winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in medicine, in Osaka Prefecture on Monday.
Spanish tourist injured in latest bear attack
Shirakawago, a U.N. World Heritage site in Gifu Prefecture
Americans and Canadians unite in battling 'eating machine' carp
A Fisheries and Oceans Canada team patrols the Grand River in Dunnville, Ontario, in search of invasive grass carp specimens on Sept. 25.
Trump hails 'wisdom and strength' of Japan's incoming prime minister
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, gives a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
OpenAI’s Sora 2 is drowning in Japanese 'AI slop'
OpenAI has rolled out a social app powered by Sora 2, its artificial intelligence video generator, which was quickly flooded with videos featuring iconic Japanese intellectual property.
Trump has his eyes on the prize — but a Nobel win looks unlikely
A protester holds a sign with an image depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and the words "Nobel" written on it, as supporters and family members of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, demonstrate to demand the immediate end of the war and the release of all hostages, outside the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, on Sept. 2.
‘Takaichi trade’ stalls as political reality calls for wait-and-see approach
Tokyo stocks staged a powerful rally on Monday. On Tuesday, they rallied again, then retreated.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.

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