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April 25, 2025
 

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NPA

Two Japanese men are suspected of helping an IT worker from North Korea create an account for a job-matching service by sending driver's license photos and other information to the IT worker in September and October 2020.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 8, 2025
Pair suspected of helping North Korean IT worker pose as a Japanese citizen
Police in Tokyo believe the IT worker was involved in North Korea's efforts to obtain foreign currency.
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.
Orix Buffaloes pitcher Taisuke Yamaoka speaks to reporters in the city of Osaka on Friday for the first time since he was reported to have participated in a poker tournament run by a foreign casino website.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 21, 2025
Cabinet approves strategy to battle illegal online casinos
A National Policy Agency survey released earlier this month showed that nearly 3.37 million Japanese are estimated to have used overseas online casinos to illegally gamble.
Japanese soldiers prepare to go underground amid a sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system on March 20, 1995.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2025
Ex-police official regrets delays in raiding Aum facilities
A former National Police Agency executive regrets failing to raid Aum Shinrikyo bases before the doomsday cult mounted its sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system.
Some 40% of online casino users are unaware that gambling via the casinos is illegal, a survey by the National Police Agency shows.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025
3.37 million in Japan use overseas online casinos, police survey suggests
Around 40% of respondents in the survey said they were unaware using paid services offered by such sites was illegal, according to the National Police Agency.
By type of social media, crimes against children in which they were targeted through their use of social media took place most frequently through Instagram for the first time, at 461 victims, followed by X at 398 victims, and TikTok, at 82 victims.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 13, 2025
Children targeted for crime through social media fell 10.8% in 2024
The total was the lowest in the past 10 years and fell for the fifth consecutive year, the National Police Agency said.
The number of fatal bicycle accidents and those causing serious injury that were attributed to cyclists' mobile phone use totaled 28 in 2024, a record high. Similarly, the number of such accidents involving cars driven by drivers distracted by mobile phones rose to the highest on record, at 136 cases.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025
Accidents caused by distracted drivers hit record high in 2024
A total of 136 fatal car accidents and those resulting in serious injury due to mobile phone use were recorded last year, the highest since at least 2007.
The National Police Agency has been warning people that gambling on online casinos is illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 16, 2025
Police investigate comedians over alleged online casino gambling
Officials warn that online casinos are illegal in Japan even if they are operating legally overseas, but the number accused of using them continues to rise.
According to the National Police Agency, 99% of speech venues during last year’s House of Representatives election had baggage inspections carried out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025
Election speech sites step up security after failed 2023 Kishida attack
The National Police Agency has applied greater pressure on speech organizers to enforce security measures following the 2023 failed attack on former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
National Police Agency Commissioner-General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki speaks during a news conference on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2025
Japan police agency sets rules for fake IDs in undercover yami baito probes
Investigations involving the use of fake IDs will target crimes such as robbery, special fraud, investment fraud and romance fraud.
Copper cables stolen from a solar power facility and cable cutters used for the theft
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 9, 2025
Japan eyeing mandatory ID check for scrap metal trading
Stolen copper wires are often brought to buyers as scrap metal, but there is no law requiring identity verification, making it easier to cash in stolen items.
Tokyo led the country's 47 prefectures with 146 traffic-related fatalities in 2024, followed by Aichi with 141 and Chiba with 131.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2025
Japan's traffic death toll falls to third-lowest in 2024
There were 2,663 traffic-related deaths in 2024. The government has a goal of lowering the annual toll below 2,000 by 2025.
National Police Agency Commissioner General Yasuhiro Tsuyuki
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2024
Police protected yami baito applicants in 125 cases
Since mid-October, the National Police Agency has been calling on applicants for such jobs to seek police advice and protection.
Some police officers will start wearing body cameras during patrols and for traffic and crowd-control duties from next spring on a trial basis.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2024
Police agency to test use of body cameras on patrol and in big crowds
The NPA has said it will consider whether to introduce the cameras nationwide based on the results of the trial.
The percentage of alcohol-related accidents involving electric scooters was far higher than that for accidents involving bicycles and mopeds.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024
17% of kick scooter accidents caused by drunken drivers
Some 70% of the drink-driving accidents took place between midnight and before 6 a.m.
Starting next March, the My Number card can be used as a driver's license.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024
Use of My Number card as driver's license to start March 24
The My Number card will function as a driver's license, with its embedded integrated circuit chip to contain new information such as license type.
Police officers attend a workshop on cyberattack countermeasures in February.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 29, 2024
Japan's police agency requests ¥6 billion to tackle cyberattacks
The funds will mainly be used to enhance investigation capabilities and improve measures to fight phishing using generative artificial intelligence technology.
Over 28,000 elderly people living alone died at home across Japan between January and June, police data has shown.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 29, 2024
28,000 elderly people died alone in Japan in first half of 2024
It took two weeks or longer for police to recognize the death in 4,913 of the cases.
As metal prices rise, so do cases of theft, with more and an increasing number of metal cables being stolen from solar power plants in Japan.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024
Japan's solar plants see over 9,000 cases of cable theft since 2023
The survey were the first to be conducted by the National Police Agency on the situation, at a time when metal prices are rising.
The amount of money stolen in fraud cases linked to social media in the first half of 2024 exceeded that of the whole 2023, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 1, 2024
¥66 billion stolen in Japan via online scams in first half of 2024
Of the investment fraud cases reported, 51.6% involved advertisements on social media platforms.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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