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 Tomohiro Osaki

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Tomohiro Osaki
Tomohiro Osaki is a staff writer in the Domestic News Division. A graduate of Sophia University in Tokyo, he likes to explore under-reported realities of Japanese youth, with a tendency toward the taboo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2013
Anti-Korean rally in Shin-Okubo turns ugly; several suspects held
The latest in a spate of anti-Korean demonstrations in Tokyo's Shin-Okubo district turned into an ugly melee Sunday between two rival groups, resulting in eight arrests, including the leader of an ultra-rightist organization and a leftist rival.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 14, 2013
Parolee in 1963 Saitama girl's slaying hits authorities for lying, forcing confessions
Investigators will lie, grill for hours on end and withhold exonerating evidence — in effect do anything — to extract a confession from a suspect they have pegged for a crime, a 1994 parolee seeking a retrial to clear his name in the 1963 kidnap-murder of a Saitama Prefecture girl said Thursday in...
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2013
Group targets miscarriages of justice
Seven months after Nepalese Govinda Prasad Mainali was last year acquitted of a 1997 robbery-murder of a Tokyo woman, his supporters launched a new civic organization to call for eradication of wrongful convictions, which they claim are still rampant in the legal system.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2013
Fukushima kids' thyroids screened
Forty-four children living in areas of Fukushima Prefecture subject to high levels of radiation were screened for thyroid cancer Saturday in Tokyo, highlighting widespread health fears following the 2011 nuclear meltdowns crisis.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2013
Video of Tokyo cop's crowd-control comments goes viral
A Tokyo police officer is winning praise for quick-witted comments that kept excited soccer fans from getting out of hand Tuesday night in Shibuya after Japan won a ticket to the 2014 World Cup.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 6, 2013
Hashimoto is Horie's kind of guy
Takafumi Horie, 40, the recently paroled founder of Internet firm Livedoor Co., said Wednesday he wants embattled Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto to become prime minister one day, citing his "ability to challenge" and "alter the status quo" of politics.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2013
Rights groups tell Japan to fully tape interrogations of criminal suspects
Human rights organizations submitted a petition Monday to the Justice Ministry urging the government to introduce full recordings of interrogations by prosecutors and police.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 2, 2013
Belgian, Ugandan win Noguchi prize
Two doctors from Belgium and Uganda were awarded the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize on Saturday at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development for their great strides in helping the world combat deadly infectious diseases.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2013
Tokyo urged to aid disease eradication battle
The world may be on the verge of a historic breakthrough in the quest to eradicate infectious diseases once thought incurable, and Japan needs to be a key player, said Mark Dybul, an executive of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 31, 2013
Widow in farmer suicide sues Tepco
A Filipino woman whose Japanese husband committed suicide after his dairy farming business was decimated by the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster is suing Tokyo Electric Power Co. for about ¥126 million.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2013
Innkeeper to offer taste of tradition among glitzy players in Otemachi
In Tokyo's Otemachi business district, home to a legion of foreign-owned upscale hotels, a Japanese-style inn will open as early as summer 2016 even as such traditional facilities struggle in the face of globalization, Hoshino Resorts President Yoshiharu Hoshino said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2013
People facing deportation file petition to stay
People who overstayed their visas in Japan, along with their families and supporters, submitted a petition Friday to the Justice Ministry asking that it refrain from deporting those who have established their lives here.
JAPAN
May 24, 2013
600 students lose loans for poor performance
About 600 university students are deemed no longer eligible for student loans because of their poor academic performance last year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 23, 2013
Nationalism rearing ugly head with greater frequency
Angry protesters took to the streets Sunday in Tokyo's Shin-Okubo district, home to many Korean shops and restaurants, describing the Korean residents there as 'cockroaches' and calling for their immediate 'extermination.'
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2013
Visa violators continue sit-in at Immigration
A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 21, 2013
Visa violators stage sit-in to stay
Visa violators kick off a five-day protest at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to protest plans to deport overstayers en masse on planes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2013
Overstayers need speed, lawyer says
Since debuting in October as Japan's first law office catering to foreign nationals, Tokyo Public Law Office Mita Branch — Foreigners and International Service in Minato Ward has been deluged with appointments.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2013
Pair log off, hit street to meet, hear real people
Once addicted to a social-networking service, 27-year-old Lim Moon Hyang suddenly got tired of responding to instantaneous feedback from her online friends and realized with terror just how deep her SNS obsession ran.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2013
Okinawa women's groups condemn Hashimoto justification of sex slaves
Women's groups and other parties in Okinawa Prefecture on Wednesday protested Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's contentious remarks about the wartime sex slaves, with some calling for his immediate resignation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 14, 2013
New thugs on block sidestep the usual suspects
Japan's underworld, namely the "boryokudan" (gangster organizations) better known as yakuza, have been targeted with crackdowns in recent years focused on cutting their funding and expanding their criminal liability. But a new type of thug appears to be acting with impunity by operating in a legal void....

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