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Himari Semans
The National Police Agency has noted a major rise in online investment fraud cases, incidents of which have more than quadrupled in the first eight months of this year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024
Investment and romance fraud cases triple in first eight months of year
A total of 6,868 reports of scam cases involving losses amounting to nearly ¥88 billion ($600 million) have been reported, the National Police Agency said.
The Ishikawa Prefectural Government engaged KDDI SmartDrone to have its drone operators survey flood-hit areas in the cities of Wajima and Suzu in the prefecture last week.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 3, 2024
Private drone operators seek bigger role in disaster response
Establishing protocols with local governments and coordinating the use of drones with manned aircraft would make efforts more effective, they say.
Prices of nearly 3,000 food and beverage products will rise in October, due to the soaring costs of ingredients.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 30, 2024
Food price hikes in Japan in October to be largest so far in 2024
Prices of 2,911 products from 195 major food and beverage manufacturers will be raised in October, surpassing April’s figure.
Justice Minister Ryuji Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Koizumi stressed that the granting of the special residency permits to children subjected to deportation orders was a one-time measure.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 27, 2024
Japan fine-tunes issuance of humanitarian visas
The move comes amid a near-tripling of technical intern trainees from Myanmar going missing from their programs in 2023.
Out of a total of 509,373 foreign technical trainees, 1.9% went missing in 2023, according to Immigration Services Agency data.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024
Record number of technical trainees go missing in Japan in 2023
Of the total, 1,765 were Myanmar nationals who had fled conflict in their home country.
Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024
In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders
Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Flowers are laid in front of a Japanese school in Shenzhen last Friday. A Japanese boy who was on his way to the school was fatally stabbed last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
Expat safety seen as a must for Japanese firms to keep doing business in China
Business leaders have underlined the duty of a host country to foreign firms in the wake of a fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba reacts during a news conference ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election in Tokyo on Sept. 6.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024
Why is Shigeru Ishiba so unpopular among his LDP peers?
The former defense minister is highly regarded among the public and local chapters of the ruling party, but it's a different story when it comes to LDP lawmakers.
The Meteorological Agency's Shigeki Aoki speaks a news conference on Tuesday morning about the tsunami advisory.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024
Advisory lifted after 50 cm tsunami reaches Hachijojima
The advisory had been issued for the Izu and Ogasawara islands following a 5.9 magnitude earthquake.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Thursday. The embassy and other organizations have urged swift and resolute actions to protect Japanese citizens in China.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2024
China works to avoid rift with Japan over killing of schoolchild
Beijing is characterizing the murder as a lone act and downplaying the political implications.
A re-creation of a scene in which an electric wheelchair tire has become stuck in a gutter
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024
Deaths among elderly people using electric wheelchairs on the rise
Accidents usually occur at railroad crossings, roadside ditches and on slopes, especially when elderly wheelchair-users are alone outdoors.
Takanori Takebe (behind the lectern) speaks after his team of researchers and he were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2024
Scientists win Ig Nobel for discovering anal breathing in mammals
The research team of Japanese and American scientists hope the discovery will help treat people with COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.
The total cost of cooking curry rice has topped ¥300 for the 12th straight month and is expected to exceed ¥350 per serving in August, according to a survey.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024
Making a bowl of curry rice at home now costs over ¥300, survey says
The cost of the budget-friendly dish hit a record ¥342 in July, up ¥44 from the same period last year, according to a survey.
In a survey conducted by rental housing operator Daito Trust Construction, residents praised the tranquility and safety of Daikanyama, a neighborhood in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, as well as its accessibility to public transportation.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 12, 2024
Daikanyama tops list of Tokyo neighborhoods in livability survey
Residents score the neighborhood highest in terms of how happy they are to live in the area and how much they wanted to continue living there.
About 30 students from Biwako Seikei Sport College who had gone kayaking in Lake Biwa on Monday failed to return to shore on time. It wasn’t until hours after sundown that all the missing students returned to shore on their own.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 10, 2024
Students reported missing while kayaking in Lake Biwa all accounted for
Having failed to return to shore before sundown, the group of university students finally made it back hours later after three of their kayaks capsized.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, accused of workplace bullying, testifies to an investigative panel in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 9, 2024
Nippon Ishin calls on Hyogo governor to resign over bullying claims
Nippon Ishin’s move is expected to be a politically fatal blow for Motohiko Saito, as he had the party’s support when he was elected as an independent.
Shuzo Fukushi, who heads Rice Meister Kojimachi in Tokyo, shows a bag of Calrose mixed with domestic rice at his store on Thursday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 6, 2024
Demand for Calrose rice rises amid Japanese rice shortage
The California rice is a medium-grain variety cheaper than the Japanese short-grain cultivar, but with a similar taste.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito attends a session of a panel investigating allegations of workplace harassment against him, in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2024
Hyogo governor disputes legal protections for harassment whistleblower
Motohiko Saito said that he didn’t believe it was a problem to allow an investigation into the creator of a document making allegations against him.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2024
Warm weather expected to delay autumn foliage
Higher temperatures are expected this fall, as heat lingers on from Japan's joint hottest summer on record.
Kamekichi Fujiwara has been making 'New York-style' pizza in Tokyo's Kichijoji neighborhood since 1967.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2024
At Tony’s Pizza, ‘New York style’ is a state of mind
In 1967, Kamekichi Fujiwara made his first pizza layered with Dutch edam, mozzarella from Germany and Danish Maribo — and it’s what Tony’s Pizza still serves today.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?