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July 17, 2025
 

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Tokyo police arrested Yuga Matsuoka, an employee at a leasing company, Wednesday on suspicion of attempted arson after he allegedly tried to set fire to a tourist go-kart company’s property.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Tokyo police arrest man for attempted arson at tourist go-kart company
Yuga Matsuoka, the 28-year-old suspect, confessed to the crime, calling the sound from the karts’ engines "noisy" and "stressful.”
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Chinese court jails Japanese executive after sudden detention for spying
The convicted man, an executive of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma, was detained in March 2023 and charged with espionage in October of that year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Teachers sharing illicit student images raises question of systemic failure
Japan’s sluggish policy response and deep-rooted cultural resistance to the concept of consent sets it apart from other countries.
The house of the wife of the late Chizuo Matsumoto, the now-defunct Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult's founder, in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025
Tens of millions of yen found at home of Aum Shinrikyo founder's wife
Chizuo Matsumoto was executed in 2018 over a series of incidents involving the cult, including the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2025
23-year sentence sought for senior member of 'Luffy' crime ring
"The cases have led to many copycat crimes, and the defendant should be punished severely," prosecutors stressed.
Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 12, 2025
Osaka police crack down on crime ring over underage prostitution
The group, made up of roughly 70 members, is suspected of recruiting about 130 underage girls for prostitution through social media.
The Osaka District Court ordered the man to have his son appear at a hearing, but the man failed to bring him on all three designated dates.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Osaka man detained for three weeks under human protection law
It is rare for a person to be detained under the human protection law, which has no clause on a specific period for such detentions, said an expert on Japan's family laws.
Defense lawyers countered in final arguments that Mai Nishitaka, who was dating Shuhei Iwaki at the time of the killing, had orchestrated the crime and manipulated him and her father into carrying it out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Two found guilty of killing man found in suitcase dumped in river near Tokyo
The duo — the father of the victim’s former girlfriend and a man who was dating the woman at the time of the incident — were jailed 13 years and 15 years, respectively.
The Astellas Pharma headquarters in Tokyo. A district court in Beijing will hand down a ruling on Wednesday for a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma, who has been charged with espionage in China, according to sources.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Chinese court to issue ruling on Japanese businessman
While the Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma was indicted in August last year, the Chinese side has not disclosed details of his charges.
According to the National Police Agency, there were 75,905 people who converted their foreign driver’s license to a Japanese one in 2024, up from 48,885 in 2019.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2025
Foreign drivers in Japan to face tougher license conversion rules from October
By Kanako Takahara
The stricter measures come in response to a series of high-profile car accidents caused by foreign drivers.

Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Japan team finds ancient ocean full of squids
The ancient ocean was full of squids, whose population exceeded that of fish or ammonites, a Japanese research team mainly from Hokkaido University has found through a new method using technology.
Students in Japan struggle with Japanese language and math sections on national exam
The correct answer rate for the Japanese language section on a national test dropped to 67.0% from 67.8% the previous year among elementary school sixth-graders.
Japan launches government body to address concerns over foreign nationals
The new administrative body would serve as a cross-agency "control tower" to respond to issues such as crime and overtourism involving foreign nationals, according to the government.
Trump signals the end of the road for Japan tariff negotiations
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (left) and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
With China and Trump, Japan defense report says world entering ‘new era of crisis’
A senior member of a Self-Defense Forces honor guard inspects a formation before the arrival of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for a visit to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on June 30.
Tokyo stocks hit by a perfect storm of tariffs, politics and budget worries
Tokyo stocks are underperforming shares in other large markets globally.
Japan researchers identify gut bacteria strain that boosts anticancer drugs
Researchers at the National Cancer Center Japan say a new type of gut bacteria named YB328 could help unlock the potential of cancer immunotherapy.
Tokyobike founder believes in taking in sights of dynamic cities slowly
Ichiro Kanai, founder and president of Tokyobike, is developing a niche but a new customer base who want to cycle as part of a lifestyle.

Podcast

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

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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