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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) with internal affairs minister Seiichiro Murakami (left) and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani. An administration with public support of under 30% is said to be in the "danger zone."
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2024

Ishiba Cabinet logs lowest initial support since 2000: Jiji poll

At 28.0%, it is the lowest starting approval rate for any administration in 24 years.
Cappadocia in central Turkey, a popular tourist destination renowned for its unusual rock formations and rock-caved churches. A bus carrying Japanese tourists that was traveling from Izmir in western Turkey to Cappadocia veered off a road and crashed into a ditch on Thursday, resulting in a number of them being sent to hospital.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 18, 2024

Bus carrying Japanese tourists in Turkey crashes into ditch

Passengers were sent to hospital where they underwent medical examinations, and two of them are receiving treatment, according to local authorities.
A man believed to be involved in a robbery and abduction of a woman in Chiba Prefecture has turned himself in to police.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 18, 2024

Man surrenders to police over 50-year-old Chiba woman’s abduction

Authorities are investigating whether the case is connected to a series of robberies across four prefectures in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced Australian Daniel Mathew Otto, 32, to two years in jail for breaking into a home in Shinjuku Ward in June 2023 and injuring an elderly man who lives there. Otto had claimed that a language mix-up led to the victim thinking he was a robber.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 18, 2024

Australian man claiming language mix-up jailed over Tokyo break-in

He claimed he was trying to warn the home owner of danger by telling him to “Go to a door.” The victim heard him shout "gōtō da" (This is a robbery) instead.
Wind power turbines in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Oct 18, 2024

Japan studying measures for more renewable energy areas

Such measures will be included in a revision of the government's plan for tackling global warming.
Police officers and fire department officials investigate a vehicle that crashed into a barricade outside the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Saturday morning after a man threw Molotov cocktail-like objects outside the ruling party's headquarters. The vehicle's number plate has been digitally obscured.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2024

Man arrested after throwing apparent firebombs at LDP headquarters

The suspect, identified as a 49-year-old man from Saitama Prefecture, was arrested on the spot and no injuries were reported from the incident.
A woman walks past campaign posters for the Lower House election in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 19, 2024

Ruling and opposition parties vow redoubled regional revitalization efforts

Both sides are offering ideas for stopping population outflow from regional communities in their campaigning for the Oct. 27 general election.
The Financial Services Agency in Tokyo. The financial instruments and exchange law prohibits corporate officials privy to important information, such as tender offers, from trading related shares before the information is made public.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2024

Judge seconded to FSA probed over insider trading suspicions

Since summer, the SESC has been investigating individuals and places related to the judge and scrutinizing his transaction details.
Wakaba Higuchi competes in the Skate America women's free program in Allen, Texas, on Saturday.
MORE SPORTS / Figure skating
Oct 20, 2024

Wakaba Higuchi wins Skate America women's gold in Japan one-two

It was a big day for Japanese skaters as former world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara claimed pairs gold.
Empress Emerita Michiko and her husband, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, stroll around the Akasaka Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo this month.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2024

Japan's Empress Emerita Michiko turns 90

The former empress sustained a fractured right femur after a fall at the palace on Oct. 6 and later underwent surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2024

LDP shaken by low public support for Ishiba Cabinet

Shigeru Ishiba had often been the top pick for the next prime minister in opinion polls but public expectations now seem to have faded.
Police officers remove a vehicle that crashed into a barricade outside the Prime Minister's Office in central Tokyo on Saturday after a man threw Molotov cocktail-like objects outside the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters and later drove into the barricade.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 20, 2024

More details emerge about suspect in attack at LDP headquarters

The suspect was sent to prosecutors on Sunday, although his motives for the attack remain unclear.
Suspect Mazuki Takarada, 22, at the Aoba Police Station in Kanagawa Prefecture on Sunday. He was taken to prosecutors on the same day.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2024

Police arrest 22-year-old man over fatal Yokohama burglary

Mazuki Takarada, a self-declared sole proprietor from Chiba Prefecture, was arrested on Saturday over the death of a 75-year-old man in his Yokohama home last week.
Shizuoka Prefectural Police Chief Takayoshi Tsuda bows to Iwao Hakamata (second from right), recently exonerated over a 1966 murder, and others on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2024

Shizuoka police chief apologizes to Iwao Hakamata after his acquittal

Takayoshi Tsuda visited the home of Hakamata, 88, in the city of Hamamatsu, bowing deeply for about two minutes.
Items confiscated by police in connection with several girls bars in Tokyo that operated without authorization in violation of the adult entertainment business law
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2024

17 Vietnamese women arrested over illegal girls bars in Tokyo

The Metropolitan Police Department has received a total of 23 complaints since 2020 about the five bars where the women were arrested.
Many truant children and their guardians apparently do not consult their schools or other organizations, making it difficult for appropriate support to reach them.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 21, 2024

Japan to test community-based support systems to aid truant children

Coordinators will provide counseling to children and guardians, refer them to related organizations and help children form social connections
Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi stumps in the city of Nara on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 22, 2024

With her sights set on Ishiba's throne, will Takaichi take over the LDP?

Anything less than a comfortable victory in Sunday's general election will put the prime minister in a vulnerable position.
The Chiba Prefectural Police headquarters in the city of Chiba. Police have arrested two men over a break-in at an 86-year-old woman's home in the city of Kamagaya at around 2:10 a.m. on Oct. 14.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 23, 2024

Suspect held over Chiba break-in received instructions via social media

The man said he received instructions through social media platform X as well as Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
Election campaign staff rally support for their respective candidates, waving their hands from the open windows of campaign vehicles.
JAPAN / Politics / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Nov 4, 2024

‘Bush warbler ladies’ name bows out from Japan’s election campaigns

Workers who rally support for candidates using loudspeakers on vehicles are increasingly being referred to by a gender-neutral term.
Shoji Maegawa raises his arms in joy in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Wednesday,
 following the approval of a retrial over the murder of a Fukui junior high school girl.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 23, 2024

Court orders retrial in 1986 Fukui murder case due to witness coercion

The Nagoya High Court ruling stated that law enforcement agencies, facing investigative roadblocks, likely influenced witness statements.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to voters in Aichi Prefecture on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 25, 2024

LDP rapped over funds for local chapters of scandal-tainted candidates

The LDP secretary-general said the funding was provided to the local chapters to expand the party’s influence, not to support individual candidates.
The probe into a Tokyo Stock Exchange worker is the first time an employee has become subject to a compulsory investigation for alleged insider trading.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 24, 2024

TSE worker under insider trading probe handled timely disclosures

According to sources, the employee allegedly leaked undisclosed information about multiple companies.
Ramen shop Menya Taisei's owner Taisei Hikage cooks ramen at his shop in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024

Japan's rising ramen prices give election voters food for thought

The problems facing ramen shop owners reflect a cost-of-living crunch that has become a top issue for voters in the general election on Sunday.
A crashed bus following an accident in the state of Perak in western Malaysia
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2024

Malaysia tour bus crash leaves one Japanese dead and others injured

According to state fire and rescue authorities, the accident occurred on a highway on Thursday afternoon.
Suspect Shiho Hosoya enters the Asakusa Police Station in Tokyo on Friday. The handcuffs and waist ties are blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2024

Tokyo police rearrest couple suspected of multiple murders of family members

Investigators are looking at inheritance as the primary motive behind the string of murders.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is also LDP president, dissolved the Lower House only eight days after assuming office on Oct. 1
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Why Ishiba’s strategy of a surprise battle backfired

His dissolution of the Lower House only eight days after assuming office and backtracking on previously touted policies left voters with little to base votes on.
Eiji Kidoguchi, fielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, won a by-election for the House of Councilors on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

CDP candidate wins Upper House by-election

Eiji Kidoguchi, elected to the chamber for the second time, focused his campaign on political reform.
Koichi Hagiuda thanks his supporters early Monday in Tokyo after his victory in Sunday's general election became certain.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

60% of 'slush fund' candidates lose in Japan Lower House poll

The severe outcome reflected renewed criticism against the LDP that arose in the final stage of the election campaign.
A lawyer heads to the Fukuoka High Court on Monday to file a lawsuit concerning "vote disparity" in the Lower House election held the previous day.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

Lawyers file suits to nullify Lower House election results

The group have said that the poll was unconstitutional because it was carried out without correcting vote-value disparities.
A digital camera found near the tip of the Shiretoko Peninsula in August was identified as belonging to Yu Nudeshima, a passenger of the Kazu I tour boat that sank on April 23, 2022, with 26 people on board.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 28, 2024

Passenger's photos from Hokkaido boat accident retrieved 2½ years on

The images offer a glimpse of April 23, 2022 — the day the Kazu I tour boat sank off Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula with 26 people on board.

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Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat