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March 31, 2025
 

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COURTS

Protesters demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Tuesday against court rulings acquitting two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives finalized
Lawyers acting as prosecutors did not file an appeal against the Supreme Court's decision last week that upheld the not-guilty verdicts against the executives.
Members of a Liberal Democratic Party panel discuss proposals about allowing spouses to retain their respective surnames, in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 10, 2025
Eternal debate over surname law comes to fore again
Since last October’s general election, momentum has picked up for a legislative change to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
The bridge in the city of Asahikawa where a female high school student died after being pushed off in April last year
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 9, 2025
Woman sentenced to 23 years over Asahikawa girl's murder
Asahikawa District Court in Hokkaido has sentenced a 20-year-old woman to 23 years in prison in a high-profile murder case in which a female high school student died after being pushed off a bridge and into a river in Asahikawa in April last year.
Shoshi Maekawa (center) speaks during a news conference in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday following the opening of his retrial.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025
Retrial ruling set for July 18 over 1986 murder in Fukui
In a hearing at the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court, Shoshi Maekawa said he was innocent of the junior high school student's murder.
Following the Nagoya High Court ruling on the same-sex marriage lawsuit, lawyers and others raise banners and boards that read "unconstitutional" and similar statements on Friday in Naka Ward, Nagoya.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025
Nagoya High Court rules not recognizing same-sex marriage unconstitutional
It is the fourth high court ruling in Japan on same-sex marriage, following decisions in Sapporo, Tokyo and Fukuoka.
Former Executive Vice President Ichiro Takekuro enters the Tokyo High Court for the appellate court ruling in January 2023 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives to be finalized
The Supreme Court supported the lower courts' decisions that the accident was unpredictable and decided to dismiss an appeal by lawyers acting as prosecutors.
After the ruling in the lawsuit seeking an injunction against the operation of the No. 3 reactor at Shikoku Electric Power's Ikata nuclear plant, the representatives of the legal team led by attorney Kan Ebisuda (center) hold a news conference on Wednesday in Naka Ward, Hiroshima City.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2025
Hiroshima court rejects request for Ikata reactor injunction
Presiding judge Kazumi Ohama said "It cannot be said that there is a specific danger that violates the lives of the plaintiffs."
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato. Subject to the Moritomo document disclosure are paper documents of 17 pages or more, as well as electronic data, Kato told a parliamentary meeting.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2025
Government to release controversial Moritomo documents
The government will start disclosing documents related to a controversial state land sale to school operator Moritomo Gakuen in a month's time at the earliest.
Koichiro Ito, a producer of the hit Japanese anime film "Your Name," has been convicted of "violating laws on child prostitution and pornography" as well as non-consensual sex and the filming of indecent images, a Wakayama District Court spokesperson said on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025
'Your Name.' anime producer jailed over obscene acts against minors
Koichiro Ito was reportedly accused of paying a 15-year-old girl money in return for sex, and demanding that another teenager take and send him explicit photos of herself.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, at a news conference on Friday, said the Cabinet has approved a bill to revise relevant laws to digitalize criminal procedures in the country.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 28, 2025
Japan's Cabinet approves bill to digitalize criminal procedures
Once passed, existing laws will be amended to allow greater use of technologies by law enforcers and the judiciary.
Taishi Fuwa (left), the general manager at World Woman Pro-wrestling Diana, and his lawyer Kazuhito Ozawa at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2025
Settlement reached in female pro-wrestler sexual harassment case
The lawsuit was filed "to raise awareness and prevent similar incidents from happening," said the general manager of the pro-wrestling agency involved.
A man wades through a shopping area flooded by the Kinugawa river in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sept. 10, 2015.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2025
Government partly responsible for 2015 river flooding, court finds
In a lawsuit, residents in flooded areas along the river claimed that the government's inadequate river management caused the disaster.
Voters cast their ballots for the Lower House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 26, 2025
Three more courts find 2024 Lower House election constitutional
The plaintiffs had claimed that the maximum vote-value gap of 2.06 times in the election violated the Constitution.
Former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (left) and his sister, Hideko, attend a gathering of his supporters after his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case was finalized in October last year.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 22, 2025
Over 80% of Japanese say death penalty system is 'unavoidable'
The Cabinet Office survey, which is conducted every five years, found that 16.5% of respondents believe the death penalty should be abolished.
Yokohama District Court Judge Takahira Yoshii said Thursday that educative and protective measures are appropriate for a 16-year-old boy charged with the murder of his parents in the city of Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 20, 2025
Boy referred to family court over murder of his parents near Tokyo
The presiding judge ruled that educative and protective measures are appropriate for the 16-year-old boy.
The Osaka District Court sentenced former hospital employee Tomoya Yanagimoto, 28, to life in prison on Tuesday for raping and injuring 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 12 over a six-year period from March 2016.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 19, 2025
Osaka court jails former hospital employee for life for raping 10 girls
Tomoya Yanagimoto, 28, raped and injured the girls — who were 8 to 12 years of age — between March 2016 and May 2022.
Ryuji Kimura in the city of Wakayama in April 2023
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 19, 2025
Kishida attacker sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder
Kimura maintained through the trial that he did not intend to harm anyone, adding that he threw the explosive to draw attention to his 2022 lawsuit.
At the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court, presiding Judge Takashi Miura said that the constituency map redrawn for the election was reasonable as it adopted the so-called Adams method, which is believed to reflect population ratios more accurately.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2025
Fukuoka High Court's Naha branch finds 2024 Lower House poll constitutional
It was the seventh ruling among the 16 lawsuits on the latest general election filed so far by two groups of lawyers at 14 high courts and high court branches.
The first trial of Ryuji Kimura, who is accused of attempted murder and other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in 2023, at the Wakayama District Court on Jan. 4. The court will issue its ruling on Feb. 19.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 10, 2025
Prosecutors seek 15 years' jail for man who attacked Kishida
Ryuji Kimura, 25, is accused of attempted murder and other charges for throwing an explosive at then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during an election campaign trail in 2023.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks during a news conference at the Justice Ministry in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025
Japan's retrial system to be reviewed after landmark acquittal
The system — so time-consuming that campaigners call it the "door that never opens" — has not been changed since 1949.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
School-age suicides in Japan hit all-time high
A volunteer handles an incoming call at the Tokyo Befrienders call center, a suicide hotline center in Japan's capital.
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
In Tokyo, Pentagon chief provides assurances that Japan-U.S. alliance remains robust
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (left) and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo ahead of their talks Sunday.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.
Hanami season to have record ¥1.39 trillion economic impact on Japan
Cherry blossoms along a road in Tokyo on Tuesday. The 2025 cherry blossom season is expected to have an economic impact of around ¥1.39 trillion on Japan.
Rise and shine with ‘The Wakey Show’
“The Wakey Show” is NHK’s first new daily children’s program in three years, and it carries on the station’s storied past in youth-centric educational entertainment.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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