Tag - courts

 
 

COURTS

Iwao Hakamata's older sister Hideko (left) marches to the Shizuoka District Court in the city of Shizuoka on Wednesday for a retrial of her younger brother Iwao, who had been on death row over a 1966 murder case.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024
Trial ruling date for man accused of 1966 murder set for September
Iwao Hakamata, who in a rare example is being retried over a 1966 murder case, will be given a verdict on Sept. 26.
The Tokyo District Court has dismissed a lawsuit by a foreign woman who claimed to have been subject to discriminatory treatment by police.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 22, 2024
Tokyo court dismisses foreigner's claim of police discrimination
A South Asian woman in her 40s and her 6-year-old daughter of Japanese nationality had sued the Tokyo metropolitan government ¥4.4 million for alleged discrimination.
People who have experienced becoming lay judges take part in a meeting to exchange views at the Tokyo District Court on March 6. Japan's lay judge system marks its 15th year on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2024
Number of lay judges falls as Japan marks system's 15th year
While there were more than 10,000 lay judges in the system's first few years, their numbers have fallen to around 6,000 in recent years.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
Legislation that allows the option of joint custody of children after divorce is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024
Japan changes law to allow joint custody after divorce
For decades in Japan, one parent — almost always the mother — has been granted legal custody when a marriage ends.
People involved in an appeal trial over forced sterilization head to the Osaka High Court in February 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024
Japan's top court to take measures for disabled plaintiffs
It will be the first time for the top court to implement measures for disabled people on a large scale.
Residents who sought to stop the restart of the No. 2 reactor of the Shimane nuclear power plant hold up signs saying "The judiciary abandoned residents" and "Our voices did not reach it" on Wednesday in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, after a court dismissed their petition.
JAPAN
May 15, 2024
Court rejects petition to halt Shimane nuclear reactor
The court also dismissed residents' claim that evacuation plans for the 820,000-kilowatt unit in the prefectural capital of Matsue were inadequate.
An employee at Otsuka Foods has filed a damages suit against the company with the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2024
Otsuka Foods whistleblower sues company for work-related depression
The man has claimed he suffered from depression after being reassigned and given little work following a report over the company's alleged wrongdoing.
The plaintiff in an indirect gender discrimination case speaks at a news conference after winning the case in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2024
Japan AGC unit loses suit over indirect gender discrimination
A subsidiary of Japanese glass-maker AGC has lost a lawsuit filed by a female clerical worker seeking damages for indirect gender discrimination.
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 13, 2024
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Having the porn videos in which she featured available to be streamed online causes damage to her image as an artist and dancer now, Miyuki Ariga says.
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 13, 2024
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
Dai Sato gave six women in Tokyo a beverage mixed with sleeping pills so that they wouldn't be able to resist his advances.
The Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe holds a fundrasing party in Tokyo in May 2023.
JAPAN / Politics
May 10, 2024
Abe faction's ex-treasurer pleads guilty to underreporting political funds
Junichiro Matsumoto admitted to underreporting political funds totaling ¥670 million ($4.3 million) in the period from 2018 to 2022.
Japan’s custody system may soon change with the introduction of joint custody, though issues like a lack of protection against domestic violence and abuse must also be tackled.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 10, 2024
Joint custody alone won’t fix Japan’s flawed system
Japan could be on the verge of adopting joint custody. While to some this is a step in the right direction, it may not be enough to protect families.
A building in the city of Osaka housing the Osaka District Court
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 8, 2024
Court orders deletion of disparaging portrayal of Osaka area
The comments were targeted at a "dowa" district — an area designated under an assimilation project to help integrate marginalized communities.
A news conference is held following a settlement being reached in a labor tribunal proceeding in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
May 7, 2024
Nondisclosure issue a lingering problem in Japan labor cases
One worker in Osaka Prefecture is contesting a nondisclosure clause that was added to her labor tribunal case's resolution against her will.
A traditional Ainu preserved food called <i>satchep</i> (dried fish) being made at the government-run National Ainu Museum and Park, nicknamed Upopoy, in the town of Shiraoi, Hokkaido, on Dec. 25. The Sapporo District Court ruled last month that the Raporo Ainu Nation's rights as an Indigenous people did not extend to having an inherent right to fish for commercial reasons.
JAPAN / Society
May 3, 2024
Sapporo court ruling on Ainu fishing rights presents tough questions
A Sapporo court ruled last month that an Ainu group only has the right to engage in salmon fishing for cultural — but not commercial — reasons.
The trial hearing of Masumi Hayashi, who denied killing four people and poisoning 63 at a festival by lacing a pot of curry with arsenic, was the focus of The Japan Times’ front page of May 14, 1999.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
May 1, 2024
Japan Times 1999: Hayashi admits fraud, denies curry murders
The disturbing case of the Wakayama curry killer would continue for years, resulting in the eventual execution of the woman convicted of the crime.
The plaintiff in the case against Mizuho Bank had sought about ¥33 million in damages, including wages he should have received.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 24, 2024
Mizuho ordered to pay ¥3.3 million to ex-employee over labor dispute
The bank had — citing problematic behavior — told him to stay home at reduced pay without any work for five years.
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2024
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
The 25-year-old swindled three men out of ¥159 million, which she spent on a Kabukicho host she fell in love with.
Takuya Matsunaga reads a reply from Kozo Iizuka, imprisoned for killing Matsunaga's wife and daughter in 2019 in a high-profile accident in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, at his home in Tokyo earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 19, 2024
Five years after fatal Ikebukuro crash, bereaved man works to prevent repeat
A man plans to meet with the driver who accidentally killed his wife and young daughter, hoping to learn what went through the driver's mind.

Longform

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