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JAPANESE

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld an indefinite prison sentence for 54-year-old man over a fatal 2023 robbery in Komae, Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 11, 2025
Indefinite term upheld for man over Tokyo robbery resulting in death
The case was one of a series of high-profile robberies committed across Japan by a group led by masterminds using the pseudonym "Luffy."
Traders in Tokyo celebrate an earlier record high closing of the Nikkei 225. The benchmark index has been rallying in recent days on trade optimism and political hope.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 10, 2025
Tokyo stocks achieve record close after strong performance on Wall Street
A sustained rally has followed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s announcement of his resignation.
Upper House lawmaker Yasutada Ono speaks to reporters in the parliamentary building in January last year after being indicted without arrest.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2025
Ex-lawmaker Ono pleads not guilty in LDP funds scandal
Ono was indicted without arrest on charges of violating the political funds control law and left the party in January 2024.
Ito Mayor Maki Takubo (right) notifies the municipal assembly of its dissolution on Wednesday in the city in Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 10, 2025
Ito mayor dissolves municipal assembly after it passed no-confidence motion
Ito Mayor Maki Takubo had claimed that she graduated from Toyo University, but said in July that she had, in fact, been expelled from the school.
Yoko Inoue (third from right), co-head of a civic group working to recover the remains of victims of a fatal 1942 accident at the Chosei coal mine in Yamaguchi Prefecture, calls on the government to conduct DNA examinations on human bones recovered recently from the mine, in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2025
DNA analysis sought for bones recovered from western Japan undersea mine
The Chosei coal mine in Yamaguchi Prefecture experienced a fatal flooding in 1942, which caused the deaths of 47 Japanese workers and 136 from the Korean Peninsula.
The Saga Prefectural Police sent papers on a worker at its crime laboratory to prosecutors for allegedly falsifying DNA analyses to make his job performances look better.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2025
Crime lab worker accused of 130 improper DNA analyses
The employee allegedly sought to make his job performance look better so as to get a good reputation and avoid criticism from his boss.
Anton Felix Schindler (Yuki Yamada, left) sets out to rewrite the history of his late employer, Ludwig van Beethoven (Arata Furuta, right), in Kazuaki Seki’s “Faking Beethoven.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2025
'Faking Beethoven’: Comedic musical biopic forgets to have fun
Kazuaki Seki’s comedy centers on the notorious fibber who shaped a maestro’s myth.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief negotiator, says that U.S. tariffs on Japanese autos will fall soon.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 9, 2025
Akazawa heralds U.S. trade deal as he moots wrinkle in it
He notes Japan cannot finance any project that contravenes its laws.
Twenty-nine years have passed since the murder of Junko Kobayashi, then a fourth-year student at Sophia University, and the arson of her home. On Tuesday, her father, Kenji Kobayashi, called for information at the site of her former residence in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 9, 2025
29 years on, family still seeking clues in female student's murder
Junko Kobayashi, then a fourth-year university student, was days away from leaving to study in the United States when her body was found in the burned remains of her family home.
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 9, 2025
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Sometimes it makes sense to act before the investigation is done.
The first installment of "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle" trilogy released in July, had earned ¥31.42 billion as of Sunday.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 9, 2025
Latest 'Demon Slayer' film slays at box office, earning over ¥30 billion
The latest film topped ¥10 billion in box-office revenue in the first eight days of its release and ¥22 billion in the first 25 days before hitting ¥31.42 billion as of Sunday.
A customer shops at a Takeya store in Tokyo in July.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 9, 2025
Hidden inflation drives Japanese consumers to price-tracking sites
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.1% in July from the previous year.
The Nikkei Stock Average's opening, high and low prices on Tuesday are seen on a stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 9, 2025
Nikkei 225 hits record on Ishiba resignation news, then falls back in afternoon
The benchmark reached a new all-time high in the morning of 44,185.73
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick argues that U.S. President Donald Trump has sole authority to invest Japan's promised $550 billion.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 8, 2025
Search is on for loopholes in Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge
The pledge was described over the weekend by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as essentially a blank checkbook for U.S. President Donald Trump.
Takeover offers by foreign firms are increasing in Japan, backed by government guidelines that instructed companies to give "sincere consideration” to such proposals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 8, 2025
Japan set for record number of takeover offers from foreign firms
Foreign firms' proposals to buy or acquire majority stakes in Japanese companies are on pace to exceed last year’s record of 193.
Gross domestic product grew at an annualized pace of 2.2% last quarter, the revised report said, indicating that consumer spending is gaining momentum.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 8, 2025
Japan confirms GDP growth as spending holds up amid U.S. tariffs
The Japanese economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.2% in April-June, exceeding an initial estimate of a 1.0% expansion, the Cabinet Office said.
“The Summer Hikaru Died” is a slow-burn horror and a coming-of-age narrative, but its thematic layers and queer undertones open conversations about friendship and belonging.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Sep 6, 2025
Dark folklore meets teenage angst in ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’
Slow-burn horror in the countryside coupled with queer undertones makes for a memorable anime adaptation.
Minimum hourly wages in Japan's 47 prefectures are set to average ¥1,121, up by a record ¥66 from the previous year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 5, 2025
Japan to hike minimum wage by record amount, backing BOJ’s rate hikes
A record 6.3% increase takes the minimum wage to an average of ¥1,121 per hour across the country's 47 prefectures, the largest increase since 1978.
Cannabidiol products in New York in October 2014. Tetrahydrocannabinol, which gives the “high” often associated with marijuana, is illegal in Japan if it exceeds a certain amount.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 5, 2025
Japan has ‘strictest standard in the world’ when it comes to CBD products
The country’s threshold for tetrahydrocannabinol, a compound derived from cannabis that gives the “high,” is just 10 parts per million, compared with 3,000 ppm in the U.S.
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The MPD recently served a new warrant for the arrest of a man over unauthorized access to social media accounts of celebrities including a member of Japanese comedy duo Einstein.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 5, 2025
Man served new arrest warrant over access to Japanese comedian's account
The suspect allegedly logged in to the Instagram accounts of Naoki Inada, a comedian, and of a professional sports player without permission between July and October 2024.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’