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JAPANESE

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida replies to questions at Friday's budget committee session at the Diet in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2023
Amid scrutiny, Kishida emphasizes tax cuts to pull out from deflation
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has heavily criticized the government for its belated response to rising inflation.
Takuya Matsunaga (right), who lost his wife and daughter in a 2019 crash in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, attends a news conference on Friday along with his father-in-law, Yoshinori Uehara.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2023
Ex-Japan bureaucrat ordered to pay damages over fatal 2019 crash
Kozo Iizuka had already been sentenced to five years in prison, after the car he was driving crashed into Mana Matsunaga, 31, and her daughter Riko, 3.
Plaintiffs, lawyers and supporters march to the Tokyo District Court on Nov. 30, the same day the court ruled that Japan’s lack of legal protections for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 27, 2023
Japan's 'failed' same-sex marriage lawsuits can still propel reform
Even unsuccessful cases challenging Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage have gotten courts to acknowledge a constitutional problem.
The Kyoto District Court, where hearings are being held in a 2019 arson case that left 36 Kyoto Animation employees dead.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2023
Delusion led suspect to attack KyoAni studio, doctor tells court
The assessment contrast with that of another doctor, who said the suspect's delusion had almost no influence in the attack.
Hideko Hakamata (front, second from left) and lawyers head to the Shizuoka District Court on Friday for the first hearing of the retrial of Hakamata's brother Iwao, who spent nearly half a century behind bars before new evidence led to his release in 2014.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 27, 2023
Man accused of 1966 quadruple murder is innocent, sister says
Iwao Hakamata, 87, spent nearly half a century behind bars before new evidence led to his release in 2014.
The Tokyo core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes volatile fresh food but includes fuel costs, rose 2.7% in October from a year earlier, exceeding market forecasts for a 2.5% gain.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 27, 2023
BOJ in focus as core inflation in Tokyo unexpectedly accelerates
The data reinforces expectations the BOJ will revise up its inflation forecasts when it produces fresh quarterly projections at next week's meeting.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a meeting of government and ruling party officials at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 26, 2023
Kishida seeks detailed tax cut plan, eyes ¥40,000 per person
Kishida's Cabinet is expected to formalize the economic package on Nov. 2.
Police investigate around the site where a car driven by an elderly driver hit three elementary school children in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2023
Elderly motorist hits elementary school students in Shizuoka
The man was arrested at the scene for alleged negligent driving resulting in injury.
The simplest option for many Japanese industries facing labor shortages might be to do what the taxi sector is doing — keep people in the workforce longer.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2023
Octogenarian taxi drivers to the labor-crunch rescue
An option for many Japanese industries facing labor shortages might be to do what the taxi sector is doing — keep people in the workforce longer.
Polish Ambassador to Japan Pawel Milewski (left), Polish development bank BGK President Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka (second from left), Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker and member of the Japan-Poland Parliamentary Friendship Association Hirobumi Niki (second from right), and social welfare corporation Fukudenkai President Takaaki Ota attend a ceremony at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo on Oct. 19.
JAPAN / History
Oct 26, 2023
Japan and Poland mark centennial of orphans' rescue from Siberia
The Japanese Red Cross Society conducted rescue and relief missions from 1920 to 1922 for a total of 765 Polish children.
Hiroshi Watanabe is taken by police to prosecutors in Saitama Prefecture in February 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 26, 2023
Man charged with fatally shooting doctor denies intent to kill
The victims were working at a clinic responsible for providing home medical care for the shooter's mother who had died the previous day.
Yasuhiro Sawada, vice president of Nihon University, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2023
University official 'sad' about calls to quit over drug scandal
Two members of the football club have been arrested in the scandal so far — one in August and the other in October.
The yen's slide past ¥150 to the dollar has raised renewed speculation over possible government interventions in the currency market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 26, 2023
Yen weakens close to three-decade low against U.S. dollar
The yen was trading well within the zone that saw authorities wade into the market last year.
A participant tries an electric kick scooter at a safety workshop in Tokyo in June ahead of a relaxation of rules for riding the device in July.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 26, 2023
Violations of electric kick scooter rules on rise in Japan
Cases of violation in Tokyo for which the police took action came to 1,811 in the July-September period.
Lawyers Kazuyuki Minami (left) and Masafumi Yoshida (right) representing a transgender woman show off signs that say "unconstitutional" and "sent back" to a lower court, during a news conference Wednesday in Tokyo after a Supreme Court decision.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2023
Supreme Court hands down landmark decision on transgender rights
A law requiring sterilization surgery to change a person's legal gender has been declared “unconstitutional."
A statue of the Demon Spirit in the Mononoke Village area, a new area within Ghibli Park in the city of Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2023
Ghibli Park unveils new 'Princess Mononoke' area
The Mononoke Village area within the facility will open on Nov. 1, showcasing the sceneries of village forests in Japan.
Households are unlikely to start feeling the benefits of any possible income tax cut until around next summer at the earliest.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 25, 2023
Government floats ¥40,000 income tax cut to ease inflation pain
Households would start feeling the benefits around next summer at the earliest.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida listens as Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan chief Kenta Izumi speaks in parliament in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 24, 2023
Tough questions for Kishida in parliament over spending plans
Japan’s main opposition party began its scrutiny of Kishida's economic stimulus package as the country struggles with inflation and stagnant wages.
A Hello Kitty balloon is paraded down 6th Ave during the 91st Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in November 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2023
Soft power and Japan's role in a complex world
While hard power zeroes in on what can be physically controlled such as an empire by force, soft power is an empire by invitation.
A pedestrian walks past an electronic signboard showing data from the Tokyo Stock Exchange and on the Japanese yen after the currency rebounded slightly after hitting ¥150 to the U.S. dollar in overnight trading, along a street in central Tokyo on Oct. 4.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2023
Germany set to eclipse Japan as No. 3 economy in 2023, IMF says
The yen’s widely watched depreciation has played an outsized role in its projected slide in position.

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