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JAPANESE

Has runaway hit Palworld gotten itself into hot water with The Pokemon Company?
LIFE / Digital
Jan 25, 2024
The Pokemon Company to Palworld: ‘We intend to investigate’
“We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokemon intellectual property or assets in that game,” The Pokemon Company said in a statement.
A courtroom sketch shows Shinji Aoba at the Kyoto District Court on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 25, 2024
Kyoto Animation arsonist given death penalty over 2019 mass murder
A Kyoto court found Shinji Aoba guilty of setting a studio on fire because of a grudge he held against Kyoto Animation, in one of Japan's deadliest mass murders.
Masato Kanda, vice finance minister for international affairs, is closely watching how an expected end to negative interest rates in Japan affect markets.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 25, 2024
Top forex diplomat vigilant over market impact from BOJ stimulus exit
As vice finance minister for international affairs, Masato Kanda oversees currency policy.
A prison officer looks around Tokushima prison in Tokushima in March 2018. The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that male prisoners in Japan are to be allowed to have certain skin care products.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 24, 2024
Japan to allow male prisoners to use same skin care items as women
Under previous rules, the in-prison purchase and gift acceptance of the toiletry items were allowed only for female inmates.
Three plaintiffs are set to file a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday, seeking compensation over claims of racial profiling by police.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 24, 2024
Foreign residents to file landmark suit alleging racial profiling by police
Three men are to file a lawsuit over claims that they have been repeatedly questioned by police because of their ethnicity or appearance.
The value of Japan's exports rose at the fast pace in a year in December, propelled by shipments to China growing for the first time in over a year and record sales to the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 24, 2024
Strong December exports boost odds of a return to growth last quarter
A return to growth would make it easier for the Bank of Japan to end its negative rate policy.
Police officers hold a traffic safety lesson for e-scooter users in December 2022 in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 24, 2024
E-scooter traffic violations rise fourfold in Japan
Reports of traffic violations totaled 1,879 in the month of December, a significant increase from the 405 cases reported in July of last year.
Toshinori Yashiki, deputy director-general at the Financial Services Agency, urged lenders to pay particular attention to highly-leveraged borrowers.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024
Japan regulator will probe risks to banks from higher rates
The Bank of Japan is expected to make its first rate hike since 2007 within a few months, raising the possibility that borrowers will struggle with higher interest payments.
A man prays on July 19, 2019, outside the Kyoto Animation building where 36 people died in a fire caused by Shinji Aoba the previous day.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 24, 2024
Possible death penalty looms for Kyoto Animation arson suspect
The trial shed light on his upbringing, the emergence of his grudge against the studio and how he went ahead with his plan of attack despite some hesitation.
Leaders of Keidanren and labor unions officially started annual spring wage negotiations on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024
Japanese firms and unions kick off wage talks as markets bet on bigger pay hikes
Japan's big firms are expected to offer their unions wage hikes of 3.85% on average this year, the highest wage increase in 31 years.
American President Joe Biden hugs Brittany Alkonis after giving a State of the Union in February. The wife of jailed U.S. sailor Lt. Ridge Alkonis ran a successful pressure campaign to get her husband released from a Japanese prison into American custody. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 24, 2024
Japan owes no apology for U.S. Navy officer’s treatment
The case of Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis is a divisive one, which both the U.S. and Japanese governments have tried to keep quiet about.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 24, 2024
Kishida pitches Japan's ‘golden opportunity’ at Goldman event
Japan's government will demonstrate the nation’s transition to a new economic stage by mobilizing all policy tools, the prime minister said in his video address.
According to Hitoshi Matsumoto’s lawyer, he is suing Bungei Shunju, the publisher of the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine over an article that was published in the magazine and online on Dec. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2024
Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto sues publisher over sexual assault article
The Downtown member is suing Bungei Shunju, the publisher of the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine, for defamation.
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda enters the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2024
BOJ stands pat on policy as quake's economic impact remains unclear
Observers are watching for when the BOJ will start exiting negative rates, amid growing expectations it will likely seek normalization this year.
Kishida speaks at a meeting with leaders of Japanese Trade Union Confederation and Japan Business Federation on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2024
With meetings, Japan leader amplifies call for wage hikes at small firms
Dissatisfaction over falling real wages has been one of the factors undermining the prime minister's support rate, which remained under 30% in a series of recent polls.
The Nikkei stock average rose above 36,570 Monday morning, a level not seen since February 1990.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024
Japan's Nikkei scales 34-year peak on Wall Street record
The S&P 500 posted its first record-high close in two years, as AI fever drove big gains for chip shares and other heavyweight tech stocks.
A woman who filed a suit claiming damages against her father but had her claim dismissed by the Hiroshima High Court in November has said she felt like she was being accused of making a complaint only when time had run out.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Jan 22, 2024
Passage of time gets in the way for victims of child sexual abuse
The woman, in her 40s, deemed it unfair that the perpetrator gets away scot-free because of the statute of limitation.
Projections for Japan's primary balance are presented at a meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2024
Japan’s baseline forecasts show government missing budget goal
The primary balance is projected to be around minus 0.4% in fiscal year 2025.
Takahiro Taya, the 10th-generation representative of lacquerware shop Taya Shikkiten in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, holds a lacquerware bowl discovered from a workshop destroyed by a quake on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 22, 2024
Wajima-nuri shop resolved to protect craft after quake
When the shop started a crowdfunding campaign, donations — and many encouraging messages — came quickly from all over the country.
Journalist Shiori Ito sheds a tear as she speaks to reporters outside the Tokyo district court on Dec. 18, 2019, after hearing the ruling on a damages lawsuit by her, accusing a former TV reporter of rape.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2024
Japanese journalist brings lonely #MeToo battle to Sundance
Shiori Ito's fight for justice is the subject of "Black Box Diaries," a documentary she herself directed.

Longform

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