Tag - police

 
 

POLICE

Saitama police have arrested Rikiya Morita, 24, in connection with a string of robberies in Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 8, 2024
Suspect in Kanto robbery spree arrested in Niigata
Rikiya Morita, 24, had been on the run after being publicly identified as a suspect in a violent robbery in Saitama on Oct. 1.
Yoshimoto Kogyo, the agency that manages comedy trio Jungle Pocket, announced in mid-September that group member Shinji Saito had been experiencing health issues and underwent hospitalization, and that he requested a hiatus.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 7, 2024
Comedian Shinji Saito investigated over sexual assault
The member of comedy trio Jungle Pocket is alleged to have performed nonconsensual sexual intercourse on a woman in a bus at a filming location in Shinjuku.
Police inspect the site where what appeared to be an unexploded bomb was found on Friday in Tokyo's Kita Ward.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2024
Possible dud shell found in residential area of Tokyo
Around 4:20 p.m. Friday, police received a call reporting that there is something that appears to be a dud shell at a construction site in the capital's Kita Ward.
Rikiya Morita, a suspect wanted in connection with a robbery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 4, 2024
Suspect in violent Kanto burglaries placed on public wanted list
Rikiya Morita and three other men allegedly broke into an elderly couple’s residence in the city of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
The National Police Agency has noted a major rise in online investment fraud cases, incidents of which have more than quadrupled in the first eight months of this year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2024
Investment and romance fraud cases triple in first eight months of year
A total of 6,868 reports of scam cases involving losses amounting to nearly ¥88 billion ($600 million) have been reported, the National Police Agency said.
A security camera footage shows a 17-year-old girl and a man entering a hotel in the city of Osaka on Saturday. She was found dead in the hotel room several hours later.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2024
17-year-old girl found dead in Osaka hotel room was strangled
Osaka police are on the hunt for a man who was seen entering the hotel in the city's Dotonbori area with the victim.
The Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 2, 2024
Three suspects arrested for violent robberies in Kanto area
The suspects were apparently not acquainted with each other and police believe that so-called tokuryū groups are involved.
A nuclear accident that took place on Sept. 30 makes the front page of The Japan Times on Oct. 1, 1999.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Oct 1, 2024
Japan Times 1999: Nuclear accident hits critical mass
A second incident 25 years ago at the Tokai Nuclear Power Plant in Ibaraki Prefecture that exposes workers to radiation causes concern and challenges.
New members of the Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) riot squad hold a drill in Tokyo on Thursday. The MPD plans to set up a section to specialize in the investigation of lone wolf terrorists.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 30, 2024
Tokyo police to set up specialist section for lone wolf terrorists
The section will form part of the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Security Bureau via a reorganization in April to strengthen information gathering.
Hideko Hakamata (center) and lawyers representing her younger brother, Iwao Hakamata, pose with a banner that reads "Iwao Hakamata verdict not guilty" as they leave the Shizuoka District Court on Thursday after the ruling was delivered.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 26, 2024
In rare retrial, Shizuoka court rules ex-boxer not guilty of 1966 murders
Iwao Hakamata, the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, has maintained his innocence for decades.
Ageuma Shinji, a Shinto ritual, is held at Tado Shrine in Mie Prefecture in May 2018. On Tuesday, prefectural police referred 12 individuals to prosecutors over allegations of animal abuse in connection with the treatment of horses during the centuries-old annual event.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
12 referred to prosecutors over alleged horse abuse during Shinto ritual
The 12 allegedly forced horses to climb up a steep hill during the Ageuma Shinji ritual in May 2023 and committed violent acts against the animals.
Iwao Hakamata in March 2023 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. Hakamata was convicted in 1968 over the fatal stabbings of a couple and their children two years earlier. He has pleaded his innocence throughout his trial, maintaining that his confession was coerced.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024
In Japan, the road to exoneration takes decades
Defense lawyers’ extremely limited access to evidence and prosecutors’ right to appeal a court order for a retrial result in a long, drawn-out process.
A police officer explains with a loudspeaker the correct way of interacting with the deer on July 25 at Nara Park in the city of Nara.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 20, 2024
Nara urges respect for sacred deer after viral abuse video sparks outcry
A video showing a man kicking a deer began circulating on social media in late July, resulting in the lodging of over 100 police reports.
The percentage of alcohol-related accidents involving electric scooters was far higher than that for accidents involving bicycles and mopeds.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024
17% of kick scooter accidents caused by drunken drivers
Some 70% of the drink-driving accidents took place between midnight and before 6 a.m.
Shiretoko Yuransen President Seiichi Katsurada (center) in Shari, Hokkaido, in May 2022. Katsurada admitted to having little knowledge of ships in an interview before his arrest on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2024
Hokkaido boat operator in 2022 fatal sinking had little knowledge of ships
He made himself the company's safety and operational manager despite lacking the necessary qualifications after dismissing key employees during the pandemic.
An Apple store in Tokyo's Omotesando district
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 18, 2024
Seven quasi-gang members arrested for obstructing Apple store in Tokyo
They are believed to have been seeking to purchase many iPhone 15 handsets at the store in the Japanese capital's Shibuya Ward for resale.
Japan's new speed limit on narrow roads in residential areas will be set at 30 kph in September 2026.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 17, 2024
Raising awareness key to Japan's new residential road speed limit
Violations of the speed limits will be punished by up to six months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding ¥100,000.
Yamaha Motor said it would not comment on an alleged knife attack on its president as it is a private matter and the investigation is ongoing.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 17, 2024
Yamaha Motor president slashed with knife by daughter
Police arrested the daughter after she allegedly attempted to kill her 61-year-old father by cutting him on the left arm with a kitchen knife.
The Osaka Prefectural Police recently arrested three people who allegedly had some ¥4.9 billion in total paid into their bank accounts from about 10,000 people who took part in overseas online gambling.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024
Three arrested over alleged laundering of online casino money
The suspects allegedly had some ¥4.9 billion in total paid into their bank accounts from about 10,000 people who took part in overseas online gambling.
Starting next March, the My Number card can be used as a driver's license.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2024
Use of My Number card as driver's license to start March 24
The My Number card will function as a driver's license, with its embedded integrated circuit chip to contain new information such as license type.

Longform

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