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December 05, 2025
 

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JAPAN

Crime & Legal

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Crime & Legal
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Takuya Saito, 26, is one of four men arrested by Japanese police on Friday on suspicion of masterminding a series of robberies in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Suspected tokuryū masterminds in Tokyo-area robberies arrested
Police believe the four suspects formed an anonymous and transient criminal group that was behind the robberies.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Man accused of shooting Abe apologizes to former PM’s widow and family
Describing his actions as inexcusable, Tetsuya Yamagami said they caused pain to the former prime minister’s family even though he held no grudge against them.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Police arrest high school student over cyberattack on net cafe operator
The 17-year-old student from Osaka allegedly obtained about 7.25 million sets of Kaikatsu Club membership information with a program he created using ChatGPT.
Campaigners working for the legalization of same-sex marriages in Japan walk toward the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 3, 2025
Same-sex marriage campaigners take fight to Japan's top court
The court has been asked to consider the lives of people who dreamed of marrying but were "consistently excluded from the legal marriage system."
The Tokyo DisneySea theme park. Police arrested a man for allegedly brandishing a knife at a hotel in the park.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 2, 2025
Man held on suspicion of brandishing knife at Tokyo DisneySea hotel
The man, in his 30s, is reportedly a former employee of a company that was holding a party at the Hotel MiraCosta in the park.
Three Japanese men (the three on the left) were charged in Kuala Lumpur on Monday for violating Malaysia’s dangerous drugs law. The second man from the right, age 19, is pixelated.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 2, 2025
Three Japanese charged in Malaysia for alleged marijuana smuggling
The three men were detained Nov. 18, upon arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Bangkok, as they were found to be carrying a total of 43.4 kilograms of marijuana.
Takashi Tachibana, leader of a political group critical of NHK, was indicted on Friday by the Kobe District Public Prosecutor's Office for allegedly defaming a former Hyogo assembly member who reportedly died by suicide.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2025
Anti-NHK group leader Tachibana indicted for defamation
Takashi Tachibana had been arrested Nov. 9 for allegedly disseminating false information about a former Hyogo prefectural assembly member.
Residents hold a news conference in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Friday after the Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court rejected injunctions seeking to halt operations of Kansai Electric Power’s aging reactors in Fukui Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2025
Court rejects injunctions against Mihama and Takahama nuclear reactors
Local residents had sought to halt the operations of aging reactors run by Kansai Electric Power in Fukui Prefecture.
Plaintiffs and supporters hold up signs reading "unjust ruling" in Tokyo on Friday after the Tokyo High Court ruled Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages is constitutional.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2025
Same-sex marriage ban constitutional, says Tokyo High Court
By Jessica Speed
The ruling departs from those of five other high court rulings made previously that had deemed Japan’s failure to recognize such unions as unconstitutional.
DNA analyses in 130 cases the Saga Prefectural Police deemed inappropriate did not lead to wrongful arrests or other problems, the National Police Agency said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2025
Improper DNA analyses in Saga had no impact on probes: NPA
A former member of the Saga Prefectural Police was found to have conducted improper DNA analyses.

Japan to require nationality in property registrations
The government is looking to include nationality in a planned property registration database amid concerns that condominium purchases by foreign citizens have driven up prices.
Takaichi’s Taiwan tumult: A closer look at the Japanese leader’s contentious remarks
Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi
Man accused of shooting Abe apologizes to former PM’s widow and family
The Nara District Court where Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, is on trial for the murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe's wife, Akie, attended the trial on Wednesday for the first time.
Japan’s flu season comes early as new variant spreads
To prevent the spread of the flu, measures such as wearing a mask are recommended.
The key points under discussion on policies affecting foreign nationals
Visitors head to Shirakawago, a popular tourist spot, in Gifu Prefecture in November.
Kashima or Kashiwa: J. League title chase goes down to the wire
Kashima's Yuma Suzuki (center) takes a shot during a game against Kashiwa in March.
2025 was the year Japan’s box office returned
In 2025, “Demon Slayer” and “Kokuho” broke box-office records, while films such as “Renoir,” A Pale View of the Hills” and “Two Strangers, Two Seasons” garnered acclaim on the international film festival circuit. The year’s biggest loss was the death of Tatsuya Nakadai, an highly regarded actor who had worked with nearly all of the top directors of Japanese cinema’s postwar golden age.
A French cabbie behind the wheel in small-town Japan
A native of the Jura region of France, Severine Lamielle moved to Tottori Prefecture in 2024 and found a job as a taxi driver.
A new animation festival lands in Nagoya with big plans
Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival director Shinichiro Inoue (left) and artistic director Tadashi Sudo (right) started the new event in Nagoya in part due to local government support and Aichi Prefecture’s ongoing investment in arts and culture.
In Japan, beloved pets receive human-style farewells
In pet-loving Japan, the ways owners say goodbye to their dearly departed animals can mirror the ways they bid farewell to other humans.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yumi Matsutoya began her decades-long career under her maiden name, Yumi Arai, but Japanese fans might know her better as “Yuming.”
Yumi Matsutoya’s human touch in an AI age
By Patrick St. Michel

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