With his broad smile, Tatsumi Hokuto helps an elderly woman in a Japanese care home almost effortlessly to her feet and makes sure she is steady. At first glance, Hokuto cuts an unlikely figure for a carer role: a powerfully built 27-year-old in tight leggings and a black singlet, with the physique of a dedicated bodybuilder. But for Nagoya-based Visionary, a company that operates nursing and care facilities across Japan, that contrast is precisely the point. Visionary’s “macho carers” like...
Plans to build a mosque in Fujisawa, a city southwest of Tokyo, have become the latest flashpoint for Muslim communities in Japan, as a growing need for places of worship meets resistance from some local residents. Muslim community leaders and scholars said the opposition in Fujisawa reflected a broader pattern in Japan, where resistance to mosques has increasingly been shaped by negative overseas coverage of Islam and claims spread on social media. A public meeting in February called to allow...
A Japanese prefecture is paying its singles to use dating apps as the country grapples with record-low birth rates. Kochi prefecture announced on April 10 that it would subsidise private matchmaking app fees for its young residents, according to a Sankei News report. Residents aged between 20 and 39 will get a subsidy of up to 20,000 yen (US$125) for the 2026 financial year to use apps that have received “internet-based marriage partner introduction service certification”. One of these verified...
Japan’s tougher deportation drive is deepening fear among asylum seekers and long-term foreign residents, rights groups say, warning that the government’s push to remove more undocumented migrants is clashing with its duty to protect refugees. Official figures show a record 318 foreign nationals were forcibly deported from Japan under escort in 2025, up 30 per cent from a year earlier, as authorities ramped up the Zero Illegal Foreign Residents Plan (Zero Plan), a government drive launched last...