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Naha, Okinawa Pref., Oct. 25 (Jiji Press)--Public prosecutors in Okinawa Prefecture indicted U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, on Sunday on robbery and murder charges after a 39-year-old woman was found dead in the southwestern Japan prefecture earlier this month. According to the indictment and other sources, Ballard allegedly strangled the woman with a telephone cord in a ho...
Nagoya, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--The 2026 Asian Para Games came to a close on Saturday after Japan, which hosted the para sports event for the first time, won a record 64 gold medals. At the Aichi-Nagoya Games, a total of about 3,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions competed in 18 sports, mainly in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. The host nation won 186 total medals, finishing second on...
Japan’s centuries-old festivals are facing renewed scrutiny after a series of fatal accidents in recent weeks, raising questions over how communities can preserve their cultural traditions without putting lives at risk. Three people have been killed and more than a dozen injured in accidents at autumn festivals across the country in recent weeks. Meanwhile, organisers of another major festival, where two men died in February, have cancelled next year’s event, citing public safety concerns. The...
Tokyo, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)--Renowned Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami died Saturday. He was 74. Murakami, born in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, was known for his works such as "Almost Transparent Blue" and "Coin Locker Babies." In 1976, Murakami won the Gunzo Prize for New Writers and the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for his debut novel "Almost Transparent Blue," which he wrote ...
Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese women's gymnastics team won an all-around bronze medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Wednesday, marking the Asian country's first podium finish for the event in 60 years. The five-member team racked up a total of 164.063 points across the four apparatuses. Japan finished behind champio...
Tokushima, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokushima prefectural police arrested on Wednesday four Japanese men who have been detained by Vietnamese authorities for their alleged involvement in a special fraud scheme operating from a base in the Southeast Asian country. The fraud suspects, aged between 27 and 61, were sent to Japan by air. They include Masami Maegawa, a 61-year-old self-proclaimed co...
Tokyo, Oct. 21 (Jiji Press)--The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in September dropped 5.0 pct from a year earlier to 3,103,700, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday. The decline reflected rising airfares due to a deterioration in the situation in the Middle East and typhoon-caused flight cancellations. The cumulative number of such visitors in the January-...
Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japan won its second straight men's team all-around title at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Tuesday, clinching its eighth title overall. The team scored a total of 251.928 points across the six apparatuses, 1.599 points ahead of second-place Russia, while China placed third. The top three teams q...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japan's education ministry on Tuesday urged the University of Tokyo to review whether the selection process for its next president was appropriate, in response to doubts raised both within and outside the school. This marked the first time the ministry has requested a university to verify the new president selection process. Tetsuo Goda, director-general of t...
Tsu, Mie Pref., Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Tsu District Court on Tuesday sentenced a former truck driver to seven years in prison for an expressway crash that killed six people, including three children, in Mie Prefecture, western Japan, in March. The seven-year sentence for Mitsuyo Mizutani, 55, came as requested by the prosecution. According to the ruling, Mizutani was driving a truck at ab...
Tokyo, Oct. 20 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Empress Emerita Michiko turned 92 on Tuesday, enjoying a peaceful life with her husband, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, also 92. Her advanced age has caused a decline in her physical strength and made her get tired more frequently than before, which has led her to go on shorter walks. Still, there is no major change in the Empress Emerita's overall health co...
A deputy mayor in western Japan died after being crushed under a giant float during a local parade, officials said on Monday, a week after two others were reportedly killed at separate traditional festivals. Akihiro Nabae, deputy mayor of the city of Saijo in the Ehime region, was carrying a giant float with other participants on Saturday before becoming trapped beneath it, city and police officials said. He was taken to hospital and later pronounced dead, local media said. The exact...
Nagoya, Oct. 18 (Jiji Press)--The opening ceremony of the first Japan-hosted Asian Para Games took place at Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya, the capital of Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on Sunday, officially marking the start of the 2026 Games. About 3,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions are scheduled to participate. The Japanese delegation has entered about 280 athletes. At th...
Kurayoshi, Tottori Pref., Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Princess Aiko attended a national conference on disaster management in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, on Saturday. The princess, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, listened intently to presentations by five speakers, including a local female firefighter and a female university student who uses picture...
Airline employees in Japan are experiencing a surge in abuse incidents from customers linked to delays or cancellations of flights or from being refused boarding due to late check-in, according to a survey. Some 30 per cent of ground staff or cabin crew reported bearing the brunt of passengers’ anger over such matters in the past year, according to the survey by the Japan Federation of Aviation Industry Unions released last month, rising from 7 per cent in its previous survey in 2023. In...
Tokyo, Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)--Speculation is growing that Russia will seek a prisoner exchange following the recent detention of a Japanese journalist for alleged spying in Sakhalin in the Russian Far East. Some believe that the detention of the Hokkaido Shimbun reporter is linked to the handover to Germany this month of a Russian hacker detained in Japan in May. Germany had asked Japan t...
Tokyo, Oct. 16 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government on Friday adopted a bill to allow police to analyze remotely communication devices linked to crimes, a fresh measure to prevent damage caused by "tokuryu" loosely organized anonymous criminal groups. The bill would allow police to find out fraud and robbery plans involving tokuryu groups and prevent damage by collecting information throug...
Tokyo, Oct. 15 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Imperial Household Agency on Thursday released the list of approximately 1,700 invitees for an autumn garden party to be hosted by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo on Oct. 29. The event will bring together distinguished individuals from various fields and local government officials, and their spouses. Among ...
Tokyo, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--Senji Kuroi, a prominent writer of the "introverted generation" in Japan, died of pneumonia on Monday. He was 94. Kuroi, whose real name was Shunjiro Osabe, published "Aoi Kojo" in 1958 while working for Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., now Subaru Corp., after graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1955. In 1970, Kuroi won the Art Encouragement Prize for New A...
Kobe, Oct. 14 (Jiji Press)--An after-school program in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, is helping children with developmental problems build confidence and independence through theater activities, a relatively unusual approach in the country. The provider of the after-school program, Hokagorubi, offers creative activities through improvisational plays. It was established by Masatoshi...
Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japan's agriculture ministry said Friday that it had taken enforcement action against an Asian food store that stocked and sold meat products from Vietnam and Indonesia, whose imports are prohibited in principle, in the first such crackdown. On Sept. 29, the Animal Quarantine Service inspected the store in the city of Koga in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, an...
Tokyo, Oct. 9 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Supreme Court on Friday upheld a damages order against a website operator who made imitation band scores available for free. The top court's Second Petty Bench thus finalized the Tokyo High Court order that the website operator pay about 169 million yen in damages to the plaintiff, Fairy Inc., the Tokyo-based publisher of the original band scores. The ...
Kobe, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)--Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. held a ceremony to launch a new 80.5-billion-yen nonnuclear submarine for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force at a shipyard in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, on Thursday. The Shogei submarine, the seventh Taigei-class, is scheduled to be commissioned in March 2028. It measures 84 meters long and 9 meters wide, has a st...
Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)--Since Japan stopped accepting new foreign workers in the restaurant industry with the Type I residency status for specified skilled workers in April, rising demand for such workers has driven them to urban areas, exacerbating labor shortages in regional areas. A private-sector survey showed that the number of job openings in the industry for foreign workers with ...
Baku, Oct. 7 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Haruka Kaju won gold for the women's 63-kilogram category at the 2026 World Judo Championships on Wednesday, claiming the title in the weight division for the second straight year. The 26-year-old secured her ninth consecutive international judo tournament victory since December 2024, when she won the Grand Slam event in Tokyo. The reigning world No. 1 ...
Jeff Kingston used to take long walks with his dogs across the hills of Gunma in central Japan. But not this year. He has good reason. Kingston said he has encountered bears in those mountains more than 100 times over the years and been charged by aggressive bears around a dozen times. In 2014, a black bear knocked him down and attacked him across the skull with its claws, leaving a gash that required nine stitches. “This year, I have actively refrained from going into the hills precisely...
Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--Japan's transport ministry on Tuesday released guidelines related to the installation of remote-controlled barriers at underpasses at high risk of flooding to restrict access during heavy rain. The move comes on the heels of a series of deaths at flooded underpasses, including during heavy rain in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, in August. "We will promptly tak...
The 20th Asian Games closed on Sunday after a rocky fortnight lit up by youthful brilliance in the sporting arenas but tempered by logistical dysfunction and subdued public interest. Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) President Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani declared the Games closed at Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, with the torch handed to organisers of the next event in Doha 2030.
Nagoya, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)--Japan broke its record for medals won at a single Asian Games at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Friday, exceeding its previous record of 218 medals set at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games in western Japan. The Asian nation further increased its medal tally to 240 on the 14th day of the quadrennial sporting tournament held mainly in Aichi Prefecture in central Jap...