Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, agreed Monday to enhance cooperation in economic security, such as strengthening supply chains for semiconductors and critical minerals.

During their first strategic dialogue, held at the Foreign Ministry's Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Iwaya told Wadephul that the international order remains challenging and that the need for cooperation and collaboration between Japan and Germany is increasing.

This is Wadephul's first visit to Japan since he took office in May.
Wadephul said that Japan is a special Asian partner with shared values and interests.

Germany is strengthening its involvement in the Indo-Pacific region.
 
 

Bank Indonesia has officially expanded the Quick Response Indonesian Standard (QRIS) cross-border digital payment system to Japan, with the service now available at 35 merchants through a partnership with the local payment app JPQR Global.

Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo said the launch, which took place on Sunday, marked a milestone in QRIS’s regional expansion and coincided with Indonesia’s 80th Independence Day.

“Since its adoption six years ago, QRIS has become a game changer in the digital payment ecosystem that drives the Indonesian economy, with 57 million users today,” Perry said in a statement.

The expansion is the result of a collaboration between Bank Indonesia, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Payment Japan Association (PJA), and the Indonesian Payment System Association (ASPI).

Perry added that the number of Japanese merchants accepting QRIS is expected to grow significantly in the near future.

Bank Indonesia data shows that cross-border QRIS transactions have grown steadily across Southeast Asia. As of June 2025, QRIS facilitated 994,890 transactions worth Rp 437.54 billion ($27 million) in Thailand, 4.31 million transactions worth Rp 1.15 trillion ($71 million) in Malaysia, and 238,216 transactions worth Rp 77.06 billion ($4.8 million) in Singapore.
 
 

This summer, the spread of an omicron subvariant known as nimbus has been high, accounting for about 40% of infections in the country.

The number of people infected with COVID-19 has increased for eight consecutive weeks, driven by the spread of a new coronavirus subvariant.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced Friday that the number of people infected with the virus, based on reports from about 3,000 medical institutions designated for surveillance from Aug. 4 to 10, was an average of 6.13 people per institution, 1.11 times higher than the previous week’s 5.53 people.

On a prefectural basis, the highest figure was reported in Miyazaki Prefecture, with 14.71 people per institution, followed by Kagoshima Prefecture with 13.46 people and Saga Prefecture with 11.83 people, putting the Kyushu region at the top of list.

This summer, spread of an omicron subvariant known as nimbus has been high. The latest data released in July by the Japan Institute for Health Security shows nimbus accounted for about 40% of infections in Japan. One of its more noticeable symptoms is said to be severe sore throat.

Increased movement of people during the Bon holidays may have led to a greater risk of infection.

“We need to stay cautious about an increase in infections,” said Nobuhiko Okabe, an advisor at the Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health. “It is particularly important for people to wear masks if necessary, as well as washing hands and maintaining good ventilation.”

As more time passes after vaccination, susceptibility to infection increases, and elderly people are more likely to develop severe symptoms.

Prof. Hiroyuki Kunishima of St. Marianna University School of Medicine said, “I recommend elderly people go to medical institutions to prevent severe illness even when in the absence of noticeable symptoms like fever.”
 
 

Columbus will welcome international visitors from one of its sister cities next week.

A delegation of city officials from Miyoshi, Japan will be in town from Sunday night to Thursday, including Mayor Tasuku Oyama, Yoshihiro Masuoka, vice chairman of the Miyoshi city council, Yuichiro Kondo, mayor’s secretary, and Chihoko Jo, general manager of the Miyoshi general affairs department.

A group of students from Miyoshi will arrive on Wednesday to visit their counterparts at Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. BCSC families hosted 21 guests from Miyoshi last August, where they saw the downtown, visited Columbus City Hall and Columbus North High School, and got a tour of the district’s C4 program.

The city delegation will receive a welcome from Mayor Mary Ferdon, a representative from Columbus City Council and all three Bartholomew County commissioners on Monday morning. The guests will be honored during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

On Thursday, Miyoshi city officials and students will receive a tour around the city.

Columbus began its relationship with Miyoshi in July 1994 when then-Columbus Mayor Bob Stewart and then-Miyoshi Mayor Michio Tsukamoto signed a cultural status agreement. Their sister city status was formalized on Nov. 30 of that year.

The cities were introduced when local Garry Seim and Miyama Co., Chairman Dick Yamamoto met through business introductions.

Sister cities are an official agreement between two cities and require a signature from the highest elected office of each. Sister cities encourage cultural awareness, educational opportunities, and provide a number of other benefits that may look different depending on the specific relationship.
Columbus has sister-cities in Löhne, Germany (since 1994), Xiangyang, China (since 2011) and Pune, India (since 2019).

Although similarities are not required for sister-city status, Columbus and Miyoshi have a few. The two cities have similar population sizes, location in relation to large cities and automotive manufacturing is a major aspect of their local economies.

Columbus also has a number of Japanese companies and companies with connections to Japan, including Toyota Material Handling, NTN Driveshaft, CAPCO and Enkei America Inc. Cummins, Columbus’ largest employer also has operations in Japan.

Ferdon was part of a 15-person delegation the city sent to Miyoshi while she was executive director of administration and community development for former Mayor Jim Lienhoop. The group spent seven days in Japan, also visiting Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagoya, among other places.

That had been the first trip representatives from Columbus made to Japan since before the pandemic.

The delegation included city, civic, nonprofit and business representatives, including Jason Hester, former president of the Greater Columbus Economic Development Corp.; Cindy Frey, president of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce; as well as representatives from Toyota Material Handling, CAPCO, BCSC., and Purdue Polytechnic Institute, among other organizations.

The brick alleyway between Fourth and Fifth streets was constructed with bricks gifted by citizens of Miyoshi. Emblazoned on the bricks are the names of families, individuals, and businesses from the Japanese city. Miyoshi has also donated a number of cherry trees to Columbus.
 
 

An intense heatwave continued to grip much of Japan on Saturday, from the Kyushu region in the southwest to Tohoku in the northeast.

The Japan Meteorological Agency says sunny conditions are driving up temperatures from Kyushu to the Tokai region in central Japan, and across Tohoku.

By 11 a.m., temperatures had reached 35.2 degrees Celsius in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, 35 degrees in Tsuwano Town, Shimane Prefecture, 34.9 degrees in Ushiku in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture, and 34.7 degrees in Hirakata City, Osaka Prefecture.

The mercury is forecast to keep rising in the afternoon.

Daytime highs are expected to reach 39 degrees in Hita City, Oita Prefecture, 38 degrees in Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture and Yamaguchi City, and 37 degrees in Osaka, Nagoya and Kumamoto cities and elsewhere.

Heatstroke alerts have been issued for 20 of Japan's 47 prefectures, mainly in western Japan.
 
 

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung's latest trip to Japan has affected Japan-China ties, with Beijing canceling at the last minute a bilateral meeting of agriculture ministers.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi avoided going into detail in a press conference on Friday, stating only, "We understand that (the ministerial meeting) was not held due to scheduling conflicts of both sides."

Chinese agriculture minister Han Jun was set to visit Japan to hold a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, on Tuesday, after a trilateral agriculture ministers' meeting involving the two nations plus South Korea held in Incheon near South Korea's capital, Seoul, on Monday.

Many within the Japanese government consider Lin's Japan visit in late July to be the reason for the cancellation.

The Taiwanese side has said that the foreign chief had made a personal visit to Japan. During the trip, however, he held talks with Keiji Furuya of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who heads a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers aiming for stronger Tokyo-Taipei relations, and other Japanese officials.
 
 

The Japanese government has been struggling to collect the remains of Japanese nationals who died abroad in World War II as the number of bereaved families and local people with firsthand experience of the war is decreasing.

Of the 2.4 million Japanese nationals who are believed to have died abroad in the war, including those who perished on Ioto, a remote Tokyo island widely known as Iwo Jima, and Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, about 1.12 million sets of remains have not been collected.

Some 230,000 sets are believed to be difficult to retrieve due to the situation in countries concerned, including China and North Korea, while about 300,000 sets are believed to be under the sea.

The other 590,000 sets are retrievable, according to the welfare ministry. But as time passes, fewer people have firsthand knowledge of the war period, making it difficult to gather information. The government's efforts were also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion to Ukraine.

Facing the difficulties, the government has extended its intensive search period, which had been due to end in fiscal 2024, for five years.
 
 

A sudden suspension of the sole train to Japan's Expo 2025 stranded more than 30,000 visitors, with some forced to spend a sweltering night near the station and more than 30 people sent to hospitals by Thursday (Aug 14) morning.

A power outage abruptly shut the metro line in Osaka on Wednesday night while a crowd was packed into the Expo site's station.

As of 9.30pm (8.30pm, Singapore time) Wednesday, around 30,000 people were stranded, the Expo organiser said.

"So many people were packing the station that it felt like a steam bath," an elderly woman told local broadcaster MBS news.

Many, including families with children, wound up sleeping on benches under the Expo's wooden "Grand Ring" or inside pavillons turned into shelters.

It took the Osaka Metro around eight hours to restore the Chuo line's service, with trains not fully operational until early Thursday morning.

By then, 36 people had been taken to hospitals for symptoms including headaches and dizziness, according to the Expo organiser.

Expo staffers spent the night trying to cheer trapped visitors by lighting up objects and turning on music.

Bowing deeply, Osaka Metro officials apologised for "causing immense trouble" to those affected, blaming a short-circuit for the outage.

Japan has been suffering a punishing summer heatwave, recording its hottest July since records began in 1898.

Osaka last hosted the Expo in 1970 when it attracted 64 million people, a record until Shanghai in 2010.

Last month, Expo organisers reported welcoming 10 million visitors, with the fair running until October.
 
 

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed “remorse” over World War II in his address at the annual government-organized national memorial service for the war dead in Tokyo on Friday.

“We must once again deeply inscribe the remorse and lessons from that war into our hearts,” Ishiba stated.

A source close to Ishiba emphasized that the prime minister had intended to include the word “remorse” in his address. The source explained that Ishiba’s decision was the “culmination of his deep resolve to prevent the recurrence of war, as the nation marks the 80th anniversary of the war’s end.”

It has been 13 years since a prime minister last used the word “remorse” in their memorial address. It was used in 2012 by Yoshihiko Noda, who was the prime minister under the Democratic Party of Japan and now leads the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

The mention of remorse became a fixture after former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement on the 50th anniversary of the war’s end, in which he acknowledged past colonial rule and aggression.

In his 1994 address, Murayama expressed “deep remorse” and stated that Japan had “caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.”

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also referred to “remorse” in his 2007 address during his first term, but he stopped using the term in his second term and beyond. Instead, he stated, “We have the great responsibility to take the lessons of history deeply into our hearts.”
 
 

Japan is considering earmarking over 100 billion yen for the fiscal 2026 initial budget for mass deployment of defense drones amid the increasingly severe security environment, government sources said Tuesday.

The government may opt to buy low-priced drones made in Turkey, which have been used by Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion, so that the aerial devices can be deployed to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces as early as possible, according to the sources.

The plan in the long term, though, is for Japan to eventually pursue domestic manufacturing, the sources said, adding that to promote such production, a scheme to reinforce supply chains of related parts will be created.

The Defense Ministry, which set up a task force in April on how to utilize drones in future combat, is expected to request the budget for the next fiscal year, starting from April, by the end of this month, the sources said.

A senior government official said Japan will pursue the policy of "'preferring quantity to quality' and explore a strategy of establishing superiority with the number" of drones.

The effectiveness of drones was highlighted in the country's Defense Buildup Program, which was drawn up in 2022. According to the program, the SDF will "expeditiously procure various types of unmanned assets" to "accomplish missions while minimizing human loss."

In the current fiscal 2025 budget, 41.5 billion yen was set aside for the deployment of the U.S.-made large drone MQ-9B SeaGuardian for better surveillance operations, and 3.2 billion yen for small offensive drones, amid China's intensifying military activities in the airspace and waters surrounding Japan.

In June, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, submitted a proposal to the ministry, saying that the government needs to prepare for "new styles of combat" utilizing drones, drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine.

With recent Chinese aircraft violations of Japan's airspace in mind, some LDP lawmakers have said that Japan should use drones to deal with such flights.
 
 

A yacht and a cargo ship collided in waters off southern Japan on Wednesday, with one person confirmed dead and several others reported missing, officials said.

The captain of a 492-ton gravel carrier reported to the Japan Coast Guard that it collided with a yacht close to Hoto Island in Oita Prefecture, coast guard spokesperson Nanaka Yoshida said.

"We discovered one person at around 10 a.m. and passed them over to emergency services," she said.

According to the Oita Coast Guard Office, the person taken to the hospital was Makoto Yamamoto, 70, from the city of Oita, who was in a state of cardiac arrest before being confirmed dead.

The coast guard is continuing the search for several others who were supposed to be on board the yacht, "but we don't know the details of the yacht or how many were on board," she said.
 
 

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will visit Japan on Aug. 23-24 to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the Japanese and South Korean governments said Wednesday.

It will be Lee's first visit to Japan since taking office in June.
During Lee's visit, the leaders will reaffirm their commitment to steadily developing bilateral ties as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations this year. They will also share a dinner.

 

Ishiba and Lee have agreed to continue so-called shuttle diplomacy of reciprocal visits to each other's countries.

In the upcoming meeting, the leaders will aim to strengthen bilateral relations as well as trilateral ties with the United States, mindful of China's hegemonic moves and North Korea's nuclear and missile development.

Lee will visit the United States from Aug. 24 to hold talks with President Donald Trump.
 
 

A British aircraft carrier strike group made a port call in eastern Japan on Tuesday, marking the first such visit in about four years in a show of deeper security cooperation between the two nations.

The aircraft carrier the Prince of Wales docked at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, while the destroyer the Dauntless and the Norwegian frigate the Roald Amundsen berthed at the near-by Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force base.

The three ships from the Carrier Strike Group 25 are scheduled to stay in Japan until Sept. 2, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. It is the second such British naval visit, after Japan hosted an aircraft carrier strike group in 2021 led by the Queen Elizabeth.

The Prince of Wales will move to Tokyo on Aug. 28 and stay there until Sept. 2, while the Roald Amundsen will make a four-day stay in the capital from Aug. 19, the ministry said.

Japan and Britain have been strengthening their defense collaboration in recent years, with a bilateral reciprocal access agreement that simplifies procedures for their forces to engage in joint exercises and disaster relief operations taking effect in 2023.

The two U.S. allies have also been running a trilateral joint project with Italy to develop a next-generation fighter jet by 2035.
 
 

One out of 2.9 applicants passed employment examinations for Japan’s career-track national public servants in fiscal 2025, the lowest rate ever, the National Personnel Authority said Tuesday.

A total of 8,815 people passed the exam, up 1,258 from the previous year, when one in 3.2 applicants passed.

An NPA official attributed the dip in competition to “the number of successful applicants rising in line with an increase in the number of planned hires by each ministry and agency.”

The number of applicants who passed under a new division established in fiscal 2025 to examine judgment and thinking ability came to 1,763, making up around 20 pct of all successful applicants.

Women made up a record high of 47.1 pct of all successful applicants, up from 43.0 pct in the previous year.
 
 

On August 12, 1985, the doomed Boeing 747 was around 40 minutes into an hour-long flight from Tokyo to Osaka, when it crashed into a mountain about 120 kilometres (75 miles) northwest of the capital.

Tuesday saw hundreds of people -- including bereaved families and friends -- hike the trails up to the cenotaph erected on Osutaka Mountain Ridge in the Gunma region where the jet crashed.

Among them was a woman who lost her younger brother in the accident.
"I want to tell him that all of his family members are alive, with his soul on our shoulders", she told broadcaster Fuji TV.
"We're doing our best to live our lives".

They gathered for a solemn ceremony at the foot of the mountain in the evening to offer white chrysanthemums to the deceased and to light candles at a memorial.

"It is our responsibility to ensure that this unprecedented tragedy does not fade away and that its lessons are passed on to the future," Gunma governor Ichita Yamamoto said in his address.

Japan Airlines Flight 123 lost control soon after take-off, with a loud noise heard about 10 minutes into the trip and an emergency declared, before shaking violently and crashing.

The plane was almost full, with many holidaymakers flying back to their hometowns during Japan's "obon" mid-summer festival.

In the end, 505 passengers -- including a dozen infants -- and 15 crew members perished. Just four passengers survived.

Imperfect repairs to the aircraft's rear bulkhead by Boeing engineers seven years earlier -- coupled with JAL's subsequent lack of oversight -- were blamed for the accident.

Numerous, tiny cracks on the bulkhead -- unnoticed on prior flights -- burst, destroying a tail fin, rupturing hydraulic systems and sending the plane hurtling downward.

The world's worst airline disaster was the 1977 runway collision of two 747s on Tenerife in the Canary Islands that left 583 dead.

More recently in Japan, a near-catastrophic collision occurred at Haneda airport between a Japan Airlines aircraft and a smaller coast guard plane in January 2024.

All 379 people on board the JAL Airbus escaped just before the aircraft was engulfed in flames, but five of the six people on the smaller aircraft died.
 
 

Japan's farm minister on Monday urged the South Korean foreign minister to scrap restrictions on Japanese seafood imports imposed after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Shinjiro Koizumi, Japan's minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun in Seoul ahead of a possible visit to Japan by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung later this month.

It is unusual for a Japanese farm minister to meet with another country's foreign minister. The talks took place after Koizumi attended a trilateral agriculture ministers' meeting in Incheon with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts earlier in the day.

"I have high expectations that relevant ministries will foster smooth communication toward the swift removal of the ban," Koizumi told reporters after the meeting. He declined to say how Cho responded.

South Korea banned imports of Japanese seafood from Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures after the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Seoul also requires eight other Japanese prefectures to provide certificates of radiation inspection.

"Trust in Japanese foods has been fully restored," Koizumi said.
The Japanese and South Korean governments are arranging a visit by the South Korean president for talks with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, according to diplomatic sources.

In June, China lifted its ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed in August 2023 when Japan began releasing treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, although some restrictions remain.
 
 

A Japanese high school hit by a bullying scandal has withdrawn from the country's hugely popular summer baseball tournament after a social media frenzy, officials said on Sunday (Aug 10).

The two-week "Koshien" high school tournament is watched by millions on national television each year and has launched the careers of many of Japan's leading players.

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish both earned their spurs in the tournament played at Koshien Stadium near the western city of Osaka.

An outcry over alleged violence earlier this year at the baseball team of Koryo High School in the Hiroshima region prompted calls on social media for their withdrawal.

"We have decided to pull out, and will swiftly conduct an overhaul of our education method," Masakazu Hori, the principal of the school in western Japan, told reporters.

It is reportedly the first time that a school has exited mid-tournament over a scandal related to player violence.

Koshien tournament co-organiser, the Japan High School Baseball Federation, on Sunday described Koryo High's decision as "extremely regrettable" and vowed to continue efforts to "eradicate violence, bullying and irrational hierarchical relationships".

Koryo High said on Wednesday that an internal investigation had found a first-year student on the baseball team had been assaulted by four of his senior teammates at their dormitory in January.

Acts of violence included shoving him in the chest and slapping him in the face, with the victim then transferred to another school in March following an apology by his assailants, the school said.

Koryo High reported the assault to the federation, was given a reprimand in March and did not initially publicise the incident.

But emotional social media posts detailing the case went viral earlier this month, triggering an outpouring of anger against the school.

Unsubstantiated information then swirled online about other instances of violence allegedly involving Koryo's baseball team.

Koryo High principal Hori warned Sunday that the posts "include pure speculation not based on facts, and slanders against unrelated students".

"Some of our students have been vilified and chased after, on their way to and from school," he said, adding that even a bomb threat had been received.
 
 

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a heavy rain emergency warning for 5 cities and 2 towns in Kumamoto Prefecture.

A heavy rain emergency warning is in effect for the cities of Tamana, Uki, Yatsushiro, Kamiamakusa and Amakusa and the towns of Nagasu and Hikawa.

The JMA says warm, moist air flowing into a front is bringing record precipitation to the prefecture. Bands of heavy rain clouds over Kumamoto triggered a warning of severe downpours.



The JMA advised people to exercise utmost caution


The agency held a press conference earlier on Monday and advised people to exercise utmost caution. An official urged people in areas covered by the warning to immediately secure their safety. He added that people in landslide warning areas should be on the highest alert.

He said: "if you feel that evacuating to designated shelters is unsafe, move to a place away from streams and cliffs, or head to tall buildings that are unlikely to be flooded. Even in places not usually prone to disasters, maximum caution is required."

The JMA has called on people to act swiftly and do all they can to protect themselves.

The agency says heavy rain clouds could continue to develop over Kumamoto in the afternoon. It warns that the risk of disaster could rise quickly.

The agency also says a low pressure system is expected to bring rain to eastern and northern Japan through Tuesday.
 
 

Japan's summer holiday travel rush got underway Saturday, with many shinkansen bullet train services and flights fully booked as people returned to their hometowns or set off on domestic and overseas vacations.

JR Tokyo Station was crowded from the early morning as all seats on the Nozomi shinkansen bullet train services to the major metropolises of Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka were booked out, with long lines of passengers seeking unreserved seats on other trains.

Traffic jams snaked along the country's expressways, while travelers at train stations crowded concourses and waiting rooms to shelter from the summer heat on the platforms.

Keisuke Nakagawa, 7, who was returning with his father to Otsu in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, from Chiba Prefecture neighboring Tokyo, said he planned to play in the water at Lake Biwa and see his grandparents.

Throngs of people passed through JR Shin-Osaka Station on the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen lines in western Japan. Karin Takimura, 10, from Utsunomiya city in Tochigi Prefecture, met her father in Osaka before they set off on a family trip to Hiroshima.

"I learned about Itsukushima Shrine in school, and want to go and see it," she said.

Yoko Nishio, 75, and her friends, all wearing matching t-shirts, were headed to western prefecture of Kochi to perform at the yosakoi dance festival there. "We've been practicing since June," she said. "Even though it is supposed to rain, we hope to enjoy dancing."

A malfunction of the E8-series shinkansen trains in June had led to a reduction in the number of direct trains between Tokyo and northeastern Yamagata Prefecture, with regular services resuming only at the beginning of the month.

"It is challenging to make transfers with small children," said Takamichi Okudaira, 36, at JR Yamagata Station on his way home to Sagae in the prefecture with his family after coming from Saitama, near Tokyo. "I am grateful to be able to make it here directly."

Rail operators said Tokaido Shinkansen bookings were nearly full on Saturday morning for bullet trains departing from Tokyo.

While regular trains on the Yamagata Shinkansen are operating normally, the number of extraordinary services has decreased, with operators calling for passengers to spread out their travel dates.

All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines flights departing from Tokyo's Haneda airport were fully booked out on routes to Okinawa Prefecture in southern Japan, where the new theme park Junglia Okinawa opened last month.

Departure flights from the Narita airport, the other hub serving the capital, were also robust.
 

 

 
Shigetoshi Kotari died Friday from a brain injury he suffered during his draw with Yamato Hata on Aug. 2 in Tokyo, according to multiple reports.
 
Kotari, 28, lost consciousness after the conclusion of the 12-round bout for Hata’s Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation junior lightweight title and was rushed to a hospital for emergency brain surgery for a subdural hematoma, which is another term for a brain bleed.
 
Kotari (8-2-2, 5 KOs) and Hata (17-2-1, 16 KOs) fought to a split draw at Korakuen Hall.
 
Kotari, of Nagoya, had won two consecutive eight-round fights by unanimous decision to earn the title shot against Hata.
 
“Rest in peace, Shigetoshi Kotari,” the World Boxing Organization wrote on social media. “The boxing world mourns the tragic passing of Japanese fighter Shigetoshi Kotari, who succumbed to injuries sustained during his August 2nd title fight.

A warrior in the ring. A fighter in spirit. Gone too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, team, and the entire Japanese boxing community.”
 
 

Almost a million more deaths than births were recorded in Japan last year, representing the steepest annual population decline since government surveys began in 1968.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has described the demographic crisis of Japan's ageing population as a "quiet emergency", pledging family-friendly policies such as free childcare and more flexible work hours.

But efforts to reverse the perennially low birth rates among Japanese women have so far made little impact.

New data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed the number of Japanese nationals fell by 908,574 in 2024.

Japan recorded 686,061 births - the lowest number since records began in 1899 - while nearly 1.6 million people died, meaning for every baby born, more than two people died.

It marks the 16th consecutive year of population decline with the squeeze being felt by the nation's pension and healthcare systems.

The number of foreign residents reached a record high of 3.6 million people as of 1 January 2025, however, representing nearly 3% of Japan's population.

The government has tentatively embraced foreign labour by launching a digital nomad visa and upskilling initiatives, but immigration remains politically fraught in the largely conservative country.

The overall population of the country declined by 0.44 percent from 2023 to about 124.3 million at the start of the year.

Elderly people aged 65 and over now make up nearly 30% of the population - the second-highest proportion in the world after Monaco, according to the World Bank. The working-age population, defined as those between 15 and 64, has dropped to about 60%.

A growing number of towns and villages are hollowing out, with nearly four million homes abandoned over the past two decades, government data released last year showed.

The government has spent years trying to increase birth rates with incentives ranging from housing subsidies to paid parental leave. But deep-rooted cultural and economic barriers remain.

High living costs, stagnant wages and a rigid work culture deter many young people from starting families. Women, in particular, face entrenched gender roles that often leave them with limited support as primary caregivers.

Japan's fertility rate - the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime - has been low since the 1970s, so experts warn even dramatic improvements now would take decades to bear fruit.
 
 

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, one of the world's biggest by circulation, is suing U.S.-based AI firm Perplexity for allegedly "free-riding" on its content on its search engine.

The lawsuit filed Thursday is one of a slew by media companies worldwide against AI firms using their material and is the first by a major Japanese news organization, Yomiuri said.

It accuses Perplexity of "free-riding on the results of the activities of news organizations, which have invested a great deal of effort and expense."

A spokesman for the paper added that this "could have a negative impact on accurate journalism ... and shake the foundations of democracy."

The lawsuit filed in Tokyo seeks damages of ¥2.2 billion ($14.7 million), equivalent to 120,000 Yomuiri articles used "without permission" between February and June.

It is also seeking damages for lost advertising revenue, saying that Perplexity users click only on its search summaries and not on the newspaper's website, reducing traffic.

The Yomiuri, with a daily circulation of around 6 million — down from over 10 million in 2010 — and some 2,500 reporters, is one of five major daily newspapers in Japan.

Perplexity was not immediately available for comment.
After a lawsuit by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in October, Perplexity criticized the "adversarial posture" of many media as "shortsighted, unnecessary, and self-defeating."

They "prefer to live in a world where publicly reported facts are owned by corporations, and no one can do anything with those publicly reported facts without paying a toll," it said.

"We should all be working together to offer people amazing new tools and build genuinely pie-expanding businesses."
 



 

PlayStation-maker Sony raised its annual profit forecasts on Thursday, citing strong performance in its key gaming business and a smaller-than-expected negative impact of U.S. trade tariffs.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate said "user engagement continued its strong momentum" in the video game sector.
Its shares surged more than six percent in Tokyo after the announcement.

Monthly active users in June and total gameplay hours on PlayStation consoles in the April-June quarter both increased six percent year-on-year, it said.

It added that "the situation surrounding the additional US tariffs is still fluid, and we intend to continue to monitor it and take action to minimize its impact".

"The impact of the additional US tariffs on operating income is estimated to be approximately 70 billion yen, a decrease of 30 billion yen from the previous forecast."

The company hiked its net profit forecast for the current 2025-26 financial year to 970 billion yen, up from the previous estimate of 930 billion yen.
But even the higher forecast would not top the record net profit of 1.1 trillion yen that Sony logged in the previous financial year.

Atul Goyal, an equity analyst at Jefferies, said ahead of the earnings release that the massively anticipated global release of the game "Grand Theft Auto VI" in May 2026 "could lead to peak game profits" for Sony.

GTA VI, which will be released on the PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's XBox, will be set in Miami-like Vice City and features a playable female protagonist for the first time.

The PlayStation 5, which launched in 2020, is entering a "late" stage of the usual lifecycle for a console, Goyal said.

"Sony's outlook hinges on navigating tariff headwinds near-term, leveraging GTA6's blockbuster potential... and cyclical console risks," he said.

"A sensors spin-off could transform valuation, while music provides steady growth and pictures provides stability."

Music streaming is an important business pillar for Sony, which has an impressive back catalogue and a current roster that includes artists such as Beyonce and Lil Nas X.

The Japanese giant, which saw net profit jump 23 percent on-year in this year's April-June quarter, also raised its operating profit forecast on Thursday.

Sony last month said it had bought a strategic 2.5 percent stake in Japanese game franchise giant Bandai Namco, which owns "Gundam" and arcade classic "Pac-Man", with a view to growing its anime business.

With the 68 billion yen transaction, the companies plan "to create new and emotionally moving experiences for fans", they said in a joint statement.
 


 

Toyota Motor says US tariff increases would shave almost 10 billion dollars off operating profit for the current fiscal year.

Japan's biggest automaker also said operating profit will probably be 3.2 trillion yen, or about 22 billion dollars, in the year ending March, compared with the previous projection for 3.8 trillion yen, or 26 billion dollars.

Toyota announced the worsening outlook after reporting profit fell in the April-to-June quarter.

Operating profit dropped 10.9 percent in the period from a year earlier. Sales jumped to a record of more than 12 trillion yen or 83 billion dollars for the quarter.
 
 

A crew member evacuated an F2 fighter jet flying off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, the Air Self-Defense Force has said on Thursday.

The jet crashed in the Pacific Ocean at around 12:35 p.m. on the day. The crew member was picked up by an ASDF helicopter and taken to hospital. No other damage has been confirmed.

The ASDF is investigating the circumstances of the incident.
 
 

While torrential rains lash China, Pakistan and parts of India, sweltering heat has enveloped Japan and South Korea as extreme weather claims hundreds of lives in the region.

Climate change has made weather extremities more intense, frequent and unpredictable, scientists say.

This pattern is especially pronounced in Asia, which according to the World Meteorological Organization is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average.

The region has lost $2 trillion (£1.5 trillion) to extreme weather – from floods to heatwaves and droughts – over the past three decades, according to the annual Climate Risk Index survey.


Record heat

Japan marked its hottest day on record on Tuesday, with 41.8C (107F) registered in Isesaki city, Gunma prefecture.

The country had also experienced its hottest-ever June and July this year.
Fifty-six people are believed to have died from heatstroke between mid-June and the end of July, Tokyo's medical examiner's office said earlier this week.

Authorities have suspended some train services over concerns that the heat could warp or deform the rails.

"I'm really concerned about global warming, but when it comes to my daily life, I can't live without turning on the air conditioner," an office worker in Japan told AFP news.

"I don't really know what I should be doing, I'm just desperately getting through each day."

This intense heat is expected to ease a little in the coming days, with some parts of Japan expected to see as much as 200mm of rain in the coming days.
This rain and briefly cooler air will allow some relief from the swelter.

South Korea marked a record streak of 22 "tropical nights" in July where temperatures exceeded 25C.

Last month, the country's emergency services also reported a surge in calls about heat-related illnesses.

Government agencies and workplaces have relaxed their dress codes to help employees work more comfortably and reduce dependence on air conditioning amid the heat.

Parts of Vietnam are also baking in unprecedented heat, with Hanoi recording its first-ever August day above 40C. The capital city has turned into "a pan on fire" in the last few days, Nam, a construction worker, told


Storm season

It's a different picture in China, where floods across the country, from Shanghai to Beijing, have killed many in recent weeks.

Southern China has been battered by heavy rain, and on Wednesday emergency workers raced to clear debris as the region braced for more landslides and floods.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The flooded streets are threatening to worsen an outbreak of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in the province.

Such rains are frequent in southern China at this time of the year, but have been enhanced further by tropical storm activity – more especially in the last month.

Just last week, there were three active storms in the west Pacific, whilst prior to June, tropical storm activity was almost non-existent.

Mountainous districts of the capital Beijng late last month were hit by deadly floods late last month which killed dozens including 31 residents in an eldercare home.

Heavy rains are especially deadly in mountainous areas prone to landslides and densely populated areas, where flash floods often catch residents off-guard.

More than 100 people are missing in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand after a cloudburst – an extreme, sudden downpour of rain over a small area – triggered flash floods.

In Pakistan, nearly 300 people, including more than 100 children, have died in rain-related incidents since June. The deluge has also destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings - at least a quarter of schools in the Punjab province have been partially or completely damaged, according to British aid agency Save the Children.

Tuesday also brought more than 350mm of rain to Hong Kong, which reports say makes it the city's wettest August day since 1884.

For context, Hong Kong gets about 2400mm a year, most of which falls in summer between June and August.
 
 

The Cabinet Office said Thursday that Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal 2025 is expected to grow a real 0.7 pct from the previous year, down from 1.2 pct shown in the government's economic outlook adopted in January.

The new estimate for the fiscal year through March 2026, submitted to the day's meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, reflects downside risks from high tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The U.S. tariff policy is expected to reduce Japanese manufacturers' exports to the United States and help stagnate the global economy.

The Cabinet Office expects growth in Japan's exports to decelerate sharply to 1.2 pct from 3.6 pct due to slowing demand from abroad. Capital spending by Japanese firms is estimated to expand 1.8 pct, down from 3.0 pct.

Personal consumption is forecast to climb 1.0 pct, down from 1.3 pct, as budget-minded attitudes are deep-rooted amid recent price increases for rice and other food.
 

 

Hiroshima marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Wednesday, with a call for young people to take on the challenge of building broader support toward ridding the world of nuclear weapons as the survivors age and concerns of nuclear conflict grow.

"Our youth, the leaders of future generations, must recognize that misguided policies regarding...nuclear weapons could bring utterly inhumane consequences," Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said in the Peace Declaration read during the annual memorial ceremony, which took place after Japan's leading group of atomic bomb survivors was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

"We urge them to step forward with this understanding and lead civil society toward consensus," he said. "We, the people, must never give up."

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in the ceremony that it is Japan's mission as the only country to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war to advance global efforts to realize a world free of nuclear weapons, especially amid increasing divisions over disarmament.

A moment of silence was observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time when the uranium bomb was dropped by the U.S. bomber Enola Gay and detonated over the city on Aug. 6, 1945, in the final stages of World War II, killing an estimated 140,000 people by the end of the year.

A record 120 nations and regions, along with the European Union, took part in the ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park, located near the hypocenter, according to the city of Hiroshima. Around 55,000 people attended.

Following a controversy last year over whether to invite countries involved in armed conflicts to Japan's atomic bomb commemorations, which are aimed at promoting peace, Hiroshima has shifted from sending invitations to simply notifying all countries and regions of its event.

While Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, was absent again this year, its close ally, Belarus, attended for the first time in four years, according to the city. The two countries had not been invited since the start of war.

Palestine and Taiwan also participated in the ceremony for the first time.
The event followed the awarding of Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo, also known as the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, for its decades-long campaign against nuclear weapons using the testimony of survivors.

But opportunities to hear directly from those who witnessed the atomic bombings are declining, with the combined number of officially recognized survivors of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki falling below 100,000 for the first time. Their average age exceeded 86.

The momentum toward nuclear disarmament has diminished in recent years with growing global instability amid the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, and U.S. President Donald Trump's pursuit of an "America First" foreign policy and transactional approach to diplomacy.

Matsui said a belief in some countries that nuclear weapons are essential for national defense "flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history."

Criticizing security policies focused on "narrow self-interest" that foment international conflicts, he also urged all world leaders to visit Hiroshima to witness the consequences of atomic bombs and called for nations strengthening their military forces to engage in dialogue aimed at abandoning reliance on nuclear weapons.

Matsui reiterated the city's call for Japan to sign the U.N. treaty outlawing nuclear weapons, saying doing so would comply with the wishes of the atomic bomb survivors, including Nihon Hidankyo.

Japan has not joined the nuclear ban treaty as a complete prohibition would conflict with its policy of relying on U.S. nuclear deterrence.

Ishiba said in his speech that the Japanese government will continue its efforts to "identify concrete measures" that should be taken jointly by nuclear and non-nuclear states, without touching on the treaty, which none of the nuclear powers are part of.

Warning that the risk of nuclear conflict is growing, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres lamented in a statement that "the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion."

But he noted that Nihon Hidankyo's Nobel Prize win was a sign of hope, saying in the statement read out by U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu that "countries must draw strength from the resilience of Hiroshima and from the wisdom" of the survivors.

Many survivors braved the intense summer heat to offer prayers and flowers near the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims, an arch-shaped monument at the park, early in the morning.

Among them was Shinobu Ono, who was just 4 years old when the bomb dropped. Her family home, nestled at the foot of a mountain, was spared from the firestorm, but her father, who had been outside at the time, suffered serious burns to his face.

Now 84, Ono said she was too young to fully grasp what happened at the time but returns every year to honor her family and pray for peace.

"I am grateful for the efforts of those who can share their stories. Since I can't contribute, all I can do is pray," she said. "When I look at what is happening in Ukraine now, it just breaks my heart."

The United States and Russia together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons, while China's arsenal has grown faster than any other country's with around 100 warheads added each year since 2023, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its latest annual report.

Three days after the first atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy," decimated Hiroshima in western Japan, a second one, dubbed "Fat Man," was dropped on Nagasaki in the southwest. Japan surrendered to the Allied forces six days later, marking the end of World War II.
 
 

Four people of Japanese descent who say they were left behind in the Philippines in the chaotic conclusion of World War Two have lodged citizenship claims with Japanese courts.

Eighty years on from the end of the war, there are still about 50 such people in the Philippines pursuing citizenship claims in Japan.

They say they were born to Japanese fathers who immigrated to the Philippines before the war and Filipino mothers, but remain stateless due to a lack of documents proving their fathers were Japanese citizens.

A supporting group told reporters on Tuesday the four people, aged 79 to 82, have filed cases in family courts in Tokyo and Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan.

The group says it has assisted in conducting DNA analyses and gathering material to substantiate blood ties between each of the four and their fathers and other relatives.

It says family courts have so far granted citizenship to 324 people of Japanese descent.

Ishii Kyoko, the group's secretary general, says some people are still trying to determine the identity of their fathers, which makes it even harder to find proof of their Japanese lineage.

She said the average age of people pursuing such claims is 83, so time is running out.

One of the four plaintiffs, Takei Jose, is 82 years old. He is scheduled to visit Japan on Wednesday, with support from the Japanese Foreign Ministry. He will meet with relatives in Osaka, western Japan.
 
 

The temperature in the eastern Japan city of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, soared to 41.8 degrees Celsius at 2:26 p.m. on Tuesday, marking a record high for Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The previous record high was 41.2 degrees, marked in the western city of Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, on Wednesday last week.

On Tuesday, temperatures of 40.0 degrees or higher were recorded at a total of 14 locations across five of Japan's 47 prefectures, the highest single-day total since records began.

Temperatures rose to as high as 41.4 degrees in Hatoyama in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, 41.2 degrees in Kiryu in Gunma, and 41.0 degrees in Maebashi, also in Gunma.

This summer, the Japanese archipelago is covered with a double layer of the Pacific anticyclone and the Tibetan high-pressure system, resulting in sunny and extremely hot days in many areas.
 
 
 

A total of 11 tons of frozen black tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon) worth Rp2 billion has been certified by the Indonesian Quarantine Agency (Barantin), through the South Sumatra Animal, Fish, and Plant Quarantine Office, for export to Japan.

The head of the South Sumatra Quarantine, Sri Endah Ekandari, said Japan is one of the primary markets for black tiger prawns with strict food safety standards; hence, it was necessary to meet the prerequisites.

"One of the key requirements for exporting to Japan is ensuring that the prawns are free from White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) and implementing the standards of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)," Endah said in a written statement received by Tempo on Tuesday, August 5, 2025.

According to Endah, before the commodity was shipped, the prawns had undergone complete quarantine procedures, including paperwork inspection, physical examination, and lab tests. Afterward, the quarantine officers would issue a fish health certificate as a supporting export document.

"The results of the laboratory tests showed that the black tiger prawns are free from WSSV, thus declared safe for consumption and suitable for export," Endah said.

The export to Japan is part of the efforts to support South Sumatran commodities, thus support from all parties, including local and central governments, is warranted.

"The South Sumatra Quarantine is striving to support export acceleration by ensuring biosecurity aspects, fish health, and compliance with the prerequisites of the destination countries, in order to strengthen Indonesia's position in the global export market," said Sri Endah.
 

 

In a major breakthrough for Japan’s defense industry, Australia announced Tuesday that it will purchase 11 Japanese frigates in what will be Tokyo’s biggest-ever defense contract and a critical step for bilateral relations.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said that an upgraded version of the Mogami-class frigate proposed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) was assessed as the “best able to quickly meet the capability requirements and strategic needs of the Australian Defence Force,” following a competitive bidding process for the 10 billion Australian dollar ($6.48 billion) project.

In Tokyo, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani welcomed the news later Tuesday, telling a news conference that the decision “marks a significant step toward further enhancing security cooperation.”

“The selection is a testament to the trust in Japan's advanced technological capabilities and the importance of interoperability between the Self-Defense Forces and the Australian military,” he said.

MHI was chosen by the country’s National Security Committee as the preferred partner in its decadelong Project Sea 3000 over Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, which had offered its Meko A-200 warship.

Although Marles said that Australia and Japan’s shared concerns over China’s growing military assertiveness “didn't influence” the process, observers had long speculated that Beijing's moves would be a key factor in any decision.

The quasi-allies have been closely coordinating their national security policies in recent years, and the Mogami sales pitch was presented by Japan as a way to further operationalize the partnership through stronger industrial cooperation and interoperability.

“There is no country in the world with whom we have a greater strategic alignment, and that is being reflected in a really blossoming defense relationship,” he said.

The upgraded Mogami class will help secure Australia’s maritime trade routes and northern approaches as part of a larger and more lethal naval surface combatant fleet, Marles said, as it replaces the navy’s Anzac-class warships.

Australia will now proceed with the next stage of the procurement process, as it aims to enter into binding and commercial contracts with MHI and the Japanese government. Those deals are expected to be sealed in early 2026, according to Nakatani.

“Going forward, we will need to continue discussions with the Australian government toward the conclusion of the final contract,” Nakatani said, adding that these talks will include finalizing the price, how to maintain and repair the ships after completion, as well as how to continue production in Australia.

“There are many issues to be addressed,” he said.
The winning bid is likely to be a boon for Japan’s defense industry, but it will also substantially deepen military and industrial cooperation with Australia at a time when the quasi-allies are expanding ties across the board.

For Australia to get the ships as quickly as possible — the first one needs to be in the water by 2029 — the three initial vessels will be built in Japan, while manufacturing of the remaining ships will transition to the Henderson area of Perth, Western Australia, where they will be built by Australian company Austal.

The first warship is scheduled to be delivered in 2029 and become operational in 2030, with the third to enter service by 2034.

Australian Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy confirmed this Tuesday by saying that Tokyo has allocated three production slots for the Australian warships in its established production line.

Nakatani said that Japan’s “proven track record” of building 12 Mogami-class frigates — and its plans to build even more — were key to the winning bid.

“The decisive factor in this decision was our country's production capacity in this field,” he said. “The fact that we have the ability and track record of continuous manufacturing has been a key point, so moving forward, we will prioritize speed and work to meet Australia's needs.”

Nakatani — who also served as defense chief during Japan’s failed bid to sell submarines to Australia in 2016 — said that his ministry had “made every effort to apply the lessons learned from that experience to this contract.”

Beyond the Mogami’s “high-quality” capabilities, he pointed to “the commitment of both the public and private sectors” as crucial to the successful bid.

“We established a joint public-private committee, and relevant government agencies are working together with companies,” he said. “I believe that it is thanks to these efforts that we were able to achieve these results.”

Experts said the decision was a ringing endorsement of Japan’s defense industry and its larger push for the contract.

Tokyo launched a concerted effort from both government and industry that resulted in the joint public-private promotion committee exclusively for this endeavor — an unprecedented move for Japan to support defense export projects.

The Japanese government also explicitly allowed the joint development and production of the frigates to allay concerns about potential transfer restrictions under its strict arms export controls.

At the same time, Tokyo boosted its marketing efforts, releasing English-language videos promoting the Mogami’s strengths in terms of stealth tech, interoperability, manpower efficiency and its evolving unmanned capabilities. It also sent Mogami vessels on several occasions to Australia.

“This is clearly a strategic choice by the Australian government reflecting confidence in the Japanese government, MHI and the wider Japanese defense industry,” said Simon Chelton of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

While the bilateral relationship has strengthened significantly in recent years, Chelton said that Tuesday’s decision went beyond geopolitics.

The upgraded Mogami “is extremely capable, and it is designed to be interoperable with U.S. partners," he said, adding that the vessels’ need for fewer staff will also help keep life-cycle costs low. The Mogami can be operated with about half the crew of larger, general-purpose destroyers — about 90 crew members — while fulfilling similar roles.

It also meets Australia’s other operational needs, as it can carry large amounts of ordnance, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and air-defense weapons.

Perhaps most importantly in the bid, Tokyo also succeeded in convincing Canberra of its ability to deliver the first three ships on time.
Conroy said that the Mogami was “the clear winner” in terms of cost, capability and meeting the schedule of delivery.

While the acquisition costs of other designs examined were comparable, the price of the Mogami turned out to be “much lower” over the vessels’ designed 40-year lifespan, he said, adding that the proposal was “the only option” that met Canberra's 2029 delivery timeline.

“Probably the most persuasive factor was Tokyo’s commitment to the project and promises that the first three Australian frigates will be delivered on time,” said Kym Bergmann, editor of the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter and Defence Review Asia magazines.

Simon Cullen, a former rear admiral in the Australian Navy, said Canberra will be keen to complete negotiations as quickly as possible, targeting completion by the first quarter of 2026.

“Noting the importance of this contract to the Japanese government, I wouldn't anticipate too many difficulties,” he said.

Canberra’s adoption of the Mogami-class will also have the potential to drive future business for Tokyo, especially as Japan is also pitching the warship to other countries such as Indonesia.

“Industrially, this will be a major change for Japan, which has not worked in this way with an international partner before,” Chelton said.

Whether the eased restrictions on the Mogami’s export could prompt Tokyo to offer more exemptions remains unclear, but some experts say such a scenario was not outside the realm of possibility as Japan’s growing defense industry rapidly gains international experience.

“The decision of the Australian government will give the Japanese government and defense industry the confidence to seek more export deals,” said Cullen.
 
 

A Japanese organization promoting "furikake" sprinkle seasoning aims to launch an app in Indonesia by the end of the year to help manage the health of children in the Southeast Asian country as well as to improve their academic performance.

After downloading the app via a quick response, or QR, code on furikake product packaging, children will be asked to input such information as their height and weight and do practice drills. If they complete the data input or the drills, or both, they will be able to enjoy Japanese manga on the app, according to the International Furikake Association.

"The data will be provided for free to the West Java provincial government, which lacks enough information about local children's health, for big data analytics to better manage their health," said Shintaro Matsue, head of the association based in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kumamoto, known as the home of furikake. "The drills will improve the children's basic academic skills," Matsue added.

The association's cooperation is expected to exert favorable effects across various fields, a senior Indonesian food agency official said.

Set up chiefly by food companies in Kumamoto, the organization has already announced a plan to outsource furikake production in West Java and voluntarily supply products made with dried ingredients rich in protein, calcium and vitamins to the provincial government under Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's free school meal initiative.
 
 

 
An Airbus A350K to New York was escorted by emergency vehicles when landing back in Tokyo.

Japan Airlines flight JL4 departed Tokyo Haneda today at 18:54 JST to New York JFK Airport (scheduled flight time of 13 hours).

The Airbus A350-1000 (registration JA07WJ) climbed to 29,000 feet but turned around 1 hour and 20 minutes after takeoff due to a possible technical issue.

Pilots contacted ATC to require a return to Haneda Airport. The flight circled for 20 minutes at 16,000 feet altitude to burn/dump fuel before approach to HND.

The flight landed on runway 23 more than 3 hours after departure. The aircraft was met by emergency vehicles and escorted back to the terminal, stand 113.
 
 

Four workers have died in Japan after falling into a manhole near Tokyo as they inspected sewage pipes, authorities said on Sunday (Aug 3).

The incident comes after a huge sinkhole swallowed a truck driver near the capital in January after a road collapsed because of corroded sewage pipes, sparking a nationwide inspection.

The workers - all men in their fifties - were checking pipes in the city of Gyoda, north of Tokyo on Saturday, when one fell down the manhole, followed by three more who tried to save him, the local fire department told AFP.

The department said rescuers detected hydrogen sulfide - a gas toxic in high concentrations - coming out of the manhole.

But city officials refused to be drawn on the cause of the initial fall.
"Detailed circumstances leading up to the accident are still unknown, so it's too early for us to say anything about our responsibility," a Gyoda city official said on condition of anonymity.

The four workers were retrieved and taken to the hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to local media reports.

Around 10 workers were at the scene of the inspection, ordered to clean the pipes of wastewater and sludge if necessary.

In May, Japanese rescuers recovered the body of the dead 74-year-old truck driver, months after he was swallowed by the road collapse in the city of Yashio.
 
 

A Japanese national was attacked and injured in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, eastern China, on Thursday, officials at the Japanese Consulate-General in Shanghai said Friday.

The person was hit with what appeared to be a rock inside a subway station, and was later treated at a hospital, the officials said.

According to Japan-China diplomatic sources, the victim was a woman and with a child at the time. Local authorities are investigating the case, aiming to apprehend the attacker.

In the same city, a Japanese woman and her child were attacked by a knife-wielding man in June 2024 while waiting for a school bus to a Japanese school. They were injured, and a Chinese woman who was a guide on the bus was killed.

Thursday's incident occurred at a time when anti-Japanese sentiment is seen as rising in China, fueled by recent films and dramas themed on the past war against Japan.
 
 


 

Since the age of seven, Japanese schoolboy Shun Sasaki has been offering free guided tours to foreign visitors of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with a mission: ensuring that the horrors of nuclear war do not fade from memory with the passage of time.

Aged 12 now, Shun has conveyed that message to some 2,000 visitors, recounting in his imperfect but confident English the experiences of his great-grandmother, a 'hibakusha' who survived the atomic bomb.

"I want them to come to Hiroshima and know about what happened in Hiroshima on August 6," Shun said in English, referring to the day the bomb was dropped in 1945.

 

"I want them to know how bad is war and how good is peace. Instead of fighting, we should talk to each other about the good things of each other," he said.

About twice a month, Shun makes his way to the peace park wearing a yellow bib with the words "Please feel free to talk to me in English!" splashed across the back, hoping to educate tourists about his hometown.

His volunteer work has earned him the honour of being selected as one of two local children to speak at this year's ceremony to commemorate 80 years since the A-bomb was dropped -- its first use in war.

 

Shun is now the same age as when his great-grandmother Yuriko Sasaki was buried under rubble when her house, about 1.5 km (0.9 mile) from the hypocentre, collapsed from the force of the blast. She died of colorectal cancer aged 69 in 2002, having survived breast cancer decades earlier.

The uranium bomb instantly killed about 78,000 people and by the end of 1945 the number of dead, including from radiation exposure, reached about 140,000. The U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9.
Canadian Chris Lowe said Shun's guided tour provided a level of appreciation that went beyond reading plaques on museum walls.

"To hear that about his family... it surely wrapped it up, brought it home and made it much more personal. So it was outstanding for him to share that," he said.

Shun said he plans to continue with the tours as long as he can.
"The most dangerous thing is to forget what happened a long time ago… so I think we should pass the story to the next generation, and then, never forget it, ever again."
 
 

An annual Japanese Self-Defense Forces review ceremony will no longer be held in principle due to mounting SDF duties in an increasingly severe security environment, according to the Defense Ministry.

On Wednesday, the ministry said that it has become difficult to continue the event, which will not be held unless the security environment changes dramatically in the future.

In the review ceremony, hosted in turns by the Ground, Maritime and Air SDFs every autumn, the prime minister, or the supreme SDF commander, gives instructions to the troops gathered from around the country.

It is also designed to help Japanese nationals deepen their understanding of SDF activities.

In the face of increased military activities by China and Russia around Japan, however, the SDF needs to concentrate their personnel on surveillance and other efforts to cope with the situation.

The review ceremony began in 1951, during the time of the National Police Reserve, the predecessor of the SDF.
 
 

Japan's weather office on Thursday lifted a tsunami advisory imposed a day earlier after Russia's Far East was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes on record.

"There is currently no coastal area for which tsunami warnings or advisories are in force," the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said on its website.
Millions of people were put on high alert in countries around the Pacific Ocean after the 8.8-magnitude quake off Russia's Kamchatka peninsula on Wednesday.

The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said.
Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea.

The initial quake caused limited damage and only light injuries.
Fears of a repeat of the December 2004 tsunami that killed 220,000 people in 11 nations -- the legacy of which was to improve early warning systems -- were not realised.

In Japan, where a massive earthquake and tsunami killed 15,000 people in 2011, almost two million people were ordered to higher ground, but the biggest wave was 1.3 metres (4.3 feet).

The only reported fatality was a woman killed when her car fell off a cliff in Japan as she tried to escape on Wednesday, local media reported.

Japan downgraded its tsunami alert to an advisory later on Wednesday, and waves of up to 0.7 metres were still being observed on Thursday.

"The tsunami warning was lifted at 4:30 pm (0630 GMT) after it was determined that the tsunamis would not grow any larger," the JMA said.

The beaching of four sperm whales on a beach in Japan was initially blamed on the earthquake but officials said the animals had washed up a day earlier.
Local surfer Fumiko Udagawa said that it was the first time that such big whales were washed up in the 20 years she has lived in the area.

"As surfers, we are constantly worried now about the sea water being so warm, even towards winter," the 56-year-old told AFP.

"I wonder if this (stranded whales) is also a result of global warming."
Akira Komatsu, a seasonal visitor, wondered if the whales washing up were a precursor of the quake.

"I heard that earthquakes affect the magnetic condition underwater, and whales detect magnetics," the 61-year-old told AFP.
 
 

Demand for rice in Japan in the year through June was 7.11 million tons, 380,000 tons more than initial government projections made last year, the farm ministry said Wednesday.

With 6.79 million tons of rice produced in 2024, it marks the third consecutive year that demand has exceeded supply, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

While the ministry usually releases its year-ahead projection for domestic demand at the end of July, it has opted not to do so this year for the first time, citing the need to carefully analyze why the previous forecast missed the mark.

Rice prices have surged since summer last year, but the ministry had maintained that supply was sufficient, a stance that contributed to the government's delay in releasing rice from its stockpiles.

Reflecting on this misjudgment, the government now plans to focus on supporting increased rice production to better respond to fluctuations in demand.

By the end of June, the government had released 360,000 tons of its stockpiled rice, effectively covering most of the extra demand with reserve supplies.

Rice inventory in the private sector stood at 1.57 million tons as of the end of June, almost on par with the record low level recorded the previous June.
The government plans to identify and announce the causes behind the recent sharp rise in rice prices at a forthcoming Cabinet-level meeting.

In recent years, the rise has been mainly driven by reduced distribution volumes, due in part to heat damage and pest outbreaks, with some also attributing it to demand from booming inbound tourism.

A perceived rice shortage may have also prompted households and retailers to stockpile supplies, further driving up prices.
 
 

The temperature soared to 41.2 degrees Celsius in the western Japan city of Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, around 2:39 p.m. on Wednesday, setting a new national record high, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The previous record was 41.1 degrees, set in the eastern city of Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, in July 2018, and in the central city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, in August 2020.

On Wednesday, sunny weather spread from the Tohoku northeastern to Kyushu southwestern regions, sending temperatures in many areas to or above 35 degrees, the threshold for an "extremely hot" day.

Some areas recorded temperatures of 40 degrees or higher, making the first day in Japan this year with such temperatures.

A number of areas in western Japan renewed their respective high temperature records, including Fukuchiyama, Kyoto Prefecture, with 40.6 degrees, Maniwa, Okayama Prefecture, with 40.3 degrees, and Nishiwaki, Hyogo, with 40.0 degrees
 
 

Towns, villages and nuclear reactors were evacuated and airports shut while office workers rushed to higher floors in coastal cities as Japan came under the threat of tsunamis Wednesday following a massive earthquake in the Russian Far East.

The country was prepared but on edge, with the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami not forgotten and lessons learned from that disaster put into practice. Residents inland went about their business while coastal areas quickly implemented long-planned measures.

Around the world, countries readied for the arrival of the waves following the magnitude 8.7 earthquake that struck off the coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, about 1,500 kilometers from Hokkaido, with alerts being issued for Pacific islands, including Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Ecuador, and tsunamis more than 3 meters tall said to be a possibility in some places.

By the end of the afternoon in Japan, the biggest waves to come ashore measured 1.3 m, with one death reported and no major damage.

Elsewhere, the situation was much the same, with waves initially weaker than feared.

Officials in Japan warned the public to remain prepared, as tsunamis can be unpredictable and waves can peak long after the first come ashore, while the waves may not have reached areas a great distance from the epicenter.

"Tsunami can strike repeatedly over a long period of time. The waves that come after the first one may be larger, so it is important to continue evacuating until the tsunami warning or advisory is lifted," the Meteorological Agency said.

Each wave has a very long duration, which means it could take around an hour for a single wave cycle to pass, according to the agency, so tsunami activity can be observed over a prolonged period. The risk of high tsunami waves could continue for at least a day.

The strength of Wednesday morning’s earthquake, which occurred at 8:25 a.m., was initially estimated by the JMA and authorities overseas to have been magnitude 8.0. The JMA initially issued a tsunami advisory at 8:37 a.m. but later revised its assessment of the quake’s magnitude to 8.7 and upgraded its tsunami advisory to a warning at 9:40 a.m.

A significant revision of a quake’s magnitude is relatively rare, the JMA said.

The quake, the world’s strongest since the earthquake in 2011, was barely felt in Japan. The intensity registered a maximum of 2 on Japan’s seven-point shindo earthquake intensity scale in five cities and towns in Hokkaido, according to the weather agency.

A 2 reading on the shindo scale means that many people in a quiet place indoors will feel it, while hanging objects will sway slightly.

This century, the only other earthquakes of similar or more powerful intensity have been the 2011 earthquake, the magnitude 9.1 Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004, and the magnitude 8.8 off the coast of Chile in 2010, according to figures from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Wednesday’s Kamchatka earthquake is one of the 10 most powerful to ever be recorded, according to the USGS.

Waves up to 60 centimeters high were observed in Hokkaido and Kuji in Iwate Prefecture a little past 1 p.m., more than two hours after the first round of waves arrived on Japanese shores. Waves 10 cm to 50 cm high were recorded along wide areas of the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
Later in the day, waves of 1.3 m were reported in Kuji.

If a tsunami coincides with high tide, the combined effect can cause sea levels to rise even further beyond the current tide level, the Meteorological Agency said, urging people in affected areas to exercise continued vigilance.
A JMA official pointed out that when the Kamchatka Peninsula was hit by a magnitude 9.0 quake in 1952, 1 m waves arrived on Iwate’s shores nine hours later, followed by smaller waves.

The official noted that waves gradually increase in size and then gradually become smaller, which is why the JMA believes tsunamis will continue for at least a day.

The latest warning and advisory information can be confirmed on the Meteorological Agency website.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba urged residents in the affected areas to evacuate to higher ground or other safe locations, and instructed authorities to provide accurate information to the public and implement necessary measures in coordination with local municipalities.

The government has requested that authorities start transferring evacuees from temporary shelters to better-equipped facilities and take necessary measures to help them prevent heatstroke, Ishiba told reporters Wednesday evening. Japan recorded its highest ever temperature of 41.2 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.

A task force was set up at the Prime Minister’s Office at 9:40 a.m.
According to local reports, authorities issued evacuation orders for 1.9 million residents in coastal areas across the nation. The town of Urakawa, Hokkaido, issued a level-5 warning, the highest, to 10,463 people in nearly 5,000 households, warning them of imminent danger.

Ibaraki Prefecture issued evacuation orders to residents in the coastal cities of Takahagi and Hitachinaka and the village of Tokai. The city of Wakayama also ordered 175,000 people in 88,000 households in coastal areas to evacuate to higher ground at 11 a.m.

By the early evening, some of the tsunami warnings along the Pacific Coast had been downgraded to advisories.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a news conference Wednesday morning no damage had been reported on land or at sea. Three highways were blocked, and the operations of 41 railway lines were temporarily halted, he added.

In the Shiraoi district of Hokkaido, a woman in her 60s fell and got injured as she was seeking shelter, Hayashi said Wednesday afternoon. A woman in her 50s died as her car went over a cliff as she was heading to an evacuation site in the city of Kumano, in Mie Prefecture, according to news reports.

The runway of Sendai airport, in the Tohoku region, was temporarily closed.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. ordered staff working at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant to evacuate and confirmed that they evacuated to higher ground.

It has also confirmed that the process used to treat radioactive water before it is released into the ocean has not been affected. The utility has manually halted operations in line with protocols.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a slew of warnings and advisories for U.S. islands in the Pacific and the west coast of the United States following the earthquake. A tsunami advisory was put in place for much of the U.S. west coast from the Mexican border up through parts of Canada and Alaska. Hawaii and Guam were placed under warning status.

The USGS recorded the magnitude of Wednesday morning’s earthquake as 8.8, occurring at 8:24 a.m. at a depth of 20.7 km, with its epicenter 119 km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia.

Two earlier earthquakes, registering magnitude 7.0 and 7.5 respectively, occurred off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula on the afternoon of July 20.

Minori Yoshida, 31, who works at a bank in the coastal city of Kushiro in Hokkaido, was among those who evacuated to the city's disaster management building after the tsunami warning was issued.

“Around 9:40 a.m., we received an alert that a tsunami could arrive by 10 a.m.,” Yoshida said. “Following company instructions, I evacuated to the fifth floor of the disaster management building.”

By around 10 a.m., roughly 50 people had gathered, she said, including local residents, nearby office workers and tourists. That number grew to about 100 by 10:30 a.m. A similar shelter was also set up on the fourth floor.

Yoshida added that her home is not located on high ground, so had she been there at the time, she would have needed to evacuate elsewhere. For now, her company has instructed employees to remain at the shelter until the warning is officially lifted. “I do worry that a stronger earthquake or tsunami could come,” she said, “but I’m grateful there’s a designated evacuation site close by.”

While the tsunami warning remained in effect and unease lingered, the atmosphere inside the shelter was relatively calm, Yoshida said. Bottled water was being distributed, restrooms were open and many evacuees passed the time chatting with acquaintances.

“There’s still some anxiety, especially with talk that a second wave could be larger than the first,” she said. “But at the moment, I’m not overly worried.”

In western Kushiro, roughly 100 people, including the clerks of local shops and people living in the vicinity, sought safety in the higher floors of a building of a local telecommunications company, said 67-year-old Tsutomu Ota, an executive at the company. The building is designated as a temporary evacuation site. As of 2 p.m., two-thirds of them had left, given the relative stability of the situation.

Traffic had also slowly resumed, with a number of cars heading to the outskirts from the city center.

“People will gradually go back to their activities once the alert is lifted,” said Ota.

Kuniyoshi Katsu, who runs an architectural firm in Ishinomaki, a coastal city in Miyagi Prefecture that was devastated by massive tsunamis on March 11, 2011, was sheltering on the third floor of his office in the heart of the city’s shopping district as of noon Wednesday.

“We’ve evacuated to the upper floors of our building,” Katsu said. “Other nearby shop owners have also moved to higher levels in their buildings.”
Disaster warning broadcasts were being issued regularly over the city’s loudspeaker system, providing updates on the situation, he said.

At around 10 a.m., police had restricted access to the bridge leading toward the port, but those traffic controls appear to have been lifted.

“All the shops are currently closed, waiting for the tsunami warning to be lifted,” he added.

Minori Suzuki, 29, was at her guesthouse in central Hachinohe, a coastal city in Aomori Prefecture, when she heard the tsunami alert on her phone. The guesthouse is a safe distance from the coast, but throughout the morning, she offered her support to one of her neighbors, a French woman in her 20s, who was alarmed by the situation. Maps and information on areas at risk are often unclear on apps and websites, she added.

Suzuki is welcoming a family of foreign tourists to her guesthouse this evening and said she’ll make sure to inform her guests of the warning and the locations of evacuation centers as soon as they arrive.

“Information in English is so scarce in these situations,” she said.
 
 

Liverpool’s players will wear unique, special-edition shirts for Wednesday’s pre-season fixture with Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.

Created alongside the club’s official publication partner, Kodansha, the Reds’ jerseys for the game at Nissan Stadium will include names and numbers on the back that are inspired by the art of calligraphy.

The expressive characters to be used for each shirt have been produced in collaboration with Riu Akizuki, a renowned Japanese calligrapher.

“The style for the names and numbers on the tour shirts is Shodō. ‘Sho’ means writing and ‘dō’ means pathway,” explained Akiko Kamiya, the deputy director of Kodansha Ltd, who has overseen this project.

“Japanese has a lot of words with ‘dō’ or pathway in them, such as judō. Shodō is a writing pathway where we use a brush, ink and Japanese paper.
“We put the brush into the ink and then draw the word in a continuous movement, putting our thoughts and our emotions into the word.

“Once you put your brush on the paper, you can’t go back. Shodō is not about drawing a character beautifully. It’s not always perfect but it’s not simply about making letters look beautiful – it’s about writing with intention.

Every stroke carries the writer’s feelings, rhythm and presence in that very moment.

“Shodō does not seek perfection or symmetry. Instead, it finds beauty in movement, balance, space and sincerity.”

Akizuki prominently deploys ancient characters and kana script in her work, which has featured in magazines, books, television, films, commercials and clothing.

Her distinctive creation for Liverpool’s shirts this week will be on display for the world to see when Arne Slot’s side complete their 2025 tour of Asia by facing Marinos.

“This piece is more than just east or west, or writing versus drawing,” said Kamiya. “It is a quiet gesture of respect, imagination and connection – delivered from Japan to Liverpool.

“Each letter and number, unique in form, resonates with the others. Together, they speak with quiet strength and harmony – just like a team.

“We are very happy with the result and excited to see the players wearing the shirts. It is a historical moment for us.

“This is something that really shows off our partnership. Of course there is a sponsorship element involved, but Liverpool really encourage us to get involved and the club returns a lot to us, so it is a very good circle.

“Liverpool has a unique history but they are always trying to do something new. Kodansha also has more than 100 years of history too but we want to do something challenging every time and I think that is a reason why this project has worked.”

The latest venture comes after LFC and Kodansha collaborated on a new collection earlier this year that brings together football culture and Japanese manga artistry.

Launched in April, it includes a mix of clothing and accessories and features manga-style panels that represent real moments from Reds history, capturing the drama and emotion of the game.

And this summer, these items will debut in Japan – available for fans to buy online here and at a retail pop-up store at Jinnan Plaza Building, 1-15-5 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
 

 

Japan has adopted a basic policy to implement a new residency qualification system for foreign workers, set to begin in April 2027. The move aims to replace the controversial technical intern training program and attract skilled labor from abroad through structured skill development and improved worker protections, reads a Japan Times post.

The new system, titled “employment for skill development,” will unify the sectors it covers with those under the 2019 specified skills system, which caters to highly skilled workers.

Unlike the previous intern program, which faced widespread criticism for labor exploitation and human rights abuses, the new policy focuses on cultivating foreign talent for long-term contributions to Japan’s workforce.

Foreign workers accepted under this scheme will undergo a three-year training program, ultimately qualifying for Type 1 Specified Skills residency, which allows them to remain in Japan for up to five years.

The system will also allow workers to change employers within the same industry, provided they meet specific skill and language proficiency criteria—an option previously unavailable under the intern training program.

To prevent labor poaching and maintain industry balance, a one- to two-year restriction period on job transfers will apply. Only approved companies with strong compliance records will be permitted to hire transferring trainees.

The government is paying particular attention to labor shortages in rural areas. Select rural companies will be allowed to accept up to three times more foreign workers than currently permitted, based on the number of full-time employees.

In contrast, urban companies will face stricter limits to prevent the over-concentration of foreign labor in metropolitan centers. For example, transferred trainees may make up no more than one-third of foreign workers at rural companies, and just one-sixth at urban firms.

Japan’s decision comes amid intensifying regional competition for labor, with neighboring countries like South Korea and Taiwan expanding their foreign workforce programs. Japan’s relative decline in economic appeal—highlighted by South Korea surpassing Japan in nominal GDP per capita in 2022—has added urgency to its immigration reforms.

With the basic policy now in place, the government is working on detailed rules tailored to individual sectors. These are expected to be finalized by the end of 2025, following expert panel discussions, to ensure the new residency system is ready for full implementation by April 2027.
 
 

Japanese police on Monday renewed calls for information about a French woman who disappeared seven years ago during a trip to a tourist spot north of Tokyo.

Officers distributed flyers around Tobu Nikko Station and JR Nikko Station in Tochigi Prefecture, seeking details on the whereabouts of Tiphaine Veron after she went missing on July 29, 2018, at the age of 36.

"I am grateful that the police are distributing flyers," said Veron's brother Damien, 45, who also took part in handing them out. "I want the investigation to continue and for her to be found."

According to police, Veron went missing a day after checking in at her accommodation in Nikko, leaving her luggage and passport in her room.
The flyers were handed out in Japanese, French, English and Chinese.

"We hope that the flyers will spark interest," said Miko Obuchi, an official the Tochigi prefectural police. "The number of tips we receive has been decreasing every year, so we want everyone to check their smartphones for any photos that might provide clues about Ms. Veron."

She is about 165 centimeters in height with brown hair.
Information can be provided to the Nikko Police Station at 0288-53-0110.
 

 

Police have arrested a 24-year-old Vietnamese man on suspicion of murdering a woman at a house in the city of Imari, Saga Prefecture.

In the incident, which occurred on Saturday, 40-year-old Japanese language instructor Maiko Mukumoto, a resident of the house, and her mother were stabbed with a knife-like object. The incident left Mukumoto dead and the mother, who is in her 70s, injured.

Suspect Dam Duy Khang, who is working in Japan under the foreign technical intern training program, was arrested on Sunday. He told the police that he does not want to say anything.

An autopsy found that Mukumoto suffered multiple stab wounds on her neck and abdomen and that she died from loss of blood. The Saga Prefectural Police are investigating the suspect's motive and believe that he had a strong intent to kill.

A resident of Imari, the suspect allegedly broke into Mukumoto's house around 4:20 p.m. on Saturday. He is suspected of threatening Mukumoto with a knife, robbing her of ¥11,000 ($74) in cash and killing her by slashing her neck.

According to the prefectural police, the suspect rang the doorbell and forced his way into the entrance hall when the mother opened the door. He repeatedly stabbed Mukumoto and her mother while demanding money and their wallets. He then fled the scene with the weapon.

The mother fled to a neighboring house, and a resident of that house called the police. Police officers and emergency medical personnel who rushed to the scene found Mukumoto lying her house, covered in blood. There were signs that the house had been ransacked.

The mother was also taken to the hospital with cuts to her neck and other parts of her body. Her life is not in danger, and she has said that she does not know the man who attacked her.

The suspect was identified based on images left on the intercom.
 
 

Restaurants, manufacturers and retailers in Japan are taking new measures to reduce food waste, including the use of leftovers to generate electricity.
 
Akindo Sushiro Co., which runs conveyor-belt sushi chain Sushiro, and five other major restaurant operators have launched a project to produce methane gas from leftovers and food scraps as fuel for power generation.
 
JFE Engineering Corp. is in charge of power generation and distribution, while the electricity can be purchased at a low price by participating companies, also including Royal Holdings Co., which operates Royal Host restaurants, and Duskin Co., the operator of Mister Donut stores.

 

 
At the end of last year, meanwhile, Meiji Co. established a directly managed store, "Meiji the Sutenai (don't throw away) Factory," in Saitama, north of Tokyo, mainly selling dairy products such as yoghurt whose best-before date is approaching.
 
"The name of the store reflects our desire to 'not throw away' products that can still be eaten," an official of the food maker said.

 

A Latvian staff member at the World Exposition in Osaka has drawn over half a million social media followers after posting about his experience of engaging with Japanese language and culture as a foreigner.

Artur Galata, 31, who has been posting on X and Instagram, said he was "very happy to work in my favorite country" after having visited 11 times since April 2017, traveling to more than 40 of the 47 prefectures.

Galata has been fascinated by Japanese anime since watching it aired in the Latvian language when he was an elementary school student. He then deepened his knowledge of Japanese culture and customs by reading books related to the country given him by his family.


"The most attractive part is the kindness of Japanese people," Galata said, adding he has been particularly impressed by the well-maintained roads, packaging for onigiri rice balls sold at convenience stores, and how he was served at restaurants.

His popular social media posts include humorous descriptions of how certain Japanese words using the same kanji characters are read differently and expressing his amusement about soy beans transforming into different kinds of food such as miso, soy sauce and tofu.

In the expo, Galata has been working at the Baltic Pavilion jointly presented by Latvia and Lithuania, using four languages to welcome guests. He enjoys communicating with his followers and going to karaoke with other expo staff.

During his planned eight-month stay, which began in April, Galata plans to visit the remaining prefectures he has yet to travel to, he said.
 

 

The internal affairs ministry plans to survey municipalities about uncollected resident tax from foreigners who leave Japan without paying, in order to consider countermeasures, a government source said Friday.

Workers living in Japan as of Jan. 1 are subject to resident tax for that year. However, it is typically paid in monthly installments from June of the following year and the time lag contributes to the problem, as some foreign workers leave Japan before their payments begin.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has been conducting interviews with some municipalities to gather information on how they manage resident tax collection and handle related administrative procedures.

Resident tax is levied based on annual income, unless it falls below a certain threshold. The ministry said it encourages foreign workers to pay in a lump sum before leaving Japan or through designated tax agents, but the methods are not fully utilized.

During the campaign for Sunday's House of Councillors election, policies concerning foreign residents in Japan drew attention, as some minor conservative parties claimed the number of workers and tourists from abroad has been growing excessively in recent years.
 

Japan has the world’s second most powerful passport — tied with South Korea — according to the latest Henley Passport Index ranking, which ranks passports on visa-free access to other countries.

Japanese and South Korean passport holders have visa-free access to 190 destinations out of 227 globally — sitting just behind Singapore, which remained in the top spot with access to 193 destinations.

Between 2018 and 2023, Japan ranked in the No. 1 spot — at times sharing the position with Singapore. It has consistently ranked highly since the survey began back in 2006. Its lowest position on the rankings was 6th place in 2010.

European countries continue to hold powerful passports, with France, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Finland and Germany sharing third place. The fourth spot is shared between Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

While movements tend to be limited among the top-ranking countries that have marginal differences in access, elsewhere, shifts in the rankings were more pronounced.

 

The U.S. passport sank from 7th to 10th place — a stark contrast from 2014, when the American passport was ranked in the top spot.
The U.K. also moved down from 4th place to 6th.

“The U.S. is now on the brink of exiting the Top 10 altogether for the first time in the index’s 20-year history,” Henley & Partners said of the pronounced shift.

Notably, India moved up the rankings from 85th to 77th. And the UAE has risen 34 places over the past 10 years, from 42nd place into 8th.

China has also improved its position since the rankings began, moving 34 places from 94th to 60th.

Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the rankings, with citizens only able to access 25 destinations without obtaining a visa first.

According to the firm, there has been a “general global shift towards increased openness, greater mobility, and rising passport strength.”

The London-based citizenship and residence advisory company has published the index annually since 2006, drawing on data from the International Air Transport Association.

It ranks passport strength solely on the number of destinations accessible without visas, and includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations.