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July 07, 2026
 

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HUMAN RIGHTS

The NATO leaders' summit is due to begin in Ankara today.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2026
Turkey cracks down on press as NATO leaders gather in Ankara
As Turkey rises as a strategic defense partner, criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his heavy-handed methods is unlikely to be widely expressed.
Nomura Kagayaki employees engage in design work in Tokyo's Koto Ward on June 29.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 6, 2026
Japanese firms face need to improve jobs for disabled workers
The statutory minimum employment rate for those with disabilities was raised to 2.7% from 2.5% last week.
Turkish police officers walk in front of protestors during an anti-NATO demonstration in Istanbul on Sunday, ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 6, 2026
Journalists arrested in Turkey as NATO summit looms
Human rights groups have complained of a shrinking space for dissent in Turkey in recent weeks.
Protesters gesture at suspected migrants while marching during a demonstration by the "March and March" and Operation Dudula movements marking an unofficial deadline set by citizen-led groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa, in Johannesburg on June 30.
WORLD
Jul 6, 2026
Anti-migrant protests draw thousands across South Africa
The demonstrations held in several cities were called to demand that all undocumented foreigners leave the country.
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Jul 5, 2026
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara’s latest work, “Now and Then,” bridges a historical atrocity with the present-day treatment of asylum-seekers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strengthened its grip on power by manipulating the electoral process itself.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2026
Modi is rigging Indian democracy
The result of voter purging is an electoral system increasingly designed to favor India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Myanmar protesters residing in Japan show a placard of detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a rally outside Myanmar's embassy in Tokyo last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 3, 2026
Searching for Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar’s capital of confusion
Naypyitaw is a labyrinth of anonymous compounds connected by deserted 20-lane highways through tracts of jungle and paddy.
The Tokyo District Court has agreed to begin criminal proceedings against prosecutor Hiroshi Horiki, who was in charge of Naoyuki Ikuta’s interrogation.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2026
Interrogation footage to be shown at trial over prosecutor questioning
According to the complaint, prosecutors interrogated a man for 41 days in a row between May 2021 and July 2021, totaling roughly 205 hours.
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2026
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
“I always wanted to become a bridge between Japan and Nepal ... but my dream is broken,” Budhathoki Samjhana said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference at a NATO summit in The Hague in June 2025.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 1, 2026
NATO allies have grown silent on rights concerns in Turkey
The West has mostly been focusing ‌on boosting ‌security ties with the regional military power and big arms exporter.
The bill stipulates that imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to ¥200,000 be imposed on acts that publicly damage the national flag.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 30, 2026
LDP’s flag desecration bill clears Lower House
Under the bill, desecrating the flag is punishable by up to two years of imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥200,000.
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that asylum seekers stopped at the border cannot seek protection abandons the humanitarian purpose of American asylum law.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court just betrayed asylum seekers
The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, is a case study in the absurdities of legalism and shows why it has been condemned since the days of Jesus of Nazareth.
Plaintiffs head to the Tokyo District Court ahead of the first hearing in a lawsuit seeking to hold 37 judges accountable over the wrongful prosecution of a former Ohkawara Kakohki adviser, on Monday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 29, 2026
Government vows to fight suit on bail denials for Ohkawara adviser
The state called for the suit filed by three family members of Shizuo Aishima, who died in 2021 at age 72, to be dismissed.
Alessandro Monteiro sits during the rehearsal of the play "Font Flip is Burning" ahead of its opening night in Mindelo, Cape Verde, on May 24.
WORLD / Society
Jun 29, 2026
Cape Verde, Africa’s outlier in LGBTQ+ tolerance
The archipelago is currently the most welcoming country in Africa for the LGBTQ+ community, ahead of South Africa, according to Equaldex.
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2026
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
LGBTQ+ people in Japan face such limited fertility treatment options, they could ultimately be deprived of the right to safely start a family.
Haru Ono founded Nijiiro Kazoku in 2010 after forming a same-sex stepfamily. She said the impetus for founding the organization was that she couldn’t find much reliable information out there for families such as hers in Japan.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jun 28, 2026
LGBTQ+ families are building lives Japanese lawmakers still struggle to see
Japan does not offer same-sex couples the same legal rights and benefits granted to married couples.
The Judicial Affairs Committee of the House of Councilors holds a hearing on a bill to revise the retrial system under the Code of Criminal Procedure, at the Diet building in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2026
Expert witnesses demand amendment to retrial reform bill
The bill to revise the Code of Criminal Procedure limits the scope of evidence that courts may order public prosecutors to submit to that related to an appeal for retrials.
A 33-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man have been detained by Hong Kong police for allegedly selling items "with seditious intent."
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 25, 2026
Hong Kong arrests two for allegedly selling ‘seditious’ material
Local outlets reported one of the items being sold was a biography of jailed media mogul Jimmy Lai.
Health minister Kenichiro Ueno lays flowers during a ceremony held in Tokyo Monday to restore the honor of leprosy patients in Japan.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 22, 2026
Japan commemorates victims of discriminatory leprosy policy
A ceremony was held in Tokyo to restore the honor of leprosy patients in Japan, who had suffered severe discrimination based on a policy of forced isolation.
Koji Sakahara (center), the eldest son of Hiromu Sakahara, and others attend a news conference at the Shiga Prefectural Government building on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 19, 2026
Man given life sentence likely to be acquitted posthumously
Hiromu Sakahara was convicted of robbery-murder after a liquor shop owner was killed and her safe was stolen in the town of Hino, Shiga Prefecture. He died in 2011.
Japan might be giving the currency market the silent treatment
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has issued verbal warnings recently using the same language and the same tone, saying authorities “will take appropriate action at any time, as necessary.”
Murakami says his novels are ‘different’ from AI literature
Haruki Murakami's first book in three years hit shelves in Japan on Friday.
Suspected Asian fraud ring exec served fresh warrant in Japan
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka Prefectural Police have issued arrest warrants for three people, including a suspected fraud network leader, over alleged immigration and residency violations.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Tokyo hospital baby hatch accepts 20 newborns in first year
Hitoshi Kato (left), head of San-ikukai Hospital in Tokyo's Sumida Ward, speaks during a news conference at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building on Thursday.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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