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July 12, 2026
 

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JAPANESE COURTS

A government building that houses the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2026
Tokyo prosecutor suspected of having inappropriate relationship
The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office released a statement saying that it is investigating the 48-year-old prosecutor.
People observe a moment of silence in Nara on Wednesday, which marks four years since the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 8, 2026
Abe remembered four years after fatal shooting
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot on July 8, 2022, during a stump speech in front of Kintetsu Railway’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara.
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2026
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin, an Osaka-based credit card payment processor, filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
Zentoshin had liabilities of about ¥125,929 million, making its bankruptcy Japan's biggest of the year, Teikoku Databank said Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 7, 2026
Credit card payment processor Zentoshin gets nod to begin bankruptcy proceedings
The company provided a service that paid sales proceeds to credit card merchants before they received payments from credit card companies.
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.
During the first day of a lay judge trial at the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday, 44-year-old Kenichi Takano admitted to stabbing a 22-year-old woman to death in the capital's Takadanobaba district in March last year while she was livestreaming.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 1, 2026
Man indicted over livestreaming murder in Tokyo admits to charges during trial
Kenichi Takano attacked Airi Sato as she was walking and livestreaming on a street in Tokyo last March, stabbing her face and chest multiple times with a knife.
A labor ministry official was convicted Tuesday for stalking a female subordinate and illegally entering her home.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 30, 2026
Labor ministry official convicted over stalking and trespassing
Tokyo District Court handed down its ruling on Atsushi Takabayashi, 39, who had been on leave since his indictment.
A case where a mother trafficked her daughter came to light in September after the girl sought help alone from the Tokyo Regional Immigration Services Bureau.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2026
Thai mother sentenced for trafficking daughter to Tokyo sex trade
The mother entered Japan with her daughter in June last year on the pretext of sightseeing before abandoning the girl at the massage parlor, according to a court in Bangkok.
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.
Yukio Tanaka, 59, is accused of shooting Takayuki Ohigashi, the Ohsho Food Service president, who was 72 at the time, to death in Kyoto.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2026
Prosecutors seek life sentence over 2013 Ohsho president murder
The defendant, Yukio Tanaka, is accused of shooting Takayuki Ohigashi, the Ohsho president who was 72 at the time, to death in Kyoto.
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 city of Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2026
Names of prosecution inquest panel in Yamaguchi leaked
Sources in the prosecutor’s office said that a document naming the panel members was mistakenly sent to a petitioner.
Hideharu Inoue was detained by Philippine authorities on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2026
Apparent senior member of ‘Luffy’ crime ring detained in Manila
The Tokyo Summary Court has issued an arrest warrant for Hideharu Inoue, 56, on suspicion of theft.
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 former college student was sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with a case in which a 20-year-old man was beaten to death by six people at a park Hokkaido in 2024.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 26, 2026
Three youths jailed over fatal assault of college student in Hokkaido
The case involved a 20-year-old student being beaten to death by six people in a park in 2024.
Japan's Supreme Court has upheld lower court rulings ordering the dissolution of the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 23, 2026
Japan top court upholds order to dissolve Unification Church
This is the first time the top court has finalized a dissolution order for a religious corporation over unlawful acts under the Civil Code.
Former lawmaker Yasutada Ono apologizes during a news conference following a court ruling in the LDP slush fund scandal, on Tuesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 23, 2026
Ex-lawmaker Ono found partly not guilty over slush fund scandal
Yasutada Ono of the LDP was handed down a fine of ¥600,000 after prosecutors had originally demanded ¥1.5 million.
Flowers laid near Kamui bridge, the scene of a 17-year-old high school girl's death, in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, June 2024
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 22, 2026
Woman sentenced to 27 years over death of high school girl
Prosecutors had sought 27 years, arguing the “extremely cruel and malicious” crime the woman had been the ringleader of had “trampled on the victim’s dignity.”
Masami Ishizaka of the Sendai Probation Office (right) listens to a volunteer probation officer from Sendai about her activities during a meeting at the office in March.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jun 22, 2026
Miyagi volunteer probation officers seek sustainable rehabilitation system
Japan is relying heavily on volunteer probation officers to support rehabilitation, but aging, shortages and safety fears are putting growing strain on the system.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito will not be indicted after a citizens' panel decided to uphold a prosecutors' decision not to indict the governor.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 21, 2026
Panel upholds decision not to indict Hyogo governor
The committee in Kobe determined that the prosecutors’ decision was reasonable, rejecting an appeal filed by a professor and a lawyer.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
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.

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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