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July 12, 2026
 

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JAPANESE COURTS

A vehicle carrying defendant Yukio Tanaka enters the Kyoto District Court for the first hearing of a trial over the fatal shooting of the president of Gyoza no Osho, in Kyoto on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2025
Yakuza executive pleads not guilty over Osho president shooting
“I’m definitely not the culprit” in shooting Osho Food Service President Takayuki Ohigashi, said Yukio Tanaka.
A court sketch shows Tetsuya Yamagami standing in trial in his first questioning session at the Nara District Court on Nov. 20.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2025
Abe shooter says ‘despair and sense of crisis’ triggered 2022 attack
Tetsuya Yamagami explained how he came to view the politician as a friend of the Unification Church and the urgency he felt to stop their interactions.
Lawyers hold a sign saying the July Upper House election was ruled to be in an unconstitutional state, in the city of Hiroshima on Tuesday, following a ruling by the Hiroshima High Court on vote disparity.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2025
Hiroshima High Court finds Upper House poll held in unconstitutional state
The latest ruling was the 11th to find that the election with a maximum vote value gap of 3.13 times was conducted under unconstitutional conditions.
The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered publisher Kodansha and the chief editor of its weekly magazine Friday to pay ¥2.2 million in damages to a comedian over defamatory reporting.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 25, 2025
Kodansha ordered to pay damages to comedian over defamatory reports
Comedian Sense Watanabe had sued Kodansha and its weekly magazine editor, claiming that a series of articles harmed his reputation.
An illustration of Tetsuya Yamagami (left) being questioned by his lawyer on Thursday at the Nara District Court
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2025
‘I should not have lived this long,’ man accused of killing Abe tells court
Describing his troubled upbringing and the misery caused by his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church, Tetsuya Yamagami expressed regret.
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 20, 2025
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Four major publishing firms accused Cloudflare of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The mother of the man on trial for the 2022 killing of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Nara District Court that she feels responsible for her son’s actions.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 19, 2025
Even after Abe’s death, suspect’s mother stays faithful to Unification Church
The church’s influence on Tetsuya Yamagami’s family has become a focal point of his trial, as a grudge he said he held against it had led him to target the prime minister.
A building housing the welfare ministry in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2025
Panel OKs smaller cuts to welfare benefits
The government plans to finalize the benefit amounts by the end of this month based on the welfare ministry panel’s proposal.
Iwao Hakamata's legal team heads to the Shizuoka District Court in the city of Shizuoka on Oct. 9 after Hakamata, a former death row inmate who was acquitted in a retrial for the 1966 murder of a family in Shizuoka Prefecture, filed a damages lawsuit against the central and prefectural governments.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 17, 2025
Ban on prosecutors’ appeals in retrials wins expert support
For Iwao Hakamata, a man who was acquitted of murdering four people in a retrial, it took about nine years for the decision to start a retrial to become final because of appeals.
Hirohide Mori (left), head of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office's public security division, and Tetsuro Kamata, deputy superintendent-general of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, bow toward former Ohkawara Kakohki executive Junji Shimada (second from right) and company President Masaaki Okawara in June in Yokohama.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 16, 2025
Ohkawara Kakohki seeks audit on Tokyo investigator liability
The audit will be conducted within 60 days. If the company disagrees with the outcome, it may file a resident lawsuit.
"I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for the terrible crime committed by my second son, Tetsuya," the mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, who is charged with the 2022 murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said at the start of her testimony Thursday at the seventh hearing of his lay-judge trial at Nara District Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2025
Mother of Abe shooter Yamagami apologizes in court
“I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for the terrible crime committed by my second son, Tetsuya,” said the mother, a follower of the Unification Church.
A Saitama district court sentenced Deng Hongpeng, a Chinese national and demolition worker, to two years and six months in prison, suspended for four years, for hitting a group of elementary school children with his car and fleeing the scene while driving under the influence.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 13, 2025
Chinese national sentenced for hit-and-run that injured four children in Saitama
Demolition worker Deng Hongpeng was driving under the influence and struck a group of ten children, injuring four sixth-grade boys.
Seiichi Katsurada, president of tour boat operator Shiretoko Yuransen, bows in front of the Kushiro District Court on Wednesday prior to the first hearing of his trial.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 12, 2025
Head of Hokkaido tour boat operator pleads not guilty over fatal sinking
The operator’s president apologized to the bereaved families of the accident, which left 20 passengers and crew members dead and six others unaccounted for.
A police witness told Nara District Court on Thursday that all seven guns made by Tetsuya Yamagami, charged with murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, were lethal.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 7, 2025
Police witness says Abe shooter’s homemade guns were all lethal
The witness is a researcher at the Nara prefectural police department’s forensic laboratory who analyzed the homemade guns.
The Osaka District Court sentenced a 25-year-old man to four years and six months in prison for swindling ¥1.45 billion in a real estate scam.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2025
Osaka real estate scammer given 54-month prison sentence
Judge Akira Kuranari ruled that the defendant, Ryohei Kume, took part in “a malicious crime with sophisticated tricks” by posing as a landowner.
A group of 1,191 people across Japan has filed a petition seeking the return of about ¥11.4 billion from an Osaka-based real estate investment firm.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2025
More than 1,100 people sue Osaka firm over real estate investment
Some who terminated their investment contracts with Toshi-Souken Invest have not been refunded, according to the group of petitioners.
Lawyers who filed a lawsuit over the July Upper House election hold up a sign saying “state of unconstitutionality” Tuesday in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, following a ruling by the Hiroshima High Court’s Matsue branch.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 5, 2025
Another court finds July Upper House poll held in unconstitutional state
The Matsue branch of the Hiroshima High Court ruled that the July election was held in a “state of unconstitutionality” due to vote-value disparities of up to 3.13 times.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara (center) and other ministers prior to a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2025
Japan to introduce joint child custody system in April 2026
A system of statutory child support will also be introduced on the same date.
The mother of a deceased male inmate of a juvenile detention facility who filed a lawsuit over the medical treatment he had received while detained speaks during a news conference in Tokyo Thursday following a ruling ordering the state to pay damages.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 31, 2025
Tokyo court orders state to pay damages following inmate’s death
The dispute centered on whether a medical exam conducted in January 2020 at the juvenile detention branch had been appropriate given the man was later diagnosed with cancer.
Sotatsu Yanase, a 46-year-old tatami shop owner, was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison by the Tokyo District Court on Thursday for burning his girlfriend's body and dumping it in the sea off Izu Oshima.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 30, 2025
Tokyo court sentences man to 30 months in prison for burning girlfriend’s body
According to the indictment, Sotatsu Yanase abandoned his girlfriend’s remains in 2024 near Izu Oshima’s southwest coast, with police still investigating how she died.
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.

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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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