When the story of Ridge Alkonis first broke on 29 May 2021, it did not initially attract much attention in Japan. The US Navy officer had killed two Japanese citizens in a car accident during a trip to Mount Fuji – the victims were an 85-year-old woman and her son-in-law, aged 54. After pleading guilty…
New recruits to the Japanese military will be allowed to have longer hair in a bid to attract more young people, the country’s defence ministry has said. The announcement comes as Japan struggles with a shortage of soldiers in the face of growing concerns about China and North Korea. Only buzz cuts were allowed for…
A pod of around a dozen killer whales trapped by drift ice in waters off Japan’s northern island appear to have successfully escaped, officials say. The stranded orcas were spotted by a fisherman earlier this week, almost one kilometre off Hokkaido. Drone footage showed the animals packed closely together and sticking their heads out of…
The Ukraine-born winner of the Miss Japan beauty pageant has given up her crown after a tabloid report revealed her affair with a married man. Karolina Shiino, 26, was crowned Miss Japan two weeks ago but her win sparked public debate due to her heritage. While some welcomed the naturalised citizen’s crowning, others said she…
Three foreign-born residents in Japan have sued the country’s authorities over alleged racial profiling. The plaintiffs say they have suffered distress from repeated police questioning based on their appearances. “There’s a very strong image that ‘foreigner’ equals ‘criminal’,” Pakistan-born Syed Zain told reporters. The lawsuit filed on Monday aims to confirm that racial profiling is…
As the Japanese Space Agency put it: “Operations resumed!” After the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) re-established contact with its Moon lander on Sunday night, the craft started to study its surroundings in detail and transmit new images to Earth. The lander is carrying out analysis that could inform future, much longer missions to the…
Japan’s Moon lander has resumed operations after being shut for a week due to a power supply issue. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said it re-established contact with the lander Sunday night, indicating that the glitch had been fixed. Its solar cells are working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch…
For decades, the smiling mugshot of Satoshi Kirishima has featured on wanted posters outside police stations across Japan. After 49 years on the run, authorities think they may have got their man. A patient at a hospital near Tokyo has claimed he is Kirishima, a member of a militant group behind several deadly bombings in…
Japan’s Moon lander ended up on its nose when it made its historic touchdown on the lunar surface. The first picture of the stricken Slim spacecraft shows it rotated 90 degrees from how it should have come to rest. This will go some way to explaining the difficulties it has had in generating the electricity…
A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for an arson attack at a Kyoto animation studio in 2019 which killed 36 people and injured dozens more. The incident, one of Japan’s deadliest in recent decades, killed mostly young artists and shocked the anime world. Shinji Aoba, 45, pleaded guilty to the attack but his…