Nipponica

Kengo Naganuma, 24, lives just 40 meters away from a platform of JR Hirai Station in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward and is suspected of having targeted people there from his balcony. The police confiscated eight airsoft guns from his home.

"I wanted to shoot people and see their reactions," Naganuma was quoted as telling the police. He also told them he had done it on other occasions.

A simple lesson of cause and effect for our young friend.

The mayor of Moka, Tochigi Prefecture, announced in a recent regular press conference that city employees spray painted the design on a total of 59 grates at 19 locations, mainly in areas where thefts of the grates have occurred.

In the city, there has been a string of grate thefts: 25 pieces in six cases in fiscal 2022, 40 grates on 25 occasions in fiscal 2023, and 23 in 11 cases as of the end of June this fiscal year. Without covers, vehicles and pedestrians are at risk of falling into the gutters, so measures to prevent theft were urgently needed.

Another Hyogo prefectural government employee linked to power harassment allegations against Gov. Motohiko Saito was found to have died, in an apparent suicide, sources have said.

The employee, a former section chief, who was in charge of gathering funds for last year's victory parades for the Hanshin Tigers and the Orix Buffaloes, both professional baseball teams, and was recuperating from sickness, died in April, Saito said at a news conference Wednesday.

This guy needs to go. Now.

U.S. Forces Japan said Monday it will create a "new forum for cooperation" with Okinawa's government and local residents, amid criticism over recent revelations of cases of alleged sexual assault involving U.S. military members in the southern island prefecture.

The forum, to be launched in coordination with Japan's central government, will "serve as a venue for the constructive exchange of ideas in the pursuit of shared goals," U.S. Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp said in a press release.

He was arrested Sunday when his ship docked in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a police statement said. He later appeared before a district court to look into a request to detain him pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan, the statement said.

He was detained in Germany in 2012 on a Costa Rican extradition warrant but skipped bail after learning that he was also sought for extradition by Japan, which has accused him of endangering whalers’ lives during operations in the Antarctic Ocean. He has since lived in countries including France and the United States.

According to the Takasaki Municipal Government, the 42-year-old ALT is employed on a one-year contract to teach English at a public junior high school in the city. He was arrested by local police on May 22 for allegedly stealing whiskey and other items from a convenience store in Takasaki on April 29. The man was also accused of stealing items from convenience stores on three other occasions, and was indicted for theft at the Takasaki branch of the Maebashi District Court.

Stealing is a crime and should be punished but one other factor to consider is that wages for English teaching have been stagnant for decades, much like every other profession. You can make the argument that a lot of these teachers are not actually trained in teaching, but at some point you have to accept that they are human beings that deserve a living wage for a job that their governments decide is important.

Two cases of sexual crimes allegedly by people linked to the U.S. military have occurred since 2021 in Kanagawa Prefecture but were not publicly disclosed, prefectural police officials said Thursday.

The police reported both cases to the U.S. military, but the prefectural government was not aware of the incidents.

Turn out that the lack of notification of these crimes expands beyond Okinawa.

A man wielded a knife and set fire to the ground floor of Takahama City Hall in Aichi Prefecture at around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, after spreading what appeared to be paraffin.

Japan’s National Police Agency on Sunday instructed prefectural police departments across the country to tighten security for politicians during street speeches and other events, following the shooting of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Specifically, the police departments of the country’s 47 prefectures were urged to enhance vigilance in areas around event venues, including places outside the audience areas.

The Japanese government is considering allowing the peacetime monitoring of private metadata in a way that does not directly identify individuals, in a bid to bolster its pre-emptive cyberattack defenses, government sources said Sunday.

Data such as messages themselves, in principle, will not be subject to monitoring, amid concerns that the plans to strengthen surveillance against potential cyberattacks could infringe on privacy, the sources said.

I personally am opposed to any kind of 'limited' monitoring as eventually the limits of this monitoring will expand. And with the increasing digitalization of the country and the lack of expertise in these field in high government, I can foresee outcomes that are less than stellar for both the government and residents of Japan.