Police have arrested the president of a bankrupt rental kimono firm for allegedly swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank loans.
The firm suddenly closed its shops before this year's coming-of-age day, leaving many young women without formal attire to wear for the ceremonies.
Volunteers are helping with cleanup work in the western Japanese city of Takatsuki on the first weekend since a major earthquake hit the area on Monday.
Volunteers from in and outside the city in Osaka Prefecture removed stuck sliding doors at the house of an elderly woman. She said that she appreciated the help.
TOKYO -- The head of Japan Psychiatric Hospitals Association turned heads publishing a remark by another doctor saying that psychiatrists should be allowed to carry handguns in the association's journal.
The association, comprised of psychiatric hospitals across Japan, told the Mainichi Shimbun on June 22, "We have never accepted violence toward psychiatric patients. We will be mindful of using more appropriate wording in the future."
TAKATSUKI, Osaka -- Education authorities here overlooked the dangers of a concrete block wall of a school that collapsed in a powerful earthquake and killed a student, even though there were three chances to address the risk over the past five years, it has emerged.
Fourth-grade student Rina Miyake, 9, died on her way to Takatsuki Municipal Juei Elementary School on the morning of June 18, after a powerful earthquake measuring a lower 6 on the 7-point Japanese seismic intensity scale struck northern Osaka Prefecture. A concrete block wall around her school's pool facilities along her commuting route collapsed on top of her.
ITOMAN, Okinawa -- A junior high school girl recited a poem for peace during a memorial ceremony remembering the victims of the Battle of Okinawa at a park here on June 23, calling for people to think about war and peace.
Rinko Sagara, 14, a third-year student at Minatogawa Junior High School in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture, composed the poem based on her great-grandmother's experiences during the battle in the final stages of World War II.
Okinawa Prefecture in southwestern Japan has marked the 73rd anniversary of the end of a battle that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the closing days of World War Two.
The prefecture held a ceremony on Saturday at the Peace Memorial Park in the city of Itoman. About 5,100 took part. At noon, they offered a one-minute silent prayer.
Japanese officials are arranging a meeting between foreign minister Taro Kono and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Kono plans to visit the IAEA headquarters in Vienna in early July to meet with Director General Yukiya Amano. They are expected to discuss North Korea's denuclearization.
TOKYO -- The government's emergency measures announced in response to a case of the Finance Ministry's top bureaucrat sexually harassing a journalist have prompted doubts about the measures' efficacy in preventing sexual harassment and concerns that they may restrict journalists from obtaining access to government sources.
On April 24, then Administrative Vice Finance Minister Junichi Fukuda resigned from his post even though he denied the sexual harassment allegations made against him by a female TV Asahi reporter, arguing that the scandal had made it impossible for him to carry out his duties at the ministry.
TOKYO -- Masatane Muto was told he had Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease that gradually immobilizes the muscles in the entire body, in October 2014, when he was 27 years old.
At the time, the Los Angeles-born, Tokyo-raised Muto was working for a major advertising firm and had big plans for the future. The ALS diagnosis may have changed those career plans, but it has not kept him from being productive. Even after he began showing symptoms of the disease, he has continued work as a designer of new products and services. And in 2016 Muto founded a group to support ALS patients in their daily lives, and hopes to realize a society without barriers between disabled and able-bodied people.
Japan's southwestern prefecture of Okinawa will on Saturday observe 73 years since the end of a fierce ground battle in the closing days of World War Two.
The prefecture will hold a ceremony at Peace Memorial Park in the city of Itoman.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed willingness to talk directly with North Korea, but stressed that doing so must help resolve the issue of Japanese abducted by the country.
Abe was speaking to a nonpartisan group of lawmakers that submitted recommendations on the abduction issue after the June 12th summit between the United States and North Korea.
Police in Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan, are working with the US military to investigate damage possibly caused by a stray bullet from American forces.
Officials visited a farm in Nago City on Friday after the owner told police the previous day that he found what appears to be a bullet mark on a shed.
The education board of Takatsuki City in Osaka Prefecture has apologized for a sloppy safety check of a concrete block wall that collapsed in Monday's earthquake, killing a 9-year-old girl.
The wall adjoined a swimming pool of an elementary school.
