A major traffic accident involving 10 vehicles, including trucks and passenger cars, left one man seriously injured and nine others with minor injuries on the Daini Shinmei Road in Kobe on September 24, forcing the closure of part of the expressway.
Police in Tokyo's Shibuya district are dealing with a steady stream of thefts, drunken altercations and late-night accidents, including a 17-year-old boy who stole a sleeping man's bag on a whim, a dispute outside a karaoke bar and an injured man who lost his memory after a night of drinking.
Two men robbed a man in his 30s of a bag containing 1 million yen in cash and his shoes in Osaka City before dawn on September 24, leaving him with minor injuries after pushing him to the ground.
Police in Yamagata Prefecture are working to identify a body found on the coast of a remote island on September 23, the 19th day since a 6-year-old boy went missing in Sakata, after discovering that the body was dressed in clothing similar to the Spider-Man outfit the child was wearing when he disappeared.
An emu that escaped from the home of a traveling zoo operator was captured after wandering through a residential neighborhood in Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture, on September 23, following a police report from a resident who mistook the bird for an ostrich.
People aged 65 and older accounted for a record 29.6% of Japan's population in 2026, the highest proportion among major countries worldwide, while the number of elderly people in employment also reached an all-time high as Japan marked Respect for the Aged Day on September 21.