Narita International Airport Corporation is expected to announce next month that it will apply to the national government for project certification as part of the process to enable compulsory land acquisition for the construction of a new runway at Narita Airport, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.
A bear that had been repeatedly spotted in commercial and residential areas of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, was captured in a residential neighborhood at around 3:30 p.m. on June 9th after authorities used a tranquilizer gun, but the city remains on alert because police say they cannot rule out the possibility that another bear may still be roaming the area.
Nara Prefectural Police have arrested seven people, including a 46-year-old Yokohama man who described himself as a "messenger of God," on suspicion of unlawfully confining a teenage boy entrusted to their care by his parents, allegedly threatening him, confiscating his belongings, and forcing him to sleep naked.
A man believed to be in his 50s or 60s was found dead with knives lodged in his left eye and abdomen inside a container at a company property in Kobe's Suma Ward on June 8th, prompting police to investigate the possibility of a criminal case.
The family of James "Weston" Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student who disappeared during a family vacation in Japan, announced on June 7th that he has been found dead after a volunteer search-and-rescue team located his body in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, bringing a week-long multinational search to a tragic end.
The calming smoke and subtle fragrances of Japanese incense are fueling growing global interest, pushing exports to a record high of more than 1.8 billion yen.
Japan's public bathhouse industry is being reshaped by the sauna boom, with a growing number of "next-generation bathhouses" succeeding in tripling customer spending and returning to profitability even as many traditional neighborhood bathhouses struggle with rising costs and aging facilities.
Passengers traveling on JR East services may soon no longer need to insert paper tickets into ticket gates, as the railway operator announced plans to gradually phase out its traditional black-backed paper tickets beginning next spring.
Foreign tourists continue to climb Mount Fuji despite strict access restrictions ahead of the official climbing season, prompting local officials to renew calls for tougher penalties and requiring climbers to pay for rescue operations conducted during the mountain's closed period.
Komeito has begun considering a plan under which all of its Upper House lawmakers would join the Centrist Reform Alliance, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
For several months, Japan has been moving in a more nationalist and conservative direction. The shift has been fuelled by economic challenges at home and growing regional tensions with China.
The first auction of Raiden Watermelon, a specialty product of Kyowa in Hokkaido's Shiribeshi region, was held in Sapporo on June 9th, with a pair of melons fetching a record-high 400,000 yen.
Japan, which records the shortest average sleep duration among OECD countries, is launching new efforts to tackle widespread sleep deprivation, including the opening of specialized sleep disorder departments and programs aimed at improving children's sleep habits through sports and physical activity.
Ranmaru Kishitani, a 24-year-old education entrepreneur and member of Generation Z who has built a public profile by speaking widely on politics, economics and current affairs, says young people in Japan are becoming more conscious of politics as social media brings elections into everyday life and creates a sense that individual votes can still change outcomes.
Three people in their 20s and 30s living in Osaka Prefecture and other areas were referred to prosecutors on June 2nd for allegedly illegally selling and transferring the type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro without the required authorization, as concerns grow over the drug's popularity as a weight-loss treatment and the health risks associated with its misuse.
Oil inventories held by member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including Japan and the United States, are expected to fall to their lowest level since records began in 2003 by the end of 2026, according to a forecast released on June 9th by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Japan's naphtha shock may be entering a new phase, with signs that product shortages are gradually easing in some industries while concerns grow that higher transportation costs could drive up prices across the supply chain.
TOTO, the Kitakyushu-based housing equipment manufacturer, resumed full orders for unit baths and related products on June 9th after securing a stable outlook for raw material supplies that had been disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting global shortage of naphtha.
A worsening naphtha shortage linked to tensions in the Middle East is beginning to affect everyday retailers in Japan, with some businesses replacing plastic packaging with newspaper and asking customers to bring their own containers and bags.
The contemporary corporate field across Japan is undergoing a profound digital transformation as forward-thinking organizations strive to maintain their market competitiveness in a globalized economy.
Japan's corporate goods prices rose 6.3% in May from a year earlier, marking the fastest pace of increase in more than three years as higher oil and petrochemical costs linked to tensions in the Middle East pushed up wholesale prices.
The Bank of Japan is increasingly expected to raise its policy interest rate to 1.0% at next week's monetary policy meeting, responding to growing concerns that inflation could rise faster than previously anticipated due to soaring oil prices and other cost pressures.
The number of restaurant bankruptcies in Japan reached a record high for the January–May period, highlighting mounting pressures from rising costs, labor shortages, and increasingly cautious consumer spending.