Losses from special fraud and SNS-based investment and romance scams in Osaka Prefecture over the past year exceeded 33.9 billion yen, marking a record high.
A ceremony was held in Kyiv on February 11th where the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented generators to Ukraine as the country grapples with worsening electricity shortages following Russian attacks on energy facilities, with citizens struggling to endure severe winter conditions and international assistance for power infrastructure continuing to grow.
A towering column of water reaching about 15 meters erupted in a residential area of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on February 12th after a valve loosened during water pipe repair work, flooding nearby streets and startling residents.
Sapporo City is set to begin procedures as early as February 12th to issue a demolition order requiring the removal of all buildings at North Safari Sapporo, which closed in September 2025 over illegal construction issues, after more than 30 unauthorized structures were found to remain on the site in Minami Ward, Hokkaido.
A renewed water outage struck Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture after supplies briefly resumed on February 11th morning, with authorities reinstating water restrictions from 9 p.m. as frozen pipes and low reservoir levels linked to an intense cold wave continued to disrupt supply across the region.
An Inazawa city councilor in Aichi Prefecture known for his trademark pink mohawk has been arrested on suspicion of extortion and assault after allegedly beating a man and demanding money at a restaurant in November 2025.
Plum blossoms are now at their best viewing season at the plum groves of Minabe Town in Wakayama Prefecture, widely known as Japan’s leading plum-producing region.
JR Tokai has decided to begin construction on the Yamanashi Prefecture station for the Linear Chuo Shinkansen on March 11, marking the start of work on the only station along the Tokyo–Nagoya section where construction had yet to begin.
A large discount retailer Don Quijote has opened its first inbound-focused specialty store in the Kansai region in Kyoto City, aiming to better serve the growing number of overseas visitors.
Workers dressed as ninjas are carrying out weed removal on a castle stone wall in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, a city known as the home of ninja.
She's not the diva of Tsukuyomi for nothing! Sing along with Yachiyo (Saori Hayami) as she puts on a dazzling performance of "Starry Sea" by Aqu3ra.
The arrest of entertainer Kenji Haga, 64, on suspicion of committing indecent acts against two women has sent shockwaves after he allegedly kissed and touched women in their 30s and 50s at a restaurant in Okinawa Prefecture on the night of March 27th, 2025.
Seven-Eleven has raised prices on its onigiri in response to soaring rice costs, with the increases introduced gradually since February 10th across 29 items including rice balls and boxed meals.
A startup is working to curb global warming by feeding seaweed to cattle in an effort to reduce methane emissions from their burps, with plans to commercialize the technology in the coming years.
AI is now being used both to commit fraud and to uncover it, as authorities and companies increasingly deploy artificial intelligence to counter sophisticated scams, while a new phenomenon has also emerged: social networks populated entirely by AI, raising questions about whether humans could be left behind in an “AI-complete” world.
Japan's 51st House of Representatives election was held on February 8 with ballots counted the same day, delivering a sweeping victory for the Liberal Democratic Party, which significantly increased its strength from before the official campaign and secured more than two-thirds of the 465 seats in the chamber on its own, surpassing 310 seats and achieving a landslide win.
Sony is considering spinning off its television business, long symbolized by its BRAVIA brand, in a move that could mark a decisive step away from consumer electronics and toward a new identity centered on entertainment and intellectual property.
A popular household adhesive known as “Bond” is disappearing from store shelves across Japan, with the shortage linked to a continuing boom in a trendy type of sticker that has become especially popular among younger consumers.
Mazda said on February 10th that it fell into a net loss of 14.7 billion yen for the nine months from April to December 2025, marking its first deficit in five years, as U.S. tariff policies under the Trump administration weighed heavily on earnings.
Japan’s outstanding government debt totaled 1,342.172 trillion yen as of December 2025, marking a record high, the Finance Ministry announced.