News - Page 4

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The number of lives lost to suicide fell below 20,000 for the first time on record in Japan last year, a revised government report showed Friday. According to the report for 2025 compiled jointly by the health ministry

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–Japan will implement a 10-year residency requirement for foreigners seeking nationality, starting Wednesday, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said Friday. Currently, the nationality law requires applicants to live in Japan for at least five years. The ministry will tighten

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government adopted a new target Friday to increase the number of regions implementing measures against overtourism from 47 in 2025 to 100 by 2030. The target, included in the government’s new basic plan for tourism promotion

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government adopted a stopgap budget plan with 8,564.1 billion yen in general-account spending on Friday to cover expenditures for the first 11 days of fiscal 2026, which begins on Wednesday. The government remains committed to enacting

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government adopted a stopgap budget plan with 8,564.1 billion yen in general-account spending on Friday to cover expenditures for the first 11 days of fiscal 2026, which begins on Wednesday. The government remains committed to enacting

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis destroyer Chokai, currently deployed to the United States, has completed upgrades and crew training for launching U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Friday. The destroyer, based at the MSDF’s

Tokyo, March 27 (Jiji Press)–A financial support program operated by Japan’s internal affairs ministry, known as the “Local 10,000 Project,” is drawing increasing interest from startups and new business initiatives working to address local community challenges. Designed to foster new regional economic

Hikone, Shiga Pref., March 27 (Jiji Press)–“Hikonyan,” the beloved official white cat mascot of the city of Hikone in Shiga Prefecture, western Japan, will mark the 20th anniversary of its debut in April. Hikonyan derives from a legend that a white cat

Oita, March 27 (Jiji Press)–Haruo Obata, an 86-year-old man who is known in Japan as the “super volunteer” for his disaster relief work throughout the country, looks forward to attending a night school from April. Obata is set to attend the first

Lyon, France, March 26 (Jiji Press)–A court in Lyon, France, on Thursday sentenced a Chilean man facing murder charges over a case in which a Japanese woman went missing in France in 2016 to life in prison. The sentence for Nicolas Zepeda,