A 13-year-old boy slashed a classmate with a kitchen knife at a junior high school in Hiroshima on Friday, causing minor injuries to the victim, the local education board said, in the second knife attack to take place in a Japanese school this week. (Kyodo)

Japan's government decided on Friday to enable courts to order the use of GPS trackers to prevent international bail jumping in the wake of the case of former Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn and other incidents of criminal defendants escaping the country. (Kyodo)

A former member of KAT-TUN, an all-male idol group, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison after being found guilty of violating the Stimulants Control Law. (Japan Today)

The operator of a century-old ryokan inn in southwestern Japan on Tuesday admitted telling staff not to regularly change its hot-spring bathwater, which led to levels of legionella bacteria as much as 3,700 times over standard limits. (Kyodo)

Japan cruised past Bahrain 95-72 on Sunday in its final match of Asian qualifying for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. (Kyodo)

Two-time Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu had a solo ice show at Tokyo Dome on Sunday, making him the first skater to do so there. (Kyodo)

Arrivals of foreign-operated cruise ships to Japan are set to near the level seen before the coronavirus pandemic when their dockings to the country resume in March after a three-year hiatus, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday. (Kyodo)

Researchers in Japan are working to reduce the climate impact of cow burps by developing stomach sensors and using artificial intelligence to effectively administer feed that inhibits methane production. (Kyodo)

Police in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, have arrested a 27-year-old woman on suspicion of fatally abusing her two-year-old son in 2022. (Japan Today)

Police in Tokyo have arrested an 82-year-old man on suspicion of sexual assaulting a woman in her 30s after he put sleeping pills in soup that he gave to her. (Japan Today)

The disciplinary committee of Japan's upper house agreed Tuesday to order a YouTuber-turned-lawmaker living abroad to offer an apology in parliament for not attending any sessions since he was elected to the Diet last year. (Kyodo)

Fukuoka prefectural police said Sunday that a 26-year-old man who was found dead along a coastal road on Friday was strangled to death. (Japan Today)

The severed head of a cat was found on the grounds of an elementary school in Saitama city on Friday. Police said the cat’s head was found at around 7 a.m. at the school in Minami Ward. (Japan Today)

A 35-year-old man who shot fireworks over a crowd at Tokyo’s famous Shibuya scramble crossing last year has been sent to prosecutors. (Japan Today)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Wednesday to boost Japan's budget for child-rearing to 4 percent of the country's gross domestic product to tackle the falling birthrate, but he did not elaborate on how to secure the costs. (Kyodo)

Police on Monday referred a man, indicted for murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to prosecutors for allegedly making a gun and damaging a building by test-firing it, according to investigative sources. (Kyodo)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided Monday to skip a planned speech in the afternoon after undergoing endoscopic surgery for nasal congestion late last week, a government official said. (Kyodo)

Food prices will continue to soar in Japan in the first four months this year, with prices on more than 10,000 items set to rise due to high material and logistic costs, according to a recent survey by a credit research company. (Kyodo)

Just as star players from overseas have improved the quality of Japanese domestic rugby, Japan's League One is hoping to do the same with its refereeing standards by importing top officials from other countries. (Kyodo)

A Japanese man accused of causing the death of his 1-year-old son in 2018 by leaving him frail from severe malnutrition, refusing him medical treatment and shooting him multiple times with an air gun was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Thursday. (Kyodo)

Police in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, have arrested a 40-year-old unemployed woman on suspicion of killing her 39-year-old boyfriend and stashing his body inside a freezer at her house. (Japan Today)

A volcano on Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, erupted Wednesday, with a local weather observatory warning those within a 2-kilometer radius against pyroclastic flows and falling rocks. (Kyodo)

Tokyo police on Tuesday arrested a polyamorous 74-year-old man and one of his ex-wives for allegedly brainwashing an adolescent girl with a view to sexually assaulting her. (Kyodo)

Rising prices are hurting Japanese consumers, especially young people, and around 64 trillion yen ($498 billion) in excess savings accumulated over the COVID-19 pandemic years have done little to support consumption, the Cabinet Office said Friday. (Kyodo)

Japanese education minister Keiko Nagaoka on Thursday expressed the hope that students will be allowed to attend their graduation ceremonies in the spring without having to wear face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kyodo)