The number of applicants for next January’s nationwide university entrance common test has reached 496,237, the National Center for University Entrance Examinations announced on December 9th, with the figure rising by 1,066 from the previous year as applications moved to a principally online system that allows students to apply directly without going through their schools.

JR East announced that it will begin operating the nation’s first cargo-only Shinkansen on March 23rd 2026, running between Morioka and Tokyo with loading and unloading carried out on dollies directly at the rail yard.

Nissan has announced that it will work with a British AI startup to develop a hands-free autonomous driving system, with plans to roll out AI-equipped vehicles globally.

The most popular baby names of 2025 were led by Minato for boys and Sui for girls, according to rankings released by Meiji Yasuda Life, which highlighted continued enthusiasm for certain kanji characters and showed how naming trends have evolved since the survey began in the first year of the Taisho era.

Rakuten Mobile continues to draw attention every earnings season, and while its losses have been narrowing, the pain it inflicts on the Rakuten Group’s overall performance has not fundamentally changed. Even so, chair Hiroshi Mikitani describes the mobile business as contributing “more than expected,” and insists the company will maintain its stance of keeping low-price, unlimited data plans even as other carriers move to raise fees.

A plan to sharply raise Japan’s departure tax is taking shape as the government and ruling coalition have begun coordinating a proposal to lift the current 1,000 yen levy to a flat 3,000 yen per person in next fiscal year’s tax reform, adding new momentum to calls for expanded funding to deal with overtourism across the country.

Artificial intelligence capable of autonomously controlling machines in the real world—known as Physical AI—is rapidly reshaping the global robotics market, with the United States and China accelerating development of humanoid robots equipped with such systems and raising concerns that they could eventually overtake the industrial robots where Japan has long held a competitive edge; to explore how Japan might mount a comeback, the program invited Firstlight Capital’s Rai Jia-man as guest commentator.

A 37-year-old man who allegedly broke into a high school in Yachiyo, Chiba was arrested on December 6th after teachers discovered him inside the building holding multiple pairs of school-designated indoor shoes, according to local police.

China’s leading position in humanoid robotics was on full display at one of the world’s largest robot fairs held in Tokyo on December XXth, where more than 80 Chinese companies participated despite Beijing’s ongoing calls for travel restraint to Japan, highlighting how the two countries’ political tensions have not spilled into the robotics sector and underlining the scale of China’s industrial push.

Autumn travel to Nikko, which draws visitors from across Japan for its bright foliage, is seeing an unexpected wave of vehicle troubles on mountain roads, with everything from flat tires and sudden breakdowns to off-road mishaps and stranded foreign tourists prompting repeated calls for roadside assistance during busy weekends in November.

Japan faces a looming shortfall of nearly 790,000 IT workers by 2030 even as demand for digital operations continues to expand, while an estimated 15 million people nationwide are considered to have difficulty securing stable employment due to mental health conditions that have risen sharply in recent years.

Japan’s real GDP for the July–September quarter was revised downward to a 0.6% decline from the previous three months, equivalent to an annualized drop of 2.3%, according to updated Cabinet Office data released on December 8.

Long-term interest rates continued their rapid ascent on December 8th, reaching their highest level in 18 years and six months in the latest sign of tightening financial conditions.

The three JR companies operating the Tokaido, Sanyo, and Kyushu Shinkansen demonstrated on December 6th how they would switch train control to a secondary command center in Osaka if a major earthquake or other large-scale disaster rendered the main command facility in Tokyo unusable.

The severed remains of an infant less than one year old were discovered inside a freezer at an adult entertainment business office in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward on the night of December 6th, with subsequent investigations revealing that the entrance to the office had been left unlocked at all times.

The Japanese government is preparing to release a new damage projection for a major earthquake striking directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area by the end of the year, and interviews with officials familiar with the assessment indicate that in the worst-case scenario the death toll could reach 18,000, while economic losses are estimated at 83 trillion yen.

A family-run ramen shop in Yokohama has become a national destination for fans of the Yoshimuraya lineage, drawing visitors from across Japan who line up daily for bowls of richly flavored ramen and the shop’s signature handmade chashu.

Japan’s largest robotics exhibition, the 2025 International Robot Exhibition, opened at Tokyo Big Sight on December 3rd, bringing together a broad spectrum of cutting-edge technologies ranging from humanoid units to AI-powered industrial machines as 673 companies from Japan and abroad showcased the latest in robotics innovation.

The proposal to strengthen regulations on international eel trade has been formally shelved, marking a result in line with the position pushed by Japan and several other countries.
EU member states and others had called for tighter controls on all eel transactions under the Washington Convention, citing global resource depletion and the need for stronger international oversight. However, Japan countered that the Japanese eel faces no imminent risk of extinction and opposed the measure.

A growing number of families across Japan are choosing to close ancestral graves, and concerns over long-term upkeep have become a widespread source of anxiety. Now, even one of the country’s most storied lineages has begun confronting both the end of its line and the closure of its grave.

Japan has become a shorthand for innovation and high-tech culture. In 2000, Sumimoto Bank became part of a historic moment in finance: the launch of the first-ever online banking system.

The long-term interest rate briefly reached its highest level in 18 and a half years when the yield on the newly issued 10-year Japanese government bond rose to 1.910 percent on the Tokyo bond market on December 4th, reflecting speculation that the Bank of Japan will move toward an additional rate hike sooner rather than later while concerns over fiscal deterioration under the Taichi administration’s expansionary spending continue to drive selling of government bonds.

Nissan is considering a plan to compensate employees who transfer from its Oppama plant in Kanagawa to the company’s Kyushu factory by paying in advance the equivalent of five years’ worth of reduced monthly wages, according to reporting obtained by JNN.

A former teacher accused of secretly filming women by placing miniature cameras in a high school changing room and restroom faced sentencing at the Utsunomiya District Court on July 12th, with prosecutors demanding 1 year and 6 months of imprisonment.

Tokyo’s Tsukiji Outer Market has taken the unusual step of asking tourists not to visit in December as operators move to prevent crowd-related accidents during the busy year-end shopping season, with local officials also confirming that Shibuya’s New Year’s Eve countdown will be canceled for the sixth consecutive year.