Tokyo police have arrested seven men in their 20s on suspicion of abducting and confining a man in Itabashi Ward for three months beginning in January, subjecting him to repeated beatings that left him with injuries requiring six months to heal.

A male high school student was arrested for attacking two women with a hammer in the women’s restroom at JR Chiba Station.

The average price of newly built condominiums in Tokyo's 23 wards reached an all-time high in June, highlighting the continued rise in urban property values.

Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard has announced it is withdrawing its acquisition proposal for Seven & i Holdings, citing a lack of constructive engagement.

Mitsubishi Corporation has announced plans to acquire part of Norway’s Grieg Seafood, investing approximately 150 billion yen in the deal. The Japanese trading house already owns Cermaq, the world’s fourth-largest salmon farming company, and expects the acquisition to boost its annual production from around 200,000 tons to 250,000 tons—elevating it to the second-largest producer globally.

The Japan Meteorological Agency announced at 11 a.m. on July 18th that the Kanto-Koshin, Hokuriku, and southern Tohoku regions appear to have entered the post-rainy season period.

Two university students previously arrested for stealing around 70 items from the Osaka-Kansai Expo site have been rearrested on suspicion of stealing additional merchandise, including the highly sought-after black version of the Myakumyaku mascot.

Japan welcomed 21,518,100 foreign visitors in the first half of 2025, exceeding 20 million at the fastest pace ever, according to data released by the Japan National Tourism Organization on July 16th. The surge was driven by increased travel during the Chinese New Year holiday and cherry blossom season, resulting in a 21% year-on-year increase.

For the first time in 27 years, since the 118th prize in 1998, both the Akutagawa Prize and Naoki Prize were left without a recipient, marking only the sixth instance in the prize’s history that such a decision has been made.

SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son announced at a corporate event in Tokyo that the company aims to create 1 billion autonomous AI agents in-house by the end of this year. These agents are designed to operate independently without human instructions.

The video features mainly the latest Gran Class seating and service in 2025. (Solo Travel Japan)

A growing number of consumers in Japan are falling victim to fake online ads that falsely claim endorsements from well-known companies and universities. In one such case, a licensed psychologist in Nagoya paid approximately 4,500 yen for an "AI robot dog" that turned out to be little more than a cheap toy resembling something from the Showa era.

The government has launched a new command organization under the Cabinet Secretariat to oversee foreign resident policies, aiming to strengthen responses to crimes and nuisance behavior involving foreigners.

Nissan Motor announced on the evening of July 15th that it will end vehicle production at its key Oppama Plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, by the end of fiscal 2027. Company President Ivan Espinosa held a press conference at 5 p.m. to explain the decision.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has decided to support Rakuten Group’s development of a next-generation generative AI base model, according to reporting by TV Tokyo. Rakuten is expected to begin developing a large language model in August with 700 billion parameters—one of the largest in Japan.

A major farming corporation based in eastern Japan, Butai Farm, known for using robotics to grow lettuce and supplying pre-cut vegetables to 7-Eleven stores, has announced a new strategy to promote agriculture that can compete in Asian markets.

A key gauge of long-term interest rates temporarily rose to 1.595 percent, marking the highest level in nearly 17 years since the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse.

A recent survey by the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) has revealed that business leaders view wage hikes as the most effective policy response to rising prices, ahead of the July House of Councillors election. The findings reflect growing concern among corporate executives about the impact of inflation outpacing wage growth, and highlight a preference for structural solutions over short-term subsidies.

As Japan sees a record surge in foreign visitors, tourist information centers across the country have become essential stopovers for international travelers, often serving as their last resort when plans go awry. A recent report took a closer look at how these centers, flooded daily with tourists, respond to the increasingly bold and spontaneous demands of visitors eager to make the most of their trip—especially when it comes to catching a glimpse of Mt. Fuji.

The ruling coalition is facing an increasingly difficult battle to retain its majority in Japan’s House of Councillors, according to a mid-campaign opinion poll by FNN ahead of the July 20th election. Meanwhile, the minor party Sanseitō is showing strong momentum and could see a significant boost in its number of seats.

With Japan’s junior high school entrance season in full swing, attention is turning not just to test content, but to how students and parents should prepare. At Seikou Gakuin Junior High, for example, the Japanese language exam tests precise word usage, with questions such as the correct usage of similar-sounding words like “setsujoku” (to fulfill a humiliation) versus “kutsujoku” (to clear a disgrace). Such nuanced questions demand a refined linguistic sense, often beyond elementary-level knowledge.

A Tokyo court has sentenced Manabu Wakui to 15 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a woman on the grounds of a high-rise condominium in Shinjuku Ward in May 2024. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Wakui carried out the attack to satisfy a personal grudge without first exhausting legal channels, stating that his actions could not be justified as revenge.

In Tokyo’s Shibuya district, the issue of people drinking alcohol outside convenience stores—known as “konbini drinking”—has already erupted into a full-fledged summer spectacle. Foreign visitors have begun gathering in Center Gai, bottles in hand, despite a ban on nighttime street drinking in place since October 2024.

Artificial intelligence may pose both opportunities and threats to democracy, says Yutaka Matsuo, a leading AI researcher at the University of Tokyo, who warns that voters must remain vigilant about the influence of AI-generated content in political campaigns.

Suzuki has announced plans to release its first-ever electric vehicle, the e-Vitara, in Japan within the current fiscal year. The model will also be introduced in Europe and India.