Three teenage boys who went missing after being swept offshore from the coast of Ichikikushikino, Kagoshima Prefecture, on August 28 were found in the sea near the scene on August 29 and confirmed dead.
Wakayama Prefecture has conducted its first field exercise for emergency bear shooting, bringing together local government officials, police and hunters to practice responding to an Asiatic black bear remaining near a riverbank as sightings continue across Japan.
A fake video apparently created with generative AI showing a large bear eating piles of sliced bread has spread on social media following a series of illegal bread dumping incidents in Tottori Prefecture, prompting the prefectural government to warn that misinformation could cause economic harm.
Three youths, including a high school student and a junior high school student, have been arrested on suspicion of obstructing police duties after allegedly stealing fire extinguishers and spraying them toward a police station in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture.
Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese avant-garde artist whose obsessive dots, nets, pumpkins and mirrored rooms grew from intensely personal visions into some of the most recognizable images in contemporary art, died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, at the age of 97. Her death was announced on August 27 by companies representing the artist, which said she continued painting until her final days.
A Toei bus crashed into a traffic signal in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on the morning of August 26 after the driver lost control of the steering wheel while trying to shoo away a mosquito, leaving two male passengers injured.
JR Kyushu plans to restore full service on the Kyushu Shinkansen from the first train on September 18, nearly two months after the Kumamoto earthquake caused extensive damage to tracks and stations and forced the suspension of services on part of the line.
Bear sightings are increasing across Japan this summer as a shortage of food in the mountains drives the animals closer to areas where people live and visit, with authorities in Aomori Prefecture closing a lookout near Lake Towada after a foreign tourist was attacked.
United Airlines announced on August 25 that it will launch direct flights between San Francisco and Okinawa from March 27, 2027, as the U.S. carrier seeks to capture growing demand for travel to Japan.
ANA Holdings' All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines will begin coordinating departure times on the Haneda-Okayama route from October 25, an unusual move by Japan's two largest airline groups as weak business travel, a weaker yen and rising fuel and labor costs put increasing pressure on domestic operations.
Japan has drawn up a new policy package aimed at strengthening energy security in response to developments in the Middle East, including support for alternative oil pipelines that would bypass the Strait of Hormuz and greater use of nuclear power to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Former Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly speaker Isao Kuranouchi, long regarded as the dominant power in the chamber, resigned as an assembly member on August 25, intensifying scrutiny of allegations involving financial transactions, costly overseas inspection trips and policies backed by public funds while raising broader questions about how he accumulated such influence.
Japan's Digital Agency launched a new smartphone app on August 25 that combines identity verification and administrative procedures, allowing users to access both government and participating private-sector services through a single application.
Traditional vegetables cultivated in Tokyo for generations are facing a growing threat from extreme heat and a shortage of farmers willing to carry on their cultivation, with some growers reporting that seeds are failing to germinate or young plants are dying in increasingly severe summer temperatures.
Families and children tried their hand at cricket at an event in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, on August 29, designed to build interest in the sport ahead of its competition at the Asian Games.
Major pharmaceutical company Tsumura and four other companies began full-scale operations on August 26 at a joint data collection center designed to develop "physical AI," technology that enables artificial intelligence to autonomously control robots in manufacturing and other workplaces.
Japan's expansion of effectively free high school tuition is giving families greater freedom to choose between public and private schools, but the policy is also accelerating a shift toward private education, leaving many public schools short of students and raising concerns that new forms of educational inequality are emerging.
Consumer prices in central Tokyo rose 1.8% in August from a year earlier, with the pace of inflation accelerating for a third consecutive month as higher food prices continued to put upward pressure on household costs.
Tokyo stocks rose on August 28, with the Nikkei 225 closing at 66,405.56, up 273.58 points, or 0.41%, as information-technology, software, automaker and selected semiconductor-related shares gained after a U.S. technology rally, while investors remained cautious before Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech.
Japan's toy market continues to expand despite the country's declining number of children, reaching a record 1.1664 trillion yen in fiscal 2025 as manufacturers increasingly target adults and introduce products reflecting social issues ranging from sustainability to investment.
Tokyo stocks slipped on August 27, with the Nikkei 225 closing at 66,131.98, down 130.18 points, as early buying in artificial intelligence and semiconductor-related shares following Nvidia’s strong earnings forecast faded into profit-taking, while the broader TOPIX edged higher for a sixth straight session.