News On Japan

Chinese woman missing in Japan 'left note wanting fresh start'

Jul 31, 2017 (scmp.com) - A Chinese woman who has gone missing while travelling alone in Japan left a note in her luggage saying she wanted to make a fresh start in life, according to a news website report.

Wei Qiujie, 27, a primary school teacher from Nanping in Fujian province, was due to return home last Tuesday after her week-long trip in Japan, but did not arrive.

She was last in contact with her family on July 22, but her hotel in Sapporo in northern Japan grew concerned after her room was empty but she failed to check out.

The hotel notified the police and her family in Fujian has also contacted the authorities and asked the Chinese consulate general for help. The family also circulated her personal details online appealing for help from internet users.

Chinese woman missing after travelling alone in Japan

Wei's father arrived in Japan last Friday and confirmed a letter police found in her luggage left at the hotel was written by Wei, according to the Shanghai news website Thepaper.cn.

The report said Wei thanked her family for raising her in the letter and said farewell to them. She said she was not satisfied with her life and wanted a fresh start.

Wei's family, however, denied it was a farewell letter, saying it was just a travel note, according to the article.

The report cited an unidentified friend as saying Wei had never shown any intention of leaving China and starting life elsewhere.

Police have discovered that Wei checked into a hotel at Akan Lake, about 300 km from Sapporo, on the night of July 22, a website operated by the West China City Daily reported.

She left the next morning and a member of staff on a tour boat at the lake said she came on board at 8am, but was not sure where she went afterwards.

Source: ANNnewsCH

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

A Kintetsu Railway train derailed inside Kyoto Station on the morning of June 29, forcing partial suspensions on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for the rest of the day and causing long delays that hit commuters, students and tourists.

A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

Japan advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Sweden on June 25, finishing second in Group F and setting up a Round of 32 clash with Brazil in Houston.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.

Shinjuku Ward, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department have jointly established a Kabukicho measures council to strengthen efforts to prevent young people known as "Toyoko Kids" from being drawn into crime in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

A 23-year-old Chinese man has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in injury after allegedly crashing a Porsche into two vehicles at an intersection in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward on June 9, leaving three people with minor injuries.

The number of people with dementia or suspected dementia who were reported missing to police totaled 17,345 in 2025, down by nearly 800 from the previous year but still at a high level, according to a National Police Agency summary.

Removal work has finally begun on a massive hose that washed ashore on the coast of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months ago, but crews are already facing difficulties because the structure is filled with a large volume of water.

A 50-year-old woman has been arrested in Kobe on suspicion of abandoning the dismembered body of her former husband in a large freezer at a condominium unit, where she allegedly continued paying rent for more than 14 years while hiding his death.

A 50-year-old member of an organization affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate has been arrested in Yamaguchi Prefecture after nearly nine years on the run over the 2017 fatal shooting of a bodyguard for the leader of a rival group in Kobe.

An Iranian national has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle more than 40 kilograms of stimulants from the United Arab Emirates into Japan in March, after customs officers found the drugs hidden in the bottom section of a machine used in the process of making naan bread.