An Idemitsu Kosan crude oil tanker has safely passed through the Strait of Hormuz, becoming the first vessel bound for Japan to do so since attacks on Iran heightened tensions in the region and effectively disrupted maritime traffic.
Japan’s Golden Week holiday period got fully underway on April 29, drawing large crowds to major tourist destinations and airports, where long lines formed as overseas travel surged.
A series of sightings involving unusually large brown bears in Hokkaido has heightened concerns among local residents, with one 330-kilogram animal captured in Tomamae and another 280-kilogram bear attacking a hunter in Shimamaki.
Full-scale Golden Week travel began on April 29, with Chubu Centrair International Airport experiencing its busiest outbound travel day of the holiday period. The airport was crowded from the morning with vacationers heading overseas.
Electricity and gas bills for usage in May will rise slightly in Japan, with the impact of tensions involving Iran expected to appear in utility charges from June onward. Larger increases could follow in subsequent months.
A motorcyclist was killed after colliding with a deer and being struck by following vehicles on April 29th in the early hours in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, with police arresting a 61-year-old woman on suspicion of a hit-and-run.
A man in his 40s is on the run after allegedly attacking two teenage boys with a hammer, injuring police officers and his mother by spraying what is believed to be agricultural chemicals, and then escaping from his home during a police standoff in Tokyo's Fussa on April 29.
A male zoo keeper in his 50s was seriously injured after being attacked by a rhinoceros at the Kumamoto City Zoo and Botanical Gardens on April 26.
A Japanese serow, a species designated by the government as a Special Natural Monument, entered a bank in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, on the afternoon of April 27.
A viral social media video showing a man believed to be a foreign national being restrained by police in Tokyo has sparked widespread debate, with claims that officers had begun deporting troublesome tourists by wrapping them 'like sushi.'
A 57-year-old man was arrested after allegedly stealing a fire engine dispatched to a suspicious fire near a railway station in Aichi Prefecture, then crashing it about 9 kilometers away while attempting to drive back to his home in Chiba Prefecture.
A male employee of Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, has told investigators that he disposed of his wife's body in the zoo's incinerator and burned it for several hours, police said, as officers continued voluntary questioning of the man in his 30s, according to sources close to the investigation.
Princess Aiko, the eldest daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, attended a performance of the traditional Japanese court music art known as gagaku.
