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Memorial held for Japanese student fatally shot in US 30 years ago

NAGOYA - A Japanese student who was fatally shot in the United States 30 years ago was remembered in his home city, where his parents renewed their appeal for the world without gun crimes.

About 100 people took part in the ceremony for Hattori Yoshihiro in Nagoya City, central Japan, on Sunday.

The 16-year-old was studying in the US state of Louisiana in October 1992. He was on his way to a Halloween party when he went to the wrong house, whose owner mistook him for an invader and fatally shot him.

Hattori's parents have been campaigning for US gun control since their son's death.

The victim's mother, Hattori Mieko, said she has been trying to promote the cause so that her son's death would never be in vain.

The controversy over gun control is dividing the public in the US, which has been plagued by mass shootings. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first firearm regulation law in 28 years, was enacted in June.

But that same month, the US Supreme Court overturned a New York state law that restricted firearms carried outside the home. The ruling found that the law infringed on the constitutional right to possess guns. ...continue reading

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Japan's national soccer team arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 8th from Monterrey, Mexico, where it had been conducting a pre-World Cup training camp, and held its first practice session at its base camp for the FIFA World Cup in North America.

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A fire broke out at Arima Inari Shrine near the Arima Onsen hot spring resort area in Kobe on the night of June 9th, destroying multiple buildings and leaving an elderly Shinto priest and his wife with minor injuries.

Two men, including the head of the Japan Cycling Association, have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of defrauding two men in Kagoshima Prefecture out of 30 million yen by falsely promising a massive return on a purported patent-related investment.

A bear that had been repeatedly spotted in commercial and residential areas of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, was captured in a residential neighborhood at around 3:30 p.m. on June 9th after authorities used a tranquilizer gun, but the city remains on alert because police say they cannot rule out the possibility that another bear may still be roaming the area.

Nara Prefectural Police have arrested seven people, including a 46-year-old Yokohama man who described himself as a "messenger of God," on suspicion of unlawfully confining a teenage boy entrusted to their care by his parents, allegedly threatening him, confiscating his belongings, and forcing him to sleep naked.

A man believed to be in his 50s or 60s was found dead with knives lodged in his left eye and abdomen inside a container at a company property in Kobe's Suma Ward on June 8th, prompting police to investigate the possibility of a criminal case.

The family of James "Weston" Higginbotham, a 20-year-old Auburn University student who disappeared during a family vacation in Japan, announced on June 7th that he has been found dead after a volunteer search-and-rescue team located his body in a mountainous area outside Kyoto, bringing a week-long multinational search to a tragic end.

A clinic director and a former Peruvian staff member have been referred to prosecutors after the man allegedly performed medical procedures without a license, including an external cephalic version—a procedure used to manually turn a baby into the correct position before birth—at an obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Fukuoka City, raising concerns about patient safety and oversight in maternity care.

A 14-year-old junior high school girl was arrested on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury after allegedly spraying a woman in her 60s in the face and stealing her wallet during a robbery attempt in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture.