Purification ritual held in Takayama's icy waters

A 61-year-old woman was arrested and sent to prosecutors on May 4th in Togo, Aichi Prefecture, for allegedly throwing a bird carcass into her neighbor’s yard, in what police say was part of a long-running neighborhood dispute. Security footage captured the entire incident.

A car plunged into the sea from a wharf in Hakodate Port, Hokkaido on May 4th, and an elderly man rescued from the vehicle was later confirmed dead.

A drunken man caused a disturbance at a popular ramen chain in Kanagawa Prefecture on May 2nd, kicking toward the kitchen area and shouting demands over a large serving he claimed he was denied.

A fire broke out before dawn at a ryokan in the Kinosaki Onsen hot spring district in Hyogo Prefecture, engulfing the building and spreading to nearby stores. While all guests were safely evacuated, a male employee was taken to hospital.

A wooden church in Kasamatsu, Gifu Prefecture collapsed on Saturday evening, after years of delayed demolition plans due to financial constraints.

Kazuhiko Matsumoto, a 70-year-old man on death row for killing two men in the Philippines for insurance money, has died of natural causes.

During the Pacific War, members of the Ainu community, Japan's Indigenous people, were drafted and sent to the front lines alongside ethnic Japanese under the government's assimilation policy.

A senior member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, a designated organized crime syndicate, has been arrested in connection with the theft of over 170 Rolex watches in Osaka, and is suspected of having selected where the stolen goods would be sold.