Winter Break Begins Across Osaka Elementary Schools

Japan will launch a new tax-free investment program for children in January 2027, allowing parents to invest up to 600,000 yen a year on behalf of children aged 17 or younger while permitting withdrawals from age 12 for expenses such as education and living costs.

Japan’s highly competitive graduate recruitment market remains favorable for students, but signs of change are emerging as the average number of job offers held by candidates declines and companies experiment with new ways to secure talent.

Osaka Metropolitan University has suspended classes across all faculties after a suspected ransomware attack shut down about 500 servers and disabled key campus systems, while officials investigate whether personal information relating to at least 130,000 students, graduates and employees was leaked.

Recognizing the patterns and issues within a dysfunctional family can be a transformative step toward improving personal relationships.

A first-of-its-kind sleep competition was held in Tokyo on October 5, with contestants competing for a 2.22 million yen top prize by trying to achieve the deepest, fastest and most stable sleep during a 90-minute session.

Graduates of Japan's colleges of technology, commonly known as Kosen, are attracting growing attention from employers, with the ratio of job openings to applicants exceeding 35 as companies increasingly seek graduates who can contribute immediately to the workforce, including major banks and securities firms.

A major new railway training center equipped with full-scale tracks, crossings and signals has opened in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, as Japan's railway industry faces a growing shortage of skilled workers that could exceed 20,000 by fiscal 2028.

The University of Tokyo has selected professor Yuko Fujigaki, 64, as its next president, making her the first woman to lead Japan's most prestigious university.