Revised Family Registry Law Takes Effect

Russia has conducted missile exercises around the Northern Territories, including what appears to have been a launch from one of the disputed islands, prompting Japan's foreign minister to call Russia's growing military presence there unacceptable.

Japan strongly protested and condemned North Korea after it launched a ballistic missile at around 5:04 p.m. on August 20, with the projectile believed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.

Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito said on August 19 that the prefecture's shift to a status requiring central government permission to issue bonds would not immediately halt public projects, while stressing that years of high public investment, funding shortfalls and what he described as improper land-acquisition bond practices under former Governor Toshizo Ido had contributed to the deterioration of the prefecture's finances.

A Takenaka Corp. construction manager who oversaw work on the Grand Ring and other facilities at the Osaka-Kansai Expo was arrested on August 19 on suspicion of causing more than 13 million yen in losses to the major contractor through inflated construction bills, with police investigating allegations that money from the scheme was used for renovations to his home and a cafe operated by relatives.

A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter jet tilted to one side and came to a stop while landing at Naha Airport on August 18, forcing the closure of one of the airport's two runways and causing delays of more than an hour for some arriving commercial flights.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s economic agenda came under fresh pressure on August 18 after weaker-than-expected growth figures exposed the fragility of Japan’s recovery, sharpening the political stakes around the Bank of Japan’s next rate decision, the weak yen, and the government’s plan to cut the consumption tax on food.

The United States dropped 49 mock atomic bombs across Japan in the closing weeks of World War II, killing around 400 people as American air crews practiced the techniques later used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and three other Cabinet ministers visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on August 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II, while Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi refrained from going in person and instead offered prayers from the Nippon Budokan.