News On Japan

Fire Breaks Out at Sairinji Temple in Saga

A fire broke out at Sairinji temple in Saga city on the morning of August 18, engulfing the building in flames and prompting the dispatch of 10 fire engines and two ambulances, with no injuries reported so far.

Footage taken in Saga city showed intense red flames surrounding the building as the fire burned fiercely.

Shortly after 10:30 a.m., a man passing Sairinji in the Jugo district of Kase, Saga city, called the fire department and reported that the temple was burning and that evacuation guidance had already been carried out.

Ten fire engines and two ambulances were sent to the scene, where firefighters were continuing efforts to extinguish the blaze.

According to the fire department, no injuries have been confirmed.

Sairinji is a Soto Zen Buddhist temple located about 5 kilometers southwest of JR Saga Station.

Source: TBS

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Typhoon No. 27 is forecast to approach the Ogasawara Islands around October 6 as a very strong storm capable of bringing destructive winds and dangerous waves, with its predicted path shifting slightly eastward, while Hokkaido recorded Japan's first snowfall of the season on Mount Asahidake as cold air spread across northern Japan.

Time magazine has named Shoko Kawata, the 36-year-old mayor of Yawata in Kyoto Prefecture, among its 100 most influential emerging figures worldwide, recognizing her decision to become Japan's first sitting mayor to take maternity leave and highlighting a political career that has taken her from municipal administration to national politics and the leadership of a city of nearly 70,000 people.

Hokkaido's highest peak, Mount Asahidake in the Daisetsuzan mountain range, recorded its first snow cover of the season on October 2, with the area around the Asahidake Ropeway's Sugatami Station, at an elevation of approximately 1,600 meters, blanketed in snow.

Tokyo authorities carried out the capital's first emergency shooting of a captured bear in Hachioji after an adult Asiatic black bear was found caught in a trap near a residential area about 8 kilometers from Takao Station.

Japan's total population, including foreign residents, stood at 122.97 million as of October 1, 2025, down 3.17 million from the previous census in 2020, marking only the third decline since the national census began in 1920.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

An Australian tourist who suffered a spinal cord injury after falling from a bridge near a popular sightseeing area in Hakodate, Hokkaido, has filed a lawsuit against the city seeking 400 million yen in damages, claiming that the bridge's railing was dangerously low.

A man suspected of stealing 24 medaka fish from an unmanned roadside shop attempted to destroy evidence by throwing the fish and their containers from his car window while fleeing police in an incident on September 25.

A 79-year-old former gang member was arrested on September 30 following two shootings in Kobe that left one man dead and another seriously injured, with police investigating the possibility that the suspect acted alone rather than as part of a conflict between organized crime groups.

A 46-year-old doctor arrested on suspicion of dismembering his wife's body and dumping the remains in a river in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, has admitted to the allegations, telling investigators that he laid a blue plastic sheet in the bathroom before cutting up the body and transporting it by car.

A brown bear repeatedly rammed a moving car on a prefectural road in Bifuka, Hokkaido, on the night of September 29, damaging the vehicle but leaving the driver unhurt, police said.

Tokyo authorities carried out the capital's first emergency shooting of a captured bear in Hachioji after an adult Asiatic black bear was found caught in a trap near a residential area about 8 kilometers from Takao Station.

Japan's total population, including foreign residents, stood at 122.97 million as of October 1, 2025, down 3.17 million from the previous census in 2020, marking only the third decline since the national census began in 1920.

A 34-year-old pet shop owner has been arrested on suspicion of illegally keeping a saltwater crocodile, one of the world's largest and most dangerous crocodile species, along with numerous other regulated reptiles at his home and business in a residential area of Osaka.