Manholers gathering steam

An estimated 1.46 million people socially withdrawn in Japan, govt. survey finds
NHK - Apr 01
A government survey has found that an estimated 1.46 million people aged 15 to 64 in Japan are in a state of "hikikomori," or withdrawal from society.

Ex-breeder in Tokyo arrested for neglecting 10 dogs
Japan Today - Mar 30
A 46-year-old former dog breeder in western Tokyo has been arrested for alleged neglect of 10 dogs, police said Wednesday, noting that the number of animals he was taking care of at one point had reached over 150.

Search continues for missing crew member in Kyoto boat capsizing
NHK - Mar 30
Police and firefighters continued their search on Wednesday for a crew member of a boat that capsized in a river in Kyoto Prefecture.

Japan's poorest slum
Oriental Pearl - Mar 30
The poorest slum in Japan is defiantly not what you'd expect. Japan is one of the richest countries in the world, but the difference between rich and poor is huge.

"I was beaten by my son with an iron pipe" - 'Knife man' dies in police shooting
NOJ / TV Asahi - Mar 26
A man armed with a knife who barricaded himself in his house in Izumi City, Osaka, on Friday night has been shot by police after his mother claim he had been "beating her with an iron pipe."

Here's why Japanese gangsters are taking roadway authorities to court
Firstpost - Mar 26
Japan's notorious gangsters are taking the roadway authorities to court. Why?

Man indicted for killing university student with thallium
Japan Today - Mar 26
Prosecutors in Osaka have indicted a 37-year-old man on suspicion of killing a 21-year-old woman in Kyoto last October by poisoning her with thallium.

Twin boys fall to death from 7th floor window
NOJ / TV Asahi - Mar 25
Two 2-year-old twin boys fell to their deaths from the 7th floor of their apartment in Nagoya City on Friday, with the possibility that furniture was used to step out of a window.

Vietnamese woman acquitted of abandoning stillborn twins
NHK - Mar 24
Japan's Supreme Court has acquitted a Vietnamese woman of abandoning the bodies of her stillborn twins, overturning lower court rulings.

Yakuza-related police investigations hit three-decade low
Japan Times - Mar 23
The number of members and associate members of yakuza crime syndicates investigated by police in 2022 fell below 10,000 for the first time since Japan enacted the anti-organized crime law in 1991, National Police Agency data showed Thursday.

Robbery at Tokyo apartment leaves one suspect dead; 4 get away
Japan Today - Mar 23
One man was stabbed to death after he and four other men forced their way into an apartment in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district on Tuesday. The resident of the apartment stabbed the intruder in the neck during a struggle.

Model Jessica Michibata, friend arrested over MDMA possession
Japan Today - Mar 22
Fashion model Jessica Michibata and a male friend have been arrested at a hotel in Tokyo on suspicion of possessing the synthetic drug MDMA, police said.

Mother arrested for abandoning baby in locker
TV Asahi News / NOJ - Mar 21
Police have arrested a 33-year-old mother on suspicion of abandoning the corpse of a baby in a coin locker at a station in Osaka.

Prosecutors will not file an appeal to top court in retrial of 1966 murder case
NHK - Mar 21
Tokyo prosecutors have decided not to appeal a Tokyo High Court decision ordering a retrial for an 87-year-old man convicted of killing a family nearly six decades ago.

Man arrested for arson after fire kills 3 at his family home in Nagano
Kyodo - Mar 19
A 32-year-old man was arrested Saturday for arson after a fire gutted the house where he lived in the central Japan prefecture of Nagano, apparently killing three of his family members, police said.

Japan's 'evaporated' people: Inside an industry that helps people disappear
South China Morning Post - Mar 19
In Japan, as some 80,000 people go missing every year, according to data from the National Police Agency. Some are later found, but others vanish completely, becoming what’s described as an "evaporated person" or johatsu-sha.