Mako Komuro, the eldest daughter of the Akishino family and now living in the United States, has given birth to her first child, the Imperial Household Agency announced on May 30th. The agency stated that the birth was disclosed during a press conference after some media reports surfaced, despite their intention to allow Komuro to live in a quiet environment following her departure from the Imperial family.
A gas cylinder recovered from the scene of an explosion in Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward bore a stamp indicating it was manufactured in November 1964, according to investigative sources. The blast, which occurred on May 27th at a construction site, injured 10 people.
Japan’s largest known cluster of horizontal tombs lies in the southeastern Osaka city of Kashiwara, where more than 160 cave tombs have been confirmed in what is now known as Takai Horizontal Tomb Park. Including uninvestigated areas, the total may exceed 200 burial chambers.
A visiting family in Tokyo’s Asakusa district was left shaken after witnessing a sudden outburst by a foreign tourist who punched their car and made aggressive gestures in the middle of the road.
A trial opened on May 29th at the Osaka District Court for 28-year-old Kazuya Nagaya, who is accused of seriously injuring a man by kicking him from behind and stealing his bag in Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture. Nagaya admitted to the charges, stating, "No doubt, it’s exactly as you said."
The body of an 87-year-old man who served as the chairman of a civil engineering and construction firm was found buried beneath a pile of soil at a materials storage yard in Kitakyushu on May 20th, prompting an ongoing investigation that now includes possible murder charges. The police arrested the chairman’s son the following day, and on May 23rd, also arrested a woman acquainted with the son, believing the two had conspired to abandon the body.
"Please let me die with dignity." This was a social media post believed to have been written by a woman suffering from ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, before she was killed in 2019 at her own request. The case, in which two doctors were arrested and tried, ignited a national debate on euthanasia in Japan—specifically, the ethical and legal implications of assisting the terminally ill to end their lives.
More than 20 Japanese nationals have been detained by authorities in northwestern Cambodia on suspicion of being involved in a special fraud operation based in a local building.