A 77-year-old hunter from Sunagawa, Hokkaido, who won a Supreme Court ruling overturning the revocation of his firearms license, filed a damages lawsuit against the national government and Hokkaido on August 17 after discovering that one of four seized hunting rifles had been destroyed years earlier without being returned to him.
A 12-year-old British girl who disappeared while visiting Japan with her family was found safe in Yokohama on Saturday night, about 59 hours after leaving their private lodging in Tokyo, with police saying there was no indication that she had been involved in a crime.
Osaka's Nishinari Ward, long known as a working-class neighborhood that accepted people from diverse backgrounds, is being rapidly reshaped by Chinese-led property development and a surge in special-zone private lodgings, bringing new business and tourism while displacing some longtime elderly residents.
The death toll from record-breaking torrential rain in Chiba Prefecture has risen to 10, with 29 people injured, more than 1,500 homes damaged and one person still missing three days after the disaster.
A Turkish national has been arrested on suspicion of performing illegal drift driving on a public road in Yatomi, Aichi Prefecture, as police prepare to strengthen enforcement around facilities linked to the Asian Games and Asian Para Games.
A fire that broke out in grassland at a fishing port in Tomamae, northern Hokkaido, spread to an adjacent warehouse and workshop on August 15, burning for about six hours before being brought under control.
An Akita prefectural official has been suspended for six months and demoted two ranks after an investigation found he had joined an online media interview from a love hotel while with a woman who was not his wife, despite initially claiming he was at home because he was unwell.
A 39-year-old father was taken to a hospital in cardiac arrest on August 15 after entering the sea to rescue his two young sons who appeared to be in difficulty off the coast of Toyoura, Hokkaido.