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Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Immigration Services Agency on Thursday tightened requirements for foreigners to obtain permanent residence by revising its guidelines, requiring applicants to maintain annual income above the average for Japanese households and possess a certain level of Japanese-language proficiency. The income requirement applies to applications filed on or after April...
Tokyo, Oct. 1 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Mongolian counterpart, Damba Batlut, agreed to advance defense cooperation between their countries in a meeting at the Japanese Defense Ministry in Tokyo. In Wednesday's meeting, the two also confirmed their intention to work together to maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rul...
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--The U.S. military is planning to bring a Typhon mobile intermediate-range missile launcher to its Kadena Air Base in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa as early as mid-October for storage there. The Japanese Defense Ministry is seeking understanding for the move, stressing that it will strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S...
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--Toys "R" Us plans to stop operating stores in Japan, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Toys "R" Us-Japan Ltd., based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, currently runs a total of some 150 Toys "R" Us toy stores and Babies "R" Us baby goods stores in the country. The Japanese operations, including the stores, are expected to be acquired...
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--The number of food items in Japan whose prices have been raised or are set to be raised this year stands at 20,187, surpassing 20,000 for two years in a row, a survey by Teikoku Databank Ltd. showed Wednesday. Food makers in the country plan to raise prices for 3,153 items in October, a slight decrease from 3,161 items a year before, according to the Japanese r...
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--So-called fast pass services that allow customers to receive priority entry for a fee are increasingly being adopted by restaurants, proving particularly popular among young people and tourists who want to skip waiting in line. One fast pass service for eateries is SuiSui, which has been adopted by 104 stores in 20 prefectures across Japan as of Sept. 18, and i...
Japan’s two-year government bond auction Wednesday saw stronger demand than the 12-month average as elevated yields underpinned buying.
Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government has approved the lifting of sanctions imposed on 16 organizations linked to Syria. The decision on Tuesday came after Tokyo lifted sanctions on four entities in May last year, leaving 59 individuals and 15 entities still subject to Syria-related sanctions. Japan began imposing sanctions in stages on the regime of then-Syrian President...
The pact for transfer of technology was signed during Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s India visit in July
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae and her Mongolian counterpart, Nyam-Osor Uchral, agreed Tuesday that Japan will provide yen loans to support the expansion of Chinggis Khaan International Airport in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. The loans are expected to total around 150 billion yen, sources familiar with the matter said. The visit marked Uchra...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--October will see price changes in products and services that are part of people's daily lives in Japan, including a tax cut on beer and levy hikes on quasi-beer and heat-not-burn tobacco products. Households will likely feel an increased financial burden, given that price hikes will also hit a wide range of food products, Japan Post Co.'s Yu-Pack parcel deliver...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japanese volleyball player Rui Takahashi, who belongs to the Suntory Sunbirds Osaka team, came out as gay in a social media post on Tuesday. The 26-year-old noted that spending time with his younger brother, Japanese star Ran Takahashi, on the same team until last season was significant to him. "Conversations with Ran led me to accept myself for the first ti...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan's total population, including foreign residents, was 122,972,528 as of Oct. 1, 2025, shrinking by 3,173,571, or 2.5 pct, from five years earlier, census data released by the internal affairs ministry showed Tuesday. This was the third consecutive decline in the quinquennial survey that dates back to 1920. The number of foreign residents climbed by 1,09...
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met Japan’s former foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, who is leading a 50-member delegation of corporate executives, in Beijing on Monday, marking the highest-ranking Chinese official reception for a Japanese visit in nearly a year. During the talks, Wang warned that bilateral relations were facing a “severe situation” and had “yet to be normalised” ahead of next year’s 55th anniversary of diplomatic ties, according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry. “A...
Beijing, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, urged Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to correct her remarks about Taiwan during his meeting in Beijing Monday with former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Japan's leader needs to correct mistaken remarks about the issue of Taiwan as soon as possible, said Wang, foreign minister ...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Imperial Household Agency has released photographs of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako taken during their visit to Ghibli Park, a theme park in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, on Sept. 20. The photographs, released Monday, were taken by a chamberlain using the Emperor's smartphone and show the Imperial couple posing with characters from animated films pr...
Last year, Japan was flooding its rice market with emergency stockpiles in a bid to mollify voters angered by the soaring price of its staple grain. Now, it has the opposite problem: a glut. That is welcome news for shoppers, but the whiplash is hurting people like Hiroshi Asano, 59, who farms a relatively large 38 hectares (93 acres) of rice fields in Chiba, close to Tokyo. He expects to make a loss this year, and he is worried smaller-scale farmers would not be able to survive. “I’ve been...
Tokyo, Sept. 29 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government told the Diet, the country's parliament, on Tuesday that an extraordinary session will be convened Monday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara conveyed the plan to the boards of the steering committees in both Diet chambers. The Diet session is expected to run for 69 days through Dec. 12. It will be the first time that full-scale po...
Japan risks being pulled into a spiral of online disinformation about foreign crime that is stoking xenophobia and playing into the hands of the far-right, researchers warn. The trend is reportedly deepening divisions within Japanese society and creating a feedback loop that experts say will be difficult to break. In August, Constella Security Japan, a Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm commissioned by the government to counter online disinformation, hosted a webinar for officials and media on fake...
Activist investor Flashlight Capital Partners urged Japan’s Secom Co. to roughly double its interest in South Korea’s S-1 Corp. and Taiwan Secom Co., roping in a new party after its earlier bid to acquire an S-1 stake was rejected.
India and Japan to convene Foreign, Defence Ministers dialogue by the end of the year, senior Japanese Foreign Affairs official tells The Hindu; calls for maritime law to be respected in disputed South China Sea islands
Tokyo, Sept. 28 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government Monday held the first meeting of an expert panel on strengthening intelligence capabilities, initiating discussions on formulating a national intelligence strategy. Discussions at the panel will also focus on anti-espionage legislation, such as a foreign interference prevention law, and the establishment of a proposed external intelligen...
Tokyo, Sept. 28 (Jiji Press)--Precipitation was observed in Central Tokyo for 33 consecutive days from Aug. 27 through Monday, due in part to rains brought by fronts and typhoons, tying the record for the longest such spell since statistics were first compiled in 1886, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency's observation point for Tokyo, located in Kitanomaru Park in the J...
Tokyo, Sept. 28 (Jiji Press)--Major Japanese beer companies are revamping flagship products and reclassifying quasi-beer items as beer as they prepare for intensifying competition following Thursday's unification of liquor taxes on beer and related products. As the tax rate change will narrow the price differences among beer, "happoshu" quasi-beer products and beer-like beverages known as th...
Hong Kong customs officers have seized 400 so-called slimming injections imported from Japan, with an estimated market value of about HK$290,000 (US$36,970), and arrested two local residents in an operation earlier this month. The case came to light on September 5, when officers intercepted a suspicious postal packet imported from Japan at the Air Mail Centre. “Upon inspection, customs officers found and seized 400 anti-obesity injection vials suspected to contain Part 1 poisons from the...
Tokyo on Monday rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after he voiced opposition over the weekend to Japan’s drive for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, claiming the country was on a “path of militarisation”. Lavrov’s comments came as the security council, tasked with safeguarding peace, is facing calls for reform amid accusations it failed to prevent recent conflicts such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, due largely to the veto power of its five permanent members:...
Warburg Pincus CEO, Jeffrey Perlman, says Japan is undergoing structural changes that are making the country more attractive to global private equity firms. He spoke exclusively on Bloomberg's Insight with Haslinda Amin about the opportunities emerging in the Japanese market. (Source: Bloomberg)
Takuji Aida, Chief Japan Economist at Credit Agricole and an economic advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, says any expansion of Japan’s defense spending will likely be spread over many years and shouldn’t become a source of significant market anxiety in any single year. He speaks with Shery Ahn on Bloomberg: The Asia Trade. (Source: Bloomberg)