In today’s episode:
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Father abandons seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji to continue summit bid...
Man attempts convenience store robbery while pretending to be a foreigner...
3Ninja theme park suddenly closes amid owner's real estate scandal...
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These are some of the recent stories on Japan that happened to catch my eye. Welcome to theTokyoBill news brief!
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Japan carried out its first execution since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office, on Friday hanging Sunao Takami, 58, who was convicted of killing five people and injuring ten in a gasoline arson attack on an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009. His death sentence was finalized in 2016 after courts rejected defense arguments that mental illness had affected his judgment, finding him mentally competent and criminally responsible. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said the decision was made after careful consideration. Japan's capital punishment system has faced growing scrutiny following the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamata after more than four decades on death row. A 2024 government poll found over 80 percent of Japanese citizens consider the death penalty unavoidable. According to Amnesty International, 145 countries have now abolished capital punishment or effectively ceased carrying out executions.
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A University of Tokyo research group has identified structural and functional abnormalities in a specific subregion of the globus pallidus — a deep brain structure — in patients with schizophrenia, and found similar changes in adolescents reporting psychotic experiences. MRI scans of around 100 individuals including schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, alongside over 200 adolescents in the Tokyo Teen Cohort study, showed that the external segment of the globus pallidus was significantly larger in schizophrenia patients relative to the internal segment, and displayed abnormal connectivity with brain regions involved in visuospatial processing. In adolescents, greater psychotic experiences correlated with larger external segment volume and stronger connectivity with related visual processing areas. The findings suggest changes in this brain region may be detectable before the onset of schizophrenia, potentially opening new paths for early risk assessment and therapeutic research. The study was published in Molecular Psychiatry.
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Ise Ninja Kingdom, a samurai and ninja theme park in Mie Prefecture, abruptly closed in late July, posting a brief renovation notice before going silent — with no construction activity visible, its website stripped bare, and its operator withdrawing from the local tourism association. The park, which opened in 1993 and rebranded under its current name in 2019 after being acquired by real estate investment firm Kyosei Bank Group, had seen attendance plummet in recent months following a scandal surrounding Kyosei's crowdfunding-style investment product Minna de Oyasan, accused by critics of operating as a Ponzi scheme. Nearly 1,200 plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit seeking around 11.4 billion yen from the company (nearly 72M USD). While the park itself was not directly implicated in the alleged wrongdoing, its association with Kyosei damaged its reputation and visitor numbers. The renovation notice is widely interpreted as a holding position while the company navigates its legal and reputational troubles.
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A 48-year-old father from Nagoya has been rebuked by police after leaving his seven-year-old son unattended at the sixth station of the Fujinomiya Trail on Mount Fuji and continuing toward the summit with his older child. The boy was found sitting alone on a bench by a mountain hut worker at around 7:40 a.m., with rain falling and fog beginning to gather. Based on typical hiking times, the father likely left the boy around 4:30 a.m. and was near the eighth station — a roughly three-hour hike away — when contacted by police. The boy was unharmed and sheltered in the hut until reunited with his father. The father said he deeply regretted making a rash decision. Police urged hikers to pace their climbs to the least physically capable member of their group and reminded them that leaving a party member behind is unacceptable under any circumstances.
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A 32-year-old man from Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, has been arrested after attempting to rob a Lawson convenience store by approaching the register, producing a knife, and saying "Okane wo kudasai" — meaning "Money, please" — in an unnaturally stiff accent. The store manager refused and the man fled without taking any cash. Police linked him to a successful robbery the previous day at another Isesaki convenience store using identical methods, netting around 30,000 yen. The suspect, Atsushi Goto, told police he deliberately spoke in an unusual manner to sound like a foreigner and disguise his identity. The tactic echoes a similar incident in Aichi Prefecture in which a Japanese man attempted a robbery while claiming to be Vietnamese, highlighting a concerning pattern of crimes designed to deflect suspicion onto Japan's foreign resident population.
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A Chinese restaurant chain operating in Sendai has apologized after its franchise outlet displayed congratulatory flower stands bearing the names of figure skating legend Yuzuru Hanyu and former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at its opening — without obtaining permission from either. The restaurant, part of China's YangGuoFu chain, acknowledged on social media that none of the flowers had been sent by the individuals named. The outlet said it would remain closed through Friday while implementing measures to prevent a recurrence and apologized for harming the reputations of those involved. Yuzuru Hanyu is a Sendai native and two-time Olympic champion, and is one of Japan's most celebrated athletes. The incident drew significant attention given the prominence of the names used and the sensitivity around unauthorized commercial association with public figures.
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Around 40 percent of teachers at Japanese public schools are completely prohibited from using personal smartphones at school, yet roughly the same proportion of those under a full ban admit to using their personal phones for work-related tasks, according to a July survey of 370 teachers. The survey, released on August 20, found that when partial restrictions are included, around 63 percent of teachers face some limitation on personal phone use, rising to around 70 percent at elementary and junior high schools. The most common reasons teachers use personal phones include communicating with colleagues, looking up information, and responding quickly in emergencies — functions for which official work phones have been provided to only a small minority of schools. Researchers noted that blanket prohibition policies are difficult to implement practically given the demands of the school environment.
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This has been theTokyoBill. Links to the original stories for these and other news briefs are available at my website: theTokyoBill.jp, where your visit would greatly support my work. I’ve been–and remain–TokyoBill. Thank you for listening, and take care.
-
Father abandons seven-year-old son on Mount Fuji to continue summit bid...
Man attempts convenience store robbery while pretending to be a foreigner...
3Ninja theme park suddenly closes amid owner's real estate scandal...
-
These are some of the recent stories on Japan that happened to catch my eye. Welcome to theTokyoBill news brief!
-
Japan carried out its first execution since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office, on Friday hanging Sunao Takami, 58, who was convicted of killing five people and injuring ten in a gasoline arson attack on an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009. His death sentence was finalized in 2016 after courts rejected defense arguments that mental illness had affected his judgment, finding him mentally competent and criminally responsible. Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said the decision was made after careful consideration. Japan's capital punishment system has faced growing scrutiny following the 2024 exoneration of Iwao Hakamata after more than four decades on death row. A 2024 government poll found over 80 percent of Japanese citizens consider the death penalty unavoidable. According to Amnesty International, 145 countries have now abolished capital punishment or effectively ceased carrying out executions.
-
A University of Tokyo research group has identified structural and functional abnormalities in a specific subregion of the globus pallidus — a deep brain structure — in patients with schizophrenia, and found similar changes in adolescents reporting psychotic experiences. MRI scans of around 100 individuals including schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, alongside over 200 adolescents in the Tokyo Teen Cohort study, showed that the external segment of the globus pallidus was significantly larger in schizophrenia patients relative to the internal segment, and displayed abnormal connectivity with brain regions involved in visuospatial processing. In adolescents, greater psychotic experiences correlated with larger external segment volume and stronger connectivity with related visual processing areas. The findings suggest changes in this brain region may be detectable before the onset of schizophrenia, potentially opening new paths for early risk assessment and therapeutic research. The study was published in Molecular Psychiatry.
-
Ise Ninja Kingdom, a samurai and ninja theme park in Mie Prefecture, abruptly closed in late July, posting a brief renovation notice before going silent — with no construction activity visible, its website stripped bare, and its operator withdrawing from the local tourism association. The park, which opened in 1993 and rebranded under its current name in 2019 after being acquired by real estate investment firm Kyosei Bank Group, had seen attendance plummet in recent months following a scandal surrounding Kyosei's crowdfunding-style investment product Minna de Oyasan, accused by critics of operating as a Ponzi scheme. Nearly 1,200 plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit seeking around 11.4 billion yen from the company (nearly 72M USD). While the park itself was not directly implicated in the alleged wrongdoing, its association with Kyosei damaged its reputation and visitor numbers. The renovation notice is widely interpreted as a holding position while the company navigates its legal and reputational troubles.
-
A 48-year-old father from Nagoya has been rebuked by police after leaving his seven-year-old son unattended at the sixth station of the Fujinomiya Trail on Mount Fuji and continuing toward the summit with his older child. The boy was found sitting alone on a bench by a mountain hut worker at around 7:40 a.m., with rain falling and fog beginning to gather. Based on typical hiking times, the father likely left the boy around 4:30 a.m. and was near the eighth station — a roughly three-hour hike away — when contacted by police. The boy was unharmed and sheltered in the hut until reunited with his father. The father said he deeply regretted making a rash decision. Police urged hikers to pace their climbs to the least physically capable member of their group and reminded them that leaving a party member behind is unacceptable under any circumstances.
-
A 32-year-old man from Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, has been arrested after attempting to rob a Lawson convenience store by approaching the register, producing a knife, and saying "Okane wo kudasai" — meaning "Money, please" — in an unnaturally stiff accent. The store manager refused and the man fled without taking any cash. Police linked him to a successful robbery the previous day at another Isesaki convenience store using identical methods, netting around 30,000 yen. The suspect, Atsushi Goto, told police he deliberately spoke in an unusual manner to sound like a foreigner and disguise his identity. The tactic echoes a similar incident in Aichi Prefecture in which a Japanese man attempted a robbery while claiming to be Vietnamese, highlighting a concerning pattern of crimes designed to deflect suspicion onto Japan's foreign resident population.
-
A Chinese restaurant chain operating in Sendai has apologized after its franchise outlet displayed congratulatory flower stands bearing the names of figure skating legend Yuzuru Hanyu and former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at its opening — without obtaining permission from either. The restaurant, part of China's YangGuoFu chain, acknowledged on social media that none of the flowers had been sent by the individuals named. The outlet said it would remain closed through Friday while implementing measures to prevent a recurrence and apologized for harming the reputations of those involved. Yuzuru Hanyu is a Sendai native and two-time Olympic champion, and is one of Japan's most celebrated athletes. The incident drew significant attention given the prominence of the names used and the sensitivity around unauthorized commercial association with public figures.
-
Around 40 percent of teachers at Japanese public schools are completely prohibited from using personal smartphones at school, yet roughly the same proportion of those under a full ban admit to using their personal phones for work-related tasks, according to a July survey of 370 teachers. The survey, released on August 20, found that when partial restrictions are included, around 63 percent of teachers face some limitation on personal phone use, rising to around 70 percent at elementary and junior high schools. The most common reasons teachers use personal phones include communicating with colleagues, looking up information, and responding quickly in emergencies — functions for which official work phones have been provided to only a small minority of schools. Researchers noted that blanket prohibition policies are difficult to implement practically given the demands of the school environment.
-
This has been theTokyoBill. Links to the original stories for these and other news briefs are available at my website: theTokyoBill.jp, where your visit would greatly support my work. I’ve been–and remain–TokyoBill. Thank you for listening, and take care.
