Yomiuri wrote that police officers found what appeared to be an explosive device containing homemade gunpowder in the belongings of a man they questioned in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo at around 9:00 p.m. on Monday. The police are investigating the incident on suspicion of violation of the Explosives Control Law because the man reportedly told them he….Read more

On Aug. 4, Catherine Jane Fisher, who was sexually assaulted by a U.S. servicemember and has openly discussed crimes involving U.S. military personnel, met a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in the National Diet building and handed a petition that calls for clarifying the standards for the transfer of custody of servicemember perpetrators.  Lower House member Akamine Seiken of the….Read more

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office dropped the case involving the unauthorized export of motors to a Chinese firm as of July 22. In July 2021, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police sent papers involving Tonegawa Seiko (Ota Ward, Tokyo) and the firm’s President Bando Haruo (90 years old) to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.….Read more

Sunday’s Okinawa Times gave top coverage to a report alleging that people connected to the U.S. military are involved in poaching in waters off Okinawa, highlighting a case in which Japan Coast Guard officers questioned two people for using an underwater gun off Higashi Village on July 10. The paper wrote that one of the two individuals belongs to Camp….Read more

Several media outlets, including Diamond Weekly and Fuji TV, took up the failure by the police to protect former Prime Minister Abe during a campaign event in Nara a week ago, delving into the security arrangements at the time by examining numerous videos posted on the internet capturing the events leading up to the incident, such as the deployment of….Read more

The shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has brought heartwarming condolences from many countries. In contrast, the lack of an international perspective in Japan’s response has been conspicuous.   Symbolic of this is the response of the police authorities. On July 12, the National Police Agency set up a team to examine the security system in place at the….Read more

On July 11, the Nakahara Police Station rearrested a U.S. citizen of unknown occupation in Imainakamachi, Nakahara district, Kawasaki, on suspicion of violating the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law.   The charge is that the suspect allegedly possessed a piece of paper containing the synthetic drug LSD at his home in Kawasaki around 11:30 a.m. on June 21. The suspect….Read more

On the evening of July 9, a woman in her 50s suffered an injury to her face after being shoved from behind and falling to the ground. The Zushi Police suspected the involvement of a U.S. servicemember affiliated with the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka and questioned him on a voluntary basis, a source close to the matter revealed on….Read more

Mainichi reported online that the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, previously known as the Unification Church, held a press conference in Tokyo this afternoon in relation to the shooting of former Prime Minister Abe. The suspect has reportedly said he held a grudge against the religious group. Concerning the connection between Abe and the group, Tanaka Tomihiro, the….Read more