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July 08, 2026
 

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CONSTITUTION

Ely Ratner, former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 14, 2025
Ex-U.S. official calls for collective defense pact in Indo-Pacific
Ratner, a former assistant defense secretary in the Biden’s administration, urged Japan to overcome constitutional issues in order to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
Campaigners working for the legalization of same-sex marriages in Japan walk toward the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 3, 2025
Same-sex marriage campaigners take fight to Japan’s top court
The court has been asked to consider the lives of people who dreamed of marrying but were “consistently excluded from the legal marriage system.”
Plaintiffs and supporters hold up signs reading "unjust ruling" in Tokyo on Friday after the Tokyo High Court ruled Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages is constitutional.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 28, 2025
Same-sex marriage ban constitutional, says Tokyo High Court
The ruling departs from those of five other high court rulings made previously that had deemed Japan’s failure to recognize such unions as unconstitutional.
The Japan Innovation Party's Nobuyuki Baba (left) and the Liberal Democratic Party's Yoshitaka Shindo at a meeting on constitutional revision held in the National Diet Building on Thursday. Baba and Shindo co-chair the two parties' working-level forum for discussing constitutional amendments.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 14, 2025
LDP and JIP to advance talks over constitutional revision
The ruling parties held the first meeting of their working-level forum for discussing constitutional amendments on Thursday.
Former Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Edano speaks at a meeting in Saitama on Oct. 25.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2025
CDP signals change of position on security legislation
Former leader Edano’s remarks surprised some party members and supporters because they affect the party’s foundation.
Takumi Yamaguchi (right), head of startup AirKamuy, and a colleague retrieve a drone made of cardboard after a test flight in a field near Nagoya.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2025
Startups lead charge as Japan warms to defense and dual-use technologies
Opinion polls show public support growing for a stronger defense, and the new leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Sanae Takaichi, has called for more military spending.
Sanseito leader Sohei Kamiya speaks at a rally in Tokyo on July 21, a day after the Upper House election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 29, 2025
A fringe party or political force: Will the real Sanseito stand up?
There were a few things that might raise eyebrows, but nothing especially scary. Sanseito’s published policy platform is relatively benign.
The Osaka District Court ordered the man to have his son appear at a hearing, but the man failed to bring him on all three designated dates.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 11, 2025
Osaka man detained for three weeks under human protection law
It is rare for a person to be detained under the human protection law, which has no clause on a specific period for such detentions, said an expert on Japan’s family laws.
The government is looking into measures to address a situation in which online advertisements with sexual content are posted on websites that may be accessible by children.
JAPAN / Media
May 7, 2025
Regulation of online ads with sexual content draws mixed views in Japan
While advocates seek measures to better protect children, critics worry they might infringe on freedom of expression.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks in a video message on Saturday to a gathering of people in Tokyo who support revising the Constitution.
JAPAN / Society
May 4, 2025
Rallies held on Japan’s Constitution Day
Citizens opposed to revising Japan’s Constitution rallied in Koto Ward, while advocates of a constitutional amendment held an event in Chiyoda Ward.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been a staunch advocate for constitutional reform.
JAPAN / Politics
May 3, 2025
Despite shifts in Japan’s political landscape, constitutional revision still far off
Weak political leadership, traditional sensitivity around the issue, and new policy priorities have forestalled a larger debate over the Constitution.
Plaintiffs celebrate the Tokyo High Court's ruling in a same-sex marriage lawsuit in Tokyo on Oct. 30.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 2, 2025
Signs of change emerge in constitutional interpretation of same-sex marriage
In a country often seen as a laggard on the rights of sexual minorities, five high courts all ruled against the ongoing ban on same-sex marriage just in the last year.
Following the Nagoya High Court ruling on the same-sex marriage lawsuit, lawyers and others raise banners and boards that read "unconstitutional" and similar statements on Friday in Naka Ward, Nagoya.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2025
Nagoya High Court rules not recognizing same-sex marriage unconstitutional
It is the fourth high court ruling in Japan on same-sex marriage, following decisions in Sapporo, Tokyo and Fukuoka.
Voters cast their ballots for the Lower House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 26, 2025
Three more courts find 2024 Lower House election constitutional
The plaintiffs had claimed that the maximum vote-value gap of 2.06 times in the election violated the Constitution.
At the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court, presiding Judge Takashi Miura said that the constituency map redrawn for the election was reasonable as it adopted the so-called Adams method, which is believed to reflect population ratios more accurately.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2025
Fukuoka High Court’s Naha branch finds 2024 Lower House poll constitutional
It was the seventh ruling among the 16 lawsuits on the latest general election filed so far by two groups of lawyers at 14 high courts and high court branches.
The bill calls for mandatory prior approval by an independent organization to break into the server of an attack source and render it harmless.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2025
Japan to penalize the illicit use of cyber defense information
The penalties are part of a broader government plan to introduce active cyber defense, or preemptive action to prevent cyberattacks.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Japan's same-sex marriage ban, along with their lawyers and supporters, hold signs saying the court ruled the ban as unconstitutional on Friday in front of the Fukuoka High Court.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2024
Fukuoka High Court rules ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional
It is the third such high court ruling so far in Japan after the Sapporo High Court in March and the Tokyo High Court in October.
The selection of former CDP chief Yukio Edano as head of the Lower House's Constitution panel is expected to impact discussions on constitutional revisions sought by the LDP and others.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 9, 2024
CDP’s Yukio Edano to chair Lower House Constitution panel
The selection of Edano is expected to impact discussions on constitutional revisions sought by the LDP and others.
Members of the Lower House panel on the Constitution discuss issues related to constitutional amendments in June.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 5, 2024
Push for constitutional amendments in Japan wanes after election
The number of Lower House seats held by the parties positive toward constitutional amendments fell short of the 310 needed to put them up for a national referendum.
Plaintiffs seeking the right for same-sex couples to marry react Wednesday to the Tokyo High Court's ruling that Japan's ban on such marriages is unconstitutional.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 30, 2024
Tokyo High Court rules same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional
It is the second high-court ruling in Japan to describe the ban on same-sex marriage in those terms.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Prior to launch, Japan ‘strongly urged’ China to reconsider missile test in Pacific
A missile is fired from a Chinese Navy nuclear-powered submarine on Monday.
Suspected Asian fraud ring exec served fresh warrant in Japan
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka Prefectural Police have issued arrest warrants for three people, including a suspected fraud network leader, over alleged immigration and residency violations.
Japan might be giving the currency market the silent treatment
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has issued verbal warnings recently using the same language and the same tone, saying authorities “will take appropriate action at any time, as necessary.”
Japanese teen arrested for booting users off streaming service
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly creating a malicious program and canceling subscription accounts on the Bandai Channel.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
‘Defense,’ not ‘warfare,’ stressed as pacifist Japan beefs up capabilities
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi attends an annual training session near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji Training Field in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, on June 7.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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