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July 12, 2026
 

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VOLUNTEERS

Gentaro Yui, a 51-year-old executive of Moriumius's operator, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in December
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2026
Farm experiences in disaster-hit Japanese area attracting children
Since opening 11 years ago, the Moriumius facility has received a total of some 15,000 elementary and junior high school students, with many becoming repeat visitors.
Japan Cleft Palate Foundation Executive Director Nagato Natsume (second from left) examines a child at Nguyen Dinh Chieu General Hospital in Vinh Long province, Vietnam. Natsume is part of a Japanese team that carries out volunteer overseas missions to provide free surgery to people born with cleft lips or palates.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Chubu
Jul 6, 2026
Japanese doctors mark 34 years of free cleft-lip surgeries in Vietnam
In many developing countries, treatment for cleft lips or palates is often delayed because of financial hardship and limited access to specialized care.
Haruo Obata maintains mountain trails on Mount Yufu in Yufu, Oita Prefecture, on March 17.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 27, 2026
86-year-old ‘super volunteer’ excited for return to school
“Life is a never-ending learning process,” said Haruo Obata, who will attend a night junior high school.
Volunteer Shunichi Hirata (right) checks a heater as he chats with Takako Shimizu, who manages residents’ mutual support activities in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jan 19, 2026
Mutual support in Gifu housing estate offers model case for aging society
From helping with hospital visits to even being a playmate for board games, residents of Yagiyama district help one another with small everyday problems.
Radio hosts Floyd Gillis and Thelma Sasao, Nishinomiya residents who hail from Canada and the Philippines, respectively, record a conversation with guest Leslie Ou (right) for an episode of "Bridges Across World Communities" airing on Sakura FM.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jan 9, 2026
Local radio connects Nishinomiya’s foreign residents
Since 2007, “Bridges Across World Communities” has been both a conversation hub and a purveyor of information to the growing population of foreign residents in this commuter town.
Akihiko Tanaka, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, speaks at a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program, held in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Nov 18, 2025
Japan’s overseas volunteer effort faces personnel shortage as it marks 60th year
Grassroots human exchanges have fostered multilayered relations with other countries, but private sector alternatives and public perceptions are creating recruitment headwinds.
The government adopted a bill on Tuesday extending volunteer probation officers' terms from two to three years.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2025
Japan to extend volunteer probation officers’ terms to three years
The draft revision is aimed at helping secure people who will take on the role of watching over the rehabilitation of individuals who committed crimes or delinquent acts.
Kinga Skiers (left) co-founded the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs in 2023. The organization aims to provide the capital’s homeless population with food and other essentials.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Aug 18, 2025
Solidarity with Tokyo’s homeless residents, one day at a time
Since 2023, the Tokyo chapter of Food Not Bombs has been supplying vegetarian meals and everyday goods to homeless people across the city.
Shun Sasaki, 12, an elementary school student in Hiroshima, guides foreign visitors in English as a volunteer guide in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on July 15.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2025
Hiroshima schoolboy keeps memories of war alive with guided tours​ in English
Shun Sasaki’s volunteer work has let to him being selected as one of two local children to speak at this year’s ceremony marking 80 years since the A-bomb was dropped.
Firefighters want more funding and better incentives for the millions of volunteers who prop up the system.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 3, 2025
‘Not sustainable’: Europe’s firefighters want more funds and staff
Wildfires fueled by hotter, drier weather and household fires are straining fire services across the bloc.
Magokoro Yoshihira (center) is the managing director of Yui Associates, which operates the neighborhood fixtures of Sanya Cafe and Juyoh Hotel. Yusuke Takahashi (left) met Yoshihira during a difficult period in his life and now works as the cafe’s chef. Nancy Anne (right) has worked for over 10 years at Juyoh Hotel and enjoys the multicultural environment.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Apr 28, 2025
Reclaiming Sanya, one meal at a time
Since 2018, Sanya Cafe has been building community in one of Tokyo’s most colorful — and infamous — neighborhoods.
Yumi Watanabe (right), head of the residents' association of the Tsubamesawa public housing complex in Sendai, delivers a meal to a resident.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 21, 2025
Disaster public housing complexes in Sendai work to boost interactions
Residents are working with volunteers to organize a children’s cafeteria and other events.
Children play with trading cards featuring "local heroes" created by a local community council in the Saidosho district of Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture, in January.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Apr 7, 2025
‘Local hero’ trading cards nudge children toward community activities
The cards, which feature real people, are helping to break the ice between children and adults in Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Teruko Nakazawa, a retired unpaid parole officer (back), talks with her former parolee in the smoking room of a cafe in Tokyo. Around 47,000 citizen volunteers far outnumber the 1,000 salaried probation officers working in Japan.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jan 23, 2025
Japan’s unpaid parole officers are driven by a ‘love for humanity’
The around 47,000 citizen volunteers far outnumber the 1,000 salaried probation officers in Japan.
Volunteers take care of children at a children’s play space opened for survivors of the earthquake in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 31, 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 7, 2025
Professor highlights crucial importance of volunteer aid after major quakes
Although volunteers often face criticism on social media, an expert in disaster management argues that volunteers are essential from the very moment a disaster strikes.
Runako Onodera,who donated a book purchased at a bookstore to "Book Santa" on Nov. 25 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2024
Santa project to deliver donated books to children in Noto
1,868 bookstores joining the project across the country’s 47 prefectures at present will continue to collect donations until Wednesday.
Book Santa is a program that delivers books to children in need for Christmas, but it also operates year-round.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 17, 2024
Looking for ways to be charitable in Japan? Give the gift of reading.
Book donations are just one of many ways you can give back to the community during the holidays.
Tokyo Union Church volunteers prepare food for unhoused individuals. The church helps people regardless of religion, race or sexuality.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 16, 2024
From the stage to the streets, make a difference this holiday season
Discover the joy of giving back through a variety of charitable efforts. Helping others helps you, too.
Tsutomu Hotta
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024
Ex-prosecutor Hotta, who probed Lockheed scandal, dies at 90
He also helped decide how to distribute donations made to the Japanese Red Cross Society and the Central Community Chest of Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Experts of a Justice Ministry panel hold a meeting in Tokyo in June to discuss revision of the probation officer system.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 16, 2024
Justice Ministry to consider public recruitment of volunteer probation officers
The officers regularly meet with individuals released from prison, including those on parole, offering guidance on life and employment support.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
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.

Podcast

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

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