J Update

Sanae Takaichi Cabinet   approved   a bill of revised   Important Land Use Regulation Act   and submitted to the Diet on October 23 rd . The bill regulates acquisition of land around important facilities, such as Self-Defense Force or Coast Guard, by foreign agent or someone under control of foreign government. A person or company that wants to purchase those kinds of land for foreign country needs to have license from Japanese government.   Current law enacted in 2021 was established to prevent real estate around important facilities and remote islands close to territorial border from being used for acts that impede the functions of those facilities and islands. Although the law can regulate use of the land by recommendation for cancelling it or order with penalty, there is no provision to prohibit purchasing of such land so far.   The revised law will introduce licensing for those kinds of land trade. The government will be able to designate the land with...

Revised Imperial House Law   was enforced on October 24 th . The law enabled female imperial family can remain in the house after marriage and male member in male line of former imperial families be adopted to the imperial family. Although adoption has long been ruled out, hawkish Sanae Takaichi administration pave the way for it to keep the house in paternal line. Takaichi administration has no plan to discuss more on this highly controversial issue.   The revision was for reducing works of each imperial family which numbers are declining recent years. To keep female members in the house, the revised law excluded a provision which forced female members to leave the house when she is married. Another major revision was to approve adoption of the members of eleven former imperial families, which left the house in 1947. The adopted members are limited to males in male line of the families.   Since Takaichi insisted on enactment in the last session of the Diet, the revision ...

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   proposed   reduction of 31 seats in the Lower House as a reform of the Diet on October 22 nd . Although the party had been supporting the idea of its coalition partner, Japan Innovation Party, to reduce 10 percent, or 45 seats, in the proportional district in the Lower House, it revised its proposal, having faced protests from opposition parties. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) found the proposal to be understandable.   Based on agreement in October 2025, the LDP and JIP sponsored a bill to reduce 45 seats in proportional district of the Lower House. But the opposition parties have been strongly opposed the bill, because it would badly affect small parties. Since the Diet has an unwritten rule that parties would make utmost effort to reach an overwhelming consensus on reduction of the seats of Houses, the LDP did not push the bill too much. However, the JIP persists seat reduction, believing it as an important item for politi...

Since Russian government detained a Japanese journalist with suspicion of spying in Russia on October 13 th , the government of Japan has not taken opportunity to have a contact with him in person. Neglect of diplomatic right for a consul to meet its citizen may violate a bilateral treaty between Japan and Russia. Behavior of the Japanese government revealed Japan’s lack of diplomatic leverage to Russia.   When a correspondent of the Hokkaido Shimbun Press to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was arrested by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and transported to a detention center in Lefortovo located in suburb of Moscow, the Director-General of European Affairs Bureau in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimitake Nakamura,  summoned  Russian Ambassador to Japan, Nikolai Nozdrev, and protested Russia’s detention without announcement on October 14 th .   Nakamura protested Russia on its detention of Japanese journalist without notification and unilateral issuance of public statement ab...

The PHP Foundation issued   a security advisory   for fixation of its software, the PHP, with two critical vulnerabilities that can allow unauthenticated remote code execution on October 21 st . The organization strongly encouraged all the PHP users update it. The PHP is used in 70 percent of all the internet webpages in the world. A lot of businesses and public entities in Japan stopped their service in internet.   The PHP, acronym of PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is a programming language that runs a web server. When a person visits a website, the PHP is the code which collects data and turns it into a page the person can read. If one input data in a webpage for online shopping, the PHP generates and offers a page with information of goods the customer wanted. Everyone can use the PHP for free.   The PHP Foundation realized that there were two critical vulnerabilities in the PHP. They “allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute code on servers running PHP,” accord...

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched H3 rocket from its Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima, in the early morning of October 20 th . The rocket loads the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) which is expected to bring back samples from a satellite of the Mars called Phobos five years later. This first attempt in the world may contribute to find out origin of the Martian moon and habitability of the Mars.   Phobos is a satellite revolving the Mars once every 7 hours and 39 minutes. Its diameter is 20 to 30 kilometers and located 6,000 kilometers away from the Mars. The relationship between the Mars and Phobos is paralleled with that of the Earth and the Moon, but it is far smaller than the Moon, which diameter has 3,475 kilometers length. Gravity of the earth is 2,000 times heavier than that of Phobos.   It is unknown how Phobos was born. There are two hypotheses. One is that a small planet was captured by the Mars. Another is that Phobos is a fragment of ...

Sanae Takaichi   cerebrated   her first anniversary as the prime minister on October 21 st . Although her administration embarked on with vulnerable political basis in the leading coalition, she maintained relatively high approval rate as the first female prime minister in Japan with artificial smile. Promoting eternal growth of Japanese economy, she displays herself as a novice in diplomacy, namely toward China.   Takaichi administration can be defined as an economy-oriented hawkish regime, which can be likened to the regime led by Shinzo Abe or Jun-ichiro Koizumi. Abe promoted  Abenomics  – mixture of fiscal mobilization, monetary policy and growth strategy – making it a driving force for hawkish agenda, including new security legislation in 2015. Koizumi also pushed fiscal decentralization called “ trinity-in-unity reform ,” while he stood by U.S. war on terror, sending Japan’s Self-defense Force to Iraq.   Takaichi administration may be closer to Koizum...

Having backed to normal process of the Diet with replacement of Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi entered discussions over the bill for consumption tax cut for foods. Although she had been denying issuance of governmental bonds for the policy, Takaichi  referred  to a possibility of new governmental bonds in a context of national budget as a whole. If she decides issuance of governmental bonds for consumption tax cut, it will totally contradict from what she has been saying.   Takaichi government submitted a bill for the tax cut to the Diet, which would reduce consumption tax rate for foods from eight percent to one percent for two years and introduce new subsidy to support low-income families using the revenue of the rest of one percent of consumption tax. After two-year tax cut, the government intends to introduce subsidy for supporting low-income families, as consumption tax rate for foods will go back to eight percent. ...

Kyoto District Court   found   a defendant in a murder case of president of restaurant chain innocent on October 16 th . While the defendant is a member of gangster group, the court did not find sufficient evidence that he had killed the president. The court gave the benefit to a doubt. The law enforcement could not collect enough evidence on the criminal case. Uneasiness of the people on murder was amplified with the court decision.   The president of restaurant chain, Ousho of Gyoza, Takayuki Ohigashi was found dead in front of the headquarters building in Kyoto in the morning of December 19 th , 2013. The police arrested Yukio Tanaka, who was a member of Kudo-kai, one of the designated dangerous organized crime groups in Japan and indicted in 2022. Tanaka argued that he was not the man who killed Ohigashi in the trials.   The public prosecutors suspected Tanaka as the hitman of an organized crime. They found two cigarette butts at the place Ohigashi was killed, fr...

Can one’s voice legally be protected as personality? The court answered “yes” to this question. Tokyo District Court   approved  the argument of a voice actor who demanded legal protection of his voice which was used in large number of videos without permission. The court found that use of voice without permission for attracting customers would violate right of publicity.   Animation is prevalent in TV program or movie theaters in Japan. Some works, including “Demon Slayer” or “Attack on Titan,” are highly recognized in the world. “Spirited Away” received Oscar in U.S. Academy Awards in 2003. With high popularity of animation, voice actors play important role in those film works. Voice actor became a very popular profession, attracting a lot of fans of animation.   Kenjiro Tsuda, known as acted for Kento Nanami in Jujutsu Kaisen in voice, sued the operator of TikTok in November 2025, demanding deletion on movies that imitated Tsuda’s voice in them. The court recogniz...

One of the opposition parties in the Diet, Komeito,   decided  to cancel cooperation with Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in coming unified local elections scheduled in April 2027. After dissolution of Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) in September, Komeito has been taking distance from the CDPJ. Japan Communist Party (JCP) decided not to join the cooperative framework of opposition parties anymore. Opposition powers are further fragmented.   The Lower House lawmakers of Komeito and CDPJ established the CRA in January to counter the leading coalition, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Japan Innovation Party (JIP), in the snap election in February called by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. However, the CRA had a serious defeat as voters found the merge to be an evil maneuver without agreement in some fundamental policies.   Having unable to hold a unified policy, the CRA decided to separate between former Komeito and the CDPJ in September. Former Komeito lawm...

Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi,   appointed   Arata Takebe to Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as the replacement of Kazuo Yana who stepped down with his irrelevant speech of intervention in cutting local road budget. The opposition parties continue to hold Takaichi accountable for having named Yana to her cabinet minister. It is inevitable that Takaichi’s political agenda will slow down.   Elected from Hokkaido 12 th  district, known as the region of agriculture and fishery, Takebe is in his 6 th  term as a member of the House of Representatives. He was state minister of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in Kishida administration. His father, Tsutomu Takebe, was Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party in Jun-ichiro Koizumi administration, having experienced the minister of MAFF. Arata succeeded his father’s job.   Yana resigned as the minister of MAFF the day before. While Yana appeared to be voluntarily steppe...

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Kazuo Yana,  submitted  his resignation to his boss, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, on October 14 th . Takaichi accepted it, but it is commonly recognized that Takaichi had fired him. Yana was accused of his boasting that he had cut road budget for municipalities in his electoral district, which leaders had not supported him in last election. Although Takaichi hopes Yana’s scandal not to affect schedule of discussions of the Diet, opposition parties are still asking responsibility of Takaichi to have chosen inappropriate person for her minister.   Takaichi had been supportive for Yana last week, encouraging him to work harder to continue his job as the minister. However, she changed her stance this week toward not ruling his resignation out. In the discussion at the Committee on Budget of the Lower House, Yana could not explain the details of the scandal, in which he was doubted as intervening in the decision of budgetary d...

Russian News Agency, TASS,   reported   that a correspondent for Japanese newspaper, Hokkaido Shimbun, was detained on suspicion of espionage in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia’s Far East and was taken to Moscow on October 13 th . The report indicated that the journalist was collecting information of Russian residents of Kuril Islands, including Japan’s Northern Territory, who voluntarily participated in “the special military operation” in Ukraine. The newspaper officially commented that it was collecting information about the incident.   TASS reported that the journalist had “collected and stored information about the number of mobilized and volunteer participants in the special military operation among residents of the Kuril Islands,” acting on the instructions of the national intelligence service. Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated a criminal case against the Japanese citizen under Article 276 (espionage) of the  Criminal Code .   Russia...

Cyberattacks on Japanese corporations   are increasing  these months. Personal information was stolen in these cases, causing concern on false use for opening a bank account or establishing contract of loan. It is supposed that development of artificial intelligence enabled finding vulnerability of systems. The government of Japan warned private companies to take measures.   Times Car, a company of car sharing service, announced that it received wrong access to its system and personal data of its 6 million customers was stolen. The stolen information included photo image of driver’s license, which can be falsely used for opening a bank account. Some of the customers whose data was stolen are preparing for a lawsuit to demand compensation for psychological damage.   The consecutive cyberattacks have been made on various businesses, including railroad company, restaurants, rental book shop or convenience stores. JR East lost personal data of 6.09 million customers from...

Six opposition parties in the Upper House consider sponsoring a censure motion against Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, Kazuo Yana, who had intimidated local governments to reduce subsidy. The leading coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Japan Innovation Party do not have a majority in the House. Although the motion does not have power to discharge Yana, it is likely that discussion of all the bills may be refused by the opposition parties, if the motion is approved. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has not changed her position of protecting Yana.   Yana admitted his comment that he had cut the budget for construction of roads in Nasukarasuyama city and Nakagawa town, which are located in his electoral district, but denied his engagement in the decision for the budget. The budget for those roads were actually cut in fiscal year 2026. Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) also denied influence of Yana on the budget, but did n...

A medical startup based on the University of Osaka   announced   late September that it successfully transplanted heart patch derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into a patient with serious heart disease. It made the first example of practical use of iPS cells in the world. Having twenty years passed since development of iPS cells, Japan entered an era of providing medical services using this new regenerative technology.   The  iPS cells  are generated by making adult cells go back to an immature status which can transform into various organ of human body. Professor of Kyoto University, Shinya Yamanaka, announced generation of iPS cells in 2006 and he received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012. Since the generation of iPS cells, experts have been developing the way for practical use.   A startup dealing with iPS cells, Cuorips, has been developing cardiomyocyte sheet to cure heart disease. Osaka Keisatsu Hospital, which president Y...