With less than a month to go until the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games open on March 6, Japan is stepping up final preparations for a campaign that will feature broad representation across the six-sport program, including the return of its para ice hockey team.
Ahead of the House of Representatives election to be held and counted on the 8th, the Japan Disability Forum, comprising 59 disability organizations and related groups, submitted a written request to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on January 20 concerning voting by people with disabilities. Pointing out that there are still disparities in how municipal election management committees respond, the group called for wider dissemination of the ministry’s guide, “Examples of Polling Station Responses for Persons with Disabilities,” and for thorough implementation of reasonable accommodations in voting.
With less than a month to go until the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympic Games open on March 6, Japan is stepping up final preparations for a campaign that will feature broad representation across the six-sport program, including the return of its para ice hockey team.
The Japan Innovation Party and Sanseito have called for setting a cap on the percentage of foreign nationals in Japan’s population in their promises to voters for Sunday’s House of Representatives election. By contrast, the Liberal Democratic Party, the JIP’s ally in the ruling camp, makes no mention of such a cap in its election platform. The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new opposition party created by Lower House lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, considers such a cap a premature measure.
The Tokyo High Court will decide on March 4 whether to back a lower court’s order for the Unification Church to disband itself, informed sources said Wednesday. If the high court upholds the dissolution order, it will take effect regardless of whether the religious group appeals to the Supreme Court, and liquidation procedures will begin. The group could continue its activities as a voluntary organization, but it would lose its status as a religious corporation and would no longer be eligible for tax benefits.
A meeting held in Kobe on January 24th 2026 drew disability rights advocates and community organizers calling for an end to institutionalization following recent reports of violence at residential care facilities in Hyogo Prefecture. The gathering, organized by independent living groups, highlighted concerns that segregated living environments heighten the risk of abuse and isolate people with disabilities from society.
According to the arrest allegations, between approximately 8:17 p.m. and 8:43 p.m. on October 12, 2025, at the disability group home in Sekiyama 1-chome, Hasuda City where he worked, the man allegedly assaulted a 21-year-old female resident by punching her in the face and causing injuries, including a subconjunctival hemorrhage in her right eye. The man denies the charges, stating, “I did not use violence. I cannot accept the arrest.”
The Tokyo High Court will decide on March 4 whether to back a lower court’s order for the Unification Church to disband itself, informed sources said Wednesday. If the high court upholds the dissolution order, it will take effect regardless of whether the religious group appeals to the Supreme Court, and liquidation procedures will begin. The group could continue its activities as a voluntary organization, but it would lose its status as a religious corporation and would no longer be eligible for tax benefits.
“As early as Friday, January 30, two days before the broadcast, Takaichi’s camp had already approached Takayuki Kobayashi, the Chairperson of the Policy Research Council, to act as a last-minute substitute.”
Yamagami will file an appeal on Wednesday at the Osaka High Court following recommendations by his defense team that he proceed, the sources said.
The Japan Innovation Party and Sanseito have called for setting a cap on the percentage of foreign nationals in Japan’s population in their promises to voters for Sunday’s House of Representatives election. By contrast, the Liberal Democratic Party, the JIP’s ally in the ruling camp, makes no mention of such a cap in its election platform. The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new opposition party created by Lower House lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito, considers such a cap a premature measure.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi canceled her appearance in a television debate program Sunday morning as she injured her hand during the campaign trail for the Feb. 8 general election. Takaichi posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she injured her hand during her campaign activities in the past couple of days and has been receiving treatment. “When I shook hands with a person who supports me enthusiastically, my hand was pulled hard and I hurt it,” she said, adding, “I have chronic rheumatoid arthritis, so my hand became swollen.”
While the court ordered the payment of ¥800,000 in consolation money, it did not recognize the claim for wages for the period during which the man was unable to work after his dismissal. The plaintiff’s attorney, Motoya Tsuchida, said, “The ruling does, in a sense, squarely acknowledge disability discrimination,” while indicating that they plan to appeal.
Supporters of Sanseito took to the streets of Kobe on Saturday 31st January 2026 to promote the party’s platform ahead of the upcoming election; as did the ‘Social Democratic Party’.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi canceled her appearance in a television debate program Sunday morning as she injured her hand during the campaign trail for the Feb. 8 general election. Takaichi posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she injured her hand during her campaign activities in the past couple of days and has been receiving treatment. “When I shook hands with a person who supports me enthusiastically, my hand was pulled hard and I hurt it,” she said, adding, “I have chronic rheumatoid arthritis, so my hand became swollen.”
While the court ordered the payment of ¥800,000 in consolation money, it did not recognize the claim for wages for the period during which the man was unable to work after his dismissal. The plaintiff’s attorney, Motoya Tsuchida, said, “The ruling does, in a sense, squarely acknowledge disability discrimination,” while indicating that they plan to appeal.
Supporters of Sanseito took to the streets of Kobe on Saturday 31st January to promote the party’s platform ahead of an upcoming election.
The prefectural government announced that it has imposed an administrative sanction on a group home support facility in Tōon, Ehime Prefecture, after confirming that the facility’s then-manager repeatedly abused residents. According to the prefecture, inspections and audits found that over a period of about one year from November 2024, the manager subjected users to physical, sexual and psychological abuse on multiple occasions. The manager has since been dismissed, and the prefecture ordered the facility to suspend accepting new users for one year under the Act on Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities, citing the seriousness and repeated nature of the misconduct.
Japan’s Children and Families Agency has set up a working group to discuss possible regulation of social media services to prevent juveniles from being caught up in problems via the internet. The group will mull measures while taking into account a revision of the law to improve the environment for young people’s safe and secure internet use, which restricts the browsing of harmful information by such people. The group, expected to release an interim report in July, will have opportunities to exchange opinions with junior and senior high school students.
Saga City and other local governments in Japan are increasingly turning to avatar robots to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities, with the humanoid robot “OriHime” emerging as a key tool. Saga City has launched a pilot program placing an OriHime robot in the lobby of its city hall, where it is remotely operated by people with disabilities to guide visitors during peak hours, in cooperation with a local employment support facility. The initiative aims to create new, flexible work models for those who have difficulty commuting or working in person, while also improving public services. Similar efforts to raise awareness of avatar robots have been seen elsewhere, including an event in Miyazaki Prefecture in 2024, highlighting growing interest in OriHime as a way to connect people with disabilities to society and the workforce.
The number of people who died by suicide in Japan in 2025 came to 19,097, standing below 20,000 for the first time since the statistics began in 1978, preliminary government data showed Thursday. Suicides among elementary, junior high and senior high school students came to 532, hitting a record high for the second straight year since comparable data became available in 1980.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on January 19th that in fiscal 2024 there were 6,258 reports and notifications received by prefectures and designated cities concerning alleged abuse of persons with disabilities by staff at psychiatric hospitals. Of these, 260 cases were officially recognized as abuse. Under the revised Mental Health and Welfare Act enacted in 2022, reporting abuse of persons with disabilities by psychiatric hospital staff to prefectures and designated cities was made mandatory. This is the first time such data have been compiled. The ministry stated, “We have confirmed that the reporting system is being recognized. We will continue to closely monitor future trends.”
At the second hearing on Jan. 26 at the Ichinomiya branch of the Nagoya District Court, prosecutors amended the indictment in a fatal traffic accident case involving a pregnant woman to include harm caused to the fetus, while declining to apply a separate charge of negligent driving resulting in injury to the child. The husband of the victim, Yudai Togitani, who lost his wife and whose daughter was left with severe disabilities, said the grief of losing his wife and the anger over having his daughter’s future taken away have remained unchanged since the accident, adding that he could not accept that his daughter was not treated as a victim when her name was initially omitted from the indictment.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on January 19th that in fiscal 2024 there were 6,258 reports and notifications received by prefectures and designated cities concerning alleged abuse of persons with disabilities by staff at psychiatric hospitals. Of these, 260 cases were officially recognized as abuse.
A former employee of a facility for people with disabilities in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, has been arrested on suspicion of repeatedly assaulting and injuring a male resident in his 20s with a disability on three occasions between 2021 and 2024, police said. Investigators allege the 42-year-old man initially told colleagues the injuries were the result of an accident, but the case came to light after a relative of another resident contacted police in January last year. Authorities have since identified injuries among other residents from the same period that may have been caused by assaults, raising concerns the suspect may have routinely abused multiple residents, and police are continuing their investigation.
More than half of Japanese companies say they will struggle to meet the government’s higher disability employment quota, highlighting persistent challenges in workplace readiness and internal awareness. A survey by disability employment support firm Persol Diversity found that 52.6% of companies view achieving the revised statutory quota of 2.7%, which takes effect in July, as difficult, underscoring gaps in organizational understanding and the need for improved accommodations and support systems for workers with disabilities.
In explaining the reasons for the sentence, the court first referred to the incident on March 31, 2025, in which the defendant caused serious injury to a 9-year-old child through negligent driving. The 9-year-old child who was injured suffered “diffuse axonal injury, traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, acute subdural hematoma, swallowing dysfunction, and quadriplegia, among other injuries, and at one point was in a life-threatening condition.” Even now, “the function of both the upper and lower limbs remains severely restricted, nutrition is almost entirely provided through tube feeding, the child can barely speak, and requires assistance for most daily activities.” The prospect of future recovery remains uncertain.
More than half of Japanese companies say they will struggle to meet the government’s higher disability employment quota, highlighting persistent challenges in workplace readiness and internal awareness. A survey by disability employment support firm Persol Diversity found that 52.6% of companies view achieving the revised statutory quota of 2.7%, which takes effect in July, as difficult, underscoring gaps in organizational understanding and the need for improved accommodations and support systems for workers with disabilities.
Gunma Prefecture issued guidance to a social welfare corporation operating a disability support facility following an investigation into an accident in which a male high school student (17 at the time), who attended a disability support facility in Ōra Town, Gunma Prefecture, fell ill and died during a sea swimming outing. The prefecture cited a “delay in transporting him to a hospital” as a contributing factor and pointed out that countermeasures against aspiration of seawater had not been discussed, stating that “risk management was not in place.”
A former member of Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force reached a final settlement on Monday in a damages lawsuit she filed over sexual assault by five then GSDF members. The settlement, reached at Yokohama District Court, includes the government’s payment of a total of 1.6 million yen to the plaintiff, Rina Gonoi, 26, but not an apology or payment from the five former GSDF members.
Gunma Prefecture issued guidance to a social welfare corporation operating a disability support facility following an investigation into an accident in which a male high school student (17 at the time), who attended a disability support facility in Ōra Town, Gunma Prefecture, fell ill and died during a sea swimming outing. The prefecture cited a “delay in transporting him to a hospital” as a contributing factor and pointed out that countermeasures against aspiration of seawater had not been discussed, stating that “risk management was not in place.”
“The government’s responsibility is extremely grave,” Takaichi said when she met with the victims at the prime minister’s office on Wednesday. A law on compensation to forced sterilization victims took effect on Jan. 17 last year following a Supreme Court ruling that recognized the state’s liability. While victims are estimated to include around 25,000 individuals subjected to sterilization procedures and about 59,000 who had abortions, the number of cases certified under the law remained at just 1,560 as of the end of November last year.
Japan’s health ministry will designate eight drug ingredients as having abuse potential under law in response to rising concerns about the overdose of over-the-counter drugs among young people, it has been learned. The ministry will publicly notify the decision, made by its subcommittee on Friday, in mid-February. Currently, six ingredients commonly found in cold or cough medicines are designated as drugs that may be abused under ministerial ordinances and other rules. The new designation will add dextromethorphan, an antitussive ingredient, and diphenhydramine, an antihistamine, bringing the total number of designated substances to eight.
Sanseito aims to boost the number of its House of Representatives seats by 10-fold in next month’s election for the all-important parliamentary chamber in Japan, in order to gain momentum to realize its policies, Sohei Kamiya, leader of the rising opposition party, said in an interview. “Our goal is to secure 30 seats,” Kamiya said. “We hope to be in a position where bills can’t pass without our party’s support,” he said.
Heavy snow mainly pounding the Sea of Japan coast since Tuesday has left four people dead and 26 others injured. According to data compiled by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency as of Friday afternoon, one person died in each of the cities of Uonuma and Sado and two in the city of Nagaoka, all in the central prefecture of Niigata.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi mentioned the government’s responsibility in her meeting with victims of forced sterilization conducted under the country’s now-defunct eugenics law. “The government’s responsibility is extremely grave,” Takaichi said when she met with the victims at the prime minister’s office on Wednesday. A law on compensation to forced sterilization victims took effect on Jan. 17 last year following a Supreme Court ruling that recognized the state’s liability. While victims are estimated to include around 25,000 individuals subjected to sterilization procedures and about 59,000 who had abortions, the number of cases certified under the law remained at just 1,560 as of the end of November last year.
Presiding Judge Shinichi Tanaka suggested that the motive claimed was irrational, stating, “It cannot be said that his background had a great impact.” During the trial, the defense argued that, given Yamagami’s troubled background related to the controversial religious group Unification Church, with which Abe allegedly had ties, his sentence should be no more than 20 years.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will hold a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 29, to examine disease names covered by certification criteria for mental disorders following the domestic application of the ICD-11 international disease classification system. The study group, convened under the supervision of the ministry’s Director-General for Policy Planning in charge of industrial accidents and wages, is composed of experts with specialized knowledge in medicine and related fields. Members of the public wishing to observe the meeting must apply in advance in accordance with the ministry’s observer guidelines.
Taro Yamamoto, leader of Japanese opposition party Reiwa Shinsengumi, on Wednesday resigned from the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, due to health problems.
“I’m one step away from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. If I don’t live by the main theme of not letting it progress, I could lose my life,” Yamamoto said in a video posted on the party’s official YouTube channel.
Presiding Judge Shinichi Tanaka suggested that the motive claimed was irrational, stating, “It cannot be said that his background had a great impact.” During the trial, the defense argued that, given Yamagami’s troubled background related to the controversial religious group Unification Church, with which Abe allegedly had ties, his sentence should be no more than 20 years.
Tetsuya Yamagami, who fatally shot former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday 21st January, three and a half years after the killing Abe in Nara. Prior to the ruling, 685 people gathered outside the court to apply for the 31 available gallery seats, according to the court.
The Japanese government has asked prefectures to lead efforts to secure hotels as shelters during large-scale disasters. Guidelines drawn up by the Cabinet Office call on local officials, mainly at prefectural governments, to work to secure accommodation and match it with evacuees. The Cabinet Office also advises local governments to list hotels based on whether rooms are barrier-free and if evacuees can use them continuously for a certain period.
On December 23 last year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government submitted a request to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Children and Families Agency regarding the June 2026 interim revision of disability welfare service fees, calling on them not to implement a nationwide reduction in basic compensation for newly established providers of certain services.
A district court in western Japan is scheduled to hand down a sentence on Wednesday to the man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. A key issue is how Nara District Court will assess the influence on the defendant, Tetsuya Yamagami, of his mother’s involvement with the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry has begun investigating the handling of disability pension assessments after it emerged that some decisions were changed following re-evaluations requested by Japan Pension Service staff. The ministry reported that over the roughly three months since October last year, 61 cases were revised from payment to non-payment or suspension after reassessment, while 120 cases were changed from non-payment to payment. Disability pension eligibility is determined by physicians commissioned by the pension service, but media reports prompted concerns that staff-initiated re-evaluations could overturn initial approvals. An interim probe found that reassessments accounted for about 1% of all cases since fiscal 2024, and while some original assessment documents had previously been discarded, the ministry said it has found no evidence so far of intentional non-payment.
Gold medal hopefuls in snowboarding and wheelchair curling will be Japan’s flagbearers at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Paralympics. The country’s Paralympic Committee named Aki Ogawa, one half of Japan’s mixed doubles wheelchair curling team, and para snowboarder Junta Kosuda as the flagbearers while announcing the first 40 members of its delegation on Friday.
The South China Morning Post reported on January 13th that Grok-generated deepfake images of Japan’s Princess Kako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, in a bikini circulating online have renewed scrutiny on Elon Musk’s X chatbot. Princess Kako has performed various official duties at home and abroad, while working twice a week since April 2024 at the Japanese Federation of the Deaf, which she joined as a part-time employee in 2021.
The South China Morning Post reported on January 13th that Grok-generated deepfake images of Japan’s Princess Kako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, in a bikini circulating online have renewed scrutiny on Elon Musk’s X chatbot. Princess Kako has performed various official duties at home and abroad, while working twice a week since April 2024 at the Japanese Federation of the Deaf, which she joined as a part-time employee in 2021.
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