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.
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.
A Japanese district court on Friday ordered the government to pay 1.1 million yen in damages to the mother of a Ground Self-Defense Force member who committed suicide in 2012. They claimed that Kawashima, who was stationed at the GSDF’s Camp Shiraoi in the Hokkaido town of Shiraoi, took his life as appropriate measures were not taken against bullying mainly by one older officer.
Victims of an arson attack on a psychosomatic clinic in Osaka were remembered on Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of the 2021 incident that killed 26 people including clinic head Kotaro Nishizawa, then 49. In front of the building that housed the clinic, people related to the victims gathered and prayed for them. Nishizawa’s younger sister, Nobuko, 48, arrived at the building shortly after 9 a.m. She made offerings including tea, lit incense sticks and recited a sutra for some 10 minutes.
Four years after a deadly arson attack on a psychosomatic clinic in the western Japan city of Osaka, the sister of the clinic’s then 49-year-old director is helping rehabilitate inmates, as well as people suffering from drug addiction. Nobuko Nishizawa, 48, whose brother, Kotaro, was among the 26 victims of the Dec. 17, 2021, attack, began meeting with inmates this year.
Almost half of Japanese nationals feel familiar with loneliness and isolation, a government survey showed Friday. According to the Cabinet Office’s first public opinion survey on the issue, 48.4% of respondents answered they feel “familiar” or “rather familiar” with such feelings, while 49.6% chose “not familiar” or “rather do not feel it.” The remaining 2.0% did not answer.
Almost half of Japanese nationals feel familiar with loneliness and isolation, a government survey showed Friday.
According to the Cabinet Office’s first public opinion survey on the issue, 48.4 pct of respondents answered they feel “familiar” or “rather familiar” with such feelings, while 49.6 pct chose “not familiar” or “rather do not feel it.” The remaining 2.0 pct did not answer.
The trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, accused of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, continued this week at the Nara District Court with detailed testimony about the defendant’s motives and a courtroom appearance by Abe’s widow, Akie. Yamagami, 45, told judges and lay judges that he targeted Abe because he believed the former leader sat “at the center” of ties between politics and the Unification Church, saying his “hatred and hostility” developed gradually and that attacking any other politician would have carried “weak significance.”
The suspect in the 1999 murder of a Nagoya housewife has told police that she disliked the way the victim’s husband thought about women and child-rearing, investigative sources said Friday. Prosecutors apparently believe that if indicted, her mental capacity will be a key point of contention at trial.
Tetsuya Yamagami, who is charged with murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the western Japan city of Nara about three years ago, pleaded guilty at the first hearing of his trial at Nara District Court on Tuesday. The 45-year-old defendant said that the charges against him were “all true.” Meanwhile, the defense contested the charge of firing a weapon in violation of the firearms and swords control law, arguing that the homemade gun he used in the attack was not covered by the law.
Barrier Free Japan