A Japanese court on Friday sentenced a woman to three years in prison, suspended for four years, for injuring eight students in a hammer attack at a university campus in suburban Tokyo. The court found Yoo Ju Hyun, a 23-year-old South Korean, guilty of injuring the students on Jan. 10 at Hosei University’s Tama Campus in Machida. The presiding judge put her actions down to a mental disorder she was suffering.
Japan’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that the government’s cuts to welfare benefits in 2013-2015 were unlawful, marking a significant victory for welfare recipients about a decade after lawsuits were filed over the matter. Ruling on appeals against decisions by Osaka and Nagoya high courts, the top court’s Third Petty Bench, presided over by Justice Katsuya Uga, revoked the welfare cuts but dismissed plaintiffs’ damages claims.
Early on the morning of June 24th, a man in his 70s was found dead on the grounds of an apartment complex in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, and two other people, a man and a woman in their 70s, were found dead in the room where the man is believed to have lived. Investigators said a note was found saying “I’m going to take my disabled brother and my beloved wife with me,” and police are investigating the possibility that the man attempted a murder-suicide.
A British Army veteran who lost both legs and his left hand in Afghanistan made history Tuesday morning by becoming the first triple amputee to sail solo across the Pacific, reaching his destination in western Japan. Craig Wood, 34, who departed Mexico in March, sailed around 13,000 kilometers on a 12.5-meter custom-built aluminum catamaran for 90 days before arriving at Hiroshima Port.
The number of mental disorder cases recognized as work-related in Japan rose by 172 in fiscal 2024 to 1,055, marking a record high for the sixth straight year, the government said Wednesday, with harassment by superiors cited as the leading cause. Of the total, 88 cases involved suicides or suicide attempts in the fiscal year that ended in March, up nine from the previous year, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said.
Japan on Tuesday started a service that allows some functions of the My Number personal identification card to be mounted on Apple Inc.’s iPhones. Through biometric authentication, iPhone users can now log in to the Mynaportal website for My Number-related administrative tasks and obtain copies of residential and other administrative certificates at convenience stores. The My Number card has functions to confirm the holder’s basic personal data, including the name and date of birth, and to serve as a digital certificate of the holder.
The Izumisano Welfare Association, a social welfare corporation operating 28 disability welfare facilities in Osaka Prefecture (chaired by Hirofumi Muroi), has created a program titled “Parent-Child Mirai Work: A Guide to Everyone’s Path to Jiritsu (Independence) from a Lifewide Learning Perspective”, which helps both young people with disabilities and their parents learn about “jiritsu” (independence). The word “jiritsu” is written in hiragana to avoid making the concept seem overly complicated. The program summarizes the results of a two-year project supported by the Nippon Foundation.
Early on the morning of June 24th, a man in his 70s was found dead on the grounds of an apartment complex in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, and two other people, a man and a woman in their 70s, were found dead in the room where the man is believed to have lived. Investigators said a note was found saying “I’m going to take my disabled brother and my beloved wife with me,” and police are investigating the possibility that the man attempted a murder-suicide.
Japan introduced mandatory pre-arrival tuberculosis screening on Monday for people planning to stay over three months, starting with those from the Philippines and Nepal, a government official said.
Vietnam is expected to be added to the list in September, with Indonesia, Myanmar and China to follow.
The number of foreign nationals diagnosed with the infectious disease while in Japan is on the rise, and they are comprised mostly of people from the six countries, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. While tuberculosis is curable and preventable, it killed an estimated 1.25 million people in 2023 and has likely regained its status as the world’s deadliest infectious disease after being temporarily overtaken by COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.
Economic losses in Japan stemming from workers’ mental or physical disorders, including shoulder stiffness and sleeplessness, total around 7.6 trillion yen each year, a study by Japanese researchers has shown. The losses, linked to lower labor productivity, represent about 1 pct of the country’s nominal gross domestic product for 2024.
Barrier Free Japan