On 16 July Sapporo Attorney Ayako Ito made a visit to Sapporo Kotoni Technical High School to assist the social studies teacher Shiego Kawahara in an important lesson regarding the right of collective self-defense. It's a thorny issue that can be difficult enough to explain to adults let alone teenagers. (rocketnews24.com)

Police and health officials in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, said Monday that around 300 students suffered food poisoning at a soccer and rugby tournament. Of those, 120 were taken to hospital but none suffered any lasting effects, police said. (Japan Today)

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will develop a system to show Japanese TV programs with subtitles in foreign languages, including English and Chinese, to provide a more comfortable viewing experience for foreign visitors, according to sources. (The Japan News)

A total of 102,810 students did not graduate from colleges and universities nationwide this spring, with many choosing to repeat a year because they had decided to decline job offers they were reluctant to take, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey. (The Japan News)

Major foreign language school operator ECC Corp. has bought personal data on high school students that may have leaked from education service provider Benesse Corp. at the center of a high-profile information leak scandal, it was learned Friday. (Jiji Press)

An investigation panel at Japan's Waseda University said in a report Thursday that the controversial doctoral thesis of researcher Haruko Obokata, who is at the center of a scandal over STAP cells, does not require the university to cancel her doctorate. (Jiji Press)

Many Japanese purchasers of e-books are facing a situation inconceivable to owners of conventional texts: They are no longer able to read the books they purchased. (guelphmercury.com)

Japan came under pressure at a U.N. meeting Tuesday to introduce legislation to tighten control over hate speeches that would promote discrimination by race or nationality. (Jiji Press)

A recent report by the Japan Policy Council found Nanmoku, Gunma Prefecture, facing the greatest decline in female residents aged 20 to 39 of any Japanese municipality. (The Japan News)

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says there are 378 children under the age of 18 whose whereabouts are unknown within the Tokyo metropolitan area. (Japan Today)

Japan's welfare ministry says the percentage of children living in poverty in the country has hit a record high. (NHK)

Japanese education minister Hakubun Shimomura said Tuesday that the government plans to introduce an income limit for free preschool education for five-year-old children. (Jiji Press)

A professor of Georgetown University in Washington has been selected for his study of nationalism in modern Japan as the first recipient of a private award established to promote research on Japan by foreign scholars. (The Japan News)

Nearly two months after the Tokyo metropolitan government designated a particular manga publication as "unhealthy" for its explicit sexual content and required bookstores to shelve it in sections for adult magazines to protect children, similar publications are being widely displayed by bookstores in their sections for ordinary magazines. (straitstimes.com)

About 40 percent of people in their 20s to 40s prefer husbands to work outside while their wives manage their homes as full-time homemakers, a recent survey has found. (The Japan News)

More Japanese ninth-grade students who miss long periods of school for reasons other than illness or financial difficulties are going on to high school after graduation from junior high, a follow-up education ministry survey showed Wednesday. (Jiji Press)

Osaka High Court upheld a lower court ruling on Tuesday banning a Japanese group from conducting a campaign of harassment that includes hate speech near an elementary school for Koreans in Kyoto, western Japan. (Jiji Press)

There have been only four cases in which parents have asked the Japanese Foreign Ministry to help them bring back children who were taken overseas without their consent since April, when the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction went into effect in Japan. (The Japan News)

A Japan education ministry panel has proposed making use of external English proficiency tests for university entrance exams. (NHK)

The Japanese internet is exploding after a succession of high school girls in Fukuoka Prefecture disturbingly collapsed during school hours on Monday. Students who were at the scene took to their Twitter accounts to post updates as the bizarre spectacle unfolded. (rocketnews24.com)