JR East announced that it will begin operating the nation’s first cargo-only Shinkansen on March 23rd 2026, running between Morioka and Tokyo with loading and unloading carried out on dollies directly at the rail yard. (News On Japan)

The Imperial Household Agency has released uncut footage of Princess Kiko, Princess Aiko and Prince Akishino offering greetings to invited guests at the 2025 autumn Garden Party, marking the first time that their spoken exchanges have been officially recorded through microphones and made fully public. (News On Japan)

Rakuten Mobile continues to draw attention every earnings season, and while its losses have been narrowing, the pain it inflicts on the Rakuten Group’s overall performance has not fundamentally changed. Even so, chair Hiroshi Mikitani describes the mobile business as contributing “more than expected,” and insists the company will maintain its stance of keeping low-price, unlimited data plans even as other carriers move to raise fees. (News On Japan)

The Fair Trade Commission issued a warning to four livestreamer management agencies after finding that performers on the Pococha streaming app were bound by contracts that restricted their activities, including clauses requiring them to refrain from livestreaming for a certain period after leaving their agency. (News On Japan)

A Kyoto school has apologized after confirming that a group of its students appeared in a widely circulated social media video showing boys speaking Japanese and placing clothing items into their bags at what is believed to be a shop in Bali, Indonesia, during a study trip on December 4th. (News On Japan)

The most popular baby names of 2025 were led by Minato for boys and Sui for girls, according to rankings released by Meiji Yasuda Life, which highlighted continued enthusiasm for certain kanji characters and showed how naming trends have evolved since the survey began in the first year of the Taisho era. (News On Japan)

The appeal trial of Sudo, the former wife accused of killing the wealthy businessman known as the Kishu Don Juan, began on December 8th and concluded on the same day after prosecutors sought to overturn the lower court’s acquittal but all requested witness examinations and newly submitted evidence were rejected. (News On Japan)

A plan to sharply raise Japan’s departure tax is taking shape as the government and ruling coalition have begun coordinating a proposal to lift the current 1,000 yen levy to a flat 3,000 yen per person in next fiscal year’s tax reform, adding new momentum to calls for expanded funding to deal with overtourism across the country. (News On Japan)

A 37-year-old man who allegedly broke into a high school in Yachiyo, Chiba was arrested on December 6th after teachers discovered him inside the building holding multiple pairs of school-designated indoor shoes, according to local police. (News On Japan)

A powerful earthquake with a seismic intensity of 6+ struck Aomori late on December 8th, prompting the Meteorological Agency to issue a temporary tsunami warning for coastal areas along the Pacific side of the prefecture. While the warning has since been downgraded, the government is urging caution after authorities announced, for the first time, a heightened possibility of another large earthquake occurring off Hokkaido and the Sanriku coast. (News On Japan)

A former elementary school teacher in Yokohama City has been arrested for the seventh time in connection with a voyeurism case involving a group of teachers. (News On Japan)

The severed remains of an infant less than one year old were discovered inside a freezer at an adult entertainment business office in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward on the night of December 6th, with subsequent investigations revealing that the entrance to the office had been left unlocked at all times. (News On Japan)

Japan’s real GDP for the July–September quarter was revised downward to a 0.6% decline from the previous three months, equivalent to an annualized drop of 2.3%, according to updated Cabinet Office data released on December 8. (News On Japan)

Long-term interest rates continued their rapid ascent on December 8th, reaching their highest level in 18 years and six months in the latest sign of tightening financial conditions. (News On Japan)

In 2024, the global lifting equipment rental market experienced significant growth, driven by rising construction activities, infrastructure development, and industrial expansion across Europe, Asia, and the United States. (News On Japan)

Chinese tourists are disappearing from major destinations across the Kansai region as diplomatic tensions between Japan and China continue to deepen on the heels of comments by Prime Minister Takaichi regarding a potential Taiwan contingency, prompting Beijing to urge its citizens to refrain from traveling or studying in Japan. (News On Japan)

China’s major airlines have extended the period during which Japan-bound tickets can be cancelled free of charge, with carriers announcing by today that the deadline—initially set to run through the end of this year—will now continue until March 28th 2026. (News On Japan)

The three JR companies operating the Tokaido, Sanyo, and Kyushu Shinkansen demonstrated on December 6th how they would switch train control to a secondary command center in Osaka if a major earthquake or other large-scale disaster rendered the main command facility in Tokyo unusable. (News On Japan)

A festival praying for children’s healthy growth and a bountiful harvest was held on Sunday at Kibaha Shrine in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, where the traditional “Nenneko Festival” took place as local first-grader Hamaguchi Rikka, age 7, served as the “rice-bearing shrine maiden” and walked through the grounds in a kimono with an ohitsu container holding rice, mochi, and sakaki branches balanced on her head as she joined Shinto priests in a ceremonial procession. (News On Japan)

A civic group in Usa City, Oita Prefecture that collects and analyzes wartime film archives released 18 pieces of footage to the media on December 7th, with the materials depicting kamikaze aircraft engaging U.S. forces and the devastation from air raids across Japan, much of it being shown publicly for the first time after the group obtained and examined the reels from the U.S. National Archives. (News On Japan)