Objects resembling human internal organs were found discarded in large numbers of bottles at a garbage collection area inside Osaka City’s Central Wholesale Market in Fukushima Ward in September, raising suspicions that the materials may be improperly disposed medical waste, according to police. (News On Japan)

Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Tetsuya Yamagami in the trial over the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with debate now focusing on how the defendant’s upbringing and alleged religious abuse should influence sentencing in a lay judge trial. (News On Japan)

The trial of a woman accused of urging two male followers to take their own lives opened on December 17th, with the defense arguing that she lacked criminal responsibility at the time and pleading not guilty. (News On Japan)

A fire at a private sauna in Akasaka, Tokyo, that claimed the lives of a couple in their 30s has revealed serious flaws in safety management, with the shop owner telling investigators that the control panel linked to the sauna’s emergency button had never been powered on. (News On Japan)

Japanese nationals were detained by local authorities on December 11th in a facility believed to be a hub for special fraud schemes in the southern Cambodian city of Sihanoukville, according to information conveyed to the Japanese embassy in Phnom Penh. (News On Japan)

World Heritage–listed Himeji Castle is undergoing its traditional year-end clean-up as Self-Defense Forces personnel remove a year’s worth of dust and debris. The annual effort, known as the Himeji Castle Clean Operation, is carried out each year around this time by SDF personnel stationed in the city as part of their training, and roughly 350 members took part this year. (News On Japan)

A woman attending a live performance and a male event staff member for HKT48 were stabbed by a man wielding what appeared to be a knife at a commercial complex in Fukuoka City on the evening of December 14th, with police confirming that both victims sustained injuries that were not life-threatening as officers later began questioning a man in his thirties believed to have fled the scene immediately after the attack. (News On Japan)