JAPUNDIT WEEKLY for May 17, 2025
Selected news stories from Japan
THIS WEEK
🪓 Suspended sentences in Sapporo decapitation case
🕵️♂️ Yakuza fade, Tokuryū rise
📉 April bankruptcies hit 11-year high
🔪 15-year-old arrested for random street stabbing
🚗 Japan tightens rules on foreign driver’s licenses
📱 Apple and Google face app store crackdown
🍚 Suspicion grows over Japan’s rice stockpile release
🪪 Fake IDs power food delivery gig scams
💴 Tip boxes test Japan’s no-tipping culture
🌏 Reverse culture shock hits harder than expected
Mother Walks, Father Walks — But Who Really Killed That Man in Sapporo?
In a case that already reads like horror fiction, a Japanese court has handed a suspended sentence to the mother of Runa Tamura, the teenage girl who stands accused of decapitating her older lover in a Sapporo hotel.
The mother’s role? Renting the hotel room. Helping dispose of the body. And perhaps most chillingly — assisting her daughter in filming the severed head once Runa brought it home.
And yet, she won’t serve a day behind bars.
Runa’s father, who reportedly assisted in carrying out the murder, also received a suspended sentence earlier this year. That leaves only Runa still facing trial — likely to be punished with actual prison time.
What message does this send?
In a country where the justice system is often unforgiving, the treatment of this family feels almost surreal. The killing was gruesome. The coverup, calculated. The court’s response? Strangely lenient.
👉 Read the full article here.
👉 Catch up on the background in our earlier report.
No Tattoos, No Rules as Japan’s Next-Gen Gangsters Step Into the Shadows
Japan’s yakuza may be fading — but organized crime isn’t going anywhere.
Enter the Tokuryū, a new generation of criminal networks operating without the tattoos, office plaques, or rigid hierarchies that once defined the underworld.
Unlike the old-school syndicates, Tokuryū groups don’t follow strict codes of honor or maintain high public profiles. They’re looser, more fluid, and more dangerous in their unpredictability — often recruiting young men with no criminal history and using them for one-off fraud, assault, or cybercrime jobs before discarding them.
Police say this new breed of gang has already infiltrated everything from loan scams to underground delivery services. And without the traditional yakuza structure to monitor or negotiate with, law enforcement is struggling to keep up.
The yakuza may have been criminals, but they were visible. The Tokuryū are invisible — and that may make them far more effective.
Japan Sees Highest Number of April Bankruptcies in 11 Years
Japan recorded 924 corporate bankruptcies in April — the highest for that month since 2013. The sharp rise is being blamed on a toxic mix of rising material costs, labor shortages, and the fading effects of pandemic-era financial support.
The sectors hit hardest? Construction, retail, and services — industries already under pressure from aging workforces and flatlining demand.
While Japan’s economic headlines often focus on big-picture stats like GDP and exports, this surge in bankruptcies reveals something more personal: the quiet collapse of thousands of small and midsize businesses that once formed the backbone of the country’s postwar economy.
The lights aren’t going out all at once. But across Japan, they are going out.
Fifteen-Year-Old Arrested for Stabbing Elderly Woman in Chiba
A 15-year-old middle school boy has been arrested for stabbing an 84-year-old woman to death on a residential street in Chiba. The two had no connection.
After fleeing the scene, the boy later turned himself in to police and confessed.
When asked why he did it, the boy reportedly told investigators:
“I wanted to kill someone. It didn’t matter who.”
The murder has shocked a country already uneasy about rising violence among youth. But what stood out even more was the public response from the boy’s father, who told reporters:
“I thought I had raised him with love, and I thought he was growing up well… but in the end, I failed him.”
In a society that often avoids public emotion, his statement hit hard — a rare and painful moment of clarity in a case defined by senselessness.
👉 Read the full article here.
👉 Also covered by Japan Today.
Japan Cracks Down on Driver’s License Swaps
Japan is weighing new restrictions on foreign driver’s license conversions, citing concerns that some foreigners are exploiting “license tourism” — getting licensed in countries with minimal requirements, then trading those credentials for a valid Japanese license.
At the moment, 29 countries and regions enjoy simplified conversions with no written or practical tests required. That system may soon tighten. Officials are reportedly considering case-by-case reviews or removing certain countries from the fast-track list altogether.
Critics say the move plays into a larger pattern: rules becoming stricter for foreigners under the banner of “fairness.” Supporters say it’s a common-sense step to keep bad drivers off the road.
Either way, the easy ride may be over.
Japan Looks to Bust Apple and Google App Store Monopolies
Japan is moving forward with legislation that would force Apple and Google to allow competing app stores on iPhones and Android devices — breaking the two companies’ grip on how apps are distributed and monetized.
The new rules would ban tech giants from blocking third-party marketplaces or prioritizing their own payment systems.
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission has been watching the app economy for years, and now it’s ready to act — joining the EU and other governments in pushing back against what critics call “digital gatekeeping.”
Apple and Google say their systems ensure safety and security. Japanese regulators say they ensure profit — and keep everyone else locked out.
This may be one of the rare cases where Japan, often cautious on tech regulation, has decided to strike first.
Running Low on Trust, Japan Releases More Rice from Stockpiles
After months of price hikes and thinning store shelves, Japan has once again released rice from its emergency stockpiles — this time, 300,000 metric tons.
Rice prices are finally beginning to dip, but many consumers feel the help came too late. Worse, there’s growing suspicion that government rice was scooped up by brokers, who then kept prices high and profits higher.
Officially, the move was meant to stabilize the market. Unofficially, it may have helped wholesalers more than shoppers.
Japan has long prided itself on food security and massive rice reserves. But when the public starts asking who the stockpile is really for, you know something isn’t quite right.
Fake IDs Deliver Real Jobs to Food Runners in Japan
Authorities have uncovered a string of cases in which foreign delivery workers used forged Japanese residence cards to get hired by app-based services. In some cases, the cards were detailed enough to pass basic checks — and the companies didn’t look much harder.
With the rapid rise of food delivery apps in Japan, demand for labor has outpaced enforcement. The result? A growing gig economy built on blurry vetting standards and a wink-nudge approach to background checks.
While most delivery workers are legitimate, the fake ID cases are forcing regulators to revisit the rules. For companies, it’s a staffing headache. For the public, it’s a reminder that even in rule-obsessed Japan, the system still has soft spots — especially when the profits roll in fast and hot.
Japan Tip Boxes Spark Cultural Confusion and Quiet Panic
A Japanese restaurant chain has quietly installed tip boxes in response to a growing trend: foreign tourists insisting on tipping, despite Japan’s long-standing no-tip culture.
Staff say the boxes weren’t meant to encourage tipping — just to give bewildered tourists somewhere to put the money they kept trying to hand over. But once those boxes appeared, so did the awkward questions.
Is Japan about to adopt tipping?
Are tourists messing with the social contract?
And more importantly — who gets the cash?
In a country where politeness is codified and social roles are precise, tipping throws off the whole rhythm. It’s not just about the money. It’s about the confusion, the discomfort… and the creeping feeling that another piece of Japan’s cultural firewall may be quietly eroding.
Leaving Japan Is Easy. Getting Over It Not So Much.
Reverse culture shock doesn’t get much attention — until you’ve lived through it.
A recent essay by a long-term foreign resident who left Japan lays out the experience in sharp, personal detail: from awkward greetings and noisy restaurants to the overwhelming number of choices at the supermarket.
At first, moving back “home” seems like a relief. But then the little things start to grate. People talk too loud. Service feels rude. Cashiers toss your change instead of placing it gently in a tray. And all those things you found frustrating about Japan? They start to look… kind of nice.
Plenty of foreign residents leave Japan thinking they’re done. But for many, the real surprise comes later — when they realize Japan had quietly become their baseline for normal.