JAPAN: Attempted Child Murder & more – 1st May 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 1st of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

On Saturday the 26th of April, a driver going the wrong way down the Tohoku Expressway in Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan, caused multiple car accidents, killing three people and injuring ten. The wrong-way driver first had a minor crash, then continued for two kilometers or over a mile before the fatal head-on collision. Two male drivers died, and a third victim, a woman, was killed when a truck hit traffic backed up from the initial crash.

The accident happened late at night, and most of the debate centered on the expressway where the incident took place, which apparently has a very confusing setup that is difficult to understand even during the daytime. This raised questions about what the government can do to make the expressways easier to navigate so this kind of tragedy doesn’t happen again.

If only that were the only car-related incident this week. On Thursday the 1st of May, Osaka police in western Japan arrested a twenty-eight-year-old man after allegedly driving his car into seven schoolchildren, injuring them. All children remained conscious and were hospitalized. The suspect was from Tokyo and admitted to the crime, saying he was fed up with everything and wanted to kill someone.

Public response has been a mix of shock and anger, with more than a few people saying that they hoped he got the death penalty.

In other news, the US-Japan trade talks are ongoing, with Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s envoy on tariffs, flying to the US on Wednesday the 30th of April to negotiate a better trade deal. The meeting took place on Thursday, the 1st of May, and marked the second time the envoy had spoken with US President Donald Trump about tariffs, the first being earlier in April.

In exchange for lowering tariffs on Japan, Japan may offer to ease vehicle import procedures, or buy more US corn and soybeans, or other imported goods. Akazawa hopes to get the tariffs fully removed because of how much it would financially hurt Japanese companies.

Speaking of US relations, Gen Nakatani, Japan’s defense minister, plans to ask George Glass, the new US Ambassador, to take stronger measures to prevent US military personnel from sexually assaulting Japanese residents. Recall that two alleged sexual assault cases involving US Marines in Okinawa, southern Japan, recently came to light, on top of the ones that occurred last year.

Nakatani emphasized that such incidents cause serious concern among residents and must not happen. He intends to request better education, stricter discipline, and thorough prevention efforts for US service members.

But that’s not the only update. In the ongoing hardships of the Osaka World Expo, which we have been covering in previous shows, a part of a flying car fell mid-flight. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and they managed to land the aircraft safely.

Lift Aircraft, a US firm, created the flying car, and Marubeni Corporation is operating it. They are currently investigating to see what went wrong. To be safe, all operators have suspended flying car demos for the time being.

While flying cars might be getting off to a rocky start, self-driving cars are still zooming along. On Wednesday the 30th of April, Toyota announced a partnership with Waymo, a US autonomous driving company, to improve automated driving technology, aiming to increase road safety and make self-driving tech accessible to everyone.

Toyota is running tests at Woven City near Mount Fuji, eastern Japan. Recall that Toyota created this city specifically to advance self-driving tech. Waymo already operates fully autonomous ride-hailing services in several US cities.

The two companies haven’t confirmed any product launches as their partnership is still in its early stages.

In other tech news, the robotic arm developed to retrieve melted fuel debris from Fukushima’s Number Two reactor faces an uncertain future after years of costly development and repeated setbacks. The robotic arm is twenty-two meters or seventy-two feet long and weighs almost five tons, and its construction cost almost eight billion yen, which is fifty-five million dollars.

However, the arm simply hasn’t done a proper job since it first went into operation in twenty eighteen, being sloppy, unstable, and even breaking down, unable to complete even one successful mission. Tests continue, but officials are worried about the repeated delays and unresolved issues. Operators will probably decide if they will use it somewhere else or scrap it entirely by late fiscal twenty twenty-five.

Shifting gears, in social media, rumors of a major disaster in Japan in July are going viral. They are based on a manga written by a woman who said she had prophetic dreams. In the manga, she affirmed that a huge tsunami would hit Japan on the 5th of July. This same manga artist correctly predicted the date of the Great East Japan Earthquake in twenty eleven. However, she also gave the dates for four other disasters in the nineteen nineties, none of which happened.

The rumors may have also been partially fueled by the Meteorological Agency’s prediction of a megaquake in the next thirty years. Meanwhile, YouTubers have created 1,400 videos about Japan’s supposed impending doom.

Unfortunately, these conspiracy theories have impacted Japan’s tourism industry. Despite reassurances from Japanese authorities and experts, fear has caused a sharp drop in travel, especially from Hong Kong. Flights and bookings have declined, and tourism operators report major losses.

On another note, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission is investigating the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization for potentially violating antitrust laws by revoking Fuji TV’s press pass during the Japan Series. The baseball organization revoked the pass after Fuji TV aired a Major League Baseball World Series digest at the same time as the Japan Series opener, saying this took away the Japan Series’ viewers and damaged trust with the organization.

The Fair Trade Commission suspects the move unfairly restricted Fuji TV’s reporting rights and may deter networks from broadcasting Major League Baseball content. It is considering whether to issue a warning to the baseball organization.

Meanwhile, Fuji Media Holdings, Fuji TV’s parent company, is switching around its leadership following the sexual harassment issues at Fuji TV, which we covered in previous shows. The president of Fuji Media and three external directors will step down in June as part of the reforms.

Dalton Investments, a major US shareholder, suggested that Fuji Media appoint twelve new directors in total. Kenji Shimizu, the Fuji TV President, will likely become the parent company’s new president. Fuji Media also revised its twenty twenty-four earnings forecast to a net loss of twenty billion yen, which is 140 million dollars: its first big loss since becoming a holding company in two thousand eight.

One young man proves that some people never learn. A twenty-seven-year-old university student climbed Mount Fuji in the off-season, a time when the volcano regularly reaches below freezing temperatures, and had to be rescued not once, but twice in the same week. The first time, he had to be rescued via helicopter. The second time, he went back to find some things that he had lost during the first helicopter rescue, and had to be rescued via helicopter again.

Authorities confirmed his life is not in danger, and discouraged people from climbing in the off-season because it’s dangerous.

Most of the public reaction to this has been exasperation, asking how someone could be so foolish. It also raised questions about who would be paying for these helicopter rescues, because if it were the police or fire department that sent the helicopter, it would be at the taxpayers’ expense.

And to close this edition, a Japanese joint venture has started supplying sustainable aviation fuel to Kansai International Airport. The fuel is made by combining regular fuel with used cooking oil collected from restaurants.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Want to share an episode? You can download any of them as an .mp3 from our website at www.rorshok.com/japan — the link is in the show notes too!

Mata Ne!