JAPAN: US Marines Sexually Assault Women & more – 24th April 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 24th of April twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Okinawa police in southern Japan have referred two US Marines to prosecutors over separate sexual assault cases. Denny Tamaki, the Okinawa Governor, spoke to reporters on Wednesday the 23rd about the assaults, saying that he wants to work with local police and the US military to improve crime prevention so these types of assaults stop happening.

Recall from previous shows that this is unfortunately not the first time that US Marines have sexually assaulted women in Okinawa, and US bases weren’t telling the prefectural government about sex crimes. This time, however, the new system created to improve communication between the local government and the US base seems to be working.

Tamaki said that the US is taking the allegations very seriously and is fully cooperating with the Japanese police investigations.

Meanwhile, customer harassment, or when customers verbally abuse workers or make unfair demands, like asking them to kneel on the ground to apologize, has become a big topic in Japan. Most recently, Oriental Land Company, the operator of Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, introduced a policy on Friday the 18th to combat customer harassment, allowing staff to refuse service and even ban abusive guests.

Unacceptable behavior includes stalking, filming staff, online defamation, and refusing to leave when asked to. The company said they might even call the police or sue if needed.

Most online approved of this move.

Speaking of protecting workers, Jetstar Japan has been violating a lot of labor laws, and as a result, a Tokyo court ruled on Tuesday the 22nd that the airline must pay compensation to thirty-five plaintiffs, all of them members of the airline’s cabin crew. The airline will have to pay 110,000 yen, which is 775 dollars, to each plaintiff, and also provide proper breaks during flights.

The plaintiffs argued that they needed breaks for the sake of their health, saying that in-flight work is extremely stressful. The airline had what they called crew rests, but the court found that those did not count as actual breaks because crew members were still responsible for safety, emergencies, and cabin duties.

Jetstar Japan disagreed with the ruling and filed an appeal the same day. Many online said that the airline having to pay so little is ridiculous, and a few even pointed out that the airline had gotten sued for this exact same thing in a different country ten years ago.

Anyone else ready for the future? The Japan Atomic Energy Agency plans to begin producing hydrogen in a new facility, using the heat from a High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, by late twenty twenty-eight. Once the facility is complete and attached to the reactor, it will become the world’s first hydrogen-producing facility using heat from a nuclear reactor.

Unlike fossil fuels, hydrogen doesn’t have any CO2 emissions when used for electricity, so it’s a good step towards carbon neutrality. According to the agency, regular reactors don’t create enough heat for stable hydrogen production.

The reactor will release some CO2 emissions when producing hydrogen, so the agency is conducting another study to produce hydrogen without emissions.

The atomic agency isn’t the only one focused on generating electricity. The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry formed a council to boost next-generation geothermal power, aiming for practical use by the early twenty thirties. The council is a mix of both public and private entities, including over seventy companies, and will make plans for technologies like closed-loop systems, which allow power generation without natural underground reservoirs.

Since Japan has the world’s third-largest geothermal potential, the ministry hopes to overcome obstacles such as financial risks and opposition from hot spring communities. Geothermal currently accounts for less than 0.5% of Japan’s electricity. The government hopes to increase that to between one and two percent by twenty forty.

In other news, JR East started using bullet trains for regular cargo transport on the Tohoku line, which runs between Tokyo and northeastern Japan. Two of the ten cars will carry goods like seafood and furniture, with each car holding around 200 boxes.

With Japan’s declining population impacting passenger numbers, JR East hopes that expanding to freight services will keep the company thriving. It’s also a good thing for the transport industry in general since, as mentioned in previous shows, there have been labor shortages for truck drivers and similar transport jobs.

JR East plans to transport cargo on other lines as well, like turning a retired bullet train into a cargo-only train. The company aims for an annual freight revenue of ten billion yen, which is about seventy million dollars.

In science news, Sumitomo Pharma held a press conference on Thursday the 17th with Kyoto University researchers in western Japan who successfully transplanted nerve cells into the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease in a clinical trial. The British scientific journal Nature published the study last week on Wednesday the 16th. The trial involved cells that came from induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSC, which show a lot of promise in helping people heal by forming new cells that the body needs.

Seven patients received the treatment with no major side effects, and four showed the symptoms of Parkinson’s getting better. The trial began in twenty eighteen and lasted two years.

The pharmaceutical company plans to create and sell a treatment based on the research by the end of fiscal twenty twenty-five. This is Japan’s second potential regenerative medicine product using iPSCs.

In other news, the twenty twenty-five World Expo in Osaka, western Japan, hit one million visitors as of Wednesday the 23rd. So far, an average of 76,000 people have been visiting the Expo each day since it opened on the 13th of April, with a fairly even mix of naysayers and those who had a good time.

For hiking enthusiasts out there, starting this summer, climbers on Mount Fuji’s Yoshida Trail, located in Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan, must wear proper gear, including warm clothing and suitable footwear, as part of a new online reservation system. Anyone who doesn’t comply with the new dress code may be denied access.

The operators of the trail hope to improve safety and address overcrowding, especially with the rise in underprepared foreign visitors. Climbers must also agree to rules like not littering and staying on trails. Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, which manages the other three trails, will use similar measures starting in May.

Elsewhere in Shizuoka, Hamamatsu City Hall installed a six-meter- or twenty-foot-tall robot statue from one of the Evangelion anime as part of a tourism campaign running through January twenty twenty-six.

The campaign celebrates the anime's thirtieth anniversary and highlights Hamamatsu’s ties to the final movie of the Rebuild of Evangelion series, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. The city also features themed trains, a replica of the Spear of Longinus, and one-day ride passes with character images. The initiative aims to boost tourism and may expand to collaborate with other Evangelion-linked cities like Hakone and Ube.

And to wrap up this edition, on Tuesday the 22nd, the Emperor and Empress hosted a spring garden party at Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo. About 1,800 guests attended. To reduce waiting times and prevent heatstroke, the Imperial family greeted the guests all together at the beginning of the event, and then split into three groups, with each group walking along a different path in the garden. They did this to increase the chances that everyone would be able to personally greet at least one Imperial family member.

It was the first time the Imperial family used this strategy to greet guests since the Imperial Gardens began hosting in nineteen sixty-three.

Guests included notable figures like Tetsuya Chiba, a manga artist, and Isao Aoki, a professional golfer. The garden parties, dating back to eighteen eighty, are held biannually in spring and autumn.

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

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Mata Ne!