Latest news with #AichiPrefecture
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Japan Times
Aichi police make two more arrests over Nagoya hotel robbery-murder
The Aichi Prefectural Police on Wednesday arrested a 19-year-old unemployed woman from the city of Nagoya's Nakagawa Ward on suspicion of robbery and murder, following the discovery of a man found dead in a hotel room in the city's central Sakae entertainment district. Police also arrested a 23-year-old man — Yuya Hatano from the city of Kasugai — on suspicion of extorting the victim into handing over his valuables. The two arrests follow that of 20-year-old Reon Kato, a resident of the same ward as the woman and whose occupation is unknown, on the same robbery-murder charge. According to investigators, Kato and the woman are alleged to have killed the man found in the hotel room — a 32-year-old male company employee from Kasugai — by strangling him, and stolen his valuables, including his wristwatch, between 1:00 a.m. and 1:15 a.m. on Saturday. Investigators believe Hatano instructed the woman and Kato to extort the victim by threatening to report him to the police for alleged sexual misconduct. However, after the woman called Kato to the hotel, the incident escalated into a fatal robbery, police said. Police said the victim had gone to the hotel with the woman shortly after meeting her for the first time nearby. He was killed soon after by Kato, who arrived separately. Surveillance footage helped in the identification of the woman and Kato as suspects. Hatano was not present at the time of the killing. Kato was arrested on Sunday and was found in possession of the victim's belongings. He has reportedly admitted to the charges. The woman turned herself in at a local police box on Tuesday, accompanied by an acquaintance. Based on her statements, police determined that Hatano had orchestrated the extortion. Authorities are continuing to investigate the full sequence of events that led to the robbery-murder. Translated by The Japan Times
Japan Times
19-05-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Dentists pass Japan-style oral health care to children in Vietnam
Dentists from Aichi Prefecture are working in Vietnam on an initiative to introduce the Japanese system of conducting dental checkups in school to help solve the high rate of tooth decay among children in the country. As well as visiting schools to conduct checkups to prevent cavities, the dentists teach Vietnamese dental students how to give children instructions on oral hygiene. Five years after the project was launched, oral health awareness is growing in the nation, with more children going to the dentist. One day in late March, children at Luong The Vinh Elementary School in the city of Tra Vinh in southern Vietnam's Tra Vinh province were getting a dental checkup. Students of Tra Vinh University's Faculty of Dentistry looked in their mouths to check for cavities or gum disease and wrote down the checkup results on a sheet. 'I don't like brushing my teeth very much, but I'm doing my best,' said Phuc, 8, a second grader who went through the checkup. There are no programs for regular dental checkups for children growing up in Vietnam, and awareness of cavity prevention and overall oral care is said to be low. Surveys show nearly 90% of elementary school students in the country have tooth decay, higher than the 30% among those in Japan. Attempts to introduce Japanese-style school dental checkups started in 2020 as a five-year project at the request of the government of Tra Vinh province. The provincial government asked Nagato Natsume, 68, a professor of dentistry at Aichi Gakuin University in Aichi Prefecture, who has been offering medical support in Vietnam for more than 30 years, for help. The Japanese Society of Oral Care, of which Natsume is a member, launched the project in response. Takayuki Kawana, a 45-year-old dentist who graduated from Aichi Gakuin University's Graduate School, is involved in the project as an executive director of Daishinkai, a medical corporation that operates dental clinics in Japan's Kanto region and in Vietnam. Kawana said he was shocked to see children rush to a penny candy shop inside the school in between classes. Many of them were buying sweets as they hadn't had breakfast, contributing to tooth decay. 'I thought it is necessary to change the mindset not only of children, but also of schools and their families,' Kawana said, recalling the time when the project first began. Local dental clinics also had little knowledge of measures to prevent tooth decay. In the project, aspiring dentists are educated on tips for practicing good oral care. Although the activities were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, dental checkups and lessons on oral care are currently conducted at all of the 17 elementary schools in the city. 'Through conducting checkups, I learned the importance of oral care and how to empathize with patients,' said Quyen, 21, a junior at Tra Vinh University's Faculty of Dentistry. The initiative is already showing a positive impact. After the project's launch, the percentage of first graders seeing a dentist rose from 57.6% to 64.9%. The rate of those feeling scared of dentists dropped from 39.9% to 29.3%. The activities are highly acknowledged in the community and the Japanese Society of Oral Care decided on extending the initiative five more years from this year. Natsume, who attended a signing ceremony for the extension held in Tra Vinh, said, 'We hope to make Tra Vinh province a model case to expand the project throughout Vietnam.' Maintaining oral hygiene also reduces the risk of viral and bacterial infections. 'By fundamentally reforming the system of dental checkups, we want to promote the health of children in Vietnam,' Kawana said. This section features topics and issues from the Chubu region covered by the Chunichi Shimbun. The original article was published April 23.
Japan Times
11-05-2025
- Japan Times
High school student arrested over deaths of his grandparents
A 16-year-old high school student was arrested Saturday for allegedly killing his grandfather in their home in the city of Tahara, Aichi Prefecture. He has also hinted that he murdered his grandmother, as well. The boy initially claimed that he only discovered the two bodies at his house — confirmed by police on Saturday as his grandparents, a 75-year-old resident and his 72-year-old wife, who both lived with him there — but he then later admitted to the allegation, according to investigators. Autopsies found that the couple died of hemorrhagic shock. Both of them had numerous stab and slash wounds across their bodies. The student is suspected of killing his grandfather in their home by stabbing him in the neck at around 2 a.m. on Friday. According to police, when he returned home with his 53-year-old mother on Friday at around 4:35 p.m., he told her that he had discovered his grandparents collapsed and bleeding on the floor of a bedroom on the first floor, and then asked her to make an emergency call. Later during the investigation, he confessed to police that he had killed them in the early hours of Friday. Police believe he had some troubles with his grandparents. The suspect lived in the main building with his grandparents and his parents lived in another building on the premises. Translated by The Japan Times
Japan Times
09-05-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Times
Japan's corporate governance wave reaches the industrial heartland in Nagoya
Signs are emerging that Japan's much-touted corporate reforms are reaching the industrial heartland of Nagoya, after sweeping through Tokyo and helping lift share prices. Nagoya, a bustling city some 340 kilometers west of Tokyo, and the area around it are home to manufacturing giants including Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, and Toyota group auto parts maker Denso. Aichi Prefecture, where Nagoya is located, is the country's biggest manufacturing hub and home to the largest producer of cars, electronic machines and ceramics, among others. Companies in this region are reputed to be even more conservative in their balance sheet management than the rest of Japan, and cash holdings data bear this out: two-thirds of companies included in the Maxis S&P Tokai ETF, which invests in 50 companies in the region, are net cash positive, compared with 39% firms excluding banks in the Topix 100, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. Over the past year, the Tokai ETF has underperformed the broader market, and corporate reform measures to boost equity value are looking more attractive to managers in the region. Tokyo firms have enjoyed the whiff of success, and some Nagoya-area companies are emulating their embrace of reform. That can be seen at Toyota, itself: it's proposed a $42 billion buyout of Toyota Industries, choosing to consolidate the Japan's biggest business group, rather than leave as is the company founded by Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda's great-grandfather. Central Japan Railway, also known as JR Central, meanwhile surprised the market last week with its first-ever share buyback in the company's 27-year history as a publicly traded company. The stock jumped 9.8% in the following session, a huge move given the size of its buyback was about 4.6% of outstanding shares. Corporate actions like those suggest that Japan's 3-year-old corporate governance campaign has more room to grow and unlock value in Japan's industrial heartland. It also highlights the opportunity for investors to make money by going for long-term bets on companies that are gradually warming up to reforms, while sitting on vast amount of cash and cross-holding shares of allied firms. "I feel there is a possibility that companies in the Nagoya region are starting to change,' said Yoshiki Nagata, CIO of enTorch Capital Partners. "Many companies in the region are protected by cross share-holdings by regional firms. But if the region's leading company like JR Central is changing, the entire region might be changing.' Reforms aimed at boosting profits at Japanese companies and simplifying corporate structures have been closely watched by global investors. While U.S. tariffs have hit the manufacturing powerhouses, the perception of a slower response to governance drive may have also weighed on their shares, some investors say. The jury is still out on what it means that Toyota's founding family unveiled plans to buy out Toyota Industries, but some investors took it as a sign that Japan's biggest company by market value intends to keep streamlining its complicated cross-share holding between its group companies. Toyota has also vowed to boost its return-on-equity to 20%, compared with 9% to 16% over the past five years, leading some investors to bet the company is looking to make radical changes rather than dribble out incremental improvements. The share market's exultant reaction to JR Central's buybacks may inspire more companies to follow suit. "No one was expecting it. That's why it had such a huge impact,' said Taku Ito, chief equity fund manager at Nissay Asset Management. "It was good for the market that the company busted a gut.'
