January 10 – Eight students are injured in a hammer attack inside the Tama campus of Hosei University in Machida, Tokyo. A 22-year old South Korean national is arrested.[2]
January 13 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Miyazaki Prefecture, injuring three people.[3]
January 22 – One person is killed while two others are injured in a knife attack outside Nagano Station.[4]
January 27 – Koichi Minato and Shuji Kanoh resign as the respective president and chair of Fuji Television amid criticism over the network's handling of a sexual abuse scandal involving television personality Masahiro Nakai.[5]
January 28 – A sinkhole appears in a road intersection in Yashio, Saitama, swallowing up a truck being driven by an elderly man whose body is recovered on May 2.[6]
February 3 – Former MP Tamotsu Shiiki is sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence for raping an underage girl at a karaoke parlor in Tokyo in August 2024.[8]
February 17 – The Taliban conducts a diplomatic visit to Japan for the first time since taking power in Afghanistan in 2021.[9]
February 21 – The Cabinet approves a bill to allow bears spotted in urban areas to be shot at hunters' discretion following an increase in encounters and attacks on humans.[11]
February 27 – The body of a man is found by police on a road within the Ōfunato wildfire evacuation zone.[13]
February 28 – The Ōfunato wildfire grows to cover over 1,200ha (3,000 acres), making it the largest wildfire on record in Japan.[14]
March
March 3 – Prime Minister Ishiba gives 100,000-yen gift vouchers to 15 LDP lawmakers, sparking criticism.[15] Ishiba denies breaking political laws.[16]
March 4 –
The Ōfunato wildfire reaches 2,600ha (6,400 acres) with over 2,000 firefighters from 14 prefectures fighting the blaze.[12]
March 27 – Former MP Megumi Hirose is sentenced to a suspended 2.5 year prison term for defrauding 3.5 million yen ($23,000) in public funds by claiming salary expenses for a secretary who did no work.[29]
March 31 – Gyudon chain Sukiya imposes a one-week nationwide closure of its stores for cleanup after revelations of pest contamination in its food items.[30]
Shinji Aoyama resigns as executive vice president of Honda following "an allegation of inappropriate conduct".[34]
April 8 – Actress Ryōko Hirosue is arrested on suspicion of assaulting and injuring a nurse at a hospital in Shimada after being transported there following a vehicular crash on the Shin-Tōmei Expressway in Kakegawa the previous night.[35][36]
Seven children are injured in a car-ramming attack in Osaka. The driver is arrested.[42]
The Imperial Household Agency announces the dismissal of one of its employees for stealing 3.6 million yen while working as a palace attendant from 2023 to 2025.[43]
May 7 – Two people are injured in a knife attack at Tōdaimae Station in Tokyo. The assailant is arrested.[44]
May 8 – Five teachers are injured in an assault by two men inside an elementary school in Tachikawa, Tokyo.[45]
May 21 – Agriculture minister Taku Etō resigns amid criticism over saying that he "never had to buy rice" and receives it from supporters instead amid high prices for the staple.[48]
June 24 – A US Marine is convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by the Naha District Court for sexually assaulting a woman in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture in 2024.[57]
June 27 – Serial killer Takahiro Shiraishi, who was dubbed the "Twitter killer" for luring and murdering people in Zama, Kanagawa in 2017, becomes the first person to be executed by the Japanese state since 2022.[59]
July 3 – Akira Otani becomes the first person from Japan to win in the UK-based Dagger Awards for her novel "The Night of Baba Yaga", which wins the best translated crime novel category.[61]
July 6 – Two people are killed in a knife attack at a bar in Hamamatsu. A suspect is arrested.[62]
July 7 – The Institute for International Business Communication nullifies the results of 803 applicants who took the Test of English for International Communication exam in Japan from 2023 to 2025 due to cheating.[63]
Taiwanese company TiSPACE fails to complete Japan’s first foreign rocket launch after its VP01 rocket falls shortly after liftoff from Hokkaido Spaceport.[65]
August 7 – A Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jet of the JASDF crashes off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture during a training flight. The pilot safely ejects and is rescued.[79]
August 9 – Ministop begins suspending sales of onigiri and other food items in up to 1,600 stores nationwide following reports of employees tampering with expiry dates.[80]
August 12 – Three people are reported dead following heavy rainstorms in Kyushu.[81]
August 13 – A ship carrying gravel collides with a yacht off the coast of Tsukumi, Ōita Prefecture, killing one person.[82]
August 14 – A climber is killed in a bear attack on Mount Rausu in Hokkaido.[83]
↑ "津波警報受け避難中の車が崖下に転落 運転していた58歳女性が死亡 三重・熊野市"[A 58-year-old woman driving a car falls off a cliff during evacuation after receiving a tsunami warning in Kumano City, Mie Prefecture, and dies]. Abema Times (in Japanese). Livedoor. July 30, 2025. Retrieved July 30, 2025.
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