October 2026

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government will compile an emergency package of cyberattack countermeasures by the end of next week, speaking after a cabinet meeting on cybersecurity. She described active defence against the sources of cyberattacks as something to be carried out strategically.

Israelis voted in a national election, with turnout at 10 a.m. the highest since 1981. The vote is being read as a judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and on the country's rightward shift.

A government panel of experts reviewing Japan's three national security documents will recommend higher defence spending and has said tax increases are an option for funding it. The panel's proposal is tied to the revision of the three security documents, with the funding question left open to tax rises rather than ruled out.

The Democratic Party for the People has decided to support a plan to cut 31 seats from the proportional representation bloc of the House of Representatives, a choice the party described as a difficult one. The party had initially opposed the reduction before announcing its support.

Kentarō Kitagawa, a former head of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, went on trial at the Osaka District Court on a charge of quasi-rape against a female prosecutor who had been his subordinate. The court resumed proceedings after a two-year suspension.

US President Donald Trump sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia carried out a large-scale attack that Trump said ignored his own demands. The criticism was carried by CNN.co.jp and republished by Yahoo! News, Chiba Television Broadcasting and au Web Portal.

Iran's new defense minister is Afraghi, a former head of the organization that led missile development; his predecessor was killed in an attack. Iranian commanders said they are preparing for further war and warned that "the world will be astonished."

Authorities imposed overnight curfews in parts of the country, including Paris, in response to the riots. Protests also spread to other parts of Europe.

The Tsu District Court sentenced Mizuto Mizutani, 55, a former truck driver, to seven years in prison over a crash on the Shin-Meishin Expressway that killed six people. The court found she had been looking at her smartphone while driving, with one account describing 13 seconds of inattention at the wheel. Seven years is the upper limit of the statutory penalty for the charge.

Kanagawa Prefectural Police collected expired driver's licences handed in to traffic sections and passed them to the security division, which used the photographs for intelligence work. The practice is believed to have run for about 30 years. A backpack holding 30 expired licences was briefly lost, and the ensuing investigation brought the arrangement to light.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she has a sense of concern about households with annual incomes of 510 million yen or below, framing that income band as the focus of the new benefit. She told a House of Representatives budget committee that the income ceiling for eligibility will be considered going forward.

US President Donald Trump said he would not implement a Russia sanctions law, stating the move serves American national interests. The law would have imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries purchasing Russian crude oil and natural gas, and those tariffs will not be applied.

高市早苗首相は靖国神社の秋季例大祭に合わせて真榊を奉納し、参拝は見送る方向となった。経済財政相の城内実氏は10月17日午前、東京・九段北の靖国神社を参拝した。

Typhoon No. 30, named Champu, is forecast to develop into a very strong storm and move toward the south of Okinawa around Oct. 22. The Japan Meteorological Agency forecast, issued at 12:45 p.m. on Oct. 17, projects a maximum instantaneous wind speed of 70 meters per second and a central pressure of 935 hPa.

NTT Docomo has published the cause of its failure to deliver an Earthquake Early Warning for the 16 October quake, saying its system misread "data different from the conventional" input. The carrier said the fault behind the non-delivery has been resolved.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, the first official talks since Prime Minister Takaichi's remarks concerning a Taiwan contingency. Wang demanded that the 'erroneous remarks' be corrected and conveyed that Prime Minister Takaichi should resolve the Taiwan answer issue. Iwaya also met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing as part of a delegation from the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentary League.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Kazuo Yanagimoto is under scrutiny over allegations that he engaged in vote-buying during two House of Representatives elections, including the suspected provision of shuttle buses to voters. A Yahoo! News report, citing experts, states that the alleged conduct would constitute vote-buying prohibited under the Public Offices Election Act. The allegations follow earlier reports of an intimidation audio recording involving the minister.

A US Marine has been arrested in a robbery-murder case in Okinawa, and investigators are examining whether a card carrying military-affiliated status was used to make a payment. The case has drawn protests from Okinawan figures Iha and Takara, who have pressed the government over the killing.

Japan Exchange Group announced that 35 stocks, including Nippon McDonald's Holdings, will be added to the next TOPIX index. The exchange also designated 683 stocks as "transitional measures" under the new criteria, meaning they are candidates for exclusion.

Nissui, a major Japanese food company, said a group company suffered a system failure that stopped the receipt and shipment of products. The subsidiary is a cold-chain logistics company within the Nissui Group. The disruption affected incoming and outgoing goods at the unit.

The director-general of the Statistics Bureau at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications filed a criminal complaint with the Toyama Prefectural Police against Toyama city employees on suspicion of violating the Statistics Act. The complaint alleges the city inflated its population in the national census. The ministry says the suspected over-reporting involved more than 2,000 people.

At a hospital in Narita, a large volume of earth and sand flowed into the building during the typhoon; a photo feature records the scene and a witness describing a sound never heard before.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met former Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Beijing, the first official talks since Prime Minister Takaichi's remarks concerning a Taiwan contingency. Wang demanded that the 'erroneous remarks' be corrected. Iwaya also met Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing as part of a delegation from the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentary League.

A Japanese hospital has carried out the first transplant of heart muscle sheets made from iPS cells since the product was approved for practical use. The procedure was performed at Osaka Keisatsu Hospital, according to NHK. The sheets are the first regenerative medicine product derived from iPS cells to be used in a patient.

Anthropic, the US artificial intelligence developer, has warned in documents prepared for its stock market listing that advanced AI carries a risk to the survival of humanity. The filing states that mishandling such technology could cause irreversible harm. The warning was reported by Reuters and carried by Japanese outlets.