Latest news with #Nishiyama
Japan Today
4 days ago
- Japan Today
Local gov't ordered to pay damages to acquitted ex-assistant nurse
A Japanese court on Thursday ordered a local government to pay a former assistant nurse about 31 million yen in damages after she was acquitted of murder in a retrial over the 2003 death of a patient, saying that investigations into the case were illegal. Mika Nishiyama, 45, spent 12 years in prison after she was convicted in 2005 of killing the male patient at a hospital in Shiga Prefecture by removing a ventilator tube. The Otsu District Court dismissed her compensation claim against the central government. The court found the investigation by prefectural police to be illegal, saying she was coerced into making a false confession. It also said police broke the law by withholding evidence suggesting the patient may have died of natural causes. Nishiyama filed the damages suit in 2020, seeking about 55 million yen from the state and prefecture over what she said was a forced confession and the police's concealment of evidence. Nishiyama argued that the indictment was invalid because prosecutors overlooked the police's illegal investigation, but the court dismissed the claim. "I will keep on fighting until the end," she said after Thursday's ruling, adding that she intends to appeal it because the responsibility of the central government was not acknowledged. In delivering the ruling, Presiding Judge Sosuke Ikeda said the investigation exceeded the bounds of social norms and that the failure to submit evidence to prosecutors had deprived her of a fair trial. However, the court ruled that it was reasonable for prosecutors to indict her based on the information available at the time, including her confession. In March 2020, Nishiyama was acquitted in a retrial in which the district court found it highly likely the patient had died of natural causes. The court also said her statements during the investigation were unreliable and that she may have been manipulated by an investigator. According to her complaint, police coerced Nishiyama, who has a mild intellectual disability, into making false statements by exploiting her submissive nature and romantic feelings toward the investigator. It also asserted the police did not disclose a document suggesting the patient had died of suffocation due to phlegm blockage. The central and local governments had both urged the court to dismiss the claim, with the prefecture denying that police had intentionally withheld evidence or induced Nishiyama to make false statements, while the state argued the indictment was not unreasonable. © KYODO
4 days ago
Shiga Govt Ordered to Compensate Ex-Assistant Nurse Acquitted of Murder
News from Japan Society Jul 17, 2025 20:25 (JST) Otsu, Shiga Pref., July 17 (Jiji Press)--A district court in western Japan on Thursday ordered the Shiga prefectural government to pay about 31 million yen in damages to a former assistant nurse acquitted of murdering a patient. Sosuke Ikeda, presiding judge at Otsu District Court, said in the ruling that the investigation of Mika Nishiyama, 45, by officers of the Shiga prefectural police department went beyond socially acceptable levels. Meanwhile, the court rejected Nishiyama's claim for damages from the Japanese government, saying that her indictment by public prosecutors was reasonable to a certain degree. The plaintiff side plans to appeal against the ruling. Nishiyama was arrested by the police in 2004 on suspicion of murdering a male patient at Koto Memorial Hospital in the city of Higashiomi, formerly the town of Koto, in the western Japan prefecture based on her confession during police investigations. She retracted her confession and pleaded not guilty during her trial, but the Supreme Court finalized a 12-year prison sentence in 2007. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
The Mainichi
4 days ago
- The Mainichi
Local gov't ordered to pay damages to acquitted ex-assistant nurse
OTSU (Kyodo) -- A Japanese court on Thursday ordered a local government to pay a former assistant nurse about 31 million yen ($209,000) in damages after she was acquitted of murder in a retrial over the 2003 death of a patient. Mika Nishiyama, 45, spent 12 years in prison after she was convicted in 2005 of killing the male patient at a hospital in Shiga Prefecture by removing a ventilator tube. The Otsu District Court dismissed her compensation claim against the central government. Nishiyama had sought a total of around 55 million yen from the state and prefecture in a damages suit filed in 2020 with the court, arguing the police had withheld evidence and she had been induced to make a false confession. She was acquitted earlier that year, with the district court saying it was highly likely the patient died of natural causes. It also said Nishiyama's statements during the investigation were unreliable and she may have been manipulated by an investigator. According to her complaint, police induced Nishiyama, who has a mild intellectual disability, to make false statements by taking advantage of her romantic feelings for the investigator. It also asserted the police did not disclose a document suggesting the patient had died of suffocation due to phlegm blockage. The central and local governments had both urged the court to dismiss the claim, with the prefecture denying police intentionally withheld evidence or induced Nishiyama to make false statements, while the state argued the indictment was not unreasonable.
India Today
01-07-2025
- Science
- India Today
Tasked to watch Earth, Japanese satellite makes big discovery on Venus
Tasked to look at Earth, Japan's Himawari-8 and -9 meteorological satellites have been successfully repurposed to observe changes in Venus' cloud-top temperatures, revealing unseen patterns in atmospheric by the University of Tokyo, researchers used data from 2015 to 2025 to estimate brightness temperatures on daily and yearly scales. This study highlights how meteorological satellites can complement future planetary missions and ground-based Himawari-8 and -9 satellites, launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively, were originally designed to monitor Earth's atmospheric phenomena through their multispectral Advanced Himawari Imagers (AHIs). The University of Tokyo team, led by visiting researcher Gaku Nishiyama, identified an opportunity to utilise this sensor data for spaceborne observations of Venus. Nishiyama noted, "The atmosphere of Venus has been known to exhibit year-scale variations in reflectance and wind speed; however, no planetary mission has succeeded in continuous observation for longer than 10 years due to their mission lifetimes."Monitoring the temperature variations in Venus' cloud tops is crucial for understanding its atmospheric dynamics, which include thermal tides and planetary-scale waves. Ground-based observations have limitations due to Earth's atmosphere and sunlight during the daytime. Observing temporal temperature variations in the cloud tops of Venus is essential to understand its atmospheric dynamics. (Photo: Nasa) advertisementThe Himawari satellites appear well-suited to bridge this gap with their extended mission lifetimes, scheduled to operate until 2029. They offer multiband infrared coverage essential for retrieving temperature information from different altitudes. "We believe this method will provide precious data for Venus science because there might not be any other spacecraft orbiting around Venus until the next planetary missions around 2030," said research team established a data archive by extracting all Venus images from the AHI datasets, identifying 437 considering background noise and the apparent size of Venus in the images, they were able to track temporal variations in cloud-top temperature during specific alignment periods of the satellite, Venus, and analysing the data, the team confirmed variations in thermal tide amplitude and changes in the amplitude of planetary waves over time. These findings, although limited by the resolution of the AHI data, suggested possible links to variations in Venus' atmospheric structure. Surface oif Venus as seen by spacecraft from Earth. The study also revealed calibration discrepancies in data from previous planetary sees broader implications for this novel approach, stating, "I think that our novel approach in this study successfully opened a new avenue for long-term and multiband monitoring of solar system bodies. This includes the moon and Mercury, which I also study at present."He expressed hopes that the study will enable assessments of physical and compositional properties, along with atmospheric dynamics, contributing to a greater understanding of planetary evolution.- Ends
Tokyo Reported
30-06-2025
- Tokyo Reported
‘I borrowed my boyfriend's shirt' – Cops enforce revised law amid latest sex biz workaround
TOKYO (TR) – The fundamental reason for the existence of so-called 'girl's bar' establishments is to work around stringent rules in the Law Regulating Adult Entertainment Businesses. The goal is to offer nearly identical services as a hostess club while maintaining an official status as an eating-and-drinking operation. The crucial difference is entertainment — as in, a business must ensure that the authorities believe customers are not being entertained. It seems, however, proprietors were pushing their luck. A revised version of the law came into effect on June 28. As a result, Tokyo Metropolitan Police initiated its first crackdowns on girl's bars over a two-day period starting that day, reports Fuji News Network (June 30). During the raids, police cited seven businesses and made 12 arrests in Shibuya, Machida, Shimbashi, Yotsuya, Kabukicho and Ueno. Among those arrested was Daisuke Nishiyama, the 32-year-old owner of Dice Bar, a girl's bar in Shibuya. Daisuke Nishiyama (X) 'I borrowed my boyfriend's shirt' Nishiyama is suspected of having female employees entertain customers without a license, such as by having them chat with customers. 'I entertained people without permission, hoping it would boost sales,' he told police in admitting to the allegations. The bar's concept is 'I borrowed my boyfriend's shirt,' which includes the female staff wearing oversized men's shirts. Located in the Dogenzaka area of Shibuya, the bar had received warnings three times in the past but continued to operate without a license under the adult-entertainment law. Since opening in October 2022, Dice Bar has accumulated sales of approximately 160 million yen. Under the revised law, operators of unlicensed businesses face imprisonment of up to five years, an increase by three years over the previous version. As well, the maximum fine increased from 2 million yen to 10 million yen.
