H3 rocket No.10 lifted off from Tanegashima before dawn carrying JAXA's MMX explorer, which entered its Mars-bound trajectory for a five-year round trip aiming at the first sample return from Phobos.
Tsu District Court sentenced the truck driver in March's Shin-Meishin pileup that killed six to the statutory maximum of seven years detention for driving while looking at a smartphone, a verdict bereaved families called inadequate.
Attention moved to the Diet in the afternoon as the food consumption-tax cut bill entered Lower House deliberations, with Prime Minister Takaichi defending a lower food rate combined with support payments for those earning up to 3.5 million yen without relying on deficit bonds as opposition parties pressed alternatives.
Reports of leaks and intrusions multiplied, from 4.45 million records at Furusato Choice to unauthorized trades at Iwai Cosmo Securities linked to a China-made AI tool.