Nipponica

The main mutation of the virus currently spreading is KP.3, a subvariant derived from the omicron strain. KP.3 has strong transmission capabilities and can evade immunity, so even those who have been vaccinated or previously infected need to be cautious.

Of the past 10 waves of COVID-19, four have peaked in August. The virus has been replaced by new variants approximately every six months, and experts believe that the trend of infection spread in summer and winter will continue for the foreseeable future.

Grilled eel, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.

Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunchboxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.

Gov. Hideaki Omura appeared before 16 cosplayers from eight countries who were dressed as Naruto Uzumaki from the manga "Naruto," Ponyo from the animated film "Ponyo," Oscar from the manga "The Rose of Versailles," and other characters, with his hands spread out like airplane wings. The governor was dressed as Arale Norimaki from "Dr. Slump," which was created by famous manga artist Akira Toriyama, who passed away this spring.

Adding this to my 'images of midlife crises' folder.

Kishida said, “The situation [of Russo-Japanese relations] is very tough, but the government’s determination to resolve the issue of the four islands’ ownership and concluding a peace treaty is unshaken.”

He also said the resumption of the four-island exchange program, including letting islanders’ descendants visit their family graves, “is one of our top priorities,” and that he would continue to urge the Russian side to engage in the program.

Yeah, my money is on Russia never restarting this program until there is major structural change to the current regime in Moscow. Things are too far gone to allow goodwill programs like the former visitation scheme.

“The chief reasons behind the record-low inventory is a decline in production last year due to high temperatures combined with water shortages, and the relative cheapness of rice prices compared to prices of other crops such as wheat,” farm ministry official Hiroshi Itakura told Agence France-Presse.

“The increase in demand by foreign tourists has also contributed,” Itakura said, and added that “we are not in a situation of facing shortages of rice”.

This is the headline that would stoke the most outrage in the country. Never mess with the rice.

A veteran Japanese lawmaker known for advocating close ties with Russia is visiting Moscow for talks with senior government officials, a source close to him said Monday, in defiance of a government advisory against such trips.

Marking his second trip to the country since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Muneo Suzuki, a 76-year-old independent House of Councillors member, arrived in Russia on Sunday and is scheduled to return home on Thursday, according to the source.

His reasons for pushing Russian ties are not disclosed in the article.

Around 4:15 p.m., local fire authorities received an emergency call from a male passerby reporting that a helicopter crashed in the city of Yanagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, and that smoke was rising from the accident site.

According to sources including the aviation department of the prefectural government of Saga, next to Fukuoka, the crashed helicopter was from the four-seater Robinson R44 type and was operated by SGC Saga Aviation Co., based in the city of Saga.

According to the complaint, in 2023, when the man was still a student, he visited hospitals in Kobe and Chiba Prefecture to look for a job, but his teacher and others pointed out that he was not allowed to do that during his on-the-job training period. He was told, "We have to punish you somehow" and "Will you waste a year?" suggesting that he would have to repeat the year. He was then demanded to apologize in front of all his classmates and submit a letter of reflection.

Preventing students from job hunting seems completely backwards.

The participants of this year's "Taiwan-Japan Exchange Summit," including more than 100 from the Taiwan side, adopted the "Tainan Declaration," calling for deeper cooperation between the two democracies to "ensure the safety of the Indo-Pacific region as well as freedom and peace in the world."

The declaration also expressed support for Taiwan's bid to join international entities such as the World Health Organization. Amid China's pressure, the island is generally barred from many institutions, particularly the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

A mudslide that occurred in July on Mt. Ibuki, which straddles Shiga and Gifu prefectures, was likely caused by soil erosion from wild deer eating vegetation on the mountain, experts have said.

Deer causing serious damage to crops and vegetation has become a problem in various parts of the country. The July mudslide, which plowed into houses, is believed to be the first one caused by deer. Shiga Prefecture and other authorities are investigating the case in detail.

They always look so peaceful. No one sees their dark side.

Less than half of foreign workers and students in Japan's rural areas want to remain in their current region when seeking employment or changing jobs, according to the analysis, compiled by Global Power, an operator of the job search and recruitment site NINJA for highly skilled foreign workers and students.

The company analyzed data from its 42,000 registered users as of May, focusing on their current addresses and desired employment locations.

Among those whose current residence matches their desired employment location, Tokyo leads the way with 51.7%, followed by the prefectures of Fukuoka at 51.5%, Aichi at 49.6% and Osaka at 48.8%. In contrast, Shimane is the lowest at 9.4%, followed by Kochi at 15.4%, Tokushima at 15.9% and Kagawa at 16%.

People want to live where the opprotunities are and the lack of development in rural Japan means no way to improve your wellbeing.

Against the backdrop of the evolving security environment, the statement stipulated that the United States "intends to reconstitute U.S. Forces Japan as a joint force headquarters" to "facilitate deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations (with Japan) in peacetime and during contingencies."

The reconstituted USFJ is expected to serve as an important counterpart of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' joint operation headquarters that will be launched by March 2025 to unify the command of its ground, maritime and air services, it said.

We are living through a transition period in world affairs. The power and the unity of Western countries to act as the ultimate arbiters of global affairs is not collapsing, but is in clear decline.

Most of us can agree on this point, but where is the better place to spectate this era of transition, from inside the West or from outside? Perspective is everything. For those of us from Western countries, on both sides of the Atlantic, the politics of populism inevitably becomes a major talking point when viewing the changing world.

While I broadly agree with the overall point of the shift of global power away from the west, almost no mention was made in the article about the rise of Africa to fill some of the western vacuum. Nigeria alone is quickly becoming a powerhouse in population while China and the rest of East Asia is declining. Factor in India and ASEAN and the multipolar future looks quite clear.

According to the results for the 2023 school year, an average of 50.6% of third-year high school students achieved the standards, led by Toyama Prefecture where 61.4% of students hit the mark. In contrast, Miyagi with 39.6% was the only prefecture where this was under 40%. The national average for the ratio of third-year junior high school students meeting the standards was 50%, led by the city of Saitama with 88.4% followed by Fukui Prefecture with 83.8%. The lowest of these figures was claimed by Saga Prefecture with 30.1%.

Not exactly breaking news that English education is not exactly a priority for Japanese students, but there was a nugget of new info (for me, at least).

The national standards aim for students to achieve a level equivalent to at least the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), an international index of language proficiency, by the end of junior high school, corresponding to Grade 3 of Japan's own English test, Eiken, and A2 level (Grade Pre-2 of Eiken) by the end of high school.

Since I am not in the JET/ALT world, I never realized that there was a specific CEFR level that students are expected to meet. Obviously makes sense, but A2 is still nothing compared to the JLPT 2 (B1-B2) level that is expected of foreigners at the minimum for Japanese level in the workplace.

Takahisa Sato was caught playing “Disney Tsum Tsum” on his smartphone under his desk during a preliminary assembly session in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture, on June 10. Local six-graders had been watching the session as part of their social studies class. Some of them wrote about Sato’s behavior in their essays following the visit.

While inappropriate, I wish this was the baseline of government corruption in Japan. Keeping LDP ministers occupied with Tsum Tsum is much more cost effective than countless funding scandals.

In 2020, the government released its first damage estimates for the Tokyo metropolitan area in the event of an eruption of Japan's highest peak, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures west of Tokyo.

In the worst-case scenario, the accumulation of ash could reach 10 centimeters in the capital's Shinjuku Ward 15 days after the eruption starts.

We will need a lot of brooms.

Foreign residents are increasing in number in southwestern Japan's Kyushu region as well as in Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures at a rate exceeding the national average amid a labor shortage.

The trend emerged in the Vital Statistics released on July 24 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, based on basic resident register data as of Jan. 1, 2024. It comes as the population of Japanese nationals continues to dwindle in these areas.

The pavilion's exterior adopts a minimalist design inspired by the Japanese traditional aesthetic of "wabi-sabi," featuring two triangular buildings with wooden facades juxtaposed by an illuminated, suspended cube.

Under the cube, visitors will find an open-air courtyard with a performance stage, allowing them to explore music, dance and other entertainment, as well as cuisine. Images to be shown at the pavilion are expected to include U.S. landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon.

Quite lack the design and the understatedness that is absent from many American monuments. Should be a good fit for an expo. Looking forward to seeing more pavilion designs to see if there is going to be a cohesive theme or architectural chaos.

Minamitorishima is Japan's easternmost island, located about 2,000 kilometers southeast of Honshu. It hosts a Maritime SDF base, and Japan Meteorological Agency staff are stationed on the island.

The GSDF has chosen the island as a site for missile training apparently because the island has no ordinary residents and it is off the routes of ships and aircraft.

The GSDF is set to pave a section of the land for SDF use on the western side of the island to create a firing range where launch vehicles for Type 12 surface-to-ship guided missiles will operate.

If you are going do build something like this, build it as far away as possible from the people that are going to be very angry at you for doing it. Legit strat.

Japan's last three sets of "UFO-style" traffic lights will be removed from intersections in this Miyagi Prefecture capital at the end of July due to aging, but in fact, a similar set is still working in Nagoya.

These traffic lights have been popularly known as "UFO style" because of their unique shape, floating in midair while emitting green, yellow and red lights in all directions. Developed by a manufacturer in Aichi Prefecture in the 1970s, there used to be a total of around a dozen units in prefectures including Aichi and Miyagi. Local residents in Sendai who have been accustomed to them over the years are sad to say goodbye, but their "gene" is still alive in their hometown Nagoya.

I have never seen these before in real life but I do love the design. I can see that they would only work well over narrow roads due to the all the signaling being centered over the intersection, but it is quite a cool thing.