Nipponica

Fifteen students at a metropolitan high school in Tokyo’s Ota Ward complained of burning lips and other problems after eating a spicy brand of potato chips on Tuesday, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

National breaking news. Never eat chips from a stranger.

Shun Nakaoka, a transgender lawyer, suffered repeated losses in her battle against Japan’s judicial system, but she refused to give up.

The fight reflected much of what she has gone through in her life.

A story of a great person that continuously fights for the rights of the marginalized. Japan has made some progress in LGBT and specifically trans rights, but there is so much more to go.

"How should we line up today?" "In order of beauty!" The "Grand Cheer Stars" team members and staff were joking around, and the atmosphere was bright. The participants, wearing blonde wigs and polka-dot outfits, are mainly in their 60s, and include those currently working as caregivers, hospitality workers, and child care workers. In dance, age or status don't matter, and the members call each other by self-chosen nicknames such as "Charlotte," "Heidi" and "Clara."

A light hearted story after a weekend of bleakness. Let's all be as active and carefree as these ladies when we reach their age, as long as the oceans can be held back (sorry, bleakness briefly returned).

This will mark the first Osprey deployment at the base in the city of Iwakuni and the first Navy Osprey deployment in Japan. The move is aimed at strengthening the power of deterrence amid growing Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region.

Watch your heads for falling debris if you are in the area.

The maximum number of hourly slots at Kansai International Airport will expand from 45 to 60, and the maximum number of daily slots at Kobe Airport will increase from 80 to 120 under the agreement.

Kobe Airport awakens and seeks a purpose for its existence.

Under the newly introduced measures in Aichi Prefecture, officers can now wear sunglasses and neck coolers and use wet cooling towels. They can also carry bottle holders to stay hydrated. Certain standards will be established, such as that all items must be similar in color to their uniforms or white. The prefectural police force will apparently consider increasing the number of goods that officers can use, depending on the actual situation.

"My father and I have talked and decided together that he will be the presidential candidate," Keiko Fujimori, leader of the right-wing Fuerza Popular party, said on social networks.

Despite the announcement, Peruvian law says anyone found guilty of acts of corruption cannot run for the office of president or vice president.

A bit outside my usual bailiwick, but considering the article about Japanese nikkei I posted earlier and the greater trend of ancient men running for high office, this seemed appropriate to note.

Japan’s National Police Agency on Sunday instructed prefectural police departments across the country to tighten security for politicians during street speeches and other events, following the shooting of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Specifically, the police departments of the country’s 47 prefectures were urged to enhance vigilance in areas around event venues, including places outside the audience areas.

A group of residents in Tokyo said on Wednesday they were aiming to block construction of a massive logistics and data centre planned by Singaporean developer GLP, in a worrying sign for businesses looking to Japan to meet growing demand.

"One company will be responsible for ruining Akishima. That's what this development is," Yuji Ohtake, a representative of the residents' group, told a press conference.

As referenced in the article, similar protests have occurred in other cities in Greater Tokyo like Nagareyama and Kashiwa.

As of Oct. 1, 2023, there were an estimated 5 million Nikkei around the world, according to the Foreign Ministry. About 3 million of that number lived in South America. By country, Brazil was home to the most, at about 2.7 million Nikkei, followed by 1.5 million in the United States, 200,000 in Peru, 120,000 in Canada and 100,000 in Australia. The Nikkei population in Paraguay, where Kishida visited in May, stood at about 10,000.

Needless to say, each Nikkei person has a personal history that can never be completely told and that has led them to where they are today. When we think about bilateral relations with foreign countries that have accepted immigrants from Japan, we should not forget the role Nikkei have played in fostering those relationships.

A short introduction to the Japanese communities of nikkei that exist around the world, including specifically Brazil and Paraguay in this article. They seem largely forgotten by the residents of their mother country but play an important part in fostering Japanese culture outside the Home Islands.

Narita International Airport has decided to accept imported jet fuel to deal with a shortage that has impacted foreign carriers seeking to increase flights during a surge in demand.

The airport is in the process of receiving jet fuel that a Japanese trading company has procured from abroad for its airline clients. It will be the first time Narita has used its own fueling and transport facilities to maintain supply, a spokesperson said last week while declining to give details such as the quantity of fuel to be imported.

Like many people juggling long hours at work, Chiharu Shimoda sought companionship via a dating app. For two months, he exchanged messages with five or six potential partners, but it was not long before he was seeking out just one – a 24-year-old named Miku. Three months later, they got married. The catch: Miku is an AI bot. And Shimoda knew that from day one.

The 52-year-old factory worker is one of more than 5,000 users of Loverse, a year-old app that allows interaction only with generative artificial intelligence. Shimoda is also among a much bigger cohort of people in Japan who have either given up or are wary about the messiness and uncertainty that come with real romance.

I'm a bit torn on this. I am happy that people who would otherwise be lonely have a technology-based solution to make them feel better. But, in an already fractured society (not just in Japan, but worldwide) this is only going to keep people apart even more. Seems like we are solving for the wrong variables in this blatant capitalist push to get people hooked on a product that is designed to exploit emotion.

The annex, once busy as a public bathhouse, was closed in 1973 due to ageing and a decline in visitors caused by the closure of the Kishima Coal Mine and the spread of home baths. It was restored to its original state in 2003, housing bathrooms with colorful decorative majolica tiles and a bath said to have been built for Emperor Taisho (1879-1926).

Some beautiful architecture at this onsen in Saga.

The Japanese government is considering allowing the peacetime monitoring of private metadata in a way that does not directly identify individuals, in a bid to bolster its pre-emptive cyberattack defenses, government sources said Sunday.

Data such as messages themselves, in principle, will not be subject to monitoring, amid concerns that the plans to strengthen surveillance against potential cyberattacks could infringe on privacy, the sources said.

I personally am opposed to any kind of 'limited' monitoring as eventually the limits of this monitoring will expand. And with the increasing digitalization of the country and the lack of expertise in these field in high government, I can foresee outcomes that are less than stellar for both the government and residents of Japan.

JAL was nominated by foundation members in many countries and regions after all 379 passengers and crew escaped from a JAL plane following its collision with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in January. The escape was widely hailed as a “miracle.”

Well deserved as that crash could have easily ended up with a much darker ending.

Those who say you can’t find good Mexican food in Tokyo are mistaken — they just haven’t looked hard enough.

Plumb the depths of the many thousands of eateries that jostle for space in Tokyo’s 23 wards and you will find Mexican cuisine galore. To be fair, it is a bit of a chimeric landscape. There is Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex (California’s take on Mexican food), honest takes on Mexican home cooking, Japanized mashups of chile con carne proportions and sometimes a mix featuring all of the above.

So why has his approval rating failed to rise? Kishida needs to address the problem in good faith. Although Kishida has demonstrated his ability to resolve issues that were obvious even before he came to power, he has been beset by a reputation for lacking any real agenda of his own. Kishida is also notable for taking an evasive political stance. In the area of measures to combat the declining birth rate, Kishida has ducked discussions on increasing the painful burden on the people. A fixed-amount tax cut, intended to boost his Cabinet’s approval rating, was also unpopular.

This is the key point to not only Kishida's unpopularity but also to the unpopularity of many political leaders worldwide. No agenda, no hope, no idea for the future.

It has been 171 years since ramune's precursor beverage arrived at Japan's shores with the U.S. Navy's "Black Ships" under Commodore Matthew Perry, who had come to force isolated Japan to open to trade. Now, it is Japanese ramune that is crossing oceans, perhaps promising to offset declining domestic demand, though serious challenges remain.

Classico Japan import, reexport strategy.

A U.S. Air Force member in Okinawa Prefecture pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges related to the alleged kidnapping and sexual assault in December of a girl who was under the age of 16.

The case did not come to light until late June, around three months after his indictment, as local police decided not to disclose the incident. That decision has inflamed strong and long-existing anti-base sentiment in the prefecture, which hosts the majority of U.S. military facilities in Japan.

Six months after the major earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula, one calico cat still won’t leave its damaged home. Named Mei, she lived in the house with her owner, who was killed in the quake, for about 10 years.

Takabayashi visited her mother, Kazue Ueno, then 86, on New Year’s Day. “Come back tomorrow with your husband,” her mother told her. Then after Takabayashi left, the earthquake struck. Her mother’s house was declared “totally destroyed,” though it has just barely managed to stay standing. Kazue was killed by a nearby building that collapsed on her while she was evacuating.

Animals are the best. Echos of Hachiko.