From The Mainichi:
The leaders of Japan and New Zealand effectively agreed Wednesday on a pact to enhance their classified information sharing, as the regional security environment becomes more severe amid China's growing military assertiveness.
Japan is very much becoming the sixth eye in the Anglosphere alliance.
Shinichiro Kawase from The Mainichi:
Regarding the expulsion, the university stated that the students had "disturbed university order and acted against the duties of a student." The administration explained that "participating in the anti-war protest with a banner without submitting the required event notification and off-campus name usage permission created the appearance of an official university activity." Concerning the tuition fee protest, the university stated that "despite clarifying there would be no fee hike, the protest caused unnecessary anxiety and confusion among students and their guardians."
Typical Japan, death by bureaucracy. The student's argument is much more tangible.
One of the former students remarked angrily, "Is it the role of an academic institution to use authoritarian power to suppress inconvenient truths? This is an unacceptable act of censorship." Nishizawa explained, "For university administrators to tamper with mail addressed to individuals undermines the reliability of the postal system. It constitutes censorship and infringes on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression." The ex-students are considering filing criminal charges, including violation of Article 263 of the Penal Code for concealment of letters.
Gabriele Ninivaggi from The Japan Times:
The Lower House voted down a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday amid widespread disaffection with the Liberal Democratic Party-led government and dismal approval ratings.
The motion — submitted earlier in the day by the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan — was voted down by the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito, which, combined, hold a supermajority in the chamber.
There was no chance this would pass but it is still one step closer to the cliff for Kishida.
From Nikkei:
Australia's Qantas Airways has joined a number of carriers forgoing scheduling flights to and from regional Japanese airports as Japan faces a ground airport staff shortage and an acute fuel shortage also looms.
Earlier this year, Qantas had been assessing recommencing seasonal flying to Sapporo for the next ski season in Hokkaido in the north. But a specific plan did not materialize due to supplier constraints at the airport, including labor shortages. Qantas had discussions with local airport stakeholders but did not enter the government filing process, and thus did not schedule any flights.
The article cites closing domestic oil refineries and trucker shortages as the reasons for these decreases in service. Once those are addressed, one would hope that these carriers return, but there is no guarantee. For Sapporo and other destinations in Hokkaido especially, it would be a huge blow to tourism and connectivity for residents.
From Kyodo:
A psychiatric evaluation of the man accused of fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has determined him mentally fit to be held criminally responsible for his actions, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
He had a clear stated motivation to commit the murder from the start and never wavered from it. He knew exactly what he was doing. And the government actions against the Unification Church after the fact also show that his motivation to commit this crime was based in some realm of reality.
Takehiro Higuchi from The Mainichi:
The Japanese health ministry announced that it found no substantial proof of "black rain" that dozens of people reported witnessing in the area around this southwest Japan city shortly after it was hit with an atomic bomb in August 1945.
The national government defines Nagasaki's "hibakusha," or atomic bombing survivors, as those who were in a specified zone within a 12-kilometer radius of the blast, and provides them with relief. Those who were outside the zone, but still within the 12-km radius, are considered "hibaku taikensha" -- people who "experienced the A-bomb," but who are not certified as hibakusha.
Who exactly wins by denying these already elderly people with extra benefits? It seems quite petty to be so strict about who can be hibakusha or not. These people, regardless of them being within 12km of the blast or not, were witnesses to one of the worst atrocities in human civilization. That alone should merit some compensation.
From Kyodo:
Google LLC said Wednesday it will collaborate with the University of Tokyo to launch an initiative that uses generative artificial intelligence to address challenges faced by local communities in Japan, such as a shrinking workforce, with successful models to be rolled out nationwide by 2027.
This reeks of a solution looking for a problem. AI is not going to be the savior for anything issue that society face. Could it help in very specific ways, sure. But these collaborations and announcements are for the press releases only.
In Osaka, the focus will be on resolving employment mismatches due to skews in the types of professions that job seekers prefer. A successful model, for example, would be able to suggest positions that job seekers themselves may not have realized were suitable, or illustrate ideal career paths leading to a desired job.
Replacing the job counselor and recruiter, the true scourges of society. I'm sure the usefulness of this program will definitely offset the environmental damage training this AI model will take.
From Kyodo:
The story of a group of young women who were drafted from high school to the front lines of the Battle of Okinawa as Imperial Japanese Army nurses is being told through a traveling exhibition, with the many who tragically died serving as a lesson on the horrors suffered by Japanese civilians in the conflict.
Personal stories about civilians in a horrendous battle overshadowed by the atomic bombings just a few months later.
From The Mainichi:
"I will concentrate on making achievements on issues that cannot be postponed," Kishida said during a parliamentary debate among party leaders, adding that he is "not thinking about anything else."
Sure buddy.
Toru Kurita from The Mainichi:
As the number of children with foreign citizenship in Japan grows rapidly, a tool enabling teaching staff to display their translated speech in real time has been introduced for the first time in the country by this city's education board.
This is great news to inclusivity for foreign students not versed in Japanese. The article states that the numbers of foreign students without language skills is over 600 in Kobe so this is a total game changer for their education in an already restrictive system.