Nipponica

"We would like to charge around $30 for foreigners and around $5 for residents," Kiyomoto said at the symposium on cultural heritage and natural disasters.

When asked about his reason for the $5 fee, Kiyomoto told reporters Monday that he wants "to avoid raising the admission fee for local residents."

For cultural sites like castles, I think a higher admission fee could be appropriate for certain tourists from higher wealth countries. But grouping all tourists in a single high-cost bucket is unfair for people from less developed nations. But the challenge is obvious in devising a pricing strategy like this. You can't expect a passport check at a ticket window.

A once-bustling shopping district in the city of Gifu which boasts a 135-year history and inspired a hit song that defined its heyday will see the withdrawal of department store mega-chain Takashimaya Co. at the end of July.

Takashimaya's departure from the Yanagase shopping arcade in the central Japan city is a portent of a more worrying trend sweeping the country, as commercial districts that have coexisted with major department stores lose customers amid Japan's declining birthrate and aging population.

I have seen multiple shopping arcades fall into disrepair around Japan in recent years and it really is a sad loss. There are still many that are vibrant, but the rural areas are hit the hardest.

Japan's parliament on Friday enacted revised laws to replace the controversial foreign trainee program, which has been criticized as a cover for importing cheap labor. Japan seeks to ensure foreign workers will stay on longer in a bid to address an acute labor shortage in a rapidly greying society.

Under the new system, workers will be able to move after working in a job for one year provided their Japanese language and professional skills meet certain requirements.

Businesses in Japan that employ immigrant labor are getting a wake up call and hopefully exploitative practices start to die out. Props to the national government for passing immigration reform for this classification of visa but there is still work to do to raise all workers up to a better overall standard wage to catch up to the rest of the world.

The transfer of U.S. Marine Corps troops stationed in Japan's Okinawa to Guam will start in December, a Marines official said Sunday, the latest development in a long-agreed Japan-U.S. forces realignment plan aimed at reducing the southern island prefecture's base-hosting burden.

The plan to move 4,000 of the approximately 19,000 Marines currently in Okinawa, agreed upon in 2012, is set to be completed by around 2028, according the Congressional Research Service and other sources.

About 50 years too late and it is only a small portion of the total military based in Okinawa, but it will be a welcome improvement.

When viewed from an angle, the building resembles a ship without the bow and stern, forming a U-shape with gentle curves. According to the company, it is thought that the design was in fact inspired by a ship, since the headquarters was built on the site of a former shipyard.

I love the ugly concrete buildings that seem native to modern Japan and the unique design choices made to make them stand out. This is one example with an interesting curved base to keep fumes from coming into open windows.

After registering their face photo data and credit card information in advance on a dedicated website, passengers can board trains, without buying tickets, via cameras installed at the ticket gates at stations that recognize their faces. Passengers with commuter passes can also use the system.

No mention of privacy concerns here at all. Also, with FeliCa-based cards so prevalent in the country, this seems totally unnecessary.

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and IBM aim to develop a quantum computer with 10,000 quantum bits, or qubits, which would be 75 times more than current quantum computers have. In quantum computing, a qubit is the basic unit of information -- just like a binary bit in conventional computers -- and gives a rough idea of performance.

The most advanced quantum computers currently have 133 qubits.

Speedy.

Japan played an important role throughout Calder’s life — a destination that he himself never physically visited but that presented itself from the very start. A seed planted by his parents’ collection of Japanese art and objects in the late 19th century, later clearly reflected in the unmistakable Japanese-inspired aesthetics integrated into many of Calder’s own artworks.

Holders of an all-access pass will be able to use facial recognition by registering their photo and a payment method in advance. The system will enable them to enter the event and make purchases at shops and cafes by just scanning their faces.

The organizer expects the registration of about 1.2 million accounts, making the Expo one of the largest events to use the technology.

If it works, it is interesting tech. I remember the first time I boarded an airplane in Hong Kong with just my face and it felt that I was cheating by not booping my paper ticket on the laser machine. But, as with any biometrics, privacy is the killer app. It takes almost to the end of the article before the p-word is mentioned.

The restaurant, located in the bustling Akasaka area of Tokyo, offers a unique “Okinawan kaiseki” — a fusion of Ryukyuan court cuisine and the traditional Japanese kaiseki multicourse dinner. It was opened in 1998 by culinary researcher and author Rin Takagi, who came up with a modern interpretation of the Ryukyu dynasty's cooking method, known as a secret to people’s health and longevity in the region.

In more positive Ryukyu news, a lovely survival story about a Michelin star Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo.