Nipponica

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.

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.

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.

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.