Nipponica

The European Union is seeking security and defence industry partnerships with Japan and South Korea aimed at joint development of military equipment, the Nikkei reported on Sunday, citing a senior EU commission official.

These would mark the EU's first such security and defence-related collaboration with Asian nations, the Japanese business newspaper said in a report from Brussels that did not identify the official.

More defense alliances forming...

Leading Japanese retailer Aeon will take on 4,000 skilled foreign workers groupwide by fiscal 2030 amid severe labor shortages in Japan's food service sector, Nikkei has learned.

The Aeon group currently employs around 1,500 under Japan's Specified Skilled Worker program, which targets foreign workers with specialized skills in shorthanded industries. They work largely at food-processing plants that supply Aeon supermarkets.

Of the 71 toilets at Tawaramoto Elementary School in Tawaramoto, Nara Prefecture, nearly half, or 34, are the squat type. The elementary school has lagged behind other counterparts in the town in adopting Western-style toilets, and new students have voiced their dislike of squat toilets, saying that they are "dark and scary."

As a westerner that has had a few dark and scary moments in one of these, I side with the kids.