Nipponica

"Pokemon x Kogei - Playful Encounters of Pokemon and Japanese Craft" began on July 6 at the MOA Museum of Art in the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. On display are around 70 pieces of artworks including ceramics, lacquerware, metalwork and textiles created by 20 artists representing contemporary Japan -- ranging from those designated as a living national treasure to young people. The works create a new charm for the Pokemon franchise with their unique textures and presence.

I need a metal Eevee now.

The landslide in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, occurred as the weather agency warned of heavy rain mainly in western Japan, calling people to be on high alert for landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.

The National Center for University Entrance Examinations will prohibit the use of smart glasses, a type of electronic device that takes the form of a pair of eyeglasses, starting from next January’s Common Test for University Admissions.

On July 13, a symposium titled "The Two Suzukis Who Gave Birth to the Constitution -- Postwar History Beginning in Fukushima" organized to shed light on a fragment of Japan's postwar history and explore the future of the Constitution will be held in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. One of those two is Yasuzo Suzuki (1904-1983) from Minamisoma, and the other is Yoshio Suzuki (1894-1963) from Shirakawa.

The symposium will be held at Ukifune Bunka Kaikan hall from 2 p.m. on July 13. Admission is free, up to a maximum capacity of 300 people. Applications can be made through a dedicated form accessed by QR code, or by emailing the event secretariat at info@kenriken.jp.net.

Forty-seven nations are currently planning to construct Type A self-built pavilions at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Initially, 60 nations planned to build Type A pavilions for the event, but many of them have faced difficulties in securing deals with contractors mainly due to soaring prices of construction materials.

Deadline: April 2025.

Graphcore is the latest UK tech company to be bought by SoftBank, which acquired the Cambridge-based chip designer Arm for £24bn in 2016.

SoftBank remains the biggest shareholder in Arm after its listing in New York last year. It also recently led a $1bn (£774m) investment in the British self-driving technology startup Wayve.

The trip to Etorofu Island by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev was the first visit to the four Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands by a Russian minister since President Vladimir Putin's fifth term in office began in May.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said it has lodged a protest with the Russian Embassy in Tokyo over the visit.

This is the border dispute that is the last existing conflict of the Second World War. Japan and Russia never signed a peace treaty and there any movement towards one has stalled after the beginning of the 2022 Ukraine War.

Kotera is specifically accused of allegedly assaulting a first-year junior high school player (then 12 years old) on the team by punching him dozens of times in the face and stomach and stepping on his face and chest between around 11 p.m. on May 11 and 5 a.m. the next day, causing him to suffer a sprained neck and other injuries that would take up to a week to heal.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced in March 2023 that Japan would seek to accept 400,000 international students by 2033. Speaking at a meeting of the government’s Council for the Creation of Future Education, Kishida emphasized that “it is important to make further investments in people to realize a new form of capitalism.” In other words, the goal of accepting 400,000 foreign students can be regarded as part of his "new capitalism" policy.

In a related development, in February this year, the Kishida government decided to expand employment opportunities for foreign students who graduate from certified vocational schools in Japan by granting them a residency status equal to university graduates.

Interesting article that goes into the history of the Japanese government's push for more international students beginning in the 1980s. These various government programs, including the one that originally brought me to the country (Global 30), are something that I would like to cover more of and how these targets of hundreds of thousands of international students just don't mesh with the graduation prospects these students would likely have. More to come.