Nipponica

The pavilion's exterior adopts a minimalist design inspired by the Japanese traditional aesthetic of "wabi-sabi," featuring two triangular buildings with wooden facades juxtaposed by an illuminated, suspended cube.

Under the cube, visitors will find an open-air courtyard with a performance stage, allowing them to explore music, dance and other entertainment, as well as cuisine. Images to be shown at the pavilion are expected to include U.S. landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon.

Quite lack the design and the understatedness that is absent from many American monuments. Should be a good fit for an expo. Looking forward to seeing more pavilion designs to see if there is going to be a cohesive theme or architectural chaos.

Minamitorishima is Japan's easternmost island, located about 2,000 kilometers southeast of Honshu. It hosts a Maritime SDF base, and Japan Meteorological Agency staff are stationed on the island.

The GSDF has chosen the island as a site for missile training apparently because the island has no ordinary residents and it is off the routes of ships and aircraft.

The GSDF is set to pave a section of the land for SDF use on the western side of the island to create a firing range where launch vehicles for Type 12 surface-to-ship guided missiles will operate.

If you are going do build something like this, build it as far away as possible from the people that are going to be very angry at you for doing it. Legit strat.

Japan's last three sets of "UFO-style" traffic lights will be removed from intersections in this Miyagi Prefecture capital at the end of July due to aging, but in fact, a similar set is still working in Nagoya.

These traffic lights have been popularly known as "UFO style" because of their unique shape, floating in midair while emitting green, yellow and red lights in all directions. Developed by a manufacturer in Aichi Prefecture in the 1970s, there used to be a total of around a dozen units in prefectures including Aichi and Miyagi. Local residents in Sendai who have been accustomed to them over the years are sad to say goodbye, but their "gene" is still alive in their hometown Nagoya.

I have never seen these before in real life but I do love the design. I can see that they would only work well over narrow roads due to the all the signaling being centered over the intersection, but it is quite a cool thing.

The Brazilian government on Thursday offered its first apology over the persecution of Japanese immigrants in the country during and after World War II.

The apology was made over two cases -- one in which Brazil, as part of the Allies, evicted Japanese immigrants from their houses in Santos during the war, and another involving mistreatment on Anchieta Island of people imprisoned amid postwar unrest in the immigrant community.

Masanori Matsugawa, mayor of the Okinawa Prefecture city of Ginowan, was found dead at a hotel in Tokyo on July 26, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told the Mainichi Shimbun.

Matsugawa, 70, is said to have arrived in Tokyo on July 24 to conduct official duties. He is believed to have died from illness.