Nipponica

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.

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.

Another Hyogo prefectural government employee linked to power harassment allegations against Gov. Motohiko Saito was found to have died, in an apparent suicide, sources have said.

The employee, a former section chief, who was in charge of gathering funds for last year's victory parades for the Hanshin Tigers and the Orix Buffaloes, both professional baseball teams, and was recuperating from sickness, died in April, Saito said at a news conference Wednesday.

This guy needs to go. Now.

Japan's average hourly minimum wage is set to rise by another record amount as the government endeavors to support households in the face of persistent inflation and as it works to boost economic growth with wage-driven stimulus.

A panel tasked with arriving at a target for the minimum wage has agreed to a national average increase of ¥50 ($0.30), the fourth record increase in as many years.

Should be more but progress...

U.S. Forces Japan said Monday it will create a "new forum for cooperation" with Okinawa's government and local residents, amid criticism over recent revelations of cases of alleged sexual assault involving U.S. military members in the southern island prefecture.

The forum, to be launched in coordination with Japan's central government, will "serve as a venue for the constructive exchange of ideas in the pursuit of shared goals," U.S. Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp said in a press release.

A total of 900 copies of the "Guidebook for Foreign Residents" have been published in English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and simple Japanese. The simple Japanese version has furigana readings for all of the kanji characters, which the city's Multicultural Affairs Division says it expects foreign residents not covered by the other five language versions will be able to use.

It is good that local governments are putting things like this together. Perhaps bits of it more general can be 'open sourced' for other municipalities to create similar guides for their residents.

Japan on Saturday extended its designation of its continental shelf to the eastern part of islands some 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, enabling the resource-poor country to start research on extracting maritime natural resources such as rare metals from the region.

A revised Cabinet order took effect designating a significant portion of the Ogasawara Plateau sea area as part of its continental shelf, an area of around 120,000 square kilometers. Its move to enlarge the shelf has triggered opposition from China.

As this expansion is on the Pacific side of Japan, there is no credible claim or complaint that could be made on this expansion, assuming it gets approved by all relevant authorities in the UN. Since the US, the area’s closest territorial neighbor, did not reject the proposal, should be a done deal.

According to the Takasaki Municipal Government, the 42-year-old ALT is employed on a one-year contract to teach English at a public junior high school in the city. He was arrested by local police on May 22 for allegedly stealing whiskey and other items from a convenience store in Takasaki on April 29. The man was also accused of stealing items from convenience stores on three other occasions, and was indicted for theft at the Takasaki branch of the Maebashi District Court.

Stealing is a crime and should be punished but one other factor to consider is that wages for English teaching have been stagnant for decades, much like every other profession. You can make the argument that a lot of these teachers are not actually trained in teaching, but at some point you have to accept that they are human beings that deserve a living wage for a job that their governments decide is important.

Potential new hires will receive training required to work in the Mos Burger chain, such as how to speak to customers and handle ingredients, at an educational institution it has tied up with in Vietnam.

The company expects to begin recruiting workers next spring in accordance with the needs of franchisees, with the chain already having applied for approval with related agencies.

More private business are realizing that an increasing immigrant workforce is necessary to survive in the near future.

The result means the support rate of Kishida's Cabinet has remained below 30 percent nine consecutive times since November last year, amid continued public dissatisfaction with his leadership.

The disapproval rate for Kishida's Cabinet fell to 60.7 percent, 1.7 percentage points down from a previous 62.4 percent in June, according to the nationwide telephone poll conducted over two days from Saturday.

とても人気ね。