Nipponica

Gov. Hideaki Omura appeared before 16 cosplayers from eight countries who were dressed as Naruto Uzumaki from the manga "Naruto," Ponyo from the animated film "Ponyo," Oscar from the manga "The Rose of Versailles," and other characters, with his hands spread out like airplane wings. The governor was dressed as Arale Norimaki from "Dr. Slump," which was created by famous manga artist Akira Toriyama, who passed away this spring.

Adding this to my 'images of midlife crises' folder.

Less than half of foreign workers and students in Japan's rural areas want to remain in their current region when seeking employment or changing jobs, according to the analysis, compiled by Global Power, an operator of the job search and recruitment site NINJA for highly skilled foreign workers and students.

The company analyzed data from its 42,000 registered users as of May, focusing on their current addresses and desired employment locations.

Among those whose current residence matches their desired employment location, Tokyo leads the way with 51.7%, followed by the prefectures of Fukuoka at 51.5%, Aichi at 49.6% and Osaka at 48.8%. In contrast, Shimane is the lowest at 9.4%, followed by Kochi at 15.4%, Tokushima at 15.9% and Kagawa at 16%.

People want to live where the opprotunities are and the lack of development in rural Japan means no way to improve your wellbeing.

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.

A man wielded a knife and set fire to the ground floor of Takahama City Hall in Aichi Prefecture at around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, after spreading what appeared to be paraffin.

Under the newly introduced measures in Aichi Prefecture, officers can now wear sunglasses and neck coolers and use wet cooling towels. They can also carry bottle holders to stay hydrated. Certain standards will be established, such as that all items must be similar in color to their uniforms or white. The prefectural police force will apparently consider increasing the number of goods that officers can use, depending on the actual situation.

A United Airlines plane bound for Guam on Sunday returned to Chubu airport in Aichi Prefecture for an emergency landing after detecting a system malfunction during the flight, the transport ministry said.

Flight 136, a Boeing 737 aircraft, made the return landing at around 11:35 a.m. There were no injuries among the 44 passengers and six crew members on board, according to the ministry.

While everything regarding getting the plane on the ground went to plan, the increased scrutiny of Boeing and airlines make accidents like this more and more prominent in the public mind.

Regarding the expulsion, the university stated that the students had "disturbed university order and acted against the duties of a student." The administration explained that "participating in the anti-war protest with a banner without submitting the required event notification and off-campus name usage permission created the appearance of an official university activity." Concerning the tuition fee protest, the university stated that "despite clarifying there would be no fee hike, the protest caused unnecessary anxiety and confusion among students and their guardians."

Typical Japan, death by bureaucracy. The student's argument is much more tangible.

One of the former students remarked angrily, "Is it the role of an academic institution to use authoritarian power to suppress inconvenient truths? This is an unacceptable act of censorship." Nishizawa explained, "For university administrators to tamper with mail addressed to individuals undermines the reliability of the postal system. It constitutes censorship and infringes on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression." The ex-students are considering filing criminal charges, including violation of Article 263 of the Penal Code for concealment of letters.

The Gamagori Municipal Government in central Japan's Aichi Prefecture is investigating a whistleblower's report that the scores of women sitting its employment exams were lowered to prioritize their male counterparts, apparently at the mayor's instruction, multiple sources told the Mainichi Shimbun on June 14.

Absolutely shameful but no real surprise here. The mayor is states later on in the article that the reason for the exam tampering is due to staff shortages for maternity leave.