Nipponica

The photos, found among previously unarranged materials, capture scenes such as the bustling black market in front of Hiroshima Station, streetcars in the process of being restored and houses that began to appear among the ruins of the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing. These images document the period when people were beginning to take steps toward the city's reconstruction and recovery after its complete destruction.

The pictures include three shots taken in September 1945 and seven taken in February 1946. With cooperation from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and experts, the locations of all but two of the September 1945 shots were identified. There were no records of the names of the reporters who took the pictures.

A Japanese high court on Wednesday approved an official gender change for a transgender woman who has not undergone confirmation surgery as legally required, in a rare decision.

The clause requiring gender confirmation surgery is "suspected of being unconstitutional" as it forces an individual to choose between undergoing surgery or giving up on gender change, the Hiroshima High Court said.

One more step. Also major props to all these Japanese courts that have been delivering similar ruling and pressuring the central government to act and legalized LGBT rights nationwide.

Google LLC said Wednesday it will collaborate with the University of Tokyo to launch an initiative that uses generative artificial intelligence to address challenges faced by local communities in Japan, such as a shrinking workforce, with successful models to be rolled out nationwide by 2027.

This reeks of a solution looking for a problem. AI is not going to be the savior for anything issue that society face. Could it help in very specific ways, sure. But these collaborations and announcements are for the press releases only.

In Osaka, the focus will be on resolving employment mismatches due to skews in the types of professions that job seekers prefer. A successful model, for example, would be able to suggest positions that job seekers themselves may not have realized were suitable, or illustrate ideal career paths leading to a desired job.

Replacing the job counselor and recruiter, the true scourges of society. I'm sure the usefulness of this program will definitely offset the environmental damage training this AI model will take.

Japanticket Inc., one of the partners in the project, said it started to sell tours in which travelers will fly on HondaJets to Toyama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures. These tours are aimed at foreign tourists, with ticket prices starting at 1.5 million yen ($9,500) per person.

Definitely out of my price range and definitely not the market for the common traveler. But this could be a first step to build out a domestic aircraft manufacturer that could complete with some markets.