Nipponica

The change, approved by an education ministry working group, will give local education boards the options of adopting only digital textbooks, using them alongside paper ones -- an option already available -- or sticking with paper textbooks only.

The Central Council for Education has said that the move will lead to wider textbook choices, facilitate learning that accommodates the increasingly digital nature of society and generate new, creative teaching methods.

However, some experts have expressed concern that the use of digital textbooks may increase the burden on teachers and textbook publishers and cause impaired eyesight and other health issues among students.

There will be pushback for some good reasons but this is clearly the future. I do worry though about the ability to change history in all of a country’s textbooks on a whim. The potential for abuse is huge and needs to be addressed.

The man, a resident of Sapporo's Chuo Ward, was arrested on suspicion of speeding in violation of the Road Traffic Act. According to police, his recorded speed of 183 kph -- 123 kph over the limit -- was the highest speeding violation since the introduction of portable speed enforcement devices in 2019.

Police said the man was on his way home at the time, and had admitted to the allegations against him, stating, "I was going fishing the next day, so I wanted to get home quickly to sleep."

Obvious safety violation but I appreciate the honestly. Sleep is worth it.

Japan and the United States are making arrangements for U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Japan around the time he attends a forum in South Korea starting Oct. 31, government sources said Thursday.

Prepare the defenses.

Pilots are treated differently compared with other employees. The average annual salary for pilots is 20.05 million yen ($135,000), according to JAL's securities filings, while ground and cabin crews average 6.43 million yen and 5.92 million yen, respectively.

Before JAL filed for bankruptcy in 2010, pilots were allowed to commute from their homes to airports using chauffeured vehicles.

Tottori's remarks last week suggest that JAL management still faces obstacles disciplining pilots, who are regarded as nearly untouchable.

Wow, they are all little kings in their own kingdom which makes their behavior even more inexcusable.

Amid growing calls in Okinawa prefecture for some of the US facilities there to be relocated to other parts of Japan to ease the burden on the southern islands, the Asahi Shimbun published the results of its survey on September 13.

In response to the question on whether respondents could accept an American military base being opened nearby, 82 per cent of the 2,376 people polled said they would not. The newspaper conducted the same survey in 2010, when that figure was 74 per cent.

Of course, most people don’t want military in their backyards. But the majority of Japan doesn’t truly understand the burden that is being forced on Okinawa and a shift to more mainland bases will make them see.

Japan Airlines said Wednesday that it has decided to cut the remuneration of President Mitsuko Tottori and 36 other executives over a scandal involving a captain who drank excessively in Hawaii prior to his duties.

JAL dismissed the 64-year-old captain on Sept. 11 as a disciplinary measure, the airline said.

Tottori's monthly salary will be cut by 30% for two months. Managing Executive Officer Yukio Nakagawa, who also serves as chief safety officer, and Masaki Minami, who is in charge of flight operations, will have their pay reduced by 20% for one month. The remaining 34 executive officials will see their pay slashed by 10% for one month.

Docking a month or two salary from executives is hardly anything for what could have been a significant loss of life. Shameful.

A volcanic eruption on the west side of Iwo Jima, known in Japan as Iwo To, began Sept. 1 and continued more than a week, according to public broadcaster NHK and the Japan Meteorological Agency. The crater spewed white smoke and pyrophores — material that ignites when it contacts air, according to the agency.

As long as that activity continues, “there is a possibility of an eruption that could affect the area around the crater,” according to a meteorological agency bulletin Sept. 8.

When you constantly bomb an innocent island, you can’t be surprised when it gets mad and lashes out.

PayPay Corp., a SoftBank Group Corp. firm, said it chose South Korea in its outward debut as the neighboring country was the most popular overseas destination among Japanese travelers and cashless payment is prevalent there, making it easier to gain cooperation from local merchants.

"We hope to further expand PayPay use abroad in places popular with Japanese tourists," such as Taiwan, Hawaii and China, said Masayoshi Yanase, head of the finance business strategy division of PayPay, which now has over 70 million users.

Rather than this being a service for Koreans, they are taking the Chinese strategy of forcing national payment systems on other country’s infrastructure. Not a fan of this approach to exporting black boxes offshore.

Kyushu is where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's top contract chipmaker, opened its first Japanese plant. The island sees Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park, which brings together TSMC and other companies and universities in the semiconductor sector, as a model for building a cluster for technology research, development and manufacturing.

The vision is for Kyushu to not only manufacture semiconductor devices, but also use them to create new industries.

Yet finding a single site the size of Hsinchu Science Park's 1,471 hectares is not realistic for Kyushu. Instead, the Kyushu Economic Federation is promoting the idea of a network of science parks with locations across the region.

This is the ongoing problem for a mountainous island nation but one that major urban areas are attempting to solve with land reclamation. The question is whether they can create land fast enough to sate the appetite of industry.

"They deleted all necessary data upon leaving" or "sent a farewell email filled with sarcasm" are some of the troubling situations experienced by about 10% of workers in Japan when their bosses or colleagues have left their jobs, according to a survey conducted by the Tokyo-based management consulting firm Scholar Consult Co.

This retaliatory behavior when leaving a job is known as "revenge quitting." With job switching becoming less of a hurdle than before, what is happening in workplaces today?

Sarcasm: the nuclear option in Japanese communication.