Nipponica

The Tokyo metropolitan government has launched an artificial intelligence system that uses high-altitude cameras to detect fires and building collapses in real-time to accelerate its initial disaster response during major earthquakes.

The AI-driven system analyzes footage from high-resolution cameras, with two installed at the Tokyo metropolitan government building and one each at a bridge near Tokyo Bay and a location in the western part of the metropolitan area, the local authorities and system developer Hitachi Ltd. said.

When Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he would not run in the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election slated for September, he insisted that the ruling party must demonstrate change.

“In this election, we must clearly show the public a new LDP, an LDP that will change,” Kishida said at a press conference Wednesday.

A Yomiuri Shimbun national opinion poll conducted in July revealed that support for the Kishida Cabinet was stuck in the 20% range for the ninth consecutive month, as the impact of a hidden funds scandal that embroiled several party factions continued to reverberate.

A powerful typhoon continued its advance toward Tokyo and other eastern areas of Japan on Friday, with the weather agency urging people to prepare for strong winds and heavy rainfall, and transport operators canceling many train services and flights.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned of violent winds, mudslides, high waves and flooding, as heavy rain will sharply increase the risk of disaster.

U.S Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel "has not decided on his departure date," the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Sunday, after a media report said he was considering leaving his post in November.

Bye bye.

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has decided that he will not run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election next month.

Breaking on NHK.

The annual number of telegrams the NTT group handles peaked at about 95 million in the 1960s, when the group was still Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public, and plummeted 96% in about 60 years to about 3.8 million amid the spread of more accessible online communication methods such as email and messaging apps.

The most common reason for using telegrams was emergency communication during the peak period, accounting for 86%, but congratulatory and condolence messages have accounted for over 90% in recent years.

News to me.

Tsunamis of up to one metre were initially expected to arrive or had arrived in some coastal areas in Kyushu and Shikoku islands, the JMA said.

The agency also said a small tsunami was possible in Chiba, about 850km from the epicentre.

“Tsunamis will strike repeatedly. Please do not enter the sea or approach the coast until the warning is lifted,” the agency said on social media platform X.

However, tsunamis of only 50cm, 20cm, and 10cm were confirmed to have hit some places, including the port of Miyazaki, more than an hour after the quake, it said.

Rahm Emanuel would not attend the event on Friday because it had been “politicised” by Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel, the embassy said. Instead, he would honour the victims of the Nagasaki bombing at a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo and a lower-ranked US official would attend the Nagasaki event, it said.

The mayor of Nagasaki, Shiro Suzuki, said his decision not to invite Israel was unchanged despite announcements by the US, five other G7 countries and the EU that they would send lower-ranked envoys instead of ambassadors to the ceremony.

“We only want to hold the ceremony in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere” to honour the victims, Suzuki said on Thursday. “It is absolutely not because of political reasons.

This is a bad call for the US and its undeserving ambassador to Japan. The US destroyed Nagasaki and should always be there to acknowledge its past.

Summer, the season of mountain climbing, is here in Japan, but is that peak you plan to hike an active volcano? There are 111 such peaks across the country, quite a few of which are popular with hikers, and it wouldn't hurt to prepare by thinking about how to improve your chances of survival in the event of an eruption.

ANA was commissioned to conduct part of the training that deals with preparing astronauts mentally for their space missions, looking into their skills such as leadership, teamwork and decision-making.

The training started in April last year and is expected to last through October this year. It helps candidates acquire the necessary knowledge and skills required of astronauts.

It is the first time a private company has taken part in the agency's training for an extensive period of time and JAXA said it is ramping up collaboration with private companies to sustainably offer training for future astronauts.