Yurika Tarumi from The Mainichi:
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.
From Kyodo:
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.
From The Japan Times:
Over a year has passed since the PDAS-X06 unmanned experimental aircraft, part of a space travel project, crashed into the sea off Shimojishima Airport in the city of Miyakojima, Okinawa Prefecture.
PD Aerospace, the Nagoya-based developer of the aircraft, aims to realize space travel by manned spacecraft from the airport under the Shimojishima Spaceport Project, which was signed between the company and Okinawa Prefecture in September 2020.
Under the project, the company’s spacecraft, which is designed to fly to an altitude of 100 kilometers, will allow passengers to experience a state of weightlessness for about five minutes. Originally, the company had planned to launch space travel in 2025, sending 100 passengers to space that year and gradually increasing capacity to 1,000 by 2030.
With this story and the previous one about Hokkaido Spaceport, Japanese industry is making up for lost time in the new space race. While JAXA is far from a small player in the industry, it is small in comparison to the legacy space states. But, experimentation like this could be vital to the next generation of spacecraft and there could be a breakthrough in the testing on Miyako.
Eric Johnston from The Japan Times:
Located on the Pacific coast, Taiki, with 5,300 people, is home to the Hokkaido Spaceport (HOSPO), billed as Asia’s first privately operated spaceport, which the town first proposed nearly 40 years ago.
Since 2008, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been carrying out experiments involving scientific balloon, aeronautical technology and the Hayabusa2 laser altimeter at HOSPO following the signing of an agreement with the town.
But now, HOSPO is aiming to become one of Japan’s major domestic spaceports for launching satellite-equipped rockets and spacecraft as well as for the aerospace industry to conduct research and development.
Joel Tansey from The Japan Times:
In the meantime, determining a tsunami’s arrival time on shore could still prove to be an essential part of tsunami warning systems, given the density of the cable network in the Pacific Ocean.
“Optical fiber cable is everywhere offshore,” Aoki says, while noting that the network is far less developed on the Sea of Japan side given political sensitivities with Japan’s neighbors. “Using optical cable is a promising tool to quickly understand the arrival time of tsunami.”
This is a very innovative idea to leverage existing data infrastructure to dramatically increase seismic tracking. Also an interesting history of the current system of seismographs that power Japan's earthquake & tsunami early warning system.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The rainy season appears to have ended in the Kanto-Koshin and Tokai regions, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced Thursday.
And now the Sun rules over us all...
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The number of locations with a heat wave of 35 C or higher reached 105 nationwide. The government has issued a heat stroke alert for 26 prefectures across the country, urging people to drink plenty of water and use air conditioners properly.
Stay cool, friends.
Takashi Ishizuka from The Mainichi:
It had been raining since the morning, but the rain stopped occasionally during the parade. Sensing that the guests were losing energy in the heat, Baymax stopped the floats and splashed water on them. The guests cheered loudly.
Baymax for PM.
Julian Ryall & Park Chan-kyong from South China Morning Post:
The poll also revealed 10 per cent of Japanese have set out to “tolerate” the heat no matter what in the coming months, while a further 33 per cent said they would try not to use the cooling device – but expected to relent if the temperatures become unbearable.
Alarmingly, most those saying they would attempt to get through the summer without air conditioning were elderly who live on pensions and savings, leaving them highly vulnerable to heatstroke.
This is more than just a climate crisis, it is now going to be a health and economic crisis.
From Kyodo:
SkyDrive sought to develop a flying taxi that can carry up to three people to showcase its technology at the expo as one of the event's main attractions, but it decided last month to withdraw the plan and only perform demo flights without passengers.