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Transport Networks Across Eastern Japan Return to Normal

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TOKYO
[updated 8:00 a.m.] Transport companies throughout japanese Japan had been largely returning to regular on June 4th after Typhoon Jangmi (Typhoon No. 6) moved into the Pacific Ocean, with most railway strains resuming operations, airports functioning usually and airways working to clear residual delays following a day of widespread disruption that noticed almost 900 flights canceled and main rail companies suspended.

The giant hurricane handed east of the Kanto area on June third after bringing torrential rain, sturdy winds and flooding to a broad space stretching from Tokai to southern Tohoku. While climate situations improved considerably in a single day, transport operators continued to induce passengers to test the newest service data earlier than touring, warning that some delays and cancellations may proceed as networks totally get better.

Air journey confirmed the strongest indicators of restoration on Thursday morning. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways reported that the majority home and worldwide companies had been working usually after in depth cancellations the day gone by.

During the peak of the storm on June third, almost 900 home and worldwide flights had been canceled, affecting roughly 90,000 passengers nationwide. JAL canceled 292 home flights and ANA canceled 232 home flights, whereas worldwide operations had been additionally considerably affected.

By the morning of June 4th, neither airline was forecasting main typhoon-related disruptions at airports within the Kanto, Tokai or Kansai areas. However, each carriers warned that some flights may nonetheless expertise delays as plane and crews had been repositioned following the day gone by’s cancellations.

Haneda Airport resumed regular operations, though passengers had been suggested to substantiate flight standing earlier than departing for the airport. Airport operators stated some companies may proceed to be affected by restoration measures and plane scheduling changes.

Rail companies throughout japanese Japan additionally recovered considerably in a single day. Many strains that had suspended operations all through June third resumed service from the primary trains on Thursday morning.

JR East restored operations on a number of routes in Chiba Prefecture that had been suspended for your complete day on Wednesday, together with sections of the Sobu Main Line, Uchibo Line, Sotobo Line, Kashima Line, Kururi Line and Narita Line. The Koumi Line, which had additionally been suspended all through June third, resumed operations from the primary prepare of the day.

Most main commuter routes serving the Tokyo metropolitan space had been working usually after disruptions on June third affected companies together with the Tokaido Line, Shonan-Shinjuku Line, Chuo Line speedy service, Ome Line, Hachiko Line and Ito Line.

The Tokaido Shinkansen continued working all through the storm and remained on schedule Thursday morning, though railway operators stated passengers ought to stay alert for doable delays ensuing from in a single day inspections and operational changes.

Road transportation situations additionally improved considerably. Expressway operators lifted typhoon-related closure warnings on June third after climate situations eased, permitting regular site visitors operations to renew throughout a lot of japanese and central Japan.

Highway bus operators regularly restarted companies linking Tokyo with main locations together with Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and the Fuji Five Lakes area. Some operators warned that schedules may stay topic to delays relying on native highway situations.

Although transport networks had been recovering, the results of the storm continued to be felt in a number of areas. Rough seas remained alongside components of the Pacific coast, whereas authorities warned that saturated floor situations may nonetheless enhance the chance of landslides and localized flooding.

Typhoon Jangmi brought about in depth disruption because it approached japanese Japan on June third. Approximately 60,000 households skilled energy outages at varied factors throughout the storm, whereas at the very least 15 individuals had been reported injured in weather-related incidents. More than 1.6 million residents in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures had been positioned below evacuation advisories as rivers rose and flooding considerations intensified.

Flooding was reported in a number of places, together with components of Tokyo and Ibaraki Prefecture, whereas sturdy winds broken bushes, buildings and transport infrastructure. Authorities continued to observe rivers and hillside areas Thursday morning regardless of enhancing climate situations.

The Japan Meteorological Agency stated the storm was persevering with eastward over the Pacific and was anticipated to weaken additional whereas regularly transitioning into an extratical cyclone, bringing an finish to the direct menace to Japan. While transport operators reported substantial progress in restoring companies, vacationers had been suggested to proceed checking the newest data as restoration efforts continued all through the day.

Sources:

ANA: Domestic Flight Status

JAL: Domestic Flight Weather Information

Haneda Airport: Notice on Typhoon No. 6 Flight Cancellations

Nagoya TV / ANN: ANA and JAL Flight Cancellation Figures

JR Central: Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen Operation Information

FNN: Tokaido Shinkansen Disruption and Ticket Refund Information

JR West: Sanyo Shinkansen Operation Information

JR Central: Conventional Line Operation Information

NEXCO Central Japan: Possible Expressway Closures Due to Typhoon No. 6

NEXCO Central Japan: Road and Expressway Notices

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Wanted man in yakuza-linked smartphone heist turns himself in at Osaka police field – TokyoReporter

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OSAKA (TR) – A 28-year-old fugitive needed for his alleged position in a extremely organized housebreaking ring has surrendered to police in Izumi City, simply hours after investigators publicly launched his photograph, stories Yomiuri TV (June 4).

“I’m Tomoki Fujiwara, the guy on the wanted list. I’ve come to turn myself in,” the suspect reportedly informed officers after strolling right into a police field within the metropolis at round 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

Fujiwara, a Sakai City resident whose occupation is unknown, is accused of a string of break-ins focusing on shops and firm places of work throughout southern Osaka Prefecture in March. By utilizing instruments to smash by way of glass doorways, the perpetrators made off with 60 smartphones and roughly 50,000 yen in money.

Tomoki Fujiwara (X)

The Osaka Prefectural Police had simply positioned him on a nationwide needed checklist on the afternoon of his give up. Authorities have withheld commenting on whether or not Fujiwara has admitted to the allegations.

Investigators imagine the burglaries are the work of a tokuryu ring, whose members anonymously give and obtain orders through smartphone apps.

The ring was allegedly orchestrated by Shoichi Kamikawa, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest yakuza syndicate. Kamikawa has already been arrested for steering the operation from the highest.

Underneath the yakuza’s path, 4 youths recruited as disposable pawns by way of on-line advertisements for a “high-paying part-time job” (sometimes called yami-baito, or “dark job”) have been beforehand taken into custody for bodily executing the smash-and-grab burglaries.

Police are actually urgent Fujiwara to uncover the internal workings of the syndicate and are investigating whether or not the group is tied to roughly 60 comparable industrial burglaries which have plagued Osaka Prefecture since February.

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Uber Targets New Users With Ride-Hailing Discounts

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TOKYO
Uber Japan unveiled its newest technique for its mobility enterprise, together with its taxi-hailing app operations, as the corporate seeks to develop its presence in a market the place ride-hailing app utilization stays decrease than in lots of different nations.

The firm believes vital progress potential stays in Japan and plans to draw new customers by promotions akin to fare reductions and cashback packages. By encouraging extra individuals to make use of ride-hailing providers, Uber goals to broaden its buyer base and improve adoption of app-based transportation.

Uber Japan additionally mentioned it should work to develop the introduction of public ride-share providers, which permit native residents to offer transportation in areas dealing with shortages of taxi drivers and public transport choices.

In addition, the corporate intends to advance efforts towards the deployment of autonomous taxis, viewing self-driving expertise as a long-term resolution to Japan’s rising driver scarcity.

The technique displays Uber’s broader concentrate on strengthening transportation providers in Japan whereas addressing demographic challenges which have made it more and more tough for the trade to safe sufficient drivers.

Source: テレ東BIZ

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Five a long time of Japanese punk: From underground rise up to trendy subculture

Japanese punk has a protracted and infrequently missed historical past. Shaped by political activism, chaotic dwell performances and distinctive takes on established types, Japan’s punk scene got here into its…

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Nissan Begins Taking Orders for U.S.-Built Murano SUV in Japan

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TOKYO
Nissan Motor has begun accepting orders in Japan for the Murano sport utility car, which is produced within the United States, marking one of many first makes use of of a brand new car certification framework established following a tariff settlement between Japan and the United States.

The Murano is priced at roughly 7.96 million yen, and Nissan expects to promote round 200 items by March 2027.

The firm is using a system that permits automobiles already licensed for security requirements within the United States to be accepted in Japan with out present process extra testing. The framework was newly launched as a part of the Japan-U.S. tariff settlement geared toward streamlining car imports between the 2 nations.

Toyota Motor has already taken benefit of the identical system and is at present promoting two car fashions in Japan underneath the association.

The transfer highlights rising efforts by Japanese automakers to make better use of abroad manufacturing fashions within the home market whereas lowering certification prices and administrative procedures.

Source: テレ東BIZ

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Japan

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TOKYO
The video explains how a tiny, distant Japanese island referred to as Minami Torishima (Marcus Island) may develop into one of the crucial strategically necessary areas on the earth on account of monumental deposits of uncommon earth parts buried in deep-sea mud beneath the Pacific Ocean.

The story begins with China’s resolution in 2010 to halt uncommon earth exports to Japan throughout a territorial dispute. The transfer uncovered Japan’s vulnerability as a result of uncommon earths are important for contemporary expertise, together with electrical automobiles, wind generators, superior electronics, navy methods, and high-performance magnets. Although uncommon earth parts usually are not really uncommon within the Earth’s crust, the power to mine, course of, and refine them is concentrated in a couple of international locations, significantly China.

After the export ban, Japan launched a serious effort to diversify its provide. Researchers led by Professor Yasuhiro Kato of the University of Tokyo analyzed hundreds of deep-sea sediment samples collected throughout the Pacific Ocean. In 2011, they introduced the invention of huge uncommon earth deposits on the ocean flooring, together with one situated inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone round Minami Torishima.

Minami Torishima is an remoted coral atoll roughly 2,000 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. The island is tiny—lower than one sq. mile in space—and sits only some meters above sea degree. It has nearly no everlasting inhabitants besides rotating personnel from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The island itself has an uncommon historical past. During the late nineteenth century, each Japanese and American pursuits sought to say it due to its precious guano deposits. Bird droppings have been a serious supply of fertilizer earlier than fashionable chemical fertilizers turned widespread. An American captain named Andrew Rose Hill tried to determine a declare, however Japan finally secured management after settling Japanese residents there. The United States selected to not problem Japan’s place, largely as a result of it noticed little strategic worth in frightening a dispute over a distant guano island.

The island later turned a Japanese navy outpost throughout World War II. After the warfare, the United States occupied it and operated a navigation and climate station there till returning it to Japan in 1968. The island steadily light into obscurity till uncommon earth surveys reworked its significance.

The uncommon earth deposits surrounding Minami Torishima shaped by an uncommon geological course of. Over hundreds of thousands of years, fish bones and enamel amassed on the ocean flooring. These stays include calcium phosphate, which acts like a sponge, absorbing hint uncommon earth parts dissolved in seawater. As this course of continued over geological timescales, massive concentrations of uncommon earths turned trapped inside the mud.

What makes the deposits particularly precious is not only their measurement however their composition. They include vital portions of heavy uncommon earth parts reminiscent of dysprosium, terbium, europium, and yttrium. These parts are among the many most troublesome to acquire and are areas the place China has historically dominated world provide. Heavy uncommon earths are significantly necessary for superior magnets utilized in electrical automobiles, navy tools, and renewable vitality applied sciences.

Some research have advised the deposits may include a long time and even centuries of provide for sure uncommon earth parts. However, the video cautions that reserve estimates are primarily based on restricted sampling and should show much less uniform than early headlines advised.

The greatest problem is extraction. The uncommon earth-bearing mud lies solely about ten meters beneath the seabed, however the seabed itself is roughly 6,000 meters beneath the ocean floor. That is much deeper than the Titanic wreck, which rests at round 3,800 meters.

Several mining strategies have been proposed over the a long time. Bucket methods, which drag assortment gadgets throughout the seafloor, have been discovered to be inefficient and environmentally damaging. Shuttle methods involving autonomous underwater automobiles proved overly difficult and technologically dangerous.

Japan’s most well-liked answer is a pipeline elevate system. Under this technique, a machine on the seabed mixes mud with seawater to create a slurry. This slurry is then pumped by an extended vertical pipe to the floor. Once recovered, the sediment is transported for processing, the place acids are used to extract the uncommon earth parts.

The expertise is extraordinarily difficult. It requires working equipment at depths the place strain exceeds 600 occasions atmospheric strain. Japan has spent years creating specialised tools, together with lengthy pipeline methods, compressed-air lifting mechanisms, and monitoring applied sciences.

Environmental considerations stay vital. Mining would inevitably disturb deep-sea ecosystems that scientists nonetheless know comparatively little about. Organisms dwelling on the seabed can be straight affected, whereas sediment plumes may unfold by surrounding waters and doubtlessly injury marine habitats. Japan argues that its “closed mining system” minimizes these impacts in contrast with different strategies, however environmental questions stay unresolved.

Another main impediment is economics. Studies counsel the deposits are troublesome to use profitably beneath regular market circumstances. Analyses have discovered that deep-sea extraction prices are usually greater than land-based mining alternate options. Some estimates point out tasks may lose tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} over their lifetimes if uncommon earth costs stay at common ranges.

However, the Japanese authorities views the problem in a different way. For Japan, the challenge will not be purely about profitability. It is about strategic safety. The nation nonetheless depends closely on China for uncommon earth provides, and policymakers see home sources as insurance coverage towards future geopolitical disruptions. In this sense, even an economically marginal challenge might be worthwhile if it reduces provide vulnerability.

A key benefit is that the deposits lie completely inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This means Japan can regulate the challenge beneath its personal legal guidelines relatively than navigating the extra difficult worldwide guidelines that govern mining in worldwide waters. That offers Tokyo larger management over improvement and environmental oversight.

After years of analysis and testing, Japan achieved a serious milestone in February 2026 when it efficiently extracted deep-sea uncommon earth mud from the Minami Torishima space. The check demonstrated that the expertise works in real-world circumstances. It adopted earlier trials performed off Ibaraki Prefecture in 2022, the place researchers efficiently pumped round 70 tons of slurry per day from the seabed.

The subsequent part is scheduled for 2027, when Japan plans to scale up operations and goal round 350 tons of uncommon earth-bearing slurry per day. Success would transfer the challenge nearer to business viability and assist set up applied sciences that would finally be used for extracting different precious seabed assets reminiscent of nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and zinc.

The video’s total conclusion is that Minami Torishima will not be merely a distant island with an attention-grabbing historical past. It represents a doubtlessly transformative strategic useful resource for Japan. While deep-sea mining stays technically troublesome, environmentally controversial, and economically unsure, Japan seems keen to take a position closely as a result of securing a dependable provide of crucial minerals might show more and more necessary in a world the place entry to uncommon earths is turning into a serious geopolitical subject.

Source: Asianometry

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Kyoto man sues clinic after estranged spouse forges consent to have child with donor sperm – TokyoReporter

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KYOTO (TR) – A Kyoto City man has filed a lawsuit towards an area fertility clinic, looking for 11 million yen in damages after his estranged spouse solid his signature to endure in vitro fertilization utilizing one other man’s sperm, experiences the Yomiuri Shimbun (June 3).

According to the petition filed with the Kyoto District Court, the couple initially contracted the clinic in January 2020 to freeze embryos in hopes of getting a second little one. However, the couple separated in January 2022 and commenced divorce discussions.

During this separation, the spouse solid her husband’s signature on a consent kind and had a frozen embryo transferred to her uterus. When the process did not lead to a being pregnant, she took the deception a step additional. The girl solid a further consent kind and offered the clinic with a 3rd social gathering’s sperm, falsely claiming it belonged to her husband.

Using the donor sperm, she efficiently turned pregnant and gave beginning to a baby in August 2023.

Criminal grievance

The deception got here to mild when the spouse confessed to the being pregnant whereas the couple was nonetheless negotiating their divorce. The husband subsequently filed a felony grievance towards her. In April of final 12 months, the spouse was convicted of forging and using a personal doc, receiving an 18-month jail sentence suspended for 3 years.

Now, the person is taking the clinic to court docket. In his lawsuit, he argues that the hospital’s affirmation course of was severely missing. He claims that if the clinic had merely required a face-to-face affirmation, the solid paperwork and the true origin of the sperm would have been found. He alleges the clinic’s negligence violated his proper to self-determination relating to replica.

The medical company working the clinic has requested the court docket to dismiss the 11-million-yen declare. In its protection, the hospital argues that there are not any established guidelines requiring in-person or phone verification of a partner’s consent.

“There were no circumstances to make us suspect that the sperm did not belong to the husband or that he had not consented to the treatment,” the clinic said, including that it’s going to show the appropriateness of its actions through the trial.

Divorce remaining

The couple finalized their divorce final 12 months, and the ex-wife is presently elevating the second little one. In a twist, regardless of having zero organic connection to the child, the person has chosen to go away the kid on his household register and continues to pay little one assist out of concern for the toddler’s welfare.

“Infertility treatment involves the heavy responsibility of creating life. Hospitals should be much more careful with their confirmations,” the person advised reporters.

The case exposes a big loophole in Japan’s fertility therapy rules. While the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology requires clinics to acquire written consent from {couples} previous to therapy, the particular strategies of identification verification are left solely as much as particular person medical amenities.

Medical consultants be aware that whereas clinics might implement strict handwriting evaluation or necessary in-person conferences, doing so would considerably increase the burden on each hospitals and legit sufferers.

The first oral argument within the lawsuit was held on Wednesday. After the court docket adjourned, the person advised reporters, “Infertility treatment is an important decision that concerns the birth of a life. If they had confirmed consent not only with the wife but also with the husband, this could have been prevented.”

The man’s lawyer mentioned, “The hospital had heard from the wife that they were in divorce mediation, so they should have had doubts about the husband’s consent. They should have confirmed it with the husband.”

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Studio Ghibli nonetheless doesn’t enable its anime to be streamed on-line in Japan, and right here’s why

Studio Ghibli has a popularity for preferring to do issues the old school means, and so followers weren’t actually shocked when the famed anime manufacturing home was initially reluctant…

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Wim Wenders pulls 1975 movie over nude scene with then-13-year-old Nastassja Kinski

German filmmaker Wim Wenders on Wednesday mentioned he has pulled his 1975 film “The Wrong Move” over a nude scene that includes a then-13-year-old Nastassja Kinski.

Kinski, now 65, has urged Wenders to reedit the movie. Last month, she advised the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung: “That was my first film, he was my first director and he didn’t protect me.”

Wenders, the acclaimed director behind “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire,” issued a press release apologizing to Kinski.

“I recognize that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected back then,” Wenders mentioned. “For that, I apologize to you, Nastassja, unreservedly, no ifs and buts.”

“The Wrong Move” marked the movie debut of Kinski, the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski. It stars Rüdiger Vogler as an aspiring author wandering via Germany. His encounters embrace an apparently mute teen acrobat performed by Kinski, who seems topless in a scene.

Wenders mentioned he was “withdrawing it from all current forms of distribution and exhibition,” together with streaming providers and broadcast tv. His nonprofit Wim Wenders Foundation owns “The Wrong Move.”

The movie will stay unavailable, Wenders mentioned, till a mutually agreed upon answer will be discovered. He mentioned he’ll search “a broad dialogue” that features Kinksi, the German Film Academy and different movie teams.

“It is necessary for our society to find appropriate ways of dealing with controversial film works from the 20th Century and to face new learning processes and inclusive perspectives regarding cinema,” mentioned Wenders.

Representatives for Kinski didn’t instantly reply to The Associated Press’ request for remark Wednesday.

At the German Film Awards final week, Wenders spoke about his quandary over the movie. Speaking to the viewers at Germany’s equal of the Oscars, Wenders mentioned retroactively modifying it “sets a precedent that affects you all, and then it becomes possible with all your films later on.”

Kinski would go on to co-star in Wenders’ 1984 movie “Paris, Texas,” however lengthy maintained misgivings about her introduction to the movie enterprise. At the ages of 14 and 17, she additionally appeared nude within the movies “To the Devil a Daughter” and “Stay As You Are.”

“If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things,” Kinski advised W Magazine in 1997. “And inside it was simply tearing me aside.”

© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.

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Man Arrested After Pouring Detergent on Sushi

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TOKYO
A 43-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly filming himself pouring a detergent-like liquid onto sushi at a Hama Sushi restaurant and posting the footage on-line, telling investigators he was searching for extra views on social media.

Police arrested Yuta Niinishi, an unemployed resident of Moroyama Town, Saitama Prefecture, on suspicion of forcible obstruction of enterprise.

According to investigators, Niinishi visited a Hama Sushi outlet in Saitama Prefecture on May twenty seventh and ordered a plate of tuna sushi. He allegedly filmed himself pouring a liquid resembling dishwashing detergent onto the sushi earlier than importing the video to social media, disrupting the restaurant’s operations.

During questioning, Niinishi admitted to the allegations and reportedly instructed police that he needed to extend the video’s view rely.

The incident is the newest in a sequence of social media stunts which have rattled Japan’s restaurant business and remodeled what had been as soon as dismissed as juvenile pranks into issues for police, prosecutors and civil courts.

The turning level got here in January 2023, when a youngster at a department of Sushiro was filmed licking a soy sauce bottle, touching conveyor-belt sushi and putting dishes again into circulation. The footage unfold throughout social media inside hours, triggering nationwide outrage and wiping billions of yen from the corporate’s market worth. Sushiro responded with authorized motion, ultimately reaching a settlement with {the teenager} and his household.

Soon afterward, related movies surfaced at Kura Sushi, the place clients had been seen tampering with shared condiments and tableware. The chain filed legal complaints and accelerated the rollout of latest safety measures designed to forestall copycat incidents.

Hama Sushi has additionally discovered itself within the crosshairs earlier than. Previous movies confirmed clients licking communal utensils and condiment containers, prompting the corporate to work with police and tighten in-store monitoring.

The phenomenon unfold past sushi eating places. At Marugame Seimen, movies exhibiting clients contaminating shared toppings and serving tools sparked recent public anger and renewed issues about meals security.

What started as a quest for clicks rapidly developed right into a nationwide controversy over social media tradition and the pursuit of viral fame at any price. Restaurant operators responded by putting in extra surveillance cameras, introducing AI-powered monitoring programs, protecting conveyor belts, increasing direct-to-table ordering programs and decreasing using shared condiment stations.

Authorities have additionally hardened their stance. Acts as soon as dismissed as innocent mischief at the moment are more and more handled as severe legal offenses, with suspects dealing with costs resembling forcible obstruction of enterprise together with civil lawsuits searching for tens of millions of yen in damages.

Source: TBS

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