JAL plans to start cargo deliveries to the surface of the moon. The service is aimed at firms and local authorities who want to leave specialty products to posterity. It's unclear who will sign to accept delivery. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2026...

There are many reports of women forced into prostitution to pay host club debts. A yakuza member has been arrested for trying to force an indebted woman to go overseas and work in Cambodia, or sell her organs in Singapore. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Following the arrest of Shinnosuke Abe, for assaulting his daughter, the Yomiuri Giants manager resigned his post. At a press conference, a letter from the daughter was read out. Chat GPT had a role in what happened. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Sonny Rollins has passed away at at 95. Here he is, playing out a TV Tokyo show in 2008. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjFs...

As the old Shibuya Tokyu Hands (now renamed just "Hands"), is set to close, here's a reminder of what that part of the world looked like before it was built.

Government now looking at a reduction of consumption tax on food and drink to 1%, rather than zero. www.47news.jp/14357641.html

The first Village Vanguard shop, opened in Nagoya in 1986, will close at the end of the month. The firm says the building is showing its age. There are no plans to open a new flagship store. www.47news.jp/14357646.html

A Ministry panel has issued a paper on improving education of foreign children. One proposal is to loosen teaching licence requirements to increase the pool of Japanese language instructors. www.sankei.com/article/2026...

University of Tsukuba reseach says watching sport reduces depression risk in elderly people by 30%. Photo below accompanies the Sankei article. www.sankei.com/article/2026...

I misread the mustard on the left as R. I. P. Mustard. Thought it must be very hot, or else an unfortunately named brand. Took me a moment to realize it was ペパ, as "pepper" in katakana is usually ペッパー.

Toshifumi Suzuki, one of the pioneers of the convenience store industry in Japan, has died at 93. In 1973, Suzuki set up the firm which first operated the 7-11 franchise. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

The National Diet Library digital collection has copies of Shogakukan's mad "What and Why Educational Encyclopaedia" series (なぜなに学習図鑑), published from 1970-76. Shigeru Komatsuzaki's dolphin's attacking illustration from the 9th book is the most famous but there are other highlights. dl.ndl.go.jp

NTV has an English report on foreign buyers at Japanese used good auctions. In the clip below, the owner of GG Japan shows the mad rush of buyers at her warehouse in Bangkok. Soft toys fill the gaps in her shipping containers. Full YouTube link here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_rQ...

When Calbee announced plans to change packaging to monochrome, owing to concerns over naphtha shortages, the government suggested it was a grandstanding PR move. Now Famima is doing the same for logos on its private brand line. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2026...

News that Hooters wants to be family-friendly had me wondering if there's still a store in Japan. Apparently, the one in the Ginza 9 building near Shimbashi has somehow survived. Given the location, the client base must be tourists or salarymen. people.com/hooters-is-r...

In the future, you might need a My Number card to buy new Pokemon card releases in Japan, and to enter some events. www.oricon.co.jp/news/2456046...

A 1970s Van Heusen TV commercial had a US diplomat playing table tennis against a Chairman Mao character. Mao was played by Kiyoshi Conrad Hamanaka, known professionally as Conrad Yama. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u9A...

Description says "While visiting Japan on the ultimate foodie adventure, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo unwittingly unleash hundreds of mischievous mythical monsters." Shaggy presumably eats a stack of combini egg sandwiches at some point.

The guy in the costume, a student, says he did it as a forfeit. The guy filing him, described as a singer, says he should not have been arrested, as he didn't trespass in the monkey enclave. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

A gang member has been arrested for having an airline mileage card. The terms and conditions specifically preclude yakuza from applying for and using such cards. www.asahi.com/articles/ASV...

TBS news on the bozos who broke into the monkey enclave at Ichikawa Zoo (famous for Punch the monkey). They have apparently claimed to be American. One wore the costume, the other was filming. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN60...

Akira Inoue, a professor of agriculture at Kindai University, has demonstrated that the bamboo muzzle worn by Nezuko in "Demon Slayer" does not, as drawn, match any existing variety of bamboo. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Central Tokyo has seen temperatures of 30℃ for the first time this year. It's the second consecutive year to see 30℃ as early as May. news.tv-asahi.co.jp/news_society...

I thought the Yomiuri would correct this headline before I had a chance to show it to Mr. Fuji my neighbour. It was still up when I saw him this morning but, suddenly realizing it probably amused me more than it would him, I stuck to a nod and hello. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/gene...

I wish Japanese online media would stop defaulting to a stock photo of the Metropolitan Police Dept. building in Chiyoda ward, when covering incidents in Tokyo. Print editions never used to do this anything like as much.

@nerdy.tokyo Reading this piece on dealing with invasive overseas crayfish in Naha. Is this how I should imagine Ork spores in the 40k world? xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/col...

President magazine seems to have an unnecessarily provocative headline. "JR East thinks foreign shareholders are more important than Japanese passengers" (日本人乗客より外国人株主のほうが大事). president.jp/articles/-/1...

Yume, the Akita inu given to Putin by Akita prefecture in 2012, died last year. www.47news.jp/14301529.html

A tour bus hit a utility pole in Edogawa ward early this morning. No passengers were on board, the driver is in hospital. After last week's Ban-Etsu bus crash, this kind of incident is perhaps going to get more attention than usual. www.asahi.com/articles/ASV...

Nissin Flour prints cooking times on ties for bundles of spaghetti. Anticipating naphtha shortages affecting ink supply, the ties will now be blank. www.asahi.com/articles/ASV...

Government seems unhappy that this move conflicts with their official position on naptha supplies, so Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Sato said the relevant ministries are speaking with Calbee. news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/n...

Calbee may change packaging for crisps to monochrome in anticipation of naptha shortages. A formal announcement is expected soon. www.47news.jp/14284985.html

Photo of two pickpockets, a Romanian and a Russian, who arrived in Nagaski in 1934, and swept through department stores in Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo and Yokohama, before finally being apprehended. tohatsu.yokohama-history.org/yokohama-gra...

Flea market app Mercari will ban sales of McDonald's Happy Set Chiikawa figures, set for release next week. A pre-emptive ban is a first for Mercari, and aimed at deterring scalpers, who disrupted McDonald's Pokemon Happy Set release. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2026...

Yomiuri addresses the issue of heatstroke on school trips. Younger children can't manage large drinking flasks, so need to buy additional drinks. However, schools are wary about letting them hold cash, or taking charge of it. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Gyudon chain Yoshinoya has an ostrich farm in Ibaraki to trial an alternative to beef, pork and chicken. The firm also uses extracts for a cosmetic brand called Speedia. The website slogan is "Ostrich x Science & Meat & Cosme". speedia-ost.com

Some Tokyo wards are moving to abolish outdoor school swimming pools. High summer temperatures mean classes in such pools often get cancelled through heatstroke concerns. In the interim, indoor pool sharing schemes are being arranged. www.yomiuri.co.jp/kyoiku/kyoik...

Sanseido's fiction section had copies of "The Night of Baba Yaga", with its English title, and translator Sam Bett's name at the bottom. However, on picking one up, the text was in the original Japanese.

Rescuers have gone up Mt. Aino today, in another attempt to help four Indonesian climbers who called for assistance on Sunday from a height of 3000m. Bad weather halted efforts yesterday. The climbers are believed to have found shelter in a hut. newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/2...

Lengthy Asahi piece on how the tensions over minpaku (Airbnb-style rentals) are playing out. Local authorities don't have enough staff to monitor and act on individual violations but blanket bans are a blunt tool. www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

In 2023, when she was 15,ドルーリー朱瑛里 (Sheri Drury) ran a record-breaking time over a 3km ekiden leg, and drew nationwide attention. Illness hampered her during high school but she's now off to the University of Washington, where she hopes to recapture her form. www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/2...

The Tokai region has it's first three foreign bus drivers with specified skills visas. The three Indonesian men are employed by Meitetsu Bus, and were formally introduced at a ceremony in Toyota City. www.chunichi.co.jp/article/1245...

The success rate on the written test for foreign to Japanese driving licence conversion has fallen from 92.5% to 42.8%. The practical driving test success rate is down from 30.4% to 13.1%. Business visa applications are down 96%. www.sankei.com/article/2026...

Timothy Lafaele, who attended university in Japan, and has played for the national team, has a widely-viewed post on Twitter. He supports developing home-grown talent but asks that players who have come through the system already should continue to have the same rights.

Police in Osaka have filed charges against a man who broke a local order, issued under the Animal Protection Act, forbidding the feeding of pigeons and crows. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Police apparently found something in the incinerator which might be human. However, a legal website notes that building a case against the keeper is still challenging, as his confession alone is not enough. www.bengo4.com/c_1009/n_203...

Two weeks ago, plate umpire Takuto Kawakami was hit in the head by a bat which slipped out of the batter's hands. Concerning announcement today says he's out of intensive care but still hasn't regained consciousness. www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/npb/2...

This Asahi report from December details the effort by Kana Fukuma to change the rules around absences when players are pregnant. A panel set up to look into the matter has just reported. www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

When trying to learn about Japan through an unbalanced diet of Vogel, Benedict, Buruma, Schodt, Van Wolferen etc, Don't think I could have imagined this would be in the future. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0e...

Hamamatsu estimates that a 6m Evangelion attraction, installed at city hall last year, brought more than 50,000 visitors, and had a positive economic impact of around 1.11 billion yen. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2026...