Why a rumor on social media caused a drop in summer trips to Japan
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Kyodo News
2 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
Kyodo News Digest: Aug. 2, 2025
TOKYO - The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Japan PM Ishiba not to make WWII statement on 80th anniv. of its end TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has decided not to express his views on World War II on the 80th anniversary of its end on Aug. 15 but may do so later, government sources said Friday. Although Ishiba, believed to be relatively dovish, has already decided not to have a prime minister's statement approved at a Cabinet meeting, he remains eager to offer his perspective and may do so on another occasion, the sources said. ---------- Japan astronaut Yui heads to ISS on SpaceX craft on 2nd space mission CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - A team of astronauts from Japan, Russia and the United States headed to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX craft from Florida on Friday, marking the second space flight for Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. The Crew-11 mission, also involving two Americans and one Russian, will stay at the ISS for about six months, partly to conduct experiments in hopes of helping future lunar exploration. It is expected to reach the ISS in the early hours of Saturday. ---------- Japanese woman attacked in subway station in China, suspect detained SUZHOU, China - A Japanese woman was assaulted while walking with her child at a subway station in Suzhou, eastern China, sustaining a non-life-threatening injury, the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai and sources familiar with bilateral relations said Friday. Chinese authorities detained a suspect allegedly involved in the Thursday evening incident in Suzhou, the same city in Jiangsu Province where a Japanese mother and child were injured and a Chinese woman was killed in a knife attack in June last year. ---------- Extra Diet session begins, PM faces emboldened opposition after poll TOKYO - Japan's parliament convened Friday for its first session since the ruling coalition's recent major election setback, as the opposition camp seeks to leverage its increased strength to push for the removal of a temporary gasoline tax while Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is on the defensive. During the five-day session, Ishiba will engage in debates with opposition lawmakers over the recently reached Japan-U.S. tariff deal, all the while his standing as ruling party head and prime minister remains precarious amid pressure to resign. ---------- Vietnamese man acquitted of smuggling fake yen banknotes into Japan KUMAMOTO, Japan - A Japanese court ruling that acquitted a Vietnamese former technical intern of smuggling and using over 170 forged 10,000 yen ($66) bills was finalized Friday, after prosecutors did not appeal the verdict. The man, 38, was accused of working with an unknown party from late June to mid-August 2023 to smuggle forged 10,000-yen old banknotes last issued in the 1980s into Japan. ---------- JR East gets OK to raise fares for Yamanote, other lines in March TOKYO - East Japan Railway Co. said Friday it has received government approval to raise fares by an average 7.1 percent from March, the company's first blanket hike since 1987 when it was created from the privatization of the national railway company. The fare hike comes as the operator of Tokyo's busy Yamanote loop line and other train routes seek to secure funds for maintaining its railway services amid a falling population and rising prices. ---------- Japan experienced hottest July for 3rd year, 2.89 C above average TOKYO - Japan logged its hottest July for the third year in a row, with average temperatures 2.89 C above normal, the weather agency said Friday. The average temperature was the highest since comparable records started being kept in 1898, exceeding the previous record set in 2024 by 2.16 degrees. ---------- Japanese man's acquittal of 1986 schoolgirl murder finalized NAGOYA - The acquittal of a Japanese man who served seven years in prison for the 1986 murder of a junior high school student was finalized on Friday after prosecutors waived the right to appeal. The Kanazawa branch of the Nagoya High Court acquitted 60-year-old Shoshi Maekawa over the murder of a teenage girl in Fukui, central Japan, in a retrial last month, dismissing the credibility of the testimony of his acquaintances that led to his initial guilty verdict. ---------- Video: Morioka Sansa dance festival in Iwate Prefecture
The Mainichi
2 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
Swimming: Watanabe runner-up to Qin in 200m breaststroke at worlds
SINGAPORE (Kyodo) -- Japanese swimmer Ippei Watanabe took silver in the men's 200-meter breaststroke Friday for his third career medal at the world aquatics championships. The 28-year-old former world record holder, who stands 193 centimeters, touched the wall in 2 minutes, 7.70 seconds, 0.29 behind China's Qin Haiyang, the current world record holder, in Singapore. "It was a race I could have won," said Watanabe, who was third at both the 2017 and 2019 world championships. "I'm just frustrated. My swim got messy in the end." Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands rounded out the podium with a time of 2:07.73. Japanese compatriot Yamato Fukasawa finished sixth.
SoraNews24
32 minutes ago
- SoraNews24
New for-otaku shampoo/body wash wants to change how and when card gamers bathe, preserve the hobby
'Treat your opponent with dignity!!' There's a paradox that many otaku hobbies face. On the one hand, enthusiasts would say that the most fun you can have is at in-person events where you can interact with fellow fans, creating an environment of shared excitement. Unfortunately, such gatherings all too often also create a far less enjoyable communal smell. ▼ A photo taken at a regional Cardfight!! Vanguard tournament held earlier this year. The blurring is for privacy purposes, but it also effectively simulates the disorientating miasma of body odors that can combine like a foul-smelling Voltron at events of this kind. This is an especially pronounced problem in the collectible card game community, where tournaments and in-shop competitions often involve large numbers of players in close proximity to each other for extended periods of time. It's an unfortunate aspect of the hobby that's long troubled the staff of Off-Kai, Tokyo's otaku hair salon chain, and so they've decided to do something about it, developing a cleaning liquid with the specific goal of making card gamers smell better. Called Okitesugu no Okite (we'll unpack the meaning of the name a little later on), it's a combination shampoo, facial soap, and body wash. The solution is formulated to thoroughly cleanse and balanced to sufficiently hydrate without leaving oily or sticky residues, and includes essential oils extracted from peppermint and Japanese cypress for a clean, refreshing scent that's not flowery, fruity, or intrusively aromatic. And 'Okitesugu no Okite?' It's a play on words involving okite , which can mean either 'awaken' or 'rule/law,' with the shampoo/soap's whole name translating to something along the lines of 'The Code of What to Do Right After Waking Up.' Off-Kai and creative partner Lushtree are billing Okitesugu no Okite as 'the ultimate morning shower and shampoo product for card gamers.' That might seem kind of strange if you're familiar with Japanese bathing norms, since the vast majority of Japanese people prefer to shower at night just before going to bed, out of a desire to keep their bedding as clean as possible (Japanese homes generally don't have large clothing dryers, so washing sheets can be a pain). So why is Okitesugu no Okite recommended for morning use? Because its creators hope to establish taking a shower and shampooing as part of card gamers' gameday routine, so that proper grooming becomes as much a part of their pre-competition checklist as making sure they've got their deck sorted. The three-in-one nature of Okitesugu no Okite should help with that by making the process as quick and convenient as possible. 'Treat your opponent with dignity!!' Okitesugu no Okite's product description implores card gamers, and its creators assert that doing so is critical to the survival of the hobby itself. While seasoned veterans may be able to focus so intently on the cards that they can block out any olfactory offensiveness, newcomers who are still deciding just how deep they want to go into the hobby, and budding female card gamers in particular, Off-Kai and Lushtree believe, aren't going to keep showing up at tournaments and other events if the venues literally stink. If new players aren't brought into the fold, though, the hobby will eventually fade away as the existing fan base grows older. So really, nicer-smelling card gaming spaces will benefit everyone. The shampoo/soap is currently being offered through a campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire here, with reward tiers including the product starting at 3,460 yen (US$24) and discounted bulk-quantity packages aimed at card shop managers who can either sell or give them to customers. Some tiers also include discount vouchers for hair cuts at Off-Kai, and as we know from experience, they do a fine job cutting otaku hair. Source: Campfire/株式会社lushtree via Hachima Kiko Top image: Campfire/株式会社lushtree ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
