News & Stories

One of the biggest chemical industries in Japan, Kaneka has the ability to produce vegetable-based plastics and they announced to increase its production five times more than their current. Recently, the Starbucks decided to abolish the usage of plastic straw. Since the issue of plastic waste is drawing worldwide attention, Kaneka anticipates that the demand for vegetable-based plastics will increase.

Their products named PHBH are kind of biodegradable plastic, which made from vegetable oils and can biodegrade by microbial action. In the condition of 30° seawater, it will change into water and carbon dioxide within six months. It certified from international certification authority last year, as the first among such products in Japan.

Nowadays, they export their products mainly to European countries. There have been demands of vegetable-based plastics as materials of plastic bags, used in equipment to compost vegetable waste. As the demands are increasing, they decided to increase the production. They will invest around two hundred thousand yen in Takasago plant so that they can strengthen their annual production ability until five thousand tons before next December. They predict the PHBH will be used also as utensils such as straws in the future, and then they will increase the production to 20 thousand tons.

The usage of biodegradable plastics has not become popular yet, because of the high cost and low durability. However, the issue of plastic wastes is becoming a serious problem, because it causes seawater pollution. In May of this year, the European Commission proposed the regulation to ban selling plastic straw. The Starbucks will also abolish the usage of straws. They will substitute to the lids that make easy to drink by mouth directly, straws made from paper or biodegradable plastic.

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASL875JV0L87PLFA008.html?iref=comtop_list_biz_n01

Nearly 2,900 weapons were found under an elementary school in Nishi-Tokyo district, Tokyo, Japan. They found guns, swords and grenades which are normally used for military training and they found them while digging a new site for the administration building. Although there was no danger of an explosion, troops from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces came and collected them. On July 27^th of this year, when construction workers started digging in the south part of the school grounds, quite a few amounts of weapons were discovered. As of August 3^rd, about 1,400 guns, 1,200 swords, eight grenades, 302 bullets have been found, and all of which were rusted. Since the school was closed during that time, no children were present. The construction work to relocate the building was postponed.

The school was established in 1873. The buildings that remain today were built in 1925. At a nearby site, there have been plants by one of the biggest domestic weapon industries "Nakajima Airplane", there have also been many plants related to the military.The soil, where guns were buried, had a different color compared to other parts of the soil. Those weapons seem to belong to the former Imperial Japanese Army. A chief manager of the board of education of Nishi-Tokyo district said, "There is a possibility that they were buried there during the postwar period, however, it's not clear who buried them. We should study the reason as to why such a large amount of weapons were buried on the school property".

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASL8656MNL86UTIL02V.html?iref=comtop_list_edu_n01

A turtle, captured in the Mexican ocean nine years ago for scientific study and was returned after being tagged, was found off the coast of Japan last week. It was a wild loggerhead turtle, a kind of sea turtle, and was found near Muroto city, Kochi prefecture, Japan. According to the Sea Turtle Association of Japan, that was the second occurrence of a wild loggerhead turtle crossing the Pacific Ocean. Last month on the 27th, the fisherman who caught the turtle contacted the Moroto Aquarium. According to the aquarium, there was a metallic plate on the right side of the turtle's flipper. On the plate, the turtle's ID number was written and the label indicated that the turtle was tagged by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). The aquarium contacted some foreign researchers to inquire, and then discovered that it was a turtle from the Mexican ocean. In nine years, traveling more than 10 thousand kilometers, it had grown 30 cm. Since the tag was digging at its body, the aquarium changed the metallic plate to a larger one in order to continue monitoring the turtle. According to the said association, which is concerned with protecting sea turtles, this is the second occurrence internationally where a sea turtle has crossed the Pacific Ocean.

Nowadays, many foreign companies are starting to invest in the field of offshore wind energy in Japan. Since Japan is an island country surrounded by the ocean, it is regarded as one of the best places to develop that field. But foreign invests were rare because constructing new equipment costs high, legal systems haven't sufficiently developed. After Japanese government decided to place renewable energy as one of the main power sources in their plan, many foreign companies, which have a lot of experience and basic foundation, became to seek ways starting new businesses in Japan.

Nagoya city is planning to complete restoring work of Nagoya castle in 2020 and will not put an elevator in it. Handicapped people are objected to this decision declaring that it isn't the only issue of Nagoya city but must be a universal problem.

On 19th, about 600 people from Aichi prefecture and other prefectures gathered to organize a protest. They surrounded the city government office building joining their hands so that to appeal they will never accept any discrimination nor abuse of human rights.

The protest started at the center of the city at first, then they marched towards city government office building. They cried out, "We will keep fighting until an elevator will be put."

The city mayor wants to make his restoration project very original and innovative one. There are abundant of materials remained such as pictures and drawings of construction used when it was constructed in the Middle Ages. So Nagoya city's officials decided to reproduce the Nagoya castle exact same as its original figure. Actually, there are some people those who hope that to be reproduced precisely in the meaning of historical value. But the handicapped people said, "Human Rights are more important than historical reality."

The city mayor proposed some substitutional ideas to opposing party, for example using drone or robot to lift up handicapped people or putting video display of the view from the top of the castle so that they can enjoy the landscape without going on top of the castle. However, the handicapped people are not satisfied and considering that the city mayor is using this promise of installing new technology as a show, but brushed off the issue.

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASL6N53D4L6MOIPE00W.html?iref=comtop_list_nat_n01

For the purpose of studying the origin of life, an asteroid explorer Hayabusa 2 was launched four years ago, and now it is getting closer to the target asteroid Ryugu. On 14th, the newest pictures of Ryugu was released. They have recognized that the asteroid looks almost round, approximately 900 km in diameter.

Hayabusa 2, which has been launched from Kagoshima prefecture four years ago, is traveling in Space 300 million km away from the Earth and is going to reach the place 800 km from Ryugu.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) held a press conference on 14th and showed the newest pictures taken by Hayabusa 2. Enlarged pictures are a little bit rough, however, they could recognize that Ryugu might have almost  spherical shape. Some part of it looks square, so they need further studies to clarify the entire picture. According to the results of analyses, it is known that Ryugu's diameter is 900 meter, the full rotation is 7 hours and 40 minutes.

Hayabusa 2 will reach to the place of the distance of 20 km to Ryugu on 27th this month, then go into its orbit, after observing the situation of surface and the shape, it will try to land and pick up some rock samples.

If some water or organic would be found, it will increase the potential for finding the origin of life. The mission manager of JAXA, Makoto Yoshikawa said, "It is getting closer so we can get more clear pictures in next week. Hopefully, entire figure of  Ryugu will become clearer."

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180614/k10011477891000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_002

A stained glass manufacture in Hiroshima city, Baroque announced that they have finished restoring stained glasses for the World Peace Memorial Church, which is designated as an Important Cultural Property in Japan. The CEO of the Baroque, Usui said, "We seldom work for cultural heritage. It was a huge amount of work and we had to be very meticulous."

He has learned the technology of stained glasses in the U.S. when he was young, then in 1975, he founded his company at his age of 20s. Baroque has been conducted more than hundred manufacturing jobs a year, so they have enough experience and fine technique. That is why they were selected as a contractor of this restoration work.

The stained glass of the church was made from a combination of 888 pieces of glass, which includes various sizes and colors. It was gifted from foreign countries such as Germany and Austria, those which wished for world's peace and it had built in 1962.

The reinforcement against earthquakes has started in 2016, so the restoration of the stained glass became one of that work. The stained glass was exposed to bad weather more than 5o years. Some part of that was broken or removed its paint. In total, 328 pieces were needed to restore.

It was necessary not to change materials from original one to keep its historical value. The wires which joint pieces of glass were very thin and rusted for the most part. They removed the rust by knife, soldered and worked very carefully to not damage the wire. New glasses were intentionally made to look dirty so that the glasses can match with the other old glasses.

At the end of March, Usui has compared from the completed stained glass with pictures of the church when it was originally built to check them. They are planning to start to attach it to the church at the end of this month. Restored stained glass are going to shown visitors on 17th, with an explanation of the restoration work by Usui.


http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/national/list/201806/CK2018060702000274.html

An exhibition which introduces Japanese traditional mathematics is being held from April 28th to June 17th, in Sano city. The display consists of 70 pieces of valuable historical materials. A "sangaku", wooden mathematical puzzle tablet to dedicate to Shinto shrines or temples, is included among them, and it is considered as the oldest sangaku in Japan.

Mathematics was introduced from China, during the Nara period, and after the Edo period that was evolved as Japanese unique mathematics according to the development of civil construction, industry, and commerce. At that time, a mathematical textbook "Jingo-ki" by Mitsuyoshi Yoshida was published and became a bestseller. The book was widely spread among the general public so that not only upper class but common people could also enjoy solving mathematical puzzles.

There was a custom to dedicate a sangaku, when somebody has succeeded to solve a very difficult puzzle, as a token of his gratitude to the gods and in hope that he would devote more efforts to his studies. Because there were many visitors to shrines and temples, to dedicate sangakus had been good opportunity to perform and publish achievements by mathematicians. In the most cases, both of mathematical puzzles and its answers were written on sangaku. But in some cases, the puzzle which is most difficult to solve was written without its answer for purpose of present a challenge to the visitors. It was alternated with other sangaku only after somebody could succeed to solve that puzzle.

https://www.sankei.com/region/news/180518/rgn1805180039-n1.html

Mitsumine Shrine, in Saitama prefecture, announced that they will stop selling their white charm after June, which is a kind of charms that makes your luck increase. That is because it evoked traffic jam by visitors wished to have one of them.

The shrine, which is located 1400 meters above sea level, has become popular among young women. After 2013, it became much more popular with the word of mouth, through starting to sell "white lucky charm". The charm is not only white but also black, green, red, pink. It is only white one that isn't sold other dates than the first day of months. Due to less availability, people became more eager to get it. Although the original price was just 2000 yen, it is traded for 10-20 thousand yen at internet auction.

According to the shrine, on April 1, the traffic jam was stretched more than 25 kilometers from the gate of the shrine to National highway 140. Although they handed out to visitors numbered tickets, one of them even had to wait for eight hours spending in the car. A police station located nearby got a numberless grievance, and it was also detrimental to commodity distribution in Yamanashi, neighboring prefecture.

Right now, they have no plan when to restart selling the white charm. Mitsumine Shrine said, "We should have to make such decision, and wish that you would understand us".

A new type of computer, which is equivalent in the meaning of calculation capability with a quantum computer, is put into practical use in Japan.

As far as processing "Combinatorial optimization problem" is concerned, the quantum computers are already developed in the level of practical use by a Canadian venture company. It is a task to choose most appropriate solution among a huge amount of number pairs. However, a Japanese manufacturer, Fujitsu has developed a new type of computer which can solve the Combinatorial optimization problem using only traditional electronic circuits. They started to provide the services using it, and the most significant feature of this computer is that it doesn't require a huge equipment to keep their components in ultralow temperature.

According to the Fujitsu, it might be utilized for the tasks such as making parcel service more efficiently, through assisting finding out the best traffic route for delivery. It might be also utilized for finding out the best angle to expose a cancer patient to a laser beam, taking a radiation therapy. The company aims to make this new type of computer to grow hundred billion yen business until the year of 2020.


https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180521/k10011447381000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_004

In April, there were a shortage of English teachers in The Third Junior High School in Matsui city. No English lessons for third grader students were held that month, so the lack of classes were alternated with other subjects.

Originally, there were 3 English teachers in that school, but one of them moved to another school from this school year. The school did not succeed in recruiting a new English teacher before the school year started. As a side note, the Japanese school year starts in April. From the beginning of this month, other English teachers are teaching the students, doing double duty with their own classes. The Educational Commitee of Matsui city announced that they will find a new English teacher until the middle of this month.

The section chief of planning and management of the school said, "We always have to compete fiercely to recruit teachers with other neighboring prefectures. We will do our best that it doesn't happen again." The mayor of Matsui city said that he felt very sorry about what happened and said "The Educational Comitee should have exercised their authority more carefully in looking for a new English teacher."

Because smartphone use is becoming popular, people shop online more and more. Nowadays, in the world of fashion, a new trend is on the rise. A japanese IT venture company, Air Closet started a service to give customers choose and send monthly five garments.

The most specific feature of it is that they provide personalized coordination of clothes depend on each customer's data. At the biggining of use of the service, the customers should register their body size, color taste, needs in which occasions to wear and so on. They can also register their facial, bodily image and pictures of their owning clothes.

According to the CEO of Air Closet, the survey showed that customers use only 20 percent of their clothes, while the other 80 percent is not used. Thus, some professional coordinators give advices and suggest proper coordinations, so that suit the customer's body, taste and clothes that they already have. If the customer doesn't like the clothes that were sent, they can send it back free of charge. If the customer buys more than one of them, the service charge will be deducted from the total fee.

It was said that one of the weakpoint of online shopping is luck of proffetional advices in the meaning of fashion coodination by clerks. Meanwhile, if the online shop retailer collect extensive amounts of personal data and analyze them, it is possible to overcome that weakness. Furthermore, it seems a superior service that the customers can save their time and effort to find out adequate one to bye.



https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/business_tokushu/2018_0509.html?utm_int=news_contents_tokushu_004

According to the research conducted by Expedia Japan, around 18,229 people from 23 countries which were asked a question which seat would the choose in an airplane. The choices included a seat near the window or the aisle.

The results of the conducted study showed that more than half of the Japanese people prefer the seat near the aisle. It is only seen in Japan that has such high percentage. In opposite, only 24 percent of Japanese people prefer the window or middle seat. If they need to get up of their seat while someone is sleeping in the seat near the aisle then they would decide to wake that person up.

Waking the person on the seat near the aisle would be a hard decision especially if you are in the window seat and need to use the bathroom.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00392352.html

Since May this year the temperature in Tokyo rose to 30 degrees. So Metropolitan office handed out leaflets for foreigners living the city.

The leaflet was prepared by the Japan Weather Association since the population of tourists that visit the country is increasing. The contents of the leaflet include the treatment of a heat stroke and how to call the ambulance. It is all written in English for the foreigners to understand.

An officer from the Japan Weather Association stated that a probation is not enough yet for foreigners. It is predicted that on the year 2020 when the Olympics will be held in Tokyo that there will be a rise in the number of foreigners that would visit the country. Some foreigners said that Japanese summer is much more uncomfortable even they come from a country that is hot like Egypt. He had experienced that he nearly was going to collapse due to the heat as he was taking the city train.

Some foreigners might forget to increase their liquid intake especially since its summer. According to the Japan Weather Association more than seventy percent of the foreigners living in the country have experienced stroke caused by the heat.

When asked a question regarding the comfort of summer, sixty percent answered that summertime in Japan is more uncomfortable then that in their homeland. The said organizationJapan Weather Association mentioned that summer in their country is not only hot but humid as well. So has caused foreigners an uncomfortable stay.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180516/k10011440591000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_006

A Japanese man named Yuki Yamamoto, won four awards for solving Rubik puzzles blindfolded in Rubik's Cube's contest which was held in Japan last winter. He even made a record to memorize the color arrangement of 25 Rubik's cubes in one hour and solved 24 of them blindfolded!

At first he looks at a Rubik's cube for 11 seconds memorizing the color arrangement of them, then wears a blindfold and solves it in 22 seconds. How could he memorize a disordered color arrangement for a Rubik's cube in such a short period of time?

Yamamoto memorized the important algorithms in solving a Rubik's cube. According to Yamamoto, he converts the positions of cube cells into ‘hiragana’, a type of Japanese writing.  Each cell address is assigned to one hiragana letter, then each actual cell position on the disordered cube is also assigned one hiragana letter.  In short, every color arrangement is expressed by a combination of "original address" and "current located position".  So if a Rubik's cube has 9 cells on one face, he can express the situation on the cube by a string of approximately 20 Hiragana letters.

However, it isn't an easy task memorizing a string of 20 meaningless letters in a moment.  However, there is more to this.  He makes a breakdown of those letters into pairs of 2 letters, so that he can make Japanese words which consist of two hiragana letters, or words that have 2 syllables.  Because hiragana is syllabic letter, every single letter is equivalent to one syllabic sound.  For example, you can make a Japanese sentence that consist of 2 words by 4 hiragana letters, such as "Ka-ki (o) ni-ru", or "I cook a persimmon". The sentence will be converted into visual and specific images which makes it easier to memorize.

As a result, there should exist a total of 500 patterns of 2 hiragana letter pairs used for solving a Rubik's cube.  He had memorized, by spending a lot of time in advance, learning these patterns. He also had memorized several hundred algorithms for changing the order of one cell, without interfering with the other cells. When solving the puzzle, he only has to evoke his memories and apply them. 

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASL4P4VPCL4PUEHF00N.html