News & Stories

The Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mitsubishi UFJ Bank have announced on 14th May that they will start experiment of international currency transfer, applying the block chain technology. If they will be successful with this experiment, then they will be able to transfer funds to other countries in a matter of minutes. The technology was developed by Ripple Inc., US which is also a service provider in a fintech industry.

The Blockchain technology was originally used in crypto currency, in which they are now using to make their experiment. Because the traditional way in sending funds has to go through a lot of banks. With this technology you can send the funds directly to the intended location or recipient.


https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2018051400370&g=eco

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASL4W3R4RL4WUTIL00K.html

A Japanese Fashion brand, Anrealage has built a collection called "prism". It changes color depending the angle from where you look at it. It is inspired by the theory of the prism, that it makes a transparent light went through a prism look like a rainbow. They used miniature materials, that are similar to beads, on the surface of their clothes. This is used in order to project a prism-like shape.

Those clothes attract light on its surface and reflects a variety of colored lights depending on which angle you look at it. So everybody might see different colors based on where they are standing, althought the cloth is just same one. Actually those clothes are made from transparent material. It might chanege our understanding that a cloth should have it's own color.

http://www.asahi.com/and_M/articles/SDI2018050882101.html?iref=comtop_list_andm_t

A man no license of the architect designed houses assuming one existing architect. Kanagawa prefectural office, Japan announced that they found out about the 55 houses designed by a man without a license who started ever since december 2013. As a result of investigation, he confessed to his guilt.

Even thought the Kanagawa prefectural office was able to confirm that three of the houses had no problems with regards to the quality against earthquake, other houses should also be inspected. They will prepare a hotline for the people to call with regards to this issue. The hotline will run from 9 am to 5 pm on the weekdays.

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391451.html

The ninjas are kind of spy served for soldiers, in the middle ages of Japan. They would bring cookies called Hyorogang. So that they would be able to eat anytime they liked and anywhere they were.

A researcher who is an authority of ninja study conducted a survey about Hyorogang reading ancient texts. Hurogang is made with rice, sugar, spices such as cinammon. Maybe it worked as a stress reliever for the ninjas. Recently, a university tried to recreate the Hyorogang cooperating with a sweet bakery. It is made with flour and cinammon and sold in a shop on the university campus. The researcher hoped that the customers would be relieved from stress after eating them.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011424301000/k10011424301000.html

The Japanese Government recommends some of the hidden Christian sites in Nagasaki and Komamoto as a candidate property for UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is consists of twelve buildings and facilities. During Edo era, the Japanese Government prohibited Christians to pray that is why those sites were hidden.

The organization Ikomos has partnered with UNESCO to check those sites. They reported to the government the sites are worth enough to recommend to UNESCO. This year during the UNESCO Conference those sites would become into a World Heritage Site. The Japanese Government announced that they hope those sites, located in a small town in an island with a small population, would attract much more travelers.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011426801000/k10011426801000.html?utm_int=news_contents_easy_with-image

Recently in Japan, there have been many unexplained blackouts. And this left many Japanese wondering about the cause. After much investigation, the cause of these blackouts has come to light. Apparently, crows building their nests using metal hangers are the cause. It is mating season for the crows, so, they have been building their nests on power poles. The metal hangers, which are good conductors of electricity, have been snagging the power lines causing these blackouts.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391269.html

Tohoku university, Japan has found some mineral on the Moon. It is the first time to been found on a celestial body other than the Earth. Those were formed from water vapour under high air pressure. The study team announced that they found the mineral in the meteorites from the Moon. There is a possibility that water exists under the surface of the Moon. The water content is estimated to be 19 litres per one cubic meter of soil.

An associate professor of Tohoku university said "There might be a huge amount of underground ice on the Moon. The existence of water on the Moon makes it easier to use it as resources. For example, it can be used for making hydrogen fuel." They are hoping that the Moon can become a base for further space exploration.
https://www.fnn.jp/posts/00391134CX

A japanese company, YKK AP has developed and produced a prototype of AI-equipped door. It has a big screen on it's entire surface which projects images and recognizes human faces. It has no key hole, nor doorknob. Depend on the data of family mebmers registered in advance, it recognizes their faces. If some of them came back home, it will be automatically opened.

For example, if the farther would come colse to the door, it asks a question suck like, "What time will you come back home?" Then considering the time the father might come back, the door will give some useful informations. Suppose, the father answered "Maybe I will come back at 8 o'clock in the evening", then the door would advice him, "It starts rain in this afternoon, although it might stop until evening, in case the rain does not stop, it is better that you bring an umbrella." The door provides you informations which might be needed at that moment, such as traffic information, weather report and so on. It is just equate with hireing your own butler.

The door can even transmit a message from a family member to another member. If a child leaves a massage "I would have more pocket money", the door records it and transmits to the child's mother, when she goes through there.

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391053.html

A man who was imprisoned for his crime of theft, escaped from the prison. So the police was looking for him. They found out that a car and shoes were stolen from a house located in an island near the prison. On the morning of the 30th of April he was found and caught on the street in Hiroshima city. According to the police report, the fugitive had hidden in a house for several days, and swam across from that island to the main land of Japan. Then he came to Hiroshima city by train. The prisoner said that he escaped prison because one of the officials was bullying him. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011423291000/k10011423291000.html