News On Japan

More tsunami safety towers erected

Jun 09 (staradvertiser.com) - A total of 502 tsunami safety towers were erected in Tokyo and 22 other prefectures through April 2021, an 11-fold increase in the number that existed prior to the catastrophic 2011 Tohoku earthquake, according to a Cabinet Office survey.

The government subsidizes half the construction costs for the towers, which provide temporary refuge during a tsunami. But the burden on local governments still amounts to several hundred million yen.

In 2014 the subsidy was increased to two-thirds in areas where extensive damage from a major Nankai Trough earthquake is anticipated, helping to speed up construction. The trough runs beneath the Pacific Ocean in southeast Japan, from Shizuoka to Kyushu. Seventy percent of towers are west of the densely populated Kanto region, where Tokyo is located. Shizu­oka prefecture, one such area west, has the most towers, at 139.

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A massive tornado-like phenomenon was observed late in the morning of October 2nd off the coast of Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture’s Shonai region, with thick swirling clouds rising high into the sky as seawater was drawn upward.

Maebashi Mayor Akira Ogawa held a closed-door meeting with all city council members on October 2nd to explain her repeated hotel meetings with a married senior city official, but afterward she avoided stating whether she would resign.

A two-story wooden house collapsed in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward on the night of September 30th, with experts suggesting that the ground beneath the property, rather than the building itself, gave way, likely due to a cracked retaining wall.

Heavy rainfall battered parts of Hokkaido, with some areas receiving more than a month’s worth of precipitation in only six hours, prompting flood warnings and evacuation advisories. Meteorologists are saying the downpour was the result of a combination of unstable atmospheric conditions and moist air flowing in from the sea.

Kamakura City in Kanagawa Prefecture has approved the introduction of a bathing tax, but the measure is drawing strong criticism from local hot spring operators since only two facilities fall under the new levy.

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Princess Aiko, the daughter of the Emperor and Empress, has tested positive for Covid-19, the Imperial Household Agency announced on October 2nd, cancelling her scheduled trip to Shiga Prefecture on October 5th and 6th to observe the National Sports Festival.

A man in his 60s was found bleeding and collapsed inside a cattle barn in Tsugaru, Aomori Prefecture on the morning of October 2nd, later dying after his condition suddenly worsened.

A woman in her 30s was found dead with multiple stab wounds in Higashi-Osaka after a man who claimed to have stabbed someone turned himself in at a local police station.

Today, we'll be looking at some CRAZY Japanese tattoos that foreigners got! Even Ariana Grande got a really bad tattoo! They're so weird and don't make sense at all! (Mrs Eats)

Osaka Prefecture has revised its ordinance to set a cap of 100,000 yen per day on ATM transfers made with cash cards by certain elderly account holders, marking the first such restriction in Japan.

Japan's National Police Agency and Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department launched a new structure on October 1st to pursue the leaders of the so-called Tokuryu, an 'anonymous and fluid' crime group responsible for large-scale fraud and violent robberies linked to black-market recruitment.

A Spanish tourist in Japan has become the subject of widespread criticism after a series of videos showed him pushing a passenger on a train, firing fireworks at a karaoke shop, and intruding into a shrine, with condemnation spreading even to his home country.

A hairdresser operating a salon in Tokyo’s Omotesando district has been arrested on suspicion of luring a female client into the restroom and committing indecent acts, raising questions about how a well-known stylist with a large clientele carried out such conduct.