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World's largest art: manga mania hits rice paddy

TOKYO - Rice paddy art in Gyoda City, Saitama Prefecture, is in full bloom with the depiction of popular manga characters from the movie "Tonde Saitama: With Love from Lake Biwa" scheduled to be released later this year.

Tonde Saitama is a manga by Mineo Maya serialized in three separate volumes in the early 1980s.

A live-action film version was released on February 22, 2019.

In August 2021, it was announced that the sequel to the live-action movie version "Tonde Saitama: With Love from Lake Biwa" was scheduled to be released in 2022, but the filming was postponed due to the poor health of the leading actor. In October 2022, it was announced that filming would resume and that it would be released on November 23, 2023.

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Two typhoons south of Japan are expected to bring heavy rain over a wide area before either system makes a direct approach, with Typhoon No. 7, Mekkhala, forecast to near Okinawa and the Sakishima Islands from June 25 and some areas facing total rainfall of 300 to 500 millimeters, or locally more than 500 millimeters.

Rice field art depicting Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his dog Decoy is nearing its best viewing period in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, Ohtani’s hometown.

The sale of religious corporations that operate temples and shrines across Japan is drawing growing scrutiny from authorities, who fear the transactions could be used for tax evasion and money laundering, as brokers openly advertise properties and corporate status for tens or even hundreds of millions of yen.

Nine Japanese nationals were among 17 people detained in Laos on suspicion of involvement in a special fraud operation, while Japanese authorities have sought cooperation from Cambodian police over dozens of Japanese citizens believed to have gone missing after traveling to Cambodia.

Japan will begin a new system on June 23 to sell paint and thinner directly from manufacturers to construction firms and other businesses, aiming to ease supply bottlenecks and curb price increases as worsening conditions in the Middle East make such materials harder to obtain.

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