News On Japan

Japanese astronaut Onishi to go to International Space Station around 2025

Nov 15, 2023 (NHK) - Japanese astronaut Onishi Takuya, a former passenger jet pilot, will head to the International Space Station around 2025.

Science and technology minister Moriyama Masahito announced Onishi's long-term mission at a news conference on Tuesday. It will be Onishi's second trip to the space station following his previous stay there in 2016.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says Onishi will hold a news conference on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, it has been decided that the mission of another Japanese astronaut, Yui Kimiya, initially scheduled around next year, will be delayed by one year to around 2025.

Astronaut Furukawa Satoshi has been conducting scientific experiments at the space station since August, focusing on research for future manned space exploration.

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Central Tokyo could experience its first extremely hot day of the year on the final day of the three-day weekend, with temperatures forecast to reach at least 35 C as dangerous heat spreads across eastern and northeastern Japan.

Apple has raised prices for iPhones sold in Japan, with the top-end iPhone 17 Pro Max now costing more than 210,000 yen, as the prolonged weakness of the yen increases the local cost of products priced and managed in US dollars.

Japan is likely to face increasingly long and dangerously hot summers as global temperatures continue to rise, with advanced climate simulations also pointing to more frequent torrential rain, rising seas and accelerating ice loss by the end of the century.

A tropical depression near the Truk Islands is expected to strengthen into a typhoon within 12 hours, but forecasters say it is unlikely to have any direct impact on Japan.

A protest against Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was held in Tokyo's Shibuya district on July 16 as public concern grew over a bill that would impose criminal penalties for damaging the Japanese flag.

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Fires involving lithium-ion batteries, including those used in mobile battery packs, are occurring at a record pace in Japan this year, with 179 incidents reported by the end of May, according to the Tokyo Fire Department.

JAXA successfully landed a small experimental vehicle for a reusable rocket on July 11, marking a step toward technology that could increase the frequency of space launches while helping reduce costs.

Japan is facing renewed questions over how to secure electricity while dealing with mounting nuclear waste, as power demand is expected to rise with the spread of generative AI and the government considers replacing as many as five nuclear reactors by the 2040s.

JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe made its closest approach to the asteroid Torifune on July 5, passing at high speed about 800 meters from the asteroid's center while conducting a flyby survey to examine its shape and surface materials.

A fossil discovered in Osaka has led to Japan’s first finding of its kind, raising the possibility that a giant marine predator believed to have swum in the seas around the Kansai region about 70 million years ago was a previously unknown species.

Researchers around the world are turning their attention to mitochondria, the energy-producing structures inside cells, as new discoveries suggest they may hold important clues to slowing aging, preventing disease and extending healthy life.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

Japan is set to begin its first clinical trial of xenotransplantation involving the transplant of pig kidneys into human patients, in a step that could open a new option for people with kidney failure.