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Toei subway completes platform door installation, employee idea slashes costs

TOKYO - The introduction of platform doors at Nishimagome Station on the Toei Asakusa Line marks the completion of platform door installation across all Tokyo Metropolitan Government-managed subway stations.

Platform door installations have now been completed at all stations managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on the Toei Subway, with Nishimagome Station beginning operations on Nov 18.

Platform doors typically use wireless signals from the train to open and close, but the Asakusa Line adopted a QR code system devised by staff members.

As a result, the cost of modifying the trains was significantly reduced from the initial estimate of 2 billion yen to about 2.7 million yen.

The QR code system has also been adopted on other lines, including the Odakyu Line.

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A large new typhoon formed near the Ogasawara Islands on August 12 and could approach Honshu around the end of the Obon holiday period, while the remnants of Typhoon No. 15 continue to bring unstable weather and a risk of heavy rain across a wide area of Japan.

Hiroko Saito was 19 years old when she left Japan for North Korea in June 1961 with her Korean husband and their one-year-old daughter, persuaded by assurances that they were heading to a "paradise on earth" and that she could return to Japan after three years. Instead, she would spend four decades in North Korea, enduring chronic hunger, the deaths of her husband and children and a desperate struggle to survive before finally escaping and returning home in 2001.

Transport disruption caused by Typhoon No. 15 was easing across eastern Japan on the morning of August 12, with most major railway and airline services returning to normal after dozens of flight cancellations and widespread rail disruption during the storm's landfall in Ibaraki Prefecture the previous evening.

Japan's H3 Rocket No. 9 successfully placed the Michibiki No. 7 navigation satellite into its planned orbit after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 4:23 a.m. on August 11, marking the country's second consecutive successful H3 launch.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

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Typhoon No. 15 continued moving west across central Japan on August 12, but heavy rain, strong winds and thunderstorms remained a threat far from the storm's center, with intense rainfall reported in parts of Tokyo and damage including fallen and broken trees in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.

Typhoon No. 15 approached the Kinki region on the morning of August 12 before weakening into a tropical depression over the Sea of Japan, but authorities are warning that sudden thunderstorms and heavy rain remain possible across the region.

Summer festivals are in full swing across Japan, with distinctive local dances ranging from long-established traditions to unusual routines born at fishermen's banquets and even performances set to the music of American rock band Bon Jovi.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

A fireworks festival that had been promoted as a simultaneous display of more than 10,000 fireworks across three cities on Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture was abruptly canceled on August 9, with organizers having failed to submit applications for permits required to hold the event.

Nara Park's famous deer are increasingly spilling into residential areas and farmland as their population reaches a record high, creating new problems for residents even as the animals remain a major attraction for visitors to the ancient capital.

Japan's dating scene has its own vocabulary, its own etiquette, and — for the arrangement style commonly known abroad as sugar dating — its own dedicated clubs.

Maids from Akihabara maid cafes joined shrine maidens from Kanda Myojin and members of the public on August 8 to sprinkle water across the shrine grounds in Tokyo, calling out "Cool down!" as they took part in a summer tradition aimed at easing the midsummer heat.