FUKUOKA, Nov 24 (News On Japan) - It's Shichi-Go-San, the Japanese festival season for celebrating the healthy growth of children, with Aibo the robot dog giving prayer at a shrine in Fukuoka, on Friday.
The big question is: can these robots properly perform the traditional bowing and clapping ritual known as "ni-rei ni-hakushu ichi-rei" or "two bows, two claps, one bow"?
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.
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.
A bombshell report has surfaced in Kanagawa Prefecture, the political base of Shinjiro Koizumi, where as many as 826 members of the Liberal Democratic Party aligned with the Takaichi faction were treated as having resigned from the party without their consent, according to an investigation by the weekly magazine Bunshun.
Osaka City decided on September 30th to suspend new applications for so-called special zone minpaku, a category of private lodging that has seen a sharp rise in disputes with local residents.
North Safari Sapporo, a private zoo in the southern district of Sapporo, closed its doors on September 30th after 20 years of operation, leaving around 300 animals including lions and wolves without a confirmed relocation plan.
A new study has shed light on the lingering condition known as brain fog, one of the most troubling aftereffects of Covid-19. Researchers at Yokohama City University found that patients experiencing this symptom showed higher levels of a key brain protein compared to healthy individuals, suggesting a potential pathway for future treatment.
Across Japan, water rates are being raised as aging infrastructure and population decline place mounting pressure on municipal waterworks, with a survey by Tokai TV revealing that many operators see no path forward without structural change, prompting new approaches that go beyond conventional frameworks to address what is being called a water crisis.
Saudi Arabia is advancing its national project Vision 2030 to achieve a post-oil society by the end of the decade, with the Riyadh Expo positioned as its grand culmination, and Japan is aiming to secure a foothold in the initiative by providing technologies such as decarbonization systems and expertise in hosting world expos, while also looking to translate this involvement into domestic economic growth.
Ishikawa Prefecture has surpassed Fukui Prefecture in total land area after a significant increase caused by coastal uplift triggered by the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, according to the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
Japan’s Earthquake Research Committee has revised its assessment of the probability of a massive Nankai Trough earthquake occurring within the next 30 years, raising the range from the previous estimate of about 80 percent to between 60 and 90 percent or higher.
In the scenic fishing village of Ine, famous for its traditional boathouses, fishermen are facing a rare phenomenon: an exceptional haul of Pacific bluefin tuna.
The Sapporo Regional Meteorological Observatory announced that Mount Meakan in eastern Hokkaido, where eruption alert level 2 is in place, had experienced an eruption.
Aichi Prefectural Police have begun testing the use of small body-worn cameras to record enforcement activities.
