Local Leaders Push for Shinkansen Linking Osaka and Yamaguchi

Eighty women carried two portable shrines weighing about 200 kilograms each through Osaka’s Tenjinbashisuji shopping arcade, filling the streets with spirited chants ahead of the Tenjin Festival’s opening ceremonies.

Japan Airlines has unveiled new cooling workwear for ground staff at Haneda Airport, where temperatures on the aircraft parking apron reached 39 degrees Celsius.

Mount Fuji has entered its summer climbing season, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors while authorities on its Shizuoka and Yamanashi sides take sharply different approaches to protecting climbers from a possible eruption.

JR West has unveiled a new blue-based design for Kodama trains on the Sanyo Shinkansen, intended to evoke the relaxed pace of an all-stations journey and the calm waters of the Seto Inland Sea.

Kuwana in Mie Prefecture recorded 40.6 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature anywhere in Japan this year, as a powerful high-pressure system and hot downslope winds combined to produce dangerous heat across a wide area.

Nerima Ward has allowed handheld fireworks in selected public parks for the first time, joining a growing number of Tokyo wards seeking to provide residents with designated places to enjoy the traditional summer activity.

Mount Tokachidake in central Hokkaido experienced its first confirmed eruption in 22 years on July 22, sending a column of black smoke about 200 meters above the crater, although authorities said there were no signs that volcanic activity was intensifying.

Large numbers of climbers headed to Mount Fuji on July 22 despite disaster-level heat that pushed temperatures to 40 degrees Celsius or higher in parts of Japan, while a series of rescues highlighted the risks of exhaustion, inadequate footwear and hypothermia during the peak summer climbing season.