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Rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu - Sengoku Jidai - History of Japan DOCUMENTARY

May 01 (Kings and Generals) - The animated historical series Kings and Generals continues its in-depth exploration of Japanese history with a new series focused on the Sengoku Jidai period.

The opening episodes trace the early military campaigns of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, highlighting key battles such as Okehazama, Inabayama, Kanegasaki, Nagashima, Tottori, and Takamatsu, while chronicling the dramatic rise of Hideyoshi.

The narrative follows the pivotal moment of Akechi Mitsuhide's betrayal of Nobunaga during the Honnō-ji Incident, which triggered a power struggle between Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi, culminating in the Battle of Yamazaki. In the aftermath, the question of Nobunaga’s succession sparked the Battle of Shizugatake.

Subsequent episodes portray the escalating conflict between Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu during the Komaki-Nagakute campaign, as well as Hideyoshi’s sweeping conquests across Kii, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The series concludes with the Odawara campaign, marking Hideyoshi’s final effort to unify Japan, and sets the stage for the eventual rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

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Refund troubles are mounting across Japan over a now-defunct English camp program promoted through elementary schools, with a former staff member revealing that unpaid debts linked to the operation could total billions of yen. Run by a general incorporated association based in Sendai called the Miyagi Reconstruction Support Center, the international exchange program—where local children interacted with foreign students—was abruptly canceled without refunding participation fees.

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Firefighters selected from Kasuga, Onojo, and Nakagawa in Fukuoka Prefecture demonstrated their rescue techniques on May 16th ahead of an upcoming skills competition designed to test emergency response capabilities.

Many Japanese people agree that Japanese is a difficult language, especially for foreigners. They point out the complexity of homonyms, kanji characters, multiple writing systems (hiragana, katakana, kanji), and the different intonations that can change meaning—for example, the word "hashi" can mean either "bridge" or "chopsticks" depending on pronunciation. Even native speakers find this confusing.

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A bill to revise the Kyūtoku Law, aiming to improve the treatment of Japan's public school teachers by gradually raising the salary supplement in place of overtime pay from 4% to 10%, was approved by the Lower House Committee on Education on Wednesday after ruling and opposition parties agreed on revisions.