News On Japan

Wild Boar’s Tough-Love Parenting Caught on Camera

IWATE, May 21, 2026 (News On Japan) - A mother wild boar was filmed on a university campus leaving five piglets to scale a wall on their own, offering a rare glimpse of what one lecturer described as "Spartan" parenting in the wild as baby animals appear across Japan with the arrival of the season.

Twelve spot-billed ducklings were found at a hospital in Morioka, one of many scenes of baby animals appearing across Japan at this time of year.

A herd of wild boars was filmed on a university campus, showing a mother boar with five striped piglets. The mother climbed over a wall with ease, but for the young piglets, the barrier was far too high.

Without stopping to watch over them, the mother disappeared into the bushes. The piglets tried again and again to follow her, and after repeated attempts, two managed to climb over the wall. The remaining three searched for a lower spot and eventually made it across.

The footage was taken by a university lecturer after finishing work.

Yasuhiro Nishikawa, lecturer at Osaka Kyoiku University: "It was incredibly Spartan. It made me realize this is how animals raise their young in the wild."

Source: TBS

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

A newly formed tropical depression near Taiwan on June 9th is expected to intensify the seasonal rain front lingering over southwestern Japan, raising the risk of warning-level rainfall across Okinawa and the Amami Islands through around June 11th.

Japan, which records the shortest average sleep duration among OECD countries, is launching new efforts to tackle widespread sleep deprivation, including the opening of specialized sleep disorder departments and programs aimed at improving children's sleep habits through sports and physical activity.

Japan's national soccer team arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 8th from Monterrey, Mexico, where it had been conducting a pre-World Cup training camp, and held its first practice session at its base camp for the FIFA World Cup in North America.

A prolonged eruption at Sakurajima on June 7th blanketed parts of Kagoshima City in volcanic ash, turning roads gray and prompting long lines of vehicles seeking car washes after a plume of smoke rose 1,300 meters above the crater.

A powerful earthquake struck off Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines at 8:38 a.m. (Japan time) on June 8th, generating tsunami waves across parts of the Pacific, causing building collapses and casualties near the epicenter, and prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue tsunami advisories along a wide stretch of Japan's Pacific coastline before lifting all of them at 4:50 p.m.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Education NEWS

Birthrates in neighboring Kyoto and Shiga prefectures have moved in opposite directions, with experts pointing to housing costs, commuting convenience, and stable employment as key factors shaping where young families choose to live.

A panel exhibition held in Sapporo this year has reignited debate over what many experts and Ainu activists describe as a new form of discrimination—one that denies the Indigenous status of the Ainu people and seeks to reinterpret the history of discrimination they endured in Japan.

Elementary school students across Japan took part in the National Elementary School Toothbrushing Event on June 5th, with children at approximately 6,000 schools learning proper brushing techniques and oral hygiene practices under the guidance of dental hygienists.

Japan's total fertility rate, which represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, fell to a record low of 1.14 in 2025, underscoring the country's deepening demographic challenges.

As Japan's shrinking youth population continues to reshape the education sector, a girls' high school in Kyoto has announced plans to become coeducational beginning next academic year.

Heart of the Country” is the story of Shinichi Yasutomo, the extraordinary principal of a rural elementary school in Kanayama, central Hokkaido, Northern Japan. Yasutomo is a man driven by his vision for learning and his passion for educating the heart as well as the mind. (TRNGL)

An Indonesian bus driver working in Tokyo says language barriers and differences in communication styles remain among the biggest challenges facing foreign workers in Japan, highlighting the importance of support from employers and colleagues as the country increasingly relies on overseas labor.

Japan will begin rolling out a major overhaul of its disaster weather information system from the afternoon of May 28th, reorganizing warnings and advisories to make it easier for residents to understand when they should evacuate.