Tag: Japan

  • More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

    More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

    The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000 — almost 90 percent of them women — government data showed Tuesday.

    The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks.

    As of September 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the health ministry said in a statement.

    On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of people over the age of 65 hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan’s population.

    The proportion puts Japan at the top of a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of over 100,000 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

    Japan is currently home to the world’s oldest living person, Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group.

    The previous record-holder, Maria Branyas Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.

    Itooka lives in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said.

    She often says “thank you” to the nursing home staff and expresses nostalgia about her hometown, the ministry said.

    “I have no idea at all about what’s the secret of my long life,” Japan’s oldest man, Kiyotaka Mizuno, who is 110, told local media.

    Mizuno, who lives in Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture in central Japan with his family, gets up at 6:30 am every morning and eats three meals a day — without being picky about his food.

    His hobby is listening to live sports, including sumo wrestling, the ministry said.

    Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labour force to pay for it.

    The country’s overall population is 124 million, after declining by 595,000 in the previous,  according to previous government data.

    The government has attempted to slow the decline and ageing of its population without meaningful success, while gradually extending the retirement age — with 65 becoming the rule for all employers from fiscal 2025.

  • The Glassworker set to premiere at Hiroshima animation festival

    The Glassworker set to premiere at Hiroshima animation festival

    Pakistan’s first Ghibli style animated film, The Glassworker, will be screened at the Hiroshima Animation Festival in Japan on  Saturday August 17, 2024. Among thousands of entries from 97 countries and regions across the world, it is going to compete in the ‘Feature Competition’ category.

    This is an achievement that showcases Pakistan’s animation talent on the global stage. The Glassworker promises a heartwarming and visually stunning experience.

    The film, directed by Usman Riaz and Mairam Riaz Paracha and produced by Geo Films, was released on July 26, 2024 in Pakistan. It has now crossed the 30 million milestone at the box office.

  • Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Western ambassadors to skip Nagasaki memorial after Japan exclude Israel

    Ambassadors from Western countries including the United States will skip a ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki after Israel was snubbed, officials said Wednesday.

    Nagasaki’s mayor last week said that Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen was not invited to Friday’s event in the southern Japanese city because of the risk of possible protests over the Gaza conflict.

    The US and British embassies said on Tuesday that their ambassadors would not take part as a result, and that their countries would be represented by lower-ranking diplomats.

    Media reports said that Australia, Italy, Canada and the European Union, who together with the US, Britain and Germany signed a strongly worded joint letter to Nagasaki’s mayor last month, would follow suit.

    US ambassador Rahm Emanuel will not attend “after the mayor of Nagasaki politicised the event by not inviting the Israeli ambassador”, an embassy spokesperson told AFP.

    Instead Emanuel, 64, who was ex-president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, will go to a separate event at a temple in Tokyo, the spokesperson said.

    The British embassy said that ambassador Julia Longbottom would also not be in Nagasaki, saying that not inviting Israel “creates an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony.”

    A spokesperson for the French embassy said that its number two would attend, telling AFP that the “decision not to invite the representative of Israel is regrettable and questionable”.

    Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki had said last week that the decision not to invite Cohen was “not politically motivated” but based on a desire to “hold the ceremony in a peaceful and sombre atmosphere”.

    In June Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza.

    Cohen, who was invited to and attended a memorial ceremony on Tuesday in Hiroshima, last week had said the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.

    “As a close friend and like-minded nation of Japan, Israel has attended this ceremony for many years to honor the victims and their families,” he wrote on social media platform X.

    On Monday Cohen told US broadcaster CNN that the security concerns were “invented” and that he was “really surprised by (Suzuki) hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

    In their letter to Suzuki seen by AFP, the six Western envoys had warned that if Israel was excluded “it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation at this event.”

    Government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi on Wednesday declined to comment, saying invitations were “a decision for the organiser, Nagasaki City.”

    A Nagasaki official in charge of the ceremony said it was “obviously better to have high-level individuals, like ambassadors themselves, taking part”.

    “What is important is that representatives of the countries will attend the ceremony,” he told AFP.

    hih-mac-stu/kaf/mca

    © Agence France-Presse

  • China warns US, Japan to ‘stop creating imaginary enemies’

    China warns US, Japan to ‘stop creating imaginary enemies’

    Beijing on Monday warned the United States and Japan to “stop creating imaginary enemies” after the countries lashed out against China’s actions in the South China Sea in Tokyo talks.

    “We strongly urge the US and Japan to immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and stop creating imaginary enemies,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

    Following talks in the Japanese capital on Sunday, the US and the hosts slammed Beijing’s “destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea while also condemning Russia’s growing military cooperation with China and North Korea.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts “reiterated their strong objections to the PRC’s unlawful maritime claims, militarization of reclaimed features, and threatening and provocative activities in the South China Sea”, a joint statement said, using an acronym for China.

    China’s “destabilizing actions in this region include unsafe encounters at sea and in the air, efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resources exploitation, as well as the dangerous use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels”, the communique added.

    They accused China of “intensifying attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea” and that Chinese “foreign policy seeks to reshape the international order for its own benefit at the expense of others”.

    China’s Lin on Monday said the joint statement “disregards facts, mixes up right and wrong maliciously attacks China’s foreign policy”.

    He added the communique “crudely meddles in China’s internal affairs, maliciously attacks and smears China on maritime issues, makes thoughtless remarks on China’s normal military development and defence policy, exaggerates and kicks up a fuss about the China threat, and maliciously hypes up regional tensions”.

    “China deplores and firmly opposes this,” Lin said.

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    © Agence France-Presse

  • Laughter is good for you: Japanese city makes it a must

    Laughter is good for you: Japanese city makes it a must

     
    In a strange but fun move, the city of Yamagata in Japan has made laughter a daily requirement. The government has passed a law that says people must laugh at least once a day to stay healthy, both physically and mentally.

    The law was passed after research from a local university revealed the numerous health benefits of laughter. Companies and offices are also getting in on the action, creating a laughter-friendly environment for their employees. And to top it all off, the eighth day of every month will be celebrated as ‘Laughter Day.’
     
    But not everybody finds it funny. Politicians who disagree with the law say it violates people’s constitutional rights. “Laughter is a fundamental human right, and the government can’t dictate when and how we laugh.” They argue.
     
     
    But not everyone is happy about it. Some politicians are saying the law is wrong. “Laughter is a fundamental human right, and the government can’t dictate when and how we laugh,” they argue.
    Yamagata City is firm on making laughter a priority. This unique law might just spark a global trend. Laughter truly is the best medicine, they say.

  • Japanese scientists make smiling robot with ‘living’ skin

    Japanese scientists make smiling robot with ‘living’ skin

    Japanese scientists make smiling robot with ‘living’ skin have used human cells to develop an equivalent to living skin that can be attached to robotic surfaces to flash a realistic — if creepy — smile.

    The University of Tokyo researchers published their findings this week along with a video of the gooey-looking pink material being stretched into an unsettling grin.

    They used a “skin-forming cell-laden gel” to create a “robot covered with living skin”, their study in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science said.

    The biohybrid robot specialists hope the technology will one day play a role in the invention of androids with human-like appearances and abilities.

    “We also hope this will help shed better light on wrinkle formations and the physiology of facial expressions,” and help to develop transplant materials and cosmetics, the team led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi said.

    The new material could signal a departure from traditional humanoid robots covered with genuine-looking skin often made of silicone rubber, which cannot sweat or heal itself.

    The scientists’ goal is “to endow robots with the self-healing capabilities inherent in biological skin”, but they are not there yet. In previous studies, they grafted collagen onto a cut on lab-grown skin covering a robotic finger to demonstrate how it could be repaired.

    But they said conducting similar repair tests on their smiling robotic skin “is a future challenge”.

    To create what they described as a “natural smile” that moves fluidly, they gelatinised the skin-like tissue and fixed it inside the robot’s holes, a method inspired by real human skin ligaments.

  • Two missing Japanese climbers spotted in Pakistan’s north

    Two missing Japanese climbers spotted in Pakistan’s north

    Two missing Japanese climbers were spotted by helicopter on Thursday in Pakistan’s mountainous north, home to some of the world’s tallest peaks, but their condition remains unknown, a tour operator said.

    The Japanese climbers Ryuseki Hiraoka and Atsushi Taguchi were attempting to summit the 7,027-metre (23,054-foot) Spantik mountain in the Karakoram range before they went missing.

    “The rescuers saw the climbers and recognised them by their clothes, but they could not determine their condition,” Naiknam Karim, the CEO of Adventure Tours Pakistan (ATP) which organised the tour, told AFP.

    The two were spotted during a military helicopter search on Thursday that was called off due to poor weather conditions.

    “There has been no communication between the two Japanese climbers and officials at basecamp since they started their expedition,” Karim earlier said.

    “They were seen on June 10 (for the) last time at above 5,000 metres.”

    Another team of Japanese climbers raised the alarm on Tuesday after arriving at Camp 2, at around 5,650 metres, where Hiraoka and Taguchi were scheduled to be.

    The search is scheduled to resume on Friday.

    “An 8-member rescue team including five Japanese climbers will ascent on foot and search for them,” Karim Added.

    The pair had reached base camp on June 3 and were attempting the climb without the help of porters.

    Spantik, also known as the Golden Peak, is described as a “relatively accessible and straightforward peak” on the website of a separate tourist company, Adventure Tours.

    The country is home to five of the world’s 14 mountains higher than 8,000 metres — including K2, the world’s second highest.

    More than 8,900 foreigners visited the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region in 2023, according to official figures from the government, where the summer climbing season runs from early June to late August.

  • Tokyo govt to launch dating app to boost birth rate

    Tokyo govt to launch dating app to boost birth rate

    Japan’s capital will launch its own dating app as early as this summer as part of government efforts to boost the plunging national birth rate, a Tokyo official said Tuesday.

    Users will be required to submit documentation proving they are legally single and sign a letter stating they are willing to get married.

    Stating one’s income is common on Japanese dating apps, but Tokyo will require a tax certificate slip to prove the annual salary.

    “We learned that 70 percent of people who want to get married aren’t actively joining events or apps to look for a partner,” a Tokyo government official in charge of the new app told AFP.

    “We want to give them a gentle push to find one,” he said.

    It’s not unusual for municipalities to organise matchmaking events in Japan, where births dropped to a new low in 2023, but it is rare for a local government to develop an app.

    An interview will be required to confirm a user’s identity as part of the registration process for the Tokyo app, which has been on a test run for free since late last year.

    Many social media users expressed scepticism over the plans, with one saying, “is this something the government should be doing with our tax?”

    Others wrote they were interested as they would feel safer.

    Last year Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as new babies.

    Births fell for the eighth consecutive year to 758,631, a drop of 5.1 percent, preliminary government data showed. The number of deaths stood at 1,590,503.

    The nation is facing growing labour shortages, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised policies including financial aid for families, easier childcare access and more parental leave.

  • Japan’s Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

    Japan’s Nagasaki holds off inviting Israel to peace ceremony

    The Israeli ambassador to Japan has not yet been invited to Nagasaki’s annual peace ceremony, said city officials who instead sent the embassy a letter calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

    The city in southern Japan this week invited dozens of countries and territories to the August 9 event on the anniversary of the US nuclear attack in 1945 that killed 74,000 people.

    But “as for Israel, the situation is changing day by day… so we have put sending an invitation letter on hold,” mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters on Monday.

    Israel launched a blistering military offensive in Gaza nearly eight months ago, following an attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on the country.

    Worries that protests could disrupt the memorial for atomic bomb victims are partly behind the decision, said Suzuki.

    “Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, and public opinion in the international community, there are concerns about the risk of unexpected incidents during the ceremony,” which should be “safe and smooth”.

    “As the Ukraine situation has not changed, we are not inviting Russia or Belarus” either, Suzuki added.

    The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the death of 1,194 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

    More than 36,470 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.

    The Palestinian envoy has been invited to the ceremony in Nagasaki, local officials told AFP on Tuesday. Japanese media said that both sides are usually invited.

    Nagasaki, Hiroshima ceasefire push

    Nagasaki has instead sent a letter to the Israeli embassy in which “we call for an immediate ceasefire”, Suzuki said.

    Its letter said that if city officials decide in the coming months that there is no problem in inviting Israel, “we will issue an invitation swiftly”, according to the mayor.

    The Israeli embassy did not immediately issue a comment.

    The sombre memorial at Nagasaki’s Peace Park has in the past included ringing bells, a release of doves, and a prayer ceremony for the bombing victims.

    Hiroshima also holds a yearly ceremony in memory of the 140,000 people killed there after the United States dropped the first nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945.

    The two strikes led to the end of World War II, and to this day Japan remains the only country to be hit by atomic weapons in wartime.

    Hiroshima has invited Israel to this year’s ceremony, but in its letter called for a “ceasefire as soon as possible and resolution through dialogue”, a city official said.

    According to local media, Hiroshima has never invited a Palestinian representative to its ceremony.

  • Japan’s ‘Friendship Marriage’ is a new relationship trend without romance

    Japan’s ‘Friendship Marriage’ is a new relationship trend without romance

    ‘Friendship Marriage’ is a new relationship trend that is gaining popularity in Japan.

    Under this new type of marital relationship, people are becoming platonic partners without falling in love or having sex, as per South China Morning Post.
    A marriage agency called Colorus, which specialises in friendship marriage, shared data related to the new trend. Since March 2015, around 500 people in Japan have indulged in this type of marriage. They have formed households and some have even raised children, reports NextShark news agency.

    In friendship marriages, partners are legally spouses but without romance or sexual intimacy. They are free to live together or separately. Couples can also decide to have children through artificial insemination. In this relationship, both individuals are also free to pursue romantic relationships with other people outside the marriage, as long as there is a mutual agreement.

    Around one per cent of Japan’s population of 124 million are choosing this kind of relationship that is based on shared values and interests, the report added. They include asexual individuals, homosexuals, and heterosexuals who are disillusioned with traditional marriage.

    People interested in this type of relationship are on average 32.5 years old with incomes exceeding the national average, reveals the data by Colorus. The trend is also becoming popular among asexual individuals and homosexuals trying to avoid traditional marriages.