JAPAN: A Severe Typhoon & more – 27th Aug 2024

th of August: 2024

The Meteorological Agency warned that a severe typhoon will sweep through southwestern Japan starting on Wednesday the 27th. The typhoon is moving slowly and has changed directions several times, making it difficult to predict. However, they expect it to travel northeast across the rest of Japan until at least Sunday the 1st of September.

JR West said that it might suspend service on the Sanyo Bullet Train, which connects major cities Osaka and Fukuoka, between Wednesday the 28th and Friday the 30th, when weather officials predict the typhoon will be strongest.

Officials warned people of extremely strong winds and heavy rain, and said that people should be alert for flooding in low-lying areas, mudslides, hail, and lightning.

The typhoon isn’t the only thing people are worried about. Recently, rice shortages across Japan have left supermarket rice aisles empty. The main reason for the shortage seems to be people’s decision to stockpile rice after the Meteorological Agency put out a warning earlier this month about a potential megaquake along the Nankai Trough.

However, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said that there is no need to worry. It’s nearing the end of summer, which means farmers will soon harvest the current rice crop and put it into the market. Farmers said that rice crops are growing well, and the ministry expects the shortage to ease once the new rice is available.

Even though the scarcity is likely temporary, the rising price is not. In July, the cost of rice shot up eighteen percent compared to last year, the biggest increase in the past twenty years.

Speaking of rising costs, on Thursday the 22nd, the Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a warning to Nissin Food Products, a well-known food manufacturing company, for forcing businesses to raise the retail prices of five of their most popular instant cup noodle products.

r has done this. In both June: 2022

The company said they would take the most recent warning seriously, announcing they would strengthen their internal system to make sure they comply with the law.

In politics, a recent nationwide poll from the Yomiuri Shimbun, a newspaper, found that most older voters support Shigeru Ishiba as the next Liberal Democratic Party leader, while younger voters lean toward Shinjiro Koizumi. Overall, Ishiba is ahead in the polls, with Koizumi in second, and Sanae Takaichi in third.

Respondents who chose Ishiba said that he was trustworthy and that they believed he would lead political reform well. People liked Koizumi for his personality, communication skills, and because he was the son of Junichiro Koizumi, a former Prime Minister.

The poll also asked people what key issue they were concerned about. The biggest issue, with twenty-nine percent of people voting, was economic policy, and the second biggest was pension and social welfare at twenty-three percent.

A lot has been happening on the international front as well. On Monday the 26th, a Chinese Y-Nine intelligence-gathering aircraft entered Japan's Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea, heading towards Kyushu in western Japan. The aircraft spent two minutes over the Danjo Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture despite the Air Self-Defense Force warning them to stay clear. It was the first time that a Chinese military aircraft had intruded into Japanese airspace.

The defense ministry lodged a strong protest with China through diplomatic channels, urging them to prevent future occurrences. The ministry is trying to figure out why the aircraft was flying near Nagasaki and what its aim was.

Back in: 2012

Speaking of the Senkaku Islands, a Chinese contract worker for NHK, the national broadcasting network, made unscripted comments about the Senkaku Islands being Chinese on the 19th of August. NHK hired the worker to report for their Chinese-language news program, and in the past month made several off-script comments about how Japan shouldn’t be forgiven for their actions during World War II.

The Japanese government heard about the worker’s off-script comments, and NHK fired him. On Monday the 27th, the Chief Cabinet Secretary said that NHK has to be more careful in the future because it has a big responsibility as a public broadcaster.

rst created the conference in: 1993

Yoko Kamikawa, the foreign minister, led the meeting as the chairperson to a group of forty-seven delegates from countries across Africa. They spoke about many issues, including climate change, public health, and women-centered training programs to build peace.

Today’s youth is also gunning for peace. This past week, a group of twenty-two students flew to Switzerland to give an anti-nuclear weapon petition to the UN office in Geneva. The petition had 96,000 signatures. The students are part of the Youth Communicator for a World without Nuclear Weapons, which collects signatures for nuclear disarmament every year.

On Saturday the 24th, the day after returning to Japan, the students went to a briefing held in Nagasaki and said the UN disarmament officials encouraged young people to keep calling for countries to get rid of nuclear weaponry.

On that note about weaponry, India and Japan’s foreign and defense ministers met in New Delhi to talk about security in the Indo-Pacific region on Tuesday the 20th. It marked the third such two-plus-two meeting between the two countries. This time around, their biggest concern was China’s increase in military activity, and they focused on how they could cooperate on both regional and global issues. Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, also met with the Japanese ministers.

eeting took place in Tokyo in: 2022

r. They injured ten people in: 2024

Since bears will soon start hunting to prepare for hibernation, it is likely that encounters will only go up. To prepare for these encounters, Akita Prefecture’s police conducted a drill on Tuesday the 20th for a case where a bear gets into an urban or residential area. The police also got new equipment to protect the upper body better since that’s where bears usually aim.

aduating from high school. In: 1989

th game in: 2006

He hit his fortieth home run and stolen base during the same game, which has also never been done before.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

We've been doing these updates for quite a while now, and we're curious—what do you think? Have you been tuning in with us from the start, or are you a recent listener? How did you find out about us? We value your thoughts and would love to hear from you. Also, we're committed to keeping our updates ad-free, so if you enjoy them and would want to support us financially, there's a link in the show notes where you can contribute. If you can't do that, spreading the word about us would be amazing as well! Thank you!

Mata Ne!