JAPAN: Driver Lost in Sinkhole & more – 6th Feb 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 6th of February twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

In an update to a story from last week’s show, rescue teams are still looking for the driver lost in the Saitama sinkhole in eastern Japan. Currently, the sinkhole is fifteen meters or almost fifty feet deep.

On Monday, the 3rd of February, workers began to create a slope into the hole to allow heavy machinery inside to dig out concrete, soil, and other debris.

Officials created a 200-meter or 650-foot warning zone and set up temporary shelters for residents. They also suggested that locals use sewage as little as possible. The city government said that gas supply had been fully restored after being suspended on Wednesday the 29th of January.

Then, on Wednesday the 5th of February, officials used a drone to search for the missing driver. They might have found the truck inside a sewage pipe roughly 100 meters, or 300 feet, away from the sinkhole. Rescue attempts are still underway.

On the more criminal side of things, Ryuji Kimura, accused of throwing a pipe bomb in April twenty twenty-three at Fumio Kishida—the prime minister then—had his court trial’s first hearing on Tuesday the 4th of February. The pipe bomb injured two people, but did not kill anyone.

Kimura is facing five charges, including attempted murder. In his hearing, he said he didn’t know Kishida was campaigning and had no intention of hurting anyone. His defense lawyer’s argument was that Kimura was only guilty of injury, not the attempted murder charge.

The prosecution said throwing a pipe bomb at a political figure during a campaign speech is an act of terrorism. The trial will continue until Monday the 10th, and the judge will deliver the verdict on the 19th of February.

On another note, parts of Hokkaido, in northern Japan, experienced record-breaking snowfall earlier this week. Obihiro had eighty-two centimeters or thirty-two inches of snow in twelve hours, the highest ever recorded in that area, while neighboring areas also saw similar amounts.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that heavy snow would continue across western and northern Japan. The agency said this sudden cold weather would probably last about a week, and that there might be power outages, fallen trees, and avalanches.

On Monday the 3rd, officials issued a statement warning people not to travel any more than necessary.

Meanwhile, Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company, one of the top three credit card companies in Japan, plans to introduce contactless payments for public transportation across the country by twenty twenty-six. The company’s hope is that these payments, where you tap a credit card or phone to make purchases, will make travel more convenient, especially for foreigners, who often have a hard time understanding Japanese-only ticket machines. Currently, using the train requires either a ticket or a special transit card.

The new system will allow credit card holders, including those using non-Sumitomo cards, to pay for train and bus fares just by tapping a credit card. The company is working with transport operators to install card readers at stations and on buses.

Contactless payments have become very common in Japan. Although many in the older generation still prefer to pay with cash, younger people usually love the ease and convenience of contactless payments.

Of course, you need money to make payments, which is a problem when real wages in Japan are slowly going down. For those who don’t know, the real wage is the amount of money people earn after inflation is taken into account. So, even though, on average, wages have gone up by almost three percent, the overall consumer cost has gone up by three point two percent.

It may not sound like a big deal, and it’s definitely harder on some than others. But stull one commenter on a news website said that his wages hadn’t gone up at all, but he still has to pay the same increased prices as those who have gotten a salary bump.

You know who else isn’t getting a salary bump? Whoever’s negotiating the Honda-Nissan merger, because it is not going well. Merger talks between Honda and Nissan, two major automakers, failed just a month after they began, mainly because Honda wanted to make Nissan a subsidiary, which Nissan did not like at all.

Nissan is currently restructuring, but it’s taking a long time. Honda wanted to take control and push cost-cutting measures, but Nissan wanted to take its time. The two companies also disagreed on how to develop hybrid vehicles and what technology to use.

Honda’s market value is almost eight trillion yen, which is fifty-one billion dollars, much higher than Nissan’s nine billion dollar market value. Not only that, Nissan’s net profit has dropped by ninety percent compared to last year. Because of the companies’ financial differences, Honda approached the deal like a bailout, but Nissan wanted to be treated like an equal.

That deal might have failed, but things are looking up for other companies. Japan’s Chubu Electric Power plans to launch a unique closed-loop geothermal system in Germany this summer, marking the first of its kind in the world. Unlike traditional geothermal methods, this system circulates water through a high-temperature geological layer without relying on groundwater, meaning that it can be used in many different kinds of places.

In international news, a US military helicopter and US commercial airplane collided midair in Virginia, eastern US, on Wednesday the 29th of January, killing everyone aboard both aircraft. It was the deadliest US aircraft accident in nearly twenty-five years.

Fourteen people from the figure skating community, who were returning from a national development camp in Wichita, were among the crash’s victims. Japan has many figure skating admirers, and since the victims included two Russian skaters who were medalists in the nineteen ninety-four Winter Olympics, this came as a huge shock to fans of the sport. Many on Twitter asked why such a tragedy occurred and mourned the loss of their favorite figure skaters who were on the plane, recalling memorable competitions and shows featuring the skaters.

The airplane was at an altitude of 325 feet or 100 meters when it crashed, but air traffic control thought the helicopter was at 200 feet or sixty meters. Authorities are still investigating the miscommunication.

Onto another sport, Japan’s tennis team won against Britain in the Davis Cup qualifiers on Saturday the 1st of February, with Yoshihito Nishioka and Kei Nishikori winning their reverse singles matches.

The qualifiers have two rounds. The second round will take place in September, during which Japan’s team will face off against Germany. Fourteen nations will compete during the second round to find out who will proceed to the finals.

Japan scored another win in entertainment when Eru Matsumoto, a Japanese cellist, won her second Grammy Award on Sunday the 2nd of February for an album she created with Wouter Kellerman, a South African flutist, and Chandrika Tandon, an Indian-American vocalist. Their album is called Triveni and won in the category of Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album.

Finally, most people might think of the 14th of February as Valentine’s Day, but in Semboku City, Akita Prefecture, northern Japan, it’s the day for the Kakunodate Fire and Snow Festival. The festival started as a purification ritual to get rid of evil spirits around local farms. During the event, locals light bonfires, create igloos with small altars, and swing around literal fireballs on a rope for a one-of-a-kind fire show.

Anyone can participate and entry is free—just keep in mind that it’s a close-knit community, so if you’re going to attend, be respectful! And if you’re going to swing a fireball around, be careful not to get burned!

The festival will take place all across Kakunodate, a small historical town that’s a fifteen minute walk from JR Kakunodate Station.

Learn more on Semboku’s tourism site with the link in the show notes!

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

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Mata Ne!