Japan launches data relay satellites to improve disaster response
Japan launched a rocket Sunday carrying satellites designed to relay data collected by other reconnaissance satellites already in orbit, enabling faster and more information-rich communication when responding to natural disasters. The H2A rocket, operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, ...
'Bull sumo' on the subtropical island of Tokunoshima
It was 5 p.m. when my plane touched down onto the small airstrip at Tokunoshima, an island in Kagoshima Prefecture that, in its climate and fauna, bears a strong resemblance to nearby Okinawa. The warm subtropical air asserts itself the moment you leave the plane, ...
2017 gubernatorial elections may pose snag to Abe's reactor restart quest
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ambition to restart the country's fleet of nuclear reactors may face further challenges from regional elections. The victory of an anti-nuclear gubernatorial candidate in Niigata on Sunday, following a similar win in Kagoshima earlier this year, is complicating the efforts of ...
Bodies of last two ASDF airmen recovered from cliff in Kagoshima
The bodies of the last two crew members and the wreckage of an Air Self-Defense Force airplane have been found on a cliff in Mount Takakuma, Kagoshima Prefecture, defense officials said Friday. The discovery brought the three-day search to a tragic end. On Thursday, the ...
Kagoshima governor calls remark about women 'slip of the tongue'
Kagoshima Gov. Yuichiro Ito sought to explain Friday as a "slip of the tongue" an apparently discriminatory remark toward women he made the previous day in which he questioned the use of teaching trigonometry to women. "What would be the use of teaching women the ...
A very small eruption was observed at Mount Sakurajima early Wednesday, the Meteorological Agency said. The eruption at 3:13 a.m. was the first observed at the 1,117-meter volcano overlooking the city of Kagoshima since the alert level was raised last week to 4 on a ...
Powerful Typhoon Halola may move close to Okinawa and the Amami area of Kagoshima Prefecture from Friday night to early Saturday, and the Meteorologcal Agency warns of strong winds and high waves. The typhoon is expected to particularly batter Okinawa's Daitojima area on Friday night, ...
Use them or lose them: There's more at stake than language in reviving Ryukyuan tongues
With the last speakers of the Ryukyuan languages dying out, an identity is vanishing too.
The Defense Ministry asked local authorities on Tuesday for their cooperation in establishing a Ground Self-Defense Force unit on Amami-Oshima Island as part of efforts to boost the defense of remote islands in the region. Parliamentary Senior Vice Defense Minister Ryota Takeda made the request ...
A House of Representatives by-election, the first national-level contest since the April 1 tax hike, will be held in Kagoshima Prefecture on Sunday to fill a seat formerly held by a ruling party lawmaker who resigned in February over illegal election campaigning. Voters are expected ...
Impossible forests where tides ebb and flow
A ripple flows gently inland across an expanse of dark-gray mud. It washes in, then drains back, dampening the surface; it briefly fills, then empties from, tiny holes made by innumerable small crabs. The ebb is over, and the flow tide has begun. The ripple ...
