Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2014

NICE MOVES

• Yoshiharu Habu became the third-winningest shogi (Japanese chess) champion in history last month after notching his eighth victory in the prestigious Meijin tournament, which was held at Naritasan Shinshoji temple in Chiba.
• A Japanese man was threatened with divorce after telling his wife that he didn’t think the Disney movie Frozen was all that good.
• Mariko Kida became the first Japanese dancer to win the Prix Benois de la Danse, which is awarded by the Moscow-based International Dance Union to ballerinas of exceptional promise.
• Schoolteachers in Saitama have come under fire for attending the entrance ceremonies of their own children instead of the ceremonies at the schools where they work.

YOU DON’T SAY

• Iwao Hakamada, the former professional boxer who was freed in March after spending more than 45 years on death row, is “showing signs of psychological instability caused by prolonged incarceration.”
• About 2,700 people who followed the Twitter musings of Gunma Prefecture’s mascot, Gunma-chan, were disappointed to learn that the account was fake.
• Officials at the Fisheries Research Agency say they’ve achieved a world first by getting bluefin tuna to spawn in land-based tanks.
• A TMG survey has found that less than 50 percent of local companies keep a three-day supply of food and water, despite an ordinance to that effect that was passed last year.

BY THE NUMBERS

• The National Police Agency says 1,293 minors were sexually assaulted in 2013 by people they met on social networking sites.
• Officials at Nogeyama Zoo in Yokohama announced the death of a 38-year-old Bactrian camel named Tsugaru, which was thought to be the oldest member of its species in captivity anywhere in the world.
• More than half of Japanese salarymen say they want to continue working past age 65, according to a government survey.
• About 300 people were able to tour “parts of the Imperial Palace previously inaccessible to the public” in celebration of the Emperor’s 80th birthday.

DON’T FEAR THE REAPER

• A government white paper revealed that 27,283 people in Japan committed suicide in 2013.
• That’s a drop of 575 from 2012—and the fourth straight year of decline.
• Officials say the number of people in their 50’s who killed themselves—4,484—has fallen by half during the past 10 years.
• But for the seventh consecutive year, suicide was the leading cause of death among people aged 15-39.

HERE & THERE

• After a newspaper investigation, a vocational school in Saitama that specializes in cooking classes has reversed its “no foreigners” admissions policy.
• A Japanese tourist was killed and 10 others were injured when a tour bus crashed on the Philippine island of Cebu. Police booked the driver with “reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.”
• JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries jointly launched a satellite that’s capable of “identifying a 3-meter object on the Earth’s surface.” Previous satellites could spot only 10-meter objects.
• Headline of the Week: “Man Collared for Trying to Swindle Woman Outside Police Box” (via Mainichi Japan)

Compiled from reports by AP, Japan Today, The Japan Times, Jiji, The Tokyo Reporter, The Mainichi, The Japan News, AFP, Reuters and Kyodo