Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2010

It’s getting crowded in here

• For the first time in history, Tokyo’s population topped 13 million. According to the TMG, 13.01 million people were living in the city as of April 1.
• A recently released Cabinet Office study predicts that if a major inland quake were to strike the Tokyo area, 11,000 people would die, 850,000 buildings would be destroyed, and the damage would total ¥112 trillion.
• The report also said that over 1.5 million households would “still be living as evacuees” one month after the quake.
• The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology predicted that global warming may cause the “frequency of violent typhoons whose winds exceed 194kph” to increase 1,000 percent by the year 2100.
• The transport ministry is mulling whether to increase the number of international flights in and out of Haneda Airport to 120 per day by 2013.

Oops

• A citizens group has hit former Yokohama mayor Hiroshi Nakada with a ¥7.8 billion lawsuit over losses related to last year’s Expo Y150. The festival, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama port, was deemed a “complete failure” after drawing only 1.4 million of the expected 5 million visitors.
• After Japan announced that it would begin a large-scale seabed exploration project in the East China Sea, Chinese media said that the move might “trigger a clash” between the two countries.
• It is believed that a company called Toer Afrika has bilked a group of Japanese soccer fans out of money they spent on tickets, airfare and accommodation for the upcoming World Cup.
• For the first time ever in Japan, a pig was diagnosed with foot-and-mouth disease. The finding led to the slaughter of about 15,000 animals in Miyazaki.

Illustration by Kohji Shiiki

Poll positions

• A survey of 573 workers in Tokyo and Osaka found that the economic situation is so bad that 20 percent had cut back on food and 17 percent couldn’t afford to see a doctor.
• Nevertheless, the Cabinet Office announced the results of a recent study in which people were asked “to rate their degree of happiness on an 11-point scale.” The average satisfaction level was 6.5 points, up from 6.3 in 1999.
• A survey of 11 nations revealed that Japanese people keep closest track of their weekly cash flow. On average, folks in Japan do not remember how they used just 6 percent of their money, compared to over 30 percent in some other countries.
• The education ministry reported that 21.8 percent of primary schools divvy up their school year into semesters instead of trimesters, more than double the number in 2004.

Up in smoke

• The health ministry says it will likely submit a bill to the Diet next year mandating a total ban on smoking in workplaces.
• In response to a spate of fatal incidents involving children with cigarette lighters, the trade ministry is set to require that manufacturers make the devices child-resistant.
• Two 14-year-old punks in Hyogo were charged with attempted murder after setting fire to a homeless man’s tent.
• Researchers in Kyoto have unearthed the remains of what they believe to be a sauna owned by celebrated warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582). It is thought that the steam room “was built at a point where he could view his favorite garden.”
• The education ministry said that its recent decision to waive tuition for public schools would carry over to private foreign high schools. Among the institutions eligible for government subsidies are 17 English-language international schools, eight Brazilian schools, two Taiwanese schools, one French school and one German school.
• A newborn Malayan tapir that packed in the crowds at Tama Zoo in western Tokyo died after less than a month.
• Sentence of the Week: “Bumbling drivers unsure about what type of fuel their vehicle runs on and how to fill up their gas tanks are falling victim to the inexorable rise of self-service gas stations across Japan.” (via Asahi.com)

Cutting-edge Japan

• A research team at the University of Tokyo has developed a scanning machine that can flip through and digitize the contents of a 200-250 page book in just over a minute.
• Another Todai team has come up with a better way to combat bladder cancer by identifying the best drug for any given patient based on their genetic profile.
• Kansai Airport unveiled the world’s largest curved digital display, a 200in plasma screen that serves not only as a guide to the airport, but introduces traditional Japanese culture and sightseeing spots.
• It is believed that 74-year-old Kamakura resident Takao Arayama is the oldest person to have summited the highest mountains on all seven continents.
• The Lake District in Northern England is so popular with Japanese tourists that local tourism managers have imposed a £5 levy “for the upkeep of the environment in the scenic region.” It’s thought that this is “the first time one nationality has been singled out to pay such a fee.”

Yeah, that’ll help

• Cops in Ehime plan to file “post-mortem accusations of involuntary vehicular manslaughter” against a 20-year-old man whose car crashed into a utility pole after a high-speed chase, killing both him and a 59-year-old man in a nearby car.
• An abandoned building in Atsugi that served as a hospital until 1997—and that has been billed as haunted—was reclaimed by the city and is slated for demolition.

Compiled from reports by Bloomberg, BBC, Japan Today, The Japan Times, International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Daily News, The Tokyo Reporter, The Daily Yomiuri, AP and Kyodo