Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2014

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP

• Nearly 2 million people have signed up to play an online card game Kantai Collection, which “features anthropomorphic World War II Japanese naval warships portrayed as kawaii girls.”
• A team of students from Kanto Gakuin University have created an ice cream-like food product that “retains a smooth texture even if left at room temperature for 30 minutes.”
• Among the 2,000 guests welcomed by the Emperor and Empress at their annual spring garden party were Exile member Hiro and Olympic gold medal figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu.
• The imperial couple reportedly used the occasion to “touch the silver and bronze medals” won by ski jumper Noriaki Kasai at the Sochi Games.

DAYS OF REST

• Members of the lower house of the Diet voted to approve a new holiday—Yama no Hi (“Mountain Day”), which would be celebrated annually on August 11.
• The lawmakers said, somewhat redundantly, that the holiday will offer citizens the opportunity “to get close to mountains and to appreciate the benefits of mountains.”
• Mountain Day would become Japan’s 16th civic holiday and the first since the establishment of Showa Day (April 29) and Greenery Day (May 4) in 2007.
• If upper house lawmakers approve the amendment, June will be the only month in Japan without a public holiday.

GOOD HELP IS HARD TO FIND

• Low-cost Japanese airline Peach Aviation was forced to cancel some flights this summer because of  “an unavoidable shortage of crew personnel.”
• Airline officials said competition among regional carriers has led to competition for qualified staff.
• A Chiba-based animator won an Emmy Award for his work on the US television show Transformers Prime Beast Hunters.
• Musicians from Kyoto’s fabled Gion Festival gave a series of concerts in Boston. It was the first overseas performance by festival musicians since the event began more than 1,000 years ago.

FOREIGN INTRIGUE

• A foreign ministry poll found that 91 percent of residents of seven ASEAN countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—consider Japan to be “a reliable friend for the region.”
• The next most popular country was the US, at 16 percent.
• For six consecutive days last month, Air Self-Defense Force officials scrambled fighter jets in response to a group of Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bombers flying near Japanese airspace.
• A Hong Kong businessman has established a $100 million scholarship fund to help Chinese and Japanese students attend college in each other’s country.

FINDINGS

• Scientists at the Meteorological Research Institute say the March 2011 tsunami eventually hit Chile and then returned across the Pacific, thumping the Japanese coast with 30-60cm-high waves.
• Officials at the Japan Policy Council say the number of 20-39-year-old women in the country will drop by half by the year 2040.
• Japanese medical researchers surprised absolutely no one by announcing that people who receive a diagnosis of cancer are 24 times more likely to commit suicide during the following year than everyone else.
• Researchers at Osaka University say people who hit the gym three times a week save an average of ¥1.53 million on medical treatment later in life compared to their slack-ass counterparts.

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