Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2012

BEST. NEWS. EVER.

• Researchers at the University of Tokushima say an ingredient in beer is the first substance ever found that can retard muscle atrophy. Just one caveat: the effective dose is “between around 80 and 200,000 liters a day”… which sounds like a fair deal to us.
• After discovering that a type of freshwater salmon known as kunimasu was alive and well in a lake in Yamanashi—far from its original home in the waters of Akita—the environment ministry removed the fish from its list of extinct species and declared it to be “a species that continues living in places other than its indigenous habitat.”
• Officials at the Bank of Japan say deposits of commercial financial institutions with the BOJ reached a record high of ¥44.21 trillion last month.
• A Tokyo-based research firm says Japan’s e-book market will surge from ¥63 billion in fiscal 2011 to ¥200 billion in fiscal 2016.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GET?

• It was reported that real estate developers are buying up parcels of land located on high ground in coastal cities hit by the March 11th tsunami. The land grab is driving up prices and making it difficult for municipalities to relocate schools and develop “mass relocation plans.”
• A high school principal in Hyogo asked the parents of a boy who killed himself after being bullied by classmates whether it would be OK to refer to the death as an “accident” when explaining it to the rest of the student body.
• Meanwhile, officials at a combined junior/senior high school in Tokyo urged the mother of a student not to discuss bullying incidents involving her son. The boy’s classmates cut up his gym clothes and put dead insects in his lunch.
• Officials in Aichi suspect someone stole “an old and nearly blind female sika deer” that disappeared from a local zoo late last month.

THIS JUST IN

• A mathematician at Kyoto University published a series of papers that claim to prove the abc conjecture, which is described as “the most important unresolved problem in modern mathematics.”
• A Japanese man sued Google in a Tokyo court because a search of his name turns up results that connect him to a notorious rape case. According to the suit, the results from Google’s “Suggest” function should also be removed.
• The health ministry has allocated ¥160 million in its fiscal 2013 budget to create an advisory post for helping people quit smoking.
• The ministry will also ask an independent research institution to analyze the substances in cigarettes and cigarette smoke “to better understand the adverse health effects of smoking.”

RESTATING THE OBVIOUS

• A survey by the Atomic Energy Society of Japan found that the number of nuclear experts who believe that atomic power “will be useful in their everyday lives 20 years from now” dropped from 79.5 before the Fukushima crisis to 50.1 percent after.
• The Agency for Cultural Affairs says that 67 percent of Japanese believe texting and email have weakened their ability to write kanji properly. Thirty percent said they use mail “even for simple messages that can be communicated verbally.”
• A Cabinet Office survey found that 89.2 percent of Japanese feel “people with disabilities face discrimination and prejudice in society.” That’s up 6.3 percentage points from five years ago.
• The Meteorological Agency says Hokkaido and northeastern Tohoku experienced their most intense summer on record in terms of “extreme events.”

TRUST NO ONE

• Et tu, Japan Corrugated Case Association? The Fair Trade Commission has accused the aforementioned lobbying group and ten cardboard manufacturers of “conspiring to raise the prices of cardboard boxes and cardboard sheets.”
• A police officer in Kofu was arrested for handing over a gangster to senior members of his yakuza group after the terrified man sought protection at a police station in an attempt to flee the gang.
• In separate incidents last month, a pair of US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter jets made precautionary landings at Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi due to mechanical trouble.
• An appeals court in Okinawa upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a civilian worker at a US military base who killed a 19-year-old Japanese man in a car crash last January.

SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

• A nationwide test administered by the education ministry found that nearly half of sixth-graders “do not understand multiplication and division with decimals,” despite the fact that such functions are taught in the fifth grade.
• A 17-year-old Japanese boy is facing a 12-year jail term in Indonesia for buying “a small amount of marijuana near popular Kuta beach.”
• Osaka became the first prefecture in the country to require people convicted of sex offenses against children to register their addresses after being released from prison.
• Officials at Meiji University say they’ll open a branch campus in Thailand next yea with the goal of fostering students who can “serve as bridges between Japan and the Southeast Asian region.”

HERE & THERE

• The science ministry is collaborating with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology to build a ¥20 billion ship that will hunt for rare-earth metals—neodymium, dysprosium, bismuth and gallium, among them—on the ocean floor.
• The MPD took delivery of Japan’s first S-92A helicopter, which will be used for transporting supplies and rescue workers in disaster situations. The 7.2-ton, US-made chopper can carry 22 people and “hover automatically without depending on pilot skills.”
• The government of Spain awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit to the chairman of Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings for his efforts to promote Spanish culture in Japan.
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Plan to Melt Golden Kettle for New Statue at Nagoya Castle Draws Controversy” (via The Mainichi)

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