Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2013

KIDS THESE DAYS

• Cops in Tokyo arrested five teenagers for throwing dozens of fireworks at a homeless man in Edogawa-ku. One of the boys said he and his friends “wanted to get a thrill from making a homeless person angry and making him chase us.”
• Officials at the International Astronomical Union have formally recognized an asteroid discovered by a trio of female Japanese middle school students in 2009.
• The transport ministry says at least 18 people fell off train platforms last year because they were too absorbed in their cellphones to notice their surroundings.
• The situation has led officials to try and come up with ways to deal with the scourge of aruki sumaho—smartphone walking.

ARTIFACTS

• A curator at a history museum in Shinjuku says that fewer than 100 “red papers”—draft notices sent to conscripts during World War II—remain in existence.
• Authorities in Sendai put on display 200,000 photographs found in the debris of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
• Archeologists in Shiga unearthed an ancient casting mold for a dagger whit a design resembling those found in northern China. It’s said the find will lead to a reappraisal of the spread of bronze culture during the Yayoi period (300 BC to AD 300).
• Officials at JR Hokkaido announced that they would scuttle Japan’s two remaining undersea train stations—both of which are located in a tunnel that passes through the Tsugaru Strait—to prepare the construction of a new shinkansen line.

POLL POSITIONS

• The sports ministry released a survey suggesting that 92 percent of Japanese are in favor of the country hosting “big international sporting events.”
• Meanwhile, a Cabinet Office poll has revealed that 72 percent of Japanese “are unwilling to take part in the activities of nonprofit organizations.”
• A survey by the education ministry found that 14,208 schoolchildren were “physically punished” by their teachers last year.
• Researchers at an association of companies that produce sleep products have discovered that the “ideal summertime bedroom environment is 27 to 28 degrees Celsius, with humidity of 50 to 60 percent.”

DRAWING A CROWD

• About two dozen well-known manga artists showed up at the soon-to-be-demolished HQ of famed comics publisher Shogakukan Inc. to fill the walls with drawings before it was torn down.
• The Japan Foundation in New Delhi hosted an exhibition of comics to mark the release of a Hindi translation of Yunagi no Machi Sakura no Kuni (Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms), which tells the story of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
• Officials at the industry ministry have vowed to team up with private-sector researchers to challenge the US’s dominance in the field of 3-D printing.
• The British government has awarded the MBE to Mie resident Isao Toji “for his efforts to honor the memory of 16 British prisoners of war who died in the prefecture during World War II.”

STRANGE DAYS

• A China University scientist and a diving instructor say they’ve identified the source of peculiar markings on a seabed off the coast of Kyushu that locals have dubbed “mystery circles.” It turns out the designs are being made by blowfish.
• For the first time ever, Japanese transportation authorities have translated an investigative report about a railway accident into English. The document describes the 2005 crash of a JR West train in Amagasaki, Hyogo, that killed 107 people.
• Officials at the National Personnel Authority have given the OK for government workers to take a leave of absence—for up to three years—when their spouse is relocated overseas because of work or school.
• Japanese physicists have recommended a site in the mountains of Tohoku for the construction of a 30km-long particle accelerator tentatively called the International Linear Collider.

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