Japan

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He Dropped Out of School, Helped Popularize This Famous Puzzle

Maki Kaji, known as the 'Godfather of Sudoku,' has died at age 69

(Newser) - Maki Kaji, who helped popularize the numbers puzzle sudoku, and whose life's work was spreading the joy of puzzles, has died, his Japanese company said Tuesday. He was 69 and had bile duct cancer, reports the AP . Known as the "Godfather of Sudoku," Kaji wanted the puzzle...

Downpours Swamp Japan
Downpours Could Last a Week
photos
Aug 14, 2021 5:35 PM CDT

Downpours Could Last a Week

More than 5M residents have been advised to evacuate

(Newser) - Heavy rains are causing floods, landslides, and evacuations in Japan, with millions of people advised to flee. The nation's meteorological authority issued evacuation warnings Saturday covering more than 5 million people, CNN reports. The agency warned that the rain front could remain over Japan for a week. The southwest...

Lambda Variant Turns Up in Japan, Linked to Olympics

Japanese health ministry didn't disclose case until after Games ended

(Newser) - The delta variant is spreading in the population and in the news. But the lambda variant of the virus that causes COVID, which popped up in South America, is definitely attracting the attention of researchers, who fear it might be more resistant to vaccines than other variants. And now it’...

Hurdler Who Won Gold Thanks Volunteer Who Got Him to the Race

Hansle Parchment almost missed his chance at Olympic medal after he went to wrong venue

(Newser) - If your mother always told you give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport, or to your Olympic 110-meter hurdling competition, we hope you've listened. Hansle Parchment will likely leave the house way early from now on, after the Jamaican hurdler almost missed his chance to compete...

IOC Says It's Replacing Medal Munched by Mayor

Nagoya mayor apologizes for biting softball pitcher Miu Goto's medal

(Newser) - An Olympic athlete in Japan is getting a new gold medal to replace one that a mayor decided to chomp on during a ceremony last week. Tokyo 2020 organizers say they will give softball pitcher Miu Goto a new medal to replace the one Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamure bit into...

Family Member Have a Baby? Hug a Bag of Rice

It's a workaround in Japan for relatives who can't visit with newborns during the pandemic

(Newser) - Congratulations, you're the proud new grandfather of a bouncing baby ... bag of rice? That's the idea behind a product created by Kome no Zoto Yoshimiya, a rice company in Japan owned by Naruo Ono. Relatives who can't visit new parents due to the pandemic will instead receive...

Feds: $5.8K Bottle of Whiskey Given to Pompeo Is Missing

It was a gift from the government of Japan

(Newser) - A recent notice in the Federal Register list dozens of gifts from foreign governments to federal employees in 2019, all with the same reason for acceptance: "Non-acceptance would cause embarrassment to donor and US government." But the annual accounting of gifts contains one mystery: The whereabouts of a...

Fleeing the Games, Sprinter Made a Last-Minute Switch

Wary of security, Belarus sprinter changed flight plans from Warsaw to Vienna at last minute

(Newser) - Change of travel plans for Krystsina Tsimanouskaya—she's headed to Vienna instead of Warsaw, at least initially. The Washington Post reports on the continuing drama swirling around the 24-year-old Olympic sprinter, who boarded a plane bound for Poland on Wednesday, less than three days after Belarus authorities took her...

Japanese Macaque Shatters Monkey Glass Ceiling

Yakei, 9, bested her group's alpha and now gets to eat peanuts first

(Newser) - A monkey in Japan got first crack at some peanuts and made history. Yakei, a female macaque monkey at the Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden on Kyushu, is the alpha of a troop of 677 monkeys. When her troop let her eat peanuts put out by keepers at the park, it...

Japan Had Never Hit 10K COVID Cases— Until Yesterday

Country expands its virus emergency

(Newser) - Japan expanded a coronavirus state of emergency to four more areas in addition to Tokyo on Friday following record spikes in infections as the capital hosts the Olympics. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared an emergency in Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, near Tokyo, as well as in the western city of...

Osaka's Loss Draws Criticism, Questions in Japan

Nation's cultural diversity issues resurface after Olympics match

(Newser) - Naomi Osaka's third-round loss at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday did more than defy her image as a local tennis star certain to win the gold medal. It shook Japan's notions of its racial and cultural identity, and many people let her know it, the New York Times...

Athletes Will Really Feel the Heat in Tokyo

This could be the hottest Olympics on record, bringing risk of heatstroke

(Newser) - Tokyo claimed "mild" summer weather made it an ideal candidate to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Consider that an oversell, as athletes could now be in for the hottest Olympics on record. The daily maximum temperature recorded at a Summer Olympics was in Sydney, Australia, in 2000 and...

Toyota May Be Distancing Itself From the Games

Company will not run Olympic ads in Japan

(Newser) - Coronavirus cases in Japan have risen to 1,000 per day just as the Tokyo Olympics are set to start. Now Toyota, a top sponsor of the Games, says it will not run any Olympics ads in the country, and its chief executive won’t attend the opening ceremonies, the...

At Tokyo Olympics, a 'Very Significant Change'

Athletes will put on their own medals to protect against COVID

(Newser) - Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics will put their medals around their own necks to protect against spreading the coronavirus. The "very significant change" to traditional medal ceremonies was revealed Wednesday by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, per the AP . "The medals will not be given around the...

Amid COVID Surge, Tokyo Bans Fans From Olympics

City declares state of emergency

(Newser) - The celebration was premature. Less than three weeks after it was announced that local fans would be allowed at the Summer Olympics, Japan reversed course on Thursday because of a surge in COVID cases, reports the AP . Per the New York Times and the AP , the city reported 920 new...

Mudslide Levels Japan Town With Dozens Feared Dead

At least two were confirmed dead late Saturday

(Newser) - A gush of mud that swept away homes and cars in a resort town southwest of Tokyo left at least two people dead and about 20 missing, officials said Sunday. Ten people were rescued and as many as 80 homes buried in Atami, where hundreds of firefighters, military troops and...

First Came the Rain. Then, a Mudslide 'as Fast as a Car'

At least 19 are missing in Atami, Japan

(Newser) - A powerful mudslide carrying a deluge of black water and debris crashed into rows of houses in a town west of Tokyo following heavy rains on Saturday, leaving at least 19 people missing, officials said. Dozens of homes may have been buried in Atami, a town known for hot springs,...

Olympics Have Twice Forced This Man From His Home

Kohei Jinno describes 'sad, lonely feeling' as start date approaches

(Newser) - Kohei Jinno is among the minority in Japan who feel this summer's Olympic Games should go on. Otherwise, it would mean he was booted from his home of a half-century for nothing. The 87-year-old and his wife, Yasuko, were one of some 200 families forced out of a public...

Attempt of 'Black Widow' to Claim Dementia Goes South

Japan's Supreme Court upholds death sentence for Chisako Kakehi, who murdered 3

(Newser) - For nearly four years, Chisako Kakehi's legal team has been pushing back on her 2017 death sentence, arguing that the 74-year-old woman Japan knows as the "Black Widow" has dementia, rendering her incapable of understanding anything that's going on around her, including her own criminal trial. Those...

Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherer Was Ripped Apart by a Shark

Researchers: Earliest known evidence of shark attack on a person identified in Japan

(Newser) - Three millennia ago, a hunter-gatherer ventured to Japan's inland sea in search of a meal. He then became one himself. Researchers believe this Neolithic man, found buried in the Tsukumo Shell-mound cemetery site near the Seto Inland Sea, is the earliest known victim of a shark attack on a...

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