Who changed Hamaoka’s decommissioning records?
AUGUST 29 EDITION · INVESTIGATION
Copies of contractor reports were rewritten before Chubu Electric used them to report work and support a cost claim for dismantling Hamaoka Units 1 and 2. At least 14 work items are implicated. The people responsible, the amount of money affected and the reach into fiscal 2025 have not been disclosed.
Read the full story →Four stories to read first
Hamaoka, the BOJ, Hokuriku and Kobayashi Kiyochika
Today’s 15 new stories
Five desks · Three stories each · 01–15
Business & Work
Business & Work · 01–03Who changed Hamaoka’s decommissioning records?
Chubu Electric says copies of contractor reports were rewritten before the company reported work and supported a cost claim for dismantling Hamaoka Units 1 and 2. At least 14 work items are implicated; responsibility, the money affected and the full reach remain undisclosed.
From chicken feathers to flying inspectors: Sakai’s five new trials
Sakai has paired three materials teams and two drone developers with local production and testing partners. The six-month test is whether the ideas can yield comparable data, workable costs and business that remains in Fukui.
Move before inflation forces the BOJ’s hand
Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino argues that timely rate increases can reduce the risk that accelerating inflation later forces abrupt tightening. It is not a promise about the next meeting, but a warning about the cost of waiting.
Universities & Research
Universities & Research · 04–06
When an abandoned field becomes habitat—and when it becomes a loss
Surveys at 199 Japanese sites, combined with evidence from four continents, explain why abandoned farmland can restore habitat in one region and erase it in another. Neither rewilding everything nor restoring every field is a defensible national rule.
MOMIJI’s smallest promise is one complete photograph
Chiba Institute of Technology students have handed their first 2U GARDENs CubeSat to JAXA. MOMIJI will attempt image reconstruction, joint observations with Bhutan, a CIGS solar-cell test and APRS work after a launch planned no earlier than December.
The structure protein science kept washing away
An international team including Kanazawa and Kyoto universities mapped multilayer hydration around a 12-residue peptide with 3D atomic-force microscopy. It is a force map—not a frozen picture of a whole protein in a cell—but makes nearby water a testable structure.
Life & Society
Life & Society · 07–09The warning lifted. The roads did not.
Himi and Hakui recorded the heaviest 24-hour rainfall in their observation histories. Rescue calls were answered, but landslides, fallen trees, breached levees and utility failures left communities cut off. A lower alert level did not end the disaster.
A near-target average. A majority falling short.
Hyogo’s disability-employment count is at a record, yet only 47.4% of covered companies met the quota in the latest prefectural survey. The new 2.7% requirement exposes the need to design jobs, accommodation and lasting workplaces.
Evacuation is not the end of the emergency
Kawasaki and its midwives association have formalized phone consultations, dispatched support and overnight postpartum care during disasters. The framework recognizes a gap between general shelters and obstetric medicine; key operating details remain undisclosed.
Sports
Sports · 10–12
Japan scored 54 and allowed two
Japan swept the group in Tainan 5-0, outscored opponents 54-2 and qualified for the 2027 Finals. The rain-compressed schedule revealed pitching depth, tactical range and leaders willing to call a lopsided win unfinished.
The tournament begins again after the whistle
Athletes from Japan, South Korea, China and host prefecture Saga met in 11 sports across six municipalities. Since 1993, the rotating meet has deliberately paired serious competition with a friendship program after the scoreboard stops.
Everything a team must control in 150 seconds
JAPAN CUP 2026 brings teams from primary school through masters competition to Yoyogi for four days. August 29 combines several finals with Division 1 semifinals, putting routine design, age-based safety rules and qualification under one roof.
Music & Culture
Music & Culture · 13–15
The tea that cannot be sold is given a face
Fifth-generation dyer Kyoichiro Washizu turns unsellable tea-factory byproduct into dye for a silk-covered daruma. The ¥77,000 object joins Suruga wazome, kimekomi and local doll history while testing claims about circular production and apprenticeship.
Yayoi Kusama turned repetition into a universe
Yayoi Kusama has died at 97. From Matsumoto and New York to Venice and her final Tokyo studio years, the obituary follows how repetition became self-obliteration, spectacle and a language recognized around the world.
The clay stays Okinawan. The know-how travels.
Tsuboname links Tsuboya pottery workshop Ikutouen with Tokoname-based designer Koji Takahashi and technical partner Yamagen Toen. Okinawan clay and making remain central while production and design knowledge travels south from Aichi.
16. Today’s Art Choice
Kobayashi Kiyochika · Fireworks at Ikenohata
Fireworks in a city learning to glow
Kobayashi Kiyochika’s Fireworks at Ikenohata (1881) pushes the spectacle to the edge of the sky. Lanterns, falling sparks, reflections and an anonymous black tide of spectators reveal Edo darkness overlapping with modern Tokyo’s new illumination.
The image is a public-domain reproduction of Kobayashi Kiyochika’s Fireworks at Ikenohata (1881). The accompanying article draws on the Metropolitan Museum of Art record and Japanese primary sources.
Read the art essay →Six more from the August 28 edition
Autonomy, work, oceans, community culture, youth development and music
Charting the water between islands and pearl rafts
Shima’s survey of Ago Bay asks how autonomous navigation can read pearl rafts, fishing boats, ferries and roughly 60 islands. It is research toward possible future use, not an announcement of unmanned passenger service.
Half would work more—if take-home pay did not fall
Of 1,630 married women working part time, 380 said they limit hours; 50.9% of those would work more if doing so did not reduce take-home pay. The tax and social-insurance “walls” need to be separated.
Can northern waters still be coral refuges?
In 2024 all eight monitored Japanese coastal sites recorded strong heat stress and seven saw bleaching—Tsushima for the first time and Izu for a second straight year. Latitude alone does not guarantee refuge.
Can Kyoto keep the neighborhood bathhouse fires burning?
Operating public bathhouses in Kyoto Prefecture fell from 187 to 87 in 15 years. A ¥550 controlled price, aging equipment, labor, succession and disaster-response value all meet in the daily economics of heating water.
A youngest-player record rewritten in the 83rd minute
A 17-year-old starter supplied an assist and the winning goal. In the 83rd minute, a substitute aged 16 years, 8 months and 7 days entered and rewrote Kashiwa Reysol’s official-match age record again.
Bringing 16 Toru Takemitsu songs out of the monument’s shadow
Thirty years after Takemitsu’s death, soprano Yuma Kumaki makes her CD debut with Kazuki Yamada at the piano, returning attention to 16 intimate songs rather than the monumental composer alone.
