October opens with global business, science, communities, sport and culture.
Fifteen main reports, News Briefs and Today’s Art Choice featuring Hine Taizan, plus six selected reports from September 30.
Sushiro takes its conveyor-belt model to Times Square
The first U.S. Sushiro is due to open in New York in October with about 150 kaiten-sushi seats, a 200-plus-item menu, plates starting at $5 and no tipping. Behind the flagship is a much larger international-growth test.
Read the report →Thursday, October 1, 2026
Four to read today
Science · Communities · Sports · Art
Fifteen more developments in brief
Fifteen verified updates from the remaining candidate slate across business, research, communities, sports and culture.
Read News Briefs →Business & Economy
Thursday, October 1, 2026Sushiro takes its conveyor-belt model to Times Square
The first U.S. Sushiro is due to open in New York in October with about 150 kaiten-sushi seats, a 200-plus-item menu, plates starting at $5 and no tipping. Behind the flagship is a much larger international-growth test.
Nidec faces another succession test as CEO Mitsuya Kishida is reported set to resign
Nidec had not formally confirmed the reported resignation when this article was prepared. The larger question is whether governance reform can continue through another leadership change at a company still working to move beyond founder dependence.
Sony’s exit from CES shows how far the company has moved beyond consumer electronics
Sony products appeared at the first CES in 1967, while Sony’s formal exhibiting history began in 1977. Skipping the 2027 show makes visible a decades-long shift toward games, music, film, anime, IP and creator technology.
Science & Technology
Thursday, October 1, 2026Diamond quantum sensor brings AC and DC calibration into one compact current comparator
The Japanese research team cut the comparator’s central section to less than one-third the size and one-tenth the mass of a conventional design while demonstrating high-precision AC and DC ratio measurements in the same architecture.
NTT DOCOMO’s DART AI tackles the hardest time to predict: day one
The model combines a Tweedie distribution with retrieval of similar cases to address the cold-start problem when a new service, product or location has little history. DOOH field trials in Japan and overseas are next.
Kyoto University sends live HD video from a flying drone over narrowband VHF Wi-SUN
The prototype carried 1,280×720 video at 10 fps for more than ten minutes over a 400 kHz VHF channel. The airborne test covered about 50 meters; kilometer-scale flying trials come next.
Communities
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Fukuoka disability placements hit a record; the next test is keeping people in work
Hello Work placements rose for a fifth year to 5,736, with mental-disability placements accounting for nearly 60%. As Japan’s statutory employment rate rises to 2.7%, the challenge shifts from hiring numbers toward retention, job design and careers.
A bear dog is headed for Hokkaido—but its first job will be finding bears, not chasing them
Sapporo nonprofit EnVision plans to bring Karelian Bear Dog Kai from the United States around December. The project aims to add canine detection to a much broader system for managing growing human-brown-bear conflict.
Japan’s experience gap: 30.5% of children in the lowest survey income group had no extracurricular activities
A nationwide survey of 7,374 parents found a participation gap of more than two to one between households below ¥3 million and those at ¥6 million or above, while rising prices are pushing families to cut education spending.
Sports
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Rim Nakamura becomes the Asian Games’ first men’s BMX Park champion as Japan goes one-two
The 24-year-old Team Japan flag bearer won gold in the Asian Games debut of BMX Freestyle Park, with 19-year-old Kaede Ozawa taking silver—a podium linking Japan’s world champion with its next generation.
Hikaru Mori leads Japan’s first Asian Games women’s trampoline one-two
Mori scored 56.88 in the super final to win gold, with Megu Uyama on 56.58 for silver. Eight years after Mori’s Asian Games silver, two longtime Japanese world-level athletes shared the top steps at home.
At 11, Yuki Kurihara wins Puyo Puyo gold and becomes the Asian Games’ youngest champion
Kurihara beat South Korea’s Kang Dongshin 10-2 in the final. Five years after receiving Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 for Christmas, Team Japan’s youngest athlete set an age record spanning the Games’ history since 1951.
Culture
Thursday, October 1, 2026
So Kuramoto dies at 91, leaving Furano a legacy larger than television
The creator of Kita no Kuni kara died at home on September 18. His career spanned landmark television drama, a tuition-free school for writers and actors, theater, film and environmental education.
Anime is booming. The harder question is whether the people making it can stay
Japan’s anime market hit ¥3.84 trillion in 2024, led by overseas growth. Some studios are improving salaries and employment structures, but freelance dependence and uneven conditions remain a constraint on the government’s ¥6 trillion export ambition.
Kyoto National Museum asks what English translation reveals about Genji and Noh
Arthur Waley translated Noh before beginning his landmark English Genji. On October 25, scholars and performers will use art, performance and translation to reconsider how the two traditions shaped one another.
Today’s Art Choice
Today’s Art Choice: Hine Taizan — Autumn Leisure by the Lakeside
Painted in 1850, Taizan’s two-panel screen places a scholar inside a precise, quiet autumn landscape. The Met holds the work and makes its image available as Public Domain.
Read the feature →Six more from the September 30 edition
Selected carryovers; information reflects each article’s original publication date.
HYUGA plans management buyout as home-health investment enters a new phase
A planned tender offer at ¥2,110 a share would take HYUGA PRIMARY CARE private. The report examines investment needs in pharmacy, franchise support and senior-care businesses, alongside the terms offered to minority shareholders.
Toyoda Gosei plans ¥9.3 billion India plant to support Toyota growth
Production is planned for the first half of 2029. The report looks at how the new plant fits Toyoda Gosei’s expanding Indian footprint and the investment needed to support rising vehicle output.
Kyoto researchers probe why bright light damages leaves in the cold
The work focuses on destabilization of the PSI–NDH supercomplex under low temperatures, extending a research line that could eventually inform efforts to develop crops more resilient to cold stress.
Makuhari Kaihin Hospital opens as bus routes shift around the move
The new hospital opens October 1, with outpatient care beginning October 6. The report tracks new bus connections and route changes affecting patients, families and staff.
Onosato wins sixth sumo championship after final-day showdown
Onosato beat Aonishiki by thrust-out to finish 12–3, ending a late losing run and reclaiming the Emperor’s Cup after a year marked by rapid promotion, absence and recovery.
Tokyo National Museum revisits Hiroshige through the Susumu Uchiyama collection
A three-part exhibition marks the donation of 1,025 ukiyo-e works, using Hiroshige’s major series to explore collecting, printing craftsmanship, preservation and public access.
The 15 main-story illustrations and Today’s Art Choice image are AI-generated editorial illustrations inspired by Hine Taizan; they are not news photographs or reproductions of Taizan’s artworks. Carryover reports retain their existing editorial illustrations.
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