NEWS FROM THE LAB
STATS:
- 76Percent sixth-graders who “enjoy or somewhat enjoy learning English,” according to the education ministry
- ¥301,000Per capita medical costs in Japan in fiscal 2012—the first time the figure has topped ¥300,000, according to the health ministry
- ¥764Average minimum wage in fiscal 2013, a ¥15 rise from last year, according to the labor ministry
I RISKED MY LIFE COLLECTING THESE THINGS”
—Anthropologist Yoshihiko Yamaguchi, on the closing of two museums in Yamagata that house 20,000 pieces he brought back from South America
- Researchers at the National Institute for Environmental Studies have found that people in Sapporo need to sun themselves for 76.4 minutes a day to get adequate amounts of vitamin D, compared to just 7.5 minutes for residents of Naha.
- Scientists at Hiroshima University say they may have found the gene responsible for late-onset blood cancer, which afflicts “people exposed to strong radiation.”
- In what is being described as a “major discovery,” archeologists in Aomori have dug up a Jomon Era earthenware bowl “sculpted with human facial features.”
- Officials at the Meteorological Agency say Western Japan experienced its hottest summer ever.
FOREIGN FLINGS
- Six dance troupes from northeastern Japan performed the traditional Morioka Sansa Odori at a festival in Moscow’s Red Square.
- Meanwhile, members of the MPD, the New York City Police Department and the People’s Police of Vietnam were among the groups taking part in the Mainichi Newspapers’ 18th World Police Band Concert, which drew 150,000 spectators in Jakarta last month.
- Customs officials in Manila arrested three Japanese men for failing to declare “at least ¥30 million and $15,000 cash.”
- Headline of the Week: “Android Teaches Japanese in Vietnam” (viaThe Japan News)