EDUCATION

More than half a million high-school students and graduates across Japan are putting their knowledge to the test at unified college and university entrance exams.
(NHK)

A public high school in Machida City has apologized to a boy after the emergence online of a video that purportedly shows a male teacher assaulting him, reports Fuji News Network (tokyoreporter.com)

The number of suicides in Japan dropped 3.4 percent from a year earlier to 20,598 in 2018, down for the ninth year and the lowest in 37 years amid economic recovery, preliminary data by the National Police Agency showed Friday.
(Japan Today)

A glance at the World University Rankings, published last September by the Times Higher Education, reveals the following major changes in the rankings compared with the previous year. (Japan Times)

At least one in eleven people identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a survey conducted by advertising giant Dentsu Inc., while more than two-thirds of respondents were familiar with the acronym LGBT. (Kyodo)

A major Japanese weekly has apologized for using sexually degrading and discriminatory terms against women in part of an article on dating parties amid growing criticism shared in an online petition campaign.
(Kyodo)

A nine-year-old Japanese girl is set to become the youngest professional player of the Asian board game “Go.”
(NHK)

The number of Japanese aged 20, the legal age of adulthood, on New Year’s Day will be 1.25 million, up 20,000 from a year earlier, according to a government estimate released Monday.
(Japan Times)

About 40 percent of those aged between 17 and 19 think sex education at school is useless, an online survey by the Nippon Foundation think tank showed Thursday. (Japan Times)

A total of 210 teachers at public schools in Japan were disciplined over sexual behavior in fiscal 2017, which ended in March, according to an education ministry survey. (Japan Times)