Jun 15, 2022 (Kyodo) - A train station in Tokyo on Wednesday started reproducing platform announcements and the sounds of train arrivals and departures onto a screen in the form of text and sign language to help the hearing impaired on their journeys.
In the trial project that began at JR Ueno Station and will run through Dec. 14, East Japan Railway Co. aims to provide the hearing impaired with a safer and more convenient travel experience.
Source: ANNnewsCH
A 31-year-old Chinese national has been arrested in Tokyo on suspicion of operating an illegal mobile phone base station that forced more than 10,000 smartphones onto a 2G network in less than two hours, allowing phishing messages to be sent to unsuspecting users in busy shopping districts including Ginza, Shinjuku and Shibuya.
As of 3 p.m. on November 9, Typhoon No. 32 was moving north-northwest over waters south of Japan while maintaining strong intensity, with forecasts indicating it could turn eastward on November 10 and approach the Ogasawara Islands through the morning of November 11, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and dangerous waves.
A male bear weighing approximately 270 kilograms was killed by hunters in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, on November 8th after being caught in a box trap, with local hunters suspecting it was responsible for a series of attacks on a nearby poultry farm that left more than 100 chickens and ducks dead since August.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck central Japan early on November 8th, registering an upper 5 on Japan's seismic intensity scale in Aichi Prefecture and injuring at least 21 people, while damaging buildings and disrupting Shinkansen and conventional railway services across the region.
The Tokaido Shinkansen resumed normal-speed operations across its entire route at 8:57 a.m. on November 8th after a magnitude 5.7 earthquake disrupted rail services across central Japan, with JR Central reporting delays to 29 bullet trains affecting approximately 17,000 passengers, while Meitetsu restored services across its entire network by 9:15 a.m. following widespread morning suspensions.
The Japan Mint conducted its annual coin inspection at its headquarters in Osaka's Kita Ward on November 9, confirming that all 19,300 coins examined met the required weight standards.
Scientists at Toyo University have identified a possible weakness in alligator weed, an invasive aquatic plant described as one of the world's worst, raising hopes of finding a way to control its extraordinary ability to regenerate as it spreads through Japan's waterways, threatens agricultural land, and creates growing concerns about flooding.
Japanese pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma announced on October 30 that the first patient to receive its newly approved regenerative medicine treatment for Parkinson's disease underwent a successful brain cell transplant at Kyoto University Hospital in early October, with the woman in her 50s already returning to work and recovering well.
Japan's ports have long been the backbone of one of the world's most export-driven economies.
A company in Kagoshima has developed a new garbage collection station that uses specially shaped wires and rollers instead of conventional nets to prevent crows from scattering household waste, offering a cleaner and more convenient solution to a persistent problem in Japan's urban neighborhoods.
Japan has chosen a small, irregularly shaped moon orbiting Mars rather than the planet itself for its latest space exploration mission, taking advantage of Phobos' extremely weak gravity and lack of atmosphere to make collecting extraterrestrial samples and returning them to Earth far easier and less expensive, while potentially unlocking secrets about the history of Mars and the origins of water and organic materials in the solar system.
Japan's H3 rocket successfully launched the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on the morning of October 20th, placing the probe into its planned orbit in the first stage of a mission to collect samples from one of Mars' moons and return them to Earth.
JR West has unveiled multifunctional railway maintenance machinery, including a heavy-duty single-arm robot and a mass-produced humanoid robot, as part of efforts to address labor shortages and reduce workplace accidents in railway maintenance operations.
