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Tokyo CNN —Japan’s space agency said Thursday that its “moon sniper” robotic explorer landed 55 meters (165 feet) from its target on the lunar surface last week, calling it a “significant achievement” despite problems during the landing that put the mission in jeopardy. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission reached the moon’s surface just after 10:20 a.m. Shown here is the first picture sent back by the Moon Sniper after it landed on the lunar surface. JAXAA lunar surface scan mosaic image captured by the SLIM-mounted, enlarged view. If the Moon Sniper can survive the frigid temperatures of lunar night, the space agency hopes light might reach the solar cells as the sun’s angle on the moon changes, potentially restoring power generation and allowing operations to resume.

Persons: Smart Lander, SLIM, Ashley Strickland Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Saturday, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, Ritsumeikan University, Aizu Locations: Tokyo, Japan

☆ Kyoto Animation arson: Japan court sentences Shinji Aoba to death for deadly attack on studio
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Francesca Annio | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

A man prays after laying flowers near the Kyoto Animation studio building after an arson attack on July 19, 2019 in Kyoto, Japan. On Thursday, the judge ruled that Aoba could judge right and wrong at the time of the incident, according to NHK. The fire marked the worst mass killing in Japan since a 2001 arson attack on a building in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, which killed 44 people. The death toll also surpassed the infamous Tokyo sarin gas attack on a subway in 1995, which killed 13. The Kyoto attack left fans worldwide grieving the loss of life and a studio that claimed to put its employees first and was a major force in the industry.

Persons: Shinji Aoba, Keisuke Masuda, ” Masuda, Aoba, Carl Court, –, Haruhi Suzumiya ”, Violet Evergarden Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Kyoto, NHK, Kyoto Animation, Prosecutors, Amnesty International, Netflix Locations: Kyoto, Japan, United, Tokyo’s Kabukicho

☆ The winner of a prestigious Japanese literary award has confirmed AI helped write her book
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Christy Choi | Francesca Annio | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —After Japanese author Rie Kudan won one of the country’s most prestigious literary awards, she admitted she’d had help from an unusual source — ChatGPT. The author then confirmed at a press conference that around 5% of her book “The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy” — which was lauded by committee members as “practically flawless” — was word-for-word generated by AI. The novel centers around the dilemmas of an architect tasked with building a comfortable high-rise prison in Tokyo where law breakers are rehabilitated, and features AI as a theme. Kudan said that, in her own life, she would consult ChatGPT about problems she felt she couldn’t tell anyone. “It seems that the story that Rie Kudan’s award-winning work was written using generative AI is misunderstood… If you read it, you will see that the generative AI was mentioned in the work,” he wrote.

Persons: CNN —, Rie Kudan, she’d, “, ”, Kudan, Boris Eldagsen, George R, Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, James Patterson, Roxane Gay, Margaret Atwood, Keiichiro Hirano, Rie Kudan’s Organizations: CNN, Sony, OpenAI Locations: Tokyo, Berlin

Tokyo CNN —An American airline passenger allegedly bit a female cabin crew member mid-flight on Tuesday, forcing an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight bound for Seattle to return to Tokyo, an airline spokesperson said. Flight ANA 118 departed Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at 9:47 p.m. local time and turned around a little over an hour into its journey, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. An ANA spokesperson told CNN that the male passenger was detained by police after the plane landed in the Japanese capital. The female flight attendant sustained minor injuries, the spokesperson said. In 2022, two passengers were given hefty fines for hitting and biting crew and other passengers on separate flights with US carriers American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Persons: It’s Organizations: Tokyo CNN —, All Nippon Airways, ANA, Flight ANA, Tokyo’s, CNN, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Federal Aviation Administration Locations: American, Seattle, Tokyo, Texas

☆ World’s newest island forms in Japanese archipelago
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Brad Lendon | Francesca Annio | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Tokyo CNN —The world’s newest island has risen from the sea off the coast of the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean. Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) told CNN the unnamed island was formed by an undersea volcanic eruption. The photos show a small eruption sending a dark cloud of ash above the tiny island, which is now part of the Ogasawara Island chain. The island sits about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of mainland Japan and a kilometer from Iwo Jima, the island that saw some of the fiercest battles of World War II in the Pacific. US Marines fought tens of thousands of Japanese garrisoned there in a battle that killed more than 7,000 Americans and 22,000 Japanese troops.

Persons: Setsuya Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Japan’s Meteorological Agency, CNN, Defense Force, JMA, Earthquake Research, University of Tokyo, volcanology, Japan Times, Pacific . US Marines Locations: Iwo Jima, Japan, Pacific

☆ Japan court rules it is ‘unconstitutional’ to require transgender sterilization in landmark case for LGBTQ community
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Francesca Annio | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Her case had been rejected by a family court and a higher court before arriving at the Supreme Court. On Monday, the court ruled in her favor, declaring that the provision requiring sterilization was “in violation” of the constitution. Therefore, the provision in question is not necessary and reasonable,” the court said in its ruling. The Supreme Court declined to rule on the other provision requiring transgender individuals to have genital organs “resembling” the opposite sex, saying it was constitutional. The organization also expressed “strong regret” over recent discriminatory incidents against transgender individuals, including widespread “anxiety and fear” over transgender individuals using their bathrooms of choice.

Persons: ”, Kazuyuki Minami, “, Minami, Ken Suzuki Organizations: Tokyo CNN —, NHK, Supreme, Chamber of Justice, Japan’s Meijin University, National Coalition for, Laws, LGBT Law Coalition Locations: Japan

Tokyo/Hong Kong CNN —A Japanese sushi chain targeted in a spate of pranks that has sparked concern over hygiene has devised a digital conveyor belt to serve food to customers. The chain had been subject to a string of pranks dubbed “sushi terrorism” since the start of the year. Inspired by viral online videos, pranksters filmed themselves licking shared soy sauce bottles or tampering with food rotating on conveyor belts at the chain’s restaurants. Three Sushiro outlets have been fitted with the new digital conveyor belts. The student from western Hyogo prefecture said he would miss the convenience of being able to pick up sushi directly from the conveyor belts, if they are eventually phased out completely.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN —, —, Akindo, pranksters, Sushiro, ”, Alessio Procopio, Hideki Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Police, NHK Locations: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Osaka, Nagoya, Gifu, Japan, Hyogo

Tokyo CNN —The iconic Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli, which created internationally beloved films including “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away,” has been sold to Nippon TV after failing to find a successor for its legendary co-founder and director Hayao Miyazaki. “With director Hayao Miyazaki now 82 years old and producer Toshio Suzuki also 75, Studio Ghibli has long been struggling with the issue of their successors,” the statement said. Nippon TV and Studio Ghibli have long worked together, with the former broadcasting Ghibli films on air, investing in Ghibli movie productions, and even helping fund the Ghibli Museum, the statement said. Under the new arrangement, Nippon TV will become the largest Ghibli shareholder with 42.3% of the voting rights. Since its founding in 1985, Studio Ghibli has been known for its hand-drawn animation, sticking to old-school, painstaking frame-by-frame methods.

Persons: ”, Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, “, —, Ghibli, Miyazaki, Suzuki, Mononoke ” Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Ghibli, Nippon TV, Nippon, Kyodo, Suzuki, Ghibli Museum Locations: Tokyo

The findings are part of a larger investigation into allegations of harassment within Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF), including by whistleblower and former SDF member Rina Gonoi. The report, released last week, reviewed 1,325 reports of harassment. Most were “power harassment” incidents, meaning workplace bullying or other abuses of power, while about 12% were sexual harassment cases. But it paid off, eventually prompting a sweeping probe into sexual harassment across the SDF. Prosecutors reopened an investigation that found she had endured physical and verbal sexual harassment daily between fall 2020 and August 2021, according to Gonoi’s defense team.

Persons: Rina Gonoi, “, Richard Atrero de Guzman, Yasukazu Hamada, Gonoi, –, dishonorably Organizations: Tokyo CNN, Ministry of Defense, NHK, Defense Forces, CNN, - Defense Forces, Getty, Japanese Defense, Self - Defense Forces, Prosecutors Locations: ”, Japan, Tokyo

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