Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application to Chuichi and Ryu Nakano Kawaguchi in Ogden He graduated from Ogden High School Class of “49” and then enlisted in the Air Force in 1951 during the Korean War stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane he was honorably discharged and went to work for the US Forest Service in Ogden he was transferred to the US Department of Agriculture to the photo lab in Salt Lake City He retired from Government service in 1982. and bowling with his best friend “Biff” Yei In his later years he enjoyed going to Mesquite The New York Yankees were his favorite team Tad also spent countless hours with his grandsons Tom (Kim) Hattori; and many nieces and nephews He was preceded in death by his father; mother; and two sisters Toshiko Kawaguchi and Masaye Hattori. The family would like to express thanks and appreciation to Dr Sharman Sutherland and his staff for their many years of caring for Tad The family is so grateful for Intermountain Home Care Hospice team for their assistance during this difficult time Special thanks to Amber for her special care and support to our family A memorial gathering where friends may visit with family will be held on Tuesday 3408 Washington as Tad requested no formal services or Koden The family also requests no Koden or flowers Please make a donation to your favorite charity in Tad’s name. ORDER VIDEOS Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Justin Kawaguchi enters an intensive master’s program at China’s Tsinghua University with ambitions to make a big difference in health care building upon an eye-opening undergraduate education at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Justin Kawaguchi found a note from his younger self while sorting through some memories from his freshman year at USC In one box was a brochure for Schwarzman Scholars a highly selective scholarship offering students the opportunity to attend a fully funded one-year master’s program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing On the pamphlet was a message — circled and starred for emphasis — “Really want to apply Taking its inspiration from the Rhodes Scholarship program Schwarzman Scholars launched in 2015 with the goal of nurturing an understanding of China and its culture among future leaders around the globe 150 Schwarzman Scholars from 38 countries were selected from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants His undergraduate years included a summer research fellowship in Taiwan assisting with investigations surrounding health equity That glimpse into perspectives from another part of the world was illuminating in more ways than one “I got to see how valuable it is to understand Asian approaches to health care,” Kawaguchi said “Western health care systems are very much oriented toward treating diseases whereas Taiwan and other parts of East Asia are focused on disease prevention “The opportunity to expand my worldview was also crucial personally,” he continued I knew I wanted more chances to live abroad practicing the level of cultural respect and cultural communication that I knew was important to a future career with global impact.” Following graduation, he picked up that thread through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program,a competitive travel award that enabled him to return to Taiwan for a year teaching English “It was really powerful to be placed in a setting that was a little bit uncomfortable,” he said and I had never lived for that long outside of Southern California and I’ll take the same mentality into the Schwarzman program — very much trying to be a sponge Kawaguchi’s original interest in a health career was natural given the examples of those around him: his aunt a public health professional; and his father and he came to USC with the initial plan to prepare for medical school he was an active volunteer and advocate in support of the local LGBTQIA+ and Asian American and Pacific Islander communities he grew intrigued by the many connections linking health care and policy to other spheres and the potential to create change on a systemic level,” Kawaguchi said “My same underlying focus on helping people and improving health access has remained but how I aim to accomplish that has transformed over the years.” To pursue that purpose as a Schwarzman Scholar, he had to clear an intensive selection process that culminated with an interview opposite a panel including Fortune 500 executives and university presidents. Kawaguchi did so, while also maintaining the demanding schedule of his work as a management consultant, with some seasoned help. He credits USC Academic Honors and Fellowships for support throughout the process “I would not have been selected for the Schwarzman Scholars program if not for the Trojan Family — the institution and the alumni.” Kawaguchi will explore health innovation in China goals and logistics of the nation’s global health development programs He’s particularly interested in the role that entrepreneurship and partnerships with the private sector can play in driving improvements in health and health equity he will pursue a degree from Harvard Business School “I hope that Schwarzman helps crystallize things for me,” he said and I want to work toward a vision for how I funnel that in the future I can really accelerate toward that pathway Learn more about the global health degree and undergraduate education at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Phone: (323) 442-1900 Copyright © 2025 University of Southern California The question is whether or not immigrants are complying with Japanese law. In 2004, the Ministry of Justice compiled a report concerning the Kurdish ethnic minority group from Turkey living in Kawaguchi City Many had claimed they were entitled to stay as "refugees." However the report concluded that the immigrants had come to Japan for dekasagi ("working away from home.") because the Japan Federation of Bar Associations raised concerns alleging the report caused "human rights violations." The results of the investigation finally came to light in November 2024 There is a problem if sealing official findings from the public leads visitors to stay in Japan without proper legal status Hiding the facts to allow immigrants without lawful status to work should not be permitted to become the norm Meanwhile, as immigration officials fail to address this problem, friction is growing between local residents and Kurdish immigrants living in Kawaguchi We urge the government to investigate and clarify the truth of the matter An investigation was conducted in response to various lawsuits filed by Kurds who the immigration bureau said did not qualify as refugees the Ministry of Justice dispatched officials to several villages in southern Turkey where many refugee applicants originally came from It found: "All [individuals who had applied for refugee status] were from migrant worker villages." The report was then duly submitted to the court In the report was a statement by a villager who had previously worked in Japan "I claimed I was a 'refugee' because I wanted to earn more money," he said. This admission highlighted the abuse of the system for recognizing applicants for refugee status the contents of the investigation were not made public the results could not be used to resolve issues such as the legality of Japanese residency of these immigrants. the number of Kurds in Kawaguchi has increased dramatically This ethnic population from Turkey is now thought to number around 2,500 Kawaguchi City has received a series of complaints about littering All of these violate Japanese laws and customs including sexual assaults and hit-and-run accidents involving unlicensed drivers These issues were even brought up in the Lower House Budget Committee in December 2024. At the time, Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki responded to a question about the situation "Foreigners whose deportations have been confirmed will be ordered to leave the country as soon as possible," he explained what is to be done until their deportations are confirmed In an interview with The Sankei Shimbun, then-Turkish Ambassador to Japan Korkut Güngen said "It is common for Kurds to come to Japan for economic or social reasons." He also expressed the view that some came with the "intent to work." The revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act came into full force in June 2024. It stipulates that foreign nationals who apply for asylum status three or more times will now be subject to deportation unless they can provide reasonable grounds to be recognized as refugees. While assessing the effectiveness of this change the government should strengthen measures to end illegal stays for working purposes Author: Editorial Board You must be logged in to post a comment ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " By Vanessa Armstrong Kawaguchi headshot courtesy of Pan Macmillan Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s time travel novel, Before the Coffee Gets Cold According to Deadline whose previous credits include writing for Homeland which differs from its source material in that it takes place in the U.S a family-owned café offers more than just coffee—it serves as a bridge between past and present drawn by the chance to relive a moment that changed their lives knowing they must return before their coffee grows cold the act of letting go in the present can open the door to a future filled with hope whose selfless gift has brought solace to so many must now confront the shadows of their own mysterious past—one that may cost them everything Before the Coffee Gets Cold originated as a screenplay of Kawaguchi’s that the author and playwright then adapted into a novel It’s the first in a series of five books that feature cute cafés The Reactor newsletter is the best way to catch up on the world of science fiction “Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic.” For compliance with applicable privacy laws: You are viewing your 1 free article this month Toshikazu Kawaguchi has claimed the number one spot in our annual Fiction Heatseekers chart leading a list filled with Japanese and Korean novels and BookTok-boosted romance and romantasy The Fiction Heatseekers – run in The Bookseller’s weekly charts coverage – are the bestselling titles by authors who have never hit the overall UK Official Top 50 The list tends to lean towards early-career and emerging writers but often also includes below-the-radar literary novelists (particularly after a prize win or shortlisting) and digital-first writers with a widening print footprint along with a smattering of classic authors whose heyday preceded the launch of Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market in 1998 While the main fiction bestseller lists tend to focus on juggernauts like Richard Osman and Colleen Hoover, it is worth noting that those who operate outside the Top 50 contribute mightily to the market. In 2024, 37% (or a meaty £205m) of Fiction’s TCM record value sales came from authors who have never graced the Top 50 Kawaguchi grabs the summit with his Before the Coffee Gets Cold (translated by Geoffrey Trousselot), shifting nearly 81,000 copies, a nearly identical volume total to the title’s performance in 2023. The Osaka-born writer’s book was first published in the UK in 2019 and is the standard-bearer for the current Japanese and East Asian cosy fantasy/magical realist vogue a trend that tends to feature some combination of cats Before the Coffee Gets Cold’s weekly sales pattern has been remarkably consistent for the last three years normally selling between 1,200 to 1,600 units with the occasional spike; in 2024 that zenith was a 3,405 unit-haul in the seven-day period before Christmas This steady pace brings results: Kawaguchi has earned £4.6m through the TCM since 2019 for Before the Coffee Gets Cold and its four series follow-ups Two of Kawaguchi’s compatriots with novels roughly in the same cosy space hit the Heatseekers top five with Michiko Aoyama’s What You are Looking For is in the Library (translated by Alison Watts) in fourth on 52,835 copies followed by Eric Ozawa’s translation of Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days at the Morisaki Bookshop with its 50,171-unit haul Shanna Tan’s translation of Korean author Hwang Bo-reum’s Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop slotted in at 14th with almost 37,000 units sold Kawaguchi leads but Geneva Lee grabs one out of every five entries in the Heatseekers Top 20 with her BookTok-boosted “spicy Twilight meets Gossip Girl” Filthy Rich Vampires series the American writer sold nearly 170,000 units through BookScan in 2024 with her four books here skirting The Bookseller’s 74.5% off RRP threshold for inclusion in our charts The main driver of at least half the 2024 Heatseekers Top 20 has been TikTok; seven of the novels actually have the words “TikTok” or “BookTok” in their title’s metadata These include the obvious entries like Liz Tomforde’s ice hockey enemies-to-lovers-themed Mile High and Lyla Sage’s “steamy” cowboy romance Done and Dusted (kudos to Sage’s UK publisher Quercus for keeping Dial Press US’s clever retro and genre-busting cover treatments) Then there are the less obvious BookTok beneficiaries We first noted this in our 2023 Review of the Year but the great Russian author’s White Nights has been taken to the platform’s heart over the last two years Users have extolled the novella’s tragic love story on the platform but book-buyers were undoubtedly also drawn to the Penguin Little Black Classics’ £3 price point with the Ronald Meyer-translated edition shifting over 54,000 units last year This BookTok burst lifted Dostoevsky out of his usual reading list-driven circa £500,000 to £750,000 annual total with his TCM sales exceeding £1m in 2024 for the first time since records began BookTok also discovered Jacqueline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men the late Belgian author’s post-apocalyptic dystopia translated from the French by Ros Schwartz was released in 2019 and has had TCM sales of 60,730 copies since Our community products at Stars and Stripes are geared toward one very important thing: giving you the tools to make the most of your time while stationed in the Pacific we’re going to help you get off base and explore eye-popping day trip or fun festival that really lets you dive into the local culture help you take some baby steps and then set you free with the knowledge that if you ever get lost or are looking for some travel tips one of our magazines or special supplements or click on one of our community websites or Facebook and Instagram pages to get all the free information you seek So how do we compile the thousands of stories that are at your fingertips besides partnering with dozens of outside organizations from around the world And then there’s our team: writers Hyemin Lee (Korea) Takahiro Takiguchi and Luis Samayoa (mainland Japan) and their editor that’s them in the photo on the front page hard at work we go out and experience things first-hand so we can tell you about it during a 5-day gathering at our headquarters in Tokyo page designers and web team could brainstorm story ideas and discuss how to best display and tell the tales of our adventures And it was a week to show Hyemin a little bit of what Japan has to offer on this And what better way to do that than take a day trip and what his tropical paradise-influenced take might be on a mainland excursion a thing or two about getting the most out of a day trip And if you’re visiting Japan for the first time the iconic volcano can be seen from so many places in the mainland so our team decided to work its way around the mountain from afar enjoying the picturesque views of Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures Hyemin definitely got a taste of Japanese culture Shoji was able to revisit a trip from decades ago and Luis found out what it’s like to pile into a van and hit the road for 9 hours what they liked and what they would probably skip next time and let our crew tell you about themselves and show you how to enjoy a day of picking tea leaves and sipping green tea wakeup to hop into an OV loaded up with five sleepy colleagues headed to Japan’s iconic Mt or it might sound like fun; for us it was both…even if we didn’t get back until midnight headed northwest to experience the rolling green tea fields of Fujinomiya and crowded sites of Kawaguchiko in Yamanashi but we all got to know each other better and had a great time exploring together Read along and let our travel tales guide you next time you plan to visit the Mt Located in the center of Shizuoka Prefecture on the foothills and lower slopes of Mt Fujinomiya is a scenic city developed as a home to a magnificent Shinto shrine The small city with a population of around 133,000 accommodates a lot of renowned Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples along with beautiful waterfalls and mysterious lakes which boasts the nation’s largest green tea production at 25,200 tons per year Within Fujinomiya you’ll find many farms with sprawling green tea bushes with Mt Fujinomiya offers one of the four trails to start an ascent to Fuji’s peak the area also has many attractions for tourists to enjoy year-round Here are some of the must-see attractions Fujinomiya City has to offer: Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha is the head shrine of the nation’s 1,300 Sengen (or Asama) Jinja that enshrines Mt This holy site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the grounds spread beyond the shrine buildings and field in the city Fuji from the Eighth Station up are also included in the shrine grounds Fuji became common and a stop at the 1,216-year-old Shinto shrine was a must to wish for a safe climb check out the magnificent “honden” main hall as it is built in a distinctive “sengen-zukuri” style with a two-story gate tower you will find a large pond called Wakutamaike (literally which pumps out no less than 2.8 tons of spring water every second as its melting snow travels through the aquifer made of layers of lava and volcanic rock before bubbling up from the ground The spring water flows into the Kanda River running through the entire city Only a stone’s throw from the main torii gate of Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha Omiya Yokocho is a small alley home to dozens of food and souvenir shops Fujinomiya Yakisoba noodles and Fujinomiya Oden hot pot along with free Fuji spring water from a fountain Designated as part of Fuji World Heritage sites Shiraito-no-taki (literally waterfalls of white threads) is considered one of Japan’s most beautiful 100 waterfalls Fuji falls as thin streams that resemble white threads across the 150-meter-wide and 20-meter-high cascade Go down to the base of waterfalls along the short walking trail then you can enjoy the cool and refreshing mist Lake Tanukiko is a tiny and quiet lake known as a nice camping and fishing site you can enjoy the “Diamond Fuji.” This phenomena is when the sun appears to rise out of the Fuji peak in the morning making it appear as though Fuji has a diamond glittering at its peak the Asagiri Plateau is a large pastureland where dozens of dairy farms are situated As the name Asagiri (foggy morning) indicates the high altitude gives the plateau a cool and comfortable summer and the plateau can easily be covered with fog With the nice views of green pastures and majestic Mt the plateau offers one of the most popular hang-gliding and paragliding sites in Japan Drop by Asagiri Kogen road station to sample tasty “milk soft cream,” a soft-serve ice cream freshly made from local dairy Tea-leaf-picking at Yamataka Sakurai Seicha Tea Farm Tea leaf picking and factory tour: 1,000 yen Fujinomiya City in Shizuoka Prefecture offers an impressive view of vast bright green tea fields spreading against the backdrop of the majestic volcano my fellow writers and I stopped to enjoy tea leaf-picking and a facility tour at Yamataka Sakurai Seicha tea farm and led into a greenhouse to learn how to pick the perfect green tea leaf The tea bushes in the greenhouse were short and picking leaves was pretty easy We noticed that there were both light- and dark-hued leaves and Sakurai advised us to pick the lighter ones He said the light green leaves provide a fresher tea leaves can be harvested four times a year in Shizuoka – from April to May around bon season (mid-August) and from September to October the first harvest around April or May is called ‘shincha’ (the first tea of the year) and has the best full-bodied flavor and sweet aroma,” Sakurai said Shizuoka Prefecture is known for its enormous tea production the prefecture produced no less than 25,200 tons of tea or about 36.1 percent of all national tea products (69,800 tons) Shizuoka’s tea is in high demand and is often ranked alongside Saitama Prefecture’s Sayama Tea and Kyoto Prefecture’s Uji Tea as one of the best Shizuoka is blessed with mild temperatures clear water and well-drained soils comprised from Fuji lava making it a suitable place for great-quality tea Sakurai said he and his family have been producing quality tea for over 70 years After filling our basket full of fresh tea leaves we walked through Sakurai’s tea field and went up a hill overlooking the grounds we were able to catch a glimpse of the snowy peak above Our next stop was to check out some of the tea production process at the farm’s factory dried and crushed before being bagged and sold Though we didn’t process the leaves we picked we were able to take them home and attempt to complete the production process on a smaller scale with a pan or microwave Sakurai suggested watching a YouTube video or searching for instructions online to complete the process Sakurai’s wife demonstrated how to brew tea and extract the umami flavors of the premium tea leaves from the farm She showed us the proper way to cool down the water and heat the tea cups before pouring the water over the tea leaves on a small sieve sitting on the teapot opening twice and three times to experience the evolution of flavor The strength and subtle sweet taste is adjusted with the steeping time and water ratio When I sampled changing the flavor of the same tea leaves in several pours I noticed that the first service of tea and the second had a completely different flavor and aroma The second pour was smoother with a milder aroma compared to the sweet and sour richness of the first brew The tea farm also has a small shop where you can buy a variety of tea You can enjoy tea leaf-picking and tea tasting at Yamataka Sakurai Seicha from April to October Fuji World Heritage Center Shizuoka in Fujinomiya City is within a 2.5-hour drive from most military bases in the Kanto Plain and is a great place to learn about the majestic symbol of Japan This stunning building features a comprehensive overview of Mt Fuji’s geological makeup and other interactive exhibits The exterior of the building features a unique modern inverted cone shape with a lattice design made with locally-source cypress wood Although it was a bit cloudy when we visited we saw the V-shaped building clearly reflected on surrounding artificial pond which reminded me of the famous view of “Sakasa Fuji,” or inverted Fuji reflected on a lake the design and exhibits were even more striking than I imagined The museum exhibit path follows a 193-meter spiral slope up five stories where every section features time-lapse videos from each of Mt by walking up the slope and watching the videos Silhouettes of mountain climbers are projected onto the screens and sounds of the wind and footsteps played over speakers to increase the illusion of climbing As the silhouette climbers often stop for breaks and meals visitors can rest and enjoy various exhibits on the third Some of the exhibits feature touch-screen monitors that provide facts about Fuji in Japanese There are exhibits on the animals that live on Mt the aspects of the mountain as an active volcano and the effect it has had on the arts and religion in Japan a theater plays a 15-minute video about the birth of Mt not only have you gained physical achievement but you’ve also attained plenty of knowledge about the majestic mountain there is an observation deck for a view of the real Mt The clouds didn’t allow us to enjoy the view during our visit When I got out of the museum to see the inverted-cone-shaped museum once again I felt the 3,776-meter-high symbol of Japan even closer to me Note: The museum is close to the Fujisan Hongu Sengen Jinja Shinto Shrine and so there is also a large vermillion torii gate at the entrance of the center Japan’s symbol mountain is a 100,000-year-old stratovolcano Located on the border of Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefecture Fuji is Japan’s highest mountain with an altitude of 3,776 meters That fact has not stopped over 200,000 yearly visitors seeking to hike up to the top of this iconic volcano during the hiking season from July through September Fuji and the surrounding area are popular destinations for day trips and staycations as well as the Oshino Hakkai (eight ponds) to enjoy beautiful views and crystal-clear water The majestic mountain is not only considered a sacred site but also is a muse for countless artists and writers who have produced masterpieces dedicated to its beauty Fuji and its surrounding area were registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site inscribed as a “sacred place and source of artistic inspiration.” Here are some interesting facts about the symbol of the Land of the Rising Sun: Fuji is 3,775.63 meters (12,389 ft) tall; 1,200 square kilometers of footing area (equivalent to Okinawa Island (1,208.29 square kilometers); and about 1,400 cubic kilometers of accumulation (equivalent to 17 years’ worth of tap water usage in Japan (1385.5 cubic kilometers.) The lowest average temperature of the mountain peak is -18.5 degrees Celsius (-1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) in January and its highest temperature is 6C (42.8F) in August Fuji’s main crater is 780 meters (2,560 feet) in diameter and 240 meters (790 feet) deep A walk around the mountain top along the 3-kilometer trail takes about 1-1.5 hours to complete about 221,000 people hiked the trails to the peak of Mt There are four climbing routes to the mountain peak (available from July to early September.) Yoshida Route: 7 kilometers (a 6-hour hike) Subashiri Route: 7.5 kilometers (a 7-hour kike) Gotemba Route: 11 kilometers (a 7.5-hour hike) Fujinomiya Route: 5 kilometers (a 5-hour hike) FUJINOMIYA’S YAKISOBA A NOURISHING NOODLE DELIGHT Once we walked through the Fuji World Heritage Center in Fujinomiya our next stop was for lunch at Omiyayokocho a popular food yokocho alley near Sengen Taisha shrine This yokocho is a side street with several booths offering light foods like omusubi (rice balls) I was looking forward to trying this signature local noodle It was on my wish list since it earned the Gold Grand Prix in the B1 Grand Prix 2006 a competition to pick the best local food in the country Near the entrance to the street was an official antenna shop of Fujinomiya Yakisoba Society In addition to classic Fujinomiya yakisoba I chose a large serving of the classic Fujinomiya yakisoba for 800 yen (about $5.33) since this was my first time trying it I wanted to know how the standard one would taste before spicing it up I took a seat at a table in the middle of the yokocho with my coworkers Fuji spring water from a water spout in the center of the dining area and there were many other customers waiting by us I felt fortunate I only waited 10 minutes for my food to arrive I was struck by the exceptional texture of the noodles It was a textbook example of “mochi mochi men,” meaning pleasantly sticky and chewy noodles It was fun to chomp on the noodles served with cabbage and green onion Although the taste of its sauce was on the modest side dried pork fat and red-pickled ginger had me hooked The sardine powder was especially working its magic on the flavor Fuji’s fresh spring water felt like a luxury without spending too much Fujinomiya Yakisoba is arguably one of the most famous pan-fried noodles in Japan Its origin dates to right around the time when flour became available after World War II thanks to Government Appropriation for Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) It was a favorite among women who worked for yarn-making factories This is a signature food of Namie Cho (town) in Fukushima Prefecture Its recipe is believed to have been invented about 50 years ago to satisfy laborers with hearty meals It typically features noodles three times thicker than regular ones Considered one of the three major yakisoba along with Fujinomiya and Yokote yakisoba this type of pan-fried noodles is unique to Ota City in Gunma Prefecture Although there is no strict definition of what Ota Yakisoba is it is often recognized as “kuroi yakisoba” (black pan-fried noodles) because of its dark-colored sauce Ota Tourist Association notes that it arguably has its origin in Yokote Yakisoba which was introduced thanks to laborers from Akiba Prefecture This is a type of pan-fried noodle unique to Akita Prefecture Known for its thick and straight noodles with a square profile Yokote Yakisoba is typically topped with an egg sunny-side up and soy-sauce-pickled vegetables Recognized as a unique recipe of Gobo City in Wakayama Prefecture Sechiyaki looks almost exactly like okonomiyaki The difference is the noodles are grouped and coated with egg without using flour The name is thought to be derived from the word “sechigau,” which means to “make a mess” or “bully” in Gobo dialect there was Omiya Yokocho Puku-Ichi advertising a super cool Mt Fuji shaped ice cream for 450 yen (about $2.93) I was first in line and immediately asked for the bright blue ice cream topped with a white scoop to look like Mt I was a bit disappointed with a lackluster clear cup with blue and white ice cream that did not resemble Mt To this day I can’t even recall the flavor of the ice cream Imagine my shock when Denisse walked over to the shop ordered and received the very ice cream I wanted but didn’t get I looked at her in envy as she licked away at her Mt It was like I was a kid who got regular chicken nuggets when everyone else got dinosaur-shaped ones Not yet confident in my Japanese language skills to ask the staff to correct my order SHIZUOKA HAMBURG CHAIN SAWAYAKA WORTH THE WAIT  On our way back from Fujinomiya and Fujiyoshida we swung by sumiyaki (charcoal grill) restaurant Sawayaka Learning that this chain is popular for hamburger steaks and that it is limited to Shizuoka Prefecture for quality control I was especially looking forward to trying their signature menu items with funny names like “genkotsu (knuckle)” and “onigiri (rice ball).” we learned that we would need to wait 70 minutes and many customers were waiting at the door Although my initial instinct was just to drop the plan and go back to Tokyo some folks in my group were adamant that we should stick to our original plan we were able to check on the remaining time to wait on smartphones When we were finally back at the restaurant and guided to a table I could not wait any longer to place an order Sawayaka’s menu offered many options for hamburger steak like “tedzukuri (hand-cooked),” “cheese,” “yokubari (greedy),” in addition to those mentioned above I just went with the first one on the list which happened to be “genkotsu” (1,250 yen I was too tired and hungry to give any more consideration but to couple it with an A set (rice and a drink for 517 yen more) The restaurant’s interior was warmly lit and comfortable a server asked me to hold up a paper placemat I followed the instructions not knowing what it was for meat juice began gushing out and sizzling against the placemat The table mat could have served as a drool bib as well One bite was more than enough to get hooked the hamburger steak tasted exceptionally sweet and soft which has been loved by the people of Shizuoka for almost 50 years not only tasted good but also made even a first-time customer like me feel nostalgic as well We had more than one hour drive back to Tokyo I was glad I got to try Sawayaka’s hamburger steak I will say with confidence that no trip to Shizuoka would be complete without a stop at a Sawayaka for a generous Sumiyaki Restaurant Sawayaka (Gotemba Interchange branch) and holidays) *Subject to change during New Year’s holidays *Numbered tickets issued starting at 9:30 a.m Yamanashi Prefecture’s Fuji Five Lakes are home to impressive landscapes including a great view of Mount Fuji Lake Kawaguchi is the most popular and busiest The lake is surrounded by many hotels and activities for visitors in the summer for the fragrant lavender and in the fall for the colorful foliage Don’t forget to sample (or cook) the local dish hotou This miso-based broth soup features flat and thick noodles and chunks of hearty local vegetables like pumpkin Below is only a sample of all the beautiful spots to see while you’re in Yamanashi military bases in the Kanto Plain; 30-minute drive from Camp Fuji.) ENJOY TRADITIONAL INDIGO-DYEING NEAR SCENIC FUJI LAKE offers a hands-on Aizome Japanese indigo-dyeing experience Aizome indigo dyeing is one of the traditional crafts that has captivated Japanese culture for centuries When I visited the tiny wooden studio to join a beginner-friendly an instructor welcomed me and showed me dozens of samples of dyed T-shirts saying I could dye virtually any type of clothing I chose and to use different shibori tie-dyeing techniques to produce a unique product of my own techniques and indigo liquids were available at the studio I decided to dye a T-shirt using the so-called “murakumo (cluster of clouds) shibori” tie-dyeing method with lighter-hued indigo liquid The instructor brought me a plain white T-shirt and asked me to wet it with tap water before spreading it on the table to apply the murakumo shibori When I spread out the wet T-shirt on the table the instructor demonstrated the murakumo shibori She crumpled the wet shirt and made countless wrinkles with her hands then crunched it with all her strength into a small cylinder shape only the surface of the cylinder-shaped shirt can be contacted and dyed blue in the tank and the other part of the shirt remains undyed in white,” the instructor said Following her instruction and with her aid I tried to do the same and finally crunched my T-shirt into a cylinder shape then firmly tied it up at the three points with linen strings After confirming the T-shirt was firmly tied up the instructor allowed me to dip it into a large tank of light-hued indigo liquid I kept holding the shirt while swinging it in the tank to apply the liquid to the entire shirt for a couple of minutes until the instructor asked me to remove it I was so excited when I spread it out and saw the shirt was perfectly dyed and adorned with deep blue hues and intricate patterns indigo liquid oxidizes when it is exposed to oxygen and percolates the fabric I rinsed out the excess indigo dye and set my shirt out to hand dry “There are no failures in the art of Aizome indigo-dying and your T-shirt looks beautiful with your own patterns and hues,” the instructor said while looking at the freshly dyed T-shirt I was glad that a clumsy person like me could dye a whole T-shirt so easily The success of my first attempt led me to making a second shirt for my wife this time using the tsutsumaki (wrapping with a pipe) shibori pattern Both shirts came out great and the hour-long workshop was a good way to get a hands-on experience with this vibrant Japanese craft HEARTY HOTOU: GETTING REACQUAINTED WITH YAMANASHI’S SIGNATURE NOODLES Hotou is a hot pot noodle dish unique to Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture dating back to the Heian Period (794-1185) I encountered this local dish when I traveled around Mt We fell in love with the delicious noodles and it became our family tradition to cook it in our own way when I learned there was a hotou workshop on how to make it I knew I had to take it and learn the authentic recipe I was looking forward to learning everything from kneading noodles to making the broth a small restaurant about a 10-minute drive from Lake Kawaguchi and I sat in the tatami room of Fujiya to go over the recipe “It takes only flour and water to make hotou noodles while all-purpose flour is common for home cooking,” Muira said adding that the noodles I would be making in the class were meant to have a relatively hard texture The first step was to mix 100 grams of flour and 50 cc of water I quickly moved my hand in a circle until a dough started to form kneading fast and strong was key to getting it right The next step was to spread the dough on a thin sheet with a rolling pin “The dough will be stretched into a circle or an oval,” Miura said just keep on pressing on the same surface.” I tried my best to form a perfect circle of dough as if forming the base of a pizza The final step was to slice it into noodles I was supposed to fold the dough in three and slice it I was concerned about the unusual shape of my dough “The edge of the dough may result in an oddly shaped noodle but it will taste especially great,” she said it was time to let my noodles bathe in miso-based broth along with squash it was finally time to try the final product The gentle taste of the broth went very well with the chewy noodles and veggies Enjoying the hotou brought back memories of my first encounter 15 years ago Off to the side on my table were six small jars of Yamanashi Prefecture’s signature seasoning These spicy seasonings included togarashi (chili) powder magma and shibikara (electrifyingly spicy) One spoonful of miso soup sprinkled with the basic suridane later The red chili powder paired with bonito flakes and many more spices created a complex taste that is hard to describe I ended up trying all the types of suridane making my soup super red hot and so delicious I couldn’t stop sampling the suradane with the remaining broth I am sure I was sweating like the guests on the YouTube show “Hot Ones.” However who sweat and start swearing once they can’t eat their spicy wings anymore suridane somehow made me smile and want to keep eating more I could score a bottle of suridane as a souvenir to try at home I spent about an hour and a half at Fujiya working on the hotou The pace of the workshop was partially self-led so if you’re looking for a class where the instructor is guiding you every step Although the focus of the workshop was mostly on the noodles and not the broth I still enjoyed the process and working on it at my own speed hotou dates back to the Heian Period (794-1185) and originated in Yamanashi Prefecture Houtou was a staple in the mountainous areas of the prefecture since it was difficult to cultivate rice there The recipe was valued as it didn’t take long to cook and the noodle dish went very well with vegetables and meats Making the thick noodles in broth was even an important skill for women to learn in preparation for marriage As for why the noodle dish is called “hotou,” one theory suggests that the name was after Lord Takeda Shingen (1521 – 1573) cut ingredients with his “hotou” (treasured sword) This spicy and versatile condiment appeared in the Fujiyoshida area during the Edo Era (1603-1868) BE PREPARED FOR CROWDS AT OSHINO HAKKAI’S PRIZED PONDS Oshino Hakkai in Yamanashi Prefecture is known for its ponds The ponds’ water is fed from snow melted from Mt it is filtered through porous lava layers underground creating crystal-clear pure spring water we can drink from a thatched-roof house and crystal-clear ponds It looked amazing online with vibrant colors and not too many people But one thing I have learned about Japan since living here is how overhyped the expectations are compared to reality I saw a beautiful reflection of the old house and Mt I immediately saw tour groups in the gift shops by the second pond It was very crowded even though it was late afternoon the workshops and the museum were already closed I visited the gift shops first to browse around and get a feel for the place ranging from magnets and photos to even alcohol it’s a cool place to find unique gifts from the region They also had a small soft serve ice cream shop inside I decided to go with vanilla since I already had so many sugary snacks during the trip I watched in amusement as people took selfies they have a small water fountain where you can get a taste of Mt Denisse managed to fill a bottle of water up while Mr I also noticed fish swimming in some of the ponds it was a very peaceful place to stop by and browse the waters are not as blue as online and it was crowded My expectation was cyan blue waters and a beautiful orange sunset sky but all I got was clear waters and average lighting it was a nice place to visit if you’re nearby or planning a trip FUJI AND MORE AT OISHI PARK AND KAWAGUCHIKO NATURAL LIVING CENTER sometimes things don’t always go according to plan Originally Denisse and I planned to mountain bike near Fuji but commute time and lunch cut our activity time short With the other writers off to experience some local activities we headed to Oishi Park at the edge of Lake Kawaguchi for the stunning views and sprawling garden the first thing that caught my attention was the beautiful lake and Tourists were trying to get the perfect photo along the garden’s many pathways The garden at Oishi Park featured hundreds of roses of many different varieties There were also bunches of lavender just days away from blooming A gazebo covered in vines and roses was a central point in the garden and a stunning frame for Mt A walk around the park only took about 15 minutes and inside the Kawaguchiko Natural Living Center is a souvenir shop and a classroom for cooking and craft workshops there are also vendors selling snacks and local produce it sells soft serve ice cream cones in flavors like grape We decided a walk along the garden earned us another ice cream break I was very excited to try the ice cream here and did not let the disappointment of the Fuji ice cream from earlier discourage me from getting one at Oishi Park I had my mind set on a matcha-peach swirl soft serve cone for 500 yen except for the lavender one since that reminds me of laundry detergent unphased by the possibility of soapy ice cream The delicious matcha soft serve fused well with the juicy peach flavor Denisse liked her ice cream and said it wasn’t soapy at all — I had to take her word on it our cones both looked as advertised and the treats were only made better by the view of Lake Kawaguchi and Mt If you don’t mind the crowds and waiting in line for the interesting floral flavors Oishi Park and its stunning surroundings are worth a visit Payments: They accept yen and credit cards KITAGUCHIHONGU FUJI SENGEN JINJA A BOUNDARY BETWEEN MOUNT’S HOLY GROUNDS The Land of the Rising Sun is home to 81,000 Shinto shrines outnumbering it’s the nearly 50,000 convenience stores Shinto is Japan’s indigenous animistic religious practice in which spirits of nature Shrines are considered houses for those gods You may have already visited some popular shrines like Meiji Jingu in Tokyo large torii gates and unique architecture create the perfect back drop for great travel photos Kitaguchihongu Fuji Sengen Jinja by Lake Kawaguchi is one of the nation’s largest forest shrines spanning 99,000-square-meters Ditch the crowds to this quiet place tucked into a corner of Fuji’s surrounding landscape reconnect with nature and experience its unworldly calm towering cedar trees and stoic stone lanterns leading up to the shrine were overwhelming The shrine is one of those dedicated to Mt as “sengen” is related to Shinto animistic worship to it and other majestic volcanoes Kitaguchihongu Fuji Sengen Jinja was constructed in the year 788 but its torii gate was there long before as a symbol of the boundary between Fuji’s holy grounds and the secular world I bowed once before the large torii gate and passed through it on the side yielding to the deity who is supposed to walk through the torii in the center The shrine is home to very large cedar trees which were said to be upwards of 1,000 years old The sprawling grounds of the shrine contain many buildings including two housing guardian deity statues a stage for Kagura (a sacred Shinto performance) a main shrine hall and a temizusha fountain sheltered by a 300-year-old wooden building I purified myself at the temizusha fountain by taking a ladle with water and rinsing both hands and mouth before walking up to the impressive main shrine hall where I prayed for a successful trip with my coworkers bowing once and tossing a coin into the offering box bowing deeply twice and clapping my hands twice was a torii gate marking the start of the Yoshida Trail that There were about 10 tiny red shrines lined up along the path on one side and red banners donated by worshippers along the left Climbers who start at this trail stop at the shrine to purify their body and mind before making the steep climb to the top also has a similar trail entrance at the Fujisan Hongu Sengen Shrine for those using the Fujinomiya Trail to make the journey up Although I didn’t pass through the torii gate and walk any further I enjoyed taking deep breaths to inhale the extremely refreshing air there reminding me of the countless pilgrims who dropped by the shrine to offer their prayers for thousands of years DON’T MISS THE TASTY ICE CREAM WHILE TRAVELING JAPAN I’ve been in Japan a long time – nearly a decade I know a thing or two about traveling around the country No matter where you go or what tourist trap you find yourself in around this beautiful country you’re sure to find some interesting desserts and when I saw the Fuji ice cream for 450 yen (about $2.93) at Fujinomiya’s Omiya Yokocho food alley I’m not sure what Luis did wrong when ordering at the Puku-Ichi counter but I pointed at the picture and the lady had my Fuji cone in my hand in seconds which tastes sort of like a mix of cream soda and lemonade but the ice cream was more for a visual delight than a tasty one but my writer with the sad cup of ice cream sitting next to me shooting daggers my way could’ve had something to do with it the Fuji cone is cute and not so expensive for a novelty item o’er on the other side of Fuji at Oishi Park next to Kawaguchiko I made sure to grab a lavender-rose swirl soft serve for 500 yen — a risky choice that could’ve easily been a laundry detergent disaster I was pleasantly surprised that both lavender and rose could taste so sweet and creamy Luis was happy with his matcha-peach swirl soft serve so I was not on the receiving end of the ice cream envy Though I wanted to partake in another unique flavor of ice cream in the area during this trip trying some of the weird and interesting flavors of ice cream I’ve found while traveling around Japan is a fun and tasty experience I really recommend Maybe you’re not brave enough for the floral flavors just know there is something for everyone at the many ice cream stands you’ll find in Japan Read now > Sign up for our weekly newsletter of articles from Japan We take no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation 2025IndustriALL is demanding that the Malaysian government act immediately to counter the serious labour rights abuses allegations against Kawaguchi Manufacturing surfaced through public media later confirmed by the Malaysian Labour Department intimidation tactics such as detention and deportation threats and the withholding of migrant workers’ passports Over 200 local and Bangladeshi migrant workers were reportedly affected by these violations of national labour laws are urged to provide remediation for the affected workers Simply withdrawing operations without compensation risks worsening the workers' plight leaving them without wages or prospects for a better future “This is as a serious violation of workers' rights and human rights A systemic approach from the government is urgently needed Malaysia’s labour law still contain weaknesses There is a lack of law sanctions on employers' interference in organizing lack of access to the workplace when employers campaign against unions and no protection for migrant workers who are often threatened with retaliation if they vote for unions.” ”IndustriALL calls on Kawaguchi Manufacturing to respect international labour standards and on brands like Panasonic Sony and Daikin to ensure their supply chains are free from exploitation There must be full and immediate remediation for the affected workers including payment of all due wages and compensation for the moral harm caused by exploitation Brands sourcing from Kawaguchi must take responsibility for supply chain practices and contribute to worker compensation if the employer defaults “Following on the reports of abuse and forced labour in factories manufacturing for Dyson in 2022 the Malaysian government is called upon to ensure compliance with labour standards establishing worker-driven remediation mechanisms that allow grievances to be reported and addressed without fear of retaliation IndustriALL is urging the government to create a fast-response body to support victimized workers and implement robust policies to combat forced labour and exploitation in Malaysia." IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliates represent over 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining We take up the fight for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world © Copyright 2018 - IndustriALL - We care about your personal information and data. Take a look at our Privacy Policy a smartphone camera turned in their direction is an unwanted reminder of the growing online hate aimed at their community halting conversation in Japanese and Turkish unfolds between local supporters and the Kurdish family they are visiting Two women and four young children huddle in the space vanish into a pall of unease when a visitor's smartphone camera is turned toward them -- bringing back memories of the daily fear of being photographed or recorded without consent The cities of Kawaguchi and Warabi in southern Saitama Prefecture are home to many Kurds an ethnic minority in the Middle East with a large number in Turkey Warabi's particular concentration of foreign residents has earned it the nickname "Warabistan." estimates place Japan's Kurdish population at around 2,000 to 3,000 people some of whom do not have stable residency status Kurds have been settling in the area since the 1990s with many working in the demolition industry doing the kind of difficult dirty and dangerous work eschewed by many native Japanese But despite years of uneventful coexistence since 2023 Japanese social media platforms have become a hotbed of hate spread about and toward the Kurdish community Claims often involve alleged crimes by Kurdish residents and accusations that fleeing Kurds are "fake refugees" exploiting one of the world's strictest asylum systems The undercurrent of hatred directed at them along with the continual sense of surveillance in public has left many Kurds struggling to overcome the feeling that Japan is hostile to their presence Posts online would suggest that Warabi's Kurdish presence is pronounced But walking around the residential area near the station reveals that not to be the case And while online hearsay blames them for rising crime official figures demonstrate it is largely baseless According to the Saitama prefectural police arrests by foreign nationality in 2023 showed Vietnamese people made up the largest contingent at 417 people accounted for 69 arrests and just 5.9 percent of the cases "There is a lot of commotion happening on social media badmouthing Kurds for crimes but I don't feel that there has been an increase in the crimes exclusively committed by them," one police official said a Kurdish man who runs a real estate and demolition company spoke about his experiences while sitting at Kawaguchi eatery Happy Kebab an establishment that has become a hub for the Kurdish community A permanent resident now married to a Japanese woman he left his homeland for Japan in the 2000s after his family's land was seized we're used to it now," reflected Mamo from a seat at the restaurant which has a reputation for tasty kebabs and Kurdish food but has also become a target for anti-Kurdish demonstrators Kurdish people live in regions spanning Turkey often referred to as "the largest people without a country." the Turkish government has pursued a policy of assimilation forbidding the Kurds from using their language and engaging in their unique cultural practices but the Japanese government has granted refugee status to very few perhaps to maintain friendly relations with the Turkish government Trucks used by Kurdish demolition workers are a popular trope in online hate posts referred to as illegal "Kurd cars." Users take pictures of the trucks piled high with scrap wood from demolitions "There are some people who load the trucks in strange ways people who don't do it properly," conceded Mamo "But not everyone is like that -- and in some cases the photos aren't even of Kurdish people's trucks." Mamo said the community is less concerned about the vitriolic effect on adults for them it's traumatic to see people discriminating against them We worry how it will affect them growing up." In a bid to divert young Kurds' attention from hatred on screens to constructive pursuits a soccer team of about 60 school kids from elementary to high school It offers hope to Kurdish parents struggling to raise children in Japan is a charismatic 51-year-old who fled to Japan two years ago Formerly a professional footballer in Turkey he later became deputy mayor of his hometown only to be found guilty of using the Kurdish language in a public setting "We're showing how the kids can give their best to something in the face of this hate," Metin said at a training session for the team in a park outside Kawaguchi Turkish and Japanese shouts could be heard from the sidelines Metin said the initiative has not insulated the community entirely from voyeuristic hate someone took photos of a bigger boy and posted it online with a caption that 'Kurds are fat.' Today a man was taking photos without permission." the boys donned their green and red jerseys to play their inaugural competitive match against a team that included members of the Rohingya stateless people Organizers said it had been a start the team can build from head of the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association has sought to improve ties between the Kurdish and wider Japanese communities since 2013 He says the onus is on Japan to make top-down changes Colak himself has been the target of online disinformation after posts claimed he said Japanese people should "die." "There are people today who post hate to gain approval from society and stir up engagement are creating an image of Kurds as bad people," the 43-year-old said in an interview at a restaurant in northern Tokyo Colak says the issue of online hatred toward Kurds is a symptom of a wider societal ill in Japan "The government must craft legislation that eliminates discrimination and disinformation it's an issue for the Japanese people as a whole I want to see a change from Japanese society and its government," he said (Peter Masheter contributed to this report) Kurdish football team apologizes to J-League club over flag incident FOCUS: Female Afghan refugees facing legal limbo, deportation in Pakistan Rohingya woman helping community members to adapt to life in Japan To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker if you could visit the past—just long enough to finish a cup of coffee In Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally acclaimed Before the Coffee Gets Cold series (HarperCollins Publishers) dimly-lit Tokyo café called Funiculi Funicula which offers patrons this exact opportunity but nothing they do will alter the present So the time travel Kawaguchi explores in the series is concerned not with larger historical changes but with intimate His characters exploit the premise to resolve lingering regrets “What is really important to me when I’m writing,” Kawaguchi explains (during an interview in which he responded in Japanese) directing and writing for the theatrical group Sonic Snail When Kawaguchi transitioned from drama to fiction he brought with him a deep sensitivity to character and setting embracing the theme of “innate kindness.” This theme holds special significance for Kawaguchi “the first story of the book is this boy who displays immense kindness And I hope we can all realize that we have that inside us: this innate kindness in our humanity That is the thought that I am bringing into this book which plays a pivotal role in the series’ intimate tone is inspired by a traditional Japanese Jun kissa café It’s really an old kind of place: maybe a little dim and gloomy Kawaguchi envisions Funiculi Funicula as a closed-off space that is reflective of his characters’ internal worlds “One reason for the name of the cafe… is it’s the name of a song that Japanese people are quite familiar with recurring characters like Kazu – the quiet diligent waitress who guides patrons through the time-travel ritual — and Fusagi an “awkward guy” whose story of unspoken love resonates deeply much like the comforting atmosphere of the café itself Kawaguchi has purposefully filled Funiculi Funicula with these familiar figures to provide a comforting yet introspective backdrop to each character’s journey: “You’re huddling inside this very limited space… I wanted to give the café that sort of feeling—sort of like being inside the human mind or your own heart” the concept of time travel in the café evolved from a “flash of inspiration” ‘Before the coffee gets cold’—that’s a very short period of time So what can you do in that short period of time And his goal became to prompt readers to reflect on their own choice: “I wanted to bring that kind of reality into the fiction… to make you think about what you have to do now if you have all of these kinds of really annoying rules about the inability to change the past.” Kawaguchi’s background in the performing arts has strongly influenced his literary voice: “As a creator and thinking about manga as well.” This blend of theatrical and fictional sensibility allows Kawaguchi to connect deeply with readers by approaching each story as an open-ended question: “Do you think the same thing?” Rather than pushing his own ideas onto his readers Kawaguchi uses his stories as an “exploration of the self” that invites others to share in and experience his reflections on love the personal connection to his work goes beyond emotions and ideas He shares a special bond with his character Fusagi who will express his feelings through a letter rather than words: “I like how he can’t really put into words what’s going on with him… I feel like that’s really similar to my own self,” Kawaguchi says “The things that I can’t say or I can’t put into words When asked why he chose coffee as the vehicle for time travel Kawaguchi touches back to that foundational “flash of inspiration.” The phrase “Before the coffee gets cold” sparked the idea – “in Japanese but Japanese sake just doesn’t have the same ring to it When asked if he himself would choose to travel in time Kawaguchi’s answer is both tender and revealing who passed away when Kawaguchi was a child and I’m in a situation that he probably never imagined me being in So I’d like to go back and just kind of report to him Through his Before the Coffee Gets Cold series Kawaguchi has achieved the rare feat of crafting stories that are culturally specific and universally relatable Each tale in Funiculi Funicula invites readers to reflect on the moments and relationships that shape their own lives – and reminds them that sometimes a single conversation can make all the difference each story gently urges us to embrace the present and seize those precious opportunities…before the coffee gets cold Jun Kawaguchi is an accomplished marketing executive specializing in secure flash memory at Winbond With over 20 years of extensive experience in semiconductor marketing across various industry segments such as video he brings a profound understanding of market dynamics and customer needs He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science as well as an MBA from the University of Southern California Ryuta Kawaguchi Joins TeraWatt Technology as VP of Strategy 2025 /PRNewswire/ — TeraWatt Technology Inc USA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Ryuta Kawaguchi as VP of Strategy Kawaguchi began his career at Nissan Motor Corporation establishing himself as a distinguished leader in the battery and e-mobility industry He has held prominent roles such as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer at FREYR Battery as well as solution owner for the Dyson EV team Kawaguchi expressed his excitement about joining the company TeraWatt Technology has a unique strength in both product development and mass-production technology for advanced batteries that most startups overlook I am excited to join TeraWatt and accelerate the business development leveraging the expertise I have built over the last decade TeraWatt Technology founder CEO Ken Ogata Ryuta Kawaguchi as our new VP of Strategy at TeraWatt Kawaguchi possesses a diverse skill set ranging from engineering to strategic planning in the key value chain of conventional and next-generation batteries Kawaguchi is one of the few Japanese professionals with extensive global experience in the fierce EV and battery industries We are confident that his expertise will significantly accelerate TeraWatt’s strategy and business development.” READ the latest Batteries News shaping the battery market Former FREYR Battery CSO/CTO, Ryuta Kawaguchi Joins TeraWatt Technology as VP of Strategy, source Critical Metals Corp Announces Appointments of Executive Leaders Sergey Savchenko to spearhead all accounting and finance initiatives as Chief Financial Officer.. NEO Battery Materials Appoints Dr Matthew Dawson 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NEO Battery Materials Ltd Tesla head of battery architecture Vineet Mehta departs the Information reports (Reuters) -Tesla’s head of battery architecture COPYRIGHT POLICY DISCLAIMER TERMS & CONDITIONS PRIVACY POLICY We love meeting interesting people and making new friends GRAND FORKS — Gabe Bast first ended up in Belfast by chance The former UND defenseman's first year of pro hockey didn't go as planned He signed in Finland for the 2021-22 season It was the first time in his career he's been diagnosed with one "The symptoms lasted until the last month of the year Bast spent time in Europe at the end of the season His family met up with him in Northern Ireland to for a golf trip "It was kind of late in the signing period but they offered to pay for me to get my MBA (master of business administration)." He played for the Belfast Giants and helped them win the championship in the top United Kingdom league tallying 16 goals and 56 points in 51 games he took classes from Lasell University of Massachusetts and earned his MBA in 16 months Bast decided to put that to use right away and worked in Red Deer last year in sales and business development "I reached out to Belfast and had discussions Two of his college classmates and roommates "It’s just like old times," Kawaguchi said Gabe and Grant have played over (in Europe) before having people who know you — can keep you honest That was a big part of (signing in Belfast) and I knew Gabe and Grant were coming here The trio were part of a tight class at UND After spending their freshman year of 2017-18 in the dorms they moved two minutes away from each other on the same street as sophomores eight-room apartment together for their junior and senior seasons They led UND to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Penrose Cup in 2020 and 2021 The NCAA tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic during their junior year but lost in the NCAA regional final in five overtimes Kawaguchi has played professionally at the American Hockey League and ECHL levels Mismash also played in the AHL and ECHL before heading overseas last season to play in Sweden and Norway "It's a lot of fun being with those guys at the rink every day," Bast said "We reminisce about old stories in college and it's kind of funny seeing how we've matured since then." Belfast has 15 former college players on its roster "There are some guys who went to college together," Kawaguchi said "but there aren’t too many guys who spent four years together like we did." Bast has been showing Mismash and Kawaguchi around town He's given them tips on the best restaurants and pubs Their season started in September and they're already seeing similarities to college "Gabe is the same player he was," Kawaguchi said It’s awesome to play with these guys again getting to play with them again is so lucky." AD Leave a rating/comment#PaintingBack to ArticlesSHARE Volume 8 - 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2014.00042 This article is part of the Research TopicPlasticity of GABAergic synapsesView all 15 articles Purkinje cells receive both excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs and send sole output from the cerebellar cortex at excitatory parallel fiber–Purkinje cell synapses has been studied extensively as a primary cellular mechanism of motor learning postsynaptic depolarization induces long-lasting potentiation of GABAergic synaptic transmission This synaptic plasticity is called rebound potentiation (RP) and its molecular regulatory mechanisms have been studied The increase in intracellular Ca2+ concentration caused by depolarization induces RP through enhancement of GABAA receptor (GABAAR) responsiveness RP induction depends on binding of GABAAR with GABAAR associated protein (GABARAP) which is regulated by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) Whether RP is induced or not is determined by the balance between phosphorylation and de-phosphorylation activities regulated by intracellular Ca2+ and by metabotropic GABA and glutamate receptors Recent studies have revealed that the subunit composition of CaMKII has significant impact on RP induction A Purkinje cell expresses both α- and β-CaMKII and the latter has much higher affinity for Ca2+/calmodulin than the former It was shown that when the relative amount of α- to β-CaMKII is large The functional significance of RP has also been studied using transgenic mice in which a peptide inhibiting association of GABARAP and GABAAR is expressed selectively in Purkinje cells The transgenic mice show abrogation of RP and subnormal adaptation of vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) RP is involved in a certain type of motor learning The cerebellum consists of cortex and nuclei, and is involved in motor control (Figure 1; Ito, 1984, 2011; Llinás et al., 2004) There are two major inputs to the cerebellum innervate neurons in cerebellar nuclei and granule cells in the granular layer of cortex Granule cells extend axons to the molecular layer The bifurcated granule cell axons are called parallel fibers and form excitatory glutamatergic synapses on dendrites of Purkinje cells and inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the molecular layer Climbing fibers coming from inferior olivary nuclei innervate neurons in cerebellar nuclei and Purkinje cells A single climbing fiber forms hundreds synapses on a Purkinje cell and thus sends a powerful excitatory drive and send sole output from the cortex to nuclear neurons send excitatory synaptic outputs to granule cells A granule cell forms one or a few excitatory glutamatergic synapses on a Purkinje cell where LTD occurs depending on the activity of the granule cell and a climbing fiber Molecular layer interneurons (stellate and basket cells) receive excitatory synaptic inputs from granule cells and inhibit Purkinje cells At inhibitory GABAergic synapses between a stellate cell and a Purkinje cell rebound potentiation (RP) is induced by climbing fiber activity they are hetero-synaptic plasticity induced by excitatory inputs molecular regulatory mechanisms of RP induction and functional roles of RP are reviewed Three forms of synaptic plasticity at stellate cell—Purkinje cell synapses Time courses (left) and induction mechanisms (right) of DSI In DSI the Ca2+ increase caused by postsynaptic depolarization produces diacylglycerol (DG) which is broken down to 2-arachidonylglycerol (2AG) 2AG reaches the presynaptic terminal and activates cannabinoid receptor 1 (CBR) on the cell membrane which suppresses presynaptic vesicular release of GABA the intracellular Ca2+ increase causes postsynaptic release of glutamate which activates presynaptic NMDA receptor (NMDAR) potentiating presynaptic GABA release the postsynaptic Ca2+ increase potentiates postsynaptic GABAAR responsiveness Stellate cells form inhibitory synapses on dendrites whereas basket cells form them on the soma of a Purkinje cell RP has been studied primarily at stellate cell—Purkinje cell synapses in dendrites Whether RP occurs similarly at basket cell—Purkinje cell synapses is unclear It was difficult to record RP when GABA was applied to a soma (our unpublished observation) this difficulty might have been ascribed to washout of intracellular molecules necessary for RP induction caused inadvertently by the whole-cell recording conditions roles of direct phosphorylation of GABAAR by CaMKII in RP remain enigmatic This regulation is unique in that homo-synaptic activity suppresses induction of synaptic plasticity homo-synaptic activity triggers the plasticity of transmission Intracellular molecular signaling cascades regulating RP and T-bars indicate a decrease or suppression Red lines indicate signal transmissions which work to induce RP and blue lines indicate those work to suppress RP Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II; GABARAP dopamine and cAMP-regulated phospho-protein 32 kDa; PKA Suppression of the expression of β-CaMKII but not that of α-CaMKII inhibits RP induction whereas overexpression of α-CaMKII but not that of β-CaMKII inhibits the induction the relative amount of β- to α-CaMKII seems to be critical for RP induction binding of GABAAR and an intracellular protein GABARAP is necessary for RP induction and γ2 peptide which blocks this binding suppresses the induction Transgenic mice which express γ2 peptide fused to a fluorescent protein only in Purkinje cells were generated The transgenic mice do not show RP as we expected and other physiological and morphological properties of the cerebellum including LTD induction appear normal they might synergistically support motor learning Vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and its adaptation VOR is induced by rotating a turntable on which a mouse is fixed in the dark In VOR eyeballs turn in the opposite direction of head turn When a wild-type mouse and a surrounding screen with vertical black and white stripes are rotated in opposite directions in the light (VOR-up training) when the rotations are in the same direction (VOR-down training) Postsynaptic depolarization of a cerebellar Purkinje cell induces long-term potentiation (LTP) of GABAergic inhibitory synaptic transmission which is called RP and intricate regulatory mechanisms have been delineated Transgenic mice defective in RP show defects in adaptation of VOR indicating involvement of RP in motor learning The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Nakajima for their constructive comments on the manuscript and Ms Developmental expression of the CaM kinase II isoforms: ubiquitous γ- and δ-CaM kinase II are the early isoforms and most abundant in the developing nervous system Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Receptor for activated C kinase-1 facilitates protein kinase C-dependent phosphorylation and functional modulation of GABAA receptors with the activation of G-protein-coupled receptors Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text Functional implications of the subunit composition of neuronal CaM kinase II Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text GABAA receptor associated proteins: a key factor regulating GABAA receptor function Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission at the mossy fiber-granule cell relay of cerebellum Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The cerebellar microcircuit as an adaptive filter: experimental and computational evidence Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Learning and memory in the vestibulo-ocular reflex Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Retrograde activation of presynaptic NMDA receptors enhances GABA release at cerebellar interneuron-Purkinje cell synapses Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Conductance of recombinant GABAA channels is increased in cells co-expressing GABAA receptor-associated protein Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Distributed synergistic plasticity and cerebellar learning Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Beyond the dopamine receptor: the DARPP-32/protein phosphatase-1 cascade Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Beyond parallel fiber LTD: the diversity of synaptic and non-synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Long-term depression and other synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text “GABA and synaptic transmission in the cerebellum,” in Handbook of the Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders Acute adaptation of the vestibuloocular reflex: signal processing by floccular and ventral parafloccular Purkinje cells Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text CaMKII phosphorylation of the GABAA receptor: receptor subtype- and synapse-specific modulation Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Distinct regulation of β2 and β3 subunit-containing cerebellar synaptic GABAA receptors by calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text CaMK-II modulation of GABAA receptors expressed in HEK293 NG108–15 and rat cerebellar granule neurons Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Cerebellar control of the vestibulo-ocular reflex—around the flocculus hypothesis Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The Cerebellum: Brain for an Implicit Self Jörntell Cerebellar molecular layer interneurons – computational properties and roles in learning Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Jörntell Reciprocal bidirectional plasticity of parallel fiber receptive fields in cerebellar Purkinje cells and their afferent interneurons Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Jörntell Receptive field plasticity profoundly alters the cutaneous parallel fiber synaptic input to cerebellar interneurons in vivo Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text Jörntell Synaptic memories upside down: bidirectional plasticity at cerebellar parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Regulation of GABAA-receptor surface expression with special reference to the involvement of GABARAP (GABAA receptor-associated protein) and PRIP (phospholipase C-related Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Ca2+-induced rebound potentiation of γ-aminobutyric acid-mediated currents requires activation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Synaptic excitation produces a long-lasting rebound potentiation of inhibitory synaptic signals in cerebellar Purkinje cells Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Defective control and adaptation of reflex eye movements in mutant mice deficient in either the glutamate receptor δ2 subunit or Purkinje cells Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Suppression of inhibitory synaptic potentiation by presynaptic activity through postsynaptic GABAB receptors in a Purkinje neuron Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Signaling cascade regulating long-term potentiation of GABAA receptor responsiveness in cerebellar Purkinje neurons Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text Integrin α3β1 suppresses long-term potentiation at inhibitory synapses on the cerebellar Purkinje neuron Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Sustained structural change of GABAA receptor-associated protein underlies long-term potentiation at inhibitory synapses on a cerebellar Purkinje neuron Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Gating of long-term depression by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II through enhanced cGMP signalling in cerebellar Purkinje cells Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Dynamic impact of temporal context of Ca2+ signals on inhibitory synaptic plasticity Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Prediction and validation of a mechanism to control the threshold for inhibitory synaptic plasticity CrossRef Full Text The subcellular distribution of GABARAP and its ability to interact with NSF suggest a role for this protein in the intracellular transport of GABAA receptors Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Dynamic regulation of GABAA receptors at synaptic sites Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABAAR)- associated protein GABARAP interacts with gephyrin but is not involved in receptor anchoring at the synapse Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The distribution of thirteen GABAA receptor subunit mRNAs in the rat brain Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text GABAA receptor- associated protein 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Abstract in the 35th Annual Meeting of Japan Neuroscience Society Nymann-Andersen Subunit specificity and interaction domain between GABAA receptor-associated protein (GABARAP) and GABAA receptors Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The roles of CaMKII and F-actin in the structural plasticity of dendritic spines: a potential molecular identity of a synaptic tag Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text GABAA receptors: immunocytochemical distribution of 13 subunits in the adult rat brain Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Potentiation of mossy fiber EPSCs in the cerebellar nuclei by NMDA receptor activation followed by postinhibitory rebound current Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The use of control systems analysis in the neurophysiology of eye movements Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Reevaluating the role of LTD in cerebellar motor learning Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text mGluR1-mediated facilitation of long-term potentiation at inhibitory synapses on a cerebellar Purkinje neuron Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Ca2+ requirements for cerebellar long-term synaptic depression: role for a postsynaptic leaky integrator Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Long-term potentiation of inhibitory synaptic transmission onto cerebellar Purkinje neurons contributes to adaptation of vestibulo-ocular reflex Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text α- and βCaMKII: inverse regulation by neuronal activity and opposing effects on synaptic strength Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070239 Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Cell-specific localization of the α-subunit of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II in Purkinje cells in rodent cerebellum Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text GABAA-receptor-associated protein links GABAA receptors and the cytoskeleton Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text Normal motor learning during pharmacological prevention of Purkinje cell long-term depression Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The cerebellum: a model system for studying GABAA receptor diversity Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text | CrossRef Full Text The cannabinoid CB1 receptor mediates retrograde signals for depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition in cerebellar Purkinje cells Pubmed Abstract | Pubmed Full Text Citation: Hirano T and Kawaguchi SY (2014) Regulation and functional roles of rebound potentiation at cerebellar stellate cell—Purkinje cell synapses Received: 22 January 2014; Paper pending published: 09 January 2014; Accepted: 29 January 2014; Published online: 18 February 2014 Copyright © 2014 Hirano and Kawaguchi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Tomoo Hirano, Department of Biophysics, Building 1, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University Kitashirakawa-Oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan e-mail:dGhpcmFub0BuZXVyb3NjaS5iaW9waHlzLmt5b3RvLXUuYWMuanA= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Canada-born Kawaguchi joins the Giants following two seasons in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads recording an impressive 83 total points in 87 appearances between 2022 and 2024 Kawaguchi spent two seasons with the Texas Stars of the AHL said: “Jordan has some built-in chemistry with ex-University of North Dakota teammates He is a very skilled and passionate player who can not only put the puck in the net but also compete on all areas of the ice That sort of combination is what we’re looking for in Belfast and believe that Jordan is the type of player that you win with.” Kawaguchi’s NCAA career spanned four seasons with the University of North Dakota seeing him notch 126 total points in 136 games for the Fighting Hawks Kawaguchi was named as one of the team’s alternate captains an accolade that he would go on to emulate the following year as he was named captain for the 2020/21 season Jordan Kawaguchi said: “I am excited to be a Giant and to be coming to Belfast to be a part of the winning culture that the organisation has built I look forward to meeting my teammates and feel very humbled to have this opportunity.” Image Credit - The University of North Dakota Athletics. OML Belfast Limited registered in Northern Ireland under the company registration number NI 036962. Registered office 2 Queen’s Quay Belfast BT3 9QQ. VAT registration GB 714 1368 56. The lack of snow on Mt. Fuji, a UNESCO World Heritage site, as of Tuesday breaks the previous record set on Oct. 26, 2016, meteorological officials said. Usually, the nearly 12,300-foot-high mountain has sprinkles of snow falling on its summit starting Oct. 2, about a month after the summertime hiking season there ends. Last year, snow fell on the mountain on Oct. 5, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, or JMA. The snowless Mt. Fuji has captured attention on social media. People posted photos showing the bare mountain, some expressing surprise and others concerned over climate change. World & Nation Those who want to climb one of the most popular trails of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji will now have to reserve ahead and pay a fee. The JMA’s Kofu Local Meteorological Office, which keeps weather data in central Japan and was the agency that announced the first snowfall on Mt. Fuji in 1894, has cited October’s surprisingly summery weather as the reason. The average October temperature is 28.4 Fahrenheit at the summit, but this year, it was 34.9 F, a record high since 1932. Japan this year also had an unusually hot summer and warm autumn. A symbol of Japan, the mountain called “Fujisan” used to be a place of pilgrimage. The mountain with its snowy top and near-symmetrical slopes have been the subject of numerous forms of art, including Japanese ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.” Today, it attracts hikers who climb to the summit to see the sunrise. But tons of trash left behind and overcrowding have triggered concern and calls for environmental protection and measures to control overtourism. Yamaguchi writes for the Associated Press. California Hollywood Inc. Subscribe for unlimited access Site Map NUS Presidential Young Professor Kenji Kawaguchi, from the Department of Computer Science at NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing), has won the Best Paper Award at the prestigious NeurIPS 2024 conference the event featured global experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning with the Best Paper Award being a hallmark of excellence for highly impactful papers from leading researchers who are making exceptional contributions to the field of Machine Learning Prof Kawaguchi’s paper titled “Stochastic Taylor Derivative Estimator: Efficient Amortization for Arbitrary Differential Operators” (STDE) co-authored with Dr Min Lin (Head of Research at the Sea AI Lab) Mr Zekun Shi (PhD student at NUS Computing) and Mr Zheyuan Hu (PhD student at NUS Computing) addresses a critical challenge in AI and computational mathematics — efficient computation of derivatives for complex systems The team’s innovative STDE introduces a scalable and highly parallisable method to solve high-dimensional problems significantly reducing computational demand while improving accuracy the team solved a million-dimensional problem in just eight minutes on a single GPU a task that would have taken traditional methods weeks Prof Kawaguchi and his team’s work on STDE holds vast potential for real-world applications This accolade marks a proud and significant milestone for NUS Computing highlighting the School’s leadership in driving impactful and innovative advancements in AI research Read more about STDE From tales of alienation to comforting novels set in bookshops, Japanese authors have written nearly half of this year’s bestselling translated novels in the UK. What’s their secret?• Read an an exclusive Q&A with Haruki Murakami Butter also won the breakthrough author award at this year’s Books Are My Bag readers awards which are curated by booksellers and voted for by the public The popularity of modern Japanese fiction is not a new phenomenon in the UK, of course. In the 1990s, two writers broke through and became cult hits in this country. Haruki Murakami took off in Britain when Harvill Press published The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in 1998 who ran Waterstones’ buying team in the early 2000s is a big Murakami fan and remembers giving him “lots of attention Murakami publishes his 15th novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls about a man who travels to a mysterious walled town in pursuit of the woman he loves finding himself in a strange world of libraries So what’s behind the lasting success of Murakami’s books But “It’s really important to point out that she predates Murakami.” Yoshimoto came into English translation in the late 1980s and early 90s with books including Kitchen and Lizard her work often featuring alienated young women trying to overcome personal tragedy The success of Murata’s books is “really astonishing” People tend to see Convenience Store Woman as a book about autism “which was not what Sayaka necessarily intended but she doesn’t mind people seeing it that way She shows us that what we take for granted as normal is not actually normal at all.” ‘Can you give us another Murakami?’ to ‘Can you give us another Murata?’Alison FincherTakemori has been instrumental in the drive to have more work by female writers translated Soft Power with fellow translators Lucy North and Allison Markin Powell the idea that “women are being overrepresented in translation” is “absolutely not true The popularity of female authors has had a knock-on effect ‘Can you give us another Murakami?’ to ‘Can you give us another Murata?’” The downside of this desire to build on success can be the pursuit of superficial similarity – and this is evident not just in the search for the next big novel about alienation but in the comfort books that are the true juggernauts of fiction translated from Japanese Known in the industry as “healing” or “heartwarming” fiction comfort books often go unreviewed in the press but represent more than half of the bestselling Japanese fiction titles this year There are recurring motifs: coffee shops (Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold); bookstores and libraries (Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking for Is in the Library); and One of the most successful UK publishers of Japanese comfort books is Doubleday “I was the only person looking for Japanese fiction,” she says “I saw a copy of The Guest Cat,” Lawson recalls “I want to publish a book like that.” In 2017 she published the English translation of The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa “It’s not like cat books are huge in Japan,” says Takemori. “They exist, but it’s not as big a thing as is being made out in the UK.” She adds that Japanese fiction generally can be “unashamedly sentimental”, and she has translated a number of cat books, including Shinkai’s She and Her Cat. “I’m not a big fan of sentimentality,” Takemori continues, “but I do really like that little book. I had to work quite hard to avoid making it overly sentimental in English.” Meanwhile, as Fincher points out, there are readers for whom “comfort novels are a kind of gateway into the broader world of Japanese fiction”. Their success means other, more complex, Japanese fiction is being translated that may not otherwise have seen the light of day. “writers are almost always coming from urban settings And I think this urban landscape is both familiar for the audience here because it’s in the east.” As Malone puts it “what people want is an ‘otherness’ that’s not too other “Japanese [literature] is much less judgmental than western literature Western literature tends to be focused on whether things are good or evil the border between good and evil is much more blurred: evil characters often have something good about them; good characters are often flawed The endings of novels are much more open.” is Japanese fiction in danger of losing its appeal “There are always waves in publishing,” says Kangqin I’m totally fine with cat books passing like sand.” But other Japanese books She predicts that Emi Yagi’s Diary of a Void about a young woman who rebels against society by pretending to be pregnant Granta’s Jason Arthur believes we are “at the crest of a huge wave” will “always be publishing Japanese fiction but I think after a few corporate publishers put a lot behind some books that don’t work is its universality across genre and language it tells us that “we’re all a little bit weird This article was amended on 25 November 2024 An earlier version misspelt Li Kangqin’s name Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain and this is never more accurate than when you establish yourself as a foreign resident in a new country Being able to quickly familiarise yourself with the culture and customs can help ease the transition during a challenging time This is why Euro Weekly News makes it our mission to provide you with a free news resource in English that covers both regional and national Spanish news – anything that we feel you will benefit from knowing as you integrate into your new community and live your best life in Spain you can forget about translating articles from Spanish into awkward English that probably don’t make much sense Let us be your convenient and essential guide to all things that will likely affect you as a foreign resident living in Spain will be the protagonist of the last concert of the XV Pianino Festival to be held on Sunday November 17 in the cell of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand in the Cartuja de Valldemossa Specializing in historical pianos, Kawaguchi will play with a Pleyel piano from 1851 works by Chopin The fortepianist has an extensive discography and Bartok and has performed in ensembles including the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century he has won first prizes in competitions worldwide such as the International Competition Musica Antiqua Bruges 2016 Geelvinck Fortepiano Concours 2015 (Amsterdam) or the I International Fortepiano Competition in Rome (Muzio Clementi Award) Tickets cost €20 (admissions over 12 y/o only). Bookings available by email info@pianino.es, WhatsApp or phone call on (+34) 616 906 574. For more information, visit www.pianino.es View more events happening in Mallorca. Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox! Known as the PEOPLE’S PAPER, Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain. And it’s FREE! Covering the Almeria, Axarquia, Costa Blanca North, Costa Blanca South, Costa del Sol , Costa Calida, Mallorca and beyond, EWN supports and inspires the individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities we serve, by delivering news with a social conscience. Whether it’s local news in Spain, UK news or international stories, we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home. With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month, EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain. The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close. Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP), Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall). All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers. All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE. Download our media pack in either English or Spanish. Mark Cooper's early opener cancelled out by Massimo Carozza JJ Piccinich and PO Morin see Giants lead 3-1 after first period Gabe Bast and Jordan Kawaguchi's double put hosts in command in second period Scott Conway gets on scoresheet in third before Kawaguchi completes hat-trick All of Fife’s on and off ice problems coming to fruition and you can’t take on the Giants with only 8 forwards Two points for the Giants moves them ten clear of Sheffield heading into the last regular season meeting between the two sides on Sunday The Steelers have a couple of games in hand but should the Giants win it would be an enormous mountain for the defending champions to climb Then it’s a doubleheader at home with Cardiff next Friday and Saturday The Giants know that they could take an enormous step towards the title over the next 8 days 81Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Hat-trick for Kawaguchipublished at 21:04 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February21:04 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 8-1 Fife Flyers The Giants powerplay had failed to click in the game until… Jordan Kawaguchi scored - his hat-trick and the Giants eighth 100Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Conway makes it sevenpublished at 20:44 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February20:44 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 7-1 Fife Flyers It took 46 seconds after the restart for the Giants to score their seventh goal with Scott Conway getting on the scoresheet 120Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingThird period is off and runningpublished at 20:41 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February20:41 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers The Giants are twenty minutes away from a 10 point lead at the top of the Elite League They will have played two games more than their title challengers but that would be a healthy position to be in with 16 games left 60Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGiants on route to two pointspublished at 20:26 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February20:26 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers Three quick goals and then relax is how the Giants played that period It has to be said that in Fife a few weeks ago the Giants were 5-1 up in the third period and the Flyers came all the way back to force overtime I’m not seeing that happening again but worth mentioning Second period action between the Giants and Flyers Kawaguchi at the doublepublished at 20:01 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February20:01 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers Jordan Kawaguchi wasted no time in grabbing his second goal of the game inside a couple of minutes with a very classy finish Giants sclebrate the sixth goal from Jordan Kawaguchi 133Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Kawaguchi nets a fifth for Giantspublished at 19:57 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:57 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 5-1 Fife Flyers And before the fourth goal can be announced on the ice the Giants have a fifth thanks to Jordan Kawaguchi Jordan Kawaguchi after scoring the Giants fifth goal 113Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Bast with the fourth goal for Giantspublished at 19:54 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:54 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 4-1 Fife Flyers Gabe Bast from between the hash marks gets a shot away that Shane Owen gets a lot of his pads behind but can’t keep it out of his net 113Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingPuck dropped on second periodpublished at 19:52 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:52 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers Can Fife mount a comeback or will the Giants pull away to another important two points 90Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGiants up by two after first periodpublished at 19:34 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:34 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers Giants ahead and apart from the poor goal they conceded 110Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Morin adds to Giants leadpublished at 19:29 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:29 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers PO Morin tucks the puck away after a broken play saw it end up on his stick 111Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Piccinich with a super solo effortpublished at 19:19 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:19 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 2-1 Fife Flyers JJ Piccinich goes coast-to-coast with a beautiful solo effort and the Giants are on front again in a game that both sides are neglecting defence 123Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Flyers tie the scorepublished at 19:10 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:10 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 1-1 Fife Flyers Giants netminder Tom McCollum won’t want to see this one on replay Shot from Massimo Carozza goes though the pads and trickles in 98Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingGOAL Giants with early leadpublished at 19:05 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:05 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 1-0 Fife Flyers 1.23 into the game and the Giants are in front thanks to captain Mark Cooper Mark Cooper after giving the Giants the lead 122Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingFirst period underway…published at 19:02 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February19:02 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants 0-0 Fife Flyers The Giants start Tom McCollum between the pipes tonight and he’s faced by Shane Owen for the Flyers Bobo Carpenter and Karl Bourdrais with Kyle Osterberg and Zak Galambos in the line up 90Shareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingIt’s Valentine’s Day Hockey in Belfastpublished at 18:51 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February18:51 GMT 14 FebruaryBelfast Giants v Fife Flyers (19:00 GMT) It appears a lot of people are spending date night at the Giants this evening as the hometown team take on the Fife Flyers in the Elite Legaue The hosts have already picked up a win this week a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Panthers in the Challenge Cup semi-final first leg and are eight points clear at the top of the table They've lost just three of their past 15 games in all competitions The Flyers haven't won in six games and are 17 points adrift at the foot of the table Fife join Coventry and Sheffield as the only teams however to have won in Belfast this season having picked up a Challenge Cup group stage win A Jordan Kawaguchi hat trick helped Belfast Giants cruise to an 8-1 victory over Fife flyers on Friday night and go 10 points clear at the top of the Elite League table 6,204 fans saw them do it at the SSE Arena The game entered a lull after those quick goals Scott Conway made it seven 46 seconds into the third while Kawaguchi buried a rebound with 4:23 left in the game to make it a hat trick for him Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information Saitama Prefecture—At a time when computer games display increasingly crystal clear graphics and feature augmented reality the “beigoma” spinning top is making a comeback among children in this iron-casting city Beigoma has long suffered from waning popularity and only a few manufacturers now produce the traditional top Behind the trend in Kawaguchi is a local government official’s campaign to share the allure of beigoma at educational institutes 20 children were competing in the beigoma corner of the Kawaguchi city folk museum knock the opponents’ tops out of the ring or are the last ones spinning “It is fun for me to be able to defeat adults,” said Mutsumi Yamamoto a museum official deployed from the city’s board of education said competitions organized on weekends attract more than 100 people in a single day The competition space was set up in June 2022 after Ide heard that Nissan Chuzojo planned to shut down its beigoma museum as part of its office relocation during the COVID-19 pandemic Nissan Chuzojo is the only dedicated beigoma manufacturer and seller in Kawaguchi some dating back to the Taisho Era (1912-1926) When the beigoma gallery resumed operations within the municipal folk museum the playing space was set up at the same time so Ide came up with the idea of touring schools to promote beigoma “Children may grow interested in the iron-casting industry if they become able to spin their own beigoma,” Ide said he thought at the time Targeting primarily third-graders at elementary school Ide solicited requests for his practice program and he held beigoma lessons at six schools in fiscal 2022 that ended in March 2023 the sessions were held at 33 schools in fiscal 2023 Up to 44 institutes embraced the program in fiscal 2024 through January 2025 A total of 9,115 children have attended the beigoma lessons and more educational institutions have introduced specialized beigoma rings in classrooms One school operator expressed gratitude for “beigoma bringing a truant child back to school.” Ide also saw more elementary school pupils at the folk museum the beigoma community as a whole is facing a harsh situation Beigoma was immensely popular from the end of World War II until the 1960s The old-style top lost appeal after a range of entertainment options Many companies stopped producing beigoma except to make use of leftover iron only three companies nationwide continue to manufacture beigoma The number of beigoma makers in Kawaguchi has dropped to one from 50 or 60 during the 1950s when cylindrical cupola furnaces that make the tops were abundant The 1962 film “Cupola no Aru Machi” (A town of cupolas) just six of the furnaces remain in the city mainly because of challenges to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and noise Complicating the issue is the aging of the local workforce Tsujii said he is astonished at the recent popularity of beigoma in Kawaguchi I wonder how long we can keep making beigoma,” he said Despite his own long-time efforts to publicize the top Nissan Chuzojo had no choice but to close its factory in 1998 The company managed to restart its beigoma business at the time after it was flooded with letters from children around the country who “want you to keep going.” “The current situation should be called miraculous,” Tsujii said “We will continue delivering tops as long as someone needs our products I consider this a mission of the dedicated top maker.” VOX POPULI: Let’s hope luck turns around this year after it spun out in 2020 A new spin on spinning tops: Traditional craft now in danger Concerns rise as tighter rules on refugee status Special-needs schools spring up to cope with soaring demand NPO to fund language classrooms for foreign children Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission National Report 21 ordered a halt to a planned protest targeting Kurdish people in Japan ruling that the demonstration amounted to hate speech 24 near the office of the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association in Kawaguchi The court order prohibits the protest organizers from engaging in any demonstrations or distributing insulting or defamatory leaflets within a 600-meter radius of the association’s office “We are truly happy with the ruling,” the association said “We were worried that the demonstrations would spread false stereotypes about Kurds.” This is the first court injunction against a demonstration targeting Kurdish residents in Japan have held multiple demonstrations near the office since February members have displayed banners and placards carrying such messages as “Kurdish Association that supports suicide bombings is not welcome in Japan.” Others have used megaphones to shout out slogans like The association argued that these protests constituted clear defamation and hate speech against Kurds It expressed concerns that similar demonstrations would continue if left unchecked “It’s significant that the court recognized that the demonstrations against Kurds in Kawaguchi and neighboring Warabi are illegal,” said Kim Yeong-gong “We hope this will lead to the eradication of hate demonstrations.” The court’s decision followed a series of similar rulings issued by courts in Kanagawa Prefecture Osaka and Tokyo between 2016 and 2019 to prevent hate speech targeting ethnic Koreans Hate speech escalates against Kurds living close to Tokyo Social media posters abroad fuel hatred of Kurds in Japan Man whose video fueled anti-Kurd sentiment has ‘mixed feelings’ retiree continues helping Kurds get by in Japan Worried Turkish expats collecting donations for quake victims Copyright © The Asahi Shimbun Company. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission. GRAND FORKS — When Jordan Kawaguchi was playing last season, he had plenty of fun. His Idaho Steelheads were the best regular-season team in ECHL history, setting records for wins and points. Individually, the former UND star racked up 26 goals and 52 points in 58 games. Kawaguchi suffered three concussions, running his career total to eight. "After the third concussion, I started feeling like this might be my last go at winning something as a player," Kawaguchi said. "I didn't think about it that hard, but I had a feeling in the back of my mind that this might be it." Kawaguchi missed the start of the playoffs due to his third concussion. He came back in time to help Idaho make a run to the Kelly Cup Finals. In Game 1 of the finals, Kawaguchi suffered a broken thumb. He went to the hospital, got X-rays, returned home, went to bed, then woke up and headed to the rink to play a 3 p.m. afternoon game the next day. "It made sense to move on," Kawaguchi said. "Obviously, I didn't want to. But when the body is breaking down on you..." The Abbotsford, B.C., native played four years at UND, racking up 126 points in 136 games. He led UND in scoring in three consecutive seasons and captained the Fighting Hawks as a senior. He signed a two-year deal with the Dallas Stars and played in their minor-league system with the American Hockey League's Texas Stars and the Idaho Steelheads. "I enjoyed (Idaho) a lot," Kawaguchi said. "When you get sent down (to the ECHL) when you're on an NHL contract, it sucks. It's a big hit to the confidence. But when I got there, the whole team was really receptive. The coaches were awesome. I had a few guys I played with before there. It was a lot of fun. We had an incredible team." Kawaguchi had an offer to go into coaching in Canada, but said it wasn't the right fit. He was browsing Indeed for jobs and found an opening at Northwestern Mutual in Fargo. He applied and was contacted by an employee there — former UND women's basketball star Mary Klabo. After meeting the staff, Kawaguchi realized it would be a good fit. "There are a lot of incredible sports people there who are in the business world now," Kawaguchi said. "They do really well in the business world. They're people who lived the same lifestyle as me, who view things the same way I do. I thought this was an incredible opportunity. I was really excited." Kawaguchi is working as a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual in Fargo, but also frequently makes trips to Grand Forks. He said he's now working to build a roll of clients — including some former hockey players. "I try to help people achieve their life goals," he said. "For (the hockey players), it's helping them plan for life after hockey. For others, it's achieving their personal financial goals." Kawaguchi said he's enjoying the new line of work. "I'm only a couple months into this," he said, "and I'm really happy with my decision to do what I'm doing right now." Background: Child maltreatment induces significant health problems, both during childhood and into adulthood. To prevent child maltreatment, it is important to detect perinatal risk factors for earlier intervention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perinatal risk factors associated with child maltreatment during pregnancy. Conclusions: This study revealed that young mothers, fathers much older than mothers, unmarried mothers, and maternal mental disorder, mothers with late first visit or little perinatal care, and low-birth-weight babies and babies with congenital disease were associated with child maltreatment. These findings can be used to detect high-risk families for child maltreatment during or after pregnancy. Volume 8 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.00143 This article is part of the Research TopicMaternal-Perinatal Risk and Children-Adolescent HealthView all 17 articles Background: Child maltreatment induces significant health problems it is important to detect perinatal risk factors for earlier intervention The aim of this study was to evaluate the perinatal risk factors associated with child maltreatment during pregnancy Methods: A case-control study was conducted to compare perinatal data from the Maternal and Child Health Handbook between the case and control groups Cases were collected from children registered in two Child Guidance Centers in Japan The control group consisted of 3.5-year-old children in a city in Osaka Prefecture whose mothers responded to questionnaires containing information from the Maternal and Child Health Handbook The association between perinatal factors and child maltreatment was assessed using multiple logistic regression analysis Results: The data of 70 cases and 345 controls were collected The following were found to be perinatal factors related to child maltreatment: teenage pregnancy (OR: 257.3 a mother aged 20–24 years (OR: 22.8 a father who is older than the mother by 10 years or more (OR: 14.1 the first maternal prenatal visit being later than 20 weeks (OR: 132 little prenatal care (<10 visits) (OR: 21.4 Conclusions: This study revealed that young mothers mothers with late first visit or little perinatal care and low-birth-weight babies and babies with congenital disease were associated with child maltreatment These findings can be used to detect high-risk families for child maltreatment during or after pregnancy Child maltreatment causes significant problems in child development (1–3). It is a serious global problem and Japan is no exception (4). The latest data indicates that, from April 2016 to March 2017, a total of 49 deaths were due to child abuse (5) children under 1 year of age accounted for 32 (65.3%) of which 16 (50.0%) were within the first month of life These numbers suggest the importance of early prevention efforts against child maltreatment from pregnancy onward the reason for placing children on the child protection register is not only child maltreatment but insufficient nurturing We examined the perinatal risk factors related with child maltreatment listed in the MCH by comparing children who had been maltreated and registered at a Child Guidance Center with children who had never been maltreated up until their 3.5-year health examination This was an unmatched case-control study comparing perinatal data from the MCH between children in foster care and those who had never been registered for child maltreatment the cases comprised 0- to 5-year-old children who had been placed on the child protection register for child maltreatment at two Child Guidance Centers in Osaka Prefecture The cases were selected from the entire area of Osaka Prefecture and from the surrounding prefecture We limited the sample to mothers with their copies of the MCH We asked health nurses on the staff of the two Child Guidance Centers to provide information about the children placed on the child protection register We received information regarding their MCH from the nurses with the exception of personal information such as name We could not obtain the consent from parents of the cases because the cases had been placed on the child protection register for child maltreatment the cases survey was conducted with the consent of the Child Guidance Centers and Osaka Prefecture The control group consisted of 3.5-year-old children living in a city in Osaka Prefecture whose mothers had agreed to be the subjects of this study at the infant health examination We obtained the written informed consent from the parents of participants On the questionnaire a total of 27 question items were set and closed or multiple-choice question was prepared for the respective items with the exception of maternal and paternal age number of pregnancy medical examinations and birth weight The public health nurses in the city confirmed the information given in the questionnaires This questionnaire survey was conducted among all mothers who have 3.5-year-old children living in the city the survey was also conducted with mothers of children requiring the city's care because of maltreatment the most severely affected children are placed on the child protection register and less severely affected ones are living with their parents and are watched under the city's care However we excluded them from the control group we also excluded children who had no detailed information in their MCH The sample size was calculated using the assumption of 95% confidence interval and 80% power with one to five ratio of cases and controls using the hypothetical proportion of 5% with perinatal risk in controls We examined the following perinatal factors: background factors The background factors consisted of maternal age number of children (including the subjects of this study) Economic status was defined as whether welfare or public assistance benefits had been received for the cost of delivery maternal mental disorder included mothers who were considered to have psychiatric problems by the foster home staff as well as those who were diagnosed with a mental disorder information about maternal mental disorder was composed of self-reported data from the questionnaire it was included as one of the options to obtain the medical history The gestational factors consisted of the week of the first visit The children's factors consisted of multiple pregnancy We compared continuous variables using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test because the variables did not have a normal distribution and categorical variables using Pearson's chi-square and Fisher's exact tests The association between maternal mental disorder or maternal age and other factors was examined by chi-square test with cross tabulation Perinatal factors related to child maltreatment were evaluated using multiple logistic regression analysis after adjusting the age of admission to the child protection register or the age at the time of investigation The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) was calculated using the regression analysis to confirm multi-collinearity in the multivariate analysis There were some significant variables in the univariate analysis that were excluded in the multivariate analysis Twin pregnancy was not included in the multivariate analysis because there were only 10 pairs across both groups Because proteinuria and hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and premature birth and cesarean section are closely related we selected only hypertensive disorder of pregnancy The week of the first visit and number of pregnancy medical examinations were correlated the factor of the week of the first visit being before 20 weeks' gestation and with more than 10 examinations was used as a reference for two situations: the first visit being after 20 weeks' gestation and the first visit being before 20 weeks' gestation with less than 10 examinations Statistical analyses were performed using Stata software Two-sided p-values of less than 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance A total of 27 children were excluded because they had been placed on the child protection register because of insufficient nurturing physical abuse accounted for 33 (47.1%); neglect The type of abuse was duplicated in some cases A total of 25 cases were excluded either because of lack of detailed information (n = 19) or because of children requiring aid due to maltreatment (n = 6) From May 2015 to April 2016, 576 children aged 3.5 years underwent the infant health examination at a city in Osaka Prefecture. There were 370 (64.2%) of their mothers who agreed and responded to the survey. A total of 25 cases were excluded either because of lack of detailed information (n = 19) or because of children requiring aid due to maltreatment (n = 6). Thus, 345 cases were included in the analysis. Table 1 shows the comparison of background factors and children's factors in the registered and control groups There was a significant difference between the registered and control groups in almost all the factors The proportion of young parents was significantly higher in the cases than in the control group cases in which the father was more than 10 years older than the mother comprised 20.7% of the registered group which was significantly higher than in the control group (5.3%) The proportion of unmarried parents among the cases was 50% which was significantly higher compared to the control group (2.9%) 48.5% of the cases had received financial assistance for helping with birth costs which was significantly higher compared to the control group (8.2%; p < 0.001) Among the cases there were 33(47.1%) mothers with mental disorder 26 of whom (78.8%) were diagnosed by a doctor This rate was significantly higher than that in the control group (3.8%) A statistically significant difference was seen between the groups with regard to gestational age at the first visit and number of pregnancy medical examinations five mothers had delivered a baby without a pregnancy examination and preterm birth were all significantly higher in the cases than in the control group The number of preterm births and low-birth-weight infants was significantly higher in the cases than in the control group The rate of congenital disease among children was 11.6% among the cases which was significantly higher than that in the control group (2.9%) All the twins among the cases were preterm births whereas all the twins in the control group were term births and children's factors in the case and control groups The results of the multivariable logistic regression analysis for perinatal factors associated with child maltreatment are presented in Table 2 The analysis was adjusted for the age of admission to the child protection register or the age at the time of investigation maternal mental disorder was associated with younger mother father over 10 years older than the mother the first maternal prenatal visit being later than 20 weeks teenager was associated with father over 10 years older than the mother which was small enough to conclude this analysis was still valid As perinatal factors related to child maltreatment we observed the following: teenage pregnancy (OR; 257.3 a mother aged 20–24 years (OR; 22.8 a father older by 10 years or more than the mother (OR;14.1 the first maternal prenatal visit being later than 20 weeks (OR;132 little prenatal care (less than 10 visits) (OR;21.4 The area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.971 (95% CI = 0.942 to 1.000) Multivariable analyses for perinatal factors associated with children in foster care compared with non-abused children We investigated the perinatal factors from the MCH associated with child maltreatment by comparing children who had entered foster care with those who had never been registered for child maltreatment The background factors found to be related to child maltreatment were being a mother aged between 20 and 24 years a father over 10 years older than the mother age differences between parents are associated with whether it is the first marriage or a remarriage it is uncertain in this study if older fathers were an independent factor as we did not collect data about the number of marriages In this study the maternal mental disorder was particularly strongly associated with child maltreatment. The inspection of the child abuse death in Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan also confirmed that the maternal mental disorder was a contributing factor in the child abuse death (5) The maternal mental disorder was also related to other background factors and gestational factors The presence of a mental disorder was associated with poverty and a deterioration of cognitive function which may lead to little prenatal care and hypertension due to poor self-health management preterm birth or low-birth-weight baby can increase the burden of childcare which may lead to deteriorate the mother's mental status in the postpartum period and poor social networks were all significantly higher at investigation or registration in the foster home and low-birth-weight children were all at high risk of registration The factors that were consistent with those in our study were young parents Although the status of pregnancy medical examinations was not considered in the ALSPAC study we found that a late first and few prenatal visits were significantly related to child maltreatment Several instruments have been developed for the early identification of families at risk for child maltreatment and their validity has been assessed; for example, the California Family Risk Assessment (CFRA) in the USA or the Instrument for Identification of Parents at Risk for Child Abuse and Neglect (IPARAN) in the Netherlands (20, 21) While there are no such comprehensive national instruments in Japan some obstetrics hospitals and health organizations evaluate perinatal risk using their own methods The strength of this study was that the factors found in this research can be readily adapted throughout Japan as the data were gathered from the MCH The MCH was used in some countries other than Japan and the information described in MCH was easily available and generally versatile The following limitations should be considered the subjects in cases were limited to those with their copies of the MCH The reasons for not having their copies included: not received Cases without the MCH may have further problems during pregnancy Prospective research covering every registered child is required to re-evaluate our results adequately only the most severely affected children who entered foster homes were included among the cases A different outcome might be obtained if we investigate children who required the city's care but were not severely affected enough to enter the foster home despite excluding cases of children in the city's care undetected child maltreatment cases may have been included in the control group there was selection bias in the control group as the data were obtained from voluntary questionnaires and mothers' self-report we only examined information contained within the MCH at the infant health examination this study did not cover some factors that have been reported to be associated with child maltreatment such as the parent's own childhood abuse the age ranges differed between the groups; however the analysis was adjusted for the age of admission to the child protection register or the age at the time of investigation After a more extensive investigation across Japan we aspire to start screening for risk of child maltreatment during pregnancy using these factors and provide education and resources based on risk Targeted support during pregnancy may prevent the onset of subsequent child maltreatment We are now starting same research in several region and web research in Japan to use a simpler approach to assess the risk of child maltreatment during pregnancy this study showed some of the gestational factors (i.e. mothers with late first visit or little prenatal care) low-birth-weight babies and babies with congenital disease) maternal mental disorder) were strongly associated with child maltreatment It would be important to detect mothers and children in need of support throughout the course of pregnancy and the postpartum period Data availability access is restricted by the ethics committee. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to HK, aGFydW5hQHdjaC5vcGhvLmpw This research was approved by the Osaka Women's and Children's Hospital's ethical review board (approval number 887 Written informed consent from the participants' legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements HK made the concept of the study design and analyzed and interpreted the patient data regarding prenatal data and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript and SD analyzed and interpreted the patient data and TKa made the concept of the study design All authors read and approved the final manuscript This work was supported by funding for the research project Social risk assessment and effective health guidance for expectant and nursing mothers through prenatal care and pregnancy notifications Labor and Welfare Sciences Research Grants We appreciate the help given by the public health nurses in Izumi City and at the two Child Guidance Centers in Osaka Prefecture Child abuse and neglect: a major public health issue and the role of child and adolescent mental health services CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Child abuse and neglect in institutional settings and psychopathological long-term correlates in adult survivors: The Vienna Institutional Abuse Study The impact of childhood abuse history and domestic violence on the mental health of women in Japan The prevalence of child maltreatment across the globe: review of a series of meta-analyses CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Results of Investigation on Child Abuse Deaths (summary of 13th report) and numer of child abuse consultations 2018 Maternal perinatal risk factors and child abuse Child maltreatment in the “children of the nineties”: a cohort study of risk factors CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Does breastfeeding protect against substantiated child abuse and neglect Perinatal factors associated with infant maltreatment CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The role of the maternal and child health handbook system in reducing perinatal mortality in Japan Current status of women requiring perinatal mental health care for protecting their children in Japan Guidelines for obstetrical practice in Japan: Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) and Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (JAOG) 2014 edition Primary Measures for Maternal and Child Health Risk of mother-reported child abuse in the first 3 years of life Risk factors for infant maltreatment: a population-based study First-time maltreatment in children ages 2-10 with and without specific birth defects: a population-based study Perinatal risk and protective factors for pediatric abusive head trauma: A multicenter case-control study Child maltreatment in the “children of the nineties” a longitudinal study of parental risk factors CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Child maltreatment in the “Children of the Nineties:” deprivation CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The validity and utility of the California family risk assessment under practice conditions in the field: a prospective study Screening for potential child maltreatment in parents of a newborn baby: the predictive validity of an instrument for early identification of parents at risk for child abuse and neglect (IPARAN) screening high-risk families during pregnancy Kimura T and Mitsuda N (2020) Perinatal Determinants of Child Maltreatment in Japan Received: 26 September 2019; Accepted: 12 March 2020; Published: 15 April 2020 Copyright © 2020 Kawaguchi, Fujiwara, Okamoto, Isumi, Doi, Kanagawa, Kimura and Mitsuda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited *Correspondence: Haruna Kawaguchi, aGFydW5hQHdjaC5vcGhvLmpw Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Volume 10 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00027 This article is part of the Research TopicInhibitory Cortical Interneurons: From Microcircuits to BehaviorView all 11 articles The most typical and well known inhibitory action in the cortical microcircuit is a strong inhibition on the target neuron by axo-somatic synapses it has become clear that synaptic inhibition in the cortex is much more diverse and complicated at least ten or more inhibitory non-pyramidal cell subtypes engage in diverse inhibitory functions to produce the elaborate activity characteristic of the different cortical states Each distinct non-pyramidal cell subtype has its own independent inhibitory function the inhibitory synapses innervate different neuronal domains and their inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) size is not uniform with a wide variety of anatomical and physiological modes the functional significance of the various inhibitory synapse innervation styles and their unique structural dynamic behaviors differ from those of excitatory synapses we summarize our current understanding of the inhibitory mechanisms of the cortical microcircuit Diagram of cortical microcircuit showing the major subtypes of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons and their synaptic diversity Each innervation style plays a specific role in the cortical microcircuit This review surveys recent advances in our knowledge of cortical inhibitory mechanisms especially inhibitory synapses on different domains of the target neuron: soma This is a typical example of how different non-pyramidal cell subtypes have different functional roles in the cortical microcircuit This suggests that the inhibition targeting spines is a widespread motif in the microcircuitry of the brain The estimated fraction of DiS among all spines in each layer is <10% in layer 1 <2% in layer 5 and <1% in layer 6 which is in marked contrast to somatic inhibition which inhibits all incoming excitation non-specifically These results illustrate how the different forms of inhibition in different cortical microcircuits are exquisitely used in regulating cortical activity in the living body This topic is still controversial and further studies should be done Some of the information on inhibitory styles in cortical microcircuits presented above has been obtained recently we still have many unresolved questions concerning inhibition in the cortical microcircuit architecture and its functional implications it would be interesting to know why one non-pyramidal cell innervates its target cell on different membrane domains why inhibitory synapses on spines are recurrently dynamic and how the diverse non-pyramidal cell subtypes exert coordinated inhibition to enable highly complex cortical activity patterns Future studies are sure to make new and important findings on inhibitory structure and function in the cortical microcircuit Animal experimentation: All surgical and animal care methods was performed in strict accordance with the Guidelines for the Use of Animals of IBRO and our institutional Animal Care and Use committee (National Institute for Physiological Sciences) with reference number 15A091 All surgery was performed under ketamine and xylazine and every effort was made to minimize suffering This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A; 25250005) (15K14324) and on Innovative Areas “Adaptive circuit shift (No 3603)” (26112006; 15H01456) and “Prediction and decision making (No 4303)” (26120730) of The Ministry of Education The NOVARTIS Foundation (Japan) for the Promotion of Science We thank Sayuri Hatada for technical assistance Vincent and Ariel Agmon for valuable comments Map of the synapses onto layer 4 basket cells of the primary visual cortex of the cat doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19970407)380:2<230::AID-CNE6>3.0.CO;2-4 The spatial dimensions of electrically coupled networks of interneurons in the neocortex Differential distribution of KCC2 along the 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interneurons Cortical interneurons that specialize in disinhibitory control Neurogliaform neurons form a novel inhibitory network in the hippocampal CA1 area Editorial: neuromodulation of executive circuits Dopamine modulation of learning and memory in the prefrontal cortex: insights from studies in primates Anatomy and physiology of the thick-tufted layer 5 pyramidal neuron Model of autism: increased ratio of excitation/inhibition in key neural systems Three groups of interneurons account for nearly 100% of neocortical GABAergic neurons Impaired fast-spiking interneuron function in a genetic mouse model of depression Native GABA(B) receptors are heteromultimers with a family of auxiliary subunits Corticostriatal connectivity and its role in disease Selective thalamic innervation of rat frontal cortical neurons Cortex doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv124 [Epub ahead of print] Disynaptic inhibition between neocortical pyramidal cells mediated by Martinotti cells Parvalbumin neurons and gamma rhythms enhance cortical circuit performance A specific ‘axo-axonal’ interneuron in the visual cortex of the rat “Synaptic organization of gabaergic neurons and GABAA receptors in the lateral geniculate nucleus and visual cortex,” in Neural Mechanisms of Visual Perception: Proceedings of the Second Retina Research Foundation Symposium Combined Golgi and electron microscopic study on the synapses formed by double bouquet cells in the visual cortex of the cat and monkey The axo-axonic interneuron in the cerebral cortex of the rat Synaptic connections of morphologically identified and physiologically characterized large basket cells in the striate cortex of cat Immunogold demonstration of GABA in synaptic terminals of intracellularly recorded horseradish peroxidase-filled basket cells and clutch cells in the cat’s visual cortex Salient features of synaptic organisation in the cerebral cortex Tonic excitation or inhibition is set by GABA(A) conductance in hippocampal interneurons 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circuits involving excitatory and inhibitory neurons in layers 2-5 of adult rat and cat neocortex: triple intracellular recordings and biocytin labelling in vitro Demonstration of long-range GABAergic connections distributed throughout the mouse neocortex Quantitative chemical composition of cortical GABAergic neurons revealed in transgenic venus-expressing rats Direction- and distance-dependent interareal connectivity of pyramidal cell subpopulations in the rat frontal cortex Multiple layer 5 pyramidal cell subtypes relay cortical feedback from secondary to primary motor areas in rats Neocortical somatostatin neurons reversibly silence excitatory transmission via GABAb receptors Morphological and physiological characterization of pyramidal neuron subtypes in rat medial prefrontal cortex van Versendaal Elimination of inhibitory synapses is a major component of adult ocular dominance plasticity Inhibitory synapses are repeatedly assembled and removed at persistent sites in vivo Network state-dependent inhibition of identified hippocampal CA3 axo-axonic cells in vivo physiological and molecular properties of Martinotti cells in the somatosensory cortex of the juvenile rat Morphology and synaptic connections of crossed corticostriatal neurons in the rat Three-dimensional structure of dendritic spines in the rat neostriatum State-dependent function of neocortical chandelier cells Depolarizing effect of neocortical chandelier neurons Immunochemical characterization of inhibitory mouse cortical neurons: three chemically distinct classes of inhibitory cells Equalizing excitation-inhibition ratios across visual cortical neurons Nomura M and Kawaguchi Y (2016) The Diversity of Cortical Inhibitory Synapses Received: 13 January 2016; Accepted: 29 March 2016; Published: 25 April 2016 Copyright © 2016 Kubota, Karube, Nomura and Kawaguchi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted *Correspondence: Yoshiyuki Kubota, eW9zaGl5QG5pcHMuYWMuanA= †Present address: Masaki Nomura Center for iPS Cell Research and Application The 27-year-old will don the teal of the Giants after two years with the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL, a professional league in the United States. In the Navy Blue and Silver of Idaho (a farm team of the Dallas Stars in the NHL), Kawaguchi scored 83 total points in 87 appearances between 2022 and 2024. He said: “I am excited to be a Giant and to be coming to Belfast to be a part of the winning culture that the organisation has built. “I look forward to meeting my teammates and feel very humbled to have this opportunity.” His father Todd was the only son of Japanese immigrant parents and he played college ice hockey at the University of British Columbia. He is the cousin of Devin Setoguchi, who played nine seasons in the National Hockey League with the San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and the LA Kings. Jordan Kawaguchi himself played for the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, scoring 126 total points in 136 games for the Fighting Hawks. Kawaguchi is the Giants’ 12th new signing of the summer window with head coach Adam Keefe looking to go one step further than last year and regain Belfast’s place at the top of the Elite Hockey League. “Jordan has some built-in chemistry with ex-University of North Dakota teammates, Gabe Bast and Grant Mismash,” said Keefe. “He is a very skilled and passionate player who can not only put the puck in the net but also compete on all areas of the ice. “That sort of combination is what we’re looking for in Belfast and believe that Jordan is the type of player that you win with.” The Giants open their season against the Cardiff Devils at the SSE Arena on August 24. Facebook pageTwitter feed RSS feed@2025 The Irish News Ltd Police arrested a man Friday on suspicion of shooting a taxi driver with what is believed to be a real gun in Kawaguchi please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent The Saitama prefectural police arrested Yoshiichi Segawa after officers detained him on a platform in JR Omiya Station at around 1:50 p.m The charges are robbery and attempted murder was threatened to give money to a passenger and then shot resulting in him sustaining a serious injury to his abdomen Segawa fled the scene and the police released a photo of his face Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and published in 2023 “Before Your Memory Fades” explores the fragility of memory and the enduring power of human connection The third book in the international bestselling “Before the Coffee Gets Cold” series — translated to English by Geoffrey Trousselot — is set in a small cafe in Tokyo and it follows the intertwined lives of four individuals who all want to travel back in time for various reasons The first character is the daughter who wants to meet her parents before they died The second character is a comedian who wants to go back in time to speak with his wife who passed away The third character is a woman who is in denial about her sister’s death the fourth character in the story is a young man who is a student and works at the cafe at the same time the café’s owner can transport his guests back in time to pivotal moments in their lives As characters are given the chance to revisit their pasts the novel explores the delicate balance between the desire to change the course of events and the acceptance of the inevitable « Back GRAND FORKS — Jordan Kawaguchi isn't done playing hockey just yet The former UND star and Hobey Baker Award finalist has decided to rejoin the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL for their stretch run Kawaguchi played for the Steelheads last season and was named the team's MVP Kawaguchi had planned to retire from playing hockey due to a series of injuries Kawaguchi began working as a financial advisor for Northwestern Mutual He will continue working that job while he's playing for the Steelheads Kawaguchi will begin his stint with Idaho on injured reserve The former UND captain played four years of college hockey in Grand Forks He helped the Fighting Hawks win back-to-back Penrose Cups as National Collegiate Hockey Conference champions in 2020 and 2021 he signed a two-year deal with the Dallas Stars He played the 2021-22 season with the Texas Stars in the American Hockey League tallying 26 goals and 58 points in 52 games Idaho is currently third in the Western Conference with 48 points Former Grafton-Park River standout Jade Miller is on Idaho's roster