Kagoshima Prefecture is one of the nation’s major production areas of shochu This is the seventh and final installment in a series introducing the charm of the distilled spirit and the people involved in its creation 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 By Yusuke Kadooka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Kagoshima — “Cheers!” A group of residents toasted at a year-end party at a restaurant in Ichiki-Kushikino holding a glass of shochu rather than beer Shochu plays a key role in promoting the city that is home to eight distilleries the city became the first local government to establish an ordinance that promotes making a toast with authentic shochu Ichiki-Kushikino is in an area in the prefecture where shochu production is thriving and the city aims to further popularize and spread the traditional spirit among the public people traditionally toast with shochu at parties “The residents’ desire to pass on shochu culture to future generations is incorporated into the ordinance,” said Takashi Nagasaki To mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the ordinance the city started offering a course in fiscal 2023 for local high school students to experience shochu production The initiative aims to help young people become familiar with the local industry and encourages them to become its successors Course participants tour a shochu distillery and try their hand at harvesting sweet potatoes Fifteen students took part in the inaugural course with four of them joining local shochu distilleries joined the distillery Shiraishi Shuzo in spring last year after graduating from the prefectural Ichiki Agricultural & Horticultural High School Shiraishi Shuzo is a small shochu distillery run by four family members and three employees Hattori had a chance to work at the distillery for one week during his school’s work experience program He said he was surprised to see how huge its sweet potato field was The room used to mix koji mold with steamed rice was so hot that he realized how hard it was to produce shochu he made up his mind to work in the industry and so I thought this must be the place for me,” Hattori said said he was not looking for any employees at that time but he decided to hire Hattori due to his desire to work there Shiraishi was also happy with how Hattori had worked during the work experience program Shiraishi Shuzo grows pesticide-free sweet potatoes and although still small in scale has started exporting its products to France “We want as many people as possible to get to know the allure of sweet potato shochu,” Shiraishi said I feel like I’m taking a role in making shochu because of the small number of workers I’d like to master each job one by one and become an essential employee.” The city held the program for high school students to experience shochu production again this fiscal year a first-year student of Kamimura Gakuen High School as he harvested sweet potatoes as part of the program held in November Young people are allowed to enjoy shochu only after they turn 20 Many of them decide their future path in life and leave the city before that Ichiki-Kushikino’s initiative to give young people an opportunity to experience shochu production also aims to help nurture their local pride Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun TOKYO: At the recent FIFA World Cup in Qatar football fans were impressed with how Japanese supporters obsessively cleaned all the rubbish from the stadiums in the areas where they were watching the games Japanese are quite strict about how they dispose of rubbish in their own country but now some are saying the rules have gone too far The Mainichi newspaper reports that a municipal rule requiring people to write their names on the garbage bags they put out for collection has raised privacy concerns rubbish must be put out at certain times on certain days in municipality-specified bags the refuse collectors will leave the bag at the pick-up point with a warning notice on it Most Japanese will be horrified that they have made a mistake and recover their bags by themselves but some municipalities want citizens to put their names on the rubbish bags to identify those who made a mistake “I don’t like having to write my name on my garbage bag – it’s as if someone is peering into my life,” a female resident of Ichikikushikino No name now means no collection and bags are left at the pick-up point The city government says it hopes that the requirement will encourage people to properly separate and dispose of their garbage It says there have been cases where people place gas canisters and batteries in non-burnable garbage If a person’s name is not on the trash bag or if the rubbish is not sorted properly the bag is slapped with a sticker specifying the violation Osaki in Kagoshima Prefecture also has the name rule and it had the highest recycling rate in fiscal 2020 as well as Tokyo’s 23 wards don’t even have designated rubbish bags and people can simply dispose of rubbish in plastic shopping bags The Ministry of the Environment states that it is not aware of the number of municipalities that require residents to write their names on their garbage bags “There are privacy and other concerns so the government doesn’t promote the practice.” (TSXV: JG) (OTCQB: JGLDF) ("Japan Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its five prospecting rights applications over the Ohra-Takamine Project in the Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province have been granted as full Prospecting Rights by the Japanese Ministry of Economy The Ohra-Takamine Project totals 1,681 hectares covering historic gold-silver mines in the highly gold endowed Hokusatsu-Kushikino mining district in the Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province In excess of 10 million ounces of gold has been produced from high-grade epithermal deposits of this province refer to Figure 1 which shows the northern portion of the district Notable producers within the district include: the Hishikari mine with 7.4 million ounces of gold produced to date at average grades of 30-40 g/t Au1; Kushikino mine 1.8 million ounces at 6.7 g/t Au; Yamagano mine 910,000 ounces at 17.4 g/t Au; and the Ohkuchi mine with 714,000 ounces at 13.6 g/t Au2,3 Granting of Prospecting Rights authorizes the Company to commence more advanced exploration methods such as drilling The Company is in the process of preparing a scout drilling program to test extensions to the historically mined veins and plans to undertake the program in 2019 The Ohra-Takamine Project covers the historic Ohra Takamine and Urushi mines which lie along a 3.5 km northeast trending structure refer to Figure 2 which shows the License area the Metal Mining Agency of Japan (the "MMAJ") work and simplified geology The project is located 7.5 km south of the historic Yamagano mine Similar to all of the major gold mines in the Hokusatsu-Kushikino mining district the Ohra-Takamine project is associated with a regional geophysical gravity-high inferred to indicate upward doming of the basement producing suitable fracture networks for fluid flow and quartz vein formation Initially discovered in 1885 and mined periodically to 1943 the Ohra mine produced in the order of 27,000 ounces of gold at grades reported to average 11 to 12 g/t Au and 32g/t Ag7 The northeast striking vein system is 1,200 m long steeply plunging ore-shoot (the Hon-pi vein) mapped over approximately140 m strike length was mined over a vertical extent of 100 m from surface and averaged 20g/t Au this shoot was hosted in a 3.5 to 4.0 m wide section of the vein4 Adjacent to this shoot Japan Gold geologists have located large boulders of parallel laminated chalcedony or sinter previously not described in reports or literature and indicating the mineralised system is shallowly eroded The Takamine and Urushi mines were discovered in latter part of the nineteenth century and mined periodically up to 1943 Takamine produced 9,654 tonnes of ore with average grades of 5.1g/t Au and 28.3 g/t Ag The Urushi mine was estimated to have produced 13,000 ounces of gold between 1896 and 1916 Three northeast striking gold-bearing quartz veins The so-called Number 2 vein was reported to carry gold grades between 50 to 100 g/t Au5,6 The MMAJ conducted regional and some detailed studies over the Ohra-Takamine area between 1983 and 1989 eight drill holes were completed as part of this work Drill hole 60MAHT-2 located to the east of the Urushi mine intersected two 10 cm wide quartz veins with respective gold grades of 12.3 and 13.3 g/t Au and approximately 245 m vertically below surface7 drilled directly under the historic Urushi mine intersected 1.4 m @ 5.8 g/t Au & 5.7 g/t Ag from less than 100 m below the lowest level in the mine (-140 m below surface)7 Due to the high prospectivity of the district limited historical production over shallow depth extents and the limited amount of modern exploration completed on these prospects Japan Gold believes the area warrants detailed exploration first pass sampling program and alteration study across the project area high-level alteration mineralogy indicate the mineralised corridor extends under cover between the workings and along strike to the northeast and southwest of the mine workings The Company is further defining the limits of the alteration around these vein systems and in the process of developing a scout drilling program "We are pleased to see the granting of these prospecting licenses in this world class gold district of southern Japan and consider this another major advancement to the Company's portfolio We plan to add Ohra-Takamine to our list of targets for drilling in 2019." On behalf of the Board of Japan Gold Corp."John Proust" production as of end of March 2017.2 Watanabe Late Cenozoic evolution of epithermal gold metallogenic provinces in Kyushu Mineralium Deposita (2005) 40: pp 307-3233 Garwin et al and gold and copper mineralization in the Cenozoic magmatic arcs of Southeast Asia and the West Pacific 1967: Report of gold deposits survey in Takamine/Ohra district Association of Kagoshima Prefecture mineral resources development promotion.6 Gold Mines of Japan The Mining & Materials Processing Institute of Japan.7 MITI (1984- 1989): Report on the regional survey of the Hokusatsu-Kushikino region Ministry of International Trade and Industry Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release The technical information in this news release has been reviewed by Japan Gold's President & Chief Operating Officer who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 he has supervised the preparation and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and anticipated results that are forward-looking in nature and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties uncertainties resulting from potential delays or changes in plans uncertainties resulting from working in a new political jurisdiction uncertainties regarding the results of exploration uncertainties regarding the timing and granting of prospecting rights uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to execute and implement future plans Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors Figure 1: The Northern Hokusatsu-Kushikino Mining District Japan Gold projects on simplified geology with historic and recent gold mines Figure 2: Ohra Takamine Project Freeport Resources is advancing one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world. The 100% owned Yandera copper project covers approximately 245 square kilometers and is located in the highly prolific Papua New Guinea Orogenic... LEARN MORE Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information Scientists say Japanese eels can likely climb a waterfall that drops 46 meters a finding that could offer clues in helping to combat dwindling numbers of the endangered species but river environments have deteriorated due to dams and weirs which pose obstacles for eels trying to migrate Scientists say it may be possible to curb the depopulation of eels by replicating natural features on the surfaces of dams and other structures to allow eels to scale their heights while swimming upstream The study was conducted by a team led by Noritaka Mochioka with the Kyushu University Faculty of Agriculture a graduate student with the Kyushu University Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences Japanese eels hatch off the Mariana Islands in the Pacific and ascend rivers in East Asia While they are young and are only about 10-20 centimeters long they climb up relatively dry rock surfaces during the night A study by the Environment Ministry said an object measuring 40 cm or more in height can block eels’ migration paths The International Union for Conservation of Nature included the Japanese eel in its list of endangered species in 2014 Mochioka and his coworkers studied the habitat of Japanese eels in summer 2018 along the Amikakegawa river in Aira The river basin contains the Ryumondaki Waterfall The scientists caught a total of seven eels at three sites upstream of the waterfall Their body lengths range from 20 cm to 66 cm and they were estimated to be between 2 and 5 years old The researchers enlisted the help of a local fisheries association during their study and learned that no eels had ever been released in the river’s upstream areas--suggesting the eels made the long climb on their own The body colors and sizes of the captured eels led the researchers to conclude they are natural to Japan and had traveled all the way from the sea The rock surface of the Ryumondaki Waterfall contains fine cracks and is covered with moss Researchers suspect the natural formations make the surface easier for eels to climb and rest on than a concrete wall But the scientists found it difficult to approach the waterfall so they have yet to witness an eel in the act of climbing it but it has never been scientifically proven “The abilities of eels are so stunning,” Mochioka said “We could broaden the habitat of eels if only we improve the shapes of dams and weirs He said he and his colleagues plan to use high-performance cameras and other technology to confirm that the eels are climbing a waterfall They will study how long it takes for the eels to climb The study was published online on July 7 in Ichthyological Research Southern fish survive winter off Izu amid warmer waters 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 (TSXV: JG) ("Japan Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce expansion of its epithermal gold portfolio in Japan via acquisition of three new Projects in the prospective Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province The projects cover prospective ground along strike of current and past producing gold mines including the Hishikari The Southern Kyushu Epithermal Gold Province has produced in excess of 11 million ounces of gold from low-sulphidation epithermal deposits Notable producers within the province include: the Hishikari mine with 7.6 million ounces produced to date at average grades of 30-40 g/t1; Kushikino mine 1.8 million ounces at 6.7 g/t; Yamagano mine 910,000 ounces at 17.4 g/t; and the Okuchi mine with 714,000 ounces at 13.6 g/t2,3 The three new projects comprise 76 applications Trade and Industry ("METI") has notified acceptance of the new applications giving Japan Gold priority over these areas and authorization to commence surface exploration the Company's portfolio now includes 18 separate gold projects within the major epithermal gold provinces of Japan In conjunction with the new project acquisitions the Company has made the decision to focus solely on its gold projects and relinquish the majority of its copper-gold lithocap projects The decision to relinquish these lithocap projects follows an appraisal completed during 2018-19 Ponkutosan and part of the Minamikayabe projects will be relinquished the retained area at Minamikayabe hosts gold-bearing quartz veins that require further investigation The Kamitsue lithocap project in Kyushu exhibits features of a gold-rich porphyry system is inferred to have undergone the most erosion and therefore is believed to have the best potential to host a relatively shallow mineralized porphyry intrusion The Kamitsue project will therefore not be relinquished The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Japan Gold's President & Chief Operating Officer This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to expected or anticipated future events and anticipated results related to future partnerships and the Company's 2019 gold exploration program These statements are forward-looking in nature and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that include market and business conditions; competition for qualified staff; the regulatory process and actions; technical issues; new legislation; potential delays or changes in plans; working in a new political jurisdiction; results of exploration; the timing and granting of prospecting rights; the Company's ability to execute and implement future plans arrange or conclude a joint-venture or partnership; and the occurrence of unexpected events Actual results achieved may differ from the information provided herein and readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information The forward-looking information contained herein speaks only as of the date of this News Release The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward‐looking information or to explain any material difference between such and subsequent actual events Figure 1: Japan Gold New and Existing Gold Exploration Projects