Three men were charged with participating in a scheme to defraud the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of over $9.1 million in education benefits including funds from the Post 9/11 GI Bill education benefit program One of the men has pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme Matsudo was the owner of a massage therapy training school in Honolulu From approximately November 2016 to November 2022 Matsudo conspired with Scott and others to obtain tuition assistance payments from the VA by intentionally failing to disclose that Matsudo’s massage training school was not in compliance with applicable VA rules and regulations Scott began working for the massage training school owned by Matsudo in or about November 2016 Scott submitted enrollment certification forms to the VA on behalf of at least 40 military veterans supposedly enrolled at the massage training school Scott knew that these forms contained false enrollment information and falsely certified that the school had complied with applicable rules and regulations Wells was a student at the massage training school in 2020 and 2021 Wells and Scott recruited “students” who allowed the school to lie to the VA by falsely representing that they were actually enrolled in courses Both Scott and Wells allegedly profited from the scheme Matsudo paid Scott for each person that he and Wells had recruited with the proceeds of the tuition payments made by the VA Wells received monthly payments from the individuals he recruited to participate in the scheme Matsudo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors Scott and Wells were both charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count Wells was also charged with obstruction of justice for instructing a witness to lie to federal law enforcement agents he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison The VA OIG and FBI are investigating the cases Trial Attorney Ariel Glasner of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case against Matsudo with substantial assistance from Trial Attorney Jennifer Bilinkas of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section Attorney Craig Nolan for the District of Hawaii are prosecuting the case against Scott and Wells Click Here for your 5 day Forecast we present our projects and business activities in each country and region to show how they contribute to local communities and the world as a whole View More Corporate Communications Staff Explore the World As a member of the Mass Media Relations Team in the Corporate Communications Department I am in charge of the Infrastructure Business Unit and the Living Related & Real Estate Business Unit I was hesitant about getting my ears pierced and wondered if I should really try it or not and now collecting earrings has become a hobby of mine I think the next step for me is to try making my own earrings Terrace Mall Matsudo is a large-scale retail facility developed by Sumitomo Corporation Terrace Mall Matsudo is one of the largest retail facilities in Matsudo and the surrounding areas.(*) It is also the second Terrace Mall the first being Terrace Mall Shonan in Fujisawa City I visited Terrace Mall Matsudo to participate in private viewing Located in ten-minutes’ drive from Shin-Matsudo Station Terrace Mall Matsudo is built on the 49,000 square-meters former site of Matsudo Hokubu Market closed in 2017 The site is 1.1 times as large as Tokyo Dome The gigantic four-stories (with partial fifth stories) facility has 177 stores The building generates comfort with natural lighting through the windows Sumitomo Corporation Group believes that shopping malls should provide comfortable atmosphere to respond to variety of use This idea is called the “Terrace Philosophy,” and Terrace Mall Matsudo was developed with this concept The retail facility is designed to connect Matsudo—a historic post town that later developed into a commuter town with an abundance of nature—and the people gathering there I would like to introduce some of the features of the mall Terrace Mall Matsudo is comprised of shopping zone from first to third floors United Chinema is the only cinema complex(*) in the Matsudo area The theater features three types of leading-edge systems: IMAX® Laser It offers mind-blowing images and sound for best movie watching experience allowing the audience to feel as if they are in the film There was no movie theater in this area for the last six years so Tit has been bustling with many people since the day of the grand opening an open ceiling space in the center of the second floor was selected by voting from about 2,000 customers The stage will not only be used for events hosted by the mall but also be rented to local clubs and organizations The food court on the third floor has a space called “Kids Space Roco Roco,” where local residents of all generations can interact and obtain information about childrearing Roco Roco is comprised of two zones: a relaxing zone where events like reading to children are held and an active zone where children can play vigorously so that children can choose how to play according to their character and age Keyaki Hiroba (Elm tree square) in the north part of the mall has a water fountain that features a four-minute show with sound and light every 30 minutes Terrace Mall Matsudo offers a wide range of choices to meet the diverse needs and demands of people The wood-themed facility has a structure that takes in natural light to create an open atmosphere Every detail of the mall has been meticulously designed to provide joy and comfort Another key feature of Terrace Mall Matsudo is its satisfying food options The first floor has food retail zone called “Kitaichiba” and Summit Store—the large-scale supermarket of the Sumitomo Corporation Group there is a restaurant zone called “Keyaki Dining” on the second floor and the Keyakitchen food court on the third floor Many of the restaurants are the first branches of chain stores opened in Chiba prefecture or the Matsudo area The first-floor food retail zone Kitaichiba (north market) was named after Matsudo Hokubu Market (literally Stores in this zone include famous seafood store Variety of unique stores are gathered and made lively atmosphere of street market uses digital signs which change displays to match the season Summit Store Matsudo features a curved layout to allow customers to enjoy hunting for products and to stay in the store for longer time there is a workshop with a lively atmosphere and an eating space called “Summit Café.” These facilities make the store even more exciting Keyaki Dining have 12 restaurants ranging from Japanese to western food It locates on the second floor along the Keyaki Street which lies to the north of the mall This restaurant zone has large windows that let warm light in and resting spaces along the windows so that people can visit there even when the restaurants are not opened Keyakitchen on the third floor is also designed to be bright and open including a popular local Matsudo restaurant operate in the large food court,about 750 various types of seats There are seats for one person and tatami floors for family use so that customers can choose the right seating for their purposes and spend time as they like Terrace Mall Matsudo has been developed with a “community-made” attitude that incorporates the characteristics of the community and works on creation with the community I realized that the mall opened with cooperation of many parties involved about 1,500 people waited in line on the day of the grand opening I truly hoped that this retail facility will be loved for many years as a place for enriching lives and connecting people Matsudo Tomita Men-o opened in the food court on the third floor which originally opened in Matsudo and is now an enormously popular noodle restaurant that often has a long line outside I’m not familiar with tsukemen (noodles dipped in broth) but I visited the restaurant after the open house because I heard that it won the grand prize at an annual tsukemen exhibition in 2018 which is available only at Terrace Mall Matsudo I was impressed by the straightforward umami and aroma of deep-water shrimp which must have been achieved by boiling large quantities of deep-water shrimp heads in rich pork and chicken stock but it was so delicious that I added soup-wari (warm water added to thick dipping broths to make them more drinkable) and enjoyed the whole bowl I didn’t have time to see all the other stores and restaurants so I hope to visit Terrace Mall Matsudo at my leisure next time Located just one train away from central Tokyo on the Odakyu Line Matsudo has just the right balance of convenience and fewer crowds Over 15,000 fireworks will be set off over the Edo River when the sun goes down Arrive early to enjoy the food stalls and make merry throughout the day Even though it’s a less crowded festival Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version Some parts of this site work best with JavaScript enabled has been trained in how to recognize and gently approach people who are wandering Early mornings are routine for 69-year-old Hiroyuki Yamamoto He's typically at a busy intersection in the city of Matsudo where he volunteers as a school crossing guard But one rainy morning a little over a year ago she said she was trying to get to the city of Kamisuwa Yamamoto recognized that the woman had several signs of dementia he'd learned about when he took his city's dementia awareness training Yamamoto volunteers with Matsudo's Orange Patrol The organization's formal name in Japanese — Olenji koe kake tai — translates awkwardly into English as "Troop that calls out to the elderly." But the name accurately describes what the members do what a nice day," can tell you if someone is OK or needs help he knew how to talk with the old woman pushing the bicycle "And I spoke in a gentle manner." These things helped him persuade the woman to stay with him until the police arrived about 20 minutes later If it hadn't been for her chance encounter with Yamamoto 12,208 people with dementia were reported missing to the National Police Agency in Japan These numbers have been increasing every year as the number of older people in Japan continues to rise. Nearly 27 percent of the Japanese population is now 65 or older so does the number of people with Alzheimer's disease or other dementia The Japanese government expects that by 2025 more than 7 million of the nation's residents will have dementia A comprehensive plan for dealing with that expected rise in dementia cases was passed by the national government last year But Matsudo has been providing dementia awareness training for city residents since 2010 Atsuko Yoshioka conducts dementia awareness classes for the city of Matsudo She says the sessions are brief — just 60 to 90 minutes — so she tries to customize the content for students pharmacist Takayuki Yoshida says he sometimes had clients who "even after I gave the medication to them they'd come back and say they didn't get the drugs." Now he knows that may be a sign of dementia Many post office workers have also taken the training post offices also conduct some banking transactions Hiroki Yaita says sometimes an older client will come in several times to say that someone has stolen their bankbook "we would think that maybe that person has dementia and we would talk to the family about that possibility." The purpose of the training isn't to make Matsudo residents experts in dementia chief of the city's Welfare and Longevity Department and make this a town where it's more comfortable for them to live." Some communities in the United States have begun similar programs And in Japan what's been going on in Matsudo is now national policy The comprehensive plan adopted by the government last year includes research and prevention and nursing services It also includes a campaign for increasing dementia awareness among the general public The country is on track to train 8 million people by the end of the next fiscal year deputy director for dementia policy in Japan's Ministry of Labor says the expected rise in dementia cases should not be seen as a threat Interacting with people with dementia will become normal "It would be a familiar thing," says Kawashima to create a structure in the local communities to support those with dementia and to create a society where it will be natural for them to live." No government plan can keep people with dementia from wandering But health officials in Japan hope there eventually will be entire communities prepared to help keep them safe we give Hiroyuki Yamamoto's first name as Hiroyuko Become an NPR sponsor When they finally got to the vote on the newest proposal for the seven-acre central area of Falcon Pointe – a housing development on the city’s north side that didn’t turn out as originally planned – East Lansing’s Planning Commission voted 4-0 to recommend the proposal to City Council to construct four three-unit rental dwellings fits East Lansing’s zoning law and the commission is supposed to adhere closely to that question in their deliberations But the vote to recommend the proposal didn’t come without planning commissioners hearing from and responding sympathetically to present residents of the community about their fears of losing their homes the commission slowed down the process as they pushed the developers to show up and speak to the housing insecurity concern The pushing seems to have helped the residents to some extent: they have one-year contracts where before they had none the development proposal is coming to City Council for a final decision tonight It’s a situation previous councils have struggled with in the past As ELi reported back in 2015 Falcon Pointe was originally designed to be a manufactured housing development The idea was the developers would build custom homes on foundations constructed on land that the developers would continue to own The homeowners would forever rent the land from the developers But only a few people bought into the project and the original developer essentially abandoned it leaving the homeowners – many of whom are seniors on fixed-incomes – without operable leases The matter came to Council in 2015 because the new landowners wanted to build 120 one-story rental units on the land near the existing homes Then-City Attorney Tom Yeadon explained there was little Council could do to force the developers to help the owners Council approved the construction of the new rental units expressing deep concern for the homeowners In 2021, apparently unaware of the long-standing troubles, Council approved the construction of more rental housing at Falcon Pointe But FP Investors didn’t build the project before that approval expired the developers are back seeking approval to construct four three-unit rental dwellings public hearing on the matter drew Falcon Pointe residents worried about their futures Several residents and former residents testified about their experiences dealing with FP Investors owner of a manufactured unit that sits on land he leases from Falcon Pointe “I have grave concerns over the trustworthiness of FP Investors and their intent to construct new housing at Falcon Pointe,” Matsudo wrote this may negatively impact and jeopardize the current residents of Falcon Pointe LLC has not demonstrated any care or concerns of the current residents and their dwellings Many are senior citizens who have large financial investments into their homes and would suffer mental and financial distress.” The majority of Falcon Pointe residents who spoke out about their treatment by the management company are in the same situation as Matsudo: owners of their physical dwelling yet renting or leasing the land it sits on he and other residents of manufactured homes received a letter threatening to evict them from the land in March 2023 This means they would have to either abandon their homes or move the structures to new locations – an expensive proposition He also noted none of the residents had land leases despite frequent attempts by the residents who had sought out written agreements that offered more security than month-to-month conditional payments would allow “These are homes of senior citizens who have invested their time “They cannot be expected to simply vacate or abandon their home and their memories!” He encouraged the planning commission “to consider the magnitude of this application and make a decision that would be in the best interest of the senior citizens in the East Lansing community.” He said he wanted to see the original site plan – for a community of manufactured homes – carried out Also appearing at that February meeting was Mary Ann Romel who moved into a manufactured home in the Falcon Pointe development in 2005 “We had sold our house here in DeWitt,” Mary Ann Romel said “and were looking for a less expensive place That neighborhood was a growing community and we would be able to get in at the beginning It was also a 55 [year old] plus community They had garages and little sections of lawn and we met some of the neighbors and that was very enticing to us.” The Romels made the decision to purchase one of the Falcon Pointe properties “We ended up planting 60 rose bushes around the home we bought,” Mary Ann said “And then they started to build new apartment buildings and we were worried they would try to get rid of us But the people coming in were nice and quiet “We had a [lease] agreement when we first moved in When we got the notice in March of last year that we had to evacuate the house in March of this year we were concerned about having to move again especially if we would have to do it in the winter.” the Romels found an apartment in DeWitt and were considering selling their modular home to a friend who had intentions of moving the building north to Houghton Lake they were soon informed they would not be allowed to sublease the property “We wanted $40,000 for the home and told the management company they could just buy us out,” she said “But they started dickering and dealing with us….We’re in our 70s and 80s and don’t want to be dealing with this any longer.” Salomón Rodezno also appeared at the February meeting and ELi interviewed him about his experiences in the weeks following He and his partner have been renting one of the manufactured homes (like a traditional rental tenant) from FP Investors while Rodezno has been enrolled in a doctoral program at Michigan State University “Part of the appeal of living here was knowing that my program would last six years and we wouldn’t have to move again while we were here,” he said “So for us to get the eviction notice was a surprise The management company withdrew the eviction notice for residents in October 2022 but the residents were still not offered any leases or promises that their residencies were secure “In the process of all this,” Rodezno said “we learned that this wasn’t the first time [the developers] had done something like this to the residents here We knew that we’d be able to find something real fast But a lot of our neighbors are in their late 80s we worried about them because it would be hard for them to move I know a lot of them were worried about that.” Rodezno reflected on a neighbor who moved immediately after receiving the March 2022 letter of eviction moving with their young children in the middle of the school year ELi reached out to Brad Friedman of FP Investors to inquire about their plans for their residents “We’ve been in talks with them and we’re developing a one- to two-year contract so at least they can lay to rest some of the anxiety,” he said “We are no longer moving forward with removing any of the residents.” The City Planning Commission required the developers to show up and speak to the housing insecurity issue The commission had originally expected to take action on the recommendation on March 8 But when the developers sent only a civil engineer who could not answer questions about the concerns the commission decided to put off action and to ask the developers to come and talk with them Jeff Friedle of FP Investors told the commission the residents have now been given year-long leases and one of the properties (the home of the Romels) has been bought by the developers the planning commission finally voted on whether to recommend the proposal to the East Lansing City Council the commission could only take into account the narrow question of whether the application for the new structures fit the city’s zoning commissioners could not shake the testimony they heard from residents earlier in the year “I understand our purview here as a planning commission,” Commissioner Ed Wagner said “but it’s hard for me to also support a business that makes East Lansing residents housing insecure It seems like they had a lot of complaints and a lot of issues that weren’t addressed until they came here and made everything public I can’t imagine getting an eviction notice stuck on my door Friedle responded that testimony at the Feb 8 meeting helped the management company better understand the concerns of the residents He said the company took the feedback and “delivered them year-long leases” to “put them to ease.” (Residents have said they’ve conveyed their situations and wishes clearly before.) all planning commissioners present voted yes with the exception of Wagner With the city council vote coming this week ELi reached out to the residents to get updates Rodezno says he and his partner received the lease they wanted They’ve also seen a renewed commitment to the upkeep of their home There were people out measuring the other day.” were less satisfied with the deal they got from Falcon Pointe “We were offered $25,000” for the purchase of their house “They would have just kept holding out and might not have given us anything at all But we need to go on with our lives and live the time we’ve got left.” Council’s meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, at the Hannah Community Center. The agenda can be found here Public comment is allowed near the start of the meeting during the period designated for it Update: Find out what happened at Council in this article DONATE NOW! Get our E-mail Newsletters Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Threads Subscribe via RSS Subscribing to an RSS feed requires an RSS browser plugin or the use of a news aggregator app or website A 72-year-old man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly nailing a straw doll bearing the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin to a sacred tree at a Shinto shrine near Tokyo Mitsunobu Hino is suspected of property damage and trespassing The doll features a picture of Putin's face and came with a note in its breast wishing death to the Russian leader Hino is accused of trespassing on the grounds of Matsudo's Mikazuki Shrine at around 2:10 p.m and making holes in a "shinboku" -- a sacred tree -- by nailing the straw doll to it The police have confirmed similar Putin straw dolls at more than 10 shrines in the eastern Japan city since May and said there is a strong chance the perpetrator is the same due to resemblances in the dolls' sizes and the handwriting on the accompanying notes Security camera footage from the shrine's grounds captured a man who appears to be Hino putting an item that looks like a straw doll into his bag and going up the stairs Two 4-centimeter-deep holes have been left in the sacred tree The shrine's history stretches back over 800 years "It's unthinkable that someone would nail down something like this in a place where people come to pray for good health." 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 China Reacts: 3 Trending Hashtags Shaping the Tariff War Narrative From Trade Crisis to Patriotic Push: Chinese Online Reactions to Trump’s Tariffs China’s Great Toilet Debate and the Problem of Footprints on the Seat US-Russia Rapprochement and “Saint Zelensky”: Chinese Online Reactions to Trump’s Shake-Up “Dear Li Hua”: The TikTok/Xiaohongshu Honeymoon Explained Strange Encounter During IShowSpeed’s Chengdu Livestream Chinese Netizens Turn to Tim Cook Over Battery Factory’s Illegal Overtime Revisiting China’s Most Viral Resignation Letter: “The World Is So Big How Ne Zha 2’s Shen Gongbao Became Known as the Ultimate “Small-Town Swot” Beyond the Box Office: What’s Behind Ne Zha 2’s Success “Li Jingjing Was Here”: Chinese Netizens React to Rumors of “Chinese Soldiers” in Russian Army Team China’s 10 Most Meme-Worthy Moments at the 2024 Paris Olympics China at Paris 2024 Olympics Trend File: Medals and Moments on Chinese Social Media 12-Year-Old Girl from Shandong Gets Infected with HPV: Viral Case Exposes Failures in Protecting Minors China’s Major Food Delivery Showdown: What to Know about the JD.com vs How K-pop Fans and the 13-Year-Old Daughter of Baidu VP Sparked a Debate on Online Privacy China’s 2024 Gaokao Triggers Online Discussions on AI About the “AI Chatbot Based on Xi Jinping” Story leaving her in a pool of blood on the streets of Matsudo Japanese police Matsudo discovered a woman covered in blood on the streets of the city’s Kogasaki district She was later pronounced dead at the hospital The woman was a 33-year-old Chinese national who reportedly resided in Matsudo On Thursday, the incident became a trending topic on Weibo (#一中国女子在日本街头被杀害#) and was also widely discussed on other Chinese social platforms Many people speculated about the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death and about the nationality of those linked to her death local witnesses reported to the police that they had heard a woman’s screams in the early hours of November 9 She was allegedly beaten by two men and was left in the streets in a pool of blood Image via Bunpone Japanese newspaper Asahi reports that a nearby resident called the emergency number around 3:10 a.m Police have now opened a murder investigation citing hemorrhagic shock as the cause of death The woman had sustained injuries to her face and other parts of her body Her belongings were scattered around the scene of the attack The Japanese police force is now searching for two male suspects in connection to the case One of them is described as a man wearing a jacket and hat approximately 180 cm tall (5 feet 11 inches) The other male is simply described as “skinny.” numerous comments suggested that the suspects must be Chinese Some argued that the description of a height of 180 cm wouldn’t match the average height of a Japanese man while others asserted that such a brutal crime would just not typically be committed by a Japanese person These kinds of comments drew some controversy, and those suggesting that the perpetrators also must be Chinese were called jīngrì (精日), or “spiritually Japanese.” The term refers to a group of people in China who, despite being Chinese, identify themselves and want to be seen as Japanese (see Jiayun Feng’s article here) The influential patriotic Weibo channel Diba Guanwei (@帝吧官微) condemned these people and proposed that rather than fixating on the nationality of the suspects the focus should shift to addressing concerns about the perceived lack of safety in Japan The post also questioned why there have previously been many discussions about Japanese people supposedly being taller than Chinese people whereas now it is suggested that the suspect must be Chinese because he’s relatively tall.* There are also discussions about the dangers of Chinese females going abroad stories about Chinese women getting hurt or killed while traveling or studying abroad have consistently gained a lot of attention on Chinese social media One case that was particularly big was that of the two sisters Chen Baolan (陈宝兰, 25) and Chen Baozhen (陈宝珍, 22) getting murdered in Yokohama police arrested the main suspect: a 30-year-old married man from Japan who allegedly had an affair with one of the sisters Another notorious case is that of the 24-year-old Chinese student Jiang Ge (江歌), who was fatally stabbed outside her apartment in Tokyo in 2016 The 25-year-old Chinese graduate student Chen Shifeng (陈世峰) was charged with Jiang’s murder “Isn’t Japan known as a safe country?” some commenters wonder Japan is generally viewed as one of the world’s safest countries as it has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world; recording 0.2 homicides per 100,000 people in 2020 (the United States recorded 5.3) We will update this story once more information comes out By Manya Koetse Follow @whatsonweibo Subscribe Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears ©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com Cancer Diagnoses in Young Doctors at Same Lab: About the Zhongshan Hospital Controversy Weibo Watch: A Decade of What’s on Weibo The Liaoyang Restaurant Fire That Killed 22 People Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id" "a8c45c0fcb46ec03c1cb30b5b3bc12a2" );document.getElementById("c08a1a06c7").setAttribute( "id" Behind the scandal at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital: the doctor and the letter that took over the Chinese internet A controversy that has been brewing recently has completely taken over the Chinese internet over the past week becoming the biggest public scandal on Chinese social media in 2025 so far a well-known thoracic surgeon at the prestigious China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing who has come under fire in the medical world following revelations that he cheated on his wife with a head nurse This may sound like a Chinese version of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy but it goes far beyond messy relationships alone and reveals serious social concerns and exposes deeper systemic problems involving academic and medical institutions I’ll walk you through the main people involved and the key issues that turned this medical controversy into a nationwide talking point 👨‍⚕️ Xiao Fei (肖飞): associate chief thoracic surgeon at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital (中日友好医院) in Beijing with a PhD in surgery from Peking University’s medicine department He had worked at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital since 2012 rising from resident doctor to associate chief surgeon and was selected for the hospital’s “Elite Program” (菁英计划) He also served as a graduate advisor at Peking Union Medical College (北京协和医学院) he was awarded the title of “Outstanding Communist Party Member” (优秀共产党员) at the hospital in 2020 Xiao is the central figure in the scandal involving multiple affairs and professional misconduct The main people involved: Gu Xiaoya (lower left) and Xiao Fei 👩‍⚕️ Gu Xiaoya (谷潇雅): associate chief ophthalmologist at Beijing Hospital Legal wife of Xiao Fei and mother to their daughter She also holds a PhD in clinical medicine from Peking University She is the “whistleblower” who exposed the scandal through a detailed letter and supporting material backing up her claims 👩‍⚕️ Shi Yuhui (石玉慧): head nurse of the thoracic surgery department at China-Japan Friendship Hospital She began an affair with Xiao Fei in early 2019—both were married at the time she became pregnant twice and miscarried both times Despite interventions of her own husband and Xiao’s wife she maintained contact with Xiao and allegedly harassed Gu Xiaoya through 2024 👩‍⚕️ Dong Xiying (董袭莹): former urology resident at China-Japan Friendship Hospital Studied economics at Barnard College in New York (graduated in 2019) then earned her medical doctorate through the “4+4” clinical medicine program at Peking Union Medical College (北京协和医学院) Currently serves as a resident physician at the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences She comes from a privileged background: her father is an executive at a state-owned enterprise; her mother is a vice president at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (北京科技大学) She began a relationship with Xiao in 2024 and is reportedly pregnant with his child This story first started to gain traction within various circles on Chinese social media since around April 21 when a long letter written by Gu Xiaoya (谷潇雅) the legal wife of the renowned surgeon Xiao Fei causing it to snowball and going trending on social media The first time it trended on Weibo was on Sunday was addressed to the Disciplinary Committee at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing Gu Xiaoya details how her husband had been cheating on her since 2016 — including exact dates She writes that she wanted to report her husband’s extramarital affairs as well as his apparent intent to have a child out of wedlock because she believed his behavior “seriously violated social morality and professional ethics and had a profoundly negative impact on both the hospital and the education of medical students.” Gu explains that she first discovered Xiao Fei’s infidelity when she checked his phone in October 2019 and uncovered his secret affair with Shi Yuhui (石玉慧) with whom he had been involved since at least February of that year The two would also stay in hotel rooms together during trips According to Gu — and backed by hospital records — Shi became pregnant twice in 2019 Gu says that efforts to stop the affair were fruitless even when Shi’s own husband was involved in trying to end the affair and that Shi Yuhui continued to harass Gu for years afterward Xiao began another new affair — this time with Dong Xiying According to her medical training schedule Dong was supposed to move on to another department in July 2024 but Xiao allegedly intervened to ensure she remained in thoracic surgery Xiao Fei had a dispute in the operating room involving his affair partner Xiao left the operating room with Dong (allegedly to comfort her) even though a patient had already been anesthetized and was lying on the operating table during which the anesthetist and nurse were left to manage the patient alone Gu mentions that medical staff involved in or aware of the operation later raised concerns in internal group chats or reported the incident directly to the hospital’s education or supervisory offices In a screenshot of the Surgical Anesthesia Department Nurses Group Xiao Fei was chaotic – he completely lost his temper on a phone call He called Zhang Ying (张颖) angrily saying if the circulating nurse wasn’t replaced He then unfastened the scrubs of the trainee doctor Dong They had just connected the electrosurgical unit when Xiao left with the trainee doctor leaving the anesthetized patient lying in the OR There is no doctor present during surgical time!” Gu later discovered that he was already living with Dong Xiying who had become pregnant the previous month Gu also learned that Xiao had been involved in other affairs dating back to 2016 and that he would stay at different hotels with various female members of staff and nurses She claims she initially hoped to avoid legal action but Xiao’s threats to seek full custody of their daughter pushed her to expose his affairs and seek justice On April 27 – the day this topic dropped in Weibo’s top trending lists – the China-Japan Friendship Hospital issued an official statement to respond to the controversy. The hospital confirmed that the allegations involving their staff member Dr. Xiao were basically true (#中日友好医院通报肖某问题属实#) They suspended Xiao while investigating the matter Xiao was expelled from the Communist Party his profile was removed from the hospital’s website public attention began shifting toward Dong Xiying (董袭莹) and her academic credentials who graduated from Barnard College in New York with a degree in economics entered the “4+4” MD/PhD medical training program at Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in 2019 she was praised as a model student within the 4+4 track (non-medical undergraduate + 4 years medical training) Netizens soon discovered that PUMC had been quietly removing articles from its website related to Dong Her PhD thesis disappeared from public databases and her name was edited out of the President’s Commencement Address As more details about her privileged background surfaced growing doubts emerged about her qualifications and how she gained admission to the program It is rumored that Dong has now left China for the US The hospital has not yet released details on how – and if – Shi Yuhui will be dealt with On May 1st, China’s National Health Commission announced an official investigation into the matter looking into the allegations against Xiao and also reviewing the academic and work history of Dong Xiying The scandal has caused something of an earthquake — not just within medical circles where netizens are particularly concerned about the broader social issues this story touches on Some netizens made mindmaps of the scandal to explain who the main persons nvolved are and what the key issues are There are many layers to this story, and perhaps more yet to be uncovered. One popular Weibo blogger (Qiao Kaiwan @乔凯文) commented about the scandal 💬 “(..) it’s rare for a central figure in a single case to touch on five major socially sensitive issues all at once: educational fairness (教育公平) class solidification [lack of upward mobility] (阶层固化) public concern centers around various major themes that are all tied to deeply rooted cultural values or long-standing social issues Since there is some overlap within these topics I’ll focus on three main values vs concerns here Fairness and corruption within China’s education system are recurring hot social topics Education is widely regarded as the main path to upward mobility which makes the system fiercely competitive—starting as early as kindergarten The pressure to succeed in the gaokao college entrance exams begins years before the tests are actually taken and resources into helping younger generations succeed academic corruption is a sensitive issue that affects trust in the entire system and exacerbates common people’s disillusionment with meritocracy Yet academic corruption—ranging from plagiarism and data manipulation to power abuse and favoritism—has been a widespread and increasingly discussed problem in mainland China since the 1990s Central to the current controversy surrounding Xiao Fei and Dong Xiying is the “4+4 program,” an experimental and relatively new medical education model inspired by the American system Unlike China’s traditional path (five years of undergraduate study in medicine followed by three years of graduate training) this program allows students to complete four years of non-medical undergraduate education followed by four years of medical training It’s a fast track in which students can begin practicing medicine after just one year of residency instead of three It was originally intended to create opportunities for talented individuals who decide to pursue medicine later on in their academic careers “Where is the fairness in medical education?” Many suspect Dong benefited from privileged access via family connections—her mother Mi Zhenli (米振莉) is a vice president at the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) and her father Dong Xiaohui (董晓辉) is a senior executive at a state-owned enterprise There are also concerns about plagiarism. Claims have emerged that Dong’s 2023 doctoral thesis shows significant similarities to an invention patent submitted in 2022 by several professors and Zhao Jihuai (赵基淮) a hearing-impaired graduate student from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) who is mentored by Professor Ban Xiaojuan (班晓娟) has now deleted related articles from its site and edited her name out of the President’s Commencement Address that mentioned her Concerns about Dong’s academic background and the apparent bending of rules inevitably also cast a shadow over the medical institutions where she trained Dong was expected to rotate through various departments as part of her residency instead of moving on to spinal surgery after completing her thoracic surgery rotation she was allowed to remain—allegedly due to personal connections and pressure from Dr Xiao—even though the hospital’s education team had initially objected this could not only point to routine abuses of power within the medical training systems but also creates unease over how qualified doctors such a Dong actually are which also affects the trust patients place in hospitals The main incident in this scandal that has sparked widespread controversy is the moment when Dr Xiao reportedly left the operating room together with Dong for an entire 40 minutes during a surgery leaving the anesthetized patient on the table The idea that even a chief doctor such as Xiao can violate medical ethics by leaving a surgery mid-procedure for 40 minutes deepens fears about medical professionalism Such distrust in doctor-patient relations flared up again in light of this incident left on the operating table mid-surgery—allegedly due only to a quarrel between another nurse and Xiao’s mistress that made him angry Xiao has given two media interviews in response to the allegations. Regarding the claim that he stormed out of the operating room with Dong, leaving a patient behind, he reportedly stated that he was not gone for 40 minutes, but for a maximum of 20 minutes to calm down after a dispute Although Xiao has admitted to inappropriate relationships with a head nurse and a training resident physician (refuting allegations of affairs with other nurses or members of staff) he firmly denied more serious allegations involving medical safety In an interview with Jiupai News 💬 “I have clear supporting evidence that around 9 AM I left the operating table after an argument not to ‘demand.’ I coordinated with a senior staff member in the operating room about whether it would be possible to replace the circulating nurse under these circumstances Then I went upstairs to measure my blood pressure I was precisely concerned about the patient’s safety I gave specific instructions to the nurse at the table and their professional competence is fully sufficient to ensure the safety of a patient who had not yet undergone any surgical procedure.” the fact that Xiao Fei left an anesthetized patient during surgery is not only one of the reasons that cost him his job—it’s also one of the reasons why he has temporarily become the most hated doctor in China among the public The fact that he tried to defend his actions only seemed to aggravate public opinion against him: “So he thinks 20 minutes is a short time to leave a surgery?” some say; “completely outrageous,” “a serious threat to patient safety.” “Xiao is morally bankrupt,” another commenter wrote: “He is still trying to make excuses for leaving the OR mid-surgery As chief surgeon he seriously violated his professional values this entire scandal started because Xiao was caught cheating with multiple women at his workplace That alone is seen as a lack of moral integrity and a violation of professional ethics which are also tied to corruption and power abuse In China’s corruption cases, extramarital affairs often serve as red flags — not every official with a mistress is corrupt One of the most high-profile public cases involving an extramarital affair was in 2023 who held a high-ranking position at PetroChina was caught walking hand in hand with his mistress by a TikTok photographer during a work trip to Chengdu Chinese state media wrote that “being a Communist Party of China member which he transgressed by having an alleged extramarital affair.” Hu Jiyong was dismissed from his positions as Executive Director the exposure of their illicit affair might have even more serious repercussions Gu’s letter had a major impact on everyone involved Xiao’s actions not only carried serious consequences for Gu and their young daughter affected both Dong Xiying and Shi Yuhui and their families and damaged the reputations of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital and PUMC The entire scandal is not really about Xiao or Dong anymore It is about the entire system around them that facilitated their affair and made it possible to bend the rules and engage in unethical and unprofessional behavior On May 5, Chinese political commentator and columnist Sima Pingbang (@司马平邦), who has 7 million followers on Weibo, wrote: “What I think of the Xiao Fei and Dong Xiying incident: The academic authorities behind them must be brought down!” Meanwhile, despite the serious concerns behind the scandal, plenty of people are also enjoying the online spectacle. Some performers are even incorporating the story of Xiao and Dong into their comedy shows It’s not Grey’s Anatomy — it’s actually much more dramatic and hasn’t even reached its final episode yet… (follow on X, LinkedIn, or Instagram) Thanks to Miranda Barnes and Ruixin Zhang for their input and contributions to this newsletter ©2025 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com An enormous fire that happened at a restaurant in Liaoning’s Liaoyang on the afternoon of April 29 (see video) has gone top trending on Chinese social media mainly due to the fact that it caused so many fatalities Chinese official media reported that the fire which happened at 12:25 in the city’s Baita district The fire started on the second floor of the restaurant Sanli Chuniang (三里厨娘/Sanli Chef’s Daughter) on Minzhu Road (民主路) and quickly spread throughout the entire two-story brick-concrete structure, which covers an area of about 260 square meters. The windy weather also played a part in how quickly the fire spread Some sources on Xiaohongshu report that toxic smoke filled the entire building in less than five minutes small spaces inside the two-story building and limited escape routes — some of which were allegedly blocked — all contributed to the high number of fatalities Some victims were reportedly just ten meters away from the exit Sanli Chuniang was a locally popular restaurant serving various Chinese dishes many commenters are expressing shock and sadness over the deadly fire They also want answers into why there seemed to have been little to no fire safety precautions at the establishment The last time a restaurant fire with many fatalities made major headlines in China was in 2023, when a gas explosion inside a BBQ restaurant in Yinchuan resulted in 31 deaths were later arrested in connection with the fire and the lack of safety precautions Some reports on the Liaoyang restaurant fire have now been removed but it appears that the restaurant had been operating illegally since 2023 and that its fire safety inspections were not up to date Guancha reported that while the cause of the fire is still under investigation the restaurant owner has been taken into custody What’s on Weibo is run by Manya Koetse (@manyapan), offering independent analysis of social trends in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to all content and get the Weibo Watch newsletter Would you like to become a contributor, or do you have any tips or suggestions? Get in touch here! The Tragic Story of “Fat Cat”: How a Chinese Gamer’s Suicide Went Viral Hunan TV’s ‘Singer 2024’ Stirs Nationalistic Sentiments A Triumph for “Comrade Trump”: Chinese Social Media Reactions to Trump Rally Shooting With one in five elderly Japanese predicted to have dementia by 2025 entire communities are working to improve the lives of older citizens the sales rep couldn’t remember the four-digit number for his changing-room locker he had struggled to get to grips with his office’s new computer system his mind went blank as he was about to give a work presentation Despite twice being reassured by doctors that stress was the cause of his moments of absent-mindedness Tsuda was eventually diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease five years ago wipes away tears as she recalls the ensuing trauma but all of the plans we had made together were shattered in an instant,” she tells the Guardian at a cafe she runs in Matsudo city “I lost eight kilograms in weight and all my hair fell out Her husband is not alone. Japan is at the forefront of a dementia crisis that experts warn will affect other societies with burgeoning elderly populations in decades to come 4.6 million people are suffering from some form of dementia with the total expected to soar to about 7.3 million people – or one in five Japanese aged 65 or over – by 2025 Faced with spiralling health and welfare costs and a shortage of professional caregivers, towns and cities across Japan are attempting to move away from a medicine-based, institutional approach towards care to one that involves the entire community. Japan’s government released its Orange plan – a comprehensive package of measures to tackle dementia ranging from more specialised medical staff and the development of new drugs to regular home visits and support for family caregivers put services for people living with dementia at the centre of its welfare policy much earlier more than 28% of the city’s 480,000 people will be aged 65 or older It means a commensurate rise in the number of people living with dementia “We realised a while ago that with the rising number of older people living here dementia was going to be a huge challenge,” says Yoshida just over 11,000 people in the city in receipt of nursing care have some form of dementia compared with around 8,000 just seven years ago But they do not include a large number of people who have yet to be diagnosed local officials estimate Matsudo will be home to as many as 26,000 dementia sufferers by 2025 the plan includes raising public awareness among residents as well as businesses which regularly come into contact with older people There are cafes and drop-in centres for dementia patients and their families the city began distributing stickers carrying a QR code that can be ironed onto items of clothing to help police locate the families of people who have wandered from their homes In return for attending a 90-minute lecture residents can become “dementia supporters” who identify themselves with a bright orange bracelet 21,490 people have qualified as dementia-aware while more than 3,000 regularly take part in neighbourhood patrols Hiroyuki Yamamoto Photograph: Justin McCurry/The GuardianSeveral times a month small groups of volunteers put on bright orange bibs and walk around neighbourhoods to distribute leaflets carrying information on dementia services and “We tend to pass by the very new houses as they’re occupied by young families,” says Manami Yoshii a local welfare official while on patrol in a Matsudo suburb on a chilly January afternoon “But if we see an older house that has the curtains drawn during the day or a big pile of newspapers in the mailbox Hiroyuki Yamamoto knew exactly what to do when She told him she was on her way to a town in Nagano prefecture he managed to keep the woman talking until the police arrived to escort her home “A friendly greeting is the start of everything,” says Yamamoto “You don’t just suddenly ask people if they’re OK We can usually tell if something is wrong by the way they respond.” The number of people with dementia who go missing in Japan has reached crisis levels, reaching a record high of 15,432 in 2016, according to the national police agency – a rise of more than 25 percent from the previous year. In Matsudo, the patrol initiative has produced results. Over the past six years, there have been more than 180 cases of people exhibiting signs of the condition found wandering the streets, all of whom were reunited with their families. When they are not on patrol, dozens of dementia supporters run cafes for people with the condition and their families. “It’s a casual place for people to come and talk openly over a cup of tea,” says Yukari Sakamoto, a cafe volunteer whose 69-year-old mother has the condition. “I can see that she gets a lot out of being able to talk at her own pace.” Read moreAfter a series of minor mishaps at home while she was out at work Kazuko Tsuda persuaded her husband to attend a day-care facility where he and other people with dementia do light exercise grow vegetables and go on supervised walks who bought her cafe shortly before he was diagnosed still struggles to cope with Masashi’s mood swings but takes comfort from signs that he still appears to recognise her as his wife of more than 30 years it would be for my husband and I to do things together,” she says “He’s a proud man … so it would help if he could also be given some sort of easy work to do The Tsudas’ names have been changed at their request MADEIRA, Ohio — All Madeira City Schools will shift to remote learning on Tuesday and remain remote until 2021, superintendent Kenji Matsudo announced Sunday night. Rising numbers of sick or quarantined students and staff have made in-person instruction untenable “As we have worked tirelessly to provide opportunities for our in-person and at-home learners this school year we are needing to be flexible and responsive to our situation and make the necessary adjustments needed on behalf of our students and staff,” Matsudo wrote in a notice to families only one group of students was meant to shift to remote learning: fifth-graders at Madeira Middle School One staff member interacting with them had been diagnosed with COVID-19 according to a separate letter from Matsudo the district and Hamilton County Public Health had determined all classes needed to move online Fifth-graders will start remote learning Monday All other grade levels will have the day off while teachers prepare for the switch All athletics and extracurriculars will be suspended from Monday to Sunday “to understand any other additional impacts based on our current positive case rate,” Matsudo wrote In his letter to the families of fifth-graders “We can do hard things and get through this together,” he wrote Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Chiba Prefecture--A woman believed to be a foreign national was killed in a vicious beating in the premises of a house here on Nov and police are searching for two young men who fled the scene A nearby resident called the 110 emergency number around 3:10 a.m The woman in her 30s was found unconscious in a pool of blood in the premises of the house in Matsudo’s Kogasaki district She was pronounced dead at a hospital in the city about three hours later She had been struck in the face and other parts of her body and was bleeding profusely mainly in the head One of the suspected assailants was described as about 180 centimeters tall with a solid build The house is located in a residential area about 1.5 km west of JR Kita-Matsudo Station (This article is written by Go Kitaueda and Itsuhiro Suzuki) Teen arrested on suspicion of hitting girl prior to a deadly arson Police confirm body found in Chiba is missing first-grader ‘Nikkei’ painter’s memoir about wartime camps now in Japanese Man arrested over trying to place ‘curse’ on Vladimir Putin CDP lawmaker rebuked for saying abductees likely all dead 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 Robin Harding selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter Japan is confronting a pandemic of dementia as its population ages but while the challenge might seem overwhelming one town in the Greater Tokyo suburbs is mobilising its population to respond Rather than pack people with dementia into care homes Matsudo — a typical slice of outer suburbia that boomed during Japan’s years of rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s — is trying to make itself a friendlier place for them to continue living in their own homes 7.3m Japanese will be living with dementia — one in 20 of the population; by 2050 The figures for Matsudo are in line with national trends: about one in four of the town’s 494,000 residents are over 65 and 11,504 people have been diagnosed with dementia serious enough to affect their daily life Matsudo has “dementia cafés” where patients and carers can go for advice and assistance but the town has also built up a small army of volunteers to help any stray person with dementia found wandering the streets In the first tier are about 25,000 “dementia supporters” who wear an orange band and pledge to approach any older person who seems to be in trouble on the street In the top tier are more than 700 “orange volunteers” “The unique bit is the system of call-outs,” says Yuko Kishida a public health nurse who works for the city then addressing a stranger on the street can be difficult.” Those taking part in patrols — which are also partly aimed at child safety and crime prevention — try to help older pedestrians who seem to be struggling a gaggle of not-so-young volunteers gather to wander the less-than-mean Matsudo streets The exercise shows admirable community spirit but also the limits of this approach to dementia care so any given area is covered by a patrol for The volunteers push along briskly despite the early summer heat They spot a few schoolchildren on their way home but no older people obviously in distress It is hard to escape the feeling that most of the people with dementia and the families struggling to care for them are hidden away behind the many closed doors that the patrols pass by may be less the help it gives to those with dementia than the awareness and acceptance of the condition that the town is building up “It makes it easier for people with dementia to manage.” Madeira teachers, staff, students and families lined the streets around Madeira Elementary School Monday morning with posters and prayers to honor their principal, Chris Flanagan, who died unexpectedly last week. All district schools were closed Monday and a funeral mass was held for Flanagan at Good Shepherd Church in Montgomery Opinion: Madeira principal Chris Flanagan was an educator like no other Principal Chris Flanagan," the Jumbotron read on Wednesday Flanagan grew up in Vermont as the oldest of five children, according to his obituary from Thomas-Justin Memorial married his wife Danielle and had four children: Jack For 25 years Flanagan served local students at Finneytown Local School District Forest Hills Local School District and Madeira City Schools I shared a bedroom for many years with one of mine," his younger brother Patrick Flanagan said during Monday's service "I always felt that I belonged − in the truest deepest sense of the word − when I was with Chris He elevated your spirit when you were with him." Looking out among the hundreds of mourners Monday Patrick Flanagan said he wished his brother was there to "feel all of this." "To see just how many lives he impacted," he said Madeira Superintendent Kenji Matsudo also spoke at Monday's mass careful to note he was Flanagan's boss as well as his friend Matsudo said his inbox and phone were flooded with support for Flanagan "the world's best educator and principal who checked all the boxes," eight years ago when the elementary principal spot opened up Flanagan was working in the Forest Hills Local School District at the time but he lived in Madeira where his kids went to school And during his interview for Madeira Elementary principal Flanagan told Matsudo that it was his dream job and mimed pushing all of his poker chips to the center of the table: He was "all in." as he was to so many of you," Matsudo said Community members continue to share tributes to Flanagan on a Facebook memorial page More than 500 members had joined the page as of Monday morning The family is also accepting donations to the Chris Flanagan Memorial Scholarship at Madeira High School (checks made payable to the Madeira Schools Foundation at 7465 Loannes Drive in Cincinnati) or the Flanagan Scholarship at St Moriwaki Racing have revealed that former MotoGP winner and HRC test rider Tohru Ukawa has joined their MotoGP development programme while 250 GP veteran Naoki Matsudo will race for the team in the 2005 All Japan Superbike Championship Moriwaki's 2005 MotoGP programme will see the team continue to develop its MD211VF racer which features an RCV engine in a Moriwaki chassis The team won seven world championship points during a five race wild-card campaign during 2004 and hope to improve that score further this year Moriwaki Racing have revealed that former MotoGP winner and HRC test rider Tohru Ukawa has joined their MotoGP development programme "Our 2005 MotoGP race schedule is not yet confirmed hope to have a wild-card entries at Shanghai (Chinese GP) and Motegi (Japanese GP)," said Mamoru Moriwaki I am very much looking forward to working with him in order for us to pull up the potential of MD211VF," he added "When I received the offer from the Moriwaki team I felt happy thinking of being able to assist someone who is so motivated," explained Tohru "I was touched and pushed by the passion and the challenging spirit of Mr which finally helped me decide what I should do "The race rider and the team's wild-card schedules are not confirmed but I hope to further develop the MD211VF with Mr Moriwaki so that whomever the race rider is going to be he or she feels comfortable with the potential of the bike to compete in the grand prix," he added after five years of world championship racing - often on uncompetitive machinery - Matsudo (lower pic) will ride a Honda CBR1000RR for the Moriwaki Motul Tiger team in the full All Japan Superbike Championship season "Having raced in GPs for the past five years I am more confident and I am happy to join the Moriwaki team to compete back in the Japan Superbike Championship," said Naoki "Riding the Honda CBR1000RR should also be a positive experience for me in terms of studying how to control four-stroke bikes and thinking of what I should do in the future," he added I feel that the potential of the team and the bike is good enough to focus on winning the championship this year it is thought that Matsudo could well ride the MD211VF in at least some of Moriwaki's 2005 MotoGP events interviews and promotions from the paddock direct to your inbox For more information see our Privacy Policy He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues © Crash Media Group Ltd 2025.The total or partial reproduction of text photographs or illustrations is not permitted in any form 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 Futoshi Mori / Japan News Senior Writer “Japan has many high-quality ramen stores,” says Korea-born Wonsik Choi “My aim was to establish a ramen outlet that appeals to Japanese ramen aficionados.” who runs the Menya Shido eatery near JR Matsudo Station in Matsudo had originally intended to become a composer after graduating from music college in Korea he instead plumped to try his luck in the culinary world which opened last September offers ramen dishes based on a combinational soup comprising beef bone broth and chicken paitan broth The intersection-situated store is an about five-minute walk from Matsudo Station’s West Exit A description of limited-edition ramen is posted outside the shop The ticket vending machine offers a wide variety of ramen dishes The clean and cozy establishment features an extensive menu In addition to paitan shio (salt) and paitan shoyu (soy sauce) ramen the ticket vending machine also offers various other intriguing offerings A small refrigerator to keep wine sits next to the ticket machine while a wall-mounted blackboard offers tips on a la carte dishes that go well with various alcohols Assorted Vegetables and Roast Pork (¥1,200) The small refrigerator to keep wine stores a carefully selected collection of bottles The shop also offers a wide range of alcoholic drinks other than wine The a la carte menu offers advice about food-alcohol pairings I opted for the store’s signature dish: special paitan shio ramen (¥1,300) which comes with grilled vegetable toppings I watched as Choi placed pre-cooked eggplant and zucchini on the shichirin charcoal grill to reheat The store’s choice of vegetables changes with the seasons “I use a special blend for the kaeshi sauce that’s unique to this shop,” said Choi “I blend white wine with sea salt and rock salt while red wine is used to blend three different types of soy sauce An unusual and interesting point is that Choi adds kinako (soybean flour) to the mix “It’s a secret addition,” he says while pouring the soup into a bowl and mixing it with a blender.” It makes all the difference in taste.” The broth bubbled delightfully prompting me to ask if the dish was a “foamy ramen.” the bubbling is to make sure everything comes together I didn’t even know there was such a thing as foamy ramen!” “It’s not a foamy ramen dish,” shop owner Wonsik Choi says Vegetables are heated on a shichirin grill Pork chashu is heated on a shichirin grill before serving The medium-thin noodles complement the soup delightfully The medium-thin noodles go well with the tasty soup Shop owner Choi adds kinako (soybean flour) to the kaeshi sauce The soup froths quickly when blended with a mixer Mixing the liquid well allows the soup to achieve a uniform flavor It also makes the ramen more “mellow” and “gentle,” which ties in with the shop’s overriding concept The final touch for the dish was a drizzle of homemade herb oil made from Italian parsley and basil comprising a delightful white broth and a variety of toppings including colorful red and yellow bell peppers alluring flavor and was crafted using a combination of 30% beef bone broth and 70% chicken broth — went down delightfully Preparing the soup takes time and effort: Choi simmers beef bones with garlic so you need that kind of time to get the right flavor,” he explained and momiji (chicken feet) then simmers the stock for a further six hours it takes about two full days to make the soup were delicious and complemented the broth very well Carefully arranging pork and chicken chashu The chicken breast chashu is tender and flavorsome The shop’s pork chashu is cooked at a low temperature Choi cooks the pork loin and chicken breast chashu toppings at a low temperature before roasting the pork chashu on a shichirin charcoal grill prior to serving Other toppings include homemade pickled bamboo shoots seasoned with soy sauce “Most of the ingredients are prepared in-house Perhaps the only thing that isn’t homemade is the natto (fermented soybeans),” he added with a laugh as it introduces a somewhat tart nuance that gives the dish a fresh flavor “Many ramen shops offer vinegar [for this purpose] but vinegar can overwhelm a dish,” Choi noted I supped the delicious soup enthusiastically while savoring the shop’s novel flavors and approach Reflecting on the path that led him to open Shido Choi said: “I trained at a French restaurant in Ginza for a little over a year and it completely changed my thinking about cooking.” Choi recounted how he felt a deep respect for a Japanese chef who specialized in modern French cuisine while working in the kitchen of a Ginza outlet that opened in 2015 The chef had a different approach to the other chefs Choi has ever worked with taking the restaurant business extremely seriously while focusing strongly on the food itself Choi recalled that the chef was strict but supportive adding that his boss’ sincerity and approach altered his whole mindset who had worked as a recipe-following chef-for-hire slowly began questioning the status quo while coming up with ways to make things even better — it is this real world-forged experience that underpins Shido’s wide variety of ramen dishes Choi completed South Korean military service during his college years and became involved in the music business after graduation A turning point came in 2007 during his first visit to Japan on a sightseeing trip when he met a Japanese woman who eventually became his wife He attended a Japanese language school while working full-time for a Japanese company that operated Korean restaurants eventually spending around five years with the firm Choi returned to his home country for about six months to take care of various family-related issues He resigned from the Japanese firm and began to seriously contemplate his future He realized he wanted to “train at a proper restaurant and acquire skills,” which led to his tenure at the French restaurant “I have a very exacting personality,” Choi shared “I can’t cut corners or be lax in my work.” Choi struck me as a man with a delicate disposition likely due to his time in the world of musical composition that the culinary world likely allows him to pay close attention to detail while fashioning his own pieces akin to conceiving and notating music on a score it will be a ramen shop because I can run it alone.” Additionally he was a long-term ramen fan and ate it regularly He gradually accumulated experience at various eateries with the aim of one day being able to craft his own unique ramen Choi happened up the vacant premises of a former ramen shop Lemon juice adds an additional refreshing flavor A detailed description of the outlet’s ramen is attached to the counter Tips on how best to enjoy the Shido’s ramen dishes are attached to the counter Internet-savvy Choi uses social networking services such as Instagram to disseminate information about his shop with the result that customers hail from near and far Though Choi and his wife divorced about six years ago his love for his son remains as strong as ever it makes you want to do your best and inspires you to raise your offspring well,” he said with a gentle smile For more information visit the shop’s Instagram account: menya_sidou_paitan_ramen  It’s a serious battle for both the cook and the diner There are many ramen restaurants in Japan that have a tremendous passion for ramen and I’d like to introduce to you some of these passionate establishments making the best of my experience of enjoying cuisine from both Japan and around the world Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun A bus driver in a Tokyo suburb refused a ride to a passenger in a wheelchair because he was worried about being late its operator Matsudo Shin-Keisei Bus said Tuesday The driver told the passenger he had only 30 seconds to ready the bus -- equipped with a wheelchair ramp and strap -- before its scheduled departure leaving the passenger to wait for the next one The driver told the company he regrets "making the wrong decision," according to a Matsudo Shin-Keisei Bus official The story came to light after the passenger told the driver of the bus he later boarded Matsudo Shin-Keisei said all its buses are equipped to transport passengers in wheelchairs adding that it will ensure all drivers understand that the need to serve passengers appropriately comes before operating a bus on time A body believed to be that of a child was found in the Edogawa river that flows between Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture on Tuesday Local police are working to identify the body According to sources close to the investigation the clothing on the body resembles what Minami was wearing when she went missing Chiba prefectural police removed a traffic PSA video featuring the Virtual YouTuber Tojou Linka on September 10, following a letter of complaint from the Alliance of Feminist Representatives (AFER). The letter, which is publicly available on the AFER website criticized the VTuber's character design as "sexually objectifying." the video portrays an "underage girl as an object of sexual attraction" because of her "short skirt" and "a sailor uniform-like outfit that reveals her navel." It also highlighted how the character has "large breasts that sway when she moves." The letter was sent to the Chiba prefectural police head office and the Matsudo City board of education on August 26 AFER received a response from the Matsudo City police station and the board of education on September 9 explaining that the purpose of the video was to encourage safe bicycle usage and that they would "take the expressed opinions into consideration for future promotional activities." According to ABEMA News the Chiba Prefectural police asked the Art Stone Entertainment VTuber management company in July to create a video that youth audiences could engage with Linka is based in Chiba Prefecture's Matsudo City and many of her activities are focused on promoting the city After the video's original removal, the VTuber's agency posted the three-minute version on its YouTube channel Setsuko Itakura, the representative director of the Art Stone Entertainment company which runs the VASE Virtual YouTuber project, commented on the video's removal in a public statement on Twitter She wrote that as a female business operator it is one of her goals to create an environment where woman can perform freely She expressed her surprise and dismay at seeing the video deemed "misogynistic." She also highlighted her love for Matsudo City and that her company worked closely with the police to produce the video in question Ōta Ward Assembly member Minoru Ogino, who is active as a female-presenting Virtual YouTuber, protested strongly to the video's removal. He is encouraging people to sign an online petition addressed to AFER which demands the organization to answer questions regarding how exactly the video constitutes sexual objectification and how it would be linked to sexual violence The petition has accumulated over 45,000 signatures as of this article's publication Ogino argued that in its attempt to drive a VTuber out of the public sphere by deeming her clothing and body shape as "sexual objectification," AFER is contradicting the values of feminism in supporting the diversity of women and their freedom of presentation He also highlighted VTuber culture as a space for expressing one's sexuality and gender expression freely and argued that stigmatizing it as misogynistic is a denial of the rights of members of the LGBT and crossdresser communities On Saturday, AFER claimed in a statement that the complaint letter was submitted in order to "raise awareness" of the issue, and that the decision to post or remove the video in question lies entirely with the Chiba police. Masuda City assembly member Kaoru Masuda, who is also a representative of AFER, also tweeted: "Everyone I don't know how much power you think an assemblyman has but there is no way a regional assembly member could pressure the police into removing a video." Itakura responded: "I myself felt a strong pressure when I saw an assembly member's name linked to a protest letter submitted to the police I have come to the understanding that there are members of the police who felt the same I fretted over whether this is a matter that I should stay quiet over but I think that removing things is not the solution and after hearing the voices of the citizens Source: Abema Times Chiba Prefecture--Teachers at a small local nursery school here had abused young children in their care hitting one on the head and leaving another alone in the restroom 19 the city has issued administrative guidance to Komorebi nursery for the inappropriate treatment of six children who are only 1 or 2 years old Officials said the nursery has admitted to the mistreatment The abuse was carried out by three teachers who had worked as nursery school teachers from two to eight years one of them struck the head of a 1-year-old boy who was dozing off during lunchtime Another moved him out of the way with her feet during nap time They also left a 2-year-old girl in the bathroom alone for about four or five minutes When the nursery interviewed the three teachers two admitted to the inappropriate treatment of children One of them told the city she did not hit the boy on the head but rather “pushed the boy because I wanted him to stay awake a little longer (during lunchtime).” “I let him know with my feet that he was sticking out from the futon (bedding).” A retired teacher had reported maltreatment of children at the school in September and the city conducted an on-site investigation in October But evidence that the children were being manhandled only came to light when the nursery submitted its security camera footage to the city Three ex-nursery teachers held for repeated cases of child abuse City calls for charges against nursery school head for cover-up Foreign parents use unlicensed child care amid lack of support Pedophiles face 10-year ban on teaching at nursery schools Mother arrested after 5-year-old son’s body found under home Chiba Prefecture--Local police have arrested a 72-year-old man who was apparently trying to place a curse on Russian President Vladimir Putin Officers at Matsudo-Higashi Police Station announced on June 15 they arrested Mitsunobu Hino on suspicion of breaking and entering and damaging property Police said a straw doll was nailed to a sacred tree at Mikazukijinja shrine at about 2:10 p.m The face of the doll had what looked like a photo of Putin’s face attached with the kanji character for bad luck written on its forehead Hammering a nail into a straw doll is a traditional form of placing a curse on the individual the doll represents Several security cameras in the vicinity caught an individual who resembled Hino near the shrine about 10 similar incidents have been discovered at various shrines in Matsudo and police are looking into any connections they may have with the latest case And just 24 hours after the GoFundMe went live, funds have been pouring in with $8,500 raised for Matsudo's family as of late Monday night The teen was killed Saturday night in the 4100 block of Ridge Avenue in Arlington Heights after suffering a severe head injury An investigation by police revealed he was riding a skateboard and holding onto a 2015 Honda Pilot when he "separated from the vehicle" and fell to the ground A juvenile was driving the Honda and stayed at the scene until police and paramedics arrived Matsudo was taken to Northwest Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead an hour later by emergency room physicians according to a news release from the Arlington Heights Police Department Matsudo is being remembered by classmates at Buffalo Grove High as smart, funny and popular A memorial was set up at the crash scene over the weekend and friends left flowers and framed photos "He was funny. He made everyone laugh," Jason Dedes, a friend, told the Daily Herald. "That's something that you can hear from anyone. He was a great kid. It's really sad to see this happen to him. I wish I could be able to see him again." The cause of the crash remains under investigation More via the Daily Herald and GoFundMe Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Reading error occured JavaScript. JavaScript settings are disabled in your browser, and some functions of this site cannot be used.Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings. Error reading javascriptJavaScript settings are disabled in your browser, and some functions of this site cannot be used. Please enable JavaScript settings. A Public Hospital that Utilized the Advantages of Design and BuildMatsudo City General Hospital On December 27, 2017, Matsudo City General Hospital in Chiba Prefecture (former Kokuho Matsudo City Hospital) was relocated and reopened at a new location. Under the design and build process used to build this public hospital, Shimizu was involved in all stages from design through construction. We also used the Shimizu Reinforced-Concrete & Steel System , a hybrid construction system that uses reinforced-concreted columns and steel beams, to achieve a large span. This structure enabled us to minimize structural plan limitations and createa functional layout that met the hospital’s needs, such as an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) with few columns and good visibility,and a wide-open reception area, and other desired features. Matsudo City General Hospital is a combination of Shimizu’s hospital construction technology and experience. We hope that the peoplein the community are able to enjoy it as a hospital that offers both safe, secure structure in the event of a disaster and relaxing spacesfor patients and their families. The information posted here is the current information on February 13, 2018.Please be aware that this information may have changed by the time you view it. Copyright © 1996-2025 SHIMIZU CORPORATION fun and practical.Get the latest with our exclusive in-language podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.SBSSBS Japanese News Japanese version the board of education for Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture announced plans to open a public junior high school that will offer night classes in time for the beginning of the new school year in April 2019 As well as catering for children who cannot easily attend school in regular hours because of conditions at home the board said it hoped the new school would help to meet the needs of growing numbers of foreign-born children applying for classes recently to improve their Japanese The city is home to the Kawaguchi Independent Night School Junior High long associated with the Kawaguchi volunteers supports the Matsudo Independent Night School in the city of Matsudo in Chiba Prefecture which has lobbied local and national government for many years to establish an official night school as part of the city’s municipal education system The school in Matsudo is a pioneering example of more than 300 such independent night schools around the country I recently made a visit to see how these volunteer schools are run and what they contribute to their local communities Enomoto Hirotsugu who heads a local group that has campaigned for a public night school in Matsudo It is 5:45 on a Friday evening in mid-May when I arrive at a municipal hall in Matsudo On the doors to each of the rooms is written: Matsudo Independent Night School Junior High a man in his sixties who works as representative of the local nonprofit organization that runs the night school He tells me how the increasing number of foreign children attending local schools has given the night school a new role in recent years a lot of the people who attended were ethnic Koreans and war orphans from Manchuria and China Most of them were in their fifties and sixties then These days we get a lot of children who have grown up overseas and come to Japan relatively recently with their parents They attend local schools in the city or nearby and come to us for extra lessons at night We have up to around 20 students at any one time There are more than 10 nationalities enrolled at the moment Classes run from six till nine at night Situated within 20 kilometers of the capital Matsudo developed as a “bedroom town” for commuters working in the massive Tokyo conurbation But in recent years the population growth has started to stagnate last year the official population passed 490,000 for the first time thanks to increasing numbers of foreign residents According to a survey carried out by the city government there were 14,120 residents with non-Japanese nationality in the city at the end of 2016 (up from 12,966 in 2015) China was the most common foreign nationality with 5,998 residents (up from 5,576 in 2015) followed by Vietnam with 2,039 (1,828) and the Philippines with 1,653 (1,590) There were also 1,651 (1,603) ethnic Korean residents Many of the children who attend night classes already speak Japanese quite well But they still struggle to follow exactly what their teachers are saying in class and sometimes find it difficult to understand the explanations in their textbooks accurately and geography can be particularly challenging Many of these children are studying for high school entrance exams Their numbers start to go up around June or July every year and by the autumn there are 20 to 25 students Many attend night classes almost daily until their exams in February or March the following year “It’s become a regular part of our calendar,” says Enomoto “They really throw themselves into their studies and hardly take a day off except at New Year Not just the students but everyone at the school works as hard as possible to make sure they pass.” Chiba Prefecture offers a special selection process for foreign children applying to enter high school with special consideration for students who entered Japan within the past three years and who live or plan to live in the prefecture together with a guardian Children meeting these criteria can apply to participating schools where students are assessed by an interview and essay (in either English or Japanese) They are exempt from taking the regular exams that Japanese children take (Japanese and science) and instead are assessed based on a comprehensive evaluation of their interview and essay an appraisal completed by their junior high school and application forms under the special foreign student admission system The independent night schools have become a favorite place for children to gain the academic skills they need to help them pass these special tests Most of the school’s students in those years were people who had never finished junior high school for various reasons in the chaos of World War II and its aftermath the school has increasingly helped bullied children who dropped out of school and students with disabilities So far some 1,700 people have studied at the school The school is maintained by a staff of around 30 volunteers—former school teachers There are normally 20 or so actively teaching at any given time Students choose the materials and subjects they want to learn and approach a member of staff who teaches that subject The school runs from six to nine in the evenings Students normally take a combination of these options Many children study here for two or three years and then go on to further study or work elsewhere The funds for running the school come from subscription fees paid by roughly 250 members and from the takoyaki (octopus-in-batter snacks) and other items that members of staff make and sell at a local flea market According to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Education there were 307 independent night schools around the country as of May 1 2014—almost all of them run by local community volunteers the citizens’ group of which Enomoto is a member has been petitioning the Matsudo Board of Education to establish a public night school that would allow students to obtain a qualification equivalent to a junior high school diploma: in other words an official public school that is part of an ordinary junior high school run by a local municipality and offers junior high school classes at night The group’s efforts finally bore fruit this February when the city announced plans to open night classes in one of the city’s municipal junior high schools there are at least 128,000 people in Japan who have not graduated from junior high school and therefore have never completed compulsory education This includes a number of foreign students Official steps to address this situation have been sporadic and unimpressive there were 89 public night schools around the country; today there are just 31 MEXT has said it aims to establish at least one such school in each of the country’s 47 prefectures but so far there has been little sign of concrete progress toward this target a sixth-grade boy and a third-grade girl sat with their mothers at a long desk in a corner of the classroom They had all arrived in Japan in February this year from China were studying Japanese with a male instructor in his seventies The boy’s mother spoke to me in Japanese “Using Japanese to communicate is not easy My son brings home lots of printouts for his homework They explain everything in a way that is easy to understand I want my son to learn to speak Japanese quickly and make lots of friends I wish they would provide more opportunities to learn Japanese at his elementary school as well.” The woman’s husband came to Japan alone eight years ago for work when their son was about to start sixth grade The three of them now live together in the city The other mother at the school on the day I visited also brought her daughter with her when she came to join her husband recently Many of the school’s teachers are former company employees and government workers four foreign students are at work on Japanese and other subjects Three of these are male students who entered municipal high schools in the city this April after passing Chiba Prefecture’s special entrance procedures for foreign students They decided to continue attending classes at the independent night school even after gaining admission to high school a sixteen-year-old student came to Japan with his parents from the Philippines three years ago “I came here because I want to learn about contemporary society It’s difficult to follow the lessons in school I hope that studying here will make it easier for me to keep up in class.” The other two students are from China One came with his parents from Shanghai three years ago “I can’t understand science lessons It’s difficult to follow what the teacher is saying I’m attending a juku [cram school] as well Maybe I’m just not studying hard enough It seems to go in one ear and out the other.” The second Chinese student came to Japan two years ago with his mother to join his father “I can’t follow the lessons in school It’s hard to understand what the teacher is saying.” The night schools are also providing vital Japanese language training for the increasing numbers of interns coming to Japan under the auspices of the government-affiliated Japan International Training Cooperation Organization According to a report put out by the Ministry of Health there were some 1.08 million foreign citizens working in Japan as of the end of October 2016 —the first time this number has passed the one million mark The number of “technical trainees” increased by 25% on the previous year Under the Technical Intern Training Program being pushed by the government and other countries come to Japan to work in areas where there is a shortage of native manpower: particularly in manufacturing The increasing numbers of these trainees is another reason why the local government decided to establish a municipal night school in Kawaguchi the system has many advantages: primarily the fact that it allows them keep labor costs down by hiring foreigners to work for lower wages than Japanese employees Disputes are common over questions of wages and pay and the long hours that trainees are expected to work employers apparently confiscate trainees’ passports for “safekeeping,” placing the foreign workers in a desperately weak position if anything goes wrong It is likely that some of the trainees attending night schools around the country have already faced problems of this kind and are trying to deal with their situation without a full command of the language A visit to Japan’s night schools raises questions about the state of our society as a whole (Originally published in Japanese on June 7 Banner photo: Class in session at the Matsudo Independent Night School This and all other photos by Yoshida Norifumi.) By Kenta Nakajo / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer More than one month has passed since the Taliban captured Kabul and thousands of Afghans living in Japan are worried about the future of their home country “I’m worried about the women who’ve made these products,” 39-year-old Baburi Ashraf said at his store in mid-September Dry fruits including figs and mulberries were lined up for sale in the shop which is located in a residential area near JR Matsudo Station in Matsudo Baburi came to Japan in 2009 and attended a Japanese language school he started working in 2011 at the Afghan Embassy in Minato Ward He later got married to a Japanese woman named Ai and women are primarily responsible for picking fruit and drying it There are many widows who lost their husbands in the civil war and Baburi began importing dry fruits in 2018 and selling them on the internet in the hope of supporting such women At the start of the recent turmoil in Afghanistan he lost contact with 30 farming households he had business contracts with “the Taliban regime may place restrictions on women’s working He is even more concerned about his 18-year-old niece The equivalent of a third-year high school student in Japan she wants to go to college to become a doctor like her father were driven out of Kabul as the Taliban seized the capital The family took refuge in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan Under the former Taliban regime that lasted for five years until 2001 “women were deprived of educational opportunities,” said Baburi He was a high school student at the time and when he came home he would teach what he had learned to his two sisters who are two and five years younger and could not go to school “What’s going to happen to us in the future?” his niece said in a video she sent late last month to Baburi The Afghan Embassy has received a series of inquiries from Baburi’s compatriots in Japan with questions including “Will we be able to renew our visas in the future?” or “Can I bring my family [in Afghanistan] to live with me in Japan?” There are about 3,500 Afghans now living in Japan [Afghanistan] will become a country detached from the common wisdom of the world and closed off.” “I hope it will be a country in which women can study and work as a matter of course Japanese version Japanese version Japanese version Looking at a reproduction of a living room from the Tokiwadaira Danchi housing complex I could almost hear a housewife calling her family to the table The actual housing complex is in the eastern part of Matsudo Built by the now-defunct Japan Housing Corporation known as "danchi-zoku," were seen as aspirational The Matsudo Museum created this faithful reproduction by examining large photographs taken by newspaper cameramen studying home economics from the time and interviewing housewives The reproduction is of a two-room unit with a dining room and kitchen A black telephone sits in the corner and on the wall is a print by Seiji Togo a popular artist of the late 1950s and early 1960s The apartment is equipped with the "three sacred treasures" -- a black and white television electric refrigerator and electric washing machine The reproduction is done in elaborate detail The housing complex has been occupied for almost 60 years I was surprised to learn their living space was part of a museum exhibition "The prototype for how we live now can be found at the Tokiwadaira Danchi," said museum director Fumihito Nakayama The Edogawa river flows near Matsudo and the Shimosadaichi plateau spreads in the eastern part of the city Matsudo has been occupied by humans since the Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.- ca 300 B.C.) dolphins and sea turtles have been excavated from shell middens the area around what is now Matsudo Station developed as the Matsudo post station along the Mito Kaido main road Merchants on their way to Edo (current Tokyo) would pass through and there was also shipping on the Edogawa river A diorama based on photographs and other materials from the Meiji era (1868-1912) shows an area just as bustling as it is now The museum sees the Tokiwadaira Danchi as an extension of this history Matsudo developed into a bedroom community for salarymen and others who commuted to Tokyo "We want people to feel how history connects the past to the present," Nakayama said The museum opened in 1993 with the aim of examining human history in a way that is relevant to the people of Matsudo axes and other items unearthed in the city It is a 15-minute walk to the museum from either Shin-Yahashira Station on the JR Musashino Line or Yabashira Station on the Shin-Keisei Line yen university and high school students 150 yen elementary and junior high school students free Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/ Japanese version This 21-year-old Japanese restaurant owner and college student is going viral for her looks Korean netizens posted her on forum sites after her story was covered in Japanese media Ikeda Honoka runs a Chinese cuisine restaurant in Matsudo | theqoo The young girl inherited the restaurant from her grandfather He had always wished for Honoka to take on his restaurant should he pass on Honoka was given the responsibility of continuing his legacy She recruited her college friend to work with her | theqoo Their beauty may be one of the reasons that many flock to the place Honoka spent a long time trying to recreate her grandfather’s dishes despite never having learnt how to cook in her life helps develop new dishes for Chinese cuisine | theqoo Korean netizens were touched by her responsibility and filial piety They also compared her looks to NewJeans‘ Minji the hardworking girl balances both school and running the place the regulars who left after her grandfather’s death came flocking back Netizens buzzed about her similarities to Minji in terms of looks | theqoo Seems like I’m not the only one who thinks she looks like Minji felt she looked like Minji as I scrolled down I think people would go to see the owner… Wow The restaurant is now registered as one of the best ones locally NJZ (NewJeans) Hanni Triggers Mixed Opinions With Recent Livestream KBS Responds To Petition For Inappropriate Wording Regarding NJZ (NewJeans) NJZ’s (NewJeans) Danielle Expresses Gratitude In Heartfelt Message To Fans Amid Hiatus ADOR Indirectly Calls Out NJZ’s (NewJeans) Fandom Team Bunnies, Gets Hit Back With Receipts See more NJZ (NewJeans)