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YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR AFFILIATE POLICY IN OUR TERMS OF USE Where to Buy the MIN-NANO x ASICS GEL-Nimbus 10.1Release Asics GEL-Nimbus a Japanese skate imprint rapidly gaining global recognition is making waves with its debut collaboration with ASICS on the GEL-Nimbus 10.1 This highly anticipated partnership marks a significant milestone for both brands and is already available at select ASICS retailers known for his laid-back yet intentional design ethos emphasizing simplicity over a grand theme or narrative Nakatsugawa sought to create a shoe that embraced a more understated The resulting design features a neutral grey and off-white color palette evoking a Y2K vibe that aligns with contemporary trends The shoe's profile reflects this minimalist vision seamlessly blending the calm tones of grey and off-white Nakatsugawa’s unique touch is evident in the geometric print running from the quarter to the heel and a wider mesh arrangement lending a subtle yet distinctive flair to the classic silhouette The MIN-NANO x ASICS GEL-Nimbus 10.1 has already his global ASICS.com sites and select retailers — mostly sold out — with a few stragglers penning a release for November 30 « Back Gifu — A man engaged in the farming and breeding of sturgeons in the mountains in Nakatsugawa succeeded in producing golden caviar from albino sturgeon eggs He now hopes to introduce the special caviar to overseas markets 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 Takehiro Kawaguchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer Albino sturgeons lack a melanin pigment due to a genetic mutation giving them a white appearance and their eggs a golden hue While regular sturgeons can reach about 1.8 meters in length and around 50 kilograms in weight in about 10 years albino sturgeons only reach about 1 meter in length Although it’s harder to maintain the health of albino sturgeons succeeded in producing the special caviar after much trial and error Oyama’s main business is civil engineering and construction He said he had been familiar with fish as he helped his father to breed ornamental nishikigoi carp as a hobby Oyama started full-scale farming of regular sturgeons as part of the construction company’s expanded operations more than 10 years ago To provide the sturgeons with a more natural environment Oyama breeds them in a large pond in a fallow rice field where nishikigoi carp used to be kept He tries to preserve the unique flavor and maintain the freshness of the caviar which is made by pickling sturgeon eggs in salt by rapidly freezing them in a special freezer The caviar is supplied to high-class restaurants and well-known chefs They also are available as gifts to those who donate to the city through the furusato nozei hometown tax donation system While enjoying the popularity of his caviar Oyama began trying to produce golden caviar Golden eggs can be produced by breeding albino sturgeons “I tried many ways to raise them without stressing them,” he added Oyama started full-scale farming of albino sturgeons in 2018 but he said he initially was unable to raise juvenile albino sturgeons He pays utmost care during the breeding and rearing process for instance by keeping the fish in a tank separate from ordinary black sturgeons Oyama succeeded in harvesting the long-awaited golden eggs The production of golden caviar was then confirmed by the prefectural fisheries research institute in Kakamigahara With many albino sturgeons now swimming vigorously in one of his tanks although the golden eggs are smaller than regular black ones With domestic demand for caviar decreasing due to rising prices Oyama is looking to wealthy people around the world He plans to join a trade exhibition in Las Vegas in late March and Singapore in summer He is also going to participate in a trade show in Dubai next year “I want to introduce the golden caviar to overseas markets and make it known as a product of Nakatsugawa,” Oyama said Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun high-tech cities of Japan and experience true Zen in the lush valley of Nakatsugawa Historical Nakatsugawa is a small town that sits right in the middle between Tokyo and Kyoto nestled among the mountains in a lush green valley in Gifu Prefecture The nearest mega-city is Nagoya which lies 80km (50 miles) southwest an easy 50-minute journey by Shinano express train Against a backdrop of lovingly restored houses from the Edo period (a time between 1603 and 1868 when Japanese arts and culture flourished) Nakatsugawa invites you to step back in time and immerse yourself in its tranquillity Nakatsugawa has long served as a springboard to the 16km (10 miles) Nakatsugawa-Tsumago hiking trail which is part of the renowned 530km (332 miles) Nakasendo Trail aka the ‘Road through the Central Mountains’ that snakes its way from Tokyo to Kyoto While most people tackle the entire Nakasendo Trail over five days the section from Nakatsugawa to Tsumago only takes about six hours Start your journey from JR Nakatsugawa Station and let the route take you to Magome a charming cobbled-street town lined with Edo-period buildings Keep a look out for a wooden watch-tower guarding the entrance to Magome and the kosatsuba nearby The kosatsuba is a wooden bulletin board sharing political news in ancient times Experience the transcending feeling of ‘Zen’ by participating in three main temple rituals that Nakatsugawa has to offer lose yourself in the reverence of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony at Iou-ji Temple a sacred place dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai the ‘Medicine Buddha’ who oversees one’s wellbeing Then express your artistic side with a calligraphy shuuji course at Kofuku-ji Temple Good calligraphy requires you to understand the art of patience and control as each exquisite brush stroke demands your undivided attention After a tea ceremony and a calligraphy course walk a few steps from Kofuku-ji to Zensho-ji Temple for a pure a sitting meditation discipline that focuses on mindfulness While bigger Japanese cities are known for their bright lights and long lines Nakatsugawa lets you experience the quainter origins of Japanese nightlife with local restaurants and izakayas (traditional Japanese bars) is a great little haunt that allows you to eat and drink with the locals – deciphering the Japanese menu is also half the fun A 10-minute drive from Nakatsugawa train station lies the Naegi Castle ruins a National Historic site nicknamed the ‘Machu Picchu of the east’ There is also an observation tower which gives you incredible views of the town and Kiso river or take a leisurely walk amid a lush landscape complete with rivers and waterfalls After a long walk along the Nakasendo Trail you may just want to put your feet up and enjoy a fine omotenashi (Japanese hospitality) Nagataki (Komanba 1649) is a traditional ryokan with all the touches of comfort The price of 22,360 Yen (US$210) per person includes accommodation plus a fabulous dinner and breakfast a ryokan with a hot spring bath and free shuttle service sleek guesthouse convenient for those hiking the Nakasendo Trail A night in the dormitory with breakfast is 4,000 Yen (US$37) per person Haginoya (Magome 4572) is a lovely restaurant giving you an authentic experience of dining on tatami floors with shoji (thin paper) dividing walls If you’re looking to test your taste buds with local cuisine Unagi Yamashina (Shimmachi 1-1) specialises in eel donburi dishes Take the JR Tokaido Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Nakatsugawa you can also drive from Tokyo to Nakatsugawa via the Chuo highway in approximately 3.5 hours The JR Tokaido Shinkansen also takes visitors from Kyoto to Nakatsugawa in just 1.5 hours via Nagoya the journey will take about 2.5 hours via the Meishin Highway The World Travel Guide (WTG) is the flagship digital consumer brand within the Columbus Travel Media portfolio A comprehensive guide to the world’s best travel destinations its print heritage stretches back more than 30 years with the online portal reaching its 20-year anniversary in 2019 the WTG provides detailed and accurate travel content designed to inspire global travellers Updated every day by a dedicated global editorial team the portal logs 1 million+ unique users monthly 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 The design takes its cues from the topography of the area which is known for its Kiso cypress production and slopes gently down to Mount Ena several floors are connected along the terrain with stairs and slopes to mimic the experience of climbing the mountain The new design is intended to reinvigorate the old city which is somewhat less crowded these last few years ‘We hope that this hotel will create a lively atmosphere in the old Nakasendo and become the pride of the town.’ the architects share.  the entrance of the Oyado Onn Nakatsugawa hotel all images courtesy of Masao Nishikawa Naruse Inokuma (find more here) has designed a continuous common area on the first floor that follows along with the local topography This first level was inset from the upper part of the structure to create a piloti-like space while elements such as concrete walls and coffered ceilings were interspersed inside and outside to enhance the sense of continuity multiple levels of floors are interlinked with stairs to replicate the sloping terrain.  Japanese cypress (Hinoki) is used for the wooden pillars that support the steel frame the waist walls of the dining space are made of Moen-Wood The reception counter is hardened with resin while the artwork that reproduces the atmosphere of a lumber mill and the large public bath are also made of Moen-Wood Various elements such as partitions are scattered within the space to replicate the image of planting cypress trees on the slopes of the mountain Moenwood is also used in the elevator lobbies on each floor while the cypress used in the standard guest rooms and the special guest rooms is completely different Cypress is used in a way that enhances the charm of the building and has been designed to represent a diverse forest As for the design of the guest room floors the volume on the lower floors expands to fill the space and the guest rooms are long and the windows are small so as not to notice the neighboring house that is nearby while on the upper floors the depth is reduced By shortening the length and making the windows horizontally continuous we wanted to allow visitors to enjoy the landscape to their heart’s content This divides the shape of the outdoor area into several reduced volumes giving it a new effect and blending into the cityscape of old Nakasendo the first floor is designed as a continuous social area opening to the street the hotel blends into the cityscape of old city cypress installation on the ceiling of a guest room the different levels withint the space replicate the experience of climbing up a mountain name: Oyado Onn Nakatsugawa architects: Naruse Inokuma Architects lead architect: Bae Hasegawa Hiyori location: Nakatsugawa,Gifu AXOR presents three bathroom concepts that are not merely places of function but destinations in themselves — sanctuaries of style Chestnuts are a representative taste of autumn in Japan The nuts grow naturally or are cultivated in many parts of Japan but Nakatsugawa City in Gifu Prefecture is especially famous for its chestnuts and for the kurikinton chestnut confectioneries first made there No article or any part there of may be reproduced without the express permission of the Cabinet Office. Copyright inquiries should be made through this form Metrics details Ultrathin sheets of transition metal dichalcogenides (MX2) with charge density waves (CDWs) is increasingly gaining interest as a promising candidate for graphene-like devices Although experimental data including stripe/quasi-stripe structure and hidden states have been reported the ground state of ultrathin MX2 compounds and the origin of anisotropic (stripe and quasi-stripe) CDW phases is a long-standing problem Anisotropic CDW phases have been explained by Coulomb interaction between domain walls and inter-layer interaction these models assume that anisotropic domain walls can exist in the first place we report that anisotropic CDW domain walls can appear naturally without assuming anisotropic interactions: We explain the origin of these phases by topological defect theory (line defects in a two-dimensional plane) and interference between harmonics of macroscopic CDW wave functions We revisit the McMillan-Nakanishi-Shiba model for monolayer 1T-TaS2 and 2H-TaSe2 and show that CDWs with wave vectors that are separated by 120° (i.e the three-fold rotation symmetry of the underlying lattice) contain a free-energy landscape with many local minima we remove this 120° constraint and show that free energy local minima corresponding to the stripe and quasi-stripe phases appear Our results imply that Coulomb interaction between domain walls and inter-layer interaction may be secondary factors for the appearance of stripe and quasi-stripe CDW phases this model explains our recent experimental result (appearance of the quasi-stripe structure in monolayer 1T-TaS2) and can predict new CDW phases hence it may become the basis to study CDW further We anticipate our results to be a starting point for further study in two-dimensional physics such as explanation of “Hidden CDW states” study the interplay between supersolid symmetry and lattice symmetry and application to other van der Waals structures It would be ideal to have rich structures with the least amount of interactions CDW structures of 1T-TaS2 and 2H-TaSe2 in equilibrium These materials have two-dimensional layered crystalline structures like graphene the red spheres represent Ta atoms and the yellow spheres represent S or Se atoms (c) The Ta atoms form a triangular lattice with superlattice vectors a and b A and B are commensurate (C) CDW superlattice vectors (\({\bf{A}}=(\mu +\nu ){\bf{a}}+\nu {\bf{b}}\) \(|{\bf{A}}|=|{\bf{B}}|=\sqrt{{\mu }^{2}+\mu \nu +{\nu }^{2}}|{\bf{a}}|\)) The CCDW superlattice for 1T-TaS2 (\({\mu }=3\) \({\nu }=0\)) are shown with green spheres The Ta atoms on the star-of-David or hexagonal lines are shifted toward the central green Ta atoms (d) Temperature dependence of CDW phases in bulk 1T-TaS2 (e) Temperature dependence of CDW phases in bulk 2H-TaSe2 The blue arrows represent the cooling cycle The red arrows represent the heating cycle T: Triclinic phase with quasi-stripe domain walls (stretched honeycomb lattice) and stripe phases are depicted with solid lines stripe and T phases all satisfy the triple-Q condition It is noteworthy that the free energy only involves the terms compatible with the crystal symmetry and the only input from experimental data is the incommensurate wave vectors \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{IC}}}^{(i)}\) for the IC phase the free energy has an unexpected minimum corresponding to the NC phase it is natural to ask whether there are more hidden minima if one makes a thorough search which was not feasible at the time we show that CDWs with \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) s that are separated by 120° (i.e with the three-fold rotation symmetry of the underlying lattice) contain a free-energy landscape with many local minima we remove this constraint and show that free energy local minima corresponding to the stripe and T phases appear we explain the origin of stripe and T domain walls and discuss the implication of our results \(x\) parameterizes the wave vector \({\bf{Q}}(x)\) with \({\bf{Q}}(0)={{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{I}}{\rm{C}}}\) \({\bf{Q}}({x}^{\ast })={{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{N}}{\rm{C}}}\,\)(nearly commensurate) \({\bf{Q}}(x)\) is shown with solid black lines in (b) The “multivalley landscape” of the type-1 free energy with N = 0 (c) show the type-1 free energy for larger \({Q}_{x},{Q}_{y}\) values Note that the number of branches and local minima increase as N increases New local minima appear near \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}\) but it is easier to see how the CCDW state is obtained as \(N\to {\rm{\infty }}\) Important wave vectors are the commensurate wave vectors \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}\) and the incommensurate wave vectors \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{IC}}}^{(i)}\) which have the norms \(|{{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}|/|{{\bf{G}}}_{i}|=1/\sqrt{13}\approx 0.277\) and \(|{{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{IC}}}^{(i)}|/|{{\bf{G}}}_{i}|=0.283\) and are tilted from the primitive reciprocal lattice vectors Gi by angles of 13.9° and 0° N = 0 represents the charge density modulation by the fundamental wave \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) The important idea by Nakanishi-Shiba is to include higher order harmonics with \(N=1,2,3,\ldots \) (see Methods section) Note that the same free energy is obtained for \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)}\) and \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\) because of the three-fold rotational symmetry the free energy has a “multivalley landscape”: there are many local minima besides those corresponding to the well-known IC Each of these local minima corresponds to new CDW states with three-fold rotational symmetry type-1 and type-2 free energies show almost identical local minima then these local minima are expected to move to new minima corresponding to the T phase \(x\) parameterizes the wave vector \({\bf{Q}}(x)\) with \({\bf{Q}}(0)={{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{I}}{\rm{C}}}\) and \({\bf{Q}}(1)={{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}\) \({\bf{Q}}(x)\) is shown with a black line in (b) The “multivalley landscape” of the free energy with N = 0 and 3 are given for the type-1 (b) and type-2 (c) free energies we consider CDW states without the 120° constraint Let \({{\rm{R}}}_{\pm }\) denote the matrices which rotate a wave vector \({\bf{Q}}=({Q}_{x},{Q}_{y})\) by ±120° then the vectors \(\{{{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)},{{\rm{R}}}_{-}{{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)},{{\rm{R}}}_{+}{{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\}\) are identical then the triple-Q condition implies that the vertices of \(\{{{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)},{{\rm{R}}}_{-}{{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)},{{\rm{R}}}_{+}{{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\}\) form a regular triangle (see Methods section) stable or metastable CDW states with anisotropic domain walls are obtained if local minima from the free energy shown with \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)}\) \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\) form a regular triangle (a) Free energy of 1T-TaS2 without the \(120^\circ \) constraint (at temperature \({T}=225{K}\)) \(\,{{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)}\) and \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\) form a regular triangle These local minima correspond to the T phase with quasi-stripe domain walls (b) Free energy of 2H-TaSe2 without the \(120^\circ \) constraint (at temperature \({T}=100{K}\)) The point \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)}={{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(1)}\) and local minima for \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)}\) and \(\,{{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}\) form a regular triangle these local minima correspond to the stripe phase The domain size may become closer to experiment if we further consider Coulomb interaction between domain walls we conclude that anisotropic domain walls for the stripe phase can be formed naturally even in a monolayer 2H-TaSe2 with the least amount of interaction we summarize the results presented in the previous sections We revisited the McMillan-Nakanishi-Shiba models for 1T-TaS2 and 2H-TaSe2 with general CDW wave vectors \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) (i = 1 A “bird’s-eye view” of CDW free energy landscape with multivalley structure reveals the presence of multiple local minima which correspond to different CDW states we removed the 120° constraint and observed local minima for the stripe and T phases These results are surprising because we resorted to neither Coulomb interaction between domain walls nor inter-layer interaction which had been considered as the origins of the stripe and phases CDW phases between the IC and C phases are accompanied with domain walls where each domain contains a CCDW with a different phase: such domain walls minimize the commensurability energy between the CDW and the underlying lattice The average domain size is inversely proportional to \(|{{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}-{{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}|\) \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) approaches \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}\) and the domain size diverges: The ground state is the C phase without domain walls As temperature increases from the ground state energy increase due to thermal fluctuation induces domain walls Since the formation of domain walls requires energy These domain walls are expected to be anisotropic rather than hexagonal since the formation of hexagonal domain walls require a global arrangement This model is analogous to the formation of the Abrikosov vortex lattice in a type-2 superconductor where vortices are formed one by one and finally form a lattice structure as the number of vortices increase This coexistence is rather a “proof” of the multivalley free-energy structure temperature gradient leads to energy fluctuation and a portion of the sample can stay in the local minimum for the T phase is stabilized by the production of vortices but vortices also increase entropy and minimize the free energy of the system stabilization of the stripe and T phases is related to entropy release/increase which is asymmetric with heating/cooling The stripe and T phases break the 3-fold rotational symmetry of the CCDW state Lower symmetry due to production of symmetry-breaking domain walls implies larger entropy Our result also explains our recent experimental result namely the appearance of the T phase in monolayer 1T-TaS2 The elements of the McMillan-Nakanishi-Shiba model Note that in this article we focus on \(|{{\bf{q}}}^{(1)}|=|{{\bf{q}}}^{(2)}|=|{{\bf{q}}}^{(3)}|\) and each \(|{{\bf{q}}}^{(i)}|\) are separated by a 120° (a) CCDW wave vectors \({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}\) define the CCDW charge density \(\rho ({\bf{r}})={\rho }_{0}[1+{\Delta }_{{\rm{C}}}\mathop{\sum }\limits_{i=1}^{3}\,\cos ({{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}\cdot {\bf{r}}+{\theta }_{{\rm{C}}{\rm{i}}})]\) The free energy is calculated as a function of a general wave vector \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) with the triple-\({\rm{Q}}\) condition \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)}+{{\bf{Q}}}^{(2)}+{{\bf{Q}}}^{(3)}=0\) (b) The deviation vectors \({{\bf{q}}}^{(i)}={{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}-{{\bf{Q}}}_{{\rm{C}}}^{(i)}\) projected on the \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(1)}\) space form a regular triangle \({{\rm{R}}}_{\pm }\) are rotation matrix of \(\pm 120^\circ \) If \({{\bf{Q}}}^{(i)}\) are separated by \(120^\circ \) (c) The harmonics form a triangular lattice \({{\bf{k}}}^{(i)}\) are wave vectors responsible for the formation of domain walls (the image shows an example for \(({\mu },{\nu })=(3,1)\)) (d) A general CDW state is given by \(\rho ({\bf{r}})={\rho }_{0}[1+\mathop{\sum }\limits_{i=1}^{3}\sum _{\begin{array}{c}l,m,n\ge 0\\ l\cdot m\cdot n=0\end{array}}{\Delta }_{lmn}^{(i)}\,\cos ({{\bf{Q}}}_{lmn}^{(i)}\cdot {\bf{r}})]\) with \(3N(N+1)\) higher harmonics Colloquium: Theory of intertwined orders in high temperature superconductors Charge-density waves and superlattices in the metallic layered transition metal dichalcogenides Electronic crystals: an experimental overview Anomalous transport properties of a linear-chain metal: NbSe3 Broken Hexagonal Symmetry in the Incommensurate Charge-Density Wave Structure of 2H-TaSe2 Scanning tunnelling microscopy of charge-density waves in transition metal chalcogenides Theory of discommensurations and the commensurate-incommensurate charge-density-wave phase transition Theory of the Splitting of Discommensurations in the Charge-Density-Wave State of 2H-TaSe2 X-Ray Study of Charge Density Wave Structure in 1T-TaS2 Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 53 X-ray study of the new charge-density-wave phase in 1T-TaS2 Commensurate-incommensurate transitions in rare-gas monolayers adsorbed on graphite and in layered charge-density-wave systems Theory of Three-Dimensional Orderings of Charge-Density Waves in 1T-TaX2 (X: S Controlling charge-density-wave states in nano-thick crystals of 1T-TaS2 Atomic lattice disorder in charge-density-wave phases of exfoliated dichalcogenides (1T-TaS2) Gate-tunable phase transitions in thin flakes of 1T-TaS2 Structure and control of charge density waves in two-dimensional 1T-TaS2 and monolayer 1T-TaS2: Detection of commensurate charge density wave phase through Raman scattering Distinct surface and bulk charge density waves in ultrathin 1T-TaS2 Ultrafast manipulation of mirror domain walls in a charge density wave and tri-layer charge density waves in 1T-TaS2 by transmission electron microscopy without a substrate Domain-size effects on the dynamics of a charge density wave in 1 T−TaS2 Controlling the metal-to-insulator relaxation of the metastable hidden quantum state in 1T-TaS2 Intertwined chiral charge orders and topological stabilization of the light-induced state of a prototypical transition metal dichalcogenide Observation of charge density waves in free-standing 1T-TaSe2 monolayers by transmission electron microscopy Persistent Charge-Density-Wave Order in Single-Layer TaSe2 Modeling of networks and globules of charged domain walls observed in pump and pulse induced states Nanoscale manipulation of the Mott insulating Nanoscale manipulation of the Mott insulating A metallic mosaic phase and the origin of Mott-insulating state in 1T-TaS2 Laudau Theory of charge-density waves in transition-metal dichalcogenides Theory of phonon dynamics near a charge-density-wave instability Domain-like Incommensurate Charge-Density-Wave States and the First-Order Incommensurate-Commensurate Transitions in Layered Tantalum Dichalcogenides Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 43 Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 44 Origin Of The Stabilization Of The Nearly Commensurate Phase in 1T-TaS2 Supercluster of Electrons in Ultrathin TaSe2 Nanocrystals metastability and phase transitions in two- dimensional systems Study of the superfluid transition in two-dimensional 4He films Ultrafast Switching to a Stable Hidden Quantum State in an Electronic Crystal Modeling of Evolution of a Complex Electronic System to an Ordered Hidden State: Application to Optical Quench in 1T-TaS2 Real-time observation of the coherent transition to a metastable emergent state in 1T-TaS2 Quasicrystalline 30° twisted bilayer graphene as an incommensurate superlattice with strong interlayer coupling The role of charge density waves in structural transformations of 1 T TaS2 Download references acknowledge support by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No Center of Education and Research for Topological Science and Technology developed the simulation code and discovered the multivalley structure analyzed numerical data and discovered the origin of stripe/quasi-stripe structures made interpretations based on actual experimental evidence prepared figures and wrote the manuscript with feedback from S.T All authors discussed the results and approved the final manuscript The authors declare no competing interests Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58013-7 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow Hiromi Nakatsugawa recounts a moment in the early summer of 2021 when they would regularly lay on the grass to stare up at the sky I then started seeing small circular lights aimlessly flying around or something in my eye … They were not the shadows of small flies the flight patterns would be more erratic if they were so I narrowed my hypothesis to something supernatural I remember that these orbs were profoundly beautiful They induced the feeling in me that they were like small spirits it's funny to imagine myself with tears streaming softly Nakatsugawa’s debut solo exhibition Pass By explores the complex modes of being that exist within a single body at any given moment. Their highly rendered drawings visualize multiple states of transformation, appearing as energetic flows travelling across internal communicative networks. Expressing an emergent form of biomechanism that finds precedents in both the sculptural work of Lee Bontecou and drawings of HR Giger Nakatsugawa’s drawings conjure a wide range of science-fictive associations with references to the figure (internal) and landscape (external) persisting throughout Intimately scaled and accomplished in pencil crayon and graphite their renderings of tubed and venular passageways weave through around and across one another illuminating an intricate mesh of organic operations and their functional fragility Within these structures portals form and disperse activating potential processes of internal discovery and otherworldly exploration Hiromi Nakastugawa recounts a moment in the early summer of 2021 when they would regularly lay on the grass to stare up at the sky.  Japanese version Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information Gifu Prefecture--A construction company here that farms sturgeon as a side business said it has produced “golden caviar,” a delicacy that can cost 15 times the price of the more common black variety Tono Construction named the product “Almas Caviar Zipang” (almas means “diamond” in Russian) and plans to export it foie gras and truffles are considered the world’s top luxury foods made by salting ovaries removed from female sturgeon Golden caviar comes only from albino sturgeon which lack a melanin pigment due to a genetic mutation a 42-year-old director at Tono Construction was seeking a new source of revenue for the company in 2012 when he saw sturgeon being farmed at a hotel in Takayama The company now farms about 4,000 sturgeon and the caviar is shipped to upscale restaurants and other establishments nationwide Oyama began working on golden caviar by importing albino sterlet sturgeon the juvenile fish all died for three consecutive years He went through a trial-and-error process while seeking guidance mainly from the Gifu Prefectural Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquatic Environments male albino sturgeon produce less sperm than normal sturgeon And the fish that are born are weak in constitution Oyama lowered the population density in the culture ponds and tried to reduce stress by nurturing the fish in an environment more similar to their natural surroundings about 10,000 eggs hatched and around 100 survived One remaining challenge is to enhance the survival rate Oyama said he saw that a female born in 2021 had golden ovaries and he removed them at the end of December last year Oyama says black caviar in Japan costs around 400,000 yen per kilogram But imported golden caviar trades at more than 6 million yen per kilogram golden caviar is usually sold out and rarely appears on the market in Japan the golden variety is faintly sweet and has a delicate taste Oyama says he is “probably the first in Japan” to produce golden caviar through farming He said he is eager to “spread golden caviar born in Nakatsugawa around the world.” Made-in-Japan caviar used for the world’s first caviar soy sauce Lake in Ibaraki promoted for production of low-salt caviar Tunnel collapse causes first death related to maglev train project TOWARDS EQUALITY: Paternity leave still a tricky issue in Japan’s staid mindset 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 Metrics details This retrospective study developed an automated algorithm for 3D segmentation of adipose tissue and paravertebral muscle on chest CT using artificial intelligence (AI) and assessed its feasibility The study included patients from the Boston Lung Cancer Study (2000–2011) while 245 were used for muscle quantification The data were split into training and test sets with manual segmentation as the ground truth Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissues (SAT and VAT) were segmented separately and intermuscular adipose tissue percentage (IMAT%) were calculated in the paravertebral muscle segmentation The AI algorithm was trained on the training sets and its performance was evaluated on the test sets The AI achieved Dice scores above 0.87 and showed excellent correlations for VAT/SAT ratios and IMAT% (correlation coefficients > 0.98 The mean differences between the AI and ground truth were minimal (VAT/SAT ratio: 0.7%; muscle attenuation value: 1 HU; IMAT%: <1%) we developed a feasible AI algorithm for automated 3D segmentation of adipose tissue and paravertebral muscle on chest CT The purpose of this study was to develop a fully automated convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm for 3D segmentation of adipose tissue and paravertebral muscle (erector spinae muscles) on chest CT and test it preliminarily using images of patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the Boston Lung Cancer Study cohort (2) stage I NSCLC (American Joint Committee on Cancer 7th edition) We identified 311 patients with stage I NSCLC Seven patients were excluded due to failure in the processing by segmentation software a total of 77 patients with non-enhance CT were utilized Enhanced CTs were excluded because contrast enhancement was assumed to affect the density thresholding in adipose tissue quantification The patients were randomly split into training (n = 30) and test (n = 47) sets a total of 245 patients with non-enhanced or enhanced CT were utilized The patients with non-enhanced CT were assigned to training (n = 30) The other patients with non-enhanced CT and those with enhanced CT were assigned to the test set (n = 215) All patients in this study provided written informed consent (a–c) Ground truth labeling by manual segmentation The blue and purple volumes indicate SAT and VAT (d–f) Predicted segmentation by the algorithm The yellow and blue volume indicates SAT and VAT and VAT/SAT ratio in ground truth were 9381 cm3 while those in the predicted segmentation by the algorithm were 9285 cm3 and SAT/VAT volume ratio were obtained by this algorithm Paravertebral muscle quantification in the training set The blue segmentation indicates paravertebral muscle without IMAT and the yellow segmentation indicates IMAT (b) 3D volume rendered image of paravertebral muscle with IMAT The red segmentation indicates paravertebral muscle without IMAT and the green segmentation indicates IMAT (e) 3D volume rendered image of paravertebral muscle We trained an AI model using U-Net to segment the paravertebral muscle using the training set IMAT was segmented by applying a threshold of − 170 to − 40 HU the mean attenuation value of the extracted paravertebral muscle and the percentage of IMAT (IMAT%) in the extracted paravertebral muscle were calculated IMAT was included in the segmentation of the aforementioned SAT and IMAT% in the paravertebral muscle were obtained by this algorithm The Dice (F1) score served as the metric for assessing the similarity between the ground truth (manual segmentation) and the predictions (segmentation by the automatic algorithm) in the test set A Dice score of 1.00 denoted perfect similarity Pearson correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots were employed to evaluate each item’s agreement between the ground truth and predictions For the adipose tissue quantification analysis 3D results were utilized; in the muscle quantification analysis with the 2D results at the Th4 and Th12 levels being employed Statistical analyses were conducted using Python (Python 3.6.10) The patient demographics in this study are summarized in Table 1. The mean value of the Dice scores and correlation coefficients are summarized in Table 2 The correlation coefficients were over 0.96 for SAT The coefficients for muscle area at Th12 were over 0.95 while those at Th4 were 0.901 for non-enhanced CT and 0.865 for enhanced CT Bland–Altman plots for adipose tissue quantification. Bland–Altman plots for muscle quantification We developed an AI algorithm that segments adipose tissue and paravertebral muscle The developed AI algorithm achieved Dice scores above 0.87 in the test set the ratios of VAT to SAT showed an excellent correlation and a slight difference between the ground truth and prediction by the algorithm (correlation coefficients 0.982 excellent correlations were observed in attenuation value and IMAT% (correlation coefficients > 0.980 We showed small differences in attenuation value (Th4-non-enhanced VAT/SAT ratio may be useful in adipose tissue quantification the predictions of the muscle area at the Th12 level were better than those at the Th4 level but it is conceivable that variations in body posture among patients may play a significant role at the T4 level attenuation value and IMAT% showed subtle absolute differences and excellent correlations (> 0.98) Attenuation value and IMAT% may be less affected by segmentation variation our results yielded Dice scores ranging from 0.87 to 0.94 which are comparable to or slightly lower than the previous reports mentioned above Although we used manual segmentation for the ground truth it is essential to recognize that inter-observer variability exists even among human annotators meaning a perfectly accurate ground truth is unattainable Further evaluation of correlations with clinical metrics We designed an AI model using non-enhanced CT scans and subsequently tested its application on enhanced CT scans for muscle segmentation we observed comparable accuracy to that achieved with non-enhanced CT scans The segmentation method relies on morphology and may exhibit reduced susceptibility to contrast enhancement effects additional investigations are warranted to scrutinize potential differences in the quantification parameters between non-enhanced and enhanced CT scans and its generalization performance has not been replicated in independent populations We did not evaluate the performance of each parameter for the prediction of prognosis or other clinical outcomes only non-contrast-enhanced CT was used for adipose tissue evaluation while both non-contrast-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT were used for muscle evaluation both non-contrast-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT should have been utilized for evaluation considering that contrast enhancement is observed in muscle but is minimal in adipose tissue we opted to conduct the assessment for adipose tissue using only non-contrast-enhanced CT to reduce workload of ground truth labeling The difference between non-contrast-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT might affect the result we only assessed Th4 and Th12 level slices and 3D validation was not performed by the test set we developed an AI model that segments adipose tissue and paravertebral muscle and showed its feasibility The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request data related to the software used in this study cannot be shared as they are proprietary to Canon Medical Systems The utility of body composition assessment in nutrition and clinical practice: an overview of current methodology Nutritional status and body composition assessment in patients with a new diagnosis of advanced solid tumour: exploratory comparison of computed tomography and bioelectrical impedance analysis Association of muscle and adiposity measured by computed tomography with survival in patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer assessed at diagnosis by L3-CT scan as a prognostic marker of clinical outcomes in patients with gastric cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis Prognostic significance of radiodensity-based skeletal muscle quantification using preoperative CT in resected non-small cell lung cancer Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue: structural and functional differences Abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue compartments Association between adipose tissue depots and dyslipidemia: the KORA-MRI population-based study Visceral adiposity and cancer survival: a review of imaging studies Abdominal adipose tissue quantification and distribution with CT: prognostic value for surgical and oncological outcome in patients with rectal cancer CT-derived body composition assessment as a prognostic tool in oncologic patients: from opportunistic research to artificial intelligence-based clinical implementation Automated CT biomarkers for opportunistic prediction of future cardiovascular events and mortality in an asymptomatic screening population: a retrospective cohort study Fully automated deep learning tool for sarcopenia assessment on CT: L1 versus L3 vertebral level muscle measurements for opportunistic prediction of adverse clinical outcomes AI body composition in lung cancer screening: added value beyond lung cancer detection Total body skeletal muscle and adipose tissue volumes: estimation from a single abdominal cross-sectional image TotalSegmentator: robust segmentation of 104 anatomic structures in CT images BOA: a CT-based body and organ analysis for radiologists at the point of Care Interstitial lung abnormalities in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer are associated with shorter overall survival: the Boston lung cancer study 3D Slicer. https://www.slicer.org/ (2024) Chest Fat quantification via CT based on standardized anatomy space in adult lung transplant candidates U-net: Convolutional networks for biomedical image segmentation Estimating the false positive prediction rate in automated volumetric measurements of malignant pleural mesothelioma Automatic lung segmentation in routine imaging is primarily a data diversity problem The ratio between visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat assessed by computed tomography is an independent predictor of mortality and cardiac events Increased ratio of visceral to subcutaneous adipose tissue in septic patients is associated with adverse outcome A fully automated Deep learning pipeline for multi–vertebral level quantification and characterization of muscle and adipose tissue on chest CT scans AI for multistructure incidental findings and mortality prediction at chest CT in lung cancer screening Download references This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (U01CA209414: Dr Hiroto Hatabu).The authors acknowledge the research assistance of Andrea Shafer is supported by NIH/NCI U01CA209414 and NIH/NCI R01CA203636 is supported by grants NIH/NHLBI R01HL111024 is supported by grants NIH/NCI R01CA203636 Brigham and Women’s Hospital is funded with a research grant from Canon Medical Systems Corporation Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine UW Madison School of Medicine and Public Health Conceptualization: Hiroto HatabuData curation: Akinori Hata Valtchinov.Formal analysis: Akinori HataFunding acquisition: Hiroto HatabuInvestigation: Akinori Hata and Minoru NakatsugawaMethodology: Akinori Hata and Hiroto HatabuProject administration: Hiroto HatabuResources: Hiroto HatabuSoftware: Yohei Muraguchi and Minoru NakatsugawaSupervision: Hiroto HatabuValidation: Hiroto HatabuVisualization: Akinori Hata and Minoru NakatsugawaWriting-original draft: Akinori HataWriting-review & editing: Yohei Muraguchi and control of the data were performed by Akinori Hata The calculated data using AI-based software was provided by Yohei Muraguchi and Minoru Nakatsugawa.Yohei Muraguchi: Staff JapanYohei Muraguchi and Minoru Nakatsugawa do not have fiduciary responsibility to Canon Inc or Canon Medical Systems Corporation Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-83897-0 Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology National Report will begin offering weekend services at select post offices in tourist areas while reducing opening hours on weekdays The initiative aims to cut costs and reallocate staff while providing more convenience to travelers and optimizing efficiency The first post office to implement this new schedule will be the Magome Post Office in Nakatsugawa The post office is located along the scenic stone-paved streets of the historic Magomejuku district which had been a staging post along a major travel route in the pre-modern era the post office will operate on weekends from spring through fall focusing on postal services and the sale of goods Banking and insurance services will not be available on weekends weekday hours will be reduced by five hours the nearby Kawaue Post Office will adopt a half-day schedule on weekdays Japan Post plans to expand the policy to additional locations if the schedule changes prove successful half-day operations will also be introduced at two post offices in a small town in Gunma Prefecture The initiative is part of a broader effort to reorganize postal operations in the face of mounting financial pressures and limited resources With communication increasingly shifting to digital platforms Japan Post is struggling to manage the annual 1 trillion yen ($6.98 billion) operating costs of its nationwide network of physical branches many post offices across the country have begun shortening their business hours and implementing midday closures Post office in Tohoku reopens 11 years after quake Tokyo governor asks businesses to prepare for labor shortages Lunch break policy to expand at post offices nationwide Post office in Fukushima open again 13 years after disaster Japan Post paying rental fees to thousands of ex-postmasters Young South Koreans dread revival of work dinners as pandemic eases Metrics details which occur mainly in low-dimensional systems have a macroscopic wave function similar to superfluids and superconductors Kosterlitz–Thouless transition is observed in superfluids and superconductors but the presence of Kosterlitz–Thouless transition in ultra-thin charge-density-waves systems has been an open problem We report the direct real-space observation of charge-density-waves with new order states in mono-layer and tri-layer 1T-TaS2 crystals using a low voltage scanning-transmission-electron-microscopy without a substrate This method is ideal to observe local atomic structures and possible defects We clearly observed that the mono-layer crystal has a new triclinic stripe charge-density-waves order without satisfying the triple q condition q1 + q2 + q3 = 0 A strong electron-phonon interaction gives rise to new crevasse (line) type defects instead of disclination (point) type defects due to the Kosterlitz–Thouless transition These results reaffirm the importance of the electron-phonon interaction in mono-layer nanophysics STEM image of a thin layer sample of 1T-TaS2 including several layers STEM captures images based on information obtained from scattered electrons and thus a domain with a lot of scatterers is brighter the magnitude of the brightness corresponds to the number of layers a The darkest domain (right side of figure) is a bi-layer The brightest domain (upper left side of figure) has four layers Rotational-symmetry-breaking point defects such as vortices or disclinations were not discovered during a detailed survey of Fig. 5(a) There is a fundamental difference between defects in CDW and defects in superconductivity a point defect such as an Abrikosov vortex attempts to be formed an in-plane line defect such as a domain wall attempts to be formed domains are inevitably generated in the T-phase and the stripe phase There is a difference between two domains in the CDW phase θ of the CDW MWF Ψ = |Ψ| exp(iθ) the entropy increases because the degree of freedom of the phase θ becomes large a CDW does not need to generate vortices because it has topological defects equivalent to vortices in the KT phase from the start we can conclude that there are no vortices or vortex-pairs in 1T-TaS2 The single crystals of 1T-TaS2 were grown in excess sulphur by the usual iodine vapor transport method The prereacted powder of 1T-TaS2 and a certain amount of excess sulphur were put in one end of a quartz tube and the tube was sealed in vacuum The ampule was heat-treated in such a way that the mixture at one end of the quartz tube was at 950–830 °C and the temperature of the other end was 70–80 °C lower It was found that single crystals were grown not only in the lower temperature end but also in the hotter one The quartz tube was rapidly quenched into water to insure the retention of the 1T-phase X-ray study of charge density wave structure in 1T-TaS2 Download references late Shoji Tanaka and late Takashi Sambongi for the instruction of sample preparation techniques and donation of some of the samples used in this experiment We also thank the aforementioned professors Toru Matruura and Junya Ishioka for stimulating discussions Zheng Liu and Kazutomo Suenaga acknowledge support from Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (MEXT KAKENHI Grant No 25107003) and the JST Research Acceleration Program This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (No Center of Education & Research for Topological Science & Technology Inorganic Functional Materials Research Institute contributed to the original idea and supervised the project All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results wrote the manuscript and supplementary materials All authors read and approved the final manuscript Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0025-8 A team led by Satoshi Tanda at Hokkaido University and collaborators at AIST in Japan observed CDWs in mono- and tri-layer 1T-TaS2 crystal without a substrate using a low voltage scanning transmission electron microscope The CDW in a mono-layer sample does not exhibit a topological phase with vortex type point defects which had been previously anticipated from a two-dimensional model new topological CDW phases with intra-layer line defects are observed in mono-layer and bi-layer samples suggesting a significant role of strong electron-phonon interaction in thinned samples commensurate CDW phase without defects was observed.) These results shed a light to understand the stripe type structures in high temperature superconductors and call for new understandings in a pure material to the two dimensional limit Gifu Prefecture--A tunnel collapse here Oct 27 killed a 44-year-old construction worker and seriously injured another man in the first fatal accident connected to the enormous magnetic levitation train project Gifu prefectural police are looking into the accident as a possible case of professional negligence resulting in death and injury The two men were working inside the tunnel with three others when the collapse occurred around 7:20 p.m. which is developing the maglev train system When emergency responders arrived at the scene the two workers had been taken outside the tunnel by their colleagues The two were taken to a hospital in Nakatsugawa The accident took place 70 meters from the tunnel entrance where the workers were inspecting the site after dynamite had been set off to dig deeper into the tunnel This tunnel will be about 600 meters long upon completion and used to carry building materials for the construction of the 4.4-kilometer Seto tunnel which operates Tokaido Shinkansen Line services said it started digging the material-transport tunnel in June and has completed 10 percent of the work Maglev trains are expected to connect Tokyo and Nagoya in just 40 minutes less than half the time of the current bullet train services About 86 percent of the 286-km maglev line between the two cities will run through tunnels posing technological difficulties for JR Tokai and some local governments have refused to give permission for construction of the line Tunnel-related accidents have also occurred in the project including one in Nagano Prefecture in 2017 and another in Nakatsugawa in 2019 Maglev line starting date still up in the air as costs keep rising JR Tokai: Cost of maglev project will grow by 1.5 trillion yen JR Tokai pins hope on Biden to push high-speed rail plan in Texas Maglev holdout wins 4th terms as governor of Shizuoka 2 construction firms found guilty of maglev bid-rigging Shinkansen driver abandons post to answer call of nature Metrics details Recent high throughput sequencing analysis has revealed that the TCRβ repertoire is largely different between CD8+ and CD4+ T cells the public chain-centric HLA-A*02:01(A2)/MART127–35 TCRα hemichain conferred A2/MART127–35 reactivity to a substantial subset of both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells regardless of their HLA–A2 positivity T cells individually reconstituted with SIG35α and different A2/MART127–35 TCRβ genes isolated from CD4+ or CD8+ T cells exhibited a wide range of avidity approximately half of the A2/MART127–35 TCRs derived from CD4+ T cells were stained by A2/MART127–35 monomer and possessed broader cross-reactivity Our results suggest that the differences in the primary structure of peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ TCRβ repertoire indeed result in the differences in their ability to form extraordinarily high avidity T cells which would otherwise have been deleted by central tolerance TCR reactivity to target MHC/peptide complexes and cross-reactivity to unrelated MHC molecules are not inextricably linked and are separable at the TCR sequence level the authors estimated the CD4:CD8 ratio in unknown T cell samples from sequence data in silico These results indicate that the peripheral CD8+ and CD4+ TCRβ repertoires have large differences in their primary structures it is unknown how these differences in the TCRβ repertoire affect T cell avidity Our aim here was to determine how the differences in the primary structure of peripheral CD8+ and CD4+ TCRβ repertoire influence the antigen-specificity and avidity of novel TCRs when paired with a fixed TCRα chain we show that the differences in the primary structure of peripheral CD8+ and CD4+ TCRβ repertoire indeed result in differences in the ability to form extraordinarily high avidity T cells with broad cross-reactivity which would otherwise have been deleted by central tolerance Both HLA–A2+ and A2− peripheral CD4+ T cells as well as CD8+ T cells can recognize A2/MART1 when transduced with chain-centric SIG35α (a) Peripheral T cells freshly isolated from HLA–A2+ and A2− donors were retrovirally transduced with ΔNGFR alone or SIG35α/ΔNGFR and stained with A2/MART1 or control multimer in conjunction with anti-CD4 mAb and anti-NGFR mAb The data shown are gated on ΔNGFR+ cells and representative of three independent experiments (b,c) CD8+ T cells (b) or CD4+ T cells (c) transduced with ΔNGFR alone or SIG35α/ΔNGFR were purified using microbeads and stimulated with aAPC pulsed with A2/MART1 peptide once per week the T cells were supplemented with IL-2 (10 IU/ml) and IL-15 (10 ng/ml) every 3 days The data from A2/MART1 multimer staining performed following the first and second stimulations are shown These results suggest that a subset of endogenous TCRβ chains not only in CD8+ T cells but also in CD4+ T cells can recognize A2/MART1 when paired with SIG35α and that the frequency of such TCRβ chains seems lower in CD4+ T cells than in CD8+ T cells 5–1 and 27 TCRβ chains with highly heterogeneous and unique CDR3β regions to recognize A2/MART1 in CD4+ T cells (b) SIG35α/ΔNGFR-transduced CD4+ T cells from the 2 donors were stimulated with aAPC pulsed with A2/MART1 peptide ΔNGFR+ A2/MART1 multimer+ CD4+ T cells were collected by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (>99% purity) and their TRBV2 5–1 and 27 CDR3β regions were amplified by PCR and sequenced after cloning The number of unique CDR3β sequences (top) the relative usage of Jβ gene segments (middle) and the CDR3β amino acid lengths (bottom) are depicted separately for TRBV2 (left) These results indicate that the CDR3β region sequences encoded by the de novo-generated CD4+ and CD8+ A2/MART1 T cells were both highly heterogeneous and unique The avidity range of T cells individually reconstituted with the cloned TCRβ genes along with SIG35α is broad (b,c) Functional avidity of all CD8+ T-cell-derived TCRβ transfectants and the DMF5 TCR transfectant (b) and CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ transfectants (c) in the presence or absence of CD8 coreceptor expression are depicted as % IL-2 secreting ability as determined by IL-2 ELISPOT assay using T2 cells pulsed with graded concentrations of wild-type A2/MART1 peptide as stimulator cells (left) Structural avidity of the same transfectants is shown as multimer staining percentage determined by staining with graded concentrations of A2/MART1 multimer (right) All data shown are representative of three independent experiments A2/MART1 TCRβ genes isolated from CD4+ T cells possess broader cross-reactivity compared with those from CD8+ T cells Fifty-thousand Jurkat 76 or Jurkat 76/CD8 cells expressing one of 11 clonotypic CD8+ T cell-derived TCRβ chains or 15 clonotypic CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ chains along with SIG35α were used as responder cells The results are presented as grayscale plots The vertical axis indicates MART1-related peptides including wild-type MART1 peptide and the horizontal axis indicates the reconstituted TCRβ chains (b) The number of MART1-related peptides recognized was compared in Jurkat 76 (top) and Jurkat 76/CD8 (bottom) transfectants expressing CD8+ or CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ chains The data represent the means ± SD in each group (c) The number of MART1-related peptides recognized was compared in all Jurkat 76 transfectants with or without CD8 coexpression All data shown are representative of two independent experiments Extremely high-avidity T cells expressing CD4+ T cell-derived TCRβ chains which can be stained by an A2/MART1 monomer complex (b) A2/MART1 monomer positivity was compared in Jurkat 76/CD8 transfectants expressing CD8+ or CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ chains (c) A2/MART1 monomer positivity in Jurkat 76/CD8 transfectants expressing CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ chains is shown according to the number of MART1-related peptides recognized (d) A2/MART1 monomer positivity was compared in Jurkat 76/CD8 transfectants expressing CD4+ T-cell-derived TCRβ chains that recognized the indicated number of MART1-related peptides The data shown are representative of three independent experiments We then evaluated the correlation between the cross-reactivity and monomer positivity of the A2/MART1 TCR transfectants. Interestingly, the three transfectants, clones 7E, 3P and 9J, that recognized 6 MART1-related peptides showed significantly higher monomer positivity compared with the remaining 12 clones that cross-reacted with 4 or 5 A2/MART1-related peptides (Fig. 5c,d) These results suggest that highly avid A2/MART1 T cells which express TCRβ genes derived from CD4+ T cells and can be stained by an A2/MART1 monomer complex Highly avid CD8+ T cells lose target cell specificity (a) Peripheral T cells were reconstituted with TCRβ (cl or with DMF5 TCR and stained with A2/MART1 or control multimer in conjunction with anti-CD8 (top) or anti-CD4 mAb (bottom) (b) Reconstituted CD8+ or CD4+ T cells were purified using microbeads and used as responder cells in IFN-γ ELISPOT assays Functional avidity values of reconstituted CD8+ (left) and CD4+ (right) T cells are depicted as % IFN-γ secreting ability as determined by IFN-γ ELISPOT assay using T2 cells pulsed with graded concentrations of A2/MART1 peptide as stimulator cells Note that functional avidity for CD4+ T cell-expressing cl 523 and 1086 with low reactivity could not be analyzed (c) IFN-γ ELISPOT assays were performed using reconstituted CD8+ or CD4+ T cells as responder cells T2 cells pulsed with 10 μg/ml A2/HIV control peptide or A2/MART1 peptide and melanoma cells that did or did not express HLA–A2 and/or MART1 The data represent the means ± SD in each group and are representative of two independent experiments which is encoded by A2/MART1 monomer-positive cl was isolated only from SIG35α+ A2/MART1 CD4+ T cells but not from the SIG35α+ A2/MART1 CD8+ T cells These results suggest that TCRs expressed by peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ T cells differ not only in their primary structure but also in their potential to generate extremely high-avidity T cells Our results indicate that thymus-derived T cells can possess sufficiently high avidity to be stained by a pMHC monomer complex Such extremely highly avid T cells are most likely deleted through negative selection in the thymus These studies indicate that CD4+ T cells expressing a high-affinity or coreceptor-independent TCR against a class I-restricted tumor antigen can recognize tumor cells and mediate tumor regression directly or indirectly CD8+ thymocytes that express these high affinity TCRs are more likely to be removed from the repertoire than CD4+ thymocytes expressing the same TCRs CD4+ thymocytes expressing such cross-reactive TCRs can be positively selected independently of A2 due to their appropriate affinity for MHC class II/peptide complexes Our results suggest that the post-thymic CD4+ T-cell repertoire can serve as a source for the isolation of class I-restricted T cells with extremely high avidity Peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ TCRβ repertoires are distinct not only in their primary sequence but also in their capacity to generate thymically unselected T cells with extraordinarily high avidity Jurkat 76 was cultured in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FCS and gentamicin (Life Technologies All cell lines except for Jurkat 76 were obtained from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC VA) and cultured according to the provided instructions All cells were routinely checked for the presence of mycoplasma contamination using the polymerase chain reaction-based Mycoplasma Detection Kit from ATCC Synthetic peptides were obtained from Genscript (Piscataway wild-type but not heteroclitic A2/MART1 peptide was utilized for the expansion and functional analysis of T cells A retroviral vector encoding ΔNGFR alone was employed as a control vector PBMCs were isolated from healthy volunteers and stimulated with 50 ng/ml anti-CD3 mAb (clone OKT3) in the presence of 100 IU/ml human IL-2 (Novartis) 3 days before transduction Activated T cells were retrovirally transduced with TCR genes by centrifuging 1 hour at 1,000 g at 32 °C CD4+ or CD8+ T cells were purified using anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 Microbeads (Miltenyi Biotec) and plated at 2 × 106 cells/well in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% human AB serum The stimulator aAPC was pulsed with 10 μg/ml A2-restricted wild-type MART127–35 for 6 hours at room temperature washed and added to the responder T cells at a responder to stimulator ratio of 20:1 10 IU/ml IL-2 (Novartis) and 10 ng/ml IL-15 (Peprotech) were added to the cultures every 3 days T cell analysis was performed one day prior to or on the day of restimulation The EC50 was defined as the concentration of multimer required to achieve 50% of the maximal multimer staining After 3 washes for the removal of unbound monomeric pMHC complexes the T cells were costained with anti-biotin and anti-CD3 or anti-CD8 mAb for 15 minutes at 4 °C A2/CYP1B1 monomer was always used as a control The EC50 was defined as the concentration of peptide required to achieve 50% of the maximal response P values of <0.05 were considered significant No statistical method was used to predetermine sample size The investigators were not blinded to allocation during the experiments or outcome assessment CD4+ and CD8+ TCRβ repertoires possess different potentials to generate extraordinarily high-avidity T cells T-cell antigen receptor genes and T-cell recognition Ligand recognition by alpha beta T cell receptors Human T-cell receptor variable gene segment families completeness and cross-reactivity of the T cell repertoire A direct estimate of the human alphabeta T cell receptor diversity A very high level of crossreactivity is an essential feature of the T-cell receptor models and mechanisms of CD4− versus CD8-lineage choice Thymic selection of CD8+ single positive cells with a class II major histocompatibility complex-restricted receptor Dual HLA class I and class II restricted recognition of alloreactive T lymphocytes mediated by a single T cell receptor complex Existence of mature human CD4+ T cells with genuine class I restriction Impact of TCR reactivity and HLA phenotype on naive CD8 T cell frequency in humans MHC class I-restricted recognition of a melanoma antigen by a human CD4+ tumor infiltrating lymphocyte CD8-independent tumor cell recognition is a property of the T cell receptor and not the T cell Both CD4 and CD8 T cells mediate equally effective in vivo tumor treatment when engineered with a highly avid TCR targeting tyrosinase Prevalent role of TCR alpha-chain in the selection of the preimmune repertoire specific for a human tumor-associated self-antigen Dominant TCR V alpha usage by virus and tumor-reactive T cells with wide affinity ranges for their specific antigens Specific roles of each TCR hemichain in generating functional chain-centric TCR Optimization of T-cell Reactivity by Exploiting TCR Chain Centricity for the Purpose of Safe and Effective Antitumor TCR Gene Therapy Comprehensive assessment of T-cell receptor beta-chain diversity in alphabeta T cells High throughput sequencing reveals a complex pattern of dynamic interrelationships among human T cell subsets Estimating the ratio of CD4+ to CD8+ T cells 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and future prospects Phenotypic analysis of antigen-specific T lymphocytes Design of soluble recombinant T cell receptors for antigen targeting and T cell inhibition SHP-1 phosphatase activity counteracts increased T cell receptor affinity Evidence for a TCR affinity threshold delimiting maximal CD8 T cell function Human T cells expressing affinity-matured TCR display accelerated responses but fail to recognize low density of MHC-peptide antigen Tetramer-guided analysis of TCR beta-chain usage reveals a large repertoire of melan-A-specific CD8+ T cells in melanoma patients Direct observation of ligand recognition by T cells Transgenic mice with a diverse human T cell antigen receptor repertoire Photocrosslinkable pMHC monomers stain T cells specifically and cause ligand-bound TCRs to be ‘preferentially’ transported to the cSMAC The repertoire of T cells shaped by a single MHC/peptide ligand HIV-1 epitope-specific CD8+ T cell responses strongly associated with delayed disease progression cross-recognize epitope variants efficiently Cancer regression and neurological toxicity following anti-MAGE-A3 TCR gene therapy Cardiovascular toxicity and titin cross-reactivity of affinity-enhanced T cells in myeloma and melanoma Identification of a Titin-derived HLA–A1-presented peptide as a cross-reactive target for engineered MAGE A3-directed T cells High-affinity TCRs generated by phage display provide CD4+ T cells with the ability to recognize and kill tumor cell lines TCRs with high affinity for foreign pMHC show self-reactivity MHC-class I-restricted CD4 T cells: a nanomolar affinity TCR has improved anti-tumor efficacy in vivo compared to the micromolar wild-type TCR TCR affinity for p/MHC formed by tumor antigens that are self-proteins: impact on efficacy and toxicity Serial triggering of TCRs: a basis for the sensitivity and specificity of antigen recognition Immunotherapy with gene-modified T cells: limiting side effects provides new challenges T cell activation by antibody-like immunoreceptors: increase in affinity of the single-chain fragment domain above threshold does not increase T cell activation against antigen-positive target cells but decreases selectivity Redirection of antileukemic reactivity of peripheral T lymphocytes using gene transfer of minor histocompatibility antigen HA-2-specific T-cell receptor complexes expressing a conserved alpha joining region Development of optimal bicistronic lentiviral vectors facilitates high-level TCR gene expression and robust tumor cell recognition IMGT((R)) tools for the nucleotide analysis of immunoglobulin (IG) and T cell receptor (TR) V-(D)-J repertoires polymorphisms and IG mutations: IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/HighV-QUEST for NGS A novel approach to antigen-specific deletion of CTL with minimal cellular activation using alpha3 domain mutants of MHC class I/peptide complex Dissociation of its opposing immunologic effects is critical for the optimization of antitumor CD8+ T-cell responses induced by interleukin 21 Establishment of antitumor memory in humans using in vitro-educated CD8+ T cells The shared tumor-associated antigen cytochrome P450 1B1 is recognized by specific cytotoxic T cells Download references Jurkat 76 cells were a generous gift from Dr The A2/MART1 TCR genes (clone DMF5) were generously provided by Dr This work was supported by NIH grant R01 CA148673 (NH); Ontario Institute for Cancer Research Clinical Investigator Award IA-039 (NH); BioCanRX Catalyst Program (NH); The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (MOB NH); Guglietti Fellowship Award (TO); Knudson Postdoctoral Fellowship (KC); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers (YK); Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canada Graduate Scholarship and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postgraduate Scholarship (TG) Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research analyzed the results and wrote the manuscript This study was partly sponsored by Takara Bio The University Health Network has filed a patent application related to this study on which N.H. Download citation Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research Manga & Anime Want to know some of the keys to creating blood-curdling horror stories Keep reading because manga artist extraordinaire Junji Ito spilled the beans to The Asahi Shimbun aesthetic and grotesque motifs alternately emerge at dizzying speed emotions that lead to all sorts of consequences Like when a beautiful woman who loves toying with men transforms into a monstrous apparition Ito’s works have made waves both in and outside Japan His gentle demeanor belies his ability to come up with gruesome tales Ito became a dental technician after graduating from senior high school Ito won an honorable mention for “Tomie” when the Kazuo Umezu Prize for rookie cartoon artists was announced in the magazine Monthly Halloween in 1986 He made his debut as a professional manga creator the following year Among his representative pieces are “Uzumaki” (Spiral) “Soichi” and “Shibito no Koiwazurai” (Love Ghost) They include the English version of “Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection.” His creations have been translated for readers in more than 30 countries and regions He recently shared some of his horror tips with The Asahi Shimbun Question: What do you think is unique about your manga considering that they center on beautiful yet grotesque stories that have captured the hearts of readers Ito: I think what makes my manga so distinctive is that they start with everyday scenes but end up with horrific outcomes I have pitched many body horror episodes in which humans transform from their physical appearances The appeal of the horror genre involves how the contrast between beauty and ugliness can be highlighted It is an interesting challenge to explore how far I can go in depicting both beautiful and gruesome scenes Anatomical knowledge I obtained as a dental technician helps I look at illustrated reference books and anatomical photo collections as part of my research While working on “Namekuji Shojo” (Slug Girl) I illustrated a girl whose tongue turns into a huge slug I applied ink to a toothbrush to place droplets on paper to reproduce the slug’s slimy pattern I also devoted myself to creating sticky gloss and delicate contrasts of light and shade with shiny whiteout A: I was born in Gifu Prefecture’s Nakatsugawa and raised in a traditional wooden “machiya” row house as well as a dark room at semi-basement level and a tool shed with a photo collection of those injured in war downbeat and nervous child with few friends I grew up reading Kazuo Umezu’s manga that my older sisters liked I started painting horror doodles with a pencil when I was 5 or 6 years old “Tomie,” which won an honorable mention in the Kazuo Umezu Prize for rookie creators prompting them to kill her and cut her into pieces She then comes back from the dead and proliferates.) A: Though a lizard’s tail regenerates after it is cut off When I was in the third year of junior high school I was shocked to learn that a classmate had been killed in a traffic accident I felt that the classmate would surely return to school the following day and I couldn't help but wonder why he had ceased to exist I retraced this mysterious feeling via the revived Tomie I wanted Tomie to be equipped with a mysterious I thumbed through fashion magazines with gorgeous models for reference even though I did not know even their names Q: Would you date a glamorous woman like Tomie knowing her propensity to toy with men and her high-handed personality A: Dating her for a brief moment probably would be fine Q: Your creations are currently highly sought after outside Japan Have you ever seen your titles selling poorly A: At the time the comic book “Chikashitsu” (Basement) was released under the “Tomie” series (in 1990) I found that the publication remained unsold at a bookstore in Nagoya I could not help but visit the outlet again and again The “Tomie” series gradually became less popular in a readers’ poll published in a monthly horror manga magazine so I was prepared to finally bring an end to the serialized work I once added the title “Final” to a rough drawing to be sent to an editor But I later changed my mind and started committing myself to crafting another single-episode manga apart from “Tomie.” I felt encouraged and was able to make a fresh start on my career path Q: Aside from “Tomie,” which made a comeback afterward can you recall how you came up with the idea for the long story “Spiral,” in which townspeople are obsessed with a range of spiral patterns in bizarre phenomena A: I spent my childhood in a row house so I initially weighed creating a weird story concerning people living in a row residence as long as the Great Wall of China But then I had second thoughts and wanted to find a far more intriguing way of depicting a row house It was then that I hit upon the theme of spiral: combining a terrifyingly long row home with spiral patterns I checked all sorts of books on spiral designs That allowed me to present disasters marked by various spiral patterns in each story the three semicircular canals and the curly hairstyle Q: Will you share how you hit upon ideas for horror stories A: I jot down a note as soon as something comes to mind I write down fragmentary storylines and concepts or draw sketches at times It becomes problematic when I run out of ideas I sometimes realize some creations resemble those I previously worked on I occasionally get stuck after finding a story’s flow is unnatural On one occasion I eventually discovered a solution after racking my brains until I was so exhausted I had to take a bath given all the hardships you’ve been through What is consistent then and now is that I am afraid of myself I hate seeing objectively what I look like through recorded videos and my recorded voice “Love Ghost” shows the horrors of the doppelganger while “The Hanging Balloons” embodies how fearful it would be if one was chased by a balloon with one’s own face in the sky Thinking of who I am from the standpoint of others is frightful how do you feel about making spine-chilling horror manga A: Maybe I was already a gentleman as a child I was even considered to be “the least disgusting boy in our class.” But in reality I have wholly released that emotion through my manga so I am clean in my mind now I have shifted to digitization in my manga creation process but I still paint on the screen of a liquid-crystal graphics tablet as delicately as on a sheet of paper I feel the drawings done by my wife (painter and picture book artist Ayako Ishiguro) are quite good The “Junji Ito Exhibition: Enchantment” runs at the Setagaya Literary Museum in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward through Sept The Setagaya Literary Museum is closed on Mondays the facility will be closed the following Tuesday The admission fee for adults is 1,000 yen ($6.50) and 600 yen for those aged 65 or older as well as college and high school students Tickets for children of elementary and junior high school age cost 300 yen The exhibition was organized by the Setagaya Arts Foundation and the Setagaya Literary Museum The special display will also be held at the Itami City Museum of Art For more details, visit the exhibition’s official website in Japanese at (https://jhorrorpj.exhibit.jp/jiee/) Junji Ito’s horror manga adapted into anime show on Netflix horror cartoonist shows 1st works in 27 years Exhibition shows creative secrets of horror artist Shigeru Mizuki The magical ‘Kingdom’ where the art of war is on display Exhibition marks 50th anniversary of Yaguchi’s manga career ‘Yuria’s Red String’ wins top Tezuka Osamu manga award Gifu Prefecture--Disappointed lumber workers here were stuck with a bunch of unwanted planter boxes made from high-quality local Japanese “hinoki” cypress that they wrongly assumed would become a big seller they found a new market among people who would rather fill the planters with fur instead of soil After cats showed a strong inclination to drift off while being enveloped in the natural wood aroma of the planters The Tsukechi district in the city of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture is well known for cypress trees that have been used at Ise Jingu shrine’s special ritual called Shikinen Sengu The lumber workers in Tsukechi initially developed the materials to help local junior high school students enjoy working with the wood while building the planters The workers came up with the idea to sell the remaining kits as flower planters and approached local tourism business company Goshinboku Not a single planter was sold in nearly a month after sales began in early July During a brainstorming session on what to do with the inventory one Goshinboku employee said: “Wait a minute the two cats of the staff member immediately went inside the boxes When the employees saw the decadent expression on the cats they knew right away that they found a way to sell the planters “Cats show sheer bliss when they get into small spaces,” said Ayami Yamada “We wanted to see cats curling up in the planter and enjoying a good nap.” “luxurious cat planter made of Tsukechi cypress.” A gap was made at the bottom of the box to prevent the inside from getting muggy The item immediately created a buzz on social media Images of cats slipping into the planters and curling up with an enraptured look were widely shared The product is designed for cats that weigh up to 5 kilograms but the company plans to accept special orders for bigger felines said: “When we say ‘planter,’ we think of flowers or mini-tomatoes We couldn’t think of it as a thing for a cat The planters are currently out of stock again and it is expected to take about six months to resume sales The company is accepting orders but “only from those who can wait patiently,” a representative said A finished cat planter is priced at a tax-inclusive 4,400 yen ($42) while an assemble-your-own kit is sold at 3,300 yen For more information: (https://goshinboku.amebaownd.com/) Wildlife experts: Short-sleeves not proper attire for catching boars Gifu fossils may provide clues to evolution of seals Ailing Mitsubishi plans to shut down Pajero factory in Gifu Study shows COVID-19 can spread easily between cats Tokai companies to appoint more women as board members in June This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Japanese version Gifu Prefecture--A sake brewery that has been operating here for nearly 150 years is relocating north to Hokkaido due in part to global warming Although the Michizakura Shuzo brewery also wants to take advantage of a Hokkaido town’s promotional campaign and avoid expensive equipment upgrades its citing of climate change as a reason for moving is believed to be the first in the industry the better the sake quality will become,” said Koji Yamada president and master brewer of the company the fourth-generation local community head will relocate to the town of Higashikawa in Hokkaido in autumn The brewery decided to join hands with the northern municipality that was seeking to promote locally brewed sake as its specialty a new brewing facility will be built by the town government while Michizakura Shuzo will be commissioned to operate it for sake production in the rare public-private program “This is an endeavor made for the coming 100 years,” Yamada said The brewery currently produces about 20,000 1.8-liter bottles of rice wine annually from the locally grown Gohyakumangoku brand rice and spring water on a company-owned mountain.Seventy percent of its products are shipped to Tokyo and surrounding areas is in urgent need of upgrading after operating for more than 100 years Renovations are estimated to cost 50 million yen ($467,000) The warmer climate has further complicated the situation particularly for the process of fermentation The rice malt and yeasts are easily affected by germs Only when the ingredients are stored in a room at around 5 degrees for two weeks to a month the yeasts will proliferate appropriately to improve the quality of the completed sake If the temperatures increase significantly had been looking to overcome the challenges since around three years ago He recalled thinking at the time: “To continue producing sake in the next 100 years we should relocate the brewery instead of investing extra funds in refurbishing the equipment.” He then heard about Higashikawa’s plan to install a brewing facility With a population of 8,300 and situated at the center of Hokkaido Higashikawa can be reached in 20 minutes by car from Asahikawa Airport Although it thrives in rice farming thanks to affluent snowmelt runoffs from the Daisetsuzan mountain range the municipality does not have well-known local specialties It decided to use its quality water and rice to create a new sake brand but the town did not own a brewery or have the know-how for sake production Higashikawa decided to set up a production facility first and then invite brewers It would be a new form of sake production in which a commissioned agent would brew rice wine at the publicly installed site who visited Higashikawa on many occasions for observations was impressed by the “excellent quality of rice and water,” and quickly made up his mind to apply for the municipality’s program Michizakura Shuzo was chosen as the operator of the new brewery According to the Japan Meteorological Agency the average temperature in Nakatsugawa was 14.0 degrees in 2019 Three sake breweries moved locations in 2019 those breweries did not mention climate change “I never heard about such a case,” said an official of the Liquor Tax and Industry Division of the National Tax Agency referring to Michizakura Shuzo’s relocation plan Higashikawa started construction of the facility in May It is scheduled for completion in late October at a cost of 350 million yen The building will also be used as a tourist spot Michizakura Shuzo will pay a facility use fee Yamada and five staff and family members will start work at the new venue in November Michizakura Shuzo will not change its brand name or production method brewing preparations last from October through March next year but Michizakura Shuzo expects to use the September-May period for the process in Higashikawa The schedule will allow for less-restrictive sake brewing procedures enabling staff to take days off more easily and 80 percent of rice wine consumed on Japan’s northernmost main island is reportedly created outside Hokkaido Yamada wants to contribute to the local region with high quality sake “We will develop young brewers in the local area who will pass down our business and in 10 years we will make Higashikawa widely known as the town of the Michizakura brand,” he said “I am looking forward to the quality of sake to be brewed there.” Floral sake fermented with wisteria yeast on sale in Niigata Spirits aged under the sea surface with mellow taste Second batch of spirit themed on ‘Fist of the North Star’ released GIFU — Wadaiko Japanese drum performer Takumi Kato recently met with Setsuji Aoyama the mayor of Nakatsugawa in Gifu Prefecture to discuss his plans after relocating to the United States this fall The 41-year-old musician serves as the prefecture’s Hida-Mino Goodwill Ambassador and hopes to facilitate international exchange between towns and cities in Japan and the United States Kato has been performing wadaiko drum concerts at Tokiwaza theater in Nakatsugawa every year since 2010 and assumed the position of the theater’s honorary director in August 2017 including at a banquet of the 2015 Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in Iwaki “I realized [the importance of] peace while in the United States during the Sept 11 attacks,” said Kato who plans to relocate to Ojai “I want to deepen cross-border friendship through my activities and Japanese culture with the help of municipalities in Gifu that have exchange programs with the United States I’d be happy if I could get involved in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics as well,” he said “It’s great that your dream is coming true,” Aoyama said conducted with a sense of purpose in a place where you can make a big leap forward.” Japanese version Japanese version Japanese version Public Relations Office, Government of Japan Home > Highlighting JAPAN >Highlighting Japan September 2014>Venture Businesses: Shaping Japan’s Tomorrow Nagano Prefecture—Once known for its hot springs the village of Achi is now bringing in hordes of visitors as the home to “Japan’s most beautiful starry sky.” In the Environment Ministry’s “Star Watching Network” survey in 2006 Achi was recognized as the best location in Japan for observing stars based on darkness levels stargazers lying on grass at the Fujimidai Highlands in the village were immersed in darkness when the illumination was turned off after a 10-second countdown Cries of admiration rang out after their eyes adjusted and the Milky Way emerged in the sky.Nighttime sky-viewing tours organized in Achi for watching the starlit sky have become so popular that they attracted around 160,000 visitors in 2019 to the village with a population of only about 6,000 Achi previously used its Hirugami Hot Springs to promote itself as an “onsen” resort during Japan’s asset-inflated economic growth of the late 1980s dropped sharply after business conditions worsened was the first to put the village’s starry sky “on sale.” Matsushita He was looking for a breakthrough measure to attract more visitors in 2011 when an employee of an Achi ski resort told him “When I am up in the mountains on night duty The trio went up to the highlands of the ski resort on the night of that day which they realized was unimaginable in urban areas Matsushita and his colleagues started their “starlit night tours,” which involve taking a 15-minute or so ride on a cable car gondola up the ski slope and the tour guides were part-timers who were not even interested in stars The tour organizers went so far as to arrange a ribbon-cutting opening ceremony but only three participants attended the celebration but I really felt disheartened at the time,” Matsushita said smartphones and social media were coming into fashion around that time and the tours began attracting several hundred participants a day in only about two weeks the tour organizers use strong illumination to keep the surroundings brightly lit so that participants cannot immediately see the stars when they are up in the mountains They only view the ocean of innumerable stars when all illumination is turned off at 8 p.m “Our village is the darkest (at night) in Japan,” Matsushita said “But that has allowed us to draw on our starlit night sky which is the most beautiful in the country.” Visitors arriving by a Chuo Line train should get off at JR Nakatsugawa Station and travel for 40 minutes to get to the tour venue Those arriving by car exit the Chuo Expressway at the Sonohara Interchange and drive for 10 more minutes to get to a parking lot beside the cable car Sanroku Station The starlit tours for this fiscal year will run through March 28 Visit the Hirugami Onsen Tourism Bureau website (http://hirugamionsen.jp/en/) for more information Panasonic turns on stargazing-friendly light for dark night skies Summer Perseid meteor shower will peak on night of Aug Ken Kagami of SEPARATE BATH & TOILET and Goro Nakatsugawa of MIN-NANO It seems that these two well-known names in Huinam have collaborated in some way they are holding a pop-up at "Dover Street Market Ginza" from March 1 (Sat.) to 7 (Fri.) let's take a look at Kagami-san and Goro-san's Zagin Rare Road Trip You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience FEATURE| Eneroid and Ryosuke Nagaoka Fukui is well known as a production center for eyeglasses in Japan but there is also a factory in Nakatsugawa that is dedicated to quality manufacturing ENALLOID," which was born as a factory brand of Ena Eyeglass Industries Ryosuke Nagaoka of the Petrols is a favorite wearer of ENALLOID and appears in the brand's visuals Nagaoka is also known for his love of glasses director of "Enaroid," to talk about the brand's glasses While working on the development of an overseas eyewear brand he also serves as the director of "Enaroid," an original brand of Gifu Prefecture's Ena Eyeglass Industry Co His hobbies are listening to music/movies and photography JapanThere is an integrated production factory in Nakatsugawa frames are made from a fiber-based material called acetate The factory has its own unique polishing method and the way the luster is produced is very unique and beautiful I understand that you have appeared in visuals for the brand but how did you originally come to work with them NagaokaWhen I was in a band called Tokyo Incidents I had a pair of glasses made as merchandise He has been supporting professional musicians as a guitarist since he was a student he joined Ringo Shiina's band "Tokyo Incidents" as a guitarist under the name "Ukigumo" he is actively supporting and producing for other musicians NagaokaThere are three members in the band who wear glasses so I made a lot of requests for the "Ukigumo model" (laughs) NagaokaThere are metal fittings attached to the front part for decoration I drew a picture of a guitar I used to play JapanHe really drew it in his own handwriting I didn't think he was that serious at first and then he came all the way to our office and we sat down and talked about the project I wanted a different design with a different color JapanIt was fun to see how much he really likes glasses one of the models was not completed in time for the tour because of my particular taste... NagaokaIt's like Petrols to be able to get it out when they can (laughs) Have you always been connected with the production of the Ukigumo model you sometimes appeared in Eneroid's visuals and we also did a tour together playing at an eyeglass shop We also did a tour together playing at eyeglass shops so we suddenly rented a car and went somewhere JapanIt was like traveling together and bringing souvenirs (laughs) we also made a cloth and case for the glasses as we printed Nagaoka-san's drawings on the cloth and produced a solo CD together NagaokaThe pictures are just things I like to draw So you have packed your tastes and interests into your work (laughs) NagaokaI have been wearing glasses since junior high school I thought it would be easier to wear glasses I like glasses more as an object than as a fashion item I like them because of their cool structure or something or maybe there was no particular trigger... So it's not about the strength of the product I have a vague impression that you always wear glasses with large frames I decide what I want to wear depending on my mood at the time "Small metal frames are in fashion now," I choose something else "It's not about the ultimate strength," but Mr you are not obsessive about "I have to have this brand He is very flexible and wears glasses according to his mood at the time I would make very fine adjustments to that part It would be lame if they fell off during a live performance (laughs) (Laughs) It would be weird to fix the glasses in between performances if they start to slip off so I have to be very careful about adjusting them That is why we become more attached to our things "I wonder if this is no longer good enough," if you bring it to an eyeglass shop they may unexpectedly be able to accommodate you it is easier to think of the products in the store as unfinished products JapanYou take something you bought at a store and make it fit you better by adjusting it eyeglasses become more a part of your life There are glasses that take time to get used to after you try them on It is important to take on challenges like that because it broadens your range they look good on you as soon as you put them on They become a part of your face at that moment JapanIn the case of "Enaroid," I keep the lines of the frames relatively thin I think it is important to keep the expression of the eyes intact the frames are designed with a sense of discomfort I think it is better if the person's expression is preserved It was interesting to see old machines mixed in with the new ones Do you think Fukui is the leading producer of eyeglasses in Japan only Ena Megane Kogyo is operating in Nakatsugawa The third generation is running the business now but the hometown of the first generation is Nakatsugawa Osaka was a prosperous place for eyeglass production and he came back to his hometown after training there glasses are basically produced under the division of labor all processes are undertaken by a single company Does that create something different from Fukui JapanSince production activities can be conducted with a certain aesthetic sense from the beginning to the end this results in the creation of high-quality spectacles Is there anything in the production process that has left a lasting impression on you NagaokaIt's not like you can make one pair of glasses right away It would take time to master the technique Are the people working there from young to skilled craftsmen JapanMore than half of them are in their 20s I don't think it is very common for young people to work in a factory so there is great potential for the future It takes about 20 days from the time the frame is cut to the shape of the frame until the entire process is completed Seven of those days are devoted to polishing and it is quite rare for a factory to be that particular about polishing NagaokaYou put the glasses in the machine with some kind of chip and turned it around and around and where it is necessary to add more work beyond that NagaokaSome of the processes were automated to some extent but in the back there were old machines that must have been used in the past what do you think is the appeal of "Enaloid" NagaokaI thought this when I was in contact with Mr The chairman and president of the factory are also very serious and earnest You can see that feeling reflected in their products Do you have any plans for the future of your brand JapanThe brand lineup used to be more women's but now the men's line is becoming popular and I am thinking of making more masculine items as well I am thinking of making more masculine items I am also thinking of sending out more items overseas instead of selling them on a domestic basis ENALLOIDwww.thorough.jp/enalloid/Instagram:@enalloid *A booklet documenting the factory tour in Nakatsugawa has been distributed at Eneroid handling stores nationwide since mid-March Japanese version Japanese version a new line by the American casual brand Gerry Cosby which was born with ice hockey as its background Goro Nakatsugawa of the Ikenoue store "MIN-NANO" was in charge of the design which is being released as an exclusive item for "BEAMS" He is well versed in various cultures such as fashion He is a producer and designer for "Jerry Cosby A+C," which started in the spring/summer of 2021 Buyer for the men's casual department of the select store BEAMS He was appointed as a buyer in 2017 after serving for many years as the manager of "BEAMS T Harajuku," the T-shirt label of the store Japanese version Japanese version Cyprus House President Demetris Syllouris met on Tuesday with the outgoing Ambassador of Japan in Cyprus Shinichi Nakatsugawa.A press release issued by the House says that Syllouris pointed out that Nakatsugawa was the first Japanese Ambassador to serve in Cyprus and this contributed to the enhancement of the bilateral relations During the meeting they both expressed their hope for further enhancement of the ties between Japan-Cyprus in sectors such as education innovation and research.Nakatsugawa thanked Syllouris for their cooperation and praised the Parliament for its excellent job Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.