BNiigata comments

...likely impossible. It goes further up than this. Somebody is wagging the dog.

No, it does not go higher. Have invigilated these exams, including this year. Improbable, what the student claims she did, but not impossible, given the sheer number of examinees sometimes assigned to a single room; has happened before.

The student in question was in her first year at a women's university in Osaka and was hoping to transfer to another, private school. Japanese news sources are not reporting that she hoped to enter a medical program.

Additional information here【大阪ビル火災】放火の疑いの60代の男「アルコールでトラブルも」　府警が自宅を家宅捜索〈dot.〉（AERA dot.） - Yahoo!ニュース)、including:

suspect had visited the clinic in the past for help with alcohol abuse, had caused trouble at drinking establishments in his neighborhood, and is believed to have started a fire at his residence earlier on the 17th

Care to share your thoughts with this Neanderthal? Contact Takatora here: 三重県議会議員　小林たかとら (tsu-coexistence.blogspot.com)

Exam fees at the school are 14,000. The first year of enrollment costs 686,000, of which 170,000 is a one-off admissions fee. Tuition is 516,000 annually, though students may be eligible for a fees reduction. Add to the foregoing up to an additional 100,000 for uniforms, gym wear, and textbooks. As has been pointed out, private high schools are an insurance plan for most, for if a college-bound student fails to get into a top-tier public college-prep school, the next available option- if one exists- is likely to be far down the academic ladder.

NHK online reporting the following about the examinee:

aged 40-49

shut self in toilet after being disqualified

removed from building by police

Corollary to the above: if there were more public universities (as well as public high schools of equal reputation), the bottom line of the juku industry would collapse.

According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, there were 786 universities of all types in the year 2019: 86 national, 93 public, and 607 private (88.2% of the total, and 94.6%of enrollees). A full 80% of students who matriculated at national and public universities in 2020 had to take the National Center Test, followed by the individual university's own exam. Suisen recommendation and AO entrance options accounted for the remaining 20% at these institutions.

According to TV Asahi in an online article published December 23, 2020, the Health Ministry reported more than 3500 choking deaths among those 65 and older for the year 2019. Of which 298 (or 11%) were attributed to mochi.

Mr. Baseel true to form, bit of the plausible, but way wide of the mark.

Typical JT post catering to foreigners' preconceived notions regarding Japan.

Making schoolchildren wear the same clothes, the same hair style, say the same things (ritual greetings) is all part of the plan to suppress the individual and individual thought.

My three grown kids, born and raised here, each a fully developed individual, will appreciate the foreigner-splaining. Thanks for that.

Whether Ina City is or becomes "'super smart'" is anyone's guess. What's for certain, though, is that Ina City has a population of 67,117 and households totaling 27,798 (as per inacity.jp).

The school in question issued guidelines regarding winter wear on 2 November. On 3 December, the Education Ministry updated its manual to reflect the unique situation faced by students and their schools this winter season. Stressed in the new guidelines is flexibility regarding room ventilation and uniform codes. Since early December, education authorities throughout Kyushu, from the prefectural to the municipal level, have been implementing this more flexible approach. See here: 教室で防寒着ダメ？コロナ対策で真冬も窓全開…凍える生徒（西日本新聞） - Yahoo!ニュース

The Fukushima Minyu Newspaper reports that the project has cost 620億円　to date, with another 50億円　needed to scrap the turbines. Negotiations with two recyclers were broken off after they expressed interest only in the cables.

禍、rendered ka, the on reading, and wazawai, the kun. As in 生活 and 生ゴミ。As has been noted, 禍 is closer to 'woe' than epidemic.

In Niigata, positive confirmations are reported the same day or within 24 hours, in most cases. As for the number of tests conducted in Tokyo on December 11, the official number currently stands at 8789.

Hiiro-san was not seen leaving home but, according to her father, was heard by his wife to say "I'm off" (行ってきます) as she was leaving. Their daughter did not board the bus, nor did she attend school. The belatedness of the police announcement is hard to understand. According to the Nara Prefectural Police missing persons site, Hiiro-san's disappearance was duly reported on its homepage the day the parents' report was received: 1 December. For the sake of comparison, the Niigata Prefectural Police, which received a missing persons report on 19 July for a junior high school boy who did not return home that day (and, sadly, is still missing), note on their site 2 dates: 19 July, when they were first alerted about the missing student, and 4 August, when the prefectural police updated their homepage. The same page includes the case of an elderly woman on Sado Island who went missing on 17 February of this year but whose case was not published on the page until 20 July. She, too, has not been found.

 Someone dependent on someone else’s old age pension isn’t likely to be paying any death taxes

All inheritances are subject to graduated taxation, as per the National Tax Agency. The woman, unemployed and living in public housing, would likely have inherited assets valued at less than 10 million yen, which are assessed a 10% tax with no deductions.

チャリンコ　is thought to derive from onomatopoeically from the sound ちゃりん made by the bell. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term comes from the Korean チャジョンコ, or bicycle.

The article omits to mention that heads of households will receive applications by mail from the municipality in which they are registered, not the national government. Further, municipalities themselves will decide when disbursements will occur, the earliest expected to begin the middle of next month. As noted above, those issued a My Number Card will be able to apply online. Application forms will include a box allowing respondents to decline the assistance. Check NHK News Web for April 20 for more.

The cluster of infections among students at the university has been sourced to recent graduates who traveled to Europe in mid- March and attended graduation parties upon their return.

it's a Japanese article, and the overwhelming majority of them aren't thinking about us

"We" have an issue with generalizations about Japanese individuals, which presumably is what is meant by "them", since articles are not in the business of "thinking about us". There is nothing in either the Japanese (on Yahoo) or the English-language article above about expats receiving assistance. Unsafe to make assumptions.

According to Yahoo Japan, the government will award 300,000¥ to households currently exempt from residency taxes and those whose incomes have fallen by 50% or more. Nothing in the article about expats.

As a matter of fact, the Dragons play their regular season home games at Nagoya Dome.

If you live in Aichi Prefecture (愛知県) and are looking for information about the new coronavirus, including the availability of consultation services, it's here: 愛知県新型コロナウイルス相談窓口

The information provided is currently available only in Japanese, but as a reference or resource, it is better than nothing. (Rendering the above into kana or romaji would be useless for search purposes. For other prefectures, replace the Aichi-ken bit, obviously.)

These situations can be frustrating (at the least) to expats who lack ready access to official information in their native language and are unable to navigate Japanese.

Consider asking a Japanese friend or colleague for help.

Effective March 6, the government covers the entire cost of a PCR exam for those enrolled in one of the national health schemes. This information is available from numerous sources by searching for PCR検査自己負担.

Has anyone else noticed that up until a few days ago the media was reporting the number of new infections nationally, but the past few days only reporting Tokyo numbers.

Japanese media? No, I haven't. Perhaps because I read Japanese. The language is not required to make sense of www3.nhk.or.jp. You could also try Asahi Digital, Yahoo Japan, or any number of other outlets.

Japan's current testing capacity is 7,500/ day, a figure that is expected to rise to 8,000 by the end of the month. The average number of tests administered daily during March is under 1,900. Starting to see the effects of complacency on the part of many here.

Takimoto-san began making the masks using cotton and elastic at the end of February and worked up to 5 hours/ day to complete 612 masks, 400 adult-size, the remainder for children. On the 17th of March she visited the Yamanashi prefectural office to deliver the masks. Cost: 80,000￥, every yen of it her own.