Tirion comments

Alzheimer's can not only be prevented but reversed with a low-carb diet, B vitamins, fish oils and exercise.

I'm not a fan of treating the symptoms of anything with pharma products. Let's focus on the causes and prevention.

Let's hope and pray that no other human being ever has to experience what Harada-san and the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced in 1945.

Aren't there companies in Japan who make a business of helping (mainly victims of domestic abuse/violence) to "evaporate"? I hope all such victims and Mlle Veron are in places of safety, enjoying peaceful, happy lives.

john b, the fact that cyclists are too scared to ride on the busy roads does not make it ok to put pedestrians and their pets at risk by riding on the sidewalk. In most countries, cycling on the sidewalk is unlawful. It should be unlawful in Japan, too. As you point out, there is very little dedicated infrastructure for cyclists. They have my sympathy; but riding on the sidewalk is not acceptable.

The cost of a simple meal at my local family restaurant has risen by a multiple of 2.5 to 3 since I moved here four years ago. Newspaper articles like this one analysing fake government statistics to try to explain what's going on make my eyes roll. As Asiaman7 says, the reason people are travelling less is the same reason people are doing a lot of things less: the cost of living is rising much faster than incomes. Our standard of living is falling. "Mystery" solved! Duh!

It seems that the younger generation have become both physically and intellectually lazy. In the days before suitcases had wheels, humans carried their suitcases. Now it seems the suitcases carry the humans.

For me, a suitcase with wheels that I can pull along behind me is convenience enough. As with bicycles, I wouldn't mind if they had their own dedicated thoroughfares; but it's just basic common sense that wheels and legs do not belong on the same paths. Also, while wheels do not belong on pedestrian thoroughfares, I'm not sure that suitcase batteries in the cargo holds of aircraft are a good idea either.

I doubt that radiocarbon dating could add any value in this matter. Radiocarbon dating does not work on samples from 1945 onwards as a result of the contamination of the planet by atomic/nuclear explosions. Even before 1945, there was a lot of fraud, hocus-pocus and pseudo-science involved in radiocarbon dating. Like so much of science, the radiocarbon-dating process has been corrupted.

I suppose our Lilliputian lords and masters feel obliged to be seen to be doing something; but second guessing Mount Fuji seems like a fools' errand to me.

Yohan, thanks for your insights. It seems to me all the more sad since the introduction of policies to reduce the strain on Tokyo's housing market and attract business and housing investment to other parts of Japan should not be difficult; but my perception is that the Japanese government is either unable or unwilling to attempt change in anything; so the economy has been stagnating for decades and the many social problems - of which the falling birth rate is just one - just rumble on like a steam roller towards the edge of the cliff. As a foreigner, I find it all really puzzling, to say the least.

Isn't Minamitori the same island about which we were told last month, "200 mil tons of rare metal rocks found in seabed off Japan island"?

Funny that, eh?

I understand that the reason for the record number of deaths is the covid jabs. I understand that the reason for the falling birth rate is that young Japanese are not dating, marrying or having sex. I do not understand the apparently magnetic attraction of Tokyo. Especially in these hot sunny days, who wants to live in a giant, stuffy metropolis and travel to work like cattle on over-crowded trains every day? There are 9 million abandoned homes all over beautiful Japan, while new apartments in Tokyo now sell for JPY100m on average. This looks like another sad policy failure to me. Can't the government, for example, use the tax system to take the pressure off Tokyo and boost prosperity in the remainder of Japan? What am I missing?

I sympathise with cyclists. Cyclists who ride on Japan's roads are a danger to themselves and to others. They also get in the way of motor vehicles. For very good reasons, riding on the sidewalk is illegal in most countries and it should be illegal in Japan, too. The hazard for pedestrians and their pets is unacceptable. Cyclists need their own dedicated cycle paths where they can ride safely without causing a nuisance to either pedestrians or motorists.

Well said, englisc aspyrgend. Narrow residential streets with telegraph poles actually IN the road, no sidewalk and no effective night-time lighting are deathtraps. Clearly, public health and safety are not a design priority. Why not?!

Lower speed limits are definitely not the answer. They just frustrate drivers and reduce the efficiency of the system. We need residential streets that are safe for us, our children and our pets to use, day and night, fit for purpose in the 21st century.