The International Red Cross is planning to use AI developed in Japan to speed up landmine in parts of Ukraine. A team of Japanese scientists has said that it’s managed to built an original optical quantum computer. Japan has moved to the knockout stage of the FIFA Women's World Cup by defeating Costa Rica 2-0. And, the intense summer heat is expected to continue until October, according to a new three-month forecast by the Japan Meteorological Agency. With temperatures reaching a peak my the mid to late July, the back streets of Kagurazaka with its French community come alive between July 26 and July 29 during the Kagurazaka Matsuri, a summer festival east of Shinjuku and visit RootK Contemporary Gallery for their exhibition "Public Visuals".

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Renowned Japanese author Seiichi Morimura, known for works including the novel "Ningen no Shomei" (Proof of the Man) and his nonfiction work "Akuma no Hoshoku" (The Devil's Gluttony), has died of pneumonia at a hospital in Tokyo aged 90. The head of a man found dead in a Sapporo hotel earlier this month has been recovered from the home of a doctor who was arrested along with his daughter on suspicion of murder. And a giant maze made from 50,000 sunflowers has opened in the city of Tendo, Yamagata Prefecture north of Tokyo. Meanwhile, the 57th Katsushika Noryo hanabi taikai, or fireworks festival, returned to the east of Tokyo for the first time in 4 years. Notebook visited and looked on as people clung to lampposts clambering to catch sight of the sky filling with explosions, one deafening boom at a time.

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Recent research shows the Japanese consumer will see the cost of over 30,000 food and drink items go up in price by October as retailers seek to protect profits. Hyper Japan Festival 2023 showcased Japanese culture in London last Friday, attracting upward of 30,000 people. A government survey last Friday showed a marked increase in the number of working women in Japan with a record 30.35 million in 2022, compared with 1.22 million five years ago. In Osaka, news is less promising as a delay in constructing foreign pavilions at the 2025 Osaka Kansai Expo site is casting an unsettling shadow over the event with spiraling costs and controversial appointments. Amid soaring temperatures and unpredictable weather both here and abroad, local weather experts recently called an end to the country’s annual rainy season which usually runs through June and early July. NOTEBOOK escaped the worst of the sun for the welcome seclusion of "Nominoichi", an old coffee shop (or coffee-tei) in Ikebukuro.

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