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For many restaurants, receiving a Michelin star (or two, or three) is one of the best ways to gain world-class status in the culinary world. It is also guaranteed to attract international media attention and bring in new business.

Although it is extremely difficult to earn Michelin stars, the Japanese restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro has earned the maximum three stars every year since 2007. But things are about to change. It was recently announced that the restaurant will be left out of the 2020 Michelin Guide because it no longer accepts public reservations. Since Michelin’s aim is to introduce top-notch restaurants to the general public, Sukiyabashi Jiro no longer falls within their rating criteria.

In 2014, there were just six gun deaths in Japan (≈0.00000004% of the population), compared to 33,599 (≈1.0% of the population) in the US.

Buying a gun in Japan takes patience and perseverance. First, you need to attend an all-day class, then sit a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%. There are also mental health and drugs tests to pass.

Afterwards, your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. They even check your relatives and co-workers. Police have the power to deny gun licences and sweeping powers to search and seize weapons. In addition, handguns are banned outright. Only shotguns and air rifles are allowed.

The BBC reports that a new way of editing DNA could correct 89% of the errors in DNA that cause disease. The technology, called prime editing, has been used to correct damaging DNA mutations in the lab, including those that cause sickle cell anaemia. It is the latest advance in gene editing, which is developing at a rapid pace.

DNA is found in nearly all of our cells, and gene editing is already changing scientific research with the promise of revolutionizing medicine. Nevertheless, deep moral and ethical questions arose after the creation of babies who were gene-edited to have protection from HIV.

Crispr-Cas9, a technology which was developed just seven years ago, scans DNA for the right spot and then cuts it in two, which creates the opportunity to edit the DNA. A study used prime editing to accurately insert or delete sections of DNA and to correct typos in a single "letter" out of the three billion that make up the human genetic code.

The ageing of Japan is thought to outweigh that of all other nations, with Japan said to have the highest proportion of elderly citizens both in rural and urban areas. According to 2014 estimates, 33.0% of the Japanese population is above the age of 60, 25.9% are aged 65 or above, and 12.5% are aged 75 or above. 

Goldman Sachs has instituted a new diversity program based not on quotas but on hard data trends that uncovered why even progressive recruitment out of college hasn’t solved the problem. Women and minorities, it turned out, even when hired at the same rates as their white male counterparts, kept falling out of the pipeline. Attrition was enormous.

According to the data, both populations were more likely to quit than their white male peers and were simultaneously more likely to be replaced by white men moving laterally from another company. Additionally, they were less likely to be promoted and less likely to even be considered for promotion.

Mathematicians, computer engineers and scientists in related fields should take a Hippocratic oath to protect the public from powerful new technologies under development, says Hannah Fry, an associate professor of mathematics at University College, London. The ethical pledge would commit scientists to think deeply about the possible applications of their work and compel them to pursue only those that, at the least, do no harm to society.

“We need a Hippocratic oath in the same way it exists for medicine,” Fry said. “In medicine, you learn about ethics from day one. In mathematics, it’s a bolt-on at best. It has to be there from day one and at the forefront of your mind in every step you take.”

In the United Kingdom, the United States and other developed countries, abused or neglected children are often sent to live with a foster family. But that rarely happens in Japan, one of the world's wealthiest and most progressive societies. 

Close to 90 percent of Japan's troubled children are placed in state institutions. Foster care has not emerged as a viable alternative for abused children in Japan because governments have failed to properly train carers, monitor the placements, or adequately educate the public about its benefits. In addition, Japan strongly values blood ties, so welcoming a stranger’s child into a family seems unnatural to many people. Japan is also a country where speaking out about child abuse causes great shame.

LINE is the most popular social media platform in Japan followed by Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. When comparing the Monthly Active Users (MAU) of these 5 social media platforms, LINE is obviously the most dominant in the Japanese market in 2019.

LINE’s penetration rate is surprisingly high. Actually, it is higher than the smartphone penetration rate in Japan. This is because there are also many non-smartphone users who access LINE from a computer or tablet device. LINE has 80 million MAU compared to the nation’s 70 million smartphone users.

An ancient pilgrimage trail winds through the mountains of Japan’s Kii Peninsula, a densely forested region south of Osaka and Kyoto. It is the Kumano Kodo, a sacred passage of immense natural beauty that has been in use since the 10th century. There are early recorded visits to this region by Emperor Uda (907) and Emperor Kazan (986 and 987) but the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage became more broadly popular in the 11th century. 

The pilgrimage centers around the Three Grand Shrines: Kumano Hongu Taisha, Kumano Nachi Taisha, and Kumano Hayatama Taisha. With steep inclines, long stretches of trail without a place to rest, and venomous snakes, it is not a hike for the faint-hearted. Early pilgrims did the arduous trek in crude wooden or straw sandals and kimonos. Many perished on the journey and along the trail are countless Jizo statues dedicated to those who died on the pilgrimage.