Hello and welcome to today’s news from Japan Daily News on June 6th, 2024. In today’s news, the battle for the eternal title of ‘Eternal Chess Saint’ begins as the Shogi Grand Champion, Sota Fujii, defends his title in the ‘Kisei Tournament’. The tournament, one of the eight major titles in Shogi, has started in Chiba Prefecture. Fujii, at the age of 21, aims to secure his 8th crown against Ryuno Yamazaki, an 8th-dan player aged 43. If Fujii successfully defends his title, he will achieve an unprecedented 5 consecutive victories and also become the youngest player in 53 years to earn the ‘Eternal Title’.

Moving on to our next story, in Suzu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, a facility with pottery kilns that was heavily damaged during the Noto Peninsula Earthquake has reopened after the completion of restoration work. The artists who use the facility have checked the quality of the traditional pottery called ‘Suzu-yaki’ after it was fired. The facility was able to resume its operations, bringing relief to the local artisans and preserving the rich cultural heritage of Suzu-yaki.

In other news, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has conducted an on-site inspection at the headquarters of Suzuki Motor Corporation in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. This inspection is part of the investigation into the issue of falsifying the acquisition of ‘type approval’, which is necessary for mass production of automobiles. Suzuki is the third company to undergo such an inspection following Toyota Motor Corporation and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

Moving on, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has released the guidelines for this year’s university entrance exams. The guidelines include a provision to consider the attendance records of high school students when evaluating their exam results. The ministry has emphasized the importance of accommodating students who are unable to attend due to unavoidable circumstances such as physical discomfort caused by menstruation, ensuring that they are not disadvantaged.

In demographic news, the total fertility rate, which is an indicator of the number of children born to a woman, reached a record low of 1.20 last year, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The ministry recognizes that factors such as economic instability and the difficulty of balancing work and childcare contribute to the declining birth rate. They have expressed the need to accelerate necessary measures to address this issue.

Next, a middle school teacher in Sapporo has lost a document containing personal information of students, which was later leaked online after a student allegedly took a picture of it with a smartphone. The leaked images reportedly included derogatory comments about specific students, such as ‘low academic performance’ or ‘unpopular’. The Sapporo Board of Education is considering appropriate measures to address this situation and protect the privacy of the students involved.

And finally, in a significant breakthrough, a group of researchers from the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology have successfully captured images of abnormal proteins that accumulate in the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease. These images were taken inside the brains of living patients and are expected to contribute to the diagnosis and assessment of the progression of the disease.

That’s all for today’s news. Thank you for listening to Japan Daily News. Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow. And now for the weather. Today in Tokyo, the weather will be partly cloudy with a high of 24°C and a low of 20°C. Visit JapanDailyNews.com for the news, yen exchange rates, and a daily Japanese proverb.