日: 2025年7月15日

1. A group of researchers in Japan says an experiment using mice has confirmed that a certain strain of gut bacteria improves the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Immunity- boosting cancer drugs are said to be sufficiently effective in less than half the subjects. The patients’ gut microbiome had been pointed out as a possible factor, but the mechanism remained unclear.
2. Torrential downpours are intermittently hitting the Tokai and Kanto-Koshin regions. Weather officials warn that bands of heavy rain clouds could develop in the Tokai region, and sharply raise the risk of rain-triggered disasters.
3. The average price of rice at supermarkets in Japan has fallen for a seventh straight week. Yet it remains higher than a year ago. Officials say consumers were buying more lower-priced grain from government stockpiles than before.

1. Children were brought to school in cars and buses in the wake of a fatal bear attack in a northern Japan town. Monday is the first school day at elementary and junior high schools in Fukushima Town, Hokkaido, since a man was killed by a bear in the area on Saturday. The victim was a 52-year-old newspaper delivery man. He was found in bushes with what appeared to be claw marks on his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident prompted police to begin around-the-clock patrols. They have not yet found the bear.
2. Japan’s government has designated a bird that caused a fatal airplane crash in South Korea in December as one of the most dangerous causes of collisions known as bird strikes. The Baikal teal is a migratory bird that breeds in Russia and migrates to the Korean Peninsula, China and Japan during winter. Feathers and blood of the bird were found in the two engines of the Jeju Air passenger flight, indicating that bird strikes played a role in the crash. One hundred-79 passengers and crew died when the jet landed on its belly and went up in flames at Muan International Airport in the country’s southwest. *The Baikal teal　トモエガモ
3. The chair of the Upper House Budget Committee has resigned from his post to take responsibility for a verbal gaffe about a powerful earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula in central Japan last year. Committee chair Tsuruho Yosuke of the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come under fire for the remarks on July 8. He said, “Fortunately, there was an earthquake in the Noto Peninsula, which allows Wajima residents to get their residence certificates in Kanazawa City.” That is where they evacuated to at the time.