1. The Japan aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, says the eighth launch of the H3 rocket has ended in failure due to a problem with the second stage engine. JAXA said the rocket’s second stage engine stopped burning earlier than planned and that the satellite could not be put into its planned orbit. It is investigating the cause of the problem.
2. Prices of used condominiums in central Tokyo continue to surge, with the average staying above 100 million yen for a seventh straight month. Real estate research firm Tokyo Kantei says the average price of a 70-square-meter unit in Tokyo’s 23 wards stood at nearly 115 million yen, or about 730,000 dollars, last month. That marks a 34.6 percent increase from the same month a year earlier.
3. Japan’s education ministry says 7,087 public school teachers took sick leave for depression and other mental health issues in the last academic year through March 2025. The number was down 32 from the previous year’s record high, but exceeded 7,000 for the second year in a row. Of teachers who took mental sick leave, 3,458 were working at elementary schools, 1,639 at junior high schools and 1,006 at senior high schools. As of April 2025, 1,458 of them, or 20 percent, had quit their teaching job.