Saudi Arabia is advancing its national project Vision 2030 to achieve a post-oil society by the end of the decade, with the Riyadh Expo positioned as its grand culmination, and Japan is aiming to secure a foothold in the initiative by providing technologies such as decarbonization systems and expertise in hosting world expos, while also looking to translate this involvement into domestic economic growth. (News On Japan)

Ishikawa Prefecture has surpassed Fukui Prefecture in total land area after a significant increase caused by coastal uplift triggered by the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, according to the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. (News On Japan)

Japan’s Earthquake Research Committee has revised its assessment of the probability of a massive Nankai Trough earthquake occurring within the next 30 years, raising the range from the previous estimate of about 80 percent to between 60 and 90 percent or higher. (News On Japan)

In the scenic fishing village of Ine, famous for its traditional boathouses, fishermen are facing a rare phenomenon: an exceptional haul of Pacific bluefin tuna. (News On Japan)

The Sapporo Regional Meteorological Observatory announced that Mount Meakan in eastern Hokkaido, where eruption alert level 2 is in place, had experienced an eruption. (News On Japan)

Aichi Prefectural Police have begun testing the use of small body-worn cameras to record enforcement activities. (News On Japan)

Japan’s digital life moves at lightning speed. With one of the world’s highest rates of internet penetration, a dense public Wi-Fi network, and a tech-savvy population, millions of people log into bank accounts, stream media, shop, and work remotely every day. (News On Japan)

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved making the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis available without a prescription, opening the way for its sale as Japan’s first over-the-counter treatment for the condition. (News On Japan)

A Japanese team has won the Ig Nobel Prize for the 19th consecutive year, with this year’s Biology Prize awarded to research demonstrating that painting stripes on cows helps repel insects. (News On Japan)

A research group including Okayama University of Science announced in the British scientific journal Nature on September 17th that they have discovered the world’s oldest fossil of a pachycephalosaur, a dinosaur recognized for its thick, dome-shaped skull and often called the “headbutting dinosaur.” (News On Japan)

Japan has confirmed its first domestic case of a more severe strain of the mpox virus, which has been spreading rapidly in Africa. (News On Japan)

Kyoto University said it has developed a world-first method for generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from blood cells, an advance expected to make patient-specific cell lines faster and safer to produce. (News On Japan)

A total lunar eclipse was observed across Japan early Monday morning, marking the first such event in about three years. The moon began to darken at around 1:30 a.m., glowing a distinctive copper-red as it entered the Earth’s shadow. (News On Japan)

The Japan Meteorological Agency convened an expert panel on Friday to analyze this summer's record-breaking heat. From June to August, the average temperature was significantly higher than last year, which had been the previous record, making it the hottest summer since records began. (News On Japan)