The Japanese government has revised its assessment of active faults across the Kinki region for the first time in about 20 years, increasing the number of fault zones considered at the highest level of concern for earthquakes of magnitude 6.8 or greater from three to eight. (News On Japan)

Residents in Minoh, Osaka Prefecture, have asked the city to take a more active role in explaining and reviewing plans for a large data center to be built on the former site of Osaka University's Minoh Campus, citing concerns over low-frequency noise, loss of sunlight and other potential effects on daily life. (News On Japan)

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake centered in southern Ibaraki Prefecture shook a wide area of the Kanto region at around 2 a.m. on August 23, registering a maximum intensity of lower 5 on Japan's seven-level seismic scale in parts of Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba and Tokyo. (News On Japan)

A cognitive trait known as aphantasia, in which people are unable to voluntarily form images in their minds despite knowing what objects look like, may affect about 4% of people, highlighting significant differences in how individuals experience memory, imagination and everyday tasks. (News On Japan)

Dangerous heat returned across Japan on August 19, complicating disaster recovery efforts in earthquake-hit Kumamoto and flood-damaged Chiba while unusually low rainfall and limited snowfall pushed reservoirs in several regions toward critical levels. (News On Japan)