Kelsey D. Atherton
at 08:57 AM Jan 29 2016

Next month, Japan is going to fly their latest fighter, and they're hoping no one notices. Well, not no one exactly, but as with every stealth fighter, the goal is a visual spectacle and a tiny radar blip. In the works for years, the Mitsubishi Advanced Technology Demonstrator-X, now renamed the X-2, is designed to fit into Japan's modernizing, staunchier military. Did we mention it's stealthy?

Kelsey D. Atherton
at 08:49 AM Dec 4 2015

Only a handful of countries have ever built and successfully flown a stealth fighter. Early next year, Japan may join their ranks, with scheduled test flights of its first experimental stealth fighter expected within the first three months of 2016. The Advanced Technology Demonstrator X, or ATD-X, is a tentative step forward into rare skies, and comes at a time when most of Japan's neighbors are either building or buying stealth fighters of their own.

Kelsey D. Atherton
at 12:09 PM Aug 7 2015

For America, World War II ended in a dark mirror image of the way our involvement began. The December 7th, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was an unannounced pre-emptive strike by Japan on a military base. America's August 6th, 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the subsequent August 9th atomic bombing of Nagasaki, came at the end of an already long war. American bombers had torched many other cities in Japan previously; Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely untouched by conventional bombs, instead slotted as targets for the first, and to date only, uses of nuclear weapons in anger.

Alexandra Ossola
at 10:46 AM May 1 2015
Gadgets // 

Today, tech giants Apple and IBM, along with Japanese post office conglomerate Japan Post Group announced that they will be teaming up to bring iPads and custom apps to Japan's elderly population. The iPads will come fully loaded with the typical apps used for communication, such as iMessage and Facetime. But they will also include apps specially designed for seniors, reminding them to take medication and giving them access to community support services. After piloting the technology, Japan Post Group plans to expand its distribution of iPads in stages, eventually putting them in the hands of 5 million seniors by 2020.

Mary Beth Griggs
at 10:47 AM Dec 12 2014
Nature // 

A massive storm is currently battering northern California just after another storm bombed the United Kingdom. These weather events are huge news for the people living through them, but they are nothing compared to two storms that changed the course of history more than 700 years ago.

sarahfecht
at 11:32 AM Dec 4 2014
Space // 

Today, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) launched Hayabusa 2, a deep space probe that will land on asteroid 1999 JU3, collect samples, and bring them back to Earth.

Kelsey D. Atherton
at 09:17 AM Oct 22 2014
Hacks // 

When the first working gun was 3-D printed in the United States, the government responded not through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, but instead through the State Department. Guns, it turns out, aren’t terribly hard to get in the United States, so a 3-D printed gun doesn’t radically change gun access here. In countries with stricter gun control laws, though, printing a gun is a new risk. This week, Japan sentenced 28-year-old Yoshitomo Imura to two years in prison for printing guns and instructing others on how to print them.  

 
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