February 18, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
The Japanese government decided to nominate seven prefectures’ cultural events, including Miyako island’s Pantu, for intangible cultural heritage designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In Miyako’s Pantu, local residents disguised as gods’ messengers go around communities putting mud around in order to remove bad luck. Pantu, the national significant intangible folk cultural asset, will be added to the existing...
February 23, 2016 Hirokazu Otsubo, Correspondent of Ryukyu Shimpo
Whale watching season has taken off at Zamami Bay. Two large humpback whales were spotted from a whale watching boat on February 18. They occasionally peeked their heads above the water and swam together playfully.
In...
February 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
February 19 is called Usui or rainwater, which is one of 24 solar terms in the traditional East Asian lunisolar calendars, and the time the coldness eases and farming starts.
Ueda ugan is an annual event held on February 18 at Ukinjuhainju,Tamagusuku...
February 21, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Chokei Taira, the president of the Okinawa Convention & Visitors‘ Bureau (OCVB), delivered a lecture titled “Rethink about the future of Okinawa and the tourism industry” held on February 20 at Okinawa International University.
Taira...
February 23, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
More than seventy years have passed since the Battle of Okinawa, yet heavy-handed political forces still aim to fill the bountiful ocean with concrete in order to build a new military base. However, popular will is spreading in resistance to this authoritarian...
February 22, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On the afternoon of February 21, according to the organizers , 28,000 people gathered and made a human chain encircling the National Diet Building to protest construction of a replacement facility for Futenma Air Station in Henoko, Nago. Participants wore blue...
February 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On February 18, the Okinawa Prefecture Culture, Tourism and Sports Division announced 14,175 couples had Okinawa resort weddings in 2015, a rise of 17.5 percent for the same period last year and the highest number ever. Among the weddings, the number of couples...
February 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On February 18, 161 college students belonging to a non-profit organization, International Volunteer University Student Association (IVUSA), collected remains from the Battle of Okinawa in the Kuniyoshi district of Itoman. Skulls and thigh bones that seemed to...
February 18, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
In 1947, the Kuomintang administration in Taiwan massacred civilians in what is known as the February 28 Incident. One of the victims of this incident was the father of 72-year-old Keishou Aoyama of Urasoe City, who was a Japanese fisherman in Taiwan at the...
February 19, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
On February 18 at Naha District Court, the oral proceedings of the third Kadena noise pollution lawsuit took place, presided over by Judge Tetuya Fujikura. Professor of environmental health at Hokkaido University Toshihito Matsui, called to the stand as an expert...
February 9, 2016 Ryukyu Shimpo
Parents at the Tabaru Aiji Preschool in Tabaru, Naha City, held a snow-play party for the children on February 6. Three-hundred children and their parents attended the event to play with white snow sent from Hokkaido.
The event was held by the parents’...