Tsubame report (March 2024) For the 10th year, Japan's births fell in 2025. There were 706,000 births and 1.6 million deaths. Not counting migration, that means Japan lost nearly 900,000 people last year. This is very worrying for Japan. The population is predicted to drop a lot over the next few years. That means there will be less people working, less people paying taxes, more people taking pensions, businesses will have less customers and schools and universities will h

Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer A painting by Gustav Klimt has sold for $236.4m (￥366億). Six bidders fought to win the auction which went on for 20 minutes. It is now the second most expensive painting ever. The most expensive was Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $450.3m in 2017! What would you do with $236.4m? Would you buy just one painting?? painting: 絵画 has sold: 売れました bidder(s): 入札者 went on for ～: ～にかかった、～間続きました

A 13 track record has been made 1000 musicians have recorded silent "songs" and released them as an album. The album is to protest the rise of AI. The artists feel that AI is "learning" from their work and they don't like it. AI can create music in the style of certain musicians. In that case, the artists don't receive any royalties for their work. Royalties are the money that artists receive when their work is used in movies, TV, advertisements, etc. The songs aren't comp

Christmas is here. It is the time we miss some things from home. I would like to write some things that I would do differently if my family and I were in England this Christmas. A Christmas cracker! First, if we were in England, we would pull Christmas crackers! They are made of paper. When two people pull them, one part breaks and one person "wins" what is inside. They usually have a paper hat, a small toy and a very very bad joke. A Christmas cracker joke. Cows say "moo".