English news for Sunday, September 20, 2026

Fireflies in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, come from many different parts of the country. A group of scientists found this by studying the fireflies' DNA^*1. They announced the results on September 8, 2026. The study was published in the journal^*2 Conservation Genetics.

The scientists came from four universities in Japan: Meisei University, International Christian University, Kagoshima University and Saga University. They studied the Genji firefly^*3, a kind of firefly that lives in Japan. They looked at the DNA of 1,109 fireflies from 164 places across the country.

In Japan, Genji fireflies belong to three main family groups. One group lives in eastern Honshu, the largest island of Japan. One group lives in western Honshu and on the island of Shikoku. The third group lives on Kyushu, an island in the southwest of Japan.

Tokyo is in eastern Honshu, but the fireflies there were different. In more than 70% of the places in Tokyo, the scientists found fireflies with DNA from other groups. DNA from the western Honshu and Shikoku group was found often. DNA from the Kyushu group was found in some places, too. In the other parts of Japan that the scientists studied, they did not find mixing like this.

The scientists say this shows that people can change the natural groups of fireflies when they move fireflies from one place to another. These groups formed over a very long time. The scientists suggest that people who take care of the fireflies in Tokyo should treat them as one special group with mixed origins^*4.

The scientists also say that people should not add new fireflies to a place when nobody knows where those fireflies came from. When people bring fireflies back to a place, they should choose fireflies from a nearby place with matching DNA.

1. *1 DNA: The tiny code inside every living thing. Parents pass it to their children.
2. *2 journal: A magazine where scientists publish their studies.
3. *3 Genji firefly: A kind of firefly that lives in Japan.
4. *4 origins: The places where something first came from.

People in Shiogama, a city in Miyagi Prefecture in the north of Japan, have reported^*1 seeing a bear. The bear was seen near Shinhama, an area of the city. On September 20, the city office asked people who live there to be careful.

The city says that if you see a bear, do not go near it. Call the police right away. In Japan, the number for the police is 110.

Bears come to places where they can find food. Food waste^*2 from kitchens can bring them closer to homes. So the city is asking people to keep food waste inside the house. People should put their trash out only on the morning of trash collection day^*3, not the night before.

1. *1 reported: told the city office about something they saw
2. *2 food waste: food that is thrown away, like leftover food and vegetable peels
3. *3 trash collection day: the day when a truck comes to take the trash away

On October 21, 2025, the Ministry^*1 of Health, Labour and Welfare, the part of Japan's government that works on health, published a report. The report counts places across Japan at the end of March 2025 and compares the numbers with a year before. It looks at hotels and inns^*2, public baths^*3, barbershops^*4, beauty salons^*5, laundry shops^*6, and theaters^*7.

The biggest change was in places to stay. At the end of March 2025, Japan had 98,338 hotels and inns. That was 4,863 more than a year before, or 5.2% more.

The number of public baths was almost the same as the year before. There were 23,668 public baths, only 5 fewer than in the year before. But there was a big change inside that number. Japan had 2,730 general public baths, which was 117 fewer than a year before, or 4.1% fewer. Other kinds of public baths rose to 20,938. That was 112 more, or 0.5% more.

Barbershops went down, but beauty salons went up. There were 107,995 barbershops, which was 2,302 fewer than a year before, or 2.1% fewer. There were 277,752 beauty salons, which was 3,682 more, or 1.3% more.

Laundry shops also went down. Japan had 69,855 laundry shops at the end of March 2025. That was 3,081 fewer than a year before, or 4.2% fewer.

1. *1 Ministry: a big office of the government that works on one area, like health
2. *2 inns: small hotels, often old and simple, where people pay to sleep
3. *3 public baths: places where many people pay to wash and sit in hot water together
4. *4 barbershops: shops where people, mostly men, pay to have their hair cut
5. *5 beauty salons: shops where people pay to have their hair cut, colored, or styled
6. *6 laundry shops: shops that wash and clean clothes for people
7. *7 theaters: buildings where people watch movies or shows