English news for Wednesday, September 23, 2026 (Autumnal Equinox Day)

Professor^*1 Masahiko Inami works at the University of Tokyo, a university in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. In an interview on April 9, 2021, he talked about his work. He explained that a comic gave him the idea for a real technology^*2.

The technology is called "optical camouflage^*3." It shows a picture of the things behind a person on the person's body. So other people can see through that person. The idea came from "Ghost in the Shell," a Japanese science fiction^*4 comic. In the comic, there is a technology called "thermo-optical camouflage."

Professor Inami studied 3D^*5 pictures and augmented reality^*6 for a long time. One day, he had a thought. If you show the things behind a person as a 3D picture, that person looks transparent^*7. Then he thought, "That is the same as the thermo-optical camouflage in Ghost in the Shell!" The word "camouflage" helped him too. Camouflage matches colors with the background. This gave him the idea of matching the picture with the background.

Professor Inami has worked at the University of Tokyo for many years. He finished his doctoral studies^*8 at the university's Graduate School of Engineering in March 1999. In September 2001, he became an assistant at the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. He became a professor there in November 2015. In April 2016, he also became a professor at the university's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.

Professor Inami also talked about another idea. He wants to use technology to help people's bodies do more things. He is now working on this idea.

1. *1 professor: a teacher at a university who is the top expert in a subject
2. *2 technology: machines and tools that come from science
3. *3 camouflage: colors or shapes that make a thing look like the things around it, so it is hard to see
4. *4 science fiction: stories about the future, space, or machines that do not exist yet
5. *5 3D: a picture that looks like it has depth, like a real thing, not flat
6. *6 augmented reality: a way of putting computer pictures on top of what you see in the real world
7. *7 transparent: you can see through it, like glass
8. *8 doctoral studies: the highest level of study at a university

JR Central is a train company in Japan. On September 4, it reported how many train seats were booked for Silver Week. Silver Week is a holiday period in Japan. This year it runs from Friday, September 18, to Wednesday, September 23.

The company runs the Tokaido Shinkansen, a line of fast trains. On September 3, 1.07 million reserved seats^*1 on these trains were already booked for Silver Week. Express trains^*2 that start or end in Nagoya, a city in Japan, had 40,000 booked seats. For this period, the company has 3.16 million seats on the Shinkansen and 170,000 seats on the express trains. That is 3.33 million seats in all.

The number of booked seats is higher than last year. On the Shinkansen, it is 171 percent^*3 of last year's number. On the express trains, it is 168 percent.

The busiest day for trains leaving Tokyo will be Saturday, September 19. The busiest day for trains going back to Tokyo will be Tuesday, September 22. Many seats are already taken on the Nozomi and Hikari trains that leave Tokyo Station on the morning of September 19. Most other trains still have seats.

During Silver Week, some trains will have only reserved seats. These are the Nozomi trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen, and the Hida, Shinano and Nanki express trains. On the Nozomi, a person with a ticket without a reserved seat can still get on. But that person can only stand in the space by the doors of a regular car^*4.

From September 19 to September 23, 46 Nozomi trains will run between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka, a station in the city of Osaka, with a special car. Each of these trains will have one car for people traveling with children.

1. *1 reserved seats: Seats with a number that you book before you travel.
2. *2 Express trains: Trains that stop at only a few stations, so they are faster.
3. *3 percent: A part out of 100. 171 percent means 1.71 times as many.
4. *4 car: One part of a train. A train is made of many cars joined together.