English news for Monday, September 28, 2026

On September 28, an Asian black bear^*1 was found caught in a snare^*2 in Hachioji, a city in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. The city had the bear shot to keep people safe.

The bear was in a farm field in Ozu, a part of Hachioji. The field is about 150 meters northwest of a bridge. A private group had set the snare there, and the bear was caught by mistake.

Takao Police Station told the city about the bear at about 3:30 p.m. The city then set up a team to deal with it. At 5:29 p.m., the bear was shot. The mayor agreed to this. The city followed its written plan for bears, and it set the danger level at 3. This was the first time the city has ever done this.

The city is now asking people to be careful. It says people should make noise when they are outside, stay out of the mountains when it is getting dark, and take their trash home.

1. *1 Asian black bear: a kind of bear with black fur that lives in Asia
2. *2 snare: a trap made of a loop of wire that closes on an animal's leg

Lawson, a Japanese company with thousands of stores, is selling three new foods from Tuesday, September 29. The ideas for the foods came from AI^*1. Lawson announced the news on September 16.

First, Lawson used AI to think of ideas for new foods. Then the people who make Lawson's food used these ideas as a starting point. They made test versions and checked them many times until the foods were ready. This is the first time Lawson has sold foods made with AI in a big way.

The first food is a lemon tart^*2 with a pickle^*3 flavor. It costs 270 yen^*4, including tax^*5. The second is a bread with sweet red bean paste^*6, butter, and yogurt. It is made with sake^*7 yeast^*8 and costs 181 yen. These two foods are sold at about 4,700 stores. The stores are in parts of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Yamanashi, and Nagano. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, and the other names are prefectures^*9 in Japan.

The third food is a Japanese-style parfait^*10 salad with rice noodles. People mix it before they eat it. It costs 475 yen and is sold at about 3,800 stores. These stores are in the same area, but not in Niigata, Yamanashi, or Nagano.

Lawson says it did this to look for new ways to make foods. The AI gives free ideas, and then people make the taste and quality^*11 better.

1. *1 AI: a computer program that can think and make new ideas by itself
2. *2 tart: a small open pie with a sweet filling
3. *3 pickle: a vegetable kept in salt water or vinegar, with a sour taste
4. *4 yen: the money used in Japan
5. *5 tax: money that people pay to the government when they buy things
6. *6 red bean paste: a soft sweet food made from cooked red beans, used in Japanese sweets
7. *7 sake: a Japanese drink made from rice
8. *8 yeast: a tiny living thing that makes bread rise
9. *9 prefectures: the large areas that Japan is divided into, like states
10. *10 parfait: a dessert made of layers of fruit, cream, and other things in a tall glass
11. *11 quality: how good something is