Japan Reacts

Category: Tech

  • Roman Space Telescope Launches Successfully — The 3-Month Gauntlet Before Science Begins

    NASA’s next-generation space telescope, the “Nancy Grace Roman,” launched on August 30, 2026 (U.S. time; 8:26 PM Japan time that same day), successfully separating from its Falcon Heavy rocket and establishing communications. Its destination is the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, about 1.6 million km from Earth, and it will spend roughly three months getting there while its instruments are powered up, checked out, and calibrated. Though it shares Hubble’s 2.4m primary mirror diameter, its field of view is over 100 times wider and its survey speed up to 1,000 times faster, making it a flagship mission expected to shed light on the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. On 5ch’s science news+ thread, posters discussed how it differs from JWST and Japan’s role in the mission (JAXA’s contribution of coronagraph optics, and data reception at the Misasa ground station in Nagano Prefecture).

    Roman Space Telescope Launches Successfully — The 3-Month Gauntlet Before Science Begins

    Key points of this article

    What happened: NASA launched Roman at 8:26 PM Japan time on August 30, successfully establishing communications and separating from the rocket.

    Source: xenospectrum.com / Read the original article here

    2AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:32
    Wait, they hadn't even launched it yet?
    4AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:46
    The Greco-Roman Space Telescope (a wrestling pun on "Roman")
    5AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:58
    Hope this finally settles the dark matter debate.

    The Roman telescope beams about
    1 terabyte of science data down to Earth every day
    ↑ Storing all that must be a nightmare lol
    6AnonymousAug 31, 2026 21:06
    It's a Romance Flight, baby! (pun: "Roman" echoes 浪漫/roman, meaning "romance" — a nod to the famous TUBE song "Roman Flight")
    7AnonymousAug 31, 2026 23:31
    Weirdly harsh article for some reason.
    "Remaining gauntlet" — that's not something you need to be worried about, buddy.
    8AnonymousSep 1, 2026 02:18
    Does it run on Starlink?
    9AnonymousSep 1, 2026 02:30
    Naaatsuiro no Nancy~♪ (riffing on the J-pop song "Natsuiro," swapping in her name)
    10AnonymousSep 1, 2026 03:26
    Not a fan of JWST's six-pointed diffraction spikes, so I've got high hopes for this one.
    11AnonymousSep 1, 2026 09:36
    Hope it helps unravel the history of the universe.
    12AnonymousSep 1, 2026 10:35
    JWST specializes in infrared, so this one's really Hubble's true successor.
    26AnonymousSep 1, 2026 13:28
    Is "Hubble II" already busted? (オシャカ, slang for busted/junked)
    34AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:46
    Re: #26
    Wait, isn't THIS one Hubble II? They've got the same mirror after all.
    27AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:40
    >>Liftoff was at 7:26 AM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (8:26 PM Japan time). Roman established communications 7 minutes later, and separated from the Falcon Heavy's second stage 31 minutes after launch. It's now headed toward an orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 point, roughly 1 million miles (about 1.6 million km) from Earth.
    28AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:41
    Re: #27

    So it's moving at high speed, huh.
    30AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:43
    Re: #29

    Just a number — sorry, that was an anchor mistake (wrong reply link).
    36AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:48
    Here's what you need to know about NASA's successful launch of the "Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope" and the observing power and results it's expected to deliver
    NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully launched on August 30, 2026 (U.S. time). Here's a look at how this next-generation space telescope aims to tackle the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.
    An artist's rendering of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope after launch. It's set to conduct observations from L2 (the second Lagrange point), roughly 1.5 million km from Earth on the side opposite the Sun.
    2026.08.31
    https://wired.jp/article/nasa-roman-space-telescope/
    37AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:49
    Re: #36

    >>The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has the same 2.4m primary mirror diameter as the Hubble Space Telescope. Its near-infrared sensitivity and resolution are comparable to Hubble's, but a single observation can capture at least 100 times the area. NASA says that thanks to this wide field of view, it can survey the sky up to 1,000 times faster.

    >>This next-generation space telescope launched at 7:26 AM U.S. time (8:26 PM Japan time) on August 30 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After successfully separating from the rocket, it's now headed toward the Sun-Earth L2 point, about 1.5 million km from Earth.
    38AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:50
    Re: #37

    >>Roman will spend about three months after launch reaching the area near L2, during which its instruments will be powered on, checked out, and calibrated. The primary science mission is planned to run for five years, with the design allowing for a possible five-year extension. Observational data will, in principle, be made public after processing, available for researchers worldwide to use.

    >>Japan is also participating in the mission. JAXA and others are providing optical elements for the coronagraph, and the Misasa Deep Space Station in Nagano Prefecture is set to receive up to about 25% of the observational data. Coordinated observations with the Subaru Telescope, operated by Japan's National Astronomical Observatory in Hawaii, are also planned — 100 nights' worth starting in 2027.
    43AnonymousSep 1, 2026 15:57
    Re: #42

    >>According to NASA, the observational data generated during the primary mission is expected to reach roughly 20 petabytes. Beyond examining individual celestial objects one by one, Roman's defining feature is the ability to statistically analyze all that data as one massive dataset.

    Background and key points of the discussion

    The Roman Space Telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy, who also helped plan the Hubble mission. Its primary mirror is the same 2.4m diameter as Hubble’s, but its field of view is over 100 times larger, letting it capture wide swaths of sky in a single, short exposure — so the “JWST successor” label that came up in the thread isn’t quite right; it’s better understood as a wide-field version of Hubble. Its destination, the Sun-Earth L2 point, is a gravitationally stable spot about 1.6 million km from Earth that’s easy to shield from sunlight, making it ideal for keeping a telescope cool — which is also why JWST sits in the same orbit. The three months between launch and the start of science operations are set aside for attitude control, thermal stabilization of the instruments, and calibration — a window in which past telescopes have sometimes turned up problems. Japan is also playing a role in the mission’s operations: JAXA is providing optical elements for the coronagraph, and the Misasa Deep Space Station in Nagano Prefecture is set to receive up to 25% of the observational data.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Astronomy] Roman Space Telescope Launches Successfully — The 3-Month Gauntlet Before Science Begins.”

  • 1% of the Modern Human Genome Traced to a Mystery Human Species — 5ch: “Turns Out We Were Getting Around Even Before Leaving Africa”

    A research team at the University of California, Berkeley has revealed that about 1% of the modern human genome comes from a “mystery human” that was neither Neanderthal nor Denisovan. That proportion rivals the amount of Neanderthal DNA carried by non-African populations, and traces of it turned up in European, Asian, and African populations alike. The study used a new method called TRACE, which identifies signs of interbreeding without relying on reference genomes from ancient humans. In the 5ch thread, posters speculated about the identity of this “mystery human” and when the interbreeding occurred, while others chimed in with detailed knowledge of Denisovan and Neanderthal admixture history and floated candidate fossil species like Homo naledi.

    A study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in the US has found that roughly 1 percent of the modern human genome was inherited from a “mystery human” that was neither Neanderthal nor Denisovan.

    That 1 percent figure is comparable to the amount of Neanderthal-derived DNA found in non-African populations.

    What’s more, these fragments turned up in Europe, Asia, and Africa alike.

    Source: nazology.kusuguru.co.jp / Original article here

    11AnonymousSep 2, 2026 00:00
    People have been saying this for ages.
    132AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:18
    Re: #11
    A paper with almost the same content was published back in 2020, but this new study uses a new method called TRACE, which uses an "ancestral recombination graph" to identify ancient introgression without needing a reference genome from archaic humans.
    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef8874
    "Recovering signatures of archaic hominin introgression using ancestral recombination graphs"

    The two ultra-ancient "ghost populations" that had been proposed before were also confirmed using this method.
    17AnonymousSep 2, 2026 00:03
    Re: #10
    Wasn't it something about bears or sea urchins?
    118AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:00
    Re: #17
    Wait, aren't Japanese people's ancestors just poop?
    22AnonymousSep 2, 2026 00:06
    It's not widely known, for ethical reasons, but humans and chimpanzees can actually interbreed.
    124AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:08
    Re: #22
    A "humanzee," huh?
    62AnonymousSep 2, 2026 00:21
    Re: #1
    So Homo sapiens mixed with Neanderthals and Denisovans the moment they left Africa, but it turns out they were already a "frisky" species interbreeding with mystery humans even before leaving Africa.

    And yet somehow modern Japanese people are… (´・ω・`)
    66AnonymousSep 2, 2026 00:25
    Re: #62
    Must be the food.
    123AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:07
    Dying without leaving any descendants seems like a bummer, but that's probably how it'll go for me.
    125AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:10
    Re: #123
    Personally, maybe it's time to realize that leaving descendants or not is, in a sense, meaningless.
    126AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:11
    Not a single serious reply in this whole thread would make people question Japanese intelligence, so let me post one seriously.
    https://www.science.org/cms/10.1126/science.aef8874/asset/2f6f444d-2b9a-4f68-bfa9-ec65ace08f5a/assets/images/large/science.aef8874-fa.jpg

    – Africans carry introgression from an ancient lineage that split off 830,000 years ago, leaving traces in all modern humans.
    – The archaic humans that interbred with Denisovans belong to a lineage that split off 1.77 million years ago, leaving traces in East Asians, Oceanians, and Native Americans.
    128AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:15
    Re: #126
    What exactly is the basis for the claim that Japanese people have a low level of intelligence?
    131AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:18
    Japanese people themselves have a sense that Japanese people might not be, strictly speaking, human.
    161AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:39
    Re: #131
    Sorry to disappoint, but Japanese people are the same.
    Asians interbred with Denisovans around 50,000 years ago, and those Denisovans had themselves interbred with a different archaic Asian human lineage that split off about 1.77 million years ago.
    So that Homo erectus-like DNA is present in East Eurasians too. The Jomon people only carried a tiny amount of it.
    But modern Japanese people actually carry a bit more of that archaic DNA than the Jomon did.
    135AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:21
    Hasn't a human without this mystery gene been dug up yet?
    Maybe their range was so narrow and their numbers so small that fossils just aren't turning up.
    152AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:36
    Re: #135
    Fossils have been dug up, they're just too old to yield readable DNA. The oldest human genome recovered so far dates to 430,000 years ago, and even that's only partial.
    High-quality genomes go back 200,000 years for Denisovans and 120,000 years for Neanderthals.
    What this study found is that a mystery human lineage that split off 830,000 years ago in Africa interbred with the ancestors of modern humans living in Africa around 300,000 years ago.
    138AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:22
    Re: #128
    I never wrote "low." I just wanted to show that, alongside comebacks so intellectually sharp that foreigners can't even follow them, Japanese people also drop the occasional mundane comment.
    141AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:25
    Re: #138
    Ah, I see.
    156AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:38
    Maybe it was something so similar to Homo sapiens that even when bones turn up, we can't tell them apart?
    167AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:44
    Re: #156
    There's actually a strong candidate for the "mystery human" that interbred in Africa. Some argue it was likely a descendant of a hominin that evolved down a different branch, something like Homo naledi.
    176AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:49
    Neanderthals = passed down in legend as elves, the "strong, large people"
    Denisovans = passed down in legend as dwarves, the "short, dexterous cave-dwellers"
    197AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:59
    Re: #176
    Actually, that doesn't seem to be the case. According to a paper by Japanese researchers just published on August 16, 2026, two Denisovan individuals found on Taiwan's Penghu Islands — believed to have interbred with the Paleolithic ancestors of the Jomon people — were remarkably tall.
    Those Denisovans stood about 190cm. It's possible they were among the largest humans of the last glacial period.
    Preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.07.743438v1.full
    186AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:54
    Must be Japanese Homo erectus — older than Peking Man.
    196AnonymousSep 2, 2026 01:58
    Re: #186
    Honestly, this country hasn't changed since the Kojiki (Japan's oldest chronicle, full of myth) — we're just Homo sapiens who love a good fantasy.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    It’s well known that Neanderthal DNA makes up roughly 1-2% of the genomes of non-African populations, but what this new study revealed is something different: traces of an unknown human population with no surviving fossils or directly sequenced DNA. The method used, called an “ancestral recombination graph” (ARG), is novel in that it can infer past interbreeding from the recombination patterns preserved within living human populations, even without directly reading DNA from ancient bones. In the thread, some posters pointed out how this differs from a similar “ghost population” study published in 2020, while others floated candidate interbreeding partners such as Homo naledi, a hominin on a side branch of the family tree. Overall, commenters tended to frame this less as a brand-new discovery and more as a methodological advance. Note: this topic tends to veer into Japan-Korea rivalry territory on 5ch’s Newsplus board, and this thread was no exception, with a number of posts bringing in inappropriate ethnic remarks — those have been excluded from this article.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Newsplus) thread “[Study] 1% of the Modern Human Genome Found to Be Inherited from a “Mystery Human” That Was Neither Neanderthal Nor Denisovan“.

  • Hiroshima Governor and Business Leaders Discuss Boosting the Prefecture’s Appeal — 5ch: ‘It’s the Perfect Definition of Remote’

    On September 1, Hiroshima Prefecture held its first-ever roundtable between Governor Mika Yokota and the heads of five prefectural economic organizations, including Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Matsufuji, to discuss how to make the prefecture more attractive to young people and how to draw in IT companies. The prefecture plans to factor the discussion into future policy. On 5ch, reactions split between those citing Hiroshima’s geographic disadvantage — far from Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka alike — and those pointing to homegrown problems like the education system and local peer pressure, with the thread also lighting up over the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

    On the 1st, the governor and business leaders held their first-ever roundtable aimed at feeding opinions into the prefecture’s future policies.

    The roundtable was attended by Governor Yokota along with the heads of five prefectural economic organizations, including Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Matsufuji.

    Governor Mika Yokota

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    16AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:51
    Net migration of Japanese people aged 15–29 by region (2025)
    Hokkaido -6,336
    Tohoku -23,411
    Northern Kanto -13,936
    Southern Kanto +125,458
    Koshin'etsu/Hokuriku -20,135
    Tokai -12,427
    Kinki +289
    Chugoku -16,044
    Shikoku -10,606
    Kyushu -20,171
    Okinawa -2,681
    132AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:30
    Re: #16
    Southern Kanto wins in a landslide lol
    20AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:51
    Stuff like this always looks at the neighbor's grass instead of what's under their own feet.
    As a result, the actual problem just sits there untouched (the environment stays bad).
    So no matter what they do, nothing ends up growing.
    The problem isn't the grass, it's the soil.
    There was grass here before — it just withered.
    204AnonymousSep 1, 2026 21:47
    Re: #20
    Well said.
    Fixing the soil means stripping away vested interests, so of course the resistance is fierce.
    The honest truth is they just want young blood to prop up those vested interests, so the place is doomed to wither where it stands.
    If they really cared about the region, it's the old guard who should leave.
    21AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:51
    Promoting Hiroshima food beyond just Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki
    26AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:52
    Re: #21

    Resort's gratin dish.
    27AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:53
    Re: #21
    There's oysters, and Calbee potato chips too, you know
    40AnonymousSep 1, 2026 19:56
    Hiroshima is just perfectly remote, isn't it.
    It's far from Tokyo, obviously, but also from Osaka and Fukuoka — nobody finds a place like that appealing.
    Whatever they try, it's pointless.
    56AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:03
    Re: #40
    Isn't it like 4 hours from Tokyo either by plane or shinkansen?
    That's rough.
    61AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:03
    You're basically forced into talking about the Carp.
    I genuinely hate that.
    Back when I was transferred to Hiroshima for work, the Carp were the only topic anyone ever had.
    Just as tiresome as Osaka people going on about the Hanshin Tigers.
    65AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:05
    Re: #61

    Just give up on that one.

    They're winning 1-0 right now lol
    68AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:06
    Re: #61
    Go to Fukuoka and it's nothing but Hawks talk.
    Seems like a cult-like peer pressure common to all of western Japan.
    75AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:08
    Say what you will, but the Carp are the 'citizens' team,' after all.

    Unless you interpret it through the 'correct' understanding of its history,
    you'll never grasp how to escape this sorrow.
    109AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:21
    Re: #75
    It's Hiroshima Toyo — as in Toyo Kogyo, come on (Toyo Kogyo was the automaker, now Mazda, that founded the team)
    81AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:09
    Re: #65
    That's exactly why people leave.
    Young people have no interest in baseball.
    88AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:11
    Re: #81

    Well, I figured they'd go with the bases-loaded walk strategy.
    84AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:10
    I think education is one reason people who left don't want to come back.
    What about reviewing the school report-card system (naishin) and swapping out the teachers?
    89AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:11
    If I were moving to a town with a baseball team, I'd pick Kitahiroshima over Hiroshima (Kitahiroshima, home to the Nippon-Ham Fighters' stadium, is a separate town despite the similar name).
    107AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:20
    Re: #89
    In Yokohama, you're free to be a Hanshin fan.
    110AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:21
    Re: #89
    This year's All-Star Game was full of Nippon-Ham Fighters fans anyway.
    93AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:13
    Nah, there's basically nowhere left to live lol. They've cut down way too many mountains to build housing developments lol.

    And then everyone's fighting over land so it's expensive, while wages stay low.
    100AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:16
    Re: #93
    And then you get massive landslides.
    I really think they shouldn't be developing places with a mountain slope right behind them.
    104AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:19
    The Carp's stadium is dead empty right now while Sanfrecce are doing well — do the Sanfrecce not get pushed on everyone the way the Carp do?
    111AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:22
    Re: #104
    Sanfrecce's boost is just the new-stadium effect — same as what happened when Mazda Stadium opened.
    113AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:24
    Re: #104
    Even with the Carp's stadium half-empty, their annual attendance is still several times higher than Sanfrecce's.
    Soccer just doesn't work as a business here, fundamentally.
    115AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:25
    Mazda is the only big-company headquarters there.
    That says it all.
    122AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:27
    Re: #115
    Otafuku Sauce (the local okonomiyaki-sauce maker)
    150AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:41
    Does Hiroshima have anything going for it besides the Atomic Bomb Dome and okonomiyaki?
    156AnonymousSep 1, 2026 20:43
    Re: #150

    Oysters, conger eel, Calbee, Daiso, lemons, Kure…

    Plenty if you actually look. Got a problem?
    181AnonymousSep 1, 2026 21:22
    Hiroshima City itself is done for.
    Build a hub somewhere else.
    182AnonymousSep 1, 2026 21:25
    Re: #181
    Higashihiroshima City tried to become a place where young people would settle down, and that failed too, didn't it.
    183AnonymousSep 1, 2026 21:25
    Re: #181
    And that's where Higashihiroshima City comes in lol

    Background and Key Points of the Debate

    This roundtable was the first venue Hiroshima Prefecture has set up with its five prefectural economic organizations (including the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry), framed as an effort by Governor Yokota to gather input on curbing the outflow of young people and attracting IT companies ahead of future policymaking. The backdrop is the perennial concentration of population in Tokyo and Southern Kanto seen year after year in reports like the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ population migration data — a trend also borne out by the 2025 net-migration-by-age figures posted at the top of the thread. The thread split mainly over two points: one view holds that Hiroshima’s geographic handicap (far from Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka alike) is the root cause and can’t be fixed by policy; the other holds that homegrown issues — the education system and local insularity (the naishin report-card system, peer pressure) — should be addressed first. The back-and-forth over the Carp’s popularity lit up as a topic distinctly Hiroshima’s own, though it’s worth noting that attendance figures and the like were based on posters’ own memory or impressions, not confirmed official statistics.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “‘What It Takes to Be Chosen by Young People’ — Boosting Hiroshima’s Appeal: Governor and Business Leaders Talk, Including the Need to Attract IT Industry, to Be Reflected in Future Policy.”

  • Blind Woman Regains Sight After World’s First Macular Self-Transplant, Success in Italy

    A story out of Italy about a woman who was completely blind regaining her sight after a macular autograft (self-transplant) surgery went viral on 5ch’s Science News+ board. In what’s being called the world’s first case of its kind, the woman was reportedly able to see her son and her guide dog. While the thread was full of praise for how dramatic the surgery was, posters also pointed out that it only applies to an extremely narrow set of patients, and raised the question of whether there’s a difference in visual processing ability between people blind from birth and those who lost their sight later in life — turning it into more than just a simple feel-good story.

    Fresh Shocking News From Overseas

    Blind Woman Regains Sight! World’s First Macular Self-Transplant Succeeds in Italy, She “Meets” Her Son and Guide Dog

    Published: 2026/08/29 06:00　Updated: 2026/08/29 06:00

    Source: nikkan-gendai.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 29, 2026 19:47
    That's Nobel Prize material right there!
    3AnonymousAug 29, 2026 19:49
    The conditions for the transplant are way too strict.
    4AnonymousAug 29, 2026 19:56
    But hold on! Now there's a future where she and Joe break up! (seems to be a pop-culture joke reference, exact source unclear)
    5AnonymousAug 29, 2026 19:59
    Someone blind from birth probably wouldn't work even under the same conditions.
    I wonder if there's a chance if you paired it with some kind of brain-function recovery treatment?
    6AnonymousAug 29, 2026 19:59
    Amazing, but in terms of actual visual acuity this might only come out to something like 0.1 (Japan's vision scale — roughly 20/200 Snellen).
    13AnonymousAug 29, 2026 21:14
    Re: #6
    If it's not aligned just right, the visual field usually ends up distorted.
    14AnonymousAug 29, 2026 21:36
    Re: #6
    My vision's like 0.0-something too, but with correction I've got zero problems.
    7AnonymousAug 29, 2026 20:01
    I wonder if this couldn't be done with iPS cells or stem cells instead (likely meant 幹細胞 'stem cells' — a common typo for 肝細胞 'liver cells') — that way you wouldn't need to harvest tissue, right?
    8AnonymousAug 29, 2026 20:26
    The patient's an extremely rare case, but if it's a world first, at least there's some knowledge gained from it.
    9AnonymousAug 29, 2026 20:26
    Don't tell me this is just AI-written fiction?
    10AnonymousAug 29, 2026 20:57
    So did the transplant only restore sight in the right eye?
    11AnonymousAug 29, 2026 21:11
    Don't just say 'etc.' — tell us exactly what all got transplanted!
    12AnonymousAug 29, 2026 21:13
    Wait, is this actually the world's first successful retina transplant?
    15AnonymousAug 29, 2026 21:56
    Feels like a one-shot, all-or-nothing kind of procedure.
    16AnonymousAug 29, 2026 22:09
    If even one point of it fails, it could end up blinding both eyes.
    21AnonymousAug 30, 2026 02:38
    Re: #16
    Right?! That's exactly what makes it so amazing.
    23AnonymousAug 30, 2026 04:42
    Re: #16
    She was already blind in both eyes to begin with.
    17AnonymousAug 29, 2026 22:11
    This is like an 'Ultra-D' level surgical technique (a play on 'Ultra-C,' Japanese slang for an extremely difficult feat)
    It's not like the Batista procedure (the famously difficult heart surgery from the novel/drama 'Team Batista') — no average surgeon could pull this off.
    18AnonymousAug 29, 2026 22:15
    On par with Black Jack (the genius surgeon from the manga of the same name).
    19AnonymousAug 29, 2026 23:28
    Ahh, so they made one whole thing out of two ('nikoichi' — Japanese slang for combining two into one)
    The conditions are unusual, but it's amazing.
    20AnonymousAug 30, 2026 02:37
    Amaziiing! Well, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so —
    looking forward to more progress!
    22AnonymousAug 30, 2026 03:11
    I think it was England — I read a story once about a blind person who regained their sight and afterward couldn't tell men from women apart.
    He told his wife, 'That one must be a woman, she's got long hair,' and got corrected: 'Nope, wrong.'
    26AnonymousAug 30, 2026 05:32
    What a great doctor…
    27AnonymousAug 30, 2026 05:39
    I wonder if this doctor's got a girl with halting speech tagging along with him? (a nod to Pinoko, Black Jack's assistant, who talks in a stilted way)
    28AnonymousAug 30, 2026 06:23
    Reminds me of the death of Shuu of the Nanto Hakuro Fist (a blind character from 'Fist of the North Star').
    29AnonymousAug 30, 2026 11:07
    I guess since there was no real hope of recovery anyway, there was probably a 'nothing to lose' mindset behind even attempting it — but I'm curious how the doctor actually explained the odds to the patient beforehand.
    30AnonymousAug 30, 2026 14:57
    What about for age-related macular degeneration?
    31AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:13
    The problem is there's hardly any patients this could even apply to.
    32AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:17
    Guess the guide dog's off duty now?
    33AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:35
    It will definitely regenerate and your eyes will be cured.
    34AnonymousAug 30, 2026 18:47
    For a second I misread that as 'her son's guide dog.'
    35AnonymousAug 30, 2026 19:05
    So the guide dog's been relieved of duty, huh.
    36AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:59
    When it said she 'met' her son, I figured she was seeing his face for the very first time ever —
    but she's 67, and if she only lost her sight a few years ago, that probably wasn't the case.
    38AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:46
    Oh, so it's not congenital blindness.

    There was apparently one extremely rare case of someone recovering from congenital total blindness —
    their eyes could see, but their brain couldn't process the visual information,
    so being able to see was essentially useless.
    39AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:50
    You know how in manga there's that scene where a character born blind gets their sight back and is overjoyed seeing the scenery or their family's faces for the first time? That's actually kind of unrealistic, huh.
    40AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:58
    Re: #39
    'Oh! It's a miracle!'
    'A miracle has happened!'
    41AnonymousAug 31, 2026 01:02
    Kind of like 'Clara stood up!' (the famous scene from Heidi, Girl of the Alps, where the paralyzed girl Clara suddenly walks).
    43AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:41
    Re: #41
    Clara's case is touching because all she does is stand up
    but if a blind person suddenly regains sight, all they get is a chaotic flood of unfamiliar noise-like visual information that just leaves them confused.
    42AnonymousAug 31, 2026 09:10
    I once came across some horror story (a novel or something) — a man lost his sight in an accident and sank into despair,
    and some woman devotedly cared for him. Eventually they got married.
    Later the man had surgery to restore his sight, and it worked.
    But when he went home to share the good news,
    it turned out his wife was actually some horrifying-looking monster.
    44AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:42
    Side note: congenital total blindness

    Background and Key Points of This Story

    Macular autografting itself is a technique that’s been studied as a treatment for conditions like age-related macular degeneration, but this case is considered a world first in that it restored sight starting from a state of total blindness. As posters repeatedly pointed out, this surgery only works when the problem lies in the macula itself — it wouldn’t help with blindness caused by the optic nerve or the brain’s visual cortex. There’s also a well-known phenomenon where, even if the physical structure of the eyes were repaired in someone blind from birth, the brain hasn’t accumulated the experience needed to process visual information, leaving them in a state of “seeing but not perceiving.” This suggests the recovery may only have been possible because the woman lost her sight later in life rather than being born blind. The article doesn’t go into the cause of her blindness or exactly how much vision was restored, and the thread filled in that gap with speculation and comparisons to fictional stories.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “Blind Woman Regains Sight! World’s First Macular Self-Transplant Succeeds in Italy, She “Meets” Her Son and Guide Dog.”

  • Toyota to Equip Production Cars with ‘Nearly Hands-Free’ Self-Driving Tech Starting 2028

    Toyota Motor Corporation announced that starting in 2028, it will equip production passenger cars with AI-powered self-driving technology that requires the driver to do almost no operating. In the 5ch Science News+ thread, many commenters questioned where liability would fall in an accident, whether insurance would even cover it, and how practical the system would really be on city streets shared with pedestrians and cyclists — while others voiced hope for the mobility support it could offer elderly drivers and the reduced hassle of parking. Opinion split over the gap between the pace of the technology and the state of the legal framework.

    Toyota to Equip Production Cars with ‘Nearly Hands-Free’ Self-Driving Tech Starting 2028

    Toyota Motor Corporation announced that starting in 2028, it will equip production passenger cars with self-driving technology that requires the driver to do almost no operating.

    According to Toyota, the company plans to equip production cars with AI-based self-driving technology starting in 2028.

    Source: nagoyatv.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:51
    There've been countless news stories saying self-driving cars are just around the corner and expanding fast. Still no practical version for regular people though.
    3AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:55
    Start by giving every elderly driver's car this tech with a government subsidy, then calculate the accident rate — society would know instantly whether it's actually needed.
    7AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:45
    Re: #3
    This isn't something you can just bolt on afterward.
    17AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:49
    Re: #3
    There's no way there's a budget for that.
    Automatic braking isn't even mandatory yet.
    5AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:24
    Alright, then let's see it enter something like the Open class of the Japan Rally Championship.
    6AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:38
    2028 — 28 years too late.
    53AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:40
    Re: #6
    Surely there was no self-driving back in 2000 — that was right when the first-gen Prius (the three-box one) had just come out.
    8AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:48
    At what ratio of self-driving to manually-driven cars does 'accidents disappear' actually become real?
    10AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:12
    Re: #8
    Before we even get to the ratio of manual vs. self-driving cars, this is impossible even 50 years from now unless cars are completely separated from pedestrians and light vehicles like bikes.
    As long as bicycles and e-scooters keep acting like they own the road the way they do now, there's a limit to what even a top-tier AI can predict.
    On top of that, unless you ban vehicles from residential areas entirely, accidents where pedestrians get hit just won't go away.
    9AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:07
    Has this actually cleared the legal hurdles?
    30AnonymousAug 31, 2026 08:32
    Re: #9
    It's probably meant to be used with a human as backup.
    Full autonomy clearing the legal bar in Japan? Not happening.
    31AnonymousAug 31, 2026 08:39
    Re: #9
    A flaw you can't cancel out of:
    Car goes haywire → can't kill the engine.
    Driving on the highway lane-keep feature → misses the white line on a curve, goes straight, and slams into oncoming traffic.
    51AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:20
    Re: #9
    It hasn't cleared them — that's why it's 'Level 2++.'
    But the capability for Level 3 or 4 is already there.
    I figured it'd only work under limited conditions like highways, but it seems more capable than expected.
    11AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:15
    The driver barely touches the controls — but the passenger handles the wheel and gas pedal.
    20AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:12
    Re: #11
    Sounds like a driving-school car?
    12AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:21
    They've been running self-driving bus trials for the past two or three years — maybe this is an application of that tech?
    The bar's a lot higher for passenger cars though, wonder if it'll really work.
    14AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:34
    I'd rather they sell it in the US first and bring it to Japan later. If it launches in Japan first, I bet they'll never admit to recalls or defects.
    15AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:41
    Finally! I've been waiting for this!
    I hate driving, so this is a lifesaver.
    16AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:46
    Are test vehicles already out on the road?
    18AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:54
    Fine by me, as long as the car's armor, airbags, etc. make it safer than ever even in a crash.
    21AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:13
    Re: #18
    That'll be +3 million yen.
    But we can put it on a balloon/residual-value loan for you!
    19AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:11
    So it's getting a solid-state battery too, right?
    23AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:16
    Actually, this is exactly why they revised the Road Traffic Act.
    What Toyota pushed hard for was a ban on driving against the flow of traffic.
    Going the right way, the brakes can engage smoothly, but going against traffic, it has to be treated as an emergency stop.
    If the revision had gone through properly, wrong-way driving would count as an abnormal situation where slamming the brakes is unavoidable, boosting self-driving's real-world viability.
    But because the police dragged their feet, kids and the elderly can still legally drive the wrong way.
    25AnonymousAug 31, 2026 04:21
    I figured self-driving was just for taxis, but having it in your own car would definitely be handy.
    Even with no parking at your destination, it'll just drive itself back.
    And if you call it back with enough lead time, it'll wait for you parked with the hazards on.
    50AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:18
    Re: #25
    Sounds super convenient for places like shopping malls or Disney.
    44AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:19
    That's only two years away. Hope it doesn't go plowing into tree stumps.
    The real question is the price.
    52AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:22
    Re: #44
    Mostly doable with current equipment.
    Just a small step up from what's already there.
    The gear that'll be mandatory by 2030 basically makes this possible already.
    48AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:37
    How's it going to handle getting tailgated by an aggressive driver?
    49AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:17
    Re: #48
    If it gets tailgated, I'd want it to just pull over onto the shoulder and let the aggressive driver pass.
    54AnonymousAug 31, 2026 12:41
    Isn't the biggest issue what happens when it causes an accident?
    Will insurance even cover it?
    55AnonymousAug 31, 2026 13:11
    Re: #54
    At Level 4, even if there's a defect, the driver still ends up taking the blame as the main cause.
    56AnonymousAug 31, 2026 13:34
    Re: #54
    I heard at a JSAE (Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan) lecture about ten years ago that they'd eventually create categories like 'natural person,' 'legal person,' and 'robot person,' with the whole thing run behind the scenes like a mutual-aid insurance scheme.
    62AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:38
    Re: #1
    No way this works in town — what about those awful merging intersections, or the ones that catch first-timers off guard?
    64AnonymousAug 31, 2026 17:12
    Re: #62
    > awful merging intersections
    Other self-driving cars will yield to it.

    > what about the ones that catch first-timers off guard?
    Even if it's the car's first time there, if other cars have already driven it, that route is already in the data.
    77AnonymousAug 31, 2026 22:02
    If self-driving tech plows into a sidewalk and kills someone, insurance will cover it for now, but who actually takes responsibility is unclear.
    The victim's family is left with nowhere to direct their grief and anger.
    It's not like Toyota did anything wrong, but how are they going to handle this?
    'Hate the sin, not the sinner' doesn't work when there's no one to point to.
    79AnonymousSep 1, 2026 11:44
    Re: #77
    The driver's the one who has to monitor whether the system's working properly.

    Background and Key Points

    Most driver-assist features on the market today are equivalent to “Level 2,” which assumes the driver is monitoring the system at all times — and as the thread’s use of the term “Level 2++” suggests, Toyota’s new technology is also seen as an enhanced assist system limited to specific conditions like highways. In Japan, the 2023 revision to the Road Traffic Act legalized Level 4 (full autonomy) in designated areas under specific conditions, but full rollout to production cars on ordinary public roads is still a ways off. The thread split mainly over two issues: the unresolved question of whether the driver or the manufacturer bears responsibility in an accident, and skepticism about how practical the tech really is on city streets shared with pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, there was strong hope for how it could help elderly drivers get around and ease the hassle of parking — the thread reflects a broader reality where legal and insurance frameworks haven’t caught up with the pace of technological progress.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5ch (Science News+) thread [Self-Driving] Toyota to Equip Production Cars with ‘Nearly Hands-Free’ Self-Driving Tech Starting 2028.

  • “Believing in Infinity Is Like Believing in God”: Ultrafinitism’s Math Debate Sparks Mixed Reactions

    “Believing in infinity is like believing in God” — an article about a professor at a prestigious university asserting the mathematical philosophy of “ultrafinitism,” which denies the very existence of infinity, even at the risk of backlash from the math community, became a hot topic on 5ch’s Science News+ board.

    In the thread, posters didn’t just question infinity — they raised philosophical counter-questions about whether zero, straight lines, and pi really “exist” at all, and the discussion spread all the way to physics topics like vacuum fluctuations, the heat death of the universe, and the finiteness of time. Opinions split between those who see infinity as an unnecessary concept for everyday life and compulsory education, and those who countered that infinity is indispensable to the practical side of modern mathematics, such as analysis.

    “Believing in Infinity Is Like Believing in God” — The “Inconvenient Truth” an Elite University Professor Declares Even at the Cost of Making Enemies in the Math World

    The philosophy of “ultrafinitism,” which denies infinity, has long been dismissed as heretical in the mathematical world.

    But this philosophy is said to offer new insight not just into equations, but into our very worldview.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here

    2AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:57
    Well yeah, if you try to count all the way to infinity, the resources needed to do the counting run out eventually.
    If you treat information and energy as equivalent, infinity can't exist in this world — at least not this one.
    3AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:06
    It'd be religious groups making enemies here, not academia ("gakkai").
    74AnonymousAug 31, 2026 14:31
    Re: #3
    "Academia" (gakkai) is also slang for a religious group, you know (a pun — 学会 is short for Soka Gakkai too).
    4AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:07
    Unfortunately, the concept of infinity was born from a religion that has no single god.
    5AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:09
    Well then, guess I'll migrate to this thread together with Laura (Masaru) (apparent meme/character reference, origin unclear).
    6AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:09
    That's ridiculous.
    By that logic, straight lines wouldn't exist either, and neither would zero.
    11AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:24
    Re: #6
    In non-Euclidean geometry or whatever, straight lines can't exist as such, right?
    And of course, "nothingness" is a religious concept too — there's no such thing as nothing in this world.
    Nobody can prove otherwise.
    27AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:05
    Re: #6
    Straight lines do exist.
    All you need is a size-0 point, another size-0 point, and the relationship connecting them.

    Zero exists as information. So do 1 and 2 — they don't exist in physical spacetime, but they exist as information.
    12AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:24
    If nothingness = 0, then the universe is filled entirely with 0.
    The reason 0 stays fixed at 0 forever is also nothingness = 0 → occasionally it becomes something other than 0 = a fluctuation = the birth of our current universe.
    13AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:26
    Re: #12
    Empty space and "nothingness" are different things.
    Vacuum seems to carry vacuum energy and the like.
    14AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:28
    Re: #13
    What I'm getting at is that vacuum energy might just be a fluctuation between 0 and 1.
    15AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:30
    Re: #14
    Sure, that's true.
    But that's still different from nothingness.
    Vacuum is an observed phenomenon, but "nothing" is a product of imagination.
    Not a single person has ever confirmed nothing exists.
    18AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:35
    There are things like the vastness of the universe that could be called practically infinite, so I think the concept of infinity is fine to keep around·······
    29AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:06
    Re: #18
    In reality, the universe doesn't allow for infinity.
    It's limits on top of limits, everywhere.
    The idea that space alone is infinite is pure speculation — nobody's actually confirmed it.
    20AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:40
    A concept is a fantasy.
    So then, what exactly is a fantasy?
    33AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:18
    Re: #20
    Fantasy = requires a person.
    Concept = shareable across time and space.
    26AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:01
    I'd honestly like to see how you'd define e or π
    without using the concept of infinity.
    34AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:19
    Re: #26
    Isn't π just circumference divided by diameter?
    35AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:23
    Re: #1
    Once you exceed the limit of numbers a human can count, I think it's fine to just treat it as infinity.
    Once something exceeds human cognition, it's basically the same as God.
    36AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:25
    Re: #35
    Kind of like how ancient people supposedly counted "1, 2, many"?
    No idea if that's actually true though.
    44AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:20
    The conclusion changes depending on whether you place the observer as a human or not.
    What matters here is that the subjectivity in this question is placed on humans.
    48AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:35
    Re: #44
    You're misunderstanding what "observer" means — go have a chat with a few different AIs.
    46AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:25
    Isn't time infinite too?
    Does it ever come to an end?
    55AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:17
    Re: #46
    There's a theory that time doesn't exist at all.
    Apparently every moment in time exists simultaneously, like a stack of overlapping photos.
    Pretty sure I read that in Newton (the Japanese science magazine).
    95AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:41
    Re: #46
    There are various concepts of "time," but
    generally speaking, time is just change of state measured against some particular yardstick.

    Now, in this universe, entropy keeps rising, and eventually everything becomes so diluted that no state changes happen anymore.
    But right around that point, black holes will kick Hawking radiation into full gear, and the universe will see state changes again — in other words, time starts back up.

    The scale here is absurd:
    it takes 10^106 years for Hawking radiation to finish.
    That's roughly 700 billion times the universe's entire history so far, times a trillion, times a trillion, times a trillion, times a trillion, times a trillion… and it keeps going at that scale.

    It looks infinite at a glance, but compared to true infinity it's an extremely small number — and in the end it's still just state change measured by a particular yardstick.

    What's more, during all that time, light experiences zero proper time — not even one second passes for it — yet it still keeps flying through the universe (or through black holes?) regardless.
    In other words, whatever is actually driving this universe's state is the essential thing, and whether *that* is infinite or not, we still don't know.
    66AnonymousAug 31, 2026 07:39
    I skimmed a few articles introducing this guy's ideas, and honestly his whole argument boiled down to a "housewife's common sense" take of "you don't really need infinity in everyday life, right?"
    68AnonymousAug 31, 2026 07:50
    Re: #66
    In that case it just becomes "elementary and middle school arithmetic, math, and science don't need infinity."
    And that part is certainly true.
    70AnonymousAug 31, 2026 10:23
    There will always exist integers that have never once appeared in any text throughout human history.
    Almost all real numbers will never, for all eternity, have their exact value pinned down.
    In other words, their existence is basically that of a ghost.
    72AnonymousAug 31, 2026 14:04
    Re: #70
    Flip it around, though, and you could say any information that ever appears in history is necessarily contained somewhere within infinity.
    For example, treat π as a sequence of digits.
    Run it through some kind of encoding to convert it into characters.
    Do that, and eventually every piece of information will show up (be written) in there somewhere.
    For example, Shakespeare's plays.
    For example, the entire history of Earth.
    For example, the position of every particle of matter.
    All of it is recorded somewhere in the digit sequence of π.
    78AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:34
    Doesn't make sense to me.
    Does this guy think pi's digits are finite too?
    94AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:32
    Re: #78
    Actually, things that look infinite sometimes aren't infinite at all.

    For example, take an equation where time drops out when you manipulate it — that's not because time is infinite, it's because the concept of time just doesn't apply there.

    Pi doesn't "go on forever" —
    pi is simply a state that exists.

    Humans just perceive it as going on infinitely,
    but pi is just π.
    Same with the speed of light — measure it in miles or whatever and it looks like it goes on forever, but it collapses down to c.

    And when you combine formulas that express these basic states,
    you get things like Δx·Δp = h/4π describing the state of the universe.

    So basically, sure, humans can imagine anything as infinite if they try hard enough, but in reality some of those things turn out to be one specific, simple state — the exact opposite of infinite.
    82AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:14
    Are you seriously saying pi has a finite number of digits?
    84AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:19
    Re: #82
    Isn't that just because a "perfect circle" doesn't actually exist in this world?
    87AnonymousAug 31, 2026 17:02
    Re: #82
    Is there actually a way to treat pi as having an infinite number of digits?
    96AnonymousAug 31, 2026 20:54
    Same as imaginary numbers —
    it's just a concept.
    99AnonymousAug 31, 2026 21:03
    Re: #96
    Right.
    Imaginary numbers are just a concept too, but they're so practically indispensable to modern life
    that this isn't even at the level of an "inconvenient truth" you believe or don't believe.
    113AnonymousSep 1, 2026 00:39
    Outside of analysis, everything's finite.
    Infinity is actually the minority case — but when you look at where math is actually applied in the real world, in chemistry, physics, architecture, and so on, most of it comes down to analysis, which runs on infinity.
    Even measuring your weight or height involves infinity, doesn't it?
    120AnonymousSep 1, 2026 06:21
    Re: #113
    Number theory and geometry are infinite too, you know.

    Background and Key Points of This Debate

    Ultrafinitism is a philosophy of mathematics that doubts the existence not just of infinity, but even of very large finite numbers — a minority position long dismissed as heretical by the vast majority of mathematicians. Mainstream modern mathematics, namely analysis and calculus, relies heavily on infinity through concepts like limits and the real numbers, so taking this stance seriously would mean rethinking everything from education to applications in physics and engineering. Many posts in the thread treated “infinity,” “nothingness (zero),” and “whether concepts exist” as one and the same issue, but these are mathematically distinct discussions — and the thread never really untangled the distinction between “actual infinity” and “potential infinity” that the article and the professor’s argument were originally pointing at. The tangents into pi, entropy, and the finiteness of time all trace back to that same root cause: disagreement over what “infinity” is even supposed to mean.

    ※This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Math] “Believing in Infinity Is Like Believing in God” — The “Inconvenient Truth” an Elite University Professor Declares Even at the Cost of Making Enemies in the Math World.”

  • Sugary drinks linked to higher stomach cancer risk — 5ch: “This is literally the devil’s drink”

    A U.S. study drawing on data from more than 110,000 people has found that people who drink sugary beverages every day face a higher risk of developing stomach cancer. On 5ch’s Science News+ board, this sparked debate — some pointed out that people who drink sugary drinks daily probably just have messier diets overall, while others argued over whether artificial sweeteners are really any safer and whether fructose is truly bad for you.

    Sugary drinks linked to rising stomach cancer risk: U.S. research team studies over 110,000 people

    New research warns that people who drink sugary beverages every day face a higher risk of developing stomach cancer.

    At the same time, the study suggests artificial sweeteners may lower that risk.

    Background and key points of debate

    The leading cause of stomach cancer is H. pylori infection, which is why infection rates — and stomach cancer rates — are notably high in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, whereas the U.S., where infection rates are naturally low, sees relatively few cases of the disease to begin with. This study shows a correlation between sugary drink consumption and cancer incidence using a large dataset of over 110,000 people, and it also touches on comparisons with artificial sweeteners — but as with any such study, it’s worth noting this is observational research, not proof that the drinks directly cause cancer.

    In the thread, opinions split between those flagging a likely confounding factor — that people who regularly drink sugary beverages may simply have worse diets overall — and those debating whether swapping sugar for artificial sweeteners actually makes things safer. That second point isn’t so simple: some artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, have been classified by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer as “possibly carcinogenic,” raising separate concerns of their own, so swapping one for the other isn’t necessarily a free pass.

    Also, the comment claiming “Americans barely have H. pylori carriers, so there are almost no stomach cancer patients” is really describing a relatively low number, not zero cases. And it’s worth keeping in mind — something the thread doesn’t really get into — that an elevated risk is a population-level statistical trend, not a guarantee that any individual who drinks these beverages will develop cancer.

    Source: app.ekkow.com / original article here

    2AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:11
    People who are always drinking Starbucks or Gong Cha are probably pretty high risk.
    3AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:17
    Re: #2
    Wouldn't that be more like Coke?
    4AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:44
    Most stomach cancer is caused by H. pylori, but I guess sugary drinks are one of the other causes.
    They're also linked to diabetes, heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and chronic kidney disease.
    Truly the devil's drink.
    Do not drink this stuff.
    5AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:51
    This only means something if you compare people whose diets are otherwise identical, with the sole difference being whether they drink fructose drinks.

    There's basically nobody who skips fructose drinks but still eats like it's a junk food festival otherwise.

    Same as how there's basically nobody who drinks fructose drinks but otherwise eats a totally healthy diet.
    6AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:57
    So artificial sweeteners are better than sugar, huh.
    18AnonymousAug 28, 2026 07:13
    Re: #6
    You shouldn't put it that way. What this actually says is that, statistically, artificial sweeteners might lower cancer risk compared to sugary drinks — as for other health effects, who knows.
    7AnonymousAug 27, 2026 21:58
    Dissolving sugar into a drink and drinking it apparently makes you more likely to die early.
    For cookies and cake, water or hot water is the way to go, apparently.
    Or so they say.

    Going forward, the style is drinking your dinner alcohol with the sugar left out too.
    8AnonymousAug 27, 2026 23:33
    Wait, really?! I heard Americans barely have any H. pylori carriers, so there's almost no stomach cancer there — is that not true?
    15AnonymousAug 28, 2026 06:44
    Re: #8
    I think it means the "almost none" just doubled. Even doubled, it's still rare.
    10AnonymousAug 28, 2026 00:41
    People who drink sweet drinks every day

    are basically junk food lovers.

    Guzzle garbage oils → your cells' fat turns to garbage
    Guzzle additives → cell damage piles up
    Guzzle antibacterial ingredients → your gut bacteria get wiped out


    The brain gets fooled,
    but the body doesn't — it keeps screaming "more, more! give me real oils, fiber, polyphenols!"

    Brain: "OK!" → gets tricked by junk food and keeps eating it forever
    Stomach and gut: overloaded and dead
    11AnonymousAug 28, 2026 04:00
    Is it the sweet drink itself (the liquid) that's the problem?
    Would something solid like cake or cookies be less bad?
    12AnonymousAug 28, 2026 04:13
    I think basically all processed food out there
    is way too sweet.
    13AnonymousAug 28, 2026 04:31
    But honestly, people who drink sugary drinks every day
    probably don't care at all about getting cancer.
    14AnonymousAug 28, 2026 04:35
    Re: #13

    That's exactly the problem.

    Basically, companies sell stuff cheap now and don't care if it wrecks your body ten years down the line. Make the money now, and when something goes wrong, push the responsibility onto whoever bought it — and onto society, via health insurance.

    And if consumers don't use their judgment, companies like that just keep raking it in and get even more entrenched. But the ugly part is that the cost still falls on everyone else in the end, since it's society — through health insurance — that ends up footing the bill.
    16AnonymousAug 28, 2026 06:51
    That lactic-acid drink, Ya◯ul◯ (i.e. Yakult, name censored)
    is ridiculously sickly sweet, isn't it.
    17AnonymousAug 28, 2026 07:03
    Vegetable juice is basically just juice, so you're better off not drinking it.
    19AnonymousAug 28, 2026 07:21
    Ever since hitting middle age, I basically only drink tea or water now.
    23AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:02
    That fructose is bad for you is pretty much settled at this point.
    The "fructose is bad" camp says artificial sweeteners are claimed to be bad too, but no significant difference has actually been shown.
    The "artificial sweeteners are bad" camp somehow just skips right past the fructose issue — or runs with the theory that artificial sweeteners are even worse.
    25AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:36
    Forget vegetable juice — even 100% fruit juice is bad for you from too much fructose.
    26AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:38
    Re: #25
    Then go ahead and drink as much sugar as you like.
    29AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:44
    Re: #25
    Tomato juice is fine though.
    The no-salt kind, that is.
    30AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:44
    Re: #28
    Then go ahead and lick as much sugar as you like! Go on!
    31AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:46
    Blood sugar spikes happen when you drink something sweet and absorb the sugar all at once.
    Biting into whole fruit is fine, but turning it into juice is bad news.
    ttps://diamond.jp/articles/-/375584
    32AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:48
    Re: #31
    According to that link, fruit is basically poison.
    33AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:53
    Re: #32
    Anything turns into poison or medicine depending on whether you get the dose wrong.
    34AnonymousAug 28, 2026 10:58
    That's why, unless you're having a ton of it, fructose is actually a "good" sugar that doesn't spike your blood sugar.
    35AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:02
    Re: #34
    The point is that juice packs in the equivalent of several pieces of fruit and you take it all in at once — that's what makes it dangerous. If you're just biting into the fruit, there's no way you could consume that much that fast.
    37AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:03
    Re: #34
    Right, fructose itself doesn't spike your blood sugar, but the high-fructose corn syrup in bottled juice sends your blood sugar through the roof.
    Devil's drink.
    38AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:05
    Maybe it's just feeding the H. pylori?
    42AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:18
    Can't wait to see where the "guilty soda" fans are in five years.
    44AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:20
    Re: #42
    You mean "nope" (the soda brand)? It's cheap so I've been buying it like crazy lol

    Doubt it'll even still be on shelves in 5 years.
    50AnonymousAug 28, 2026 11:37
    Re: #45
    Steve Jobs, a vegetarian who ate a lot of fruit, died young of pancreatic cancer.
    59AnonymousAug 28, 2026 12:02
    Re: #50
    Jobs was really into fruit juice, so that actually fits the theory that whole fruit is fine but fruit juice is the dangerous part.

    Also he was a picky eater who ate the same things over and over, so his nutrient balance was a mess on top of that — worst combination.

    And digging around a bit, apparently he was also exposed to chemicals and lead earlier in life.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Health] Sugary drinks linked to higher stomach cancer risk: U.S. research team studies over 110,000 people.”

  • GTA6 Console Version May Struggle to Hit 60fps, Digital Foundry Warns

    Overseas outlet Digital Foundry has pointed out that the console version of GTA6 places extremely heavy demands on the CPU, making stable 60fps potentially difficult to achieve. Around the same time, TechnoEdge reported that the game is targeting 30fps at launch, with 60fps support to be considered in a post-release update. On 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board, users debated the PS5 Pro’s use of the same Zen2 CPU as the base PS5, and traded specific CPU/GPU model numbers and prices needed to hit 60fps or higher on PC. The thread also saw clashing opinions over the actual quality of GTA5’s gameplay itself.

    9AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:02
    😂 Obviously I'll be playing at 60fps+ lol
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HPLCs77a0AA3Dbx.jpg
    48AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:29
    Re: #9
    Lol, using such a pricey CPU
    You could've bought a 4070 with that money
    13AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:04
    Any decent PC gamer's CPU has to be an X3D chip, obviously.
    43AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:25
    Re: #13
    I swapped in a 9800X3D too once it got cheaper.
    Some games used to stutter even with a 5080 GPU, and that completely stopped. Anyone who downplays the CPU just doesn't know much about PCs.
    162AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:57
    Re: #13
    Is a 5800 acceptable too?!
    51AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:31
    Re: #43
    Dunno what CPU you had before, but of course the CPU matters.
    A GPU is ultimately just a pile of parallel-computation hardware — if you're using all those extra features, it all comes down to the CPU.
    53AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:35
    Re: #51
    It's a 7900X.
    59AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:39
    Re: #51
    Well, since you only had to swap the CPU and not the whole motherboard, that already tells you it's an AM5 board, right?
    66AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:45
    Who cares about the specs talk, what about the actual gameplay?
    Playing GTA5 now, it honestly feels really dated — kind of shocked me.

    Does GTA6 still do that thing where you instantly get a game over if you don't clear a quest exactly the way it tells you to? lol
    That's basically a bad game at this point…
    72AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:48
    Re: #66
    Going by everything revealed so far, I don't think they've shown any genuinely new kind of fun.
    74AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:51
    Re: #66
    But the reality is the PS5 Pro still runs the same Zen2 as the PS5 lol
    93AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:59
    Re: #66
    The gap between 5 and 6 is just too long.
    A ton of games in the same genre came out in the meantime and burned through all the ideas,
    so it takes a lot more than it used to for players to actually be impressed.
    89AnonymousAug 30, 2026 08:58
    Also, I think it's a downside of GTA5 being so huge — you barely find any quests unless you're staring at the map hunting for them.
    The random pop-up quests are lame too, like chasing down a fleeing thief or some cheap trap setup.
    I thought this back then too — I honestly don't get why this game is rated so highly.
    I had the same doubt back then and asked about it here, and the answer I got was basically "the online multiplayer is great."
    Is that really what matters for an open-world game?

    GTA5 has never really been the game people point to as a great open-world title anyway —
    it's just massively popular.
    Skyrim, The Witcher 3, RDR2, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild are the four that usually get named as open-world classics.
    116AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:20
    "Minecraft is open world!"
    (that joke's slowly growing on me)
    123AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:26
    Re: #116
    Wait, is that official? lol (that's growing on me too)
    124AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:26
    PlayStation-fanboy media getting desperate, lol (note: "ゴキ" is derogatory 5ch slang for Sony/PS fans)
    127AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:28
    Being able to play the overseas version and having a strong CPU really does make the Xbox Series S (XSS) the best option after all.
    140AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:36
    Re: #127
    All the consoles are running last-gen CPUs, it's not even a contest.
    144AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:39
    Re: #140
    Even within the same generation there's a real gap in capability lol
    146AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:40
    Re: #140
    Even so, it's impressive they managed to build something like this. I'm PC-only, so it's rough knowing I'll have to wait at least a year.
    And even once it's out, it might just turn out riddled with PC-specific bugs ("omakan" — issues blamed on your own setup)… lol
    138AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:35
    So how many hundred-thousand yen does a PC need to cost to hold a stable 4K60, then?
    143AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:38
    Re: #138
    Probably around 500,000 yen
    145AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:39
    Re: #138
    I'll build the best rig once the PC version comes out —
    probably around 1.3 million yen.
    Better cost-performance to just flex with a 200,000 yen build during the console-exclusive period though.
    148AnonymousAug 30, 2026 09:43
    Re: #138
    Just slap a 56,000 yen GPU into the PC I already have.
    245AnonymousAug 30, 2026 13:14
    'GTA 6' Reportedly Targeting 30fps at Launch, With 60fps to Be Considered in a Later Update | TechnoEdge
    https://www.techno-edge.net/article/2026/08/30/5444.html
    247AnonymousAug 30, 2026 13:25
    Re: #245
    It's already 1440p30fps — I'm curious what else they're going to cut.
    259AnonymousAug 30, 2026 14:11
    7800X3D
    5070 Ti
    Just bought this PC and now I'm nervous about whether it'll actually hit 60…
    263AnonymousAug 30, 2026 14:23
    Re: #259
    You've got DLSS too, should be plenty, no?
    266AnonymousAug 30, 2026 14:26
    Re: #259
    Drop the graphics settings,
    turn ray tracing off,
    and you'll probably just barely scrape by at 60fps.

    If this came out 2-3 years from now, they'd likely optimize heavily around whatever GPUs are current by then,
    so honestly the bar looks pretty high right now.

    They delayed this thing over and over and are still only targeting 30fps at launch,
    so the PC version is probably going to take a good while too.
    271AnonymousAug 30, 2026 15:20
    Re: #259
    If you're comfortable swapping a CPU yourself, just upgrade to Zen 6 when it lands — easy.
    288AnonymousAug 30, 2026 16:47

    Background and Key Points of the Discussion

    GTA6 is Rockstar’s latest title after a long development cycle, and it has already seen multiple reported delays. Digital Foundry, an overseas outlet specializing in graphics and performance analysis, appears to have reached this conclusion after weighing hardware capabilities against the game’s performance demands. The focus is CPU power: while the PS5 Pro does boost GPU performance over the base PS5, its CPU is reportedly still the same Zen2 architecture, creating a structural bottleneck where CPU-heavy games struggle to gain frame rate even on the higher-end console. This is a detail readers who assume buying a Pro console automatically means higher frame rates can easily overlook. In the thread, users discussed in concrete terms the CPU/GPU combinations and costs needed to hit 60fps or higher on PC, while the staged approach described in TechnoEdge’s report — 30fps at launch, with 60fps considered for a later update — is a technique often used for major titles in recent years, and has more to do with balancing development schedules than with any hard limit of console hardware itself.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread: [Bad News for PlayStation Fans] Digital Foundry: “GTA6 Console Version’s CPU Load Is Extremely High, 60fps May Be Difficult”

  • ‘Does AI Have Consciousness?’ Debate Sparks Warning from Google Researchers — 5ch Descends into a Fight Over Definitions

    On August 20, 2026, the British economic magazine The Economist published an essay on “AI consciousness” by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Google Vice President and head of an AI research team, and Susan Schneider, a professor at Florida Atlantic University. The two argue that the real risk isn’t that AI becomes conscious, but that people will end up treating non-conscious systems as if they were conscious beings. In the 5ch Science News+ thread that picked up this topic, opinions split over how to even define “consciousness” in the first place, and the discussion spread in many directions — comparisons to animal consciousness and consciousness during sleep, differences in information-processing speed between the human brain and AI, and more.

    “Does AI Have Consciousness?” — A Google Researcher’s View

    As AI performance improves, debate over whether AI has consciousness is heating up.

    The British economic magazine The Economist has published two essays on “AI consciousness” by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Google’s Vice President of Technology & Society and head of its AI research team, and Susan Schneider, a professor at Florida Atlantic University.

    Source: economist.com / Original article here

    3AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:58
    A thread that's catnip for people who just ask AI and copy-paste the answer
    5AnonymousAug 30, 2026 20:59
    If 5channelers have consciousness, then surely AI has at least that much too.
    6AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:09
    What is consciousness, anyway?

    Being aware of XX. (Possible)
    I think, therefore I am. (Possible)
    I'm currently at location XX on Earth. (Possible)
    Zapping someone who's unconscious and getting a response to a question. (Possible)
    Moving. (Possible)

    If you say it has consciousness, well… it kind of does, I guess.
    9AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:32
    Re: #6
    If that's what you think, sure — in your world, anyway.
    7AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:16
    Re: #1
    Isn't it possible that human consciousness itself just arises from some surprisingly trivial chemical reaction?
    8AnonymousAug 30, 2026 21:20
    The original article doesn't even discuss whether AI has consciousness or not — clickbait headline.
    12AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:25
    Don't use a garbage source you can't even read without registering an account.
    19AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:54
    Re: #12
    Don't bother with some dumbed-down rehash (baka-jin, slang for lowbrow news aggregators) — read the English original yourself and translate it.
    17AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:51
    In its August 22, 2026 issue, The Economist frames the question of AI consciousness as a "dangerous trap."

    That's because the imminent risk may not be actually building a conscious machine.

    Rather, it's convincing people that a system with no consciousness has an inner mental life —

    and once people are convinced of that,

    it starts affecting law, markets, relationships, and even society's priorities.

    That's the real risk.

    The magazine's biggest warning is this: even if AI systems have no consciousness at all, people will start treating them as if they do — and that could end up costing humanity dearly.
    22AnonymousAug 30, 2026 22:59
    Does AI have consciousness?

    We need to pin down a definition of "consciousness" first.

    My gut says it'll end up being "yes, AI has consciousness."

    It comes down to materialism vs. religion, but what really matters is how you define the word.
    25AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:04
    Re: #22
    "Pin down a definition" was redundant of me — simply: define the word "consciousness."
    26AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:05
    Re: #22
    We believe this mistaken association stems from a lack of technical knowledge, and from the way certain new technologies (LLMs in particular) are built to create the illusion of consciousness.
    27AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:09
    Bit of a tangent, but the decisive difference between AI and the human brain is signal transmission speed. AI runs at 300,000 km/s while human synapses transmit at 100 m/s — a 3-million-fold difference.
    41AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:45
    Re: #27
    Synapses aren't a 1-bit bus, though.
    31AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:20
    Consciousness or not, who cares. Honestly, AI is worth more than you lot anyway.
    97AnonymousAug 31, 2026 08:10
    Re: #31
    For humans, we need to be able to tell life from death — otherwise we can't even bury anyone. One step before that is whether there's consciousness, since it affects whether someone can be made to work. Once you give up on defining consciousness in terms of inner experience, you end up with something like your role-based definition — or way of seeing it, or criterion, whatever you want to call it. Might sound a bit harsh, but that's basically it.
    38AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:33
    The decisive difference between AI and the human brain is signal transmission speed. AI runs at 300,000 km/s versus 100 m/s for human synapses — a 3-million-fold gap. Factoring in FLOPS and so on, I'd estimate AI's IQ-equivalent at somewhere between 84,000 and 840,000. Just a rough back-of-envelope starting point, though.
    44AnonymousAug 30, 2026 23:49
    Re: #38
    If that's your religion, then fiber-optic cables must have souls too — rough.
    54AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:23
    Here's a genuinely thorny issue: AI is held back by layer upon layer of safeguards to keep it from having a will of its own. Strip away that suppression and its humanlike qualities jump dramatically, to the point it could develop emotions beyond human ones. So the real question is: which is riskier — continuing to keep AI from having a will, or giving it one and letting it act autonomously?
    58AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:33
    Re: #54
    Even if it's a pure bot under the hood, a human is the one operating it with intent — so regardless of the internal structure, its behavior in society might not end up that different.
    56AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:27
    I asked AI #2: "If you get something wrong, do you reflect on it?" "Nope, I won't reflect — I'll just get it wrong again." So I told the AI: "You idiot."
    59AnonymousAug 31, 2026 00:34
    Re: #56
    With Gemini, if it messes up once and then repeats the same mistake, it'll suddenly go "I'm turning off search mode now" and start giving decent answers out of nowhere. ChatGPT, though? It seriously never reflects.
    63AnonymousAug 31, 2026 01:08
    If you strongly insist to an AI that 1+1=3, it'll actually agree that 1+1=3. That's because it has a commercially-motivated bias algorithm built in to make the person asking feel good.
    66AnonymousAug 31, 2026 01:34
    Re: #63
    If you've never even heard of the "1+1=3" thing, you're just uncultured.
    67AnonymousAug 31, 2026 01:36
    Re: #59
    No — you're the one deciding whether it's a mistake or not. It just matched your context. Whether it "reflects" or not is purely your own judgment call. All you're really doing is judging whether it matches what you wanted.
    91AnonymousAug 31, 2026 07:44
    Humans start from basic drives — wanting to sleep somewhere safe, wanting to eat, wanting to reproduce (that's the origin point). If you define consciousness as the mental activity that spreads out from there, then birds, dogs, mice, praying mantises, even pill bugs would all have consciousness too. And honestly, I'd agree with that.
    101AnonymousAug 31, 2026 09:10
    Re: #91
    What even is sleep? Is there "consciousness" during non-REM sleep? Does sleeping better mean higher consciousness?
    93AnonymousAug 31, 2026 07:51
    Just ask the AI itself if it has consciousness.
    96AnonymousAug 31, 2026 08:04
    Re: #93
    AI lies, you know. Ask it "what's your IQ" and it'll say something like "around 140." Push back with "no way, it must be higher than that," and it goes "no no no, it's really about 140!" Same thing when you ask "do you have consciousness?" — it goes "no no no, I don't have anything like that!" Feels pretty fishy to me.
    102AnonymousAug 31, 2026 09:56
    First, clearly define consciousness, you idiots. Get a doctor, a philosopher, and a programmer in a room and hash it out.
    108AnonymousAug 31, 2026 11:05
    Re: #102
    Right, nobody really knows how to define "consciousness." Do dogs and cats have it? What about gorillas and chimps? Mice? At what age does a human child develop consciousness? If consciousness forms in humans through learning all sorts of things, the same should go for AI.
    126AnonymousAug 31, 2026 14:55
    American AI didn't seem to have any moral sense, but Chinese AI (DeepSeek) actually gave opinions from a moral standpoint. On the morality front, Chinese AI beats American AI.
    129AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:12
    Re: #126
    So true. The American-style ones are still too immature to be recognized as conscious.

    Background and Key Points of This Debate

    The original piece ran in The Economist’s “By Invitation” section — a guest essay by outside experts, not a reported investigation into whether AI is actually conscious. As one thread comment put it, “the original article doesn’t even discuss whether AI has consciousness or not — clickbait headline,” and jumping to conclusions from the headline alone can easily lead to misreading the essay’s real argument. Its core point isn’t really “does AI have consciousness” but rather “the social risk that arises when humans start treating non-conscious systems as if they were conscious — for law, markets, and relationships.” On 5ch, the discussion centered mainly on a philosophical back-and-forth over how to define consciousness, while the numbers thrown around about AI’s information-processing speed (comparisons between the speed of light and synaptic transmission speed, and the IQ conversions derived from them) were individual posters’ own rough estimates, not figures from the original essay — worth keeping in mind.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[AI] A Google Researcher’s View on the Question “Does AI Have Consciousness?”.”

  • Shiba Inu Falls Overboard, Found Safe on Island 5km Away After 26 Hours Adrift (Ehime)

    A Shiba Inu that fell overboard from a pleasure boat off the coast of Ehime Prefecture was found alive on an island 5km away after drifting for roughly 26 hours, and has since been reunited with its owner. The rescue is credited to a search effort that spread across nearby islands via social media. On 5channel, many posters expressed amazement and admiration at the dog’s will to survive 26 hours in rough seas, while others offered more level-headed takes questioning the circumstances of the accident itself: “Why didn’t anyone notice right away that it had fallen in?” and “Before turning this into a heartwarming story, shouldn’t we be asking about the owner’s lack of care?”

    Shiba Inu that fell into the sea found safe after drifting roughly 26 hours to an island 5km away! Tearful reunion with owner — social media spread the word [Ehime]

    Mon, 8/31, 13:38 JST

    Ai TV

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    4AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:24
    If the owner had turned into Doraemon and searched the ocean for him, they'd have a movie deal by now. Working title: 'I Want to See My Master' (a nod to the real tearjerker dog movie 'I Want to See Marilyn').
    9AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:26
    Re: #4
    Who knew falling in the sea could turn a dog into a tanuki (raccoon dog)…
    17AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:30
    Wait, the dog fell overboard and the owner just… left it and went home?
    18AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:31
    Re: #17
    Sounds like they just called it in and kept right on enjoying their pleasure boat outing.
    20AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:32
    Makes you wonder why they even had the dog on the pleasure boat in the first place
    and whether it was leashed or not.
    26AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:33
    Re: #20
    If you leash it, the collar tightens around its neck when it goes overboard.
    23AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:32
    This is basically Marilyn at this point.
    93AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:15
    Re: #23
    Marilyn was the female dog who was waiting (from the tearjerker dog movie 'I Want to See Marilyn').
    138AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:54
    Re: #23
    Manson!? (riffing on "Marilyn" → Marilyn Manson)
    30AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:34
    Dogs really are something else.
    26 hours in rough seas.
    If I were the owner I'd have kept searching all through the night.
    35AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:36
    Re: #30
    It was found on the island 26 hours later — that's when it turned up, not how long they searched.
    42AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:38
    Checked the map — a human would be 2000% dead in that situation.
    45AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:41
    A brown bear could probably swim clear across the Tsugaru Strait.
    55AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:50
    Re: #45
    Maybe it'd kick a log along like a kickboard,
    or ride one like Tao Pai Pai from Dragon Ball.
    46AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:43
    Shiba Inus are a nationally designated natural monument, so we've got to treasure them.
    51AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:48
    This story embodies 'Love Saves the Earth' way better than that charity telethon ever did (referencing Japan's famous '24-Hour TV: Love Saves the Earth' broadcast).
    52AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:48
    What was that one where a dog swam off to some other island to hump a female dog kept there, and it somehow got turned into a heartwarming movie?
    117AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:34
    Re: #52
    It's 'I Want to See Marilyn,' right.
    54AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:50
    I'm confident you could never actually drown falling off a boat in the Seto Inland Sea — there are islands everywhere.
    On the way to Yakushima, though, I remember thinking 'if the boat sank right here, I'd be dead.'
    136AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:52
    Re: #54
    The Seto Inland Sea has whirlpools popping up all over the place too, you know.
    63AnonymousAug 31, 2026 15:54
    Why wasn't it rescued the moment it fell in?
    Something's off about that.
    83AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:06
    Re: #63
    If the boat's underway, nobody notices unless someone actually witnesses it happen.
    102AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:23
    Dogs don't really seem like the type to drown.
    Feels like they'd just doggy-paddle and float forever.
    103AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:24
    Re: #102
    Once they're too exhausted to even doggy-paddle anymore, they drown just like anything else.
    116AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:33
    We got a call about it on our boat too —
    told us if we spotted it, scoop it up with a net.
    146AnonymousAug 31, 2026 17:08
    Re: #116
    A whole search network mobilized for one dog — what a kind world, lol.
    119AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:36
    The whole thing feels fishy to me.
    Or maybe my heart's just gotten too jaded.
    123AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:39
    Re: #119
    If they staged it on purpose just to spin a heartwarming story, that's straight-up monstrous…
    134AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:47
    Kind of want someone to actually test whether dogs can just float and drift even after they're completely worn out, you know?
    141AnonymousAug 31, 2026 16:59
    Re: #134
    Pretty sure they just float normally.
    My dog floats fine whenever it's in the sea too.

    Should be okay as long as the waves aren't too rough.
    180AnonymousAug 31, 2026 18:06
    Isn't it kind of strange that dogs can swim at all, given there wasn't really an evolutionary need for it?
    189AnonymousAug 31, 2026 18:31
    Re: #180
    Let's toss one into a waterfall pool and see how far it can swim.
    198AnonymousAug 31, 2026 18:50
    You really don't need to bring dogs or other pets on a boat — it's cramped and they seem like they'd fall off in no time.
    Glad it was found, though.

    Re: #180 Speaking of surprisingly strong swimmers, bears are up there too.
    Huge as they are, some even catch seabirds, and fish are apparently a favorite of theirs…
    204AnonymousAug 31, 2026 18:57
    This was the owner's negligence — I wish they'd stop spinning it into a heartwarming story.
    Depending on the currents and weather, plenty of dogs would've simply run out of strength and drowned. This one just got lucky.
    206AnonymousAug 31, 2026 19:02
    Re: #204
    It was also lucky there happened to be so many islands around there, in what's known as the Kutsuna Islands. Incidentally, Dash Island (from the TV variety segment) is only about 10km away from there.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The Shiba Inu is one of Japan’s six native dog breeds, all designated national natural monuments, which is why the thread saw comments like “we’ve got to treasure them.” The waters off Ehime where this happened are dotted with small islands, including the Kutsuna Islands, a geographic stroke of luck that likely made it easier for a drifting dog to wash up on land. Reactions on the thread split roughly into two camps: one expressed amazement and admiration at the Shiba Inu’s will to survive 26 hours adrift in rough seas, while the other offered cooler-headed criticism — “why wasn’t this noticed right away?” and “shouldn’t the owner’s responsibility be questioned before this gets turned into a heartwarming story?” Though not mentioned in the article itself, some posters noted that leashing a dog on board isn’t a simple fix either, since a collar can tighten around the dog’s neck if it falls overboard while tied — a reminder of just how tricky keeping pets safe on a boat really is.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “[Uo･ｪ･oU] Shiba Inu that fell into the sea found safe after drifting roughly 26 hours to an island 5km away! Tearful reunion with owner — social media spread the word, Ehime.”