Another standard act for Japanese Prime Ministers is to share a photo looking down from a helicopter window to demonstrate you have seriously monitored and confirmed the damage from a major earthquake. I'm not sure if previous PMs did prayers like Takaichi.

A blue check monetized "MAGA" account based in India has pivoted to downloading and reuploading Japanese earthquake videos & even copy-pasting the Japanese text from the original Japanese uploader. When I try to search for information, there are many such monetized accounts that just re-upload videos and spam keywords related to the earthquake. I suppose that X's monetization system pays money to accounts that do this?

The tabloid Gendai and critics of Prime Minister Takaichi interpreted the English word "technically" to make it sound like she was just an intern, not a Congressional Fellow. The Japanese government asked one of her former co-workers to re-confirm that she was officially a Fellow, not an intern. He also confirmed that her job involved work in both Washington and Denver. Some people saw an article that mentioned her doing work in Denver, and wrongly assumed that meant Takaichi didn't actually work in Washington. When Kip Cheroutes said Takaichi was “technically a Congressional Fellow,” the natural reading is that she may have been casually called an “intern,” while her more precise status was fellow. In Washington, temporary staff of different kinds, including fellows, are often loosely referred to as interns. Takaichi was not listed in the APSA program, but that only proves she was not an APSA fellow. APSA was one of several organizations that sponsored Congressional Fellows, and outside funding was normal. The Matsushita Institute funding her is therefore entirely consistent with a fellowship. More importantly, Pat Schroeder wrote in 1988 that Takaichi was working in her office “on a fellowship,” her business card said “Congressional Fellow,” and Cheroutes later confirmed the documents were authentic. If the member of Congress whose office she worked in said she was a fellow, and her supervisor later said the same, who are outside commentators to insist otherwise? I have criticized Takaichi on plenty of issues. There is also a separate question about whether the Cabinet public relations official actually contacted Cheroutes in June, and that deserves scrutiny. But turning “technically” into an admission that Takaichi’s fellowship was fake is not a serious reading of the evidence. Even after the release of the latest e-mail, I have seen some Japanese users who are badly misinterpreting the English used by Cheroutes. For example, I've seen a post making a big deal out of how he confirmed that Takaichi was "a Fellow" instead of writing "Congressional Fellow." It is always remarkable to see non-native speakers insist on a strained reading of an ordinary English expression while disregarding how native speakers actually use it.

The Japanese government has posted proof that PM Takaichi worked as a Congressional Fellow in the 1980s. The staffer who referred to her as an "intern" has said "she was technically a Congressional Fellow." Many non-native English speakers are interpreting this in what I would consider a very wrong way. I don't think he was trying to belittle Takaichi or emphasize that she was a "fellow" in title only. In this context, Mr. Cheroutes was clearly correcting remarks he'd made to the media. He said she was an "intern," but was asked to clarify, and noted that she was a Congressional Fellow (her technical/official title). In DC (where I was born), it is common to use the word "intern" to refer to a variety of non-permanent positions, including fellowships. In Japanese, the word intern tends to be attached to less important jobs. Mr. Cheroutes probably had no idea that Japanese people would read his original remarks, attach their own interpretation to the word "intern," and try to label Takaichi as a fraud.

Japanese economic security minister Onoda Kimi was asked to clarify what she meant by the term "trustworthy AI system." A: “The meaning is a trustworthy AI system.” Q: “So you’re saying you can’t answer?” A: “It means a trustworthy AI system.”

Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kunimitsu Ayano shared a video of herself surveying a Ukrainian shopping mall that had been hit by a Russian missile. Japan is one of the world's leading donors of humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Ukraine

Takaichi's PR secretary shared a photo of the one moment Takaichi appeared to briefly talk during the photo op (during what looked liked a conversation between Macron and Carney). He did not share the full video of her awkwardly standing around while other leaders talked more.

Italy Prime Minister Meloni spoke with other leaders about how she quit smoking. Near the end of the clip, she turns to Japanese PM Takaichi and says, "so you've been smoking one of your last cigarettes with me!"

Prime Minister Takaichi didn't seem to talk much during the G7 Summit photo op. (This doesn't actually reflect tangible diplomatic success or failure, but the Japanese media and internet users were unfriendly to her predecessors in similar situations.)

A foreign (American?) crypto bro illegally entered the Ichikawa Zoo's monkey enclosure, home of the famous baby monkey Punch. He was wearing a costume promoting "Memecoin" cryptocurrency. Videos show the monkeys were frightened by his nuisance behavior.

A 65-year-old American tourist has been arrested for carving the names of his family members into the wooden gate of Tokyo's Meiji Shrine. He says he was doing it as a "prank."