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Category: Japan 🇯🇵 (Page 1 of 3)
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2023 Global Peace Index
On June 28, the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index from international think-tank, the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) was released, and things are not looking great.
The analysis showed that conflict deaths are at their highest level this century causing world peacefulness to decline.
Some key findings in the report »
On 15 November 2022, the world’s population surpassed 8 billion people.
Earth’s population continues to explode » from 1 billion in 1820 to 2 billion in 1930, to 3 billion in 1960, to 4 billion in 1974, to 5 billion in 1987, to 6 billion in 1999, to 7 billion in 2012, and 8 billion in 2022.
Following are the 50 most populated countries using the latest figures available »
- India » 1,425,000,000 (April 2023)
- China » 1,413,143,000
- United States » 339,665,000
- Indonesia » 279,476,000
- Pakistan » 247,654,000
- Nigeria » 230,843,000
- Brazil » 218,690,000
- Bangladesh » 167,184,000
- Russia » 141,699,000
- Mexico » 129,876,000
- Japan » 123,719,000
- Ethiopia » 116,463,000
- Philippines » 116,434,000
- Democratic Republic of the Congo » 111,860,000
- Egypt » 109,547,000
- Vietnam » 104,799,000
- Iran » 87,591,000
- Germany » 84,220,000
- Turkiye » 83,594,000
- Thailand » 69,795,000
- France » 68,522,000
- United Kingdom » 68,139,000
- Tanzania » 65,643,000
- Italy » 61,022,000
- South Africa » 58,048,000
- Myanmar » 57,970,000
- Kenya » 57,052,000
- South Korea » 51,967,000
- Colombia » 49,337,000
- Sudan » 49,18,000
- Uganda » 47,730,000
- Spain » 47,223,000
- Argentina » 46,622,000
- Algeria » 44,758,000
- Ukraine » 43,306,000
- Iraq » 41,266,000
- Afghanistan » 39,232,000
- Canada » 38,517,000
- Poland » 37,992,000
- Morocco » 37,067,000
- Angola » 35,981,000
- Saudi Arabia » 35,940,000
- Malaysia » 34,220,000
- Ghana » 33,846,000
- Mozambique » 32,514,000
- Peru » 32,440,000
- Yemen » 31,566,000
- Uzbekistan » 31,361,000
- Nepal » 30,899,000
- Venezuela » 30,518,000
Sixty years ago, in 1962, Kenichi Horie was the first person to sail the Pacific Ocean solo and nonstop.
The Japanese adventurer has achieved a number of other long distance solo voyages, including sailing around the world in 1974.
Well-known Japanese yachtsman Kenichi Horie, 83, arrived on June 4 off the Kii Peninsula in western Japan after crossing the Pacific, becoming the oldest person to sail solo and nonstop across the world’s largest body of water.
Horie set sail from San Francisco on March 26 on a voyage lasting 69 days. The trip, which covered about 8,700 km, went relatively smoothly. But he had to battle through bad weather at times, sailing into a storm and high seas immediately after leaving San Francisco. In his online diary, he wrote, “Can’t do anything but wait for it to pass.” In a later entry, he simply wrote: “I’m fed up.”
It was the latest achievement for the octogenarian adventurer, who in 1962 became the first person in the world to successfully complete a solo nonstop voyage across the Pacific from Japan to San Francisco.
Sixty years later, he traveled the opposite route.
Elsewhere » The Guardain / AFP / CNN /
The US News and World Report has again ranked countries according to how well they break from the norm and fulfill people’s wanderlust and desire for adventure.
The top 30 adventure rankings for 2021 are »
- 1. Brazil 🇧🇷
- 2. Italy 🇮🇹
- 3. Spain 🇪🇸
- 4. Greece 🇬🇷
- 5. Thailand 🇹🇭
- 6. Mexico 🇲🇽 (Up from #11 in 2020)
- 7. New Zealand 🇳🇿
- 8. Australia 🇦🇺 (Up from #10 in 2020)
- 9. Portugal 🇵🇹 (Down from #6 in 2020)
- 10. Costa Rica 🇨🇷 (Down from #8 in 2020)
For Switzerland, the 2020 ranking is the the fourth consecutive yearhas been judged No. 1 by residents of 36 countries. Canada was chosen second, overtaking Japan in the U.S. News’ fifth annual survey.
The Best Countries report, produced from an annual global survey of more than 20,000 people in 36 countries including the United States, reflects increasingly negative views of the world and within countries. Nearly half of survey respondents say conditions around the world have worsened in the past year. Likewise, an increased percentage of people say the gap between the rich and poor has grown and that nationalism is increasing.
According to the ranking, here are the Top 25 Countries in the World
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Japan
- Germany
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Norway
- New Zealand
- France
- Denmark
- Finland
- China
- Singapore
- Italy
- Austria
- Spain
- South Korea
- Luxembourg
- United Arab Emirates
- Russia
- Portugal
- India
The Bottom 5 of the U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings are
- Lebanon
- Serbia
- Oman
- Belarus
- Tunisia
Nancy Singleton Hachisu via the BBC »
Located in Tottori, Japan’s least-populated prefecture, Hot Air Ramen (formally named Tanreitori Ramen Hot Air) is the brainchild of Katsumi Yoshida, a mechanic and car salesman turned cook. In 2012, Yoshida, an amateur noodle enthusiast, added a tiny kitchen in an alcove of his small used-car dealership, placed some tables in the waiting room and began offering ramen to customers.
In 2015, he scaled down his auto shop and officially opened Hot Air Ramen to the public, so named for the famous hot springs in the area. And then last year, something rather unexpected happened: Hot Air Ramen was designated as a “Bib Gourmand” eatery (which designates a place that serves “exceptional good food at moderate prices”) in the Michelin Guide Kyoto – Osaka + Tottori 2019 edition.