JAPAN WOMAN CAUGHT LIVING IN CLOSET

A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.
Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.
The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.
One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.
"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."
The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.
She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

JAPAN'S CHILDREN POPULATION JUST WENT LOW DOWN

Japan, which celebrates every May 5 as Children’s Day, has fewer children to celebrate than any time in the last century.A government report released on Sunday said there were 17.25 million children aged 14 or younger as of April — a record low for the 27th consecutive year.
The last time Japan had fewer children was in 1908, and children’s share of the general population — 13.5 percent — is the lowest ever recorded. Japan now has the lowest percentage of children among 31 major countries, the report said.
With a declining birth rate and high life expectancies, Japan faces an unprecedented demographic shift that is expected to strain government services and lead to labour shortages.
In 12 years, the percentage of children is projected to drop to 10.8 per cent, while the proportion of those 65 and older is likely to rise to 29.2 per cent, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The government forecasts that by 2040, children will be 9.3 per cent of the population and the over-65 portion will grow to 36.5 per cent.