Donna Strickland, the Nobel prize for physics winner at her home in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on 2 October. Photograph: Peter Power/Reuters Donna Strickland, the Nobel prize for physics winner at her home in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on 2 October. Photograph: Peter Power/Reuters

John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran in The Last Jedi. Photograph: Allstar/Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Pictures John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran in The Last Jedi. Photograph: Allstar/Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Pictures

Sugita wrote that same-sex couples did not “produce children. In other words, they lack productivity and, therefore, do not contribute to the prosperity of the nation.” The monthly magazine was plunged deeper into crisis after it ran a series of pieces in its latest edition under the headline: “Is Sugita’s article that outrageous”? Its publisher, Shinchosha, apologised for the articles. “We can’t

Japan’s commitment to addressing its dismal record on work-life balance has been called into question after a civil servant was punished for “habitually” slipping away from his desk a few minutes early to buy a bento lunch. The 64-year-old, an employee of the waterworks bureau in the western city of Kobe, was fined and reprimanded after he was found to have left his desk just three minutes before