2026年10月12日（月）辛坊治郎ズームそこまで言うか！

Shinbo Stranded by Shinkansen Signal Failure — Saved by His Smartphone

After the previous Wednesday's broadcast and a piano lesson, Shinbo headed to Tokyo Station around 7 p.m. to catch the Shinkansen back to Osaka, only to find the entire line stopped due to a signal failure near Shinagawa. He briefly considered rerouting via Haneda Airport to Kansai International, but concluded that catching the last flight and then navigating the train connections home would be a serious ordeal. When his smartphone's navigation app suggested taking local trains all the way, he couldn't help but talk back at his own phone.

He made his way to the Shinkansen platforms anyway, and the departure board showed service had resumed. Checking his reservation app, he discovered that a train originally scheduled to depart 20 minutes earlier was still available to book, now listed with an expected departure 10–15 minutes out. He reserved a seat and jumped on board, making it home without further incident. "The smartphone reservation system is really well designed," he said, while noting that delays to fixed-schedule express and Shinkansen services are genuinely disruptive.

Giants' Back-to-Back Losses Keep the Show on Air for Sports Day

In the Climax Series first stage, the second- and third-place teams play a best-of-three series; the first to win two games advances to the second stage. Yokohama DeNA BayStars (横浜DeNA) took Game 1 from the Yomiuri Giants (読売巨人軍) 2–1, then won Game 2 by roughly 4–1, sweeping the Giants and ending the series without a deciding game.

Game 3 had been scheduled as a daytime game on October 12 — Sports Day — which would have forced this live broadcast off the air. With the Giants eliminated in two games, staff and Shinbo himself were all able to gather in Tokyo for the holiday broadcast. "There has never been a night in my life when I cheered for the Giants as hard as I did last night," he said with a wry smile.

Listeners Write In: Expensive Vegetables and a Giant Yacht in Kobe

Listeners reported that leafy vegetable prices are still climbing. A listener in Chiba noted that a sign had appeared at the cabbage section of a local supermarket reading: "The blade in the box for discarding outer leaves is not for food use. Please do not take the outer leaves home due to hygiene concerns." Shinbo quipped, "So they're selling us something with hygiene problems?" before adding that outer cabbage leaves are delicious lightly steamed and served with ponzu, and that he personally enjoys blanched outer lettuce leaves.

Another listener reported that a large Maersk superyacht had called at Kobe and was far bigger than a ferry — to which Shinbo added that even in Europe a vessel of that scale is rarely seen.

Zoom Flash: Weekend Headlines at a Glance

**Sheet-music copyright ruling:** The Supreme Court ordered the operator who had freely published transcribed band scores online — hand-copied from recordings — to pay approximately ¥169 million in damages to the company that sells professionally produced scores.

**Newspaper readership:** A survey by the Press Research Foundation (公益財団法人新聞通信調査会) put newspaper readership at 49.8%, falling below 50% for the first time.

**President Trump:** Asked about plans by the Pentagon to livestream the execution of a death-row inmate, Trump said "ultimately I'll decide."

**North Korea missile:** Several ballistic missiles of different types were launched from the Pyongyang area toward the Sea of Japan. South Korea's military suggested the launches were a counter-reaction to South Korea's first successful test of a domestically developed hypersonic missile.

**Saudi Arabia:** An attack by the Houthi militia struck an airport in the capital Riyadh, killing one person and injuring eleven.

**Nepal:** A landslide in Gorkha district left five people missing.

Plummeting Sports-Club Membership, Physical Decline — and AI's Challenge to Music Copyright

Marking Sports Day, the program examined data on declining physical fitness alongside a sharp fall in sports-club membership. Among men aged 65–69, membership has dropped from roughly 40% to under 30%. The steepest decline has been among women aged 35–39: from over 30% in 2001 to barely over 10% today.

Shinbo confessed his own failure: he once joined a sports club as an annual member reasoning that unlimited pool, sauna, and shower access was a bargain — and went exactly once. He sees two forces behind the membership drop: the boom simply ran its course, and people no longer have the breathing room in their lives. At the same time he stressed that "muscle strength doesn't lie," describing how the aches and pains he had accumulated eased after he started commuting on foot to and from Yurakucho.

On the sheet-music ruling, Shinbo pointed out that AI can now transcribe music from audio almost instantaneously. He noted that even if a composition is under copyright, the resulting transcription may or may not be protected independently — and argued that the entire framework around this question is bound to change significantly in the years ahead.