What an innocent, carefree year it must have been to spawn so bland a word of the year. It has a nice ring to it, especially when spoken with the Hokkaido lilt the women's curling team -- surprise bronze medalists -- gave it during February's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. So what if all it means is, "That's right"? Let 2018, the Year of the Dog, end as it began -- on a positive note. Speaking of dogs and beginnings: Sony's robot dog Aibo was a big hit at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

OSAKA – Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said Tuesday the prefecture relaxed regulations regarding the approval system for opening schools after nationalist private kindergarten operator Moritomo Gakuen requested it, but denied the company influenced the local government's decision. "Compared to other Kansai area prefectures, the hurdles (to run private schools) in Osaka were quite high," Matsui said, adding the reason for the decision was to attract more schools. In April 2012, a few months after Matsui became Osaka's governor, the prefecture relaxed regulations. Nearly six months earlier in September 2011, Moritomo Gakuen head Yasunori Kagoike, who wanted to build an elementary school despite financial difficulties that might have disqualified it from getting prefectural approval, asked the Osaka to ease the rules. Moritomo Gakuen has been under fire recently following revelations of a questionable land deal and for distributing anti-Chinese and anti-Korean literature at its kindergarten.