Latitude of 4 Matsuya Stores Shifts South by 0.000001 Degrees Again, All at Once

It was found that on July 31, the latitude of 4 Matsuya stores spanning the four prefectures of Osaka, Shiga, Miyagi, and Tochigi shifted south together by 0.000001 degrees (equivalent to about 11cm). The stores affected are Matsuya Miyakojima-Tomobuchicho (2214), Matsuya No. 8 Nagahama (2224), Matsuya Sendai Ichibancho (2260), and Matsuya Oyama Kizawa (2313), which is set to open today at 10:00. At all four, only the latitude was updated, by the same amount and in the same direction.

All 4 Stores Align at “About 11cm South, Latitude Only”

This change is common to all four stores, and not a single store’s longitude moved. Only the latitude decreased by 0.000001 degrees, which works out to a shift of roughly 11cm due south on the ground. Separate stores scattered across four prefectures were updated on the same day, by the same increment, in the same direction.

The current figures for each store, and the cumulative southward shift since the drift began, are as follows.

Store	Location	Latitude This Time (Old → New)	Cumulative Southward Shift	Number of Updates
Miyakojima-Tomobuchicho	Miyakojima Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture	34.7123825 → 34.7123815	About 1.8m south (from 34.7123975)	16
No. 8 Nagahama	Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture	35.3870795 → 35.3870785	About 1.8m south (from 35.3870945)	16
Sendai Ichibancho	Aoba Ward, Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture	38.2621301 → 38.2621291	About 1.6m south (from 38.2621431)	14
Oyama Kizawa	Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture	36.344037 → 36.344036	About 56cm south (from 36.344041 on July 9)*	5

*Oyama Kizawa Store alone was added to the store list on July 9, so its cumulative figure covers only the period since then.

The Latitude-Only Southward Drift Continuing Since Late April

Three stores — Miyakojima-Tomobuchicho, No. 8 Nagahama, and Sendai Ichibancho — have accumulated updates since April 25 in which only the latitude decreases in increments of 0.000001 degrees. This is the 16th such update for Miyakojima-Tomobuchicho and No. 8 Nagahama, and the 14th for Sendai Ichibancho. Each individual move is an imperceptible ~11cm, but the cumulative shift from the starting point has reached about 1.8m south for Miyakojima-Tomobuchicho and No. 8 Nagahama, and about 1.6m for Sendai Ichibancho — creeping steadily southward.

As of July 28, Sendai Ichibancho’s cumulative shift stood at about 1.4m, but updates at the same pace have continued since then, reaching about 1.6m this time. None of the three stores’ longitude has changed at all during this period, making it an asymmetric change that moves in only one direction, north-south.

Oyama Kizawa Store Keeps Step Even on Opening Day

Matsuya Oyama Kizawa in Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a new store set to open today, July 31, at 10:00. It has been only about 3 weeks since it was added to the store list on July 9, but 5 of the same 0.000001-degree latitude-only southward updates as the other three stores have already been recorded since immediately after it was added, and its latitude moved by the same amount again on its opening day. It is the second Matsuya store in Oyama City, following the existing Matsuya Oyama store, meaning its location data was quietly drifting south even while it awaited its opening.

The 4 stores that moved together this time — in Osaka, Shiga, Miyagi, and Tochigi — show no particular regional bias, nor does the change involve any store openings or closures. Updates in which only latitude decreases by the same increment are not limited to these 4 stores; they have continued across multiple stores, and similar changes bundling several stores together have kept recurring since entering July.