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jp0000776
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/04/01
|
Gangsters in Japan aren't quite as intimidating as they used to be
|
The National Police Agency announced last month that the number of crime syndicate members fell below 20,000 in 2016. The figure dropped by about 2,000 from a year earlier to 18,100, the lowest since comparable data became available in 1958, the National Police Agency said. The number of associate members declined as well. Reports in the media say gangs are struggling to secure financing amid police crackdowns and a growing civil movement to eliminate them, but I’m not convinced that’s the only reason. Retired police officers and gangsters say that people these days simply don’t fear gangsters the way they used to. It wasn’t so long ago when police would hesitate to interfere in the activities of criminal organizations — and for good reason. In 1992, Juzo Itami released a film titled “The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion,” portraying gangsters as greedy, violent and deceptive parasites on society. The film’s underlying message was gangsters shouldn’t be feared and that they can be defeated if confronted. Six days after the release of the film, five members of the Goto-gumi attacked Itami at his home, slashing his face. “Naturally I didn’t order the attack but I was pleased my men did it,” wrote Goto-gumi chief Tadamasa Goto in his autobiography, “While Hesitating” (“Habakarinagara”). “(Itami) made fun of us. It was unpleasant.” For decades, crime syndicates would use this type of intimidation to get what they wanted. Things have certainly changed in recent times. According to a survey published by the National Police Agency in December 2016, 89 companies said that a crime syndicate had attempted to extort money from them between July 2011 and July last year. The crime syndicates made vague threats in about 50 percent of the cases, but also threatened to interfere with business operations or harm employees and/or relatives of the company’s owners. Seventy-two of the companies surveyed said they refused to pay the syndicates. In 41 out of 72 cases, the syndicates did absolutely nothing. In 24 cases, they became more aggressive in delivering their verbal threats. In 13 cases, gangsters showed up at the company’s office or made prank calls. In four cases, the syndicates tried to blackmail companies by exposing trade secrets to the media. In three cases, sound trucks were sent to raise a ruckus in front of a company’s building. Actual damages were inflicted in just one case. A detective in Saitama who was previously assigned to an organized crime division says gang bosses fear civil lawsuits being filed as a consequence of their underlings’ actions. “Gangsters are getting older and the guys at the top don’t want to go to jail,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They’ve already been there and done that. Although a boss may avoid criminal charges (owing to a lack of evidence), they could still be liable as an employer in a civil suit. The last thing the boss of a crime syndicate wants is for his thugs to do something that won’t earn him anything but will put him at risk of losing money. So they do nothing. And when people realize that crime syndicates are nothing but hot air, they stop being afraid.” A retired crime boss agreed. “We used to strike fear in people,” he said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “In recent years, however, we aren’t even allowed to carry business cards or wear yakuza badges anymore. Whispering our organization’s name isn’t scary, it’s silly and so we simply leave. The badges are now being sold online — they’re collector’s items, video game props. People should fear crime syndicates but I fear that our time is up.” As the National Police Agency noted in its report in March, crime syndicates are moving away from traditional extortion to such activities as fraud. Let’s hope this trend continues and gangsters don’t demonstrate an eagerness to return to their historically violent roots. Crime syndicates have never been above making a judicious example of anyone who opposes them and it’s threats such as this that still keeps them in business.
|
yakuza;organized crime;goto-gumi;juzo itami
|
jp0000777
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/04/24
|
Prewar bayonetting martial art makes return to schools
|
A little-known Japanese martial art called jukendo came under the spotlight recently after it was stipulated in the revised junior high school curriculum guidelines for the first time as one of nine martial arts schools can choose to teach students. Due to its historical background as combat techniques developed and used by the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II, the decision has sparked criticism among many, with some branding the move as anachronistic. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet denied such accusations in a statement on April 14, saying it was not the revival of militarism or a move to return to prewar values. Jukendo was stipulated because “it was considered to further improve the flexibility of budo’s contents,” the statement said. What is jukendo? Jukendo, which literally means “a way of the bayonet,” is a Japanese martial art similar to kendo. Donning robes and armor for protection, practitioners jab each other’s throats or bodies using wooden mock rifles, according to the All Japan Jukendo Federation. It is officially listed as one of nine Japanese martial arts by the Japanese Budo Association. It is mainly practiced by Self-Defense Forces personnel. Why is it controversial? Many associate the martial art with the Imperial Japanese Army. According to the jukendo federation, its history can be traced back to the Meiji Era (1868-1912) when the Imperial army developed a combat style using rifle-fixed bayonets by incorporating traditional spear fighting and French bayonet techniques. “Back then, it was the techniques for fighting,” said jukendo federation vice president Takeshi Suzuki. But following Japan’s surrender in 1945, it was banned along with other martial arts by the Allied Occupation Forces. After the ban was lifted in the 1950s, it was developed as a modern sport with completely different purposes, including honing etiquette and training minds and bodies, Suzuki said. How popular is jukendo in Japan? Around 30,000 people are currently registered as members of the sport, out of which roughly 90 percent are SDF personnel, according to the federation. The number of participants is much smaller than major martial arts such as judo, which has around 160,000 practitioners, and kendo, which is practiced by about 1.8 million people in Japan. The federation said it had around 50,000 members a decade ago, but the number has since dwindled due to the nation’s shrinking population and people’s declining interest in martial arts in general. Apart from the 30,000 members, the federation also has 1,000 junior members who are junior high school students or younger. Suzuki said it has five non-Japanese members, from France, Australia, New Zealand and Poland. Would jukendo be a compulsory subject at junior high schools under the new curriculum guidelines? No. Since 2012, budo has been a mandatory subject for first- and second-year junior high school students. But it is up to each school to decide which martial arts to teach. Although the current curriculum guidelines recommend sumo, kendo and judo, junior high schools have the freedom to teach other Japanese martial arts that are not listed, including jukendo, according the education ministry. In reality, however, only one junior high school in Japan, in Kanagawa Prefecture, teaches jukendo, the ministry said. As some teachers hesitate to teach subjects that are not clearly spelled out in the guidelines, the jukendo federation believes it will become easier to promote the martial art to junior high school teachers once the new guidelines take effect in fiscal 2021. Why did the government include jukendo in the new guidelines? Jukendo was initially not listed in the draft version of the guidelines released by the education ministry in February, even though all other martial arts recognized by the Japanese Budo Association were stipulated. An official at the sports agency, an external bureau of the ministry, said it was excluded because it was hardly taught in junior high schools. But the ministry’s draft guidelines sparked anger from jukendo enthusiasts, including Masahisa Sato, an Upper House lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Sato, a former GSDF commander, urged the ministry to stipulate jukendo in the guidelines during an Upper House foreign affairs and defense committee session in March. He also called on fellow LDP members, former SDF personnel and his supporters to send public comments to the education ministry, according to his blog. The sports agency official said the ministry decided to include jukendo in the guidelines after receiving “several hundred” public comments urging its inclusion. While the ministry’s move was welcomed by Sato and other jukendo supporters, some slammed the decision, including Niigata Gov. Ryuichi Yoneyama. Following the release of the new curriculum guidelines on March 31, Yoneyama tweeted that he was terrified. Jukendo is different from kendo, judo and sumo, which are established as sports and practiced by many people, he said. “(The decision) is nothing but anachronistic,” he tweeted. Will it be dangerous for children to practice the jabbing techniques? Students will not be taught techniques to target opponents’ throats, according to the federation, which helped draw up teaching guidelines for jukendo. First- and second-year students will only be practicing noncontact kata — the basic movements of jukendo, Suzuki said. The students may take part in a match in the final year — but only if they fully master the basics and wear formal protective gear, he added.
|
martial arts;mext;jukendo
|
jp0000778
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/04/23
|
China's first unmanned space cargo ship docks with Chinese space station
|
BEIJING - China’s first unmanned space cargo ship Tianzhou 1, which was launched Thursday, successfully docked with the country’s orbiting Tiangong 2 space station on Saturday, China national central television reported. The cargo spacecraft was built to carry fuel, materials and other supplies for the construction of the Chinese space station due for completion around 2020. The cargo ship is said to be the equivalent of the Dragon spacecraft of the private U.S. company Space X and the Japanese replenishment ship Konotori. The Chinese are working to perfect material transportation technology to enable long-term stays on the space station.
|
china;space;astronomy
|
jp0000779
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/04/23
|
Kansai leaders grope for ways to keep regional population stable amid projected slide
|
OSAKA - A projection showing that Japan’s population could fall from 127.09 million in 2015 to 88.08 million by 2065 has pushed Kansai leaders harder for more policies and funding to increase the local birthrate, keep younger people from leaving and protect the growing ranks of the elderly. The announcement this month by the government-affiliated National Institute of Population and Social Security Research came just after the start of the 2017 fiscal year, and amid growing worries about projections that many areas of the country will become inhabited only by seniors and depopulate — an issue that, over the past few years, has become the top concern of local politicians seeking to shore up their tax bases. The institute’s latest projections are only for Japan as a whole, not individual prefectures. But they come at a time when municipalities and prefectures nationwide had already spent several years nervously planning long-term policies based on earlier depopulation projections for specific locales. According to the institute’s estimates in 2013, the eight major prefectures (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, Tottori and Tokushima) that make up the Union of Kansai Governments are expected to lose about a quarter of their collective population between 2010 and 2050. But by 2050, those aged 15 to 64 are expected to account for only half of Kansai’s population, while those over 65 will account for nearly 40 percent. By contrast, less than 10 percent of Kansai’s population is expected to be under 14 at midcentury. What has many Kansai leaders worried is that the projections also show young people, especially college graduates, are continuing to leave prefectures other than Osaka to move to Osaka or Tokyo for employment and other opportunities. The coming Kansai demographic crunch will hit some prefectures harder than others. By 2050, Wakayama and Tokushima prefectures are expected to be hit particularly hard, while Shiga will only see a relatively minor decrease. The large portion of people who currently live in Shiga but commute to the nearby city of Kyoto, and Osaka prefectural residents who work in Osaka, mean that both prefectures will see a large increase in elderly neighborhoods in the suburbs. Wakayama and Tokushima prefectures, however, will see a large decrease in the number of elderly who live in towns and villages. “From about 2010 to 2015, Shiga actually saw an increase in its population. Shiga’s geographic location means that the Kansai and Chubu regions are close, so lots of people who live here commute west to Kyoto or Osaka, or east to Gifu and Aichi prefectures for school and work,” Shiga Gov. Taizo Mikazuki told reporters earlier this year in explaining the reason for the increase. But the population has started to decrease and Mikazuki said the prefecture plans to take a number of measures this fiscal year to encourage young people in particular to remain and to stabilize the population. Much of the emphasis will be on helping people find affordable housing. Certain groups of people working in industries like transportation will be targeted for different forms of prefectural assistance as well, as the shinkansen line runs through the prefecture and many Japan Railway Group employees live there. In neighboring Kyoto, Gov. Keiji Yamada, who is also head of the National Governors Association, says the challenge that local politicians in Kansai and nationwide face is how to come up with effective economic policies that benefit young people. He said that while many have established any number of plans to stop depopulation, the latest statistics show that the flight from rural areas to Tokyo, in particular, continues. “The 2015 national census showed that while Japan’s total population had declined by 960,000 people since 2010, Tokyo actually gained 350,000 over that five-year period. The central government needs to better recognize the seriousness of overconcentration of people in Tokyo and its effect on the rest of the country,” Yamada told local media in February.
|
osaka;population;kyoto;shiga;kansai;depopulation
|
jp0000780
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/04/23
|
In collaboration with Starbucks, Kobe brews a renewable energy source
|
OSAKA - Coffee drinkers in Kobe who are wondering what they can do to help the environment and support local renewable energy projects might consider heading to a Starbucks. Last December, as part of a local effort to increase alternative energy sources, the city teamed up with Starbucks and researchers at Kindai University to carry out tests on producing biomass fuel generated from, among other things, used coffee grounds. The plan is to produce a solid fuel called “biocoke” that uses pruned trees, paper cups and used coffee grounds. “This is a good example of how local governments, industry and the academic community can cooperate to create a sustainable society at the local level,” the city said in announcing the project. The project, which received central government funding, went through a trial period in January and February and results are now being analyzed. It’s still in the experimental stage, and the city says it will be a while before people are actually plugging in to draw electricity from biocoke. The tie-up between business, government and academia is designed more to reuse resources like raw waste to spur innovation and the creation of local renewable biomass businesses than to immediately supply electric power. Kobe is a small, but telling, example of growing municpal efforts nationwide to be more innovative and proactive in promoting renewable energy projects to encourage young entrepreneurs to stay and invest in new energy-related businesses rather than relocate to Tokyo. Such efforts are especially important in the Kansai region, where the fossil fuel and nuclear power lobbies are particularly strong. Kansai Electric Power Co. continues to push for the restart of as many of its 11 reactors as possible despite public concerns about safety and questions about whether the older reactors will continue to be economically competitive in the next 10 or 20 years. Last month, an institute run by Chiba University professor Hidefumi Kurasaka and the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies released a nationwide ranking of renewable energy supplies in towns and prefectures. The ranking showed that few municipalities in the Kansai region had high levels of self-sufficiency, or the ability to generate more electricity than required. Of the top 100 ranked municipalities, only six villages, in Kyoto, Wakayama and Nara prefectures, had the ability to supply at least three-quarters of their needs with renewable sources. Only eight villages, in Wakayama, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures, had enough renewable sources to supply more than 90 percent of their electricity needs. In 2015, the central government set a goal to have renewable sources account for between 22 and 24 percent of the nation’s energy mix by 2030. Renewable energy, including hydropower, accounted for an average of just over 15 percent of Japan’s electricity production over the first three quarters of 2016.
|
energy;coffee;renewable energy;biocoke
|
jp0000781
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/04/15
|
The real Moritomo Gakuen story is clear as mud
|
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain Two months have elapsed since the scandal involving Osaka-based private school operator Moritomo Gakuen went from a local land deal gone bad to a national political scandal. Yet we remain in the dark as to who is lying and who is telling the truth. The result is that what really happened with the nationalist school and whether Akie Abe, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, really gave Moritomo Gakuen’s Yoshinori Kagoike a ¥1 million donation in her husband’s name, is as clear as mud. Despite Kagoike’s electrifying Diet testimony last month and the continued insistence of both he and his family that Akie Abe did hand him an envelope full of cash during a school visit on Sept. 5, 2015, she and the prime minister continue to strenuously deny it. Without solid evidence on either side, we remain in a “he said, she said” situation. As time passes, however, the story is becoming overtaken by events — OBE’d, as we in the newspaper trade say. From debate over the so-called conspiracy bill designed, so the government insists, to combat terrorism, to somewhat overheated but very real concerns about a clash with North Korea, there have been other, more important things to think about if you were a reporter, editor or television producer — especially if you were reporting from Tokyo. The Osaka media took the lead on the Moritomo story back in February and have never really let go. Tokyo’s media, out of the loop and no doubt irritated at getting scooped by the Osaka competition, adopted an initial tone of “Oh, it’s just a local story.” Even as evidence came to light — in the form of phone calls and emails between Akie Abe and Kagoike’s wife, Junko — that Akie Abe did, indeed, have a closer connection to Moritomo than she or her husband had initially let on. The Prime Minister’s Office realized, too late, that the public nationwide, and not just in Osaka, was concerned, and that this was a story they needed to take seriously because the opposition parties were not letting it go. Even members of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party grumbled to TV cameras or complained to weekly magazines about how badly Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga were handling the media fallout. At the same time, as the scandal drags on, Tokyo pundits from media firms that are generally sympathetic to Abe have increased their presence, appearing on news programs and serving as de facto spin doctors for the administration. A cynic might wonder if some of them aren’t getting cash under the table from the LDP for their enthusiastic defense of the honor and virtue of the prime minister and his wife, and their sneering dismissal of Kagoike’s claims. On the other hand, there may be no need to pay them off, as they appear to truly believe “Honest Abe” would never tell a lie. In Osaka, it’s a different story. Popular local TV news and variety shows that are not broadcast in Tokyo have adopted a more skeptical — which is to say more journalistic — view. Commentators in Osaka repeatedly note that Akie Abe has yet to be publicly questioned about her relationship with Moritomo, while Kagoike and his family have agreed to face the microphones and cameras on multiple occasions. What does Kagoike have to gain by lying? Not just to the media but in sworn testimony (which carries possible prison time if found to be untrue) to the Diet? Perhaps Akie Abe — if she ever submits to questioning by the media or by the Diet — will provide the answer.
|
shinzo abe;osaka;akie abe;moritomo gakuen
|
jp0000782
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/04/15
|
Creating a real ghost in the shell
|
Yasuo Kuniyoshi is a man with an extraordinary plan. Kuniyoshi, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, has been attempting to produce an utterly convincing artificial being for the past 30 years. “A robot,” he says, “that has developed the real ability to understand correctly what people are saying, and is able to converse and interact with them naturally, just as humans do with each other, based on its own experiences and bodily sensations.” I’ve been thinking about Kuniyoshi’s work since seeing the recent Hollywood remake of “Ghost in the Shell.” The original anime from 1995 was hugely influential and, together with “Akira” and “Spirited Away,” is one of the most well-known Japanese animes in the West. Set in 2029, “Ghost in the Shell” depicts a world where cyborg enhancement and artificial intelligence are commonplace. It is a world where the lines between the organic and the electronic are growing ever more blurred. It’s a future we could very well be moving toward. Last month, Elon Musk founded a new company called Neuralink, which is aimed at developing what it calls “neural lace” technology that will allow people to communicate directly with electronic machines. The lace is envisioned as a mesh of electrodes that implant into the brain. It would mean that data could be uploaded to the organic brain from computers and thoughts could be downloaded onto electronic hardware. Musk, a billionaire who co-founded PayPal, already runs Tesla and SpaceX, but is known for his enthusiasm for big science projects. Perhaps his launch of Neuralink could spur cyborg enhancement technology to another level. We see a Hollywood vision of this in the new “Ghost in the Shell” movie. The main character — The Major, played by Scarlett Johansson — is the most extreme kind of cyborg one can be: Her entire body has been replaced by a cyborg shell and only her brain remains of her organic former self. This is the “ghost” in the shell — her consciousness, an awareness people have that differentiates them from machines. Many people assume that consciousness is a real thing and not an illusion: the mystery of whether a machine or an artificial creation can ever have consciousness has been explored in much of our storytelling, from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” to HBO’s science fiction thriller Westworld. There are currently a number of different “species” of artificial intelligence. Some specialize in playing chess, others in driving cars and controlling the purchase of shares on stock markets. Siri, the AI we speak to on our iPhones, is very good at recognizing our voices and interpreting our questions. However, it can’t drive a car or play chess. At present, AI cannot adapt to different tasks. Since adaptation in this sense is one of the defining characteristics of human intelligence, Kuniyoshi wants to build AIs that are more adaptable or, in other words, can think in the same way as humans. “It is necessary to understand the nature of human intelligence and the basic principles that generate human behavior,” he says. Kuniyoshi believes that you need a body to become truly intelligent. This is the concept of embodied intelligence, the idea that a person’s thoughts are influenced by — and maybe even determined by — our relationship with the physical world. As he and his team put it when describing a bipedal robot they had built, “Human behavior arises more as a result of the constraints and interactions governed by a person’s physical traits and their environment than being something that is regulated by the central nervous system.” It’s an extraordinary idea. It might mean that a disembodied brain — say, a brain kept alive in a tank — may not be conscious. The idea led to a re-examination of metaphors we use all the time: “I am on top of the situation,” “he/she is under my control” and “I’m feeling up today.” When people think about the future, they lean slightly forward. If embodied intelligence is correct, then human head transplants — such as that planned by maverick Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero — might work (in the sense that consciousness would be maintained). But would a head kept alive without a body have a sense of self? (It reminds me of stories of executions, in which the head of a man who had been guillotined blinks, and the mouth opens and shuts.) In “Ghost in the Shell,” The Major maintains her consciousness even when her brain is implanted into a cyborg body. (Happily for the brain, the body is in the shape of Scarlett Johansson.) After building a humanoid robot that was able to stand and jump, Kuniyoshi then started studying how humans develop intelligence from in the womb. First, he created a virtual fetus and had it gestate in a computer simulation. The virtual fetus spontaneously showed movements similar to those in a real baby. He then made a computer model of a fetus in the 32nd week of gestation to study how the brain receives information. This extraordinary work is building a picture of how human awareness (if not, precisely, consciousness) might start to build up on the basis of feedback from the fetus’ own body. He has also made a “toddler bot” called Noby, again to understand how we learn. I’m taking consolation from Kuniyoshi’s work. Unfortunately, I felt the remake of “Ghost in the Shell” didn’t deliver the same deep, mind-boggling material that the Japanese original did. The story and the characters were flat, and for a movie about the human soul it had surprisingly little of its own. The original anime had a spooky abstract quality that this didn’t manage — the Hollywood remake was a shell without a ghost. The good news is that Kuniyoshi is pursuing work in the real world with more than enough thought-provoking intellectual depth to fill the gap.
|
robotics;artificial intelligence;ai;ghost in the shell;westworld
|
jp0000783
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/04/15
|
Television has forgotten its golden years
|
Japanese commercial television companies have a problem. The bulk of their programming has always been aimed at relatively young people, because that’s what advertisers want. But young people no longer watch TV, or, at least, not in the numbers they used to. Having grown up in a world ruled by the internet, they may crave the kind of content television offers but have no desire to sit down in front of a TV set at a prescribed time. The people who do watch TV that way are those who have always watched TV. It’s just that they’ve matured while TV programming hasn’t. So Kuramoto , a well-known TV scriptwriter whose heyday was during that time when television was the vanguard medium, understands this problem and thinks it’s unforgivable that TV doesn’t produce entertainment that appeals to older viewers, who, as a matter of fact, have the disposable income advertisers drool over. As he told Asahi Shimbun in an April 5 interview, boomers now find current drama series “boring,” even though they still enjoy TV. That’s why he’s writing a daily drama series that’s for and about seniors. “ Yasuragi no Sato ” (“A Comfortable Home”), which started April 3, is broadcast Monday through Friday at 12:30 p.m. The 82-year-old Kuramoto is churning out 130 20-minute episodes, enough to last until September, and TV Asahi is airing them as a kind of experiment. The time slot is significant. Afternoon programs are traditionally designed for homemakers, but there may be fewer of those these days than there used to be. Fuji TV and TBS were once famous for their afternoon soap operas, but in recent years they’ve been replaced by information and tabloid news shows. Kuramoto told Asahi that he is making a drama expressly for daytime, when retired people are free. TV Asahi obliged by scheduling it right after its long-running program, “Tetsuko no Heya” (“ Tetsuko’s Room “), a talk show hosted by media maven Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, who at 83 is already a magnet for the silver set. And each day Asahi rebroadcasts the previous day’s episode on its BS satellite channel at 7:40 a.m., for early risers. In the Asahi interview, Kuramoto complains of the treatment that his generation of professionals has received at the hands of TV. His bitter reaction was provoked by the 2009 death of actor Reiko Ohara , who was one of the most popular TV and movie stars of the 1970s through to the ’90s. Ohara had all but disappeared by the late ’90s and became a recluse. She died alone, her body undiscovered for several days. To Kuramoto, the indignity of her passing symbolizes what he feels is the heartlessness of the industry. “Yasuragi no Sato” takes place in a retirement community for showbiz professionals. The average age of the dozen actors who portray the residents is 78. The protagonist, a scriptwriter like Kuramoto, played by 75-year-old Koji Ishizaka, loses his will to write after his wife dies. A mysterious organization invites him to move into its facility — a luxurious Izu Peninsula establishment that overlooks the sea and caters to former TV people free of charge. More to the point, only freelancers are welcome. Former employees of TV networks are not, ostensibly because they already receive generous severance packages and pensions. In the third episode, after the scriptwriter, Kikumura, moves in, he receives an elaborate episode-length orientation, during which he learns that the community, called Yasuragi no Sato, was built by the former president of a powerful talent agency who resented the way the industry treated his charges. This is Kuramoto’s backhanded swipe at the media, which he told Asahi “made Reiko Ohara disposable.” His sympathy extends to everyone who has ever been exploited by TV, including, presumably, himself. At one point, Kikumura asks the concierge if any of the residents still work. She tells him that in the past TV producers would contact residents with offers but the actors were often disappointed with the jobs, so now all such requests are screened by Yasuragi’s management, which essentially makes the place a talent agency for old folks. If that were the main premise of the series, it might be fun, but Kuramoto’s purposes are different. Like the characters they play, the actors in the series were big stars in the past, and as each one makes his or her entrance — invariably in slow motion and soft focus — a montage of bromides from the actor’s heyday flashes across the screen. It’s not just that these people are basically playing themselves, but rather that, like their characters, they’ve been discarded by the corporate entities they made rich. The implied thrust of the plot is that Kikumura will come out of self-imposed retirement to write scripts for all these ignored artists who long to work again, which is what Kuramoto is doing with this script. What makes the premise disingenuous, however, is that few of these stars have actually been discarded. As actors they may no longer get leading roles, and the roles they do get rely on old-people stereotypes, but that has more to do with the general lack of imagination in Japanese TV. While quality is certainly a function of industry prerogatives, it affects everything — not just the employment prospects of old pros. “Yasuragi no Sato,” in fact, is typical. The PR value of having all these old stars in the same place obviates the need to make a series that might appeal to anyone besides viewers looking for a nostalgia fix, though in the Asahi interview Kuramoto says he hopes young people will also tune in. Regardless of how good or bad “Yasuragi no Sato” turns out, it is creatively circumscribed by the industry conventions Kuramoto despises but which also made him a celebrity writer with the power to do whatever he wants. An executive of rival network TBS told Asahi he is looking forward to the show, presumably because Kuramoto’s name is attached, but he betrayed no belief in the possibility that it would change his mind about anything. “We still focus on prime time,” he said. “That’s where you attract the most viewers.”
|
television;tetsuko kuroyanagi;koji ishizaka;so kuramoto;yasuragi no sato;tetsuko no heya;reiko ohara
|
jp0000784
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/04/15
|
The Japanese ego: the difference of self
|
“Go, my son! Fight, make your way in the world.” But — the proviso is implicit — tell no one who or what you are. Ushimatsu Segawa, the protagonist of Toson Shimazaki’s 1906 novel “Hakai” (“The Broken Commandment”), harbors a deep, dark secret: who and what he is. His true self is very different from his apparent self. His person and his persona are separate and incompatible. The Ushimatsu his friends know is a personable, intelligent young man, an able and popular rural primary school teacher. The Ushimatsu his friends don’t know is an eta — a member of a traditional underclass whose name means, roughly, “filth.” It’s a designation with roots deep in ancient Shinto notions of purity. Buddhism, a more philosophical and compassionate religion, unfortunately had its own notions of purity, and the eta, hereditary slaughterers, tanners and executioners, found themselves twice damned when Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century. Official emancipation from opprobrium came in 1871. But unofficial opprobrium raged on. A born eta had, it seemed, one passport to full humanity — concealment. With his father’s encouragement, Ushimatsu hides his background, enters college, graduates and begins a career. His future looks bright. It isn’t. Two facts threaten his secret. One is the suspicion of jealous colleagues. Sniffing out dirt to bring him down to their level, they find it. The second is the prompting of his own conscience. His secret weighs heavily. His idol is a charismatic crusader for eta rights, an eta who himself came out of the closet after acquiring an education, a man of indomitable courage and dedication. Should not Ushimatsu follow Rentaro Inoko’s example and join his cause? A true man is true to his true self, not a careerist cringing behind a mask. As a first step along a braver road, he makes up his mind to reveal his secret to Rentaro. Opportunities present themselves, but always he steps back from the brink. Weakness, perhaps — but had not his father forced him to swear he would never tell anyone? That is the “broken commandment” of the title. Eventually he does break his oath — not as a fighter flinging a bold challenge at a corrupt world but as a criminal confessing a crime; and not to Rentaro but to his 10- and 11-year-old students. They, it is pleasant to report, stand by him regardless. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was a political, social and economic revolution. It built modern Japan. It was also a psychological revolution — how could it not be? So vast a change in so short a time is a reconfiguring experience. The “I,” ego, self of the Meiji Period (1868-1912) is as different from the “I” of the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868) as Meiji industrial capitalism is from Tokugawa feudalism. Tokugawa morality was Confucian, stressing duty and social cohesion. Meiji morality, without shedding Confucianism, seasoned it, intoxicated it, some said poisoned it, with new, foreign ideas. “Man is born free” was one. The 44 years of Meiji split fairly neatly into two phases. The labels “progressive” and “reactionary” are simplistic but, due allowances made, convenient. The paradoxical dividing line is the opening in 1890 of Japan’s first parliament. It’s paradoxical because this seemingly progressive innovation in fact ushered in the reactionary phase. The progressive ferment that characterized early Meiji was spent. Individualism morphed into jingoism, the quest for self-fulfillment into one for national fulfillment. There were reasons. Western imperialism was spreading. So was Western individualism, percolating vigorously through Japan’s popular rights movement of the 1880s. But what was individual liberty if the nation itself was enslaved? China, India, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam — cautionary tales, all wholly or partly swallowed up by the rapacious West. Would Japan be next? What would guarantee that it wouldn’t be? National strength, national unity. Individual rights could wait. The government’s logic was persuasive. Many popular agitators were won over; the movement petered out — leaving pockets of despair in its wake. Tokoku Kitamura (1868-94) — poet, essayist and popular rights activist — at 17 committed himself to “becoming a great philosopher and destroying the new school of ‘survival of the fittest’ philosophy.” That it itself was fit to survive he must have known, for he also wrote: “I desired … to become a great statesman and recoup the failing fortunes of the Orient. I conceived the ardent desire to sacrifice myself entirely for the benefit of the people. Like another Christ, I would consecrate all my energies to politics.” Christ seems an odd model for a political activist, but Kitamura did adopt Christianity and its view of each individual as precious in God’s sight. The air of post-1890 Meiji Japan was toxic to him. “The greatest misfortune of the Orient,” he wrote, “is that, from its beginnings up to the present, it has not known freedom of spirit.” In 1894, age 26, he “sacrificed himself.” More prosaically, he hanged himself. Among those shocked by his death was his close friend, literary disciple and fellow-Christian Toson Shimazaki. “Freedom of spirit” is Toson’s theme and Ushimatsu’s quest. Does Ushimatsu achieve it? It’s hard to say. His public unmasking of his secret self seems more a defeat than a victory. Expectations that he will go on from there to fight for eta justice are disappointed; he emigrates to America instead. What is Toson trying to tell us? That freedom can be pursued in America but not, alas, in Japan? Inoko, Ushimatsu’s mentor, is murdered by political thugs and Ushimatsu’s emigration, though presented as an escape into a wider, freer life, seems something else: a kind of death like Inoko’s, or of suicide, like Kitamura’s. The Meiji regime served the nation, which flourished, but betrayed the self, which withered.
|
eta;egos;toson shimazaki;tokoku kitamura
|
jp0000785
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/04/13
|
Foreign nationals relive 2016 Kumamoto quakes in new English booklet
|
FUKUOKA - A group of overseas students at Kumamoto University has compiled an English booklet recording the experiences of foreign nationals during last April’s powerful earthquakes. “We wanted to record people’s different experiences, and we think we can learn from other people’s experiences” to prepare for future disasters, said Khine Zar Wynn Myint, a graduate school student from Myanmar studying pharmaceutical science. Armenian graduate student Mariam Piruzyan was among those who recounted their experience on April 14 when the first strong quake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck the region. “I was scared and tried to call my mom in Armenia, but wasn’t able to get through,” she said. Two days later, a more powerful magnitude-7.3 quake hit, killing 50 people and forcing more than 190,000 in Kumamoto and neighboring Oita Prefecture to evacuate amid continuing seismic activity in the area. Following the first quake, which registered an intensity of 7 — the strongest on the Japanese seismic intensity scale — Piruzyan evacuated to the university’s gymnasium. “When I saw my friends, unconsciously tears flowed from my eyes,” she said. The April 16 quake also registered 7 on the Japanese scale. The booklet noted that a survey of foreign nationals had found that many panicked as they were unable to understand much Japanese. They said most of the information provided was in Japanese and they did not know what to do. There were 685 foreign students attending universities in Kumamoto as of May last year, with 288 from China, 59 from South Korea, 27 from Taiwan and 251 from other countries in Asia and the Middle East. Some other students came from areas such as Africa and Europe. Of the students, 496 attended Kumamoto University, 98 went to Sojo University and 39 attended Kumamoto Gakuen University. The 44-page booklet compiled by the volunteer group, called Kumamoto Earthquake Experience Project, or KEEP, has been distributed to around 180 universities and other institutions across Japan. It is available at kumadaiquake.wordpress.com .
|
disasters;foreign students;kumamoto university;2016 kumamoto earthquake
|
jp0000787
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/04/22
|
China's first cargo spacecraft docks with orbiting space lab
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SHANGHAI - China’s first cargo spacecraft docked successfully with the Tiangong-2 space lab on Saturday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, marking a major step toward Beijing’s goal of establishing a permanently manned space station by 2022. President Xi Jinping has prioritized advancing China’s space program to strengthen national security. The Tianzhou-1 cargo resupply spacecraft made the automated docking process with the orbiting space lab after it had taken off on Thursday evening from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in the southern island province of Hainan. The Tiangong-2 space laboratory, or “Heavenly Palace 2,” was home to two astronauts for a month last October in China’s longest-ever manned space mission. The cargo spacecraft mission provides an “important technological basis” to build a Chinese space station, state media have said. It can reportedly carry 6 tons of goods, 2 tons of fuel and can fly unmanned for three months. Despite the advances in China’s space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, China still lags behind the United States and Russia. In late 2013, China’s Jade Rabbit rover landed on the moon to great national fanfare, but ran into severe technical difficulties. The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets in a crisis. China insists it has only peaceful ambitions in space, but has tested anti-satellite missiles.
|
china;space;military;astronomy
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jp0000788
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/04/22
|
Documentary renews debate over renewable energy
|
Earlier this month, Kyodo News surveyed 44 companies that started selling electricity to consumers after the energy market was liberalized in April 2016. More than 60 percent of respondents objected to the government’s plan to make them share in costs associated with compensating victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and the related cleanup. Since industry data shows that only 5.5 percent of Japanese households have opted to leave regional utilities for alternative suppliers, it seems doubtful that the objecting companies will persuade the government to change its mind. These figures illustrate how regional power monopolies have swayed the public, as well as the government’s role in helping them do so. The media has also had a hand in maintaining the status quo. As the government doubles down on its determination to reopen Japan’s nuclear power plants, a move the public is against, voices advocating for renewable energy have been muted. Instead, the media regurgitates the pro-nuclear narrative, which mainly has to do with cost and practicality : Renewables just aren’t ready to take on the country’s energy needs. Hiroyuki Kawai , a lawyer at the center of the anti-nuclear movement, and Tetsunari Iida , a nuclear scientist at the forefront of the renewables campaign, have been working together since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. In standing up to the so-called nuclear village, a monolith of institutions with a stake in the future of nuclear energy and which includes the mainstream media, the two men have not been as successful as they would have liked. With the recent release of their documentary, “ Nihon to Saisei ” (“Japan and Rebirth”), they appear to be changing tactics. The pair’s previous films were mainly about the dangers of nuclear power. The effects of radiation unleashed by the Fukushima meltdown are still a matter of controversy that has overshadowed their main point, which is that renewables are superior to other energy sources, including nuclear, in every respect. The problem is that the Japanese media, in line with the government and industries that benefit from both nuclear and fossil fuel-based power, don’t promote or even cover the benefits of renewables in a balanced way. “Nihon to Saisei” is definitely advocacy filmmaking, but it says almost nothing about the perils of nuclear energy. What it says is that nuclear power is uneconomical and impractical, the two charges usually aimed at renewable energy in Japan. Most of the data presented in the documentary was collected in countries overseas where renewables have taken root and which themselves have had to combat the same beliefs about financial and practical disadvantages. The overarching theme is that Japan, an advanced technological society, is nevertheless lagging behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to energy self-sufficiency, a matter that baffles these countries. As the noted American physicist Amory Lovins tells Kawai at one point, it’s bizarre that Japan isn’t at the forefront of renewable technology considering how blessed it is with renewable energy sources. One German scientist estimates that Japan has nine times the renewable capacity that his country has. Almost all of the interviews are with persons whose engagement with renewables is at the local level. Germany is a leader in this regard. In fact, the country’s race toward renewables was accelerated by the Fukushima disaster. An official of a town just outside of Frankfurt claims that their wind farm brings in the equivalent of ¥5 billion a year in revenue, which covers half the municipality’s budget. Energy self-sufficiency is 262 percent. Kawai and Iida then show how local governments in Japan are working toward their own goals of energy self-sufficiency despite “barriers.” The regional monopolies own the transmission systems and limit how outside organizations can use them. Local leaders say they hope to revitalize their economies by developing renewable energy systems with the help of regional banks, thus creating jobs and reducing the financial burden on residents. However, they get little support from the central government, which has made licensing complicated. It is this local angle that worries power monopolies. When production and transmission are decentralized, reliability increases because risk is dispersed. Millions of households are affected if a power plant fails due to natural disaster or human error. When a single household producing its own energy fails, only that household is affected. The most common media myth about renewables is that they are inconsistent: Solar cells only provide energy when the sun shines; wind turbines only turn when it’s windy. However, Kawai shows how a mix of different sources — not just solar and wind, but geothermal, hydro and biomass — can be easily controlled to provide a constant supply of localized energy that is more efficient than conventional power plants. In Europe, this myth has been perpetuated by the claim that Germany cannot meet its power demand with renewables but has to import electricity from nuclear-powered France. By 2013, however, Germany was selling three times as much electricity to France as France was selling to Germany. By 2015, the trade balance in power was 50 terawatt-hours in Germany’s favor. Kawai and Iida address problems associated with renewables, specifically wind turbine noise and the danger they pose to flying birds, as well as a lack of recycling plans for old solar panels. They say these problems are being solved, but at any rate they can’t compare to problems associated with nuclear and fossil fuels, which go beyond economics and safety. U.S. military officials tell them they promote renewables in order to reduce armed conflicts, which are often caused by thwarted access to resources. “Nihon to Saisei,” which was released earlier this year, has had limited distribution in Japan, owing as much to its wonky presentation style as to its subject matter. However, the film’s message is that renewable energy is inevitable and the only matter up for debate is whether this future will arrive sooner or later.
|
nuclear power;renewable energy;japan and rebirth;hiroyuki kawai;tetsunari iida
|
jp0000792
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/05/20
|
Hokkaido's ancient place in the modern world
|
“Even the birds do not fly to Ezo,” went a popular 19th-century saying about Japan’s northernmost island. “Ezo” means “land of barbarians.” Settlement tamed it into “Hokkaido” — “north sea road.” But it was a rough passage. Pioneers from the mainland — for centuries a trickle, by the late 1800s a steady flow — were of all kinds. Gold prospectors and other adventurers brought their moral values, Christian utopians theirs. The latter cleared forests to found paradise on Earth; the former polluted rivers panning for instant riches, damn the cost to others — Ainu fishing the same rivers for salmon, for instance. Between these moral extremes were traders, drifters and refugees from all sorts of misfortunes — legal, financial, meteorological. If a storm destroyed your land back home or personal calamity your prospects, the Hokkaido wilderness offered — or seemed to — hope in despair. Many came unprepared. The winter cold was beyond anything they’d known, the summer mosquitoes likewise. Disease raged. Many died. Not a few went mad. Hokkaido today, with its tourism, agribusiness and blandly commercial city life, shows little of its tortured past. “Tortured,” perhaps, is not the right word. Certainly it’s not the only word. Another was spoken by a young Ainu woman named Yukie Chiri (1901-22), who, before her death from heart disease at age 21, transcribed into written Japanese some of the oral Ainu tales known as yukar — recitations chanted down the ages, handed down from generation to generation, never committed to writing until Chiri did her work. They are the heart and soul of Ainu culture, one very different from anything mainstream Japan had ever acknowledged as “culture.” Introducing her anthology, Chiri wrote, “In the past this spacious Hokkaido was our ancestors’ world of freedom. Living with ease and pleasure in the manner of innocent babes in the embrace of beautiful, vast nature, they were truly the beloved children of nature. Oh what happy people they must have been!” Ainu life is vast in its unchanging continuity. Thousands, tens of thousands of years flow by, each generation so much like another as to make time itself an almost superfluous concept. Hunting and gathering satisfied the people’s bodily needs, the yukar their spiritual aspirations. Agriculture made few inroads; writing, none. Left undisturbed, Hokkaido might have remained pre-agricultural and pre-literate to this day. So much the better, thought Chiri. Born too late to know directly “the beautiful sparkle of the spirit of the people of the past whose every action was informed by religious feeling,” she reflected bitterly on the fruits of “progress”: “This land has undergone rapid change as development goes on, progressively turning mountains and fields to villages, villages to towns. … In the past surely our happy ancestors never imagined for a moment that this, our homeland, would in the future be reduced to the kind of miserable state at hand.” One people’s happiness is another’s misery, and vice versa. Anthropologist Hiroshi Watanabe (quoted by Sarah Strong in her excellent study, “Ainu Spirits Singing”) captures in a phrase an essential difference: “The Earth’s surface, which is seen by us as a carpet of fauna and flora, is seen by the Ainu as a carpet of spirits.” That changes everything. It spiritualizes everything. It’s what Chiri meant by “every action” being “informed by religious feeling.” Hunting becomes not physical butchery for physical survival but a form of worship, a spirit-to-spirit communion. Consider the bear. Strong explains: “A weighty spiritual being, the bear lives with a human lifestyle in the high mountains and in community with other bear spiritual beings. Out of generosity and a desire for human wine and human inau (ceremonial shaved sticks), the bear spiritual being visits the humans in the form of a bear and allows itself to be killed by them. Once dead, its spirit is treated to a feast and it is sent back to its home in the bear-sending ceremony, bearing gifts of inau, wine and food.” Similarly with other animals. Giving thanks to the sea for the gift of a stranded whale, Ainu elders prayed, “Spiritual Being of the Sea, thank you for giving us this whale. We have received oil and meat, and in return in this way, together with inau and wine as gifts, we humbly send off the spirit of the whale, so please receive the whale.” Was Ainu life as idyllic in reality as in Chiri’s imagination? Did her ancestors really know something about life and its living lost to more restless, insatiable, progressive, “civilized” breeds? Maybe they did, mused some very haughtily civilized people. “What a strange life!” wrote Isabella Bird in “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” (1885). Arriving in Japan in May 1878, she trekked to Hokkaido in August. Japan itself, opened to the West a bare decade earlier, hardly met her British Victorian standards of civilization. What would she make of the Ainu? “They have no history, their traditions are scarcely worthy the name, they claim descent from a dog, their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are sunk in the grossest ignorance … they are uncivilizable and altogether irreclaimable savages. … And yet they are attractive and in some ways fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the music of their low, sweet voices … and the wonderful sweetness of their smiles.” Horace Capron (1804-85), an American engineer lending his expertise to the cause of Hokkaido development, recorded his impressions on his arrival in 1870. Was progress good? He had come on purpose to further it. He was a brusquely practical, down-to-earth man. The Ainu gave him pause, however, if only briefly. Struck by “a real natural grace in all their movements,” he found himself wondering “how far the introduction of the wants, habits and ideas of civilized society, with all its concomitants of evils and vices, may add to their real happiness in this world.” It proved a question with a long life ahead of it. It’s with us to this day.
|
ainu;hokkaido
|
jp0000793
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/05/20
|
For better relations, Tokyo should use Korean residents to open diplomatic channels with new South Korean government
|
OSAKA - Since the beginning of the year, Japan’s official relations with the Korean Peninsula have gone from bad to worse. Not a day goes by without a report about North Korea’s latest provocation. Journalists, politicians, and pundits deliberate — one might say “geek out” — over whether the missile just fired by North Korea is of this or that type, what the military response by the United States might be if a nuclear device is tested, and, of course, what China might do. With South Korea, the past continues to plague the bilateral relationship. At the forefront is Japan’s anger at the establishment of “comfort women” statues by Korean groups to commemorate the Korean women forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during World War II. Only last month did Tokyo return the Japanese ambassador to Seoul after he was withdrawn in January to protest a comfort women statue in Busan. In the midst of such tensions, deft diplomacy is more crucial than ever but not something that seems to be getting a lot of political or media discussion. Yet one option to repair relations with South Korea, and perhaps even make some headway with North Korea, seems obvious if you are in Kansai: Use Japan’s Korean community as an unofficial diplomatic back-door channel of communication. And for that, there is no better place to open that channel than Osaka. Newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-in was labeled “anti-Japanese” by right-wing and conservative Tokyo-based media organizations that promote historical revisionism and are particularly close to the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But Kansai’s Korean residents see an opportunity. As Kwak Jin Woong of the Osaka-based Korean NGO Center noted, Moon has a broad range of contacts and support across a diverse range of groups, including citizens’ groups, of Korean residents in Osaka — and the nation in general. Given Japan’s relative lack of connections to Moon via official links, Osaka’s Korean community could prove to be helpful source of citizen diplomats. In Kansai, diplomacy with South and North Korea is not merely an abstract principle to be discussed among diplomats, journalists, and academics. As of 2015, Justice Ministry figures showed there were about 498,000 resident Koreans in the nation’s 47 prefectures. But over 187,000 lived in Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures, with 113,000 in Osaka Prefecture alone. And more importantly, Korean residents in Kansai have friends and family in North and South Korea with whom they remain in touch. For them, the relationship between Japan and Korea is not a diplomatic game; it’s personal, and something which, historically, they’ve been more involved with than is often understood. During the latter half of the 20th century, Liberal Democratic Party politicians relied on Kansai’s Korean community to make introductions, facilitate meetings, and conduct quiet diplomacy with North and South Korean leaders. Whatever the controversies over history and political ideology, generations of LDP leaders understood the value of keeping a back door open to the Korean Peninsula. They cultivated relationships with Kansai Korean community leaders who had deep family and business ties to North and South Korea. Such connections had weakened by the time Abe returned to power in 2012. But with many in his Cabinet supporting right-wing, revisionist and nationalist groups, unofficial diplomatic efforts between the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition and South Korea via Japan’s Korean community have become more difficult. If the pessimists are right and the world is just one mistake from a conflict in East Asia, and if Moon really does have good contacts in Kansai’s Korean community, then Abe and the LDP have a moral obligation to try and utilize those contacts — and quickly. Citizen diplomacy is no substitute for professional diplomacy. But in the case of Japan’s relations with the Korean Peninsula, it is one that has played an important supporting role in the past and could do so again.
|
north korea;missile;korean peninsula;south korea-japan relations;moon jae-in
|
jp0000794
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/05/18
|
Funai's new TV models to hit Japanese stores in June
|
OSAKA - Funai brand television models will return to the Japanese market for the first time since 2006, with Yamada-Denki to begin selling them on June 2, Funai Electric has said. The 11 new models from five series, including new 4K high-definition TVs, are equipped with hard disks for recording TV programs, the Osaka-based maker said on Wednesday. Though prices have not been set, they are likely to be cheaper than competitor models with similar specs. Funai Electric aims to secure a domestic market share of 5 percent in fiscal 2017. The new models will also include less expensive 2K televisions, as Funai Electric plans to attract a wide range of customers to distinguish itself from major domestic manufacturers that focus on expensive models. Noboru Yamada, chairman of Yamada-Denki — which has signed an exclusive sales deal for Japan with Funai Electric — said the lineup of TV sets at stores has narrowed due to Japanese makers’ withdrawals. “We need Japanese brands which can earn support from customers,” Yamada said. Funai Electric predicts domestic sales of TVs in fiscal 2020 will double from last year’s level to around 10 million, driven by demand fueled by the Olympic Games. The company aims to further expand its domestic market share to 20 percent in fiscal 2020 as it plans to launch TV sets with organic electroluminescent screens next summer.
|
tvs;funai electric
|
jp0000795
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/05/18
|
No-confidence vote falters, paving way for conspiracy bill to be rammed through Lower House
|
The ruling bloc and the opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai jointly voted down a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda in the Lower House on Thursday, clearing the way for the controversial crime bill widely known as the conspiracy bill to go to the Upper House next week. Though deliberations in the Lower House had been stalled by the opposition camp’s no-confidence motion, the ruling coalition is now ready to ram the bill through the Lower House committee as early as Friday and through the entire chamber on Tuesday. The bill would then be immediately sent to the Upper House. The ruling coalition now aims to enact the bill by June 18, when the ordinary Diet session will close. If the back-and-forth with the opposition continues and deliberations in the Upper House are prolonged, however, the ruling coalition might extend the Diet session. “If we cannot start deliberation in the Upper House by May 24, the schedule would be very tight” and the ruling bloc would have no choice but to extend the session, Komeito executive Yoshio Urushibara was quoted as saying by Kyodo News on Thursday. The bill has drawn strong criticism because it is designed to incarcerate people who only plan, rather than commit, certain crimes. Opposition lawmakers have argued that such a powerful, wide-ranging law could be abused by investigative authorities to indiscriminately crack down on ordinary citizens, including political protesters and members of interest groups. Kaneda is the minister in charge of the bill and has long been criticized for being unable to explain its details in Diet sessions. “Justice Minister Kaneda is not qualified for the position. A vast majority of the nation shares the same feeling,” said Kazunori Yamai, the Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition force, on Thursday. The no-confidence motion was jointly submitted by the Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito reportedly plan to pass the bill through the Justice Committee of the Lower House on Friday and send it to the Upper House on Tuesday. Also Thursday, Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi told party executives that the legislation is necessary to crack down terrorists and prepare for major international events like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Yamaguchi added that other developed countries have similar laws. “I think a considerable, sufficient amount of deliberations have already been held,” Yamaguchi said. “I’d like (lawmakers) to send the bill from the Lower House to the Upper House.”
|
ldp;diet;lower house;komeito;jcp;dp;conspiracy bill
|
jp0000796
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/05/27
|
Waking up to the mechanics of sleep
|
Feeling tired? Wish you had more time in your life? Got too much to do? I answer all three questions in the affirmative, and I am far from alone — in fact, almost everyone I know feels the same. The problem may be a lack of sleep, and, counterintuitively, it may also be a lack of play. But let’s start with the former. We would like more sleep, but we typically feel as if we just don’t have the time. The problem is particularly acute in Japan. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare tracks the number of people who report sleeping less than six hours in a 24-hour cycle, and the figure has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2007, around 28 percent of people were getting less than six hours per cycle; by 2015, the figure had climbed to 40 percent. Given that physicians recommend people get between seven and eight hours sleep per night, this is clearly a problem. It’s tempting to see Japan’s problems with sleep — or perhaps it’s better to say Japan’s motivation to work — in the light of the anxiety sowed by Buddha. He was not enamored of sleep and warned his followers not to spend too long in bed, proclaiming: “When one is lazy, gluttonous, snoozing and lolling on the bed like a great fat pig, he will be reborn again and again.” According to a report by research group RAND Corp., the economic cost of sleep deprivation is $50 billion in the United Kingdom, amounting to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product. The corresponding figure in Japan is $138 billion, or some 2.9 percent of GDP. That’s an extraordinary figure — in short, trying to squeeze too much out of each day is sapping our economic as well as our physical strength. Researchers worldwide are devoting plenty of resources into the study of sleep. We basically know that we need sleep to feel rested. We also know that REM sleep in particular, the phase of sleep where brain waves are short and during which we have the most dreams, is where we consolidate information picked up during the day into long-term memories. However, we don’t know much about the details. The fundamental reasons for sleep and the mechanisms that regulate different phases of the activity are, for the most part, unknown. This is where Hiroki Ueda and his research group at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine and the Riken Quantitative Biology Center, come in. Professor Ueda uses mice in his research, but is primarily interested in human sleep and, more broadly speaking, human consciousness. “Consciousness is hard to study because it is hard to measure,” Ueda says. “In most cases, however, it is tightly coupled with the waking state.” In other words, we don’t know exactly what consciousness is, but we know that we can only perceive it when we are awake. By understanding sleep, therefore, we can understand the bigger question. “Fortunately,” Ueda says, “the awake state and the sleeping state can also be objectively measured. I believe that sleep research will pave the way to a study of consciousness in the future.” All animals sleep — even the simplest animals such as nematode worms and fruit flies have periods of sleep-like rest. As far as humans are concerned, sleep duration changes over time. When we are newborn babies, we sleep for 20 hours a day. In old age, however, we may only need five hours. Sleep is a period of recovery; it gives the body an opportunity to remove waste products and recharge the immune system. It is also a period of consolidation, allowing the brain a chance to process what we’ve done that day and put it into memory stores. To try and get a handle on the manner in which humans sleep and for how long, Ueda’s team built a theoretical model and used it to identify seven genes responsible for causing mice to stay awake or fall asleep. His team used a new form of gene editing called CRISPR to make genetically modified mice. He found that a mechanism regulated by calcium is responsible for controlling the length of sleep. In effect, he found that mice needed an influx of calcium in the neurons — the specialized cells of the brain — in order to fall asleep. Correspondingly, mice would also wake up if calcium was removed from neurons. Some of the genetically modified mice slept less than regular mice. Some humans are able to sleep for shorter periods of time without apparent cost, but that’s not the case for mice. The genes that are linked in the mice to shorter sleep are also linked in people to schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, depression and autism if they are impaired, Ueda says. “This research has provided us with a wide range of potential targets for future research and therapies,” Ueda says. “We have discovered the regulator of sleep duration. Many mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases are also associated with sleep disorders, so understanding how sleep is regulated may lead to a deeper understanding of those diseases and future treatments.” The Rand Corp. report on sleep says that increasing the amount of sleep from under six hours to between six and seven hours per day could boost Japan’s economy by $75.7 billion. This therefore seems to suggest that we would be more productive in the office if we work less hours. Now we just need to convince our bosses that this is the case.
|
sleep;productivity;memory;wellbeing;tiredness;consciousness
|
jp0000797
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/05/27
|
Magazine snares rival 'scoop thief' red-handed
|
In its May 25 issue, Shukan Shincho set pens a-pushing and tongues a-wagging throughout the nation by accusing rival weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun of engaging in sneaky schemes to steal its thunder. In 10 full pages of text and three pages of photos — roughly one-tenth of an entire issue — Shukan Shincho meticulously paraded out detailed and specific evidence of its rival’s alleged transgressions. What did Shukan Bunshun do to incur the wrath of its rival? First some background: Each week, on the morning that weekly magazines go on sale, commuter trains and other transport in Japan’s major metropolitan areas carry ads — referred to as shanai kōkoku (train ads) or tsuri kōkoku (hanging ads) — that spell out the magazine’s latest headlines. In order to be posted the night before the magazines go on sale at newsstands, the ads need to be designed, printed and delivered to the railways several days in advance. So by determining where they are printed, and arranging to sneak a peek at the contents, a rival can not only know what’s going to appear in upcoming issues, but if time permits, it can even scramble to generate a similar story and blunt its rival’s claim to a scoop. If tabloid publishing were analogous to the game of baseball, this would be the equivalent of stealing the opposing team’s signals. Shukan Shincho’s “J’accuse” headline referred to Shukan Bunshun’s acts of corporate espionage as “ yogoreta jūdan ” (tarnished bullets). That title is a particularly unkind cut, as it recalls what is arguably Shukan Bunshun’s most famous investigative scoop, a series of articles appearing in 1984 titled “Giwaku no Judan” (“Bullets of Suspicion”). The articles accused Tokyo businessman Kazuyoshi Miura of arranging for the shooting murder of his wife Kazumi during a visit to Los Angeles in November 1981 in order to collect a large amount of life insurance. There may also, however, be a certain degree of professional jealousy involved. As was reported in this column on March 5, 2016 — “Bunshun editor Manabu Shintani returns in a blaze of scoops” ( bit.ly/blazescoops ) — when Manabu Shintani returned to his position after a three-month suspension, he launched a barrage of exposes against politicians, entertainers, athletes and other celebrities, which elevated Shintani to superstar status. In February 2016, while Shukan Shincho — which by virtue of having been launched in 1956 is three years its rival’s senior — was celebrating its kanrek i (60th anniversary) with a full month of special commemorative editions, Shukan Bunshun continued to engage in subterfuge. How did they pull it off? In general, the contents of a magazine sold Thursday mornings can be updated or even replaced if the material is laid out and proofread by 10 p.m. on Tuesday. Apparently Shukan Shincho’s schedule permitted Shukan Bunshun’s just enough time to do so. To identify the smoking gun that shows proof of Shukan Bunshun’s literary larceny, the Shukan Shincho article ran photos of a number of train ads placed by Shukan Bunshun in which the initially advertised story did not appear in the latter’s print edition; instead, it was replaced by an article on the same topic as a story in Shukan Shincho. And this happened far too many times to be coincidental. Shukan Shincho’s contents did not stop at accusatory innuendos, as is often the practice with the weeklies. It ran actual photos of the man identified as the culprit, shot at the printers. And also claims to have tailed him on the train back to Shukan Bunshun’s office in Kojimachi. Shukan Shincho’s issue of June 1 followed up on its initial report with an additional eight pages, including mostly negative commentary by nine prominent media figures. TV commentator Akira Ikegami remarked flat-out, “Shukan Bunshun is devious.” Ikegami also made critical remarks in his weekly column appearing in Shukan Bunshun, but the rest of the magazine was lying low on the controversy. Just one day after Shukan Shincho’s “Tarnished bullets” story went on sale, Yukan Fuji (May 20) went so far as to raise the possibility of the magazine filing criminal charges against Shukan Bunshun. The charge? “Having committed repeated cases of purloining stories that enabled the publication’s own scoops to be blunted.” Should charges be filed and police armed with a warrant raid Shukan Bunshun’s office, the possible penalties are nothing to sneeze at: According to the criminal code, an individual who leaks proprietary information may be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined as much as ¥20 million. Corporations found guilty of similar malfeasance can be fined as much as ¥1 billion. Meanwhile, Shukan Post (June 2), says that the Shincho-Bunshun battle shouldn’t be seen as a case of taigan no kaji (“a fire on the opposite riverbank,” i.e., someone else’s concern). Apparently the practice of corporate espionage in the mass media may be more common than many realize. “Back when I was in charge, we used to sneak peeks at the ads for Shukan Post,” Masahiko Motoki, the former editor of the weekly magazine Shukan Gendai, admitted with a chuckle. As Shukan Post and Shukan Gendai both go on sale each Monday, a similar rivalry exists. Shukan Post also reported that the same day the accusatory issue of Shukan Shincho went on sale, the entire staff of Shukan Bunshun were reportedly summoned to a meeting at which an unapologetic editor Shintani delivered a pep talk urging his team to band together and stand fast. Sounding a bit cynical, the aforementioned Motoki observed that, “In this line of business, the publisher that grabs the dirty data winds up the winner. It’s not that we don’t understand why Shukan Shincho is upset, but there are lots of other stories they can pursue.” In any event, Shukan Post wishes to make one thing absolutely clear: at the very least it would never, ever attempt to steal advertisements from magazines like Gendai, Shukan Bunshun or Shukan Shincho. When it’s all said and done, the ad revenues apparently rate more than either reputation or readership.
|
kazuyoshi miura;shukan bunshun;shukan shincho;manabu shintani;shukan post;japanese magazines;masahiko motoki;gendai
|
jp0000799
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/05/29
|
Chinese buy condom business as sex-savvy youth spur demand
|
SHANGHAI - April Zhang, a 21-year-old student from Shanghai, reflects the fast-shifting attitudes of China’s younger generations toward sex. She’s confident to talk about a topic once taboo here and is well educated about the risks. Zhang and her young contemporaries- though far from uniform in their views- are much more open in their attitudes to sex than their conservative parents and increasingly aware of the need for protection against sexually-transmitted diseases. This sex-savvy generation is set to spur sharp growth of the country’s condom market, a key driver behind a deal by Chinese investors to buy the world’s no. 2 condom business for $600 million from Australia’s Ansell Ltd. “Attitudes are certainly changing. We’re increasingly open,” said Zhang, adding her friends mostly chose brands like Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc’s Durex and Japan’s top-selling brand Okamoto due to their reputation for high quality as well as their visible marketing campaigns. “This is a very important product, if it goes wrong just once then the consequence is severe,” she said. In China’s big cities, condoms are now available in plain view: convenience stores on urban high streets often have condoms on display by the till, while brands like Durex have millions of followers on their China social media platforms. On supermarket shelves Ansell’s brands Jissbon- named to sounds like James Bond- and the higher-end SKYN brand sit alongside an array of local offerings with names like “Endless,” “Pleasure More,” “Double Butterfly” and “Donless.” Durex is by some distance the best-selling condom brand on Chinese online shopping platform Taobao, followed by Jissbon, Okamoto and local brands SixSex and MingLiu, according to data from Daxue Consulting. Ansell said on Thursday it had reached an all-cash deal with China’s Humanwell Healthcare Group Co. Ltd and CITIC Capital China Partners for its condoms business. Humanwell declined to comment on its strategy for the Chinese and other markets. CITIC couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Condoms- and sex- are growing topics in popular culture, despite strict rules on nudity that mean China condom ads are tamer and more limited than in other Asian markets. Young people also chat about the subject online- though they often use code. Pornography is illegal, but China’s young find ways to watch it nonetheless, with an online vernacular growing around its availability. People who know about the best illegal sites are called “old drivers,” who help others to “find the car.” The government is helping too, spurred by efforts to raise awareness of illnesses such as HIV/AIDS through high-school sex education textbooks and campaigns with university students. Peng Liyuan, China’s popular First Lady, actively campaigns to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and how to respond to it. China’s conservative attitude, ushered in by the Communist Party when it took power in 1949, has slowly been changing — helped by growing affluence, more overseas travel and exposure to foreign popular culture. It’s far cry from where China was even two decades ago, when more permanent contraceptive techniques were used once a couple had their first child to avoid further pregnancy. Even now, sterilization and IUD coils are still far more prevalent methods than condoms. “Sexual awareness including contraception is slowly rising,” said Wang Xiaoshuang, founder of sex education firm Greenxxoo, pointing to premarital sex which is now broadly accepted. “Twenty years ago that sort of behavior was taboo.” Wang said that there was an increasing awareness of “safe sex” because of HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns, though added tough rules around advertising condoms meant most brands had to stick to online marketing. The more open attitude could see China’s condom market more than double in size by 2024 from $1.8 billion in 2015, according to a report from Transparency Market Research. China’s sexual revolution is still nascent, though. This week a Chinese “female virtues” teacher caused a social media storm by saying women should not wear short dresses and should save themselves for their husbands. “Everything thinks there’s a big trend toward buying adult products… But there is still a big swath of people here who don’t get it,” said a sales worker surnamed An at an adult products store in Shanghai. He said growth of the broader “adult” market was steady rather than stellar, but that young people were now starting to help change things. “The young want something fresh, they’re not just clinging to conservative views,” he said. Attitudes, including those about sex before marriage have changed drastically over recent decades, with most people now supportive. But sex education- key to driving contraceptive demand- still has some way to go, said student Zhang. “When I was younger my parents did talk to me about contraception and some basic things about sexually transmitted diseases. Everything else I had to go and find out for myself.”
|
china;health;sexuality;youth
|
jp0000800
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/05/29
|
Brewing Kake Gakuen scandal points to alleged Abe favoritism
|
On Thursday a former top ministry official dropped a bombshell in a hastily held news conference in Tokyo. Kihei Maekawa, former vice minister of education, alleged that the Cabinet Office distorted administrative processes by citing the intent of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in approving a project concerning Kake Gakuen, a school run by his close friend. Supporting these claims, Maekawa attested to the authenticity of eight documents, which had been circulating in the media and political circles, asserting that they were produced by education ministry officials last year when he was vice minister. The following is a rundown of what is written in the documents in question, and the potential implications for Abe’s government. What is the Kake Gakuen scandal? Kake Gakuen is an school operator based in Okayama and chaired by Kotaro Kake, who reportedly became friends with Abe while they were studying overseas at a U.S. university in the 1970s. In January, Kake Gakuen won approval from the central government to open a new animal medicine department of its Okayama University of Science in a special deregulation zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. Opposition lawmakers have suspected that the government might have chosen Kake Gakuen for the deregulation project because of Abe’s close friendship with Kake. It was the first time in 52 years that the government gave approval for such a department, as it had been the long-standing view that the number of veterinarians in Japan has been sufficient to meet demand. Still the municipal government of Imabari plans to offer a plot of land valued at ¥3.68 billion to Kake Gakuen for free to build the new campus. Those favorable conditions have drawn public attention to the suspicion of influence raised by opposition lawmakers. According to the daily Chiba Nippo, Abe called Kake “my bosom friend who is always tied with me at the bottom of our hearts” when he addressed the 10th anniversary ceremony of Chiba Institute of Science, part of the Kake Gakuen group, on May 24, 2014. Abe and government officials have strongly denied any wrongdoing in choosing Kake Gakuen for the special deregulation project, saying the entity was chosen through fair and open administrative processes. What’s on the documents? The eight documents were allegedly produced by the education ministry. Their existence and content were first reported by the daily Asahi Shimbun on May 17, creating a stir and spurring opposition lawmakers to call for a government investigation. One of the documents, obtained by The Japan Times, quoted Cabinet Office officials as saying “the prime minister’s intent” is to allow a new department to be opened as quickly as possible in Imabari — an apparent reference to the university’s proposal. Another paper quotes the Cabinet Office as saying “the highest-level” officials in the Prime Minister’s Office want the education ministry to create the “shortest possible schedule” for allowing Kake Gakuen to open the new department in April 2018. What has Maekawa said about the documents? According to Maekawa, the documents were education ministry memos produced last fall, used in briefings for senior ministry officials, including Maekawa. The ministry’s former top bureaucrat said he thought the “highest-level” officials referred to either Abe or Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Maekawa alleged that the Cabinet Office “has distorted administrative processes that should be fair and impartial” by citing the intent of the prime minister to approve the Kake Gakuen project. In 2015 the government set four criteria to approve the opening of a new animal medicine department at a university. The criteria are: a proposal with a plan outlining a new concept; clear demand for vets in new areas; evidence that existing universities are unable to meet that demand; and consideration of the latest supply-and-demand balance of vets nationwide. The Kake Gakuen project had met none of the criteria, Maekawa said, especially since none of the government ministries have provided any projection of future demand for veterinarians. What happens if the allegations are true? The alleged actions, even if proven true, are unlikely to constitute illegal conduct by either Abe or the Cabinet Office. The scandal would still deal a blow to the administration, because Abe has repeatedly and vehemently denied that Kake’s close relationship with the prime minister was a factor in the government’s choice of Kake Gakuen for the deregulation project. It would also seriously damage the credibility of Abe’s government, which has denied the existence of the documents and has refused to reopen any investigation even after Maekawa’s public testimony. The education ministry has insisted it could not find any of the eight documents after surveying the online folder shared by officials at the Technical Education Division. Despite repeated requests from journalists and opposition lawmakers, the ministry has refused to look into the data storage of personal computers used by 31 officials at the division. What political impact could Maekawa’s testimony have on Abe’s administration? While it has already significantly damaged the administration’s public image and the credibility of official statements, it’s unclear whether Abe’s popularity will be dented. Without a forceful opposition or charismatic rivals within the Liberal Democratic Party, most voters see few alternatives to Abe’s government. If the approval rate plummets in upcoming media polls, the chance of an LDP victory in next elections would be reduced and thus considerably weaken Abe’s political clout. The reactions of voters in media polls will likely to be the key factor in the next phase of the Kake Gakuen scandal.
|
shinzo abe;ehime;imabari;kihei maekawa;kake gakuen;veterinary medicine
|
jp0000801
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2017/05/16
|
Notorious British child killer, 'Moors Murderer' Ian Brady, dies in prison at 79
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LONDON - One of Britain’s most notorious killers, “Moors Murderer” Ian Brady, who murdered five children with his lover and accomplice, Myra Hindley, during a sadistic two-year reign of terror in the 1960s died on Monday. Brady and Hindley were jailed for life in 1966 for abducting, torturing, sexually abusing and then murdering the children before burying their young victims on the bleak Saddleworth Moor near the northern city of Manchester. Brady died at Ashworth secure hospital in Liverpool, where he has been housed since 1985 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, aged 79. “We can confirm a 79-year-old patient in long-term care at Ashworth High Secure Hospital has died after becoming physically unwell,” a spokesman for the hospital said. For many of his last years, Brady had been on intermittent hunger strike and staff at Ashworth fed him via a tube through the nose on the grounds he was insane and incapable of deciding to end his own life. In 2013, a Mental Health Tribunal rejected his request to return to prison, ruling it was necessary in his interests and for the safety of others that he remain at Ashworth. The sadistic nature of the Moors Murderers’ killings made them among the most despised figures in Britain. Brady was found guilty of snatching and killing 12-year-old John Kilbride, Edward Evans, 17, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, while Hindley was convicted of murdering Downey and Evans and shielding her lover in the third case. In the 1980s, the couple admitted abducting and murdering 16-year-old Pauline Reade on her way to a Manchester disco in 1963 and killing Keith Bennett, 12, in 1964. They were finally caught when Hindley’s brother-in-law tipped off police During their trial the court heard tape recordings made by the couple of their victims pleading for mercy before they were tortured and killed. One tape featured the voice of Downey, filled with pain and fear, whimpering: “I want to see my mummy. Please God, help me.” Although their crimes took place 40 years ago, the revulsion felt by Britons and the hatred directed at them by the tabloid press hardly diminished. Hindley was Britain’s longest serving female prisoner when she died in 2002 after 36 years in jail. Successive UK governments had refused to release her despite her claims she had reformed and was driven to commit the murders by the psychopathic Brady. He insisted she was as much to blame. Hindley had tried to court favour by helping police to find the missing body of Bennett. But despite exhaustive searches, his body has never been found. When she was cremated, a banner which read “Burn in hell” was left outside the building.
|
britain;serial killer;mass murder;myra hindley;ian brady
|
jp0000803
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/05/17
|
Opposition makes last-ditch effort to block conspiracy bill
|
Political wrangling over whether to approve a new penalty against criminal conspiracy approached a climax Wednesday after opposition lawmakers submitted a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda as part of an eleventh-hour tactic to delay the vote. The proposed revision to the current anti-organized crime law — arguably the biggest source of controversy in the ongoing Diet session — is aimed at enabling law enforcement authorities to crack down on suspected terrorists who conspire to commit crimes. The government deems the revision vital to beefing up counterterrorism capabilities ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and has said the law was a prerequisite for participation in a U.N.-designated convention against transnational organized crime. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has even declared that Japan can’t host the Olympics without the law. Critics, however, say that a police crackdown under the revised law could extend to ordinary citizens, turning the nation into a surveillance society where everyday acts, such as bird-watching or withdrawing cash from banks, could be misconstrued as preparation for crimes. Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its allies were set to pass the revised bill at a Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday, with a view to push it through the plenary session of the chamber on Thursday. But hopes for such a scenario were dashed by the opposition camp Wednesday morning, as it jointly submitted the no-confidence motion against Kaneda, preventing the committee from being convened. The ruling coalition of the LDP and its junior partner Komeito is expected to strike down the motion Thursday, with the bill’s committee-level passage expected to be delayed until Friday. The Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party said in submitting the motion that the level of Kaneda’s unsuitability as a state minister was “almost unprecedented” in recent memory. Kaneda, a legal amateur assigned to the portfolio in an August Cabinet reshuffle, has frequently fumbled for answers during the ongoing Diet session, prompting bureaucrats seated behind him to whisper the correct responses. “He can’t answer the most basic question regarding the revision. His lack of legal knowledge is appalling,” DP lawmaker Seiji Osaka told reporters after submitting the no-confidence motion, adding that Kaneda has failed woefully in his responsibility to explain to the public the revision that would “drastically change how Japan’s criminal law works.” The opposition has long argued that the criteria for what might constitute “preparing for crimes” remains unclear. Kaneda said in April that “objective evidence” will be a major factor in deciding whether someone is plotting a crime, providing as an example: “If you walk under cherry blossom trees with beer and a lunch box, that’s considered as hanami (cherry-blossom viewing). But if you do so carrying a map, binoculars and a notebook, that might be your attempt to inspect a crime scene beforehand.” Bewildered, JCP lawmaker Yasufumi Fujino contested: “You can still carry binoculars for bird-watching … That’s no clear criterion.” Fujino said the ultimate criteria would then boil down to what had been on people’s minds during these flagged actions instead of objective evidence. In response to the no-confidence motion, Kaneda said, “(I have) done all I could” to live up to public expectations. LDP lawmaker Yoshihisa Furukawa, chairman of the Judicial Affairs Committee, decried the opposition’s delay tactic, saying it hampered constructive discussion on the revision.
|
ldp;diet;komeito;jcp;dp;conspiracy bill
|
jp0000804
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/05/19
|
Kanagawa woman finds success in crowdfunding matchmaking quest
|
A Kanagawa woman who started a crowdfunding project last year to bankroll her search for a husband is on course to reap the ultimate dividend. After meeting 11 suitors in the space of a month through the formal Japanese matchmaking tradition of omiai , 27-year-old Tomoko Takebe has found a man who intends to walk her down the aisle. “I was scared to actually go through with the project, but doing it has allowed me to meet a really great person,” said Takebe, whose project, titled “Is it OK if I like you? 26-year-old, 178-cm single woman is serious about omiai,” raised over ¥500,000 through the crowdfunding platform Campfire . “It was a really difficult first step, but I realized that you have to take up the challenge,” she said. “I did that and it has made me really happy.” Crowdfunding is a method of raising money for ventures by asking a large number of people to contribute varying amounts, and has been used to fund everything from movies to clean water projects in developing countries. Takebe met with The Japan Times in May last year to explain her project , which invited backers to pay money to either meet her for an omiai date or join a group of well-wishers supporting her quest for matrimony. Omiai, a tradition that began among the samurai class in 16th century Japan, involves men and women being formally introduced with a view to marriage. Personal details, including education and professional background, income and family history, are exchanged along with a photograph before meeting. Takebe, who worked in public relations and as a freelance writer at the time of her project, attracted 72 backers in total and met her crowdfunding target figure of ¥260,000 within the first 10 days. She spent the money on paying for dates and hiring a photographer to make formal introduction cards. From June 25 to July 28 last year, Takebe met 11 suitors, who included salarymen, a manga artist and a divorcee company president, and ranged in age from their mid-20s to 50s. “It was a lot of hard work,” she said. “I thought that if I left too much time between meeting each person, then they would all begin to seem the same. So I did it all in one month and it wore me out. “I never had any bad experiences. When you meet someone for the first time it can be exhausting, but it was always enjoyable.” Takebe’s fifth suitor, a 31-year-old, piqued her romantic interest. But before going back to ask him if he would like to be her boyfriend with a view to marriage, she made sure she met the remaining six and completed her project. “At first I thought he was very serious, to the extent that I was surprised that such a serious person would want to be involved in something like this,” she said. “He was the only one who I was really interested in, so I thought I would ask him if he wanted to take it further, and if he said ‘no’ then that would be the end of it. “I wrote to all the others to tell them I was sorry but I had found a boyfriend. I got replies telling me that they were happy that they could tell people that although they didn’t end up marrying me, they had an omiai date with me and they were involved in the whole thing. The feeling that I got was that they supported me and wanted me to do well.” Takebe and her boyfriend have been together since August, and although he has yet to propose, she insists that they have both been clear from the outset that they intend to marry. But while Takebe’s innovative use of crowdfunding and promotion on social media have helped her achieve her goal, her boyfriend, who declined to join her for an interview and prefers not to be named, is not so keen on the media attention. “Personally, when I think about my future and everyday life, I’d like to give as little of myself away on social media as possible,” he told The Japan Times by email. “I got involved in her project because I was charmed by what she was doing. I like her positive attitude and energy, but if you give too much away it can come back to haunt you in the future. “So if anything comes up, like getting requests for interviews, we talk it over. We always try to find a compromise and find something that we’re both comfortable with.” And Takebe’s actions have gained her more than just a boyfriend over the past year. The attention surrounding her project caught the eye of Campfire’s president, who offered her a job in the crowdfunding platform’s PR department. Her success has also allowed her to overcome her insecurity over her 178-cm height, which she says was one of the main reasons for starting the project. “Of the people who I met for omiai dates, one was 160 cm and he had a complex about being short so he liked taller women,” she said. “Another was 182 cm, so he was even taller than me. “My boyfriend is the same height as me, so when we talk our eyes are on the same level. Previously, when I was on a date I couldn’t wear high heels. But now I’m accepted for who I am and I feel positive about my height.”
|
marriage;matchmaking;crowdfunding;tomoko takebe
|
jp0000805
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/05/26
|
Japan using education to add influence, tap into booming Southeast Asia markets
|
In a battle with China for influence and opportunity in Southeast Asia, Japan is making inroads on a new front: education. Japan is aggressively recruiting students from the region in hopes they will enhance economic ties with their home countries in the future. That’s because Southeast Asia is a key investment destination for the country — and an important source of talent. Vietnamese especially are taking up the offers. The number of Vietnamese studying in Japan, including language schools, increased more than 12-fold in the six years to May 2016, reaching about 54,000, according to the Japan Student Services Organization. They now account for nearly a quarter of international students in Japan, behind only Chinese students, who make up 41 percent but whose numbers have leveled off in recent years. Japan and China are both seeking bigger roles in Southeast Asia, which boasts rapid economic growth and a large and expanding middle class. It also has huge demand for infrastructure. Japan’s investment in the region has surged in recent years, as political tensions and a slowing economy have reduced China’s appeal. Meanwhile Beijing has sought to strengthen trade ties through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the One Belt, One Road initiative. Japan has made it a priority to recruit students from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A Japanese government scholarship has helped Tran Thi Quynh My, an official at the State Bank of Vietnam, pay for her two children’s studies in the country. “I chose Japan because it costs less than other countries while it has a good education system, instilling good discipline in students,” My said. “After studying in Japan my children will have better chance to get good jobs when they come back to work in Vietnam, since there are more and more Japanese companies investing in our country.” Vietnam’s economy expanded by more than 6 percent for a second year in 2016, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing. Japanese companies are increasingly looking to Southeast Asia, where incomes and consumption are likely to continue growing for years, said Shinobu Kikuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo. Japan is already Vietnam’s third-biggest trading partner, after China and the U.S. Two-way trade rose to about $30 billion in 2016, almost double the $16.8 billion in 2010, according to Vietnamese government data. The two countries aim to boost bilateral trade to $60 billion by 2020. Japan is also the second-biggest investor in Vietnam, with a total of $42.5 billion of foreign direct investment as of March 2017. In the past, manufacturers have entered Vietnam in search of cheap labor, but in recent years its growing domestic markets have attracted more nonmanufacturers such as retailers, according to Keisuke Kobayashi, who covers Vietnam at the Japan External Trade Organization. Regardless of sector, Japanese companies are looking for highly skilled, educated employees who can bridge language and cultural gaps, Kobayashi said. “Our surveys with companies always show a challenge in hiring,” he said. The growing presence of Japanese companies in Vietnam has students and their parents thinking about studying in Japan in hopes of landing a high-paying job with a Japanese company, said Itsuro Tsutsumi, director at Jasso’s student-exchange department. “There are high expectations,” Tsutsumi said. “Their families are sending them as a means of investment, hoping the return will be big.” Such high expectations can be exploited. In April, the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam cautioned that a rising number of Vietnamese students and so-called technical interns end up in Japan with a massive amount of debt after paying big fees to local agents who deceive them about prospective job opportunities. Tran Thi Bich Phuong has been more fortunate. She received two scholarships to study marketing at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Oita Prefecture. One was from the university and the other from Jasso, she said. The number of Vietnamese students at the university has more than tripled to about 500 over the past decade, according to the university. Phuong, who grew up in Vinh, Vietnam, plans to look for a job in Japan after graduation in September. “By working for a Japanese company, I’ll have an opportunity to learn professionalism at work and broaden my horizons,” she said. “In the long term, I want to go back and use my skills and experience in Japan in Vietnam.”
|
southeast asia;vietnam;education;foreign students
|
jp0000806
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/05/26
|
Strange Yomiuri story signals Maekawa being targeted for authenticating Kake papers
|
An article run Monday by the Yomiuri Shimbun raised suspicions that an orchestrated smear campaign is underway to intimidate Kihei Maekawa, the former bureaucrat who is backing up the opposition’s claims about the Kake Gakuen scandal dogging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The story said that former administrative vice education minister Kihei Maekawa frequented a shady dating bar in the Kabukicho district in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward for a few years until around the end of last year. It is extremely rare for a major paper like the Yomiuri — the nation’s largest daily — to run a story of this type that reports no illegalities on the part of the former vice minister. The article said the women who come to the bar often invite men out and offer sex for money. The story immediately raised red flags in media and political circles: Was it leaked by the Prime Minister’s Office to damage Maekawa’s image and prevent him from divulging more inconvenient secrets? Government officials appeared worried that Maekawa might speak out more about the Kake scandal in public. At a news conference Thursday, Maekawa confirmed the authenticity of eight documents allegedly produced by the education ministry when he was there. Maekawa also said he was willing to give sworn testimony to that effect in the Diet. The papers, whose contents were first reported by the daily Asahi Shimbun on May 17, suggest that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressured the government to approve the opening of a veterinary medicine department at a university run by Kake Gakuen (Kake Educational Institution), a school operator chaired by Abe’s close friend Kotaro Kake. The opposition camp suspects the government tried to stop Maekawa from divulging information about the scandal. “There is suspicion that the Prime Minister’s Office may have tried to gag Mr. Maekawa by leaking information” to the Yomiuri, Kazunori Yamanoi, Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party, said on Thursday. “I’d feel really scared if the administration tried to leak scandalous information about a person who criticized or tried to criticize the government … Has Japan become such a scary country?” Yamanoi asked. At Thursday’s news conference, Maekawa admitted he used to go to a dating bar but said the purpose was to talk to the women who went there and learn about poverty in the country. He said his interest in the issue was piqued when saw a TV documentary that said many women who go to such bars suffer from poverty. “Sometimes I had meals with women and gave them some pocket money. Talking to them, I have learned that the issue of child poverty is connected to the poverty of women,” Maekawa told the news conference. “That was a very private act of mine. I have no idea why the Yomiuri reported about it at that time.” Maekawa also said that a top official from the Prime Minister’s Office somehow knew about his visits to the bar. Last fall, he said, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita noted the visits and urged him to “exercise caution.” Asked if he believes that Abe’s government intentionally leaked the information to stop him from speaking in public, Maekawa said: “I just don’t want to believe Japan is such a country.”
|
shinzo abe;education;kihei maekawa;kake gakuen
|
jp0000807
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/05/21
|
Redrawing of Nara's electoral map may force internal affairs chief into rematch with DP's Mabuchi
|
NARA - The Cabinet’s decision last week to approve the redrawing of Japan’s electoral map by eliminating one Lower House district from each of six prefectures (Aomori, Iwate, Mie, Nara, Kumamoto and Kagoshima) is the central government’s response to a declining population that is increasingly concentrated in urban areas and to the vote disparity between rural voters and city dwellers. The changes in the single-seat electoral districts, which were submitted to the Diet, reflect a panel’s recommendations to the prime minister last month. “I will do my best to pass the legislation at the earliest date to rectify vote disparities,” internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi, who is in charge of drafting the legislation, told a news conference on May 16. But as a lawmaker, Takaichi, who represents the Nara No. 2 district , which includes the cities of Ikoma and Tenri , would also be affected by the electoral changes. The city of Nara is part of the No. 1 district. The realignment for Nara Prefecture means that Ikoma, where Takaichi has her local electoral office, would join Nara as part of a newly reshaped No. 1 district. The new No. 2 district would include Tenri and other towns and villages to the south of Nara and Ikoma, which are both on the prefecture’s northern border. The next Lower House election, therefore, for the only seat in the new Nara No. 1 district would pit Takaichi against veteran Democratic Party lawmaker Sumio Mabuchi, who represents the current Nara No. 1 district. It was Mabuchi who defeated Takaichi back in 2003, forcing her to move to Ikoma and run in the No. 2 district. She won that seat in the 2005 election. Since then, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has failed to dislodge Mabuchi, though Takaichi won her district in 2014 with 46,000 more votes than her two competitors combined. Farther south, Nara’s realignment means the rural, mountainous areas that comprise about three-quarters of the prefecture would have only one candidate representing them. In terms of population distribution, the three new districts would be roughly equal. There would be roughly 470,000 people in the No. 1 district, 460,000 in the No. 2 district, and about 430,000 in the No. 3 district. For his part, Nara Gov. Shogo Arai, who has the support of the LDP, welcomes the realignment. “From the point of view of reducing voter disparity rates, it’s a practical step,” he said earlier this month. That disparity is expected to grow further. In 2010, Nara Prefecture’s population was about 1.4 million. By 2060, it’s expected to fall to about 1.05 million, with the heaviest drop predicted to take place in the towns and villages in what would be the new No. 3 district. Unlike the cities of Nara and Ikoma, train access to Osaka and Kyoto from the No. 3 district is extremely limited, offering little hope of a huge influx of urbanites from surrounding prefectures in the coming years. The proposal, including the reduction in Nara, will now be taken up by the Diet. The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition aims to pass it by the end of the current session on June 18.
|
liberal democratic party;elections;democratic party;sanae takaichi;nara;sumio mabuchi
|
jp0000808
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/05/21
|
Kansai gropes for missile response as Korean war hype builds
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OSAKA - With North Korea test-launching missiles on a regular basis toward Japan, towns, cities and prefectures are getting more serious about how best to respond if and when one approaches. Parts of the Kansai region along the Sea of Japan coast appear to lie within range of the missile North Korea sent up on May 14. But the level of effort, and attention, that prefectural governments in particular are giving to what they can and should do to respond to a missile attack varies greatly. Like most other regions of Japan, the eight prefectures (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, Tokushima, Shiga and Tottori) that belong to the Union of Kansai Governments have all listed general information, provided by the central government, about what to do in the event of a missile attack on their websites. However, as recent events have shown, there are differences in how they react to media reports, as opposed to official notifications about a launch. Tottori Prefecture had perhaps the most detailed public response to the May 14 missile launch among Kansai-area prefectures. Although the central government did not activate its J-Alert emergency advisory system, by 7:19 a.m., just over an hour after receiving the first media report of the launch, prefectural officials had been in contact with local fishing boats in the Sea of Japan, a cargo ship that was on its way to South Korea, and two planes that were scheduled to fly from Tottori’s Yonago Kitaro Airport for South Korea and Hong Kong. All were confirmed safe. Over the past few weeks, Tottori has been making stronger efforts to strengthen its response whenever news arrives that a missile has been launched toward the Sea of Japan. By the end of this month, the prefecture plans to have bureaucratic measures in place that will allow its officials to scramble more efficiently if the central government issues a J-Alert warning of a missile approaching Japan. “We confirmed that fishermen and others were safe, but the prefecture will continue to take measures to ensure local safety,” Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai said following the May 14 missile launch. On the other hand, officials in Shiga have been targeted for criticism for coming up with their own response to news of a missile attack. In late April, Shiga educational authorities sent a notice to prefectural schools and boards of education in cities and towns that called for children to remain indoors in case of a missile attack. The notice angered the teachers’ unions, which saw it as an overreaction that would just create unease among students who might fear Japan was preparing for war. At a May 11 meeting to discuss the issue, some mayors told Shiga Prefecture that local notices about how to respond to a missile launch should come from the governor’s office, not from prefectural bureaucrats, and should not be limited to just students. “Getting the message out to older people quickly is necessary. It’s the governor who must take responsibility for crisis management,” said Yasu Mayor Yoshiaki Yamanaka, who was one of a handful of mayors in Shiga who refused to pass along the April notice from the prefecture to area schools. Other Kansai prefectures that border the Sea of Japan coast like Hyogo and Kyoto are also reviewing what measures to take at the local level, not only to provide as much advance warning as possible, but also to deal with possibility, however remote, of a missile actually striking their prefecture. But Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada says people need to be realistic about what can be done, given how quickly a missile might arrive. “Testing the J-Alert system and increased cooperation with local officials are things that should be done. But when talking about drills to prepare for an attack, as a missile might arrive in only about five minutes, there’s not much more that can be done except take shelter underground. It would be different if there was a one- or two-hour advance notice (of an incoming missile),” Yamada said last month at a regular press briefing.
|
north korea;missiles;evacuation;kansai;j-alert
|
jp0000809
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/05/07
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Aussie pair wins annual race up Taipei 101's 2,046 steps
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Taipei - Two Australians on Sunday won this year’s race up Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper, climbing 2,046 steps in the annual “Taipei 101 Run Up.” Some 4,500 runners from 36 countries took part in the race to the 91st floor of the Taipei 101 tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world. Mark Bourne won the men’s event with a time of 11 minutes and 24 seconds. His compatriot, Suzy Walsham, was the fastest woman with a time of 13 minutes and 36 seconds.
|
australia;taiwan;race;taipei 101
|
jp0000810
|
[
"business",
"tech"
] |
2017/05/09
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Sony to launch electroluminescent TV with sound-emitting screen
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Sony Corp. will from June 10 start selling 4K high-definition televisions featuring an organic electroluminescent screen that vibrates to reproduce sound and eliminates the need for conventional speakers. Along with the new sound system, the screen’s ability to display deeper black levels and reproduce images with fewer afterimages compared with a liquid-crystal display panel also make the new Bravia series TVs suitable for viewing movies and sports, the company said Monday. They are expected to retail for around ¥540,000 for the 55-inch model and about ¥864,000 for the 65-inch model. Sony plans to release a 75-inch model later this year.
|
sony;tvs;bravia
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jp0000811
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/05/09
|
Japan's little-known, but significant, role in World War I
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OSAKA - In the midst of debates about whether the Self-Defense Forces should be dispatched to the far corners of the globe to assist a military alliance partner, an obscure episode involving the Imperial Japanese Navy a century ago in the Mediterranean Sea offers key lessons for today’s politicians, bureaucrats and military leaders. In August 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, Japan, deciding to honor the terms of its 1902 alliance with Great Britain, declared war on Germany despite deep misgivings among many in the government and army, who felt Germany would prevail. The war in Europe quickly became a stalemate along the Western Front, with both sides dug into trenches, unable to achieve a decisive victory. By spring 1917, in a war that European politicians originally thought would be over by Christmas 1914, millions had died and there was no end in sight. In Japan, however, what was then called the “Great War” barely registered with the public. Japan had captured the German colony of Tsingtao, in China, in autumn 1914 and had chased the German East Asiatic Squadron out of the Pacific Ocean. The Imperial Japanese Navy had patrolled the South China Sea and had gone as far as the Indian Ocean, but there were no more major battles. Japan had not sent troops to the Western Front and had not yet sent the navy as far as Europe. That, however, changed in April 1917. After Great Britain requested more assistance, Japan decided to initially send eight (and eventually 14) destroyers and a flagship cruiser to assist British ships in the Mediterranean Sea. This task force, named the Second Special Squadron, was based at Malta. Its main mission was to escort British ships traveling between Marseille, France, and Malta; Taranto, Italy, and Malta; and Alexandria, Egypt, and Malta to protect them from German submarines. U-boats had inflicted heavy losses since the war began and had declared unrestricted warfare in February 1917 (a decision that would help end the neutrality of the United States, which officially declared war against Germany that April). Britain’s Royal Navy was operating in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and its resources were stretched thin. “Initial requests by Great Britain for naval cooperation were often declined,” says Garren Mulloy, a British associate professor at Daito Bunka University and an expert on the history of the Self-Defense Forces. “Requests to coordinate activities with Royal Navy squadrons in the Pacific and South Atlantic appeared to be high risk ventures for the Japanese, and detached from Japanese interests. The eventual 1917 deployment of destroyers was a display of solidarity, and also a concession to constant appeals from the Royal Navy, which was being worn down in escort vessels by the resumed unrestricted U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic.” The Second Squadron was officially independent but received its duty orders from the British commander at Malta. By the war’s end in November 1918, it had been dispatched on 348 escort missions, escorting 788 Allied warships and transport ships and about 750,000 personnel around the Mediterranean. During that time the squadron engaged in 34 combat operations and a rescue mission. In his 2015 paper for the National Institute of Defense Studies, Tomoyuki Ishizu notes several episodes. One was when a German U-boat sank the transport ship Transylvania in May 1917. Two Japanese destroyers helped rescue the majority of the 3,300 personnel on board, a feat of bravery that ended with 27 Japanese officers and sailors receiving awards from King George V. Then there was the sinking of the Japanese destroyer Sakaki by an Austrian U-boat in June 1917 off Crete. A total of 59 were killed, including Cmdr. Taichi Uehara, the ship’s captain. The ship would be salvaged and repaired. “With these Japanese activities in the Mediterranean, Adm. G.C. Dickens, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet reported back to the Admiralty that ‘whereas Italians are inefficient, French are unreliable, Greeks are out of the calculation, and Americans are too far away, the Japanese are excellent, but small in number,’ ” Ishizu writes. The contribution in the Mediterranean a century ago is all but forgotten in Japan. But in Malta, there is a memorial at the Commonwealth War Graves to 78 Japanese sailors who perished, including those from the Sakaki. The site still draws some Japanese visitors, especially people with SDF connections. The dispatch itself was a minor footnote in the tragedy of World War I. But historians and military experts say that today’s leaders in Japan looking at an expanded role overseas for the SDF can learn much from it. “The Japanese were highly efficient. But the primary role of destroyers had long been seen as offensive and defensive against large enemy vessels and torpedo boats. Little thought had been given to countering submarines, and the Imperial Japanese Navy made little effort to learn from the bitter British experience in the Mediterranean against U-boat attacks. The navy eventually took on board some Royal Navy anti-submarine warfare practices locally, but these were never absorbed into the Japanese naval doctrine, with tragic results in the Pacific War,” Mulloy says. From a political point of view, he adds, the lesson is do not give the appearance of not wanting to take part in a military operation and then concede the point after much arm-twisting and delay. Ishizu also notes that the lessons learned by the navy in the Mediterranean a century ago, especially submarine and anti-submarine warfare, were neither properly learned nor implemented as policy by the navy as a whole. “Hence, the Second World War in the Pacific,” he writes.
|
history;wwi;imperial japanese navy
|
jp0000812
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/05/30
|
High-profile journalist with close Abe ties accused of rape
|
A 28-year-old woman has accused a former TV reporter, regarded as one of the journalists closest to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, of raping her two years ago. The woman, who only gave her first name as Shiori, alleged in a news conference on Monday that Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief of Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, raped her at a Tokyo hotel on April 4, 2015, when she lost consciousness after having dinner and drinks with Yamaguchi. It is extremely rare in Japan for a woman to go before TV cameras and openly talk about the experience of being raped. She gave the news conference at the Tokyo District Court alongside a lawyer. “I have come to believe I should tell the public how terrible rape is, and how big an impact it can have on your life,” a tearful Shiori said. She said she met Yamaguchi after he offered to help her find a job as a journalist, according to a document handed out at the news conference. It was the first time for them to meet one-on-one, she said. Yamaguchi, who has boasted about his strong friendship with Abe, is known as one of just a few journalists who can make direct phone calls to the prime minister. He has recently published two books detailing inside stories from Abe’s Cabinet. Yamaguchi had often been invited as a political commentator on TV news programs, but he stopped appearing in public after the Shukan Shincho weekly first reported the rape allegations earlier this month. Later Monday on his Facebook page, Yamaguchi responded to the news conference, claiming he has “never done anything illegal.” Police already investigated the allegation for more than one year and eventually decided not to charge him, Yamaguchi wrote. But during the news conference, Shiori said she filed on Monday a request that the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution review the case, seeking the indictment of Yamaguchi. According to Shiori, in 2015 investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Yamaguchi on suspicion of “quasi-rape” after examining footage from a security camera at the hotel and the testimony of the taxi driver who brought the two to the hotel. Under Japanese law, quasi-rape refers to having sex with a woman by taking advantage of her unconsciousness or other conditions. Police officers were ready to arrest Yamaguchi at Narita airport on June 8, 2015, but they ended up letting him walk “because of an instruction” from higher-ranking police officials, Shiori quoted a police officer as saying. At inquest committees, 11 citizens review cases and decide whether or not to urge prosecutors to indict a suspect. To make a recommendation, eight or more members must vote in agreement. Prosecutors can reject the recommendation from the committee once, but if the committee makes the same recommendation a second time, a suspect is automatically indicted and taken to trial.
|
rape;yamaguchi;tbs;shiori
|
jp0000814
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/05/01
|
Rising 'power harassment' scourge now affects 33% of workforce: survey
|
About 1 in 3 workers has had a brush with “power harassment” over the past three years, up from 1 in 4 in the previous poll in 2012, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says. The results show that bullying remains a prevalent problem in companies despite government efforts to improve the nation’s working environment. The results of the poll, released Friday, show that 32.5 percent of the respondents had been on the receiving end of abuses of authority carried out by higher-ranking employees, up 7.2 points from 2012, when the figure was 25.3 percent. However, about 41 percent of those harassed failed to take action, with the majority saying that even if they did, they thought nothing would be done about the problem. Some also refrained from taking action due to fears that it would damage their next job performance evaluation. The survey was conducted on 10,000 workers and 4,587 companies with at least 30 employees between July and October last year. In terms of frequency, 7.8 percent said they had been harassed “many times” and 17.8 percent said they had only experienced it “occasionally.” Power harassment was the most popular topic companies were consulted on by workers, followed by issues like mental health, working conditions (wages and hours), and sexual harassment. Most reported cases of power harassment took the form of psychological attacks, such as verbal abuse or threats, at 73.5 percent, while 21.2 percent took the form of demands. Those who faced power harassment said they felt anger or anxiety and loss of motivation to do their work. Some even visited the doctor and were prescribed medication. Although there has been an increasing awareness of power harassment over the past few years, nearly half of the companies, or 47.4 percent, had not taken preventive measures. The ratio was higher for small companies, at 73.6 percent for those with less than 99 employees and 11.3 percent for those with more than 1,000. The most popular measures companies resorted to was the introduction of consultation meetings and managerial training sessions about power harassment, the survey said. Asked about the positive effects of introducing preventive measures to combat the problem, 43 percent of the responding organizations said they improved the office environment by changing the mindset of the managers. Another 36 percent said it helped employees engage in smoother communications with their superiors. The companies also said the measures reduced the number of employees suffering from mental health problems. Last Friday, the labor ministry formed a panel to discuss measures to prevent power harassment, which was recently dragged back into the spotlight after the overwork-related suicide of 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi at advertising giant Dentsu Inc. Takahashi’s family said their daughter was not only a victim of excessive overtime work, but a power harassment victim as well.
|
surveys;power harassment
|
jp0000815
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/05/01
|
Urban Japan trying its hand at bicycle-sharing
|
The so-called sharing economy has spread to a variety of fields such as cars and homes, and Japan has seen another rising trend in recent years — bicycles. A growing number of municipalities and private firms are providing bikes to gauge whether such services will catch on. Here are some questions and answers about bike-sharing in Japan: Is bicycle-sharing really growing? According to NTT Docomo Inc., which has been teaming up with municipalities to offer a bike-sharing service on an experimental basis, its bicycles were used about 1.8 million times in fiscal 2016, which ended March 31, up from 20,000 in fiscal 2012. Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile phone carrier, is partnering with Koto, Chiyoda, Minato, Chuo, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Ota wards in Tokyo. Around 4,200 two-wheelers were available at 281 “stations” as of March. Docomo also offers bike-sharing in the cities of Yokohama, Sendai, Hiroshima and Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. In November, SoftBank Group Corp., another mobile phone carrier, started providing a system so that other companies can offer a bike-sharing service. The system includes a bicycle lock equipped with GPS and a mobile internet connection, which enable operators to locate rented bikes and users to book them on the internet. East Japan Railway Co. has been providing the sharing service called Suicle since 2013, mainly in western Tokyo. How do such systems work? The operators try to set up their small stations in convenient locations. In general, they require users to become a registered member on their website, a process that includes giving a name, email address and credit card number. When the rider wants to return the bicycle, it must be brought to a designated bike station. The fee is roughly ¥100 to ¥250 per hour, depending on the operator. What are people using bike-sharing for? Docomo says commuting is the most popular use. For instance, people who live far from a train station pick up a bicycle from a bike lot near their home and turn it in at a different one close to the train station. A female user in her 40s interviewed by The Japan Times last week said she has been using Docomo’s service for about a year for commuting in Tokyo. It takes more than an hour to get to her workplace in Koto Ward from her home in Shinagawa Ward by train with two transfers. But she now gets off at an intermediate train station and picks up a shared bike to go to work. This reduces her commuting time to about 45 minutes, she said. “It is more efficient to ride a bike on the way to work,” she said as she was returning a bike at a lot near JR Shinagawa Station. Meanwhile, a customer survey conducted by Minato Ward found that 28 percent, the largest percentage, said they use bike-sharing for sightseeing, followed by 23 percent for shopping and 18 percent for business purposes. Rikito Kobayashi, 30, who works for a real estate company in Minato Ward, said he often rides a shared bike to visit clients located within the ward. He said it’s faster and costs less to use a bike than taking trains for these short business trips. The Shinagawa woman and Kobayashi both said they were satisfied with the service, but it would be more convenient if there were more bike stations. Can foreign travelers use the service? Some bike-sharing operators, including Docomo, have English websites and guides to make the service available for foreign tourists. Where did the idea come from? Katsusuke Nishikawa, director of community transportation in Minato Ward, said the idea of a rental bicycle service was first floated more than a decade ago to tackle the issue of bikes parked illegally. Such bicycles had been an eyesore. They also disturbed pedestrian traffic and blocked the way for blind people and those in wheelchairs, municipal officials say. Nishikawa said times have changed, and the notion of sharing emerged. “We thought we could apply this to bicycles … by sharing bikes, it could be possible to reduce the overall number,” he said. Also, bike-sharing can be regarded as part of public transportation and can improve the efficiency of overall mobility, Nishikawa said. For instance, as seen with the female commuter in Shinagawa Ward, there are cases in which it takes less time to ride a bike than to take a train. The service can also contribute to cutting carbon dioxide emissions and promoting bike tourism, Nishikawa said. Is there a downside? Nishikawa pointed out that one problem with bike-sharing is that while at first blush it may seem to be environmentally friendly, the reality is more complicated. Users returning bicycles tend to concentrate on certain bike stations, so the operator needs to pick up the bikes and redistribute them to other uncrowded spots using trucks, which means extra costs and vehicle exhaust. Hisakazu Tsuboya, president of Docomo Bikeshare Inc., a Docomo subsidiary, agreed, saying that managing the redistribution of shared bicycles is a challenge, as there are now more than 4,000 of them on the streets of Tokyo. “It is getting hard to predict where people will return them compared to when we were running the service with just a few hundred bikes,” he said. Some users may think it would be better if they could return bicycles anywhere. For instance, users of some services in China, such as Mobike and Ofo, can basically return the bikes at any location. But Tsuboya said it should be controlled, as he thinks bike-sharing should be considered a component of public transportation. If people can leave the bikes anywhere, “they will become randomly parked bikes and might cause accidents and other problems,” he said. Will bike-sharing continue to grow? Docomo and Minato Ward officials said they plan to keep and expand the service in the future. However, given that the fee is only a few hundred yen per use, “profitability is very low,” said Nishikawa of Minato Ward. “If we do well, we can probably break even,” said Docomo’s Tsuboya, adding that the firm is trying to find ways to make the service economically sustainable. He said the procurement cost can be lower if the operator prepares a massive number of bikes. Yet the number needs to be controlled if the goal is to make the service part of a well-organized public transportation network.
|
transportation;bicycles;ntt docomo;sharing
|
jp0000816
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/05/06
|
Modi calls new satellite a 'gift to South Asia' but Pakistan stays away
|
NEW DELHI - India on Friday launched a communications satellite for its smaller neighbors to share, part of its efforts to build goodwill in the region and counter Chinese influence, but archrival Pakistan said it will stay away from the project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to office promising to strengthen ties with neighbors such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and even Pakistan, has called the satellite a gift to South Asia. “The successful launch of South Asia Satellite is a historic moment. It opens up new horizons of engagement,” he said soon after an Indian-made rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from the Sriharikota Space Center in southern India. So far Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have signed up to make use of the satellite. Pakistan said it is working on its own satellite and did not join. The South Asia Satellite will offer participating countries television services and communications technology for bank ATMs and e-governance, and may even serve as a backup for cellular networks, especially in places where the terrestrial connectivity is weak, India’s Foreign Ministry said. India is trying to push back against China’s expanding involvement in infrastructure building across South Asia by offering financial and technical aid of its own. Modi said the leaders of the participating countries joined him in a video conference to mark the launch. Ties with Pakistan remain difficult, with the Indian government this week accusing Pakistan of killing and then mutilating the bodies of two soldiers on patrol along the disputed Kashmir border, provoking calls for retribution. Pakistan denied the accusation.
|
india;pakistan;space
|
jp0000818
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/05/06
|
Brazen heists suggest that crime syndicates may be back in business
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Last month, three masked robbers grabbed a suitcase stuffed with cash from a businessman who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Fukuoka. The businessman is believed to have been planning to use the ¥380 million ($3.5 million) to buy gold. In December, gold bars worth ¥600 million ($5 million) were stolen by men disguised as police officers, also in Fukuoka. It’s possible the two crimes are related, with several news outlets and the police suspecting that crime syndicates could be involved. The two thefts total ¥980 million but that pales by comparison to the great ATM heist that was carried out last year. On May 15, 2016, an international gang used forged credit cards based on data leaked from a bank in South Africa to steal ¥1.86 billion from ATMs nationwide. The gang made a series of withdrawals from 1,400 ATMs in less than three hours, with cash-dispensing machines in convenience stores primarily targeted, especially those in Tokyo, Aichi and, not surprisingly, Fukuoka. To date, police have arrested more than 170 people in connection with the case, including members of six different crime syndicates. The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that high-ranking members of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate in Hokkaido coordinated the heists but have yet to prove their case. At an April 19 trial of an Inagawa-kai gang member facing charges of electronic fraud and theft for his role in the heists, prosecutors argued that participants in the crime were given 10 percent of whatever they could withdraw. The rest of the money, they contended, went into the coffers of the Yamaguchi-gumi. What makes this heist so unusual is not just the degree of sophistication involved, but the implication that members of supposedly rival crime syndicates were working closely together. It’s not unheard of for rival syndicates to coexist in peace or even for members of different groups to make a pledge of brotherhood. Indeed, gang bosses have been know to send New Year’s cards to rival syndicates. Sharing money, however, is something else altogether. Several suspects arrested in connection with the case are members of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, which split from the Yamaguchi-gumi on Aug. 27, 2015. And yet the police suspect they were actually working with their bitter rivals when committing the heist despite supposedly being in the middle of a gang war. Atsushi Mizoguchi, an expert on crime syndicates, predicted this state of affairs several years ago. Mizoguchi said gangsters who had been expelled from traditional syndicates would form cross-lateral new groups once their regular revenue streams (gambling, racketeering, etc.) dried up. This appears to be happening to some extent, except the Yamaguchi-gumi still appears to be pulling the strings in major operations. The National Police Agency began a crackdown on the Yamaguchi-gumi in 2009. At that time, the syndicate had about 40,000 registered members, with roughly the same figure making up the numbers in other groups combined. The total number of gang members across all groups has since dropped to half that figure. If the remaining syndicates are now working together under the guidance of the Yamaguchi-gumi, what does that mean? It’s possible the police may have accomplished what some feared: the crackdown has simply given the Yamaguchi-gumi a monopoly on organized crime and driven its rivals out of business. In 2015, the National Police Agency surveyed police officers in the field and asked them about the state of organized crime. The majority believed the yakuza were not only maintaining power and influence but perhaps even growing stronger. The Yamaguchi-gumi has restructured. It has shed unprofitable and risky side businesses, tossed out restrictions on crimes that were formerly frowned upon, created new revenue streams involving complicated financial transactions and moved on to theft, larceny and armed robbery. The syndicate has adapted to the times and is still in business. With casinos heading for legalization, the Yamaguchi-gumi and its affiliates appear to have a bright future ahead. Crime syndicates understand how to generate money from gambling. The name yakuza itself ( ya-ku-za , or 8-9-3) is a losing hand in a form of Baccarat. Despite its modest name, however, crime syndicates rarely lose — especially the Yamaguchi-gumi. It has outlasted most Japanese companies and business is booming. Perhaps an IPO isn’t out of the question?
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yamaguchi-gumi;yakuza;organized crime;national police agency;fukuoka;crime syndicates
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jp0000820
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/05/06
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Japan Times 1917: 'Tampering with mail at the Post Office'
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100 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 31 1917 Tampering with mail at the Post Office An extraordinary case of wanton mischief by Post Office employes was recently revealed by Mr. K. Ishikawa of Azabu, who made a formal complaint to the director of mails of the Department of Communications. Mr. Ishikawa contends that the Post Office employees have purposely crossed out the address written on a registered letter and written an entirely different address. Mr. Ishikawa sent a registered letter to a friend in South Manchuria on May 10, but the letter did not reach the destination at the proper time, and he made repeated requests to the Post Offices to trace the letter. The Post Office which received the registered packet duly forwarded it, but no trace of the letter could be found. However on the evening of May 25, the registered letter in question came back to the original sender, bearing a note from the Post Office that the addressee could not be found at the address written on the envelope. Mr. Ishikawa looked at the letter, and found that “South Manchuria” originally written on the envelope was crossed out with red ink, and “Formosa” was written by its side. The letter went to Formosa consequently, and came back to Tokyo undelivered. The receipt given Mr. Ishikawa at the Azabu Post Office says that the letter is for a person in South Manchuria, and consequently it must be someone in the Post Office who changed the address written on the envelope. The miscarriage of mails often happens, but the practice of changing the address written on letters is a most extraordinary outrage on the part of the Post Office. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, May 8, 1942 Japan forces defeat U.S. at Corregidor fortress The much-vaulted invulnerability of Corregidor in the Philippines was proven false, as the fortress, firmly entrenched by the American-Filipino troops was completely reduced by Japanese attacking forces Thursday, according to an Imperial headquarters communique issued at 5:50 p.m. on the same day. The communique reads: “Imperial Japanese Army and Navy forces in the Philippine area succeeded in effecting a forced landing on the island fortress of Corregidor at 11:15 p.m. on May 5 and then completely reduced the island and all forts on other islands at the mouth of Manila Bay at 8 a.m. on May 7.” The fugitive American-Filipino troops, who were defeated in the Bataan Peninsula by Japanese forces on April 11, had been offering useless resistance on Corregidor subsequently. They, however, had been exposed to the devastating bombings of the Army and Navy Air Forces almost every day since. Their defeat was a mere question of time. The landing in the face of enemy resistance by the daring Japanese Army and Navy units at 11:15 p.m. on May 5 finally dealt the finishing blow to the enemy. Unable to resist the furious onset of the Japanese forces, the whole island as well as its neighboring fort-isles was completely reduced on Thursday. This was the 27th day since the capitulation of the Bataan Peninsula. As a result, the whole region of Luzon, to which this island belongs, has been occupied by Japanese forces. The advance base of the American operation in East Asia thus has been completely upset. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, May 26, 1967 Mount Fuji is losing its symmetric outline The government plans to take steps to save the symmetric outline of Mount Fuji, symbolic of Japan’s scenic beauty, which is slowly being disfigured by a creeping landslide near the crater. Construction Minister Eiichi Nishimura Thursday instructed his men to study a remedy immediately in cooperation with experts of the Agriculture-Forestry Ministry. The landslide started more than a dozen years ago on its western slope. It has slowly but steadily spread so that now the landslide is 500 meters in width, 2,800 meters in length and 125 meters in maximum depth. Already the disfiguration of the mountain is clearly visible from the southern, western and eastern foothills. The ministry has built two retaining walls in the western foothills of the mountain to keep the moving earth from sliding further. However, more drastic and gigantic construction work near the peak will be necessary. Concrete embankments on both sides of the sliding area or retaining walls at intervals of about 50 meters on the slope are, at present, considered to combat the landslide. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, May 19, 1992 Tokyo residents avoid talking to foreigners About 60 percent of Tokyo residents said they do not want to become acquainted with foreigners, according to a survey on living conditions released Monday. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government last November interviewed 3,000 Japanese living in Tokyo age 20 or older. There were 2,106 responses. The questions included working and living conditions, and lifestyles of Tokyo residents. Older Tokyo women showed the greatest reluctance to associate with foreigners. About 73 percent of women in their 70s said they would prefer to avoid such associations. Metropolitan government officials blamed language barriers for the desire to remain separate from foreigners. “We think the result does not mean the Japanese dislike foreigners, but they hesitate to talk to foreigners because they cannot speak foreign languages,” an information official claimed. If asked by foreigners for directions, however, 69 percent said they would try and help.
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tokyo;discrimination;post office;philippines . wwii;mail;mount fuj
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jp0000821
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/05/15
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Medical big data to be pooled for disease research and drug development in Japan
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Last month a bill aimed at facilitating medical research through the use of patient records stored at medical institutions cleared the Diet. The law, commonly called Jisedai Iryo-kiban Ho — roughly translated as the next-generation medical infrastructure law — will allow medical big data to be pooled anonymously so it can be utilized for research into diseases and the development of new drugs. Here are some basic questions and answers on the new law, which is set to come into effect by next May . Why is this law needed? Despite the nation being ranked the world’s No. 1 for longevity, many people in Japan spend the last 10 years or so of their lives mobility-impaired or bedridden. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to prolong people’s healthy life expectancy and also make the nation’s health care sector a “growth industry.” Medical records of people who receive care at hospitals and clinics have remained largely untapped due to privacy concerns and the difficulty of handling sensitive data. But the government believes they can be put to better use if they are made anonymous, with the goal of spurring drug development and other medical innovations. Do researchers have access to medical records now? Researchers have always studied individual patients, looking at areas such as the effects of drugs and disease conditions, with their consent. Moreover, all medical fee records, which refer to requests for fee reimbursements filed by hospitals and clinics for procedures performed under the nation’s universal health care system, have been available for research. But such records, known as reseputo , only provide information on medical procedures that were performed and drugs prescribed, and not on the outcome of the treatment. “The analysis of ‘input’ information, such as shots, surgeries and prescriptions, has been possible, but data on their outcomes have not been utilized,” said Toshihisa Okamoto, a counselor at the office of health care policy at the Cabinet Secretariat. “The outcome data should be made available for analysis, so each patient can get the best care they need.” Revisions to the Law on the Protection of Personal Information that came into effect this month have, in fact, enabled the use of clinical records for research without asking for a patient’s consent. But to use such data, each hospital and clinic is responsible for making its data anonymous by deleting patients’ names and other privacy information, which is seen as cumbersome when their primary job is providing health care. Okamoto said examples of research to be made possible under the new law include a more comprehensive review of the side effects of drugs. Currently, hospitals and drugmakers are required by law to report to authorities severe incidents following the prescription of a drug. But such reports are not comprehensive, as it is ultimately up to each facility to decide which cases to report. Okamoto said if raw data on a drug’s side effects are made available, it would be possible to better grasp the effect of different drugs, and to compare the harmful data of one drug against other drugs within the same patient group, for example. How will the framework work? The new law will allow hospitals and clinics to provide patient data to private-sector companies to be accredited by the state. Such companies will be responsible for making the data anonymous and searchable. The system is not mandatory, meaning that only hospitals that want to provide such data to companies can. The accredited data companies will store and make patient information anonymous, and will provide them to academic researchers, drug companies or government agencies for a fee, Okamoto said. Hospitals and clinics that want to provide such information can do so by informing patients beforehand. Patients can opt out if they do not wish to participate, he added. “The point is that the system is voluntary, and it is not aiming to collect the personal data of 130 million people in Japan,” he said. “Even if it’s a tiny portion of all medical data available, it could be used for research if the amount of information provided is statistically significant enough.” What type of information will be covered by the law? All clinical records, including a summary of conditions, prescriptions written by doctors and visual data such as MRI scans, will be included. One thing to note is that the data must be electronic. Handwritten memos by doctors or health data currently kept on paper — such as the results of health checkups held at schools — cannot be used. As of 2014, only 34.2 percent of all hospitals and 35 percent of all clinics in Japan kept clinical records electronically, according to the health ministry. Are there any dangers of personal data leaks? Privacy protection is key, especially with medical data, which are highly sensitive. Okamoto said the government will start the project small, accrediting only a small number of trustworthy operators. The Cabinet Office, the science ministry, the health ministry and the industry ministry will jointly screen each of the applications for accreditation, and the accredited data businesses will be required to take numerous measures to prevent data leaks, both through cyberattacks and through thefts of information by employees. Specifically, the accredited data companies will need to safeguard themselves from possible data theft by employees by having them sign confidentiality agreements and rigidly recording their entry into data rooms, including through security cameras. Employees who violate the regulations will be criminally punished. To avoid the kind of cyberattacks that led to the leak of 1.25 million cases of personal data at the Japan Pension Service in 2015, the core system that contains a personal information database will also need to be completely separated from the internet, Okamoto said.
|
drugs;research;diseases;law;medical records
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jp0000823
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/05/13
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Japan's fisheries still swimming upstream
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In March, the internet news site Videonews.com posted a conversation between environmental journalist Tetsuji Ida and Waseda University researcher Yasuhiro Sanada, who writes about fisheries . During the talk, Sanada said that whaling is a “dead industry,” and seemed to think that the ongoing controversy over Japan’s official research whaling policy is a red herring. The Nippon Research Center says that 95 percent of Japanese people consume whale very rarely or never at all . Whaling only employs about 1,000 people. And regardless of the questionable morality of Japan’s research whaling program, it only kills several hundred whales a year, which doesn’t have much of an impact, environmentally or otherwise . Hiroki Ose, a commentator for NHK, elaborated on this theme in a blog post on April 20 . Japan’s fishing interests are sensitive to international criticism because of whaling, he said, and this sensitivity is shared by the public, which tends to get defensive when it hears non-Japanese complain about Japan’s seafood industry. As a result, other contentious issues regarding Japanese fishing are seen as Japan- bashing. Both men were talking independently about a different subject: the overfishing of bluefin tuna, a problem for which Japan is mainly responsible. Japan consumes about 80 percent of the bluefin caught in the world , and though the country’s appetite for kuromaguro is described in its media as being voracious, it’s not a negative characterization, because the environmental effects of that appetite are rarely mentioned. So when people hear through news reports that international organizations are calling for stricter catch limitations and even moratoriums on tuna fishing, they feel as if their way-of-life is being threatened. “I’ve been to many international conferences about whaling,” Sanada said. “And, actually, they’re quite amicable. But at international meetings about bluefin tuna, everyone is antagonistic toward Japan.” The particulars of this antagonism, however, are almost never conveyed to the Japanese public. One obstacle to understanding is the Japan branch of the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean (ISC), an organization within the Fisheries Agency that manages policy for bluefin tuna. According to Ida, the ISC was specifically established to draw attention away from complaints by the international community about Japan’s tuna consumption, which, he said, is unsustainable. “We eat tuna everyday,” said Ida, “without realizing that it’s almost extinct.” Stocks of bluefin in the world now stand at only 2.6 percent of what they were in the late 1970s, before catches were monitored. “We ate the rest,” he added wryly. Countries such as Mexico and Croatia are expanding bluefin tuna farms to satisfy Japanese demand, but cultivated tuna makes up a very small portion of the Japanese market. Fishermen in both the Atlantic and the Pacific still hunt the fish using huge seine nets, which tend to catch young fish as well as old ones. That means many are caught before they have a chance to breed, thus accelerating the species’ decimation. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) prohibits the catching of fish that are less than 30 kilograms. Bluefin are about 3 years old at that weight, and only 20 percent are sexually mature. There is now a movement to change the limit to 85 kg, when the fish are about 5 years old. The problem in the Pacific is that almost all the tuna is caught by Japan, and the ISC, which is supposed to monitor the catch, doesn’t seem to be doing that. Though the Fisheries Agency, in line with international rules, limits catches in the Pacific, there are no penalties for violations. So when Sanada says that the ICCAT and other organizations complain about Japan, it’s ISC they are griping about, despite the committee’s purposely low profile. The ISC’s home page doesn’t even list an address. What angers international groups is that Japan doesn’t act in concert with the rest of the world. Because tuna travel long distances, they are a resource that needs to be managed globally. Japan, which dominates Pacific fishing interests, should be at the forefront of conservation efforts, but other countries have to apply pressure in order for Japan to come up with its own viable solutions or follow those implemented by international organizations to which it belongs. Generally speaking, the Fisheries Agency, when it does act, does so from an adversarial stance. When Atlantic bluefin stocks were dropping, Japan complained to the ICCAT that it wasn’t doing enough to control Atlantic fishermen, most of whom are European. The ICCAT responded through strict quota enforcement and by temporarily banning seine fishing. Stocks eventually improved. Now the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has the same complaint about Japan, which doesn’t sufficiently uphold the WCPFC’s quotas and provides dodgy data, according to Ida. The Fisheries Agency’s main mission is to protect Japan’s coastal fishing industry , not the tuna themselves, though the agency doesn’t say so outright. Meanwhile, the Japanese public is oblivious to the controversy and enjoys tuna on a daily basis thanks to deflationary pressure. TV food shows prioritize tuna that everyone can afford but nevertheless the media saves its most hyperbolic praise for high-end product, most of which is caught by line-and-reel fishermen who bag one fish at a time in man-on-tuna battles worthy of Hemingway and which make for exciting TV specials . That image is misleading, however, since the vast bulk of tuna sold in stores comes from seine fishing. Tuna caught in nets en masse also aren’t processed as quickly as fish caught individually with a line, and thus don’t taste as fresh. This is the most significant aspect of tuna commerce — that in order to satisfy Japan’s appetite for its most prized delicacy, merchants give consumers an inferior product. That few of them understand the difference says a lot about that appetite.
|
tuna;fisheries;wcpfc;bluefin;iccat;isc;maguro;yasuhiro sanada;tesuji ida
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jp0000826
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/05/25
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Printed rocket makes history
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WELLINGTON - Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space launch company, on Thursday launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3-D-printed rocket from New Zealand’s remote Mahia Peninsula. “Made it to space. Team delighted,” Rocket Lab said on its official Twitter account. The successful launch of a low cost, 3-D-printed rocket is an important step in the commercial race to bring down financial and logistical barriers to space while also making New Zealand an unlikely space hub. The Los Angeles and New Zealand-based rocket firm has touted its service as a way for companies to get satellites into orbit regularly. “Our focus with the Electron has been to develop a reliable launch vehicle that can be manufactured in high volumes — our ultimate goal is to make space accessible by providing an unprecedented frequency of launch opportunities,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and chief executive in a statement. The firm had spent the past four years preparing for the test launch and last week received the go-ahead from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which is monitoring the flight. Bad weather had delayed the rocket from taking off three times this week. New Zealand has created new rocket legislation and set up a space agency in anticipation of becoming a low-cost space hub. Ships and planes need rerouting every time a rocket is launched, which limits opportunities in crowded U.S. skies, but New Zealand, a country of 4 million people in the South Pacific, has only Antarctica to its south. The country is also well-positioned to send satellites bound for a north-to-south orbit around the poles. But many locals in the predominantly Maori community were not happy with access to public areas blocked. “People come to Mahia so they can go to the beach, and it’s been chopped off now, and by the sounds of it one of these rockets are going to be launching one every 30 days, so they’ve taken over our lifestyle,” said Mahia farmer Pua Taumata. But Taumata also said the program could bring opportunities. “I’m for technology. … A lot of things could come of it through education. It gives our children something different in their careers. Nobody thought to get into the space industry (before now),” he said. Rocket Lab is one of about 30 companies and agencies worldwide developing small satellite launchers as an alternative to firms jostling for space on larger launches or paying around $50 million for a dedicated service. The company said in a statement it has now received $148 million in funding and is valued in excess of $1 billion. Rocket Lab’s customers include NASA, the Earth-imaging firm Planet and the startups Spire and Moon Express. The firm will carry out two more tests before it starts commercial operations, slated to begin toward the end of this year.
|
space;new zealand;spacex
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jp0000829
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/02/04
|
Honesty is the best policy for lost property
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Last month, I withdrew some money — ¥100,000 to be precise — from an ATM near Tokyo’s Shibuya Station. I was on my way to a meeting and was in such a hurry that, while remembering to grab my bank card and receipt, I completely forgot to collect the cash from the machine — 10 crisp ¥10,000 notes. It wasn’t until I was paying for some pancakes after lunch that I realized my wallet was considerably lighter than it should have been and retraced my steps. A telephone operator on the other end of the help line at the ATM informed me that no money had been handed in and advised me to go to the police. I filled out an incident report at the Shibuya Police Box and recalled the sequence of events to an officer, who then made a few futile telephone calls. He handed me a case number and told me not to lose it. At this point, I was resigned to the fact that I’d just lost about $1,000. At 10 a.m. the next day, I received a call from the Shibuya Police Station. “Did you lose anything yesterday?” a voice at the other end of the line asked me. “Yes,” I replied, somewhat surprised. “I did.” “What did you lose?” the officer asked. “One hundred thousand yen in cash,” I replied. “At an ATM.” I went over the sequence of events again at the officer’s request before he said: “Money doesn’t usually have a name attached to it, so do you have anything to prove it’s your cash?” I informed the officer that I had a receipt that showed I had withdrawn ¥100,000 from the ATM at 9:49 a.m. “OK, please come to the station before 5:15 p.m., go to the Accounting Division, ask for me, and bring some identification and your receipt.” I went to the station around noon and after filling out one more piece of paper, they handed me back the cash. “I’d like to leave a reward for the person who handed it in,” I told the officer. The officer replied that the person who found the money declined any claim on a reward and asked to remain anonymous. And that was that. So before I go any further: Dear do-gooder with no name — thanks! People often say how honest Japanese people tend to be and how often lost items are returned (umbrellas, of course, being the only exception — I think we can safely say they’re communal property). I’ve heard stories of shop staff chasing customers who forget to take their change down the street. Mark Karpeles, founder of Mt. Gox Co., once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange until it collapsed in 2014, also marveled at the honesty of many people in Japan. “When I first arrived (in Japan), sometimes I’d absentmindedly leave my laptop on a park bench and I was amazed that it would still be there when I came back. Or people would run after me with the laptop and give it back.” (From a cybersecurity perspective, a CEO who leaves his laptop on a park bench may not in fact be the best guy to handle millions of dollars’ worth of crypto-currency transactions but that’s another story altogether.) So why are Japanese people so good about turning in lost items? According to the Kyoto Police Department, people who find lost items can either return it directly to the owner or take it to the nearest police station. If you wait more than a week before doing either of these things, you lose your right to collect a reward. This encourages people to turn lost items in quickly. Anyone who finds an item of lost property is entitled to three things by law. First, they earn a right to a reward. Moreover, if no one claims the item after three months, the person who hands in an item of lost property becomes its owner (except when mobile phones, credit cards and other items containing personal information are involved). Finally, if for some reason costs were incurred in taking care of the item, the finder is also entitled to be reimbursed. In fact, Article 28 of the Lost Property Act states that a person who has lost an item must pay a reward to the finder of between 5 percent and 20 percent of the value of the object. People who find lost property must request a reward within one month. In my case, I would have gladly paid a reward. There is no penalty for not honoring the legal obligation, but who would be such an ungrateful cad? Some argue that honesty is its own reward, but people who hand in lost property in Japan could potentially receive a little bit extra for their trouble. If you find a wallet on the subway, therefore, be sure to do the right thing — the pay-off is usually worth it.
|
theft;mt . gox;mark karpeles;honesty
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jp0000830
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/02/04
|
Japan Times 1942: 'Roosevelt orders aliens to abandon homes'
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100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Feb. 7 1917 ‘Moshi moshi’ girls in Tokyo to be increased The telephone service was inaugurated in Japan in 1890 and at first the general public little appreciated this convenient medium of communication. Strange to say, there prevailed at that time a queer superstition among people that a man who should have a telephone installed would fall a victim to an epidemic and despite the efforts of the authorities to invite subscribers, it is on record how only 155 persons applied for telephone connections. Time has changed all this, for the number of installed telephones totals some 43,000 now, and the number of applications for connection is far in excess of the number of installations that the authorities can undertake. There are nine exchanges in Tokyo at present where about 2,600 telephone girls are at work, and the number of conversations on the telephone in Tokyo averages some 1 million per day. In this connection it is said that geisha houses make the best use of telephones of all subscribers of the different professions. It is understood that the Department of Communications proposes to start soon the training of telephone operatives at the rate of 230 girls every month for the ensuing year, “as the result of which the number of telephone girls in Tokyo exchanges will be increased to 3,000 within this year. The authorities also plan to considerably increase the number of instruments at work to meet the increasing requirements and altogether ¥180,000 will be spent for the improvement of the telephone system. 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1942 Roosevelt orders aliens to abandon homes President Franklin Roosevelt’s high-handed action ordering 10,000 aliens residing chiefly in the West Coast of the United States to abandon their homes has deeply shocked Christian circles in Japan, according to Domei. “This is one of the cruelest acts ever inflicted upon a helpless minority and it is one of the most dastardly acts ever carried out by a so-called Christian nation,” Domei said. Pointing out that Roosevelt’s action has brought a vehement protest from his own people, with the American Civil Liberties Union protesting against the executive order as “unprecedented and founded on no specific evidence of need,” Domei maintains that this is definite proof Roosevelt has at last seen fit to disregard all canons of decent humanitarian behavior and has decided to ignore the people’s guaranteed constitutional rights and ruthlessly carry out his policies regardless of protests. Christian quarters here, moreover, pointed out that many of those aliens, who were ordered to move, will lose all means of learning livelihood, while many will lose fruits of honest hard work. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, Feb. 17 1967 Police seek suspect for Tokyo airport bombing A warrant of arrest issued Thursday for Atsushi Aono, 22, charging him with attempted murder in the explosion that injured two man Wednesday evening at Tokyo International Airport terminal. The motive remained a mystery but police believed he had attempted to destroy an All Nippon Airways plane and kill a friend whose seat was booked under Aono’s name. There were no clues as to the whereabouts of Aono who disappeared from the airport shortly before the explosion. The explosion, which occurred in the men’s rest room adjacent to the Sky Room Restaurant shortly after 7 p.m., ripped a hole in the floor, smashed the ceiling, tiled walls and stools and damaged mirrors and the ceiling of the women’s rest room. Investigation revealed that the suspect and his unidentified girlfriend took Honda into the rest room. Aono left the rest room before Honda, leaving his briefcase behind. The blast occurred soon after Aono came out of the rest room, police said. The three appeared in the airport lobby an hour before the explosion and Aono reserved a seat in an All Nippon Airways 8:30 p.m. flight to Osaka after finding that no seats were available for Nagoya. Aono disappeared from the lobby when the blast occurred and the flight left for Osaka without Aono, police said. Police were certain the explosive had been dynamite. Honda told police Aono had asked him to fly to Osaka with the briefcase with the promise that he would be paid ¥200,000 later for the trouble. He said he refused the trip when he was told the briefcase contained a time bomb. It was then that Aono took him to the rest room. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Feb. 15, 1992 Four executives seized in Tokyo Sagawa case Four executives were arrested Friday on suspicion of aggravated breach of trust resulting in huge losses for the trucking firm Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin. Sources close to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office identified those arrested as former Tokyo Sagawa President, Hiroyasu Watanabe, 57; a former company director, Jun Saotome, 53; Heiwado Realty President Yasuo Matsuzawa; and Michio Ouchi, a chief accountant of golf course developer Ichihara Kanko Co. Watanabe and Saotome are accused of extending up to ¥500 billion in interest-free and collateral-free loans and loan guarantees to Heiwado and Ichihara Kanko group companies in full knowledge that the money would not be repaid, the sources said. The investigation is also expected to focus on alleged flow of the parcel delivery firm’s money to the underworld and to numerous politicians. Watanabe and Saotome are believed to have been interrogated at the start of the probe, which has involved raids since Thursday on over a dozen locations, including those linked to the Inagawa-kai underworld syndicate. In loans and loan guarantees, about ¥100 billion was allegedly provided to companies affiliated with Susume Ishii, the late head of Inagawa-kai, who allegedly used some of the money on stock speculation and development of golf courses and resorts.
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wwii;history;terrorism;phones;franklin roosevelt;internment;japanese-americans;communications;atsushi aono;tokyo sagawa
|
jp0000831
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/02/05
|
Art of the drug deal? Seized heroin bore Trump's image
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BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA - It might be called the art of the drug deal: Florida authorities seized scores of individually wrapped heroin packets stamped with the image of President Donald Trump. The Tampa Bay Times reports law enforcement officers seized the heroin Jan. 27 in Hernando County. Some of the packets bore the names or likenesses of other notorious figures, such as Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. Authorities couldn’t explain the markings’ purpose. Dealers often stamp heroin bags with street “brand names.” The bust netted about 5,550 heroin doses altogether. Police arrested 46-year-old Kelvin Scott Johnson on suspicion of heroin trafficking and other charges. His bail is set at $75,000. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the dealer “made a big mistake” using Trump’s picture.
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drugs;florida;donald trump
|
jp0000833
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/02/02
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Japan wins cost cuts from U.S. on F-35 fighter jet package
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Tokyo has secured cost cuts on support equipment for its next batch of six U.S. F-35 stealth fighter aircraft of around $100 million, according to sources and Japanese budget papers, on top of savings being finalized for all buyers of the high-tech jets. The deal represents a rare case of Tokyo talking down the price of military hardware from its U.S. ally and underscores progress for the Lockheed Martin Corp.-run F-35 program, which has faced criticism for cost overruns and other problems. U.S. President Donald Trump, who called the program as “out of control” in December, said on Monday he had been able to shave some $600 million from the latest U.S. deal to buy about 90 F-35s from Lockheed. But defense analysts and sources downplayed news of the cuts, saying the discount hailed by Trump was in line with what had been flagged by Lockheed for months and would apply to other countries committed to the program. Lockheed and the Pentagon did not directly respond to questions regarding the Japanese deal. A representative for the U.S. Defense Department office that runs the F-35 program said negotiations over the current batch of fighters, known in the industry as the LRIP 10, were continuing. “For every nation that buys an F-35 in LRIP 10, the base price of the F-35 will be the lowest in F-35 history,” Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein said. The price of the F-35 has been dropping with each new batch as Lockheed and the U.S. government ramp up production, helping to lower overall costs. Four sources told Reuters that Japan had further trimmed the price for its latest order, largely on ground support costs such as parts, logistics and technical assistance. “We went through each item in detail and negotiated with the U.S.,” said one of the sources in Japan with knowledge of talks. In a budget request last year, the Defense Ministry pegged the price of the six F-35s at ¥15.7 billion ($136.81 million) each. That had been cut to ¥14.6 billion when the budget was approved in December, in line with the 6 to 7 percent per plane reduction flagged by the Pentagon late last year. The cost of support equipment dropped significantly, to ¥30.9 billion from ¥42.3 billion, according to the publicly available documents. Cost cuts on such deals are typically done by removing some equipment or swapping out expensive components for cheaper ones. Officials from a new Japanese defense procurement agency and Pentagon personnel met several times in Tokyo between August and December before agreeing on the lower price, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. The total cost for the Japanese deal was just over $1 billion, around 12 percent lower than budgeted in August. The cost to the United States for its latest F-35 contract is expected to be around $9 billion, with the price per plane falling below $100 million. Japan’s higher budgeted per aircraft costs of around $128 million include the engines and additional funds to have 38 of the 42 F-35s it plans to buy assembled in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Japan does not buy the fighters directly from Lockheed but from the U.S. government through its Foreign Military Sales system, which Washington uses to keep tight control on sensitive military equipment. The U.S. government typically charges a 3.8 percent sales fee for those transactions. Until now Japan has rarely questioned the price of equipment purchased from its U.S. ally, making it a lucrative market for the likes of Lockheed, Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Co. Japan is equipping its military with American equipment to help reinforce maritime holdings along the southern edge of the East China Sea where it is locked in a dispute over territory with Beijing. In addition to the F-35s, Japan is buying the Bell Boeing Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk drone. Japan’s splurge on U.S. equipment has put a strain on its finances. In 2016 procurement through the Foreign Military Sales system totaled ¥485.8 billion, compared with ¥117.9 billion three years earlier. Tokyo will begin deploying the first of its stealth fighters around the end of this year.
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u.s .;f-35;lockheed martin;japan;mhi;donald trump
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jp0000834
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/02/20
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Redefining Japan's 'seniors' to older age may free up still agile workforce
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When do you become a senior citizen? That’s an increasingly important question in Japan, demographically the world’s oldest nation, where the challenge is to keep people healthy and productive as they live longer. The answer should be 75, 10 years older than many people think now, according to two groups of medical experts who specialize in aging. People aged 65-74 ought to be thought of as “pre-old,” the Japan Gerontological Society and the Japan Geriatrics Society said in a report last month. “Old” would be better defined as 75-89, and a special label of “super-old” could be adopted for people 90 and above, they said. While these experts approached the subject chiefly from a medical viewpoint, applying these definitions to the labor force could have profound economic implications, boosting the number of potential workers by more than 10 million. Thanks to better nutrition, health care and sanitation, today’s senior citizens are much fitter than past generations, and labeling them as retirees is a waste, said Yasuyoshi Ouchi, one of the architects of the report. “There are many people who are older than 65 and are healthy and energetic,” said Ouchi, who himself is active at 68. “They are willing to contribute to the society by working, whether paid or unpaid.” A government survey of nearly 4,000 people age 60 and over found that 51 percent didn’t consider themselves senior citizens. Most said that the label should be for people 70 and older. Faced with a shrinking labor force and rising welfare costs, the government is gradually raising the starting age for receiving pension payments from 60 to 65. Ouchi, a medical doctor who is president of Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo, said it wasn’t his intention to provide political cover for delaying pensions. The aim of working longer is to stay active and healthy, and to contain soaring medical costs while lightening the burden on younger generations, he said.
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survey;pension;aging;elderly;workforce
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jp0000835
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/02/20
|
Overworked Japan slowly adopting fixed rest hours to put an end to 'karoshi'
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Amid intense pressure to reform the country’s work culture, the government and businesses are looking at mandating a “rest” period between the end of one workday and the start of the next. Some companies have begun testing a rest interval system, while the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to subsidize firms that adopt the system starting in April. The following are questions and answers about the concept. What is the interval system? Essentially it is a system whereby workers must take a minimum number of hours rest between when they finish work one day and start back at work the next day. Member nations of the European Union, for example, require that workers have at least 11 hours of rest. Japan currently has no law requiring workers to take a certain number of hours’ rest between shifts. Are many companies using the interval system now? No. According to a survey conducted by Mizuho Information and Research Institute between December 2015 and January 2016, only 2.2 percent of the 1,743 firms canvassed had a fixed-time rest rule. Does the government plan to make it a regulation like the EU? Not at this point. Katsunobu Kato, minister in charge of labor reform, told a Diet session last Friday that Japan “does not have an environment where punitive measures for breaking the rule can be introduced,” citing the low percentage of firms that require fixed hours of rest. But it is encouraging companies to voluntarily pursue the initiative from fiscal 2017, which starts April 1. The health ministry has a ¥2 billion budget to provide subsidies of up to ¥500,000 to small and midsize firms that try out the fixed-time rest rule. According to the ministry’s website, companies looking to apply for the subsidies need to implement at least a nine-hour rest. Why is Japan now pursuing fixed rest hours? Traditionally, Japanese culture had viewed long working hours as virtuous and proof of job dedication. But such views are becoming obsolete. Long working hours have recently drawn intense scrutiny following the high-profile 2015 suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old first-year worker at advertising giant Dentsu Inc. Last September, the labor standard inspection office in Tokyo recognized her death as karoshi (death by overwork). The death threw the issue of overwork into the public spotlight. “We must correct the culture of working too much through labor reform. By doing that, people can enjoy their lives and we can prevent cases of karoshi,” Prime Minister Abe said on Jan. 30 during a Diet session. What are the views of companies with the interval system? Tokyo-based major mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. introduced the rule covering some employees in 2012 and expanded it to everyone except managers in 2015. The firm requires employees to take at least eight hours — and ideally 11 — of rest between shifts in order to have a healthy life. The system is among measures meant to change the work mindset of employees, a goal considered “the biggest priority,” said Tatsuo Moteki, payroll manager at KDDI Corp.’s human resources department. “The mindset needs to shift to how to produce value within a limited time. Otherwise, there will be various demerits, such as not being able to attract quality personnel from overseas,” said Moteki. Unicharm Corp., a Tokyo-based manufacturer of child care and household products, introduced a rest interval of at least eight hours in January. Like KDDI, Unicharm introduced the system to increase productivity within a limited time, said Yukinari Watanabe, senior manager at Unicharm’s global HR and administration division. By having more leisure time, they can live healthier lives and engage in self-enriching activities — a plus for the company, said Watanabe. Both KDDI and Unicharm said there were concerns the interval system could disrupt business because the rule might lead to lost opportunities during busy seasons. “Some people said that long work hours are sometimes essential when pursuing the best outcome,” said Watanabe. “It’s a valid point that people need to work long hours to produce results, but such working styles won’t last forever. The company and employees both have to try to seek ways to get their jobs done within the rules.” Asked if the eight-hour rest that includes commuting time is enough, the two firms said it was a minimum requirement. Unicharm’s Watanabe said the firm hoped to increase the eight-hour minimum in the future. What impact has the rule had on these firms? KDDI said the carrier didn’t have that many workers putting in long overtime hours before it adopted the system. The system has, however, allowed KDDI to manage its personnel differently — from how much they are working to how much they are resting. Moteki said the firm had been aware of how many hours a month employees were working before fixed-time rest was introduced. Their overtime levels had not exceeded the legal limit, but when the company looked into how much rest employees were taking, it realized that about 20 employees per month didn’t meet the interval rule on about 15 days. “We now see people in ways we didn’t see before,” so the company can offer them help before they start to have health trouble, said Moteki. Unicharm and KDDI admitted that while the cultural norm of long working hours is changing, some employees still have that mindset. Watanabe said that it’s still too early to see visible effects from the new policy, adding the firm needed to make employees more aware of why the rules to get enough rest were necessary.
|
health;jobs;overwork;karoshi
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jp0000836
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/02/18
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'Moving Zen' and the modern samurai
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“Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought.” — Tsunetomo Yamamoto, “Hagakure” (circa 1710) Hyogo resident Isao Machii is an iaido master — a specialist in the art of drawing a blade from its scabbard. In feudal Japan, dueling was ritualized and two samurai would typically face each other with their swords sheathed at their sides and bow before fighting. Think of Clint Eastwood facing off against some adversary in a spaghetti Western, except with a little more refinement. Just as a gunslinger’s ability to draw a pistol quickly was key to determining the outcome of a duel, so it was with swords. The samurai elevated the practice of dueling to an art form. Iaido is about being supremely aware of your surroundings, psychologically primed for action, and inhabiting the “now.” It is about purity of motion, precision and fluidity. In a nutshell, it is “moving Zen.” Machii can move with incredible speed. I first saw him on YouTube facing a pitching machine that was cranked up faster than usual. He stands, hand on the hilt of his sword, as a baseball is pitched at him at more than 160 kilometers per hour. Before you know it, Machii has drawn his blade and sliced the ball in two. There’s another video of Machii facing someone firing a BB gun at him. The pellet is moving toward him at 350 kilometers per hour, but he is still able to draw his sword and strike it. Machii has been hailed as a samurai legend and a real-life manga superhero. He seems to have what amounts to a sixth sense for divining the path of a moving object and can react much faster than a normal person. In cognitive psychology, reaction time is used to measure mental chronometry. In its simplest form this refers to the processing time of cognitive operations, or, in other words, the time between a signal (eg. the firing of a gun) and the reaction elicited in response to the signal. Different kinds of stimuli will elicit different reaction times. Despite the fact that light travels faster than sound, people typically react faster to sound than they do to light because the brain takes longer to process the complexities of visual stimuli. People vary in their reaction times, although young people typcially react faster than the elderly. Interestingly, a person’s reaction time also correlates with their IQ. There’s a piece of equipment in psychology called the Jenson box that is used to measure reactions and intelligence. The box features eight buttons and eight associated lights. Lights come on and you have to press the appropriate button next to the light. Experiments with the Jenson box have shown that smarter people appear to react faster. Although researchers don’t know exactly why this is the case, people with faster reaction times might be able to process information more quickly. However, physical limitations put a cap on the speed at which neurotransmitters can relay information to the brain. Has Machii, through iaido training, reached this limit? The key neurotransmitter that mediates reaction time is dopamine, which may seem odd to those who know it as the so-called cuddle chemical that controls reward and pleasure in the brain. Krystal Parker at the University of Iowa’s Department of Neurology studies the brain pathway that dopamine uses. The key region is the ventral tegmental area, a place rich in dopamine neurons, and Parker has found that improvements in reaction time in people with Parkinson’s disease is correlated with greater activity in this region. Researchers know that drugs such as amphetamine can reduce reaction time, while drugs that block dopamine have the opposite effect. This suggests that people such as Machii perhaps possess genes that optimize the pathways in the ventral tegmental region. Researchers know that the speed a person can process information declines rather sharply from their mid-20s. At 43 years old, Machii currently holds several Guinness World Records for his swordsmanship but I wonder if he’ll ever be able to win anymore. I, for one, certainly hope so.
|
samurai;swords;reaction time;isao machii
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jp0000837
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/02/18
|
Abe walks a fine line between Trump and Asia
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OSAKA - In defending his attempts to bond with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Diet members last week that however critical other countries, and much of America, might be of Trump, he, and by extension Japan, has no other choice but to forge close relations with the president. Abe was speaking in the context of regional security and Japan’s reliance on U.S. military protection under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. But in Kansai, photos of Abe and Trump holding hands, patting each other’s shoulders and gazing into each other’s eyes only reinforced worries that the prime minister’s eager desire for a “bromance” with the mercurial Trump could alienate Japan, economically and otherwise, from its East Asian neighbors. Such thinking, according to two media polls conducted after the Feb. 10 summit, appears to be in the minority. An NHK nationwide poll showed 68 percent of respondents at least partially praised the meeting while a separate Kyodo News poll showed 70.2 percent were satisfied with it. But Kansai’s savvy business leaders wonder if Abe might be tying Japan too close to Trump by making, or hinting at, promises and concessions to his demands that end up reducing Japan’s ability to cooperate and compete, economically and otherwise, with Asia. At the recent Kansai Economic Seminar, a yearly gathering of regional business leaders, it was hard to find anyone visibly excited about the possibility of a Japan-U.S. trade agreement, which Trump has indicated he prefers. A glance at the most recent trade statistics shows why. Total exports to the Asian region in 2016 from six Kansai prefectures amounted to over ¥10.4 trillion, while total Asian imports came to about ¥7.7 trillion. By contrast, the value of U.S. exports was about ¥2 trillion and imports about ¥1.1 trillion. Such figures create a more general sense that, unlike Tokyo or the Nagoya region — where Japanese automakers with heavy U.S. investments as well as American and Japanese firms involved in military technologies are based — the Kansai region has less need to concern itself with how statements the U.S. president or his administration might make directly impact Japan’s relations, especially political and economic relations, with its American ally. With Trump’s announcement that America would not participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, there were the expected howls of indignation from Kansai’s top corporations. But they seemed more muted than similar cries of anger heard from Tokyo among politicians, corporate groups and business-oriented news organizations. A few even suggested that with Kobe due to host the next round of negotiations later this month of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which the U.S. is not participating in, there was an opportunity to demonstrate to Washington, as well as reassure Asia, that Japan — and particularly the Abe administration — is a committed regional player regardless of what the Americans do. At the moment, Abe is winning acclaim from U.S. commentators for his “international statesman-like abilities.” A more accurate reading is that his efforts are less “international” and more a reflection of his desire to forge Japan’s own “America First” policy. The failure of Abe’s December summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to produce a major diplomatic breakthrough, continued frosty relations with China and the ongoing row with South Korea over the “comfort women” issue suggest it’s premature to sing his praises as an international statesman. Rather, it’s time to ask, as Kansai’s more thoughtful leaders are doing, if Abe can at least be a good “regional statesman” by not only strengthening relations with the U.S. beyond a personal relationship with Trump but also repairing relations with Japan’s Asian neighbors who will still be there long after Trump has faded into history.
|
shinzo abe;foreign policy;japan-u.s. relations;donald trump
|
jp0000838
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/02/18
|
Japan's 'Undercover Boss' reinforces stereotypes at work
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The government proposal to limit overtime for salaried workers is supposed to reduce the incidence of karōshi (death from overwork), which often takes the form of suicide, and yet the authorities seems squeamish about making demands on employers. In Japan, the good of the company would seem to supersede the well-being of individual employees, but excessive overtime is also a problem in the U.S., where personal agency is valued. The romance of the “hardly working” mentality is the theme of countless Hollywood movies and American standup comedy routines, but Japan has its own pop culture version of the trope, exemplified by the 1960s feature film series starring Hitoshi Ueki as “ Japan’s most irresponsible man ,” a white-collar factotum whose being was focused on doing as little work as possible. In the United States, this attitude has a sentimental, almost political connotation, while in Japan it’s only played for laughs, but in either workplace culture it’s a fantasy. Most people want to keep their jobs. So it’s interesting to see how NHK has adopted the popular, long-running reality show, “ Undercover Boss ,” which originated in the U.K. and has become a hit in its American incarnation. The premise is irresistible: An executive of a company pretends to be a trainee and works alongside the rank and file, doing what they do, while a video crew records it all, ostensibly for some kind of news documentary. Ideally, these bosses learn to empathize with their charges and then make changes that benefit specific employees but also the company as a whole. Certain American critics have noted that the show is something of a con , especially in an economic environment that is increasingly anti-stakeholder and pro-shareholder, and while realists will say the series is simply escapist entertainment, it’s escapist entertainment built on frustrations that everyone understands through experience. That’s why the U.S. version is in its eighth season. The Japanese edition, called “ Fukumen Resachi: Bosu Sennyu ” (“Incognito Research: Boss Infiltration”), currently into its second season, is broadcast on NHK’s entertainment-oriented BS Premium channel. The format is exactly the same as that of the American version, which has been shown on the satellite subscription channel WOWOW , but the tone is different. The worker-employer dynamic in the U.S. is based, at least in part, on mutual distrust, the feeling that the other party will take advantage of you if given the chance. In Japan, workers are grateful to employers for giving them the opportunity to work, and while this image is a stereotype it’s one the media has always played up. The producers of the American version insist they won’t air anything damaging to the company depicted, but they do occasionally reveal problems tied to worker temperament, including laziness or envy. Such behaviors are not unknown in the Japanese workplace, but no Japanese person would willingly allow themselves to be exposed in that way on camera. The conscientious worker is a very powerful symbol in Japan and one NHK is careful to preserve. Another difference is the status of the bosses working undercover. On the U.S. show some are CEOs. In Japan, they are usually senmu , managing directors more involved with everyday decision-making. Unless the company is relatively small, it’s hard to imagine a Japanese president taking part in such a subterfuge since one of the format’s schemes is to embarrass the boss. It starts with the disguises. One official for a famous futon maker was passed off as the Japanese owner of a company based in Southeast Asia and made to look like an aged hipster permanently stuck in 1978. A director of a Yokohama-based prepared foods manufacturer, whose family started the business, was given a fright wig and huge, thick-lensed glasses. For some reason, all these spies sport fake goatees or soul patches, which would seem to be a dead giveaway considering that most are over 50. The getups, in fact, are designed to be ridiculous, since the employees the bosses work with immediately size them up as being less than serious, and with cameras watching they thus feel free to correct and even scold them when they do something wrong. This is especially true when it comes to service tasks. As the futon executive was working the floor at the company’s head store in Tokyo, a young salesman quietly but forcefully reprimanded him for giving incorrect information to a potential customer, saying that such a mistake could undermine “450 years of trust” the company had established with the public. In another show about a high-end supermarket, the store manager kept rebagging items the undercover deputy president had packed at the cashier. Another mission of the show is to extract sentimental stories that give the boss a chance to correct an occupational drawback or otherwise show off his humanity as an employer. A common theme is overwork, though it’s always framed in the context of thoroughness. Employees never say they are being pressured, and are rewarded during the climactic shock revelation of the infiltrator’s identity with a one-off, all-expenses-paid excursion to a hot spring resort. Employment status is also a recurring subject of anxiety. Many employees are contract workers with no job security. One 66-year-old “customer service” manager of a venue owned by a large entertainment concern openly wept on camera describing how grateful he was when the company made him a “regular employee” at the age of 57. In such a way, the series reinforces another stereotype that says being part of the group is its own reward and unrelated to monetary compensation, which is rarely discussed on the Japanese version but often the main point of contention on the American one. Whether or not this dynamic accurately describes Japan’s work situation as a whole, the show won’t say. After all, it’s just entertainment.
|
employment;undercover boss
|
jp0000840
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/02/18
|
The evolution of the Japanese ego: 'The Gossamer Years'
|
There is something morbid about selfhood in Japan. It is not native to the culture. In the West, Judaism, Christianity, philosophy, language itself all teach us to say “I.” It is otherwise in Japan. The Japanese “I” was born in pain — the wrenching of a part from the whole, a limb from the social body. A 10th-century diary known as the “Kagero Nikki” (“The Gossamer Years”) is the source to turn to for what it felt like. The author’s name is unknown, but her predicament is famous. Not that it’s any big deal. One can hardly say she was wounded in love, for there is no indication that she did love. Pressed by her family into an advantageous marriage, she joined, without enthusiasm but also without repugnance, the small harem of a leading member of the most powerful family of the time. She herself belonged to a lesser branch of the same Fujiwara clan. Polygamy among the aristocracy was the norm. Fujiwara Kaneie had eight wives and numerous concubines and mistresses. What kind of husband can a man so distracted be? Exclusive possession is what she wanted, what she felt her high birth entitled her to. But would it have satisfied her, if she’d had it? Would satisfaction have satisfied her? Some people wallow in suffering. The author seems to have wallowed in hers. Few societies are kind to women. The Heian Period (794-1185) was in many ways, by any but modern standards, remarkably considerate of them. It accorded them more human dignity than later ages were to. But women’s rights are not the author’s concern. She is grieved not by the system but by her husband — by his absence when he’s absent, by his presence when he’s present, by his behavior absent or present. His behavior is at times loutish but as often, on her own evidence, solicitous and sympathetic. She demands the impossible, he protests. She admits it’s true — without, however, moderating her demands. Blame who or what you will — her suffering is real, gnawing, bitter. It makes a “self” out of her — the first, it would seem, in Japanese literature. She would just as soon have declined the honor. Or would she have? Selfhood is complicated — not without its masochistic element. The marriage began badly: “The place he called home was obviously not here, and our relationship was far from what I would have had it”; “My life was rich only in loneliness and sorrow”; “I spent my nights alone and my days in trivialities.” Distractions might have helped, but one among many peculiarities of Heian society is its numbing inactivity. Women in particular, screened, cloistered, encumbered by layer upon layer of clothing and streaming masses of hair, spent their lives waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen to them — “something” being a visit from a lover or husband, and when the visit does not materialize, the melancholy can be overwhelming: “I had nothing to do but sit and brood.” The author sat and sat, brooded and brooded: “I was more than ever conscious of my own unhappiness”; “I thought of how I should like to die, and only this one bond with the world” — her son — “restrained me.” Unexpressed, inexpressible rage takes its toll: “I dreamed that a viper was crawling among my entrails and gnawing at my liver.” The “lady in the alley” episode goads the author to vindictive fury. One of Kaneie’s lesser ladies — “of frightfully bad birth” — had a child: “It began to appear that the lady in the alley had fallen from favor since the birth of her child. I had prayed, at the height of my unhappiness, that she would live to know what I was then suffering, and it seemed my prayers were being answered. She was alone, and now her child was dead, the child that had been the cause of that unseemly racket. … (Her) pain must be even sharper than mine had been. I was satisfied.” The “unseemly racket” shows Kaneie at his caddish worst: “Loading the lady (in the alley) into his carriage and raising a commotion that could be heard through the whole city, he came hurrying past my gate. … And why, my women loudly asked one another, had he so pointedly passed our gate when he had all the streets in the city to choose from? I myself was quite speechless and thought only that I would like to die on the spot.” The author — and Heian ladies in general — have one vent, short of madness, for repressed emotions that grow too much for them. They go on pilgrimages. The author embarks on several. A pilgrimage means, first of all, travel, a change of scene. Secondly, presumably more importantly, a pilgrimage means prayer — if one can pray. Sometimes the author cannot: “I could not control my sobs long enough to tell my story to the Buddha.” Other times she gains a measure of peace, to the point of feeling ready to “leave the world” — meaning to become a nun. Kaneie is rarely permitted to speak for himself in the diary, but when he is, he shows himself to be rather less of a boor than the author deems him. “Perhaps you really have grown tired of the world and decided to cut yourself off from it,” he writes her, “but if you should decide to come back, let me know and I shall come for you. In the meantime, since you seem to dread my visits so, I shall keep my distance.” The author does not, it is pleasant to report, go mad: “Although I could hardly have been called content, I had reached a certain resignation, and I no longer had the strength of spirit to worry about his coolness.” It’s not a big victory, perhaps, but it is, at least, a little one.
|
the gossamer years;kagero nikki;fujiwara kaneie
|
jp0000841
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/02/27
|
Tax break for OTC drugs seeks to get Japanese managing their health, not swarming clinics
|
Buying medicine at a drugstore can now save you taxes. On Jan. 1, the “self-medication tax deduction” system kicked off, allowing people who buy designated over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to apply for a tax refund. The move, intended to promote use of OTC drugs and discourage people from clogging up hospitals and clinics for minor ailments, will be in place for the next five years. Following are questions and answers about the new system: How does it work? To qualify for a refund, an applicant needs to spend more than ¥12,000 per year on designated OTC drugs. Purchases by the applicant’s family members can be included. The amount exceeding ¥12,000 — up to the ceiling of ¥88,000 — can be deducted from the applicant’s taxable income. The government has designated some 1,600 OTC products containing any of 83 designated ingredients as eligible. Tax refunds will be made only to those who actually apply for them. Japan already has a system for reimbursing a certain amount of taxes paid by people who spend more than ¥100,000 per year on medical bills, including hospital fees and prescriptions, dental care and OTC drugs. For that, the amount of medical expenses exceeding ¥100,000, including those of family members, can be deducted. Taxpayers must choose between the two — the older medical bill deduction or the self-medication tax refund; they can’t use both at the same time. Is there anything else one needs to prepare when filing for a refund? Yes. The program requires that applicants are engaged in efforts to maintain or boost their health or to avoid becoming sick. Applicants need to show proof that they have participated in one of the following: A health checkup organized by a health insurance union or a municipal government. A company health checkup. A vaccine shot (routine shot or flu shot). A screening for metabolic syndrome. A cancer screening organized by a municipal government. The applicants can turn in a receipt for a vaccination fee or a copy of their health checkup report. The part showing the actual result of the checkup can be blacked out. Family members of applicants are not required to hand in such documents. Why is the government introducing this tax refund? The health ministry has been calling for creation of such tax breaks for years, saying it needs to give people incentives to use more OTC products as opposed to prescription drugs. The ministry claims self-medication, or using drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, will encourage people to be more proactive about managing their health. The government’s less advertised, but potentially huge, motive for introducing the tax incentive is the need to steer people away from seeking care at hospitals and clinics — and thereby rein in soaring medical costs. Japan’s medical expenditures totaled a record ¥41.5 trillion in fiscal 2015 — up from ¥36.6 trillion in fiscal 2010 and ¥32.4 trillion in fiscal 2005 — and they are expected to grow further as the population grays. It’s no secret that Japan’s universal and relatively cheap health care has led some people to rush to doctors every time they get a cold or fever, a trend often criticized as konbini jushin (visiting doctors as if going to convenience stores) and turning not a few neighborhood clinics into chanomi saron (tea salons), a socializing venue for the elderly. By nudging more people to become comfortable treating minor symptoms by themselves, the government wants to free the bloated health care system from abuse and overuse. The health ministry has not conducted simulations on how much the new scheme will contribute to curbing medical costs, a ministry official said. The Finance Ministry estimates that the program will result in a loss of ¥3 billion in income tax revenue per year. How much money will be saved? It depends on the amount people spend on the drugs and their income. For example, if you buy designated OTC drugs worth ¥50,000 per year, ¥38,000 will be deducted from your annual taxable income. If your taxable income is ¥4 million, you can deduct 20 percent of ¥38,000 — or ¥7,600 — in income taxes and 10 percent of ¥38,000 — or ¥3,800 — in residential taxes. That translates into total savings of ¥11,400 per year. If you have the same level of income but pay just ¥20,000 for OTC drugs, you can save ¥2,400. Which OTC drugs are covered? The full list of roughly 1,600 products covered by the refund, as of Feb. 14, can be found in Japanese at jtim.es/W3ZW309nMOi . They range from cold and pain-relief medicine to eye drops, acne creams and rhinitis capsules. Cooling/heating pads and medications for gastrointestinal problems, diarrhea and athlete’s foot are also included. Some, but not all, products will bear a small logo that says they are included in the scheme. When in doubt, ask the pharmacist if the drug you are buying is covered. You need to keep the receipts and submit them when you file tax returns between mid-February and mid-March (for this year’s receipts you will file tax returns next year). What about drugs purchased over the internet? You cannot print out a receipt of the internet transaction and submit it as proof. You must request the online seller to issue an official receipt and submit the original.
|
drugs;taxes;health care;self-medication
|
jp0000843
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/02/11
|
Foreign workers: Should they stay or should they go?
|
As the rest of the world debated the ramifications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on persons from seven Muslim-majority countries last week, Japan was notably silent. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently going out of his way to placate the new American leader for the sake of national interests, but in any case there was little he could add to the discussion. Japan has never universally welcomed immigrants, especially refugees. The local media, which covered the travel ban with detachment, didn’t bother to make any relevant connections to Japan’s situation, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. For instance, the Asahi Shimbun ran an interview on Feb. 1 with Takaji Kunimatsu, the former chief of the National Police Agency. Kunimatsu is best known for having been shot in 1995 in what is believed to have been an assassination attempt carried out by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, whom the NPA was investigating at the time. After he retired, Kunimatsu was appointed ambassador to Switzerland for three years, during which time he observed how a multicultural society operated. The interview centered on Kunimatsu’s views on immigrants in Japan. While the head of the NPA, he advocated against permitting foreign nationals to settle here in large numbers. After living in Switzerland he feels differently, although he adds that these two impulses are not “contradictory.” “I’m not insisting on increasing immigration without conditions,” he told the Asahi reporter. “Once Japan decides to accept more foreigners to live here, we should make a proper system in order to protect social order.” When he was in charge of the NPA, “the media always talked about how many foreigners were being arrested, but I never thought the (foreign) crime rate was particularly high.” Kunimatsu was impressed by Switzerland’s approach to immigrants. The Swiss government spends money on language lessons and vocational training in fields that benefit the country. When immigrants break the law, they are subject to deportation. “One-fourth of the Swiss population is foreign,” he said, “either permanent residents or temporary workers. There are also many refugees. And they aren’t viewed as being special.” He came to understand this dynamic through his own staff, who were immigrants and played important roles in their respective communities. “The fundamental principle is not assimilation,” he said, “but integration.” Immigrants are not forced to give up anything of themselves, but rather encouraged to integrate economically and socially. He points out that the Japanese word “ imin ” (immigrant) has a negative connotation, so he suggests using the word “ seikatsusha ” to describe foreign residents in Japan, thus indicating a “person who lives here.” Kunimatsu is critical of the government-regulated trainee system used by many companies to obtain cheap labor from abroad, although not necessarily because of its exploitative aspects. The idea that an employer “trains” a worker who is going to have to leave the country in three to five years is, to the former police chief, a waste of resources. “The workers have no incentive to learn Japanese or integrate into society,” he said. The result is a “never-ending cycle of new short-term workers” who have no stake here. Kunimatsu’s complaint suggests that such integration is desirable, but current policy is designed to ensure that foreign workers don’t stay in Japan. He believes that if the government invites anyone to work in Japan at any job, it “must give them the same benefits as Japanese people. That way you foster productive human resources, which leads to natural economic competition.” If the foreign workers want to go back, they can, but if they want to stay, they should be allowed to do so. They will integrate as a matter of course. This same theory was discussed at a symposium on the foreign trainee system in Nagoya earlier this month. The symposium focused on the field of caregivers, which can newly tap the trainee system to acquire help from overseas. According to a report in the Feb. 1 Tokyo Shimbun , participants concluded that workers are just becoming proficient in Japanese language and good at their work when they are forced to move back to their home countries. As one researcher said, despite the “training” purpose of the program, it doesn’t “build careers.” It’s simply a short-term human resources solution. And now, the trainees themselves understand that they are only in Japan to provide cheap labor. A recent NHK documentary looked at the textile industry in Gifu Prefecture, which relies completely on trainees. Japanese people stopped working at these factories a long time ago. Now, more and more foreign nationals who come to work there through the trainee program are demanding better working conditions and wages. Ten years ago, it was easy to get foreign trainees because even below-minimum wages in Japan were higher than what they could earn in their native countries, but that isn’t always true anymore, and the number of applicants has dwindled. According to NHK, the Gifu textile industry is quickly collapsing as a result. One company, however, is taking a long-term approach by training Japanese workers and paying them fairly high wages. The money the company invested in these employees has led to higher productivity levels, not to mention better quality products, and NHK implies that the same theory could apply to foreign trainees if they were allowed to really learn the skills they are supposed to be learning — but that takes time. Kunimatsu’s interview and the NHK documentary suggest that Japan’s short-term approach to its labor woes is hurting competitiveness, but what’s missing from the media discussion is the moral dimension that informs the travel ban controversy in the United States. Everybody, non-Japanese and Japanese alike, deserves a living wage and, if you can’t pay it, maybe you shouldn’t be in business.
|
immigration;foreign workers
|
jp0000844
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/02/11
|
Defiant Apa paints a target on its back
|
“The Japanese airplanes attacked, and a total of 1,200 men, roughly half the victims of Pearl Harbor, died in action on the USS Arizona . … In general, the powder magazine at the ship’s bottom is not induced to explode in a bombing and it would not have caught fire and blown up six minutes after the bomb attack. “At the time of the Spanish-American War the U.S. blew up and sunk its own USS Maine , blaming it on Spain. It then used the slogan ‘Remember the Maine’ to inspire the citizens to fight against Spain … and snatched away Guam and the Philippines. … It is thought that the U.S. did the same thing during World War II, when it used the slogan ‘Remember Pearl Harbor.'” The above is excerpted from pages 12-13 of “Theoretical Modern History: The Real History of Japan,” a collection of essays by self-described patriotic essayist Seiji Fuji that appeared from 2014 to 2015 in a periodical called Apple Town. The bilingual book, and a companion volume, are placed in most of the guest rooms at the several hundred Apa Group hotels around Japan. They serve up “alternative facts” regarding World War II, particularly the Sino-Japanese conflict, including accounts of the 1928 assassination of Manchurian warlord Chang Tso-lin and the Nanking Massacre of 1937. The two books have generated quite a bit of outrage, although not from Americans, despite Fuji’s rather incredible allegation that in December 1941 their government contrived to sink its own battleship to arouse its populace to go to war with Japan. Fuji, whose real name is Toshio Motoya, is the co-founder of the Apa Group (Apa is an acronym for “Always Pleasant Amenity”) and is believed to be one of the wealthiest individuals in Japan. His two books are placed in most of the guest rooms along with a 187-page manga that tells the saga of the company since its founding in 1971. Apa’s CEO keenly desires that “Japanese People Should Learn True Modern History and Have Pride in Their Native Country,” according to the title of one treatise published in February 2015. His other essays, many of which could be kindly described as being of questionable veracity, include an attempt to debunk the New Deal with “The War Between Japan and the United States Was FDR’s Plan to Break Free From the Great Depression”; “Historical Truths Have Been Demeaned Because of Postwar Conspiracies”; and “Japan Should Use Jewish Marketing Companies to Correct Historical Falsehoods.” So far the greatest objection to the books is their contention that the Nanking Massacre (aka the Rape of Nanking) was a complete fabrication, this despite the Chinese government’s assertion that as many as 300,000 civilians and POWs were gratuitously murdered by troops of the Imperial Japanese Army during a six-week killing spree in late 1937. After two university students, an American woman and Chinese man, stayed at an Apa hotel in Tokyo last month, they posted excerpts from the books on the internet. Apa hotels’ books were vociferously denounced, with the Chinese government going so far as to call on travel agencies to boycott Apa hotels. Apa, however, was not the least bit dissuaded by the boycott threat: It caters mostly to a domestic market, and Chinese are said to make up no more than 5 percent of its total clientele. Some writers were even happy to see Apa’s CEO adopting a nationalist stance. Writing in Yukan Fuji (Jan. 27), American columnist Tony “Texas Daddy” Marano described the Apa Group as “great,” saying, “When I go to Japan … I use Apa hotels and have met Toshio Motoya of the Apa Group any number of times. “What I like most of all is seeing the Hinomaru (the Japanese national flag) always displayed at the hotels’ front desks, just like you see the Stars and Stripes flying in Texas,” he writes. Marano doesn’t quite go so far as to endorse Fuji’s account of the Nanking Massacre, preferring to circumvent the issue by writing “I understand a variety of research and analyses exist.” In Shukan Kinyobi (Jan. 27), Taro Iwamoto lambasted the hotel under the headline “With such a ludicrous perception of history, can Apa Hotels call this hospitality?” “This problem might reinforce the viewpoint that ‘Japan is a country that won’t confront its war responsibility,'” writes Iwamoto, who added that as the controversy spreads through cyberspace, Apa’s supporters have been wading in and ever more brickbats are flung, with the debate deteriorating into a virtual version of U.S. TV’s rowdy “Gong Show.” Weekly Playboy (Feb. 13) took a completely different tack, explaining what makes Apa’s hotels so popular. It came up with a dozen points, including that they serve a terrific breakfast smorgasbord for ¥2,000. Another was the egg-shaped bathtubs that offer a relaxing soak. And yet another was the minimal difference (¥1,000) in the charges between single and semi-double occupancy of the same class of room, which makes them particularly appealing for trysts with call girls dispatched by “delivery health” services. While no one is questioning Motoya’s ardent patriotism, behavior that draws unnecessary attention tends to go against the grain of Japanese culture, as reflected in the aphorism Nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu (“A skilled hawk conceals its talons,” or, in other words, the person who knows most often says least). Speaking of aphorisms, Sunday Mainichi (Feb. 19) reported that toothbrushes, combs and other assorted amenities provided to Apa guests come enclosed in protective covers that bear various “macho aphorisms” penned by its founder. One homily: “It is in a man’s spirit to enjoy the difficulties and uncertainties of his life.” “They smacked of male superiority; I can’t say they left me with a good feeling,” a woman in her 30s told the magazine. By engaging in air acrobatics on the media’s radar screen, Motoya may find himself dodging flak that has nothing at all to do with Nanking or Pearl Harbor.
|
toshio motoya;apa hotel
|
jp0000845
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/02/16
|
Auto unions seek repeat of 2016 base pay hike amid firms' cloudy earnings prospects
|
Annual spring wage negotiations between companies and labor unions got into full swing Wednesday with unions from Japan’s major automakers demanding the same base wage increase as last year despite concerns about the industry’s earnings prospects. The unions of Toyota Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., among other major automakers, requested a ¥3,000 monthly hike. The demand comes as some of the leading automakers recently reported sluggish earnings for the nine months to December, with concern growing about U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policy stance. Auto and electronics makers also face uncertain business conditions because Britain is preparing to begin negotiations this spring on its departure from the European Union and China is experiencing slowing economic growth. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been urging businesses to raise wages to help boost the country’s economy and the head of Japan’s top business lobby has called on companies to increase remuneration on an annual basis, not necessarily sticking to base wage hikes. “I hope to see positive outcomes from the spring’s wage talks,” Abe said during a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy held at his office. Tepid private consumption has been a bottleneck for the country’s economic growth as consumers remain reluctant to increase their spending. Japan has yet to see what Abe has described as a virtuous cycle of wage growth leading to increased consumer spending. In Japan, the pace of income growth is slower among people in their late 30s and 40s, who are often responsible for raising children, than other age brackets, according to analysis presented at the meeting. Such people appear to have low expectations for future income growth, which thus reduces their appetite for spending, the council’s private-sector members said as they called for measures to be taken. The labor unions of major electronics makers will submit their wage requests by Thursday.
|
shunto;autos;wage talks
|
jp0000846
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/02/28
|
Tokyo's Shiodome area celebrates the old and new, the high and low
|
It’s an area where the old and the new stand right next to each other. That’s what the Shiodome district, which stretches from Minato to Chuo wards along Tokyo Bay, looks like. Visitors view Tokyo Bay, including the Harumi and Odaiba waterfront districts, from an observatory about 200 meters above street level Feb. 20 in Minato Ward, Tokyo. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Visitors are greeted by some of Japan’s tallest skyscrapers hosting the likes of big-name companies like airline ANA Holdings Inc., ad agency Dentsu Inc. and SoftBank Corp. People work in a skyscraper in the Shiodome district in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 20. | SATOKO KAWASAKI But when they go up to the restaurants on the 40th or higher floors, visitors can see that Shiodome sits right next to the Hamarikyu Gardens, a 25-hectare Japanese garden that once belonged to the Tokugawa shogunate. Women in ‘yukata’ summer kimono visit a teahouse in Hamarikyu Gardens in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 20. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the garden was used for hunting ducks, and a 300-year-old pine tree adds prestige to its rich history. And not many know that Shiodome hosted one of the nation’s first railway stations, Shinbashi Station, built in 1872. Designed by American architect Richard Bridgens, a reproduction of the station was built north of the Shiodome City Center complex in 2003. Shinbashi Station moved a little west to where it is now in 1914. A reproduction of the original Shinbashi Station, which dates back to 1872, is shown in this photo taken Feb. 20 in Minato Ward, Tokyo. | SATOKO KAWASAKI While over 60,000 people work in Shiodome on weekdays, on weekends it attracts couples and tourists for the view of Tokyo Bay, theaters and restaurants.
|
shiodome;hamarikyu gardens;shinbashi
|
jp0000849
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/02/26
|
Nippon Ishin no Kai bill targets gambling woes in bid to move casino policies forward
|
OSAKA - The opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai is proposing new legislation to deal with problem gamblers, hoping to speed up the debate after a bill legalizing casinos in Japan was rammed through the Diet in December. The Osaka-centric party, which is close to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on many issues, hopes that cooperation with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP on the issue will help ensure the city becomes one of those picked for a casino resort license, if not the first. “The Nippon Ishin bill sets out a variety of measures to deal with problem gamblers to ensure that the problem is dealt with in a comprehensive manner,” said Hitoshi Asada, the party’s policy chief. On Feb. 9, the party submitted a bill targeting problem gamblers and their families to the Upper House. In an attempt to address strong public opposition to casinos, the bill identified the need for policies to deal with crime, suicide, poverty, debts and other problems that occur as a result of problem gambling. It also stipulated the need for the government to establish a basic program to deal with problem gambling that will be subject to revision at least once every five years. In addition, municipalities would have to map out plans for combating problem gambling that also would be reviewed every five years. The bill calls for policies that set the rules for casino advertising and admission charges and says they are to be drawn up only after taking into consideration how to prevent addiction. Other proposals include measures for having specialized medical professionals and a medical system in place to provide assistance. Nippon Ishin has also proposed funding a public relations campaign. Each year from the end of June until the beginning of July would be declared Gambling Awareness Week, with a variety of PR activities undertaken to educate and remind people of the dangers of gambling. Nippon Ishin’s proposal also puts the obligation of dealing with problem gamblers on central and regional governments, casino operators, the people of Japan and health professionals. With over a dozen places nationwide having already expressed varying degrees of interest in hosting an integrated resort, or IR, with a casino, the kinds of problem gambling initiatives created by these governments will likely play a large role in the central government’s timing for granting casino licenses. But the questions of who should take the lead on gambling addiction and who should take the lion’s share of the responsibility for identifying and dealing with them are likely to be sources of tension and debate among the various players. The central government is proposing that, while the Diet should set the national framework, regional governments and casino operators need to take the lead in dealing with concerns about problem gamblers. On the other hand, cash-strapped regional governments hoping to host casino resorts worry that, without strong guarantees of central government support, including funding, to deal with gambling addiction and other social problems that arise from casinos, local opposition will be difficult to overcome. For now, Nippon Ishin hopes the bill will push the Diet debate on how to move the debate on casinos rules forward. A decision by the Diet to delay passage by the end of the year would be bad news for the party’s Osaka faction, which has its own timetable for an Osaka casino. “Ideally, at least part of an integrated resort would open in Osaka by 2023, and that would be in operation to welcome the World Expo in 2025” that Osaka is bidding for and that will be decided next year, said Nippon Ishin co-leader and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui.
|
nippon ishin no kai;osaka;gambling;casinos;legislation
|
jp0000850
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/02/26
|
Kyoto working to get its interpreter/guides up to global speed
|
KYOTO - With over 3 million visitors from abroad visiting the ancient capital of Kyoto in fiscal 2015, getting around with an official interpreter would have meant relying on government-qualified guides. But critics have claimed that interpreter/guides who have passed national tests on language, history, culture and politics aren’t necessarily well-versed on the details of Kyoto’s rich history and culture. That’s why the city has founded the Kyoto Visitors Host program, aimed at nurturing tour guides who have in-depth knowledge on the city and are fluent enough in a foreign language to explain it to visitors. The program, which began in November 2015, trains residents and visitors of any nationality to become professional city guides. While Kyoto still lacks the broad range of interpreter/guides offering the kinds of highly specialized historical tours one finds in cities like London or Paris, the Kyoto Visitors Host program is a first step toward recognizing the need for local experts who can provide a special localized experience for foreign guests. The inaugural group of students specialized in English and Chinese. The second class, which began the program earlier this month, will include those who can explain Kyoto in English, Chinese and French. For those whose native language is Japanese, some proof of English proficiency, such as a TOEIC score of at least 730, is necessary to be an English interpreter. Nonnative speakers are required to have passed at least the second level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The program ends in September. Successful graduates can register their names and contact information on a website where interested foreign tourists and tour groups can directly contact them. Classes include basic instruction in interpreter guide principles and the hospitality industry, as well as Kyoto’s history and culture. Students also take specialized classes in Kyoto’s traditional craft industries and culture, cultural properties and cuisine.
|
kyoto;tourism;tour guides
|
jp0000851
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/02/26
|
Bataan Death March survivor Lester Tenney dies in California aged 96
|
LOS ANGELES - Lester Tenney, a former U.S. prisoner of war held by the Imperial Japanese Army and a survivor of the notorious 1942 Bataan Death March, died at a nursing facility Friday in Carlsbad, California, a local newspaper reported. He was 96. The Chicago native was one of 60,000 to 80,000 U.S. and Filipino POWs forced to march more than 100 km (60 miles) to a prison camp on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines during World War II. Many died on the journey from malnutrition, thirst and abuse or rampant torture and murder. The event was later judged as a war crime. He was forced to work at a coal mine in southwestern Japan from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945. After returning to the U.S., he became a college professor. When he visited Japan in 2010, then-Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada apologized to Tenney for the inhumane treatment he suffered at the hands of his captors.
|
bataan death march;lester tenney
|
jp0000852
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/02/21
|
Japan aims to attract more foreign workers amid growth in tourism
|
The government compiled a plan Tuesday to ease visa restrictions for foreign workers in designated special economic zones to address the growing need for tourism services. The move signals a shift in the nation’s immigration policy, which has traditionally focused on allowing only highly skilled migrants into Japan. By increasing the number of foreign workers, the government hopes to revitalize the country’s regional economies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed relevant ministers to work toward submitting necessary bills during the current Diet session for a legislative amendment on national strategic special zones, government officials said. The sectors in which the foreign workers will be allowed to work will depend on the specific needs of the economic zones, they said. The Osaka prefectural and municipal governments, for instance, have asked the central government to expand the intake of foreign workers for hotels and merchandising. The Japan Tourism Agency said last month the number of foreign visitors reached a record 24.04 million in 2016, up 21.8 percent the previous year, with the country aiming to attract 40 million foreign tourists in 2020 when Japan will host the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
|
immigration;workforce;foreign labor
|
jp0000853
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/02/07
|
Government-backed IT agency urges WordPress users to update after hacks
|
With the recent spike in the number of cyberattacks on websites using the popular web-management platform WordPress, a government-backed IT security agency urged website administrators and managers to patch a vulnerability that allows hackers to deface their sites. The Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) Japan released a warning Monday, calling owners of websites that use the content-management system to update the software to the latest version “immediately” so that their websites can be protected from malevolent attacks. More than 26 percent of websites on the internet use the open-source platform, including official websites for the Walt Disney Co., Microsoft News Center, and the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, according to WordPress. IPA warns that software versions 4.7.0 and 4.7.1 contain the vulnerability. WordPress released a software update ( wordpress.org/news/2017/01/wordpress-4-7-2-security-release/ ) on Jan. 26 to patch the breach. Websites in Japan, including the official website of Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa, reportedly had fallen victim to attacks. Marukawa, who serves on the government committee tasked with drafting and implementing cybersecurity strategies, said Monday her official website that logs her activity had been hacked and showed messages such as “HaCkeD By MuhmadEmad” and “KurDish HaCk3rS WaS Here,” according to media reports. The site had been restored by Tuesday. Other websites, including one run by Ibaraki Prefectural Central Hospital and another for Fukui Prefectural Hospital, were also attacked by hackers. The Ibaraki hospital detected sections that show the number of patients and seminar information being altered Sunday, said Yuji Uchimura, a hospital official. The Fukui hospital also found the announcement section of its website had been similarly altered Monday, said Toyomi Otani, an official in charge of the site, adding that the hospital also used WordPress. No personal data have been stolen in these incidents, the hospitals said. An official at the IPA said Tuesday cyberattacks exploiting WordPress’s security hole have been increasing at a rapid pace for the past several days, although he was unable to confirm the software was the route the hackers used to breach these sites. IPA official Shohei Daido said the vulnerability was less likely to place personal information stored on a web server at risk because only the appearances of the websites have so far been affected.
|
hacking;cyberattacks;tamayo marukawa
|
jp0000855
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/02/09
|
Lack of nursery school spots still widespread a year after 'Die Japan!' blog post
|
A year since a blog post by an anonymous mother struggling to find a nursery school drew national attention, parents are still having difficulties finding facilities for young children. As day care centers have started announcing admissions results for April, many parents have expressed anger and sorrow on social networks after learning of denials. In late January, a 35-year-old woman in Kawasaki shed tears when she received a letter from the city saying her 8-month-old daughter would not be admitted. The woman had moved to the city from Tokyo, believing it would be easier in Kawasaki to keep working while raising her daughter, as only six children were on the city’s waiting list for nursery schools as of April last year. But in reality, 2,547 children who were attending uncertified facilities subsidized by the city or staying home with their parents were waiting to get in to the certified schools, although they did not appear on the waiting list. “I want to work as early as possible for a living,” said the woman, who was aiming to return to work this spring. “As uncertified facilities are expensive, I have to start thinking about moving out again.” Last March, the government announced emergency steps to address the chronic shortage after an emotional blog post written by an anonymous mother went viral. The author said she would have to quit her job in the post from February 2016 titled, “I couldn’t get day care. Die Japan!” The government measures include increasing slots at small nursery schools as well as expanding nursery facilities at businesses. It also plans to increase monthly salaries for workers at child care facilities from April. But local governments are still struggling to improve the situation. On Jan. 26, the city of Okayama sent 1,734 letters notifying parents that their children were denied admission to nursery schools. Since then, city officials have been tied up responding to phone calls and inquiries asking about vacancies, while some complained that they could not extend their child care leave. In late January, a group of parents in Tokyo started posting their feelings on Twitter and other social networks with the hashtag, “#I want nursery admission.” Because the negative phrase from the blog post was criticized last year, a different approach has been taken by the group, said 41-year-old Tae Amano, a key member. One tweet called on the state to “please stop bullying mothers,” while another posting said, “I feel that parents and children are rejected altogether every year.” “To tell the truth, I want to spend all my time (with my son) but I cannot live without working,” a single mother of a 2-month-old son said in a posting. Amano’s group is planning to launch a campaign to collect signatures online and hold an event near the Diet building on March 7. “I would like mothers and fathers to speak out,” Amano said. “By linking people who are involved, we’d like to influence the nation’s child care policies.” According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, around 23,500 kids were on the waiting list for certified day care services in April last year. But the ministry said some 67,300 more children were potentially waiting to enroll, as the figure does not include parents who are on child care leave.
|
children;nursery;day care
|
jp0000856
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/02/08
|
Osaka supermarket chain, manager fined ¥1.7 million over foreign students' illegal work hours
|
OSAKA - Super Tamade Co., an Osaka-based supermarket chain, and its personnel division chief were fined Wednesday for violating labor laws by allowing foreign students to work illegally long hours. The Osaka Summary Court fined the discount supermarket chain ¥1 million ($9,000) and the personnel manager Mitsutoshi Maeda, 41, ¥700,000 as demanded by prosecutors for violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. According to the ruling, Super Tamade had 12 foreign students, including Chinese and Vietnamese, work at outlets mainly in Osaka city between February and May 2016 for more than the 28-hour limit per week set for foreign students. Judge Masao Kashimori said it was “malicious” that the company concealed the violation by utilizing official and unofficial timecards. “We urge the company to adhere to the law by fully acknowledging its responsibility as a company that represents Osaka with more than 50 outlets,” the judge said. Prosecutors first filed a summary indictment against Super Tamade and Maeda but the court found the need for a more detailed examination of the case and put it to a formal trial.
|
osaka;labor;foreign students;super tamade
|
jp0000857
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/02/08
|
Cyberattacks targeting Japan networks hit a record 128.1 billion in 2016
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A record 128.1 billion cyberattacks against networks in Japan were detected in 2016, more than double the previous year, according to a recent survey by a public research institute. Many of the attacks appear to have been launched from China and the United States, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology said. Over 50 percent of cyberattacks detected last year targeted surveillance cameras connected to the internet, home wireless routers, and other devices within the internet of things, an increase from around 26 percent in 2015. Many of those devices are vulnerable to attacks due to deficient software security measures, it said. The institute operates a large-scale cyberattack monitoring system. But given its limited coverage, it said it assumes a far greater number of devices were attacked. The institute launched the survey in 2005 when the number of detected cyberattacks stood at around 310 million. The figure has surged close to 25.66 billion in 2014 and 54.51 billion in 2015. “I hope general users of those (vulnerable) devices would understand the importance of taking measures (against cyberattacks)”, said Takahiro Kasama, a senior researcher at the institute. With more and more household appliances, cars and factory infrastructure reliant on internet connections, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is considering taking measures against cyberattacks aimed at internet of things devices.
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internet;cyberattacks;internet of things
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jp0000858
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[
"reference"
] |
2017/02/06
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State-backed scholarship program to open doors to university
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The government will soon launch the first state-backed scholarships in an effort to make universities more accessible as more students face financial difficulties to pursue higher education. The move is considered a big step forward in a country where the government has to date only offered student loans. But, still, the size of the program is too small to help every student in desperate need of financial support. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration submitted a bill relating to the new scholarship program to the Diet last week. To be launched in April, the initiative is expected to be fully implemented the following year. Here are questions and answers about the new program: Who is eligible to receive the scholarship? The program is for students from low-income households such as those on welfare or exempt from paying residential tax. Government-backed lender Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) will provide the monthly stipends, ranging from ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 depending on the type of university students attend and their housing situation. For example, a private university student who lives away from home is expected to receive ¥40,000 a month, according to the education ministry. The support would be less for a student who attends a national university, where tuition is cheaper, and commutes from home. The program is also expected to provide an additional ¥240,000 to cover enrollment fees for students from child welfare institutions. In fiscal 2017, JASSO plans to provide the scholarship to some 2,800 students considered to be in urgent need of financial help, such as those from child welfare institutions and private university students who live away from their families. The program is expected to expand from fiscal 2018 to support 20,000 impoverished students in total. The education ministry estimates it will cost about ¥1.5 billion in fiscal 2017, to be expanded to ¥22 billion in fiscal 2021. How many students are from low-income households? Will the monthly amount suffice? The education ministry estimates around 61,000 people need financial support to go to university. That means two-thirds of impoverished youths who wish to pursue university-level education cannot receive the scholarship. The monthly stipend is also too small to even cover annual tuition fees at a national university, leaving many students with no option but to take out a student loan to cover the shortfall, experts say. Hirokazu Ouchi, a pedagogy professor at Chukyo University in Nagoya, praised the program as a huge step forward, but added it should be expanded in the future. “Considering that Japan currently only has a student loan program, the scholarship carries great significance,” Ouchi said. “But the number of students who can receive it is extremely small and the amount is also insufficient.” How will the recipients be selected? High schools will recommend students who deserve state support. Based on the number of students from low-income households, each school will be allotted at least one recommendation. The high schools will select students who have achieved top grades or those with excellent records of extracurricular activities. But as impoverished students tend to have lower grades and no spare time to participate in extracurricular activities as they are often busy with part-time jobs, experts say students in dire need of a scholarship to pursue higher education may miss out. Are other scholarships available? Yes. Local governments, businesses as well as universities also offer scholarship programs. For example, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp. offers a university scholarship of ¥35,000 a month. Waseda University in Tokyo also has several scholarship programs, including a tuition-free scholarship. National universities also have programs where top students with financial difficulties are exempted from paying tuition. The education ministry has allocated ¥33 billion for the program in fiscal 2017, which starts April 1. However, unlike scholarships, students are screened twice a year based on their grades and other reasons. What is currently on offer from the government? JASSO offers two types of student loans: one without interest and one that carries an interest rate of up to 3 percent. In fiscal 2015, 1 in every 2.6 university students received a student loan, compared to 1 in every 4.3 in fiscal 2004, when JASSO was launched, according to its data. Among roughly 1.3 million borrowers in fiscal 2015, 837,000 students, or 63 percent, received loans that carry interest. However, as of Mach 31, 2015, there were 165,000 borrowers who had defaulted on their repayments for more than three months, according to JASSO. The organization filed 5,432 lawsuits in fiscal 2015 against debtors. Why has the number of students seeking student loans increased? The increase is due to the nation’s sluggish economy, which has more parents struggling to fully finance their children’s university education, as well as soaring tuition fees, observers say. According to the education ministry, average annual tuition fees for a private university increased to ¥864,384 in fiscal 2014 from ¥570,584 in fiscal 1989. As for national universities, the annual average cost was ¥535,800 in fiscal 2014 compared with ¥339,600 in 1989. Together with enrollment fees that freshmen must pay when they enter universities, students need to pay ¥1.13 million in the first year for private institutions and ¥817,800 for national ones. Given the figures, the monthly aid under the new scholarship program is way too insufficient, Ouchi of Chukyo University said. The welfare ministry’s statistics, meanwhile, showed Japan’s relative poverty rate among children increased to 16.3 percent in 2012 from 10.9 in 1985. The relative poverty rate among children refers to the percentage of 17-year-olds or younger whose household income falls below the poverty line, defined by half the median household income of the total population.
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children;education;university;scholarships
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jp0000859
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/02/24
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20% of Tokyo's children from impoverished households: survey
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A survey commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has found that more than 20 percent of children in the capital come from households in severe financial hardship — where families scrape by on little income, miss utility or rent payments or lack the means to buy new clothes or go out. The survey, conducted by professor Aya Abe of Tokyo Metropolitan University between August and September last year, covered 19,929 households in Toshima and Sumida wards and in the cities of Chofu and Hino, targeting fifth-graders in elementary school, second-graders in junior high school and teens 16 to 17 and their parents. The survey drew mailed-in responses from 8,367 children and 8,429 parents. Households with financial difficulties are defined by the metro government as those that meet two of three criteria, including an annual income of ¥1.35 million or less. The other two criteria are experience falling behind on utility or rent payments, and an inability to pay for cram schools, books or toys for their children. Households must meet at least two of the three criteria to be considered in financial hardship. The results of the survey, announced Thursday, show that 3 percent of all households were unable to pay their utility bills and 10 percent were unable to adequately feed themselves. Another 15 percent said they could not afford to buy clothes for their children. Children in impoverished families were also more likely to fall behind in their studies. Nearly 30 percent of fifth-graders in such families said they had problems understanding school lessons, versus 13 percent for all students in the grade. About half of all junior high second-graders from such families replied they couldn’t keep up with classes, versus 24.3 percent for all children in their grade. The survey found that children in families with severe financial difficulties were less likely to attend juku (cram schools) or use private tutors, and more likely to become targets of bullying and feel depressed. Juichi Nishio, head of the department in charge of child welfare at the metro government, pointed to the fact families with financial hardships were also less likely to know about helpful social services available to them, such as food banks and after-school study sessions. “In response, from the next fiscal year starting in April, we plan to introduce new subsidies for municipal governments who hire full-time staff tasked solely with child poverty measures,” Nishio said. “Such people would liaise with related agencies to provide the aid each family needs. We also plan to beef up subsidies for municipalities offering free lunches at drop-in centers for children during summer holidays.”
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tokyo;children;survey;finances
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jp0000860
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/02/23
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Holdout Dakota pipeline protesters face police as deadline passes
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CANNON BALL, NORTH DAKOTA - Several dozen demonstrators, the last holdouts from a mass protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, faced off against riot police on Wednesday as they defied a deadline to end their months-long occupation of an encampment on federal land. Police arrested a handful of protesters who confronted them with taunts late in the day outside the camp entrance, then retreated as tensions mounted in the standoff, about 40 miles south of Bismarck, the state capital. State officials said about 10 arrests were made throughout the day. President Donald Trump has pushed for the completion of the pipeline since he took office last month, signing an executive order that reversed an Obama administration decision and cleared the way for the $3.8 billion project to proceed. Protesters, mostly Native Americans and environmental activists, have spent months rallying against plans to route the pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred tribal sites. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had set a 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT) deadline for protesters to leave the Oceti Sakowin camp, located on Army Corps land in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. As freezing rain and snow fell, some demonstrators ceremonially burned tents and other structures at the camp in what they said was a tradition before leaving a dwelling place. Others vowed to stay put. State officials said protesters had set about 20 fires, and that two youngsters — a 7-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl — were taken to a Bismarck hospital for burns after two explosions occurred. At least three dozen protesters could be seen gathering near the camp entrance as the deadline passed. About 20 police vehicles waited up the road and a few dozen protesters remained in other parts of the camp, a Reuters witness said. “I feel as though now is the time to stand our ground,” said Alethea Phillips, 17, a demonstrator from Michigan who has spent three months at the camp. Chase Iron Eyes, a Standing Rock Sioux member, said the arrest of protesters would not dampen their determination. “You can’t arrest a movement. You can’t arrest a spiritual revolution,” he said in a video broadcast. Protesters and law enforcement have clashed multiple times, and hundreds of people have been arrested since demonstrations at the encampment began in August. The site has become a major focal point for U.S. environmental activism and Native Americans expressing indigenous rights, with some 5,000 to 10,000 protesters inhabiting the camp at the height of the movement in early December. Most have drifted since away, as tribal leaders called for a voluntary evacuation of the camp during the harsh winter while they challenged pipeline plans in court. Roughly 300 demonstrators had remained until this week. Law enforcement officials urged people to leave the camp ahead of the deadline, citing hazards posed by spring floods. State authorities agreed to a request by camp leaders that only Native American cleanup crews be used. One activist, HolyElk Lafferty, said she had asked that cleanup not begin until after the camp was cleared. “It would raise the alarm and panic and not promote a peaceful process today,” Lafferty said. Authorities set up a travel assistance center to provide departing protesters with food, water and health check-ups, as well as a voucher for one night’s accommodation at a Bismarck hotel and a bus ticket home. A judge denied a request earlier this month by two tribes seeking to halt pipeline construction. The pipeline will be complete and ready for oil between March 6 and April 1, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
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native americans;north dakota;donald trump;dakota pipeline
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jp0000861
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/02/14
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Memories of Japanese who settled in Britain soon after WWII recorded in videos
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LONDON - An endeavor called the Wasurena-gusa (Forget-Me-Not) Project, documenting the video testimonials of Japanese who emigrated to Britain after World War II, has been underway to preserve their memories for future generations. Aptly named after the flower known as a symbol of constancy, the project aims to record the history of the Japanese community in interviews, explaining the motivations and daily lives of the first wave of Japanese who made Britain their home from the 1950s onward. “People who came to Britain after the war weren’t part of a mass movement like to Brazil. They came on their own, individually,” Momoko Williams, who heads the project organized by the Japan Association in the U.K., said in a recent interview. “They seem to be people who didn’t accept Japanese norms at the time, to follow the ordinary route and get an ordinary job,” said Williams, 73. There were those who married Britons, and there were Japanese business expatriates who decided to stay, while others single-handedly built their own businesses from scratch in a new land. Whatever the hardships they faced, the Japanese community that formed in Britain during those times varied widely in occupation, from monks to musicians, to acupuncturists and people who started the first local Japanese restaurants. With the boom of the Japanese economy during the 1960s, traveling overseas became easier — although it involved weeks of being at sea or using the railway. Restrictions on passports were relaxed, and Japan took the international stage with the success of hosting the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. By interviewing those who made the long journey to create a life far away from home, Williams hopes the stories of ordinary folks, which tend to get overlooked, will be remembered. “Usually when ordinary people pass away, they aren’t recorded in history, or recorded in either country, even though they have such fascinating stories,” she said. The subjects for the interviews focus mainly on the pioneers. They are asked to recall the hardships of when they arrived in Britain and their reasons for moving there. Two edited versions, one approximately 30 minutes long in Japanese and a shorter version of about five minutes, which includes English subtitles, have been uploaded on the Wasurena-gusa website. Williams has recorded over 60 testimonials since the project started about three years ago. Her goal is to interview 100 people over five years. Ultimately, the plan in the future is for the video footage to be used as a resource for academics and researchers. The interview subjects tend to view the project as an opportunity to reflect on their first years in Britain. For some, the videos have become a way to remember their relatives and friends, some of whom have passed away since being interviewed. Last November, Williams interviewed Masaaki Takashima, 65, and his wife, Kiyoko, 63, at their residence in a London suburb. The Aomori natives lived as expats in central Manchester for 22 years before returning to Japan once and coming back to Britain where their children reside to live in retirement in 2016. Compared with when they first arrived, it seems like a dream that they now can buy Japanese rice at supermarkets in Britain, they said. In the 1950s, the Japanese population in Britain was in the hundreds. Now it is estimated to be around 67,000. Williams herself has personal experience of what it was like in Britain for someone coming from Japan over 50 years ago; she arrived in 1966, traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Originally from Kumamoto Prefecture, she met a British man while at university who eventually became her husband and decided to join another friend who wanted to travel abroad. It was a heady time when the London-based Mod subculture was just taking root. “London was at its height when I first arrived,” she recalled. “I had long hair like Yoko Ono and Mary Quant was in fashion. There wasn’t any smog anymore, but the buildings were black.” She said, “You could only phone home once a year. I went back maybe once every three or four years, but there are some who haven’t been back to Japan in 50, 60 years. “You don’t consider it bravery, but I couldn’t imagine (doing) it now. That’s the power of youth,” she reflected. Williams believes there isn’t much of a difference between the two countries now, but “only because the pioneers back then responded to the needs of the growing Japanese community. People who come over nowadays don’t know about this history,” she said. Some of the interviews from the project have been shown in public screenings, most recently at an event organized by the Japan Society in London. Japan Society Chief Director Heidi Potter considers the project a “valuable initiative” that tells the story of the Japanese community in Britain. “The testimonies being recorded through the Wasurena-gusa project will be welcomed by all who are interested in the personal dimension of the U.K.-Japan relationship, be they scholars or family members,” Potter said.
|
u.k .;expats;wasurena-gusa project;momoko williams
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jp0000864
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/02/25
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Premium Friday is not about taking a holiday
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A good portion of the population still spends its New Year’s and Golden Week holidays in traffic jams, so I have my doubts about the success of the Premium Friday campaign, which started on Feb. 24 and was concocted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to get more workers to take time off and stimulate consumption. METI encourages employers to allow their charges to leave work at 3 p.m. on the last Friday of the month without any reduction in wages in the hope that they’ll shop, eat out and travel. But the scheme is so timid that it’s difficult to believe it will achieve its goals. The anonymous writer of Asahi Shimbun’s finance-related Keizai Kishodai column pointed out in the Feb. 18 edition that Japanese people only think of time off on a day-by-day basis, whereas Europeans tend to conceptualize it in week-long blocks, as “vacations.” METI is constricting the mind-set even further by delineating people’s free time in terms of hours. The business magazine Toyo Keizai called METI’s plan an “idea that comes from no idea,” since Japan has never properly institutionalized the notion of leisure . The United States and European countries have more mature approaches to the matter because their governments began promoting time off from work before World War II. It wasn’t until the early 1990s, with the end of the high-asset bubble period, that the Japanese government mandated Saturdays off for civil servants, thus setting a precedent for the private sector to do the same thing. Japan, however, then entered a long period of economic stagnation that eroded the old lifetime employment system and destabilized job security. Even when companies offer paid holidays, workers are reluctant to take them, fearing it will reflect poorly on job reviews. The government, again, has to take the lead in Premium Friday, because it’s not certain how many companies will actually cooperate. In January, the Cabinet Office sent memos to all government offices telling them to let employees off early on Feb. 24, even though it’s the busiest time of the year for the central government. The Asahi Shimbun asked several companies about their own plans. Home manufacturer Daiwa House said it was encouraging employees, including part-timers and contract workers, to leave early on Feb. 24. They could come into work at 8 a.m. instead of 9 a.m., and then go home at noon. For the rest of 2017, Daiwa House will only observe Premium Friday at the end of even-numbered months, and if it seems to work, then next year they may expand the plan to all 12 months. Since Daiwa House’s sales staff works on the weekends, they will have Premium Mondays. In its own Feb. 20 report on the plan, Tokyo Shimbun also talked to Daiwa House and added that the company was warned in 2011 by the Labor Standards Bureau about making employees work overtime for no pay. In fact, almost all the media who covered the Premium Friday topic in the past month include comments from Daiwa House, which would seem to indicate that the company sees this as an opportunity for some positive PR after having been characterized as a business that exploits its workers. Another company profiled by multiple media outlets is the trading firm Sumitomo Corp. , which is recommending that its 5,426 employees take the whole day or a half-day off. What’s interesting about Daiwa House’s and Sumitomo Corp’s Premium Friday schemes is that they treat the time taken off as part of their paid leave systems. Shimizu Corp. is doing the same thing, but allowing its workers to divide their unused paid vacations into hourly units that can be taken on a Premium Friday. Public relations firm Sunny Side Up told Tokyo Shimbun it would even give each of its approximately 150 employees ¥3,200 if they left work early on Feb. 24. The coverage passes over those companies who are not with the program, which seems to be the majority of them. The Mainichi Shimbun on Feb. 18 pointed out that due to labor shortages, small and medium-size companies will likely not participate in the Premium Friday campaign. A representative of national business federation Keidanren told the newspaper that most companies are taking a “wait-and-see” posture, which probably means they have no intention of ever taking part. The fact that Premium Friday was thought up by METI indicates that its main reason for being is to stimulate consumption, which is where the media can play more of a constructive role. Almost all the reports mention travel companies who are planning to take advantage of Premium Friday to get more people on the road and maybe extend the extra hours into three-day weekends. Japan Travel Bureau told the Asahi that in January it put on sale special weekend excursion packages with departures on Friday afternoons that offer late check-in times and late meals. Department stores and restaurant chains also made sure their Premium Friday offers got publicized in the coverage, but the two-pronged mission of the plan sets up a conundrum: For every employee who takes time off for the purposes of shopping or travel, there’s another who has to work in order to serve those purposes. Another uniform aspect of the coverage is the economic effectiveness of the Premium Friday plan. Dai-ichi Life Research Institute is cited by every outlet as saying that spending on each Premium Friday will amount to ¥123.6 billion, but that calculation is based on the belief that “most” workers in the country will leave their places of employment at 3 p.m. If only “major companies” take advantage of the plan, which is the likely scenario, the economic effectiveness is only ¥13.5 billion . According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun , if all workers who are entitled to paid holidays actually took them in full, the economic effectiveness would be ¥16 trillion a year, so Premium Friday is not only a piecemeal solution to the overwork problem, but rather measly in terms of stimulating consumption. Getting everyone to take the paid holidays they are entitled to, however, will require nothing short of a revolution in attitudes.
|
holidays;economy;consumption;overtime;vacation;premium friday
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jp0000865
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/04
|
Gundam towers over a transforming Tokyo
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Every day, the towering full-scale Unicorn Gundam statue in Tokyo’s Odaiba waterfront district undergoes a transformation, eliciting shouts of joy from visitors young and old, many trying to snap good photos with their smartphones. The 19.7-meter, 49-ton statue of a mobile robot from the popular Gundam series has been standing in the Diver City Tokyo commercial plaza since Sept. 24 . It replaced a previous model as part of the Tokyo Gundam Project 2017, in which the statue represents the future of Tokyo and helps invigorate the bay area. The statue undergoes its one-minute transformation at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. At night, a special short movie runs every 30 minutes from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. In the Diver City Tokyo Plaza building just behind the gigantic statue, there is a venue called the Gundam Base Tokyo, a mecca for fans of plastic models. Launched on Aug. 19 , the Bandai Inc. shop is dedicated to selling, assembling and painting plastic models of the main characters from the animated series. About 2,000 types of Gundam models are on sale, and visitors can assemble the models they purchase, learn the assembly process and take in various special events. A total of 47.3 million units of the models, called Gunpla, have been sold, making Gundam the most popular series in plastic model history. On Dec. 17, the firm will hold a “World Cup” competition for Gunpla builders selected from 16 countries and districts. A small replica of the Statue of Liberty stands in Odaiba’s waterfront district in Tokyo’s Koto Ward. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Children look at plastic models displayed at Gundam Base Tokyo in the Diver City Tokyo commercial complex on Oct. 14. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Tourists from the United States take a look at plastic Gundam models built by World Cup champions at Gundam Base Tokyo in Diver City Tokyo on Oct. 14. | YOSHIAKI MIURA
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animation;gundam;odaiba
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jp0000867
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/04
|
Video game makers find a marketing recipe for success
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Sega’s popular video game character Sonic the Hedgehog is famous for running fast, but now he’s slowing down to grab a bite to eat with some extra friendly company. To help promote the upcoming “Sonic Forces” video game, which will be released in Japan on Nov. 9, Sega is turning Hooters outlets across Tokyo from the restaurant’s trademark orange to blue . Hooters outlets in Shinjuku, Ginza and Akasaka are planning to decorate their stores with Sonic dolls, hand out “Sonic Forces” coasters and offer a fast-food set that includes French fries, a Sonic-blue colored drink and a chili dog — Sonic’s favorite food. For those who aren’t up to speed, video-game-and-food collaborations have been around since the days of Atari, with video game characters showing up in children’s cereal or Pac-Man seen drinking 7-Up soda . Now, however, they’re becoming more interactive than simply slapping a sticker on a product, and several popular mashups have caught gamers’ attention this year. Kurikoan, a chain of taiyaki stalls in Yokohama and Tokyo, caught the Pokemon bug and decided to help trainers catch ’em all. Its limited-time Magikarp-yaki was shaped like the titular orange fish from the series. First introduced in late 2016, Magikarp-yaki became so popular that Kurikoan released a custard version in January . This became a social media hit, with more than 1,250 people using the hashtag #コイキング焼き (#Magicarp-yaki) on Instagram to show off their latest catch. However, it seems the marketing trend is shifting from filling gamers’ stomachs to taking over their screens. One notable example is “Splatoon 2” for the Nintendo Switch, which encourages players to duke it out over digital food. The popular shooting game, where squid-like kids spray their ink to defeat enemies and mark their territory, features a monthly battle called Splatfest. Players vote for their favorite option in a poll and then fight people who selected the alternative option, with past competitions pitting such things as rock against pop and mayo against ketchup. And then McDonald’s entered the ring. September’s Splatfest was sponsored by the fast-food chain , asking gamers to pick their favorite side: French fries or McNuggets. One might assume that people would be annoyed to see such obvious paid content in their game, but “Splatoon” fans actually embraced it. Some players created fan art based on the event, others even used the signature section of their profile to draw McDonald’s food . (Although it lost the popular vote, McNuggets ended up winning the Splatfest battle, much to the chagrin of French fries’ fans.) The only thing hotter than September’s Splatfest is probably the recent tieup between instant noodles and “Final Fantasy XV.” Square Enix’s expansive role-playing game finds its main heroes searching for new weapons, armor and magic spells. In addition, however, the collaboration adds a special item to the list: Nissin’s Cup Noodles. Certain characters in the game ramble on about how they’re craving Nissin’s ubiquitous snack, and players are even encouraged to purchase instant noodles in-game to satiate their team. Gamers will also see plenty of Nissin billboards and delivery trucks throughout their journey. Nissin’s campaign became even more in-your-face this year when it released a digital Cup Noodle hat for characters in the game , essentially turning them into goofy walking ads for the company. How does one obtain this rare item? When the campaign was launched, players had to buy a limited-edition set of “Final Fantasy”-inspired Cup Noodles in real life and redeem a code that was included with the purchase. The hat was later made available for free to any player who wanted it. The collaboration has proved so successful that Nissin has produced a spoof commercial about it. In the video, Nissin took the original commercial for the “Final Fantasy XV” game and added noodles into every scene. The video currently has more than 1 million views on YouTube . With people all over the internet sharing photos and memes about these recent collaborations, video game developers appear to have found a marketing recipe for success.
|
mcdonald 's;sega;final fantasy;nissin;japan pulse;hooters;kurikoan
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jp0000868
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/04
|
Fatal road-rage cases highlight Japan's rise in aggressive driving
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Whatever you call it, road rage can be deadly. The term “road rage” refers to argumentative and sometimes violent behavior by drivers when annoyed by other road users’ actions. It is believed to have been coined in the United States in the 1980s, and had spread to the U.K. by the next decade. While the English “ rōdo rēji ” is understood by Japanese, the tabloids avoided use of this term in their reports of recent incidents, including a fatal accident on the Tomei Expressway last June 5. They instead have been described in the vernacular with a variety of different words. For example, Yukan Fuji (Oct. 13) used the phrase “ sobō na hashiriya ” (“violent street racers”); Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 21) called them “ kireru doraibā ” (“drivers who lose it”); Friday (Nov. 3) used “ kyōaku doraibā” (“atrocious” or “brutal drivers”); and Flash (Nov. 7) referred to the phenomenon as “ akushitsu aori unten ” (“malicious tailgating”). It was thanks to a dashcam on a truck last June that TV viewers could be shown images of what occurred the Tomei Expressway, which resulted in the deaths of 45-year-old Yoshihisa Hagiyama, an auto maintenance worker, and his wife Yuka, age 39. The Hagiyamas were driving westward, toward their home in Shizuoka, with Yuka at the wheel. It is believed that while stopped at a rest area in Nakai, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yoshihisa had complained to Kazuho Ishibashi, age 25, over the way he had parked his car. Infuriated, Ishibashi chased the Hagiyamas’ vehicle from the parking lot for 1.4 kilometers, swerving in and out of the passing lane and braking to a halt in front of the car, forcing Yuka to jam on the brakes. Seconds later, a large truck rammed the Hagiyamas’ car from behind. The couple’s two daughters, also in the car at the time of the collision, suffered minor injuries. In a bizarre case of collateral damage, J-Cast News (Oct. 19) reported that Hidefumi Ishibashi, president of a construction company in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, was misreported as being the father of the offending driver, when in fact he was completely unrelated. But that did not discourage more than 100 trolls from posting hysterical rants and physical threats against him on 2channel and other public online bulletin boards. To ensure his family members’ safety, Ishibashi felt compelled to withdraw his children from their school. On Oct. 10, Kazuho Ishibashi was charged with vehicular manslaughter, which if found guilty provides for imprisonment from one to 20 years. Police are reportedly investigating three similar incidents in which Ishibashi was also believed to be involved, on May 8 and 9 in western Japan, prior to the fatal collision, Nikkan Gendai reports that recently such temperamental outbursts have by no means been a rarity throughout the nation. On Oct. 16, an accident occurred on a two-lane national highway in Aichi Prefecture, in which the driver of an automobile, in his 30s, stopped in the path of a truck driven by a man in his 40s. “The drivers disembarked from their vehicles and began fighting,” a source in the Aichi prefectural police relates, “when they were struck by a delivery van. The younger man was thrown some 3 meters, fracturing his elbow and pelvis. The truck driver suffered a dislocated shoulder.” Then two days later, in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Yoshiyuki Koto, a 36-year-old auto maintenance worker, went after an 18-year-old company employee in his car, slamming into it from behind. He had been infuriated when the other car passed him, and forced it off the road at a junction. Disembarking from his car, the man waved a golf club at the terrified younger man, shouting, “I’ll kill you!” The entire incident was recorded by a traffic camera and Koto was arrested on suspicion of committing a violent act. Flash magazine (Nov. 7) invited the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) to contribute 15 images shot by drive recorders showing examples of dangerous driving, such as passing while ignoring a solid center line, or cutting in on the right while the car in front is signaling for a right turn. From analysis of some 7,000 drive recorder images — which JAF posts on a web site called Doradora Doga ( drive-drive.jp ) — motoring journalist Atsushi Sato offered Flash readers “Ten rules for protecting oneself from dangerous driving that leads to tragedies”: 1) Drive with the flow of traffic at the posted speed. 2) After passing, return to the cruising lane. 3) Avoid frequent changing of lanes. 4) Don’t talk or text on your telephone while waiting for a light to change. 5) If you are tailgated, move aside and let the other driver pass. 6) If a driver tailgates you, under no circumstances should you brake sharply. 7) Irrespective of speed, the correct space between moving vehicles is two seconds. 8) Do not drive close to a vehicle that gives a sense of threat or intimidation. 9) Install a drive recorder and place a sticker on your car informing other drivers that you are recording. 10) Should you feel threatened, lock your door and dial 110, the emergency police number. “Initially, the drive recorder images that people submitted were attractive scenery while motoring, says Toshihiro Torizuka, a former editor of JAF. “But presently about 80 percent of the contents show examples of dangerous driving.” According to data from the National Police Agency, during 2016 a total of 7,625 drivers were charged with tailgating or otherwise failing to maintain a safe distance between vehicles. Police advise anyone who feels threatened by such a driver to report it promptly.
|
2channel;road rage;yukan fuji;nikkan gendai;hagiyama;ishibashi;j-cast;flash magazine;atsushi sato
|
jp0000869
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/04
|
Japan's crime syndicates are shooting themselves in the foot
|
Japan’s organized crime syndicates appear to be embroiled in something of a power struggle. Yoshinori Oda, who heads a splinter group that left the Yamaguchi-gumi called the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi, was attacked as he left his house in Kobe on Sept. 12. Oda’s bodyguard, Yuhiro Kusumoto, was killed in the attack. Police later issued a warrant for Tatsumi Hishikawa’s arrest over the attack. Hishikawa is a member of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, a rival splinter group that broke from the country’s largest criminal syndicate in 2015. The relationship between the two splinter groups is complicated. The Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi was created in April after gang members left the renegade Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi due to dissatisfaction with internal operations on the part of upper-level management. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, which is headed by Kunio Inoue, was reportedly embarrassed by the failure of the assassination attempt in September. After all, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had initially promised to restore the Yamaguchi-gumi’s “glorious and noble” past. Fronting a news conference in April upon announcing the launch of the new group, Oda had pledged to turn the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi into a humanitarian organization that provided security services, protected the public order and upheld values such as “fighting the strong and protecting the weak.” He was highly critical of both the Yamaguchi-gumi and the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi. To some extent Oda’s slain bodyguard reflected this new direction, leaving his organized crime syndicate a few months earlier to go straight. According to sources in both gangs, Kusumoto believed he could be a “good gangster” and his last reported words were “Go ahead, shoot me if you can.” The Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi promoted Kusumoto at his funeral, giving him senior membership in the gang. Posthumous promotion is common in the police force for officers who are killed in the line of duty but it’s rarely done in gangland killings. Until recently, skirmishes between the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi and the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi have been largely accidental in nature. Following the September attack, however, police have been paying close attention to the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi and its activities. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police officer in Kansai says the failed assassination attempt hurts the gang’s reputation. “The Kobe group is mostly comprised of members of the Yamaken-gumi faction in the old Yamaguchi-gumi, and they’ve always been considered the combat arm of the organization,” he says. “The attack was a complete failure. The assassins killed the wrong guy. One of them showed up with a machine gun and even then they couldn’t kill Oda. They also shot an unarmed guy — that’s just not very cool. The whole thing is getting out of hand.” The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi is now considered to be a violent gang, while people almost look up to the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi. The attack has helped the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi recruit more members. The Hyogo Police Department has created a special squad of around 500 officers to patrol the entertainment districts of Kobe and cut off an important source of revenue for gangs: protection money. “We will crack down on senior gang members and their finances,” the head of the criminal investigative division in Kobe declared in late August at a press conference. “We will discover who pays them off and who provides them with funds. We will cut off their income sources.” The Metropolitan Police Department has also ramped up its monitoring of gang activity within the city, placing most syndicates under 24-hour surveillance. Police in Hyogo consider the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi to be the most violent faction and have been arresting members on whatever charges they can make stick. The second most powerful member of the organization, Osamu Teraoka, was arrested on Oct. 10 on suspicion of falsifying electronic records. However, the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi is also being closely monitored by police. On Oct. 25, police officers in Osaka arrested Nobumasa Tanaka, a 59-year-old member of the group, for aggravated possession of firearms under the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Officers found eight pistols and 143 bullets at his house in May. It appears the Ninkyo Yamaguchi-gumi may be trying to go straight, but they definitely aren’t planning to show up without a weapon at a gunfight.
|
yamaguchi-gumi;yakuza;organized crime;kobe yamaguchi-gumi;yuhiro kusumoto;ninkyo yamaguchi-gumi;yoshinori oda
|
jp0000870
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/11/04
|
Japan Times 1917: An eye-witness account of Perry's historic visit
|
100 YEARS AGO Saturday, Nov. 17 1917 Three old Japanese who witnessed the arrival of Commodore Perry at Uraga will be among the persons present at the town to welcome Mr. Hardey, who arrives there today for a visit to the former fishing village. These old men are Denroku Ogawa, aged 76, watchman of the Perry Monument there; Seizaemon Yorozuya, aged 73, a grocer at Uraga; and Shoaemon Kohitsu, aged 84, who is a rich farmer and who, it is said, has as robust a look as a young farmer, and bears some resemblance to old Mr. Hardey, especially in point of his hoary-white flowing beard. Kohitsu said, calling to remembrance the scene of the visiting “black ships” and the American mission landing at Kurihama. “From a far distance, among the wonder-stricken villagers, losing color at the sight of the ‘black ships,’ I stood aghast, wondering what would happen, staring at the unwanted objects. Meanwhile, groups of sailors landed on the beach and beckoned us. But all of us shrank from nearing these visitors from an unknown land. The sailors gave us some gifts. What the objects were we didn’t know. They were, as a matter of fact, six cakes of soap. “After several discussions among the worthies of the village, it was decided that they should be eaten. We boiled them with water in a pan. Behold, lather in bubbling suds overflowed. What terrible suspicions occurred to us! “On finding the unknown presents had a peculiar smell and a mysterious taste, as a bold farmer who dared to lick the substance learned, we put the ominous lather into a wooden tub and took it to a remote mountain, and there the first United States gift was buried deeply into the ground.” 75 YEARS AGO Sunday, Nov. 8, 1942 War prisoners enjoying life; many working American and British soldiers who surrendered to the Imperial Forces on the Hong Kong, Malaya, Philippine and other southern fronts are enjoying life at the various war prisoners camps in the Japanese mainland, Chosen and Taiwan, at which accommodation has since been found for them. Their treatment is just, in keeping with the moral principle upheld by the Imperial Forces. Their lives are perfectly safe, while they have a guarantee of their subsistence. The prisoners at the camp in Taiwan are feeling grateful to Lieutenant-General Rikichi Ando, commander of the Imperial Army in Taiwan, for the books, foodstuffs, cigarettes and other things which he gave them when he visited the camp some time ago. Some of them have written to Lieutenant-General Ando, expressing their appreciation of his generosity. The military authorities have decided to employ these war prisoners, of whom there are a great many, in various undertakings for the extension of the nation’s productive power. Many of these prisoners are already engaged in various fields, receiving proper rates of wages for their work. Vigorous activity is seen in the unloading of cargo at Tokyo Port, the front gate to the capital and the supply route for the Tokyo citizens who united as one mass of fire at hard at work in their wartime tasks with the ultimate objective of annihilating America and Britain. Men wearing beret-like Scotch caps and others wearing British navy caps are silently and orderly at work. Some of them, tucking up their sleeves, make a boastful show of their arms tattooed with the names or faces of their sweethearts. Work is done in an orderly manner here every day. Efficiency in wharf work has increased since the war prisoners came. 50 YEARS AGO Saturday, Nov. 25, 1967 More youths express desire to leave Japan At least 1 out of every 10 young people in Japan today wants to leave the country and live either in South or North America, according to a survey conducted by the Foreign Office last month. The survey, covering 46,000 persons 20 years of age or older, showed that 11.2 percent of those under 30 years old had expressed a desire to emigrate. Of the people surveyed, 6.2 percent replied that they wished to go to a foreign country. The percentage showed a considerable increase since the last survey conducted in 1965 when 2.6 percent gave the same reply. As to the countries to which they wanted to emigrate, 22.4 percent chose the United States, 20.2 percent Brazil, 10.7 percent Canada, 5.7 percent Switzerland and 5.6 percent Australia. As for the reasons why they desired to live abroad, 34.9 percent said they wanted to emigrate to secure a better living, 32.6 percent to become successful and 24.6 percent to fulfill a yearning to live abroad. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Nov. 28, 1992 Wives prefer to spend leisure time alone The vast majority of wives prefer to spend leisure time alone than with their husbands, according to a recent poll. Leisure Development Center in Tokyo, a quasi-govenment affiliate of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, surveyed 200 couples in the Tama area of Tokyo and the Senri area of Osaka between July and August. It found 87.5 percent of the wives said they would like to spend leisure time separate from their husbands. The poll also found that 50.5 percent of the wives would feel comfortable if their husbands spent their leisure time outside the home. By contrast, only 21 percent of the husbands said that they would feel comfortable if their wives spent their leisure time outside the home. About 60 percent of husbands and wives said they were in favor of shorter working hours to give them more time together with their families. Yet 43 percent of the wives feared more leisure time would simply mean more housework, and 41.5 percent feared it would cut into their free time.
|
wwii;world war ii;marriage;pows;leisure;commodore matthew perry
|
jp0000871
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/11/05
|
Elephant's paintings auctioned in Hungary
|
BUDAPEST - Paintings created by an Indian elephant who enjoys wielding a brush were auctioned off by a Hungarian traveling circus on Saturday. Three of 42-year-old elephant Sandra’s abstract canvasses, with colored lines flowing across them resembling rivers, fetched about 40,000 forints ($150) each. A painting depicting Sandra herself, done by a Hungarian painter, sold for 260,000 forints. The money will be offered to an elephant sanctuary in Malaysia. Sandra paints with her trunk purely for pleasure, according to her owner and trainer Florian Richter, a horse acrobat and circus director. Sandra, who was already well practiced in a circus trick involving a shaving brush, was given a paintbrush and she quickly adapted her skills to the canvas. Richter said that unlike many elephants in Thailand that are thought to be forced to paint, Sandra does it by herself when she is in the mood. “I only help her with changing the brushes and putting them into paints, but she does the rest by herself, more or less. I praise her by saying, ‘Oh, this is really good — or not so good,'” Richter said. “We have been together for 40 years, so this is a family connection.” Sandra arrived as a baby elephant at the circus where Richter grew up, as a seventh generation member of an acrobat family.
|
hungary;animals;art;auctions;painting;elephants;circuses
|
jp0000873
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/02
|
Some 30,000 elderly drivers in Japan show signs of dementia
|
A total of 30,170 drivers ages 75 or older showed signs of dementia, according to the results of a recent cognitive test required of elderly license holders under the country’s revised Road Traffic Law. In the nearly six months since the law took effect on March 12, about 1.12 million elderly drivers took the test, 674 had their licenses revoked after doctors diagnosed them with full-on dementia, provisional figures released Thursday by the National Police Agency showed. Under the revised law, drivers who are 75 or older are required to undergo a cognitive test when they apply to renew their licenses and if they commit certain traffic violations. Those showing signs of dementia under the test are obliged to see doctors and will have their licenses revoked or suspended if they are diagnosed with dementia. About 2.7 percent of drivers taking the test were judged as being at risk of having dementia. Of the 7,673 such drivers who were ordered to see doctors by the end of September, other than the 674 who had their licenses revoked, 23 had them suspended. Some 4,326 drivers were allowed to keep their licenses but were told to submit certificates from doctors again six months later. A total of 6,391 elderly drivers voluntarily returned their licenses before the test while 1,267 who did not surrender their licenses had them invalidated after failing to see doctors. The agency previously estimated that about 50,000 drivers annually will need to see doctors following the cognitive test, with the expectation that some 15,000 of them would have to have their licenses revoked or suspended after being diagnosed with dementia. The actual figures fell short of estimates because many drivers chose to give up their licenses before the medical examination, an agency official said. Elderly drivers are allowed to retake the cognitive test depending on their health condition at the time they take the first test. The test results of nearly 4,000 such drivers improved when they were retested. The agency also said the number of drivers aged 75 or older who returned their licenses in January-September totaled around 184,900, surpassing the 2016 full-year total of some 162,300. There were 294 cases of fatal traffic accidents involving drivers 75 years or older between January and September, down from 328 from the same period last year, according to the NPA. But it is still high compared to other age groups, it said. “We would like to further promote comprehensive measures to prevent traffic accidents by elderly drivers,” said NPA chief Masayoshi Sakaguchi during a news conference Thursday. The police screenings also showed that a majority of elderly drivers, about 780,000, had no problems with their cognitive abilities, while 300,000 were found to have minor issues. Among fatal traffic accidents involving elderly drivers in recent years, a truck operated by an 87-year-old man in Yokohama near Tokyo ran into a group of school children in October last year, killing one boy, while an 83-year-old woman in Tokyo lost control of her car at a hospital the following month, causing two deaths. To mitigate the risks associated with dementia, poor vision and deteriorating physical strength associated with seniors, an NPA panel in June proposed several new rules, including limiting them to vehicles with automatic braking systems. It also urged the government to create a new license that limits seniors to vehicles with advanced safety systems that can automatically brake or prevent unintended accelerations. Seniors could also be restricted to driving at certain times of day or in certain areas. The panel also recommended continuing ongoing campaigns urging the elderly to voluntarily give up driving. Similar practices have been put in place in other countries, including the United States and Germany.
|
cars;dementia;old age;driver 's license;police
|
jp0000874
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/11/02
|
Japan drops by three to 114th in gender equality rankings by World Economic Forum
|
LONDON - Japan was placed at 114th in the World Economic Forum’s global gender equality rankings for 2017 released Thursday, down from 111th last year and the worst standing among the Group of Seven major economies. The fall chiefly reflected a decline in the political empowerment of women in the country, the Geneva-based think tank said. The WEF survey, covering 144 countries, measures gender equality by analyzing women’s participation rates and gaps between men and women in the categories of politics, the economy, education and health. Japan’s rating improved in educational attainment because more women were enrolled in higher education. In economic participation and opportunity, it rose to 114th from 118th due to a narrower income gap. However, Japan fell from 103rd to 123rd in political empowerment due to low proportions of female lawmakers and Cabinet ministers. Iceland topped the rankings for the ninth straight year, followed by Norway and Finland, according to the WEF, the organizer of the annual Davos meeting of business and political leaders. Rwanda came fourth, up from fifth, thanks to a rise in women’s economic participation. The WEF warned that the global gender gap is now widening, following a decade of slow progress toward parity between the sexes. In recent years, women have made significant progress toward equality in a number of areas such as education and health, with the Nordic countries leading the fray. But the global trend now seems to have made a U-turn, especially in workplaces, where full gender equality is not expected to materialize until 2234. “A decade of slow but steady progress on improving parity between the sexes came to a halt in 2017, with the global gender gap widening for the first time since the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2006,” the report said. A year ago, WEF estimated that it would take 83 years to close the remaining gap. But since then women’s steady advances in the areas of education, health and political representation have plateaued, and for the fourth year running, equality in the workplace has slipped further from view. Thursday’s report said that at the current rate of progress, it will take a full century on average to achieve overall gender equality. The estimated time needed to ensure full equality in the workplace meanwhile has jumped from 80 years in 2014 to 170 years last year to 217 years now, according to the report. “In 2017, we should not be seeing progress towards gender parity shift into reverse,” Saadia Zahidi, WEF head of education, gender and work, said in a statement. Even more than in the workplace, political participation stubbornly lagged behind, with women still accounting for just 23 percent of the world’s decision makers, according to the report. But political representation is also the area where women have made the most advances in recent years, the report said, estimating it will take 99 years to fully rectify the situation. The picture is not all bleak. The march toward gender equality in education could reach the finish line within a mere 13 years, it said. And the situation varies greatly in different countries and regions. For instance, while Western European countries could close their gender gaps within 61 years, countries in the Middle East and North Africa will take 157 years, the report estimated. Overall, the Nordic countries once again dominated the top of the table: Men and women were most equal in Iceland, followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden in fifth place, after Rwanda. They were joined by Nicaragua, Slovenia, Ireland, New Zealand and the Philippines in the top 10, with Syria, Pakistan and finally Yemen at the bottom of the rankings. Among the world’s 20 leading economies, France fared the best, taking 11th place overall, up from 17th place last year and 70th place in 2006. France’s rise is largely thanks to increasing numbers of women in politics, including complete parity among government ministers. The United States meanwhile dropped four spots to 49th place due to women’s dwindling political representation, with a “significant decrease in gender parity in ministerial level positions,” the report said.
|
world economic forum;women;jobs;politics
|
jp0000875
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/20
|
Manga series highlights Nagoya's unique charms and cuisine
|
A popular cuisine-themed comic series is now trending on social media — and winning the hearts of those who know Nagoya. In a recent installment of “Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hancho” (“Squad Leader’s One-Day Leave”), the serial comic by Tensei Hagiwara, released Oct. 30, the main character visits Nagoya and experiences the city’s unique food culture and customs. The character cannot quite describe what he feels about Nagoya, saying, “There’s something out of place.” In reply, a local resident, who appears in the biweekly series published in a weekly magazine, quips, “That’s because Nagoya is an independent country!” Many have found the depiction of Nagoya in the manga to be spot-on. “Ichinichi Gaishutsuroku Hancho,” published in Young Magazine by Kodansha Ltd., follows the adventures of squad leader Otsuki, a middle-aged foreman in an underground labor camp who uses his one-day leave to visit different places and try their delicacies. The Oct. 30 installment shows Otsuki on his first trip to Nagoya, savoring the taste of the city’s famous ogura (sweet bean paste) toast in a cafe and wandering around the Osu district. However, the more he enjoys the streets and food of Nagoya, the more confusing the city becomes to him. After learning that fried prawns, considered Nagoya- meshi (Nagoya’s local cuisine), was not a specialty that originated in Nagoya, he bursts out in astonishment, “Then why is it so delicious?” Seeing an old-style rifle range next to a fancy cafe in Osu, he complains, “There is no order in (the layout of stores)! This whole area, it’s so … random.” The series is a spinoff from “Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji,” a manga series about gambling. The work by Nobuyuki Fukumoto was adapted into a live action movie in 2009. Kaiji’s trademark use of the Japanese onomatopoeia word zawa , for the sound demonstrating an uneasy atmosphere, is also featured in the spinoff. After the magazine hit the stands, many readers took to Twitter to express their thoughts. “It shows all of Nagoya,” one wrote, while another reader commented, “It makes me want to visit.” Among the readers was Takumi Sugiyama, a 22-year-old university student from Nagoya’s Moriyama Ward. He grew up in the city and often visits Osu. “The character said that ‘the street layout is somewhat random.’ It absolutely is and I cannot argue with that,” Sugiyama said. The author himself made his first visit to Nagoya in mid-September, and his experience is reflected in the character’s story. Hagiwara chose Nagoya because of “its interesting, unique food culture.” “The food was very delicious, and because of the randomness of the whole area, I was always able to enjoy the city with a fresh feeling,” he said. The comic series has become popular at a time when Nagoya is increasingly being featured in the media. Japan’s first outdoor Legoland park opened in Nagoya in April, while the city, in an ironic twist, has earned the title of “No. 1 city that people do not want to visit.” “Buratamori” (“Tamori’s Stroll”), a popular weekly travel television series on NHK, featured Nagoya’s geography and history for two weeks in a row in June. The show broadcast on Nov. 18 focused on the city’s manufacturing industries. Nagoya-based musicians, including Boys and Men, an all-male, Nagoya-born idol group, and Team Syachihoko, a Japanese female pop idol group, have been performing well in the music charts. On top of mainstream media exposure, social media culture popular among youths is also viewed as instrumental in raising Nagoya’s profile. Shinobu Eguchi, a Nagoya Gakuin University professor on regional economy, said, “In the past, Nagoya had a very strong negative image, seen as stingy or unsophisticated.” But Eguchi said the younger generation, mainly through social media, is increasingly embracing the idea of acting slightly different from others to stand out, making them “accept what is different about Nagoya in a positive view.”
|
food;manga;nagoya
|
jp0000876
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/11/20
|
Flawed Nissan and Subaru vehicle inspections seen as an issue of compliance rather than quality
|
People’s trust in Japanese cars has been questioned following revelations that two domestic automakers that enjoyed strong reputations — Nissan Motor Co. and Subaru Corp. — allowed unauthorized employees to conduct final quality checks on finished vehicles. The scandal has caused Nissan to cut its operating profit forecast for the business year, which ends next March, by ¥40 billion to ¥645 billion due to costs related to the flawed inspections, including the recall of around 1.2 million vehicles in Japan, the company said earlier this month. Meanwhile, Subaru has recalled 395,000 vehicles and costs for corrective measures may top ¥20 billion. Despite the misconduct, both carmakers claim vehicle safety and quality were never compromised, and that the core of the issue has more to do with compliance than quality. The following are some questions and answers about vehicle inspections to explore these issues in more detail. What domestic inspections are required? The transport ministry requires that all vehicles undergo state inspections to confirm their safety, quality and road worthiness. Carmakers can carry out the inspections at their assembly plants with the transport ministry’s approval, eliminating the lengthy process of having all completed vehicles undergo state-run tests at a designated center. Before manufacturing a new model, carmakers need to register with the government a sample car and a manufacturing blueprint that includes the method for inspecting a finished car at an assembly plant. If the carmakers clear the screening process, they can skip state inspections by submitting a document declaring that inspections will be performed under the procedure approved by the government. The regulation also applies to imported cars, which means foreign automakers also need to have their vehicles clear government screening before being sold in Japan. Likewise, domestic carmakers need to follow local regulations when selling cars in foreign markets. What do carmakers do in the final checks? At the end of the assembly process, automakers check if the finished cars fulfill the quality standards endorsed by the government. The tests are extensive, and include braking functions and wheel alignment, headlights and the accuracy of the speedometer. According to the ministry, quality checks are supposed to be conducted by designated, highly skilled and knowledgeable employees. But the certification criteria vary by companies as the ministry does not set unified requirements for in-house inspectors. This is because the assembly process varies depending on the carmaker and model produced, a ministry official said. What were the problems at Nissan and Subaru? Both Nissan and Subaru did not comply with the inspection regulations they had arranged with the transport ministry. Nissan said in September the nation’s No. 2 carmaker had let uncertified staff carry out the final inspections. The company later announced that the improper practice continued even after the transport ministry’s on-site probe revealed the misconduct, suggesting the practice was rooted deeply in its manufacturing culture. On Friday, the Yokohama-based automaker revealed improper inspections at the company’s assembly plants have continued as routine for more than 30 years, citing lack of communication between workers and managers, shortages of certified inspectors and poor awareness of compliance as root causes for the misconduct. In Subaru’s case, its in-house regulations had stated trainees who are not yet certified inspectors need to be involved in the final quality checks for a certain period to gain experience, a rule that contradicts state regulations. The Tokyo-based carmaker said the practice had possibly continued for more than three decades until the transport ministry ordered the company to conduct an in-house investigation, after the Nissan scandal revealed potential problems. Both companies admitted having unauthorized staff use personal seals bearing certified inspectors’ names, a finding that suggests the misconduct was intentionally concealed by making records appear as if quality checks were performed by authorized personnel. Are there safety concerns? At a news conference last month, Nissan President Hiroto Saikawa emphasized that from his perspective the problem is about lax governance, not the safety or quality of its vehicles, because inspections were performed. “We are highly motivated to make good cars and I’m confident we have a system to produce good cars. But we were not careful enough about properly following regulations,” Saikawa said. Subaru President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga also insisted vehicle quality had not been compromised as a result of the misconduct, claiming only trainees who were deemed to possess the skills and knowledge “100 percent” were involved in the final checks although the company had not certified them as authorized inspectors. “Maybe we have set the hurdle (to become an authorized inspector) too high,” Yoshinaga said at a news conference last month. “We had never thought our rules were flawed” until the Nissan scandal broke, he said. No accidents linked to the misconduct have been reported, although both companies decided to recall cars that may have gone through the flawed quality checks. What is the impact of the misconduct? The misconduct may not have caused critical financial damage to Nissan and Subaru . Their sales mostly come from foreign markets, and both companies say cars for export were not subject to the flawed quality checks because the issue is about violations of regulations specific to Japan. Of 2.73 million vehicles sold worldwide from April to September, only 283,000 units were sold in Japan, Nissan said. The unit sales on the domestic market surged 34.1 percent from the same period last year, thanks to solid sales of new Serena minivans and Note e-Power electric vehicles, the carmaker said. Subaru’s unit sales in the domestic market during April to September also increased, by 21.0 percent from the previous year to 82,000 units. The company sold 449,000 units outside of Japan during the same period, of which 364,000 units were sold in North America, Subaru said. But it is still unclear how the scandal will affect their sales toward the end of the year, as Subaru President Yoshinaga said he was “extremely concerned” about damage to the company’s brand image.
|
scandals;nissan;carmakers;subaru
|
jp0000877
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2017/11/18
|
Sicilian Mafia unlikely to ever again allow one 'boss of bosses' like Salvatore Riina
|
ROME/PALERMO, ITALY - The death of Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore “Toto” Riina on Friday does not mark the end of Cosa Nostra, but the crime group is unlikely to allow one man such power ever again, a top magistrate and former mobster said. The 87-year-old Riina died in a hospital in Parma, the northern Italian city where he had been serving 26 life sentences for murders committed between 1969 and 1992. “The end of Riina isn’t the end of Cosa Nostra,” said the chief magistrate in Sicily’s capital of Palermo, Francesco Lo Voi. “What remains to be understood is whether the men of Cosa Nostra will seek a direct successor or a new organizational structure.” Gaspare Mutolo, who admits to having strangled some 20 people, agreed. Mutolo, now 77, turned state’s witness in the early 1990s at the age of 51 and became a key witness in dozens of mafia cases. He shared a jail cell with Riina in the 1960s and became his bodyguard and driver afterward. Mutolo, who still wears a balaclava to hide his identity from cameras, felt “pity” when he heard his former friend and cell mate had died, he said. “He was a friend. He helped me. He even saved my life. I saw him a little bit as a father figure,” Mutolo told foreign reporters in Rome. Riina’s death changes little in Sicily, he said: “Palermo still has the Mafia.” As several recent cases show, the mob still extorts business owners on the island, and it still seeks to win lucrative public contracts through back-room deals with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. “I can’t imagine politics without the Mafia,” Mutolo said. But the future of Cosa Nostra without Riina, whose brutality undermined the trustworthiness of the organization by driving mafiosi like Mutolo into the hands of the state, is uncertain. The Calabrian mob, known as the ‘ndrangheta, has had few turncoats and has taken over drug routes once dominated by Cosa Nostra. The Calabrians now are major importers of cocaine from South America to Europe and North America. Even politicians are wary of doing deals with the Sicilian mob now, Mutolo said. “Cosa Nostra is not the same as it was in the 1980s, mainly because of the turncoats,” Mutolo said. “The Calabresi have taken over because they are more trusted.” Cosa Nostra has always had a military-like structure, but before Riina there was no single “boss of bosses.” Power was divvied up by territory, and the local bosses met together in a “commission” to discuss strategy and settle disputes. But Riina made himself the dictator of Cosa Nostra. “It’s not a given that Cosa Nostra will see a charismatic leader as a necessity” in the future, Lo Voi said, returning to “a decentralization of operations and decision-making.”
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italy;mafia;gangs;police
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jp0000878
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/18
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China hopes to build nuclear-powered space shuttle by 2040
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China is hoping to achieve a “major breakthrough” in its space program by 2040 — including the development of nuclear-powered space shuttles that will allow for the mining of asteroids and “large-scale space exploration” — state-run media have reported. The ambitious goal of becoming a global leader in space technology by 2045 was detailed in a report issued by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., a major contractor for the country’s space programs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Developing nuclear-powered space shuttles will “support large-scale exploration and development of space resources, and make mining on asteroids and space solar power plants possible,” Xinhua quoted the report as saying, without adding further details. According to the road map, China hopes to launch its Long March 8 carrier rocket by 2020, which it says will “significantly lower the cost of sending a satellite into low-medium orbit, boosting the country’s ability to provide commercial launch services” to other countries. China will also aim to develop reusable suborbital carrier rockets by 2025 and heavy carrier rockets to support manned missions to the surface of the moon and a Mars probe that would bring back samples around 2030. It also envisions developing completely reusable carrier rockets and “future-generation intelligent carrier rockets” by around 2035, the report said. “By then, common people will be able to take reusable carrier vehicles to travel in space,” Tang Yagang, the director of carrier rocket development at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, was quoted as saying by state-run China News Service. By 2045, with advanced space transportation capabilities, China will be able to carry out the large-scale exploration of planets, asteroids and comets in the solar system, as space exploration enters a stage of rapid development, the China News Service quoted Lu Yu, a senior rocket engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., as saying. Critics of the plan, however, have pointed out that China has not yet even built a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and is still grappling with some basic problems of conventional rocket technology. Nuclear-powered rocket concepts are not new — the United States conducted studies and ground tests from 1955 to 1972 to determine the viability of such systems. But these tests were halted when plans for a crewed Mars mission were deferred. Since then, nuclear thermal propulsion has been revisited several times in conceptual mission studies and technology feasibility projects, including NASA’s Nuclear Thermal Propulsion project, which began in late September.
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china;space;astronomy;nuclear energy
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jp0000879
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/18
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Donald Trump's visit dominates Japan's conversation online — until he leaves
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Japanese netizens spent the days following U.S. President Donald Trump’s first visit to Japan trying to figure out who came out of the trip looking the best. A week later, a consensus was seemingly reached. “ Pikotaro gets the MVP! ” one 2chan poster wrote on Nov. 8, a sentiment that echoed across the internet and beyond. The brains behind last year’s “PPAP” song appeared at the state dinner held for Trump, a decision initially generating derision from all sides. Yet as reports from the event came out, it became clear the cheetah-print fanatic transformed a snoozer of political networking into something stupidly fun , with one Foreign Ministry employee telling the Sankei Shimbun they’d never seen a state dinner like that before. The web ate it up. It’s a fitting snapshot of how Japanese users online tended to view Trump’s visit to Tokyo as a whole. While a fair amount of users on social media sites took sides during his two-day stop in the capital, the majority of people treated it as a joke, creating memes and approaching every detail with detached interest. It dominated online conversation — until Trump went to his next destination, wherein netizens shifted discussion to the Zama serial killer. During Trump’s visit, however, all eyes were on his blossoming friendship with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The moments online users focused on mirrored the same ones Western observers obsessed over — Trump and Abe eating hamburgers, playing golf and the pair feeding carp together , with the U.S. leader dumping all of his pellets into the water at once. Users on both sides of the world created countless memes riffing on this — the Japanese memes leaned more toward anime, although Turkish chef Salt Bae popped up across the board — and debating whether it was fair to ridicule Trump’s feeding method when Abe had done the same thing first. Yet for Western folks online, every little thing Trump does is a flash point — the koi feeding, for example, spurred many in America to denounce the president’s manners, while others transformed into pond-scale Jacques Cousteau to explain just how damaging Trump’s actions were to fish. Japanese users joked that such reactions must be “American style” and moved on. Everything Trump does forces Twitter users in America to react, either to condemn the president’s latest actions or defend him to an almost comical degree. Imagine if Pikotaro was an American viral star who had met the U.S. leader: One half of the internet would call him a monster for meeting Trump (which many Americans actually did do following the dinner), while the other half would go out and buy 50 copies of “PPAP” if only to stick it to liberals. In Japan, however, online users predominantly viewed the trip as peculiar — almost reflecting how they viewed the fact that Trump was elected president in the first place. Which isn’t to say all social media users remained apolitical. One of the big takeaways from the visit was that Trump and Abe now seem pretty chummy — which means 2chan, a message board like 4chan in the U.S. that leans heavy to the right, defends Trump as being a proxy for Abe. Whenever someone tweeted something negative about Trump, supporters would call them “stupid” and tell them to move on. At most, these 2chan types chastised news shows for being “anti-Abe,” focusing too much on the carp feeding episode. Critics of the prime minister, meanwhile, reveled in footage of him falling down a sand trap while playing golf , making it the top trending video following Trump’s visit. (The best jibe, though, goes to Twitter user @huraiburaijin, who criticized Abe for not leaving the bunker in the condition another golfer would expect to find it — a breach of golf etiquette). Those were minority reactions, though. Most simply observed and made jokey posts about the trip. Trump came, dominated a news cycle, left and Japan moved on. The tone was different when he arrived at his next destination — South Korea, where the government served shrimp from the contested Liancourt Rocks and brought out a former “comfort woman” to meet the president . Those moves enraged Twitter users far more than anything that happened while Trump was in Japan and offer a reminder that netizens in Japan have their own issues to blow a gasket over — they certainly don’t need Trump for that.
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shinzo abe;donald trump;pikotaro;trump in japan
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jp0000882
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/18
|
Osaka may be facing political headwinds in its quest to host World Expo 2025
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OSAKA - “Look and see which way the wind blows before you commit yourself.” — “The Bat and the Weasels,” Aesop’s Fables One year from now, representatives from Osaka, along with Paris, Baku, Azerbaijan and Ekaterinburg, Russia, will gather in Paris. One city will be awarded the World Expo 2025 by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). To win an expo, a candidate needs more than a strong theme that is relevant and timely, yet idealistic and future-oriented. Beyond the technical requirements (available venue, ease of location, adequate transportation infrastructure) and cost concerns, there is the “diplomacy” issue. Why, exactly, should the 170 members of the BIE vote to ask the world to visit your expo, your city, your region and your country? Diplomacy by local entities requires outward-looking political and business leaders who know that how things are done at home isn’t always how things are done elsewhere. Success depends on tact, an ability to not be petty or spiteful, and an understanding of how to win, or at least not lose, in the court of international public opinion — qualities not always attributable to local politicians anywhere. Osaka’s leaders, including Gov. Ichiro Matsui, who also heads Nippon Ishin no Kai, traveled to Paris last week to lobby BIE delegates. Osaka may well win regardless of its diplomatic efforts. Paris is due to host the 2024 Olympics and, so the logic in Osaka goes, it would be “unfair” for the City of Light to win two major international events so close together. But nothing is certain and Osaka finds itself forced to be nice to the BIE just as it finds itself in a spat with sister-city San Francisco over the erection of a “comfort women” statue in that city. At the very moment when Osaka needs good headlines in the world’s media to raise its profile among BIE delegates (not a problem for Paris, obviously), it has picked a needless fight with an American city that has a longstanding international reputation for tolerance and liberal values, especially on human rights issues, over a decision by the democratically elected San Francisco city assembly. Privately, many in Osaka are furious with Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura and understand his actions could impact their chances of winning the expo if the bid rivals decide to use them to paint Osaka as a city of anger and intolerance, a place whose values contradict the ideals of an expo. Nor, perhaps, will Matsui get the central government support for the expo bid he hoped for before the Oct. 23 election, where Nippon Ishin suffered badly. Sure, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will do the minimum required to sell Osaka’s bid abroad over the coming months. But Matsui’s Osaka-based party is no longer as influential as it once was and Abe already knows that, on constitutional reform, Nippon Ishin will, at the end of the day, stand with him regardless of how hard he pushes its expo bid. Osaka also wants to host the 2019 Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit, but is competing with Aichi Prefecture for that honor. The winner will be chosen in late January or February. Given Abe’s long, close relationship with powerful Aichi Prefecture-based Central Japan Railways (JR Tokai) Chairman emeritus Yoshiyuki Kasai and a politically weakened Nippon Ishin, there is worry in Osaka that Matsui no longer has the diplomatic skills or political leverage with Abe to win that challenge. Osaka has now committed itself to bidding for two major international events. How well it diplomatically handles any domestic and international political and media winds blowing against it depends on whether its leaders are attuned to the direction of those winds and, more importantly, whether they have the sense to navigate a course through calmer waters.
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osaka;paris;ichiro matsui;osaka expo
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jp0000883
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/11/18
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Japan's shifting attitudes toward prostitution
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Sex is a necessity and a pleasure; it’s also a problem. It exalts some, degrades others. It generates offspring. It’s dynamite. Taboos concerning it are as old as humanity. Laws regulating it predate civilization. Nowhere is the human libido absolutely unfettered. Incest is nowhere tolerated, marriage in some form, until very recently, everywhere requisite to socially sanctioned coupling. Prostitution is called the world’s oldest profession. That it is so testifies to something lacking in marriage. Even in early Japan, where a nobleman could take as many wives as he pleased, the trade flourished. Prostitutes were known as asobi-onna (women of pleasure; asobi for short). A courtier named Oe Yukitoki (955-1010) writes, “The younger women melt men’s hearts with rouge and powder and songs and smiles, while the older women give themselves the jobs of carrying the parasols and poling the boats.” Boats. It was, in part, a riparian trade. “By the end of the 10th century,” explains historian Janet Goodwin in “Selling Songs and Smiles,” “asobi had developed their distinctive practice of using small boats to stage entertainments for men at ports” on rivers near Kyoto, the capital. She quotes a courtier writing a friend to propose a visit to a boat: “In one evening of delight, we’ll forget that we must grow old.” Oe continues: “If there are husbands, they censure their wives because their lovers are too few. If there are parents, they wish only that their daughters were fortunate enough to be summoned by many customers. This has become the custom, though no human feeling is involved.” It sends a pang to his heart. On the one hand, “A tryst in a boat on the waves equals a lifetime of delightful encounters.” On the other, “we must sigh in regret at such a persistent custom. Why don’t we take our hearts that are so fond of making love and embark upon the road to loving wisdom?” His question echoes down the ages. If we loved wisdom as much as we love love, we’d be very wise indeed. It’s worth sighing over. Christian Europe and Shinto-Buddhist Japan saw prostitution differently: the former as sin, the latter as art. Sordid economic necessity, it is true, underlay both traditions. Still, there’s no European equivalent to the resplendent gated pleasure quarters that graced, or disgraced, all Japanese cities of any size from the 17th century on. Standards in the best of them were high. Courtesans modeled themselves on the elegant ladies of “The Tale of Genji,” a novel of 10th-century court life. They were entertainers, artists. Sex was one of their arts. The courtesan who was not also a poet, dancer, singer and conversationalist ranked low in, if not out of, a rigid, quasi-aristocratic hierarchy. Christian and Japanese attitudes regarding prostitution clashed head-on in 1872. When the Maria Luz, a Peruvian ship transporting Chinese coolies, docked at Yokohama for repairs, a coolie jumped overboard, complaining of ill-treatment. The matter came before a Japanese court, whose investigators found that the coolies were indeed treated like slaves. The ship’s lawyer protested. What business was it of Japan’s? And who was Japan to set standards? Didn’t it treat prostitutes like slaves? It was a telling thrust, recognized as such by Kanagawa Prefecture Deputy Gov. Taku Oe. The pleasure quarters were gilded cages, but cages all the same. The women were chattel, sold more often than not as children by impoverished parents under a patriarchal system of government that accorded the male head of a household absolute authority over its members. The women were not free to come and go. A courtesan’s best hope and highest aspiration was for a well-to-do customer to succumb to her charms, buy her contract and keep her as his own. As late as 1896, the statesman Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) called licensed prostitution “a splendid custom” — it allowed filial daughters to sacrifice themselves, in fine Confucian fashion, for their families. Oe was ahead of his time. Inspired by the Maria Luz incident, he crafted legislation banning bonded prostitution in Kanagawa. For a brief time the ban spread nationwide, but tradition dies hard, sometimes not at all. The reform was soon rolled back. The “splendid custom” persisted, impervious to challenges by such parties as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, until the American Occupation that followed World War II. Christian revulsion finally had its way. On American orders, the licensed quarters were abolished. Not prostitution itself, however. The new setup ostensibly turned the former quasi-slaves into free businesswomen. It was 1872 revisited, with the difference that now most of the business came from American soldiers. So matters stood until 1952, when the Occupation ended. It was a brand new country, with a new Constitution guaranteeing free elections and gender equality. Elections in 1947 brought women into the Diet; in 1953 came more. One issue united them across party lines: prostitution. Hadn’t the time come, once and for all, to put an end to the demeaning commerce in women’s bodies? No, said many men, some women and all brothel owners. The latter invoked the Constitution’s Article 27: “All people shall have the right and the obligation to work.” Self-serving it may have been, but some prostitutes said the same, one demanding, “Among (reform-minded women legislators) … all done up in their finery, mincing about so proudly … are there any women like us who couldn’t have survived if they hadn’t prostituted themselves?” There were not, of course, but the reformers’ implicit answer to the challenge of women’s brute survival had been evolving, if not since the days of the asobi-onna boats at least since the Maria Luz. The answer was not prostitution but equal status for women and men. The 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law hardly achieved that. It didn’t even prevent prostitution. But it was a symbolic victory — backed, interestingly enough, by the infant Liberal Democratic Party, as conservative then as now but sensitive, as no governing authority had ever had to be before, to something that had never existed before: a female constituency.
|
prostitution;kanagawa;taku oe
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jp0000884
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2017/11/27
|
Libya migrant trade survivors talk of fake rescuers and cabbies, rape and high-seas murder
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YAOUNDE - When uniformed men boarded the overloaded rubber dingy carrying Christelle Timdi and her boyfriend to a new life in Europe she thought the Italian coast guard had come to rescue them. But the men took out guns and began to shoot. “Many people fell in the sea,” the 32-year-old Cameroonian said as she described seeing her boyfriend, Douglas, falling in the water and disappearing into the darkness. The gunmen took Timdi and her fellow passengers back to Libya, where they were locked up, raped, beaten and forced to make calls to their families back home for ransom payments to secure their freedom. Timdi, who flew back to Cameroon last week, told her story as an international outcry escalated over a video that appeared to show African migrants being traded as slaves in Libya. Libya’s U.N.-backed government has said it is investigating and has promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. Timdi said she had not seen the footage broadcast by CNN, but had witnessed the trade in humans while in Libya. “I saw it with my own eyes,” she said, describing how she had seen a Senegalese man buying an African migrant. Libya is the main jumping off point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat. Timdi said many traffickers posed as marine guards, police officers and taxi drivers to ensnare victims. There were around 130 other migrants on her boat when the gunmen opened fire in the middle of the night, Timdi said. After being taken back to Libya they were locked in an abandoned factory building where men would grab and rape the girls and women — and sometimes even the men. “We tried to hide the younger girls among us,” Timdi said, describing the terrifying moments when the guards would scour the room with torches, searching for their next victims. “I was heavily pregnant — that’s why I wasn’t raped. And it’s all done in front of others — they say it’s so that you know what will happen to you if you don’t pay up.” Timdi said the facilities used by traffickers appeared to be well organized and guarded, adding that most people inside wore fake police or military uniforms. “The place was surrounded by army-style vehicles with guns ready to fire, so we didn’t dare try and escape.” Timdi’s family paid 1 million CFA francs ($1,800), frantically collected from relatives and friends, to free her. But she said ransoms were no guarantee of safety. The traffickers work with a network of taxi drivers who are supposed to transfer released migrants to migrant camps — but who often re-traffick them, Timdi said. “If they send you a good taxi, you’ll arrive at your destination, but if it’s a bad taxi the driver will sell you on to someone else,” she said. “There are people who have been resold twice, three times. And when you call your family to tell them that you’ve been resold once again, no one will believe you, they won’t send more money to free you.” Timdi was released by her captors in October and gave birth to a baby girl, Brittanie, in a Libyan hospital just days later. Foka Fotsi, a Cameroonian migrant who was trafficked twice, said the clandestine trafficking networks in Libya comprised many nationalities. Those in charge of one of the places where he was held included Ghanaians and Nigerians, he said. Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring before reaching Europe. “There was torture like I’ve never seen. They hit you with wooden bats, with iron bars,” he said, removing the hood of his sweatshirt and showing the still raw red wounds on his skull. “They hang you from the ceiling by (your) arms and legs and then throw you down to the floor. They swing you and throw you against the wall, over and over again, ten times. “They are not human beings. They are the devil personified.” Timdi and Fotsi were among 250 Cameroonians who were flown home this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of a voluntary return scheme for migrants stranded in Libya. The program, funded by the European Union, provided returnees with clothing and medical checks. The most vulnerable, including pregnant women, also received around €400 ($475). IOM Cameroon head Boubacar Saybou said it was launching a program to help migrants set up businesses, and will also provide startup funding. “We need to create opportunities for them here. That’s what’s important,” he said. Fotsi said he hoped to follow up on the scheme. But for now his most pressing problem was finding a place to sleep. “I pray that God gives me work that I can do here,” he said. “If we don’t get work you’ll find many of us walking the streets again.”
|
eu;libya;coast guard;cameroon;cnn;human traffickers;slave trade
|
jp0000885
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/27
|
All Beijing kindergartens to get permanent inspectors in wake of alleged child abuse incidents
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SHANGHAI - Beijing will hire permanent inspectors to provide oversight at every one of its kindergartens following child abuse allegations at a facility run by the New York-listed RYB Education, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Sunday. The Beijing Municipal Education Commission said educational inspectors stationed at kindergartens throughout the city will submit reports on safety, sanitation and management to a central database, according to the Xinhua report. It said safety checks are currently underway and kindergartens will be ordered to make immediate improvements should problems be found. RYB Education said late Saturday it has fired the head of one of its kindergartens as well as a 22-year-old female teacher following allegations that children were abused. Xinhua reported earlier that police were checking allegations that children were “reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills.” The scandal has sparked outrage throughout China and RYB’s New York-listed shares plunged 38.4 percent on Friday.
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china;children;education;abuse;child abuse;schools
|
jp0000886
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/27
|
Japanese lawmaker sparks nationwide debate by taking her baby to work
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A female politician’s decision to bring her baby to an assembly session to highlight the difficulties faced by working mothers is drawing support on Twitter, with users saying they don’t mind if people take their children to the workplace. The use of the hashtag #KozurekaigiOK , which roughly translates as “It’s OK to bring a child to a meeting,” is believed to have been triggered by filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya’s tweet Friday that he’s fine with people taking their children to business meetings. “Anyone who works with Kiriya can bring their child along. Whether it’s a meeting, an interview or a film shoot, I don’t mind at all,” he tweeted after news articles about Kumamoto Municipal Assembly member Yuka Ogata began appearing. The filmmaker’s tweet caught on, and many more users, including disabled celebrity author Hirotada Ototake, posted support for parents with small children who sometimes have no choice but to bring their kids to the workplace. As the hashtag spread, however, those who oppose the idea began posting their opinions with the hashtag #KozurekaigiNG , which means, “It’s not OK to bring a child to a meeting.” The heated debate sprang to life after Ogata, 42, brought her 7-month-old son to the municipal assembly chamber last Wednesday. The speaker and the secretariat urged Ogata to take the baby out as it is against the assembly’s regulations to bring anyone other then assembly members or staff members to the floor during a session. Ogata gave in and left her baby with a friend. Due to the incident, the session was delayed by 40 minutes, prompting some members to urge disciplinary action against her, according to the secretariat. The mother of two said she consulted with the secretariat about bringing her child to the assembly, but when she did not get any positive response she decided to go ahead without consent. A secretariat official disputed her account on Monday, saying they were not consulted about bringing the baby to the session and were bewildered by Ogata’s action. This is not the first time Japan has seen a public debate on this issue. In the late 1980s — when it was the norm for women to quit work after giving birth — singer and actress Agnes Chan sparked the “Agnes controversy” by taking her baby to a TV studio. While some women, such as novelist Mariko Hayashi, criticized Chan’s decision as unprofessional, others, including sociologist Chizuko Ueno, were sympathetic. Since then it has grown more common for women to retain their jobs after childbirth, and the government is actively encouraging women to play a more active role in the business world under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s call to “create a society where women can shine.” But even 30 years since the Chan incident, the concept still sparks arguments. Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University and a gender equality expert, said Ogata has brought attention to the important issue of creating an inclusive environment in the political arena, which is still dominated by men. After all, Miura said, legislatures across Japan still operate based on the assumption that lawmakers are healthy males. Because of this assumption, there is no system for lawmakers to take child-rearing leave, nor is there enough consideration for assembly members with disabilities who need the support of helpers. “Opinions of people with different backgrounds should be reflected in any decision-making process. And women with children should not be excluded from this process (due to difficulties in juggling work and child-rearing),” Miura said. “We need to create a system or environment to include those people in legislatures. “Japan is quite an intolerant country,” she continued. “People even raise their eyebrows at mothers carrying a baby stroller on a train. But (this attitude) has resulted in the declining birthrate that we face today. We must think about that.” According to the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union, Japan as of Oct. 1 ranked 165th among 193 countries, after Samoa, Botswana and Belize, in percentage of female members in national legislatures. Japan dropped in the World Economic Forum’s global gender equality ranking this month, to 114th from 111th last year, mainly due to a decline in the political empowerment of women, the Geneva-based think tank said.
|
children;gender;women;kumamoto;politicians
|
jp0000887
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/11/27
|
Med schools offered subsidies for surgical training via donated corpses to curb malpractice
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To reduce malpractice, the government will encourage medical schools to introduce a surgical training program for practicing doctors and dentists that makes use of donated bodies, health ministry sources said Sunday. The ministry has requested ¥500 million ($4.5 million) from the state budget for fiscal 2018 to subsidize universities that introduce the training program, which is more than 10 times the amount allotted for the current fiscal year, the sources said. The use of endoscopic surgery has grown popular in recent years but requires higher surgical skills to perform. Those lacking such skills have contributed to cases of fatal malpractice in Japan. Training with cadavers is a good way to improve surgical skills, but only 15 universities have applied for state subsidies to introduce the program, the sources said. Some universities are reluctant to try the program due to the high initial cost of purchasing operating tables and other equipment. Some doctors have traveled overseas on their own to receive such training, professors at medical schools say. According to a group that encourages people to donate their bodies to science, the number of people registering for donation has been rising steadily. It reached 90,000 in 2016. While students have been permitted by law to use bodies donated to medical schools for anatomy practice, their use for training practicing doctors was made possible after the Japan Surgical Society and the Japanese Association of Anatomists released guidelines in 2012.
|
japan;malpractice;medical schools;cadavers;surgeons
|
jp0000889
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/11
|
Lawsuit over student's dyed hair confronts outdated thinking in Japan
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A Japanese public high school has come under fire for its strict policy regarding the color of its students’ hair. An 18-year-old teen filed a lawsuit in late October seeking ¥2.2 million ($19,000) in damages from the Osaka prefectural government, claiming that her school had ordered her to dye her naturally brown hair black if she wished to continue attending classes. The young woman’s mother had informed Kaifukan High School before the teen started attending that her hair was naturally brown, but teachers ordered the student to dye it black, according to documents the plaintiff submitted in court. The student developed a rash and scalp irritation after dyeing her hair repeatedly but her teachers continued telling her that her hair was not black enough, demanding that she comply or leave the school, the petition said. During one conversation with her mother, the school said it would even demand that blond foreign students dye their hair black because that was the rule, the petition said. The school also has a policy that prohibits students from dyeing their hair. The school’s decision sparked criticism online, with supporters of the student’s lawsuit describing their own experiences of being forced to conform to the status quo. Sayaka Akimoto , a former AKB48 member who is Filipino-Japanese and who does not have naturally black hair, admitted in a post on Twitter that she had also dyed her hair black at high school after she was accused of dyeing her hair. Akimoto’s father defended his daughter, telling the school that its policy was ridiculous. “Rules are important,” she wrote, “but there must be many other things that are more important.” 私も高校の時、髪染めてないのに染めてるとひたすら言われて悔しくて、これでもかって位黒くしてやろうと黒染めしたら、父親が「なんだその髪色は！おかしいだろ！」って言って「私の娘はもとから赤毛だ！」って高校に来た事あった。 規則は大事だけど、大事な事もっとあるはず、ってその時思ったな。 — 秋元才加 (@akimotooo726) October 28, 2017 The post has since received more than 21,000 “likes.” Users of social media have argued the issue is important in light of the wider context. With more and more people in high school coming from diverse backgrounds, strict rules regulating the natural appearance of students could be perceived as discrimination. Twitter user @mi_adhd described her own experiences at school in response to Huffington Post Japan’s coverage of the Osaka story. “I was originally a brunette, so my mother submitted an ‘irregular dress code’ form when I entered middle school,” the post read. “The school’s insistence that everyone must be the same was one of the reasons I was bullied for being different. We’re not living in ancient times. Even with all this talk of diversity, if the current state of education is like this, there’s no way it will work.” Twitter user @jaco_hideaki agreed. “I saw this mentioned elsewhere, but if you consider hair color and skin color to be natural physical characteristics, this is a serious human rights violation, ” the post said. “If we’re striving to create a diverse community that accepts all individuals, including people who identify as LGBT, we should acknowledge these aspects as well.” Supporters of the high school argued that media coverage of the school’s policies was biased. One Twitter user claiming to be a graduate of Kaifukan High School started an account specifically to rebuff the allegations , refusing to believe that their alma mater would treat a student in such a manner. A former elementary school teacher posted a similar statement, arguing that the school should be given an opportunity to present its side of the story . The Osaka prefectural government, which runs Kaifukan High School, has asked the court to throw out the lawsuit. Judging by the public’s online reaction, however, the teenager’s recent experience is not an isolated incident and debate over the country’s outdated ideas on conformity look set to continue.
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osaka;discrimination;japan pulse;kaifukan high school
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jp0000891
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/11/29
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Japanese firm uses VR simulations to offer a glimpse into the world of dementia
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On a moderately crowded train, I’ve just woken up after dozing off, but I can’t remember where I am or where I’m going. Apart from the noise of the moving train, it’s quiet, and the other passengers are half asleep, fiddling with their phones or spacing out. I realize I was supposed to get off somewhere … but where? At the next station, passengers disembark. We start moving again. As the train picks up speed, I feel increasingly nervous. Should I get off at the next stop? The train comes to a slow halt, and some people rise and head for the doors. I feel compelled to follow. I’m on a station platform, but at which station? Where am I? This is what unfolds in one of the virtual reality dementia simulations created by Silver Wood Corp., which operates apartment complexes for the elderly. I recently wore a VR headset and goggles to watch the video at the Silver Wood head office in Tokyo. Though the clip lasted only about five minutes, it was an amazingly immersive experience. I could feel myself growing tense as the train passed a station and sped up. When I stepped out of the train, my fear and anxiety levels reached a climax, and tears welled up. “People’s expressions are completely different before and after they see the video,” said Tadamichi Shimogawara, president of Silver Wood. The 46-year-old started making VR simulations about dementia last year, feeling they would be an effective tool to change the overwhelmingly negative image of the progressive illness, which is characterized by memory loss and declines in other cognitive functions. According to a 2015 health ministry-commissioned study, 4.62 million people in Japan were estimated to have dementia as of 2012, a number projected to swell to 7 million, or 1 in 5 people over age 65, by 2025. Shimogawara long ran a family business making construction materials; it was only seven or eight years ago that he started building and renting apartments for the elderly in and around Tokyo. As he studied how to best serve the occupants, about 60 percent of whom have dementia, he said he found that conventional housing and care arrangements were robbing them of freedom and independence. In conventional housing for people with dementia, he said, doors are locked to prevent residents from wandering outside and getting involved in an accident. “But if you were someone with dementia, would you want to be stopped from going outside?” he said. Shimogawara said he was also put off by the way many care facilities treat elderly residents as if they were small children, putting up cheesy birthday announcements on the walls, having them sing children’s songs or tossing otedama (bean bags) for recreation. “Why children’s songs? Some people might want to listen to the Beatles instead,” he said. “Many facilities also go overboard with care. They would do everything for the residents, because it’s easier for them that way. I feel such bad practices have ended up worsening the conditions of people with dementia. And by confining people in the facilities, giving them little freedom to interact with society, many of us (people without dementia) only see dementia in a negative light and have only fears about developing it.” At Silver Wood’s 12 complexes for seniors, the doors are always open, with occupants given complete freedom to go outside. “For some people it takes about an hour to get to a nearby convenience store — a distance covered by us in five minutes — as they walk slowly and get lost sometimes,” Shimogawara said. “But that’s OK. We will never put tags or sensors on them either; we will go looking for them only if they don’t return in two or three hours.” All Silver Wood facilities are also equipped with low-priced candy stores, with residents serving as clerks. The premises are always busy with local children stopping by, Shimogawara said. The VR project came out of his belief that, with creative ideas and adequate support, people with dementia can live happily and with dignity. “When we talk about dementia, we often talk from the perspective of how to deal with these people who cause trouble to society,” he said. “But in reality, if we put ourselves in their shoes, it becomes clear that they are not trying to wreak havoc on society; they are just having difficulties (with certain tasks).” The simulations do not intend to present a definitive form of dementia, Shimogawara said, though they were created with ample input from — and interviews with — people with the illness. Rather, they are aimed at helping viewers expand their imagination so they can empathize with sufferers more and start thinking about how to live with dementia instead of how to prevent it. So far, the firm has shown the videos to more than 10,000 people at various viewing events across the country, at the request of municipal governments, medical institutions, nursing care operators and even some corporations. The firm, where all but one of the six VR video production members had no previous background in cinematography, has created eight short simulations so far, including six on dementia. The other two are not related to dementia, or even an illness. One is a video documenting the life of a working mother in Japan, aimed at conveying the challenges of juggling a family and a career. The other is about an elderly person approaching the end of life, who is taken to an emergency room for over-the-top life-saving procedures, like CPR that results in fractured bones. The latter video is intended to help families discuss end-of-life choices, Shimogawara said. He said that in the future he wants to investigate various social issues around the world and create VR videos about what he finds. “I feel VR has a huge potential to change society,” he said.
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health;virtual reality;aging;dementia
|
jp0000892
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2017/11/16
|
Wall Street economists at odds with traders, share Yellen's 'guess' of inflation comeback
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OTTAWA/NEW YORK - Wall Street economists are clashing with Wall Street traders over whether inflation is poised to awaken around the world after a long slumber. From Morgan Stanley to Bank of America Corp. there’s a growing chorus of economists siding with Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s “best guess” that price pressures will soon gain momentum, paving the way for the Fed and other key central banks to continue unwinding ultra-loose monetary policy in a gradual fashion. The message is still to fully get through to financial markets. The U.S. Treasury bond yield curve has flattened and German bond yields fell even after the European Central Bank announced plans to slow stimulus. JPMorgan Chase & Co. economists say markets assume inflation-adjusted interest rates in developed economies will stay below zero until 2019. Which side is right will prove a tone-setter for markets in 2018 after a decade in which the financial crisis and subsequent global recession neutered inflation and prompted speculation it would never ignite despite the best efforts of central bankers. “There is this narrative that has developed in the market that inflation is going to stay low forever,” said Arend Kapteyn, investment bank chief economist at UBS Group AG in London. “The point we’re starting to make is first of all you have to be very careful with that.” Kapteyn is not alone. Ethan Harris of Bank of America Corp. calls rebounding U.S. inflation “the call” of 2018, while Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Sheets tells clients that the “Fed will hike more than the market expects” next year. “At some point, the market will begin to price in something like what the Fed has advertised,” said Michael Spencer, global head of economics at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong. “There is a risk in that adjustment process that bond yields do suddenly spike up.” Traders anticipate a Fed rate increase in December and only see rates about one quarter-point notch higher next year, according to pricing in interest rate futures, while Fed projections signal three 2018 hikes following a move next month. Global consumer prices will rise at a 3 percent annualized pace this quarter, roughly twice its average pace in the first half of the year, JPMorgan Chase analysts wrote in a Nov. 10 note. It’s already hit 3 percent in the U.K. UBS estimates that inflation outside of food and energy prices accelerated in almost three-quarters of the industrial economies it monitors, the most since 2011, and warns the markets’ view of Japan is the most mispriced. Investors have been unmoved, perhaps because inflation in recent months has been softer than expected, particularly in the U.S., though data released Wednesday by the Labor Department showed core U.S. consumer prices rose 1.8 percent in the 12 months through October, compared to a forecast gain of 1.7 percent. The spread between yields on nominal and inflation linked Treasury debt, known as the break-even inflation rate and viewed as investors’ outlook for price pressures, predicts U.S. consumer prices will average only about 1.94 percent over the next 30 years. And a bond market inflation gauge the Fed uses to help guide monetary policy is at 1.77 percent, down from 2.07 percent in January. In another signal bond investors aren’t very worried by the risk inflation will erode their fixed-income payments, the yield curve continues to flatten. The spread between five — and 30-year yields fell on Tuesday to 76 basis points, marking its flattest since November 2007. The flatter yield curve suggests “the market is saying maybe the Fed is about to make a policy mistake and hike rates too much in a world where there is no inflation.” said Jim Leaviss, head of retail fixed interest at Prudential PLC’s M&G Investments. At the heart of the debate is whether economies work as they have traditionally done and that inflation materializes when demand heats up. Central bankers reckon it is business as usual. “Fundamentally, we know how inflation works,” Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said on Nov. 7. “The laws of supply and demand have not been repealed.” Yet there have been false dawns before with inflation repeatedly undershooting central bank targets despite rock-bottom rates and unprecedented bond buying. The Fed, for example, has been beneath its 2 percent goal for most of the last five years. Multiple reasons are given for the miss including fallout from the crisis, globalization, technological advances, a breakdown in the link between employment and wages, weak commodity prices and the rise of online shopping. The turn seen by economists now is mainly rooted in the fact that demand is picking up. Three-quarters of the world economy is expanding, in turn forcing down unemployment across developed markets to 5.5 percent in September by JPMorgan Chase’s reckoning. That’s close to the lowest in 37 years and should eventually translate into companies raising wages and in turn prices. Other inflation forces are building. West Texas crude oil has climbed more than 30 percent from its June low to a level unseen in more than two years. China, the exporter to the world, is witnessing the strongest core inflation in six years, reflecting pent up price pressures. Capacity constraints are the concern of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Sven Jari Stehn, who reckons the long-term trend growth rate at which inflation picks up has fallen to 1.25 percent across major economies from 2.5 percent in the late 1990s. As a result, the U.S., U.K., Canada, Sweden and New Zealand will all “hike interest rates over the next year to avoid overshooting their goals,” Stehn said in a report this month. To be sure, few are predicting an inflationary surge, as many countries still have plenty of slack to absorb. “We project a gradual climb in inflation from a low level that gives central banks the latitude to normalize slowly,” Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase, wrote in a Nov. 3 report. Still, if demand remains strong and unemployment keeps falling, “central banks will need to intervene sooner than markets currently anticipate,” he said.
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inflation;global economy;wall street;economists
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jp0000893
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/16
|
Working moms in Japanese politics juggle hectic life, aided by outside support
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Being a politician is taxing enough. But juggling that job and being a mom is hectic, to say the least. As the government takes various measures to encourage more women to work, the realm of politics has yet to become a friendly environment for working moms. The story of Ryoko Fujita, a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblywoman with three sons, apparently says it all. Fujita, 43, starts her day at 4 a.m., checking her email and creating documents while her family is still asleep. She and her 48-year-old husband, Toshiro, share the housework, with her taking care of the laundry and Toshiro, a hospital clerk, in charge of breakfast and taking the children to day care. The couple have a 7-year-old son in the first grade and two younger sons ages 3 and 5. Dinner is made courtesy of Fujita’s 68-year-old mother, who lives in the neighborhood. Fujita, a member of the Japanese Communist Party, at times takes to the streets to make speeches. One day in September, she delivered a speech to passers-by in front of a train station at 7 a.m., calling for a reduction in national health insurance premiums to make it easier for people to go to the hospital. It’s a routine she conducts twice a week. The health and welfare committee she belongs to holds discussions from 1 p.m. that can sometimes last until around 11 p.m. She is particularly busy when preparing her questions, gathering information from people involved and finding the relevant statistics and examples to build her case. At times, depending on how long it takes to coordinate with the relevant offices, she doesn’t get home until 2 a.m. On top of that, she holds gatherings of supporters to explain her assembly activities and stumps for fellow members during election campaigns. Working on weekends is also the norm. “This is a job I cannot take on without the support of people around me. I am able to continue because I am blessed with having a husband and mother who help out,” Fujita said. Although Fujita’s husband said he didn’t expect his wife to return home late every day and be so busy, he stands by her decision. After having worked as a nurse for more than 20 years, Fujita entered the world of politics in the hope of building a better society. But she feels that female politicians are unlikely to increase unless the country’s long-entrenched tradition of working long hours and late into the night changes. Asked if she has any qualms about balancing work and raising her children, she said she tries to find quality time during her busy schedule by, for example, spending half a day with her family each week and taking her children to a nearby park whenever she can. “It’s not easy to go on an outing. But what is important is not the money we spend or where we went,” she said, referring to the simple moments of joy with her loved ones. A World Economic Forum report on the global gender gap, released on Nov. 2, found that of the 144 countries gauged, Japan ranked 114, partly due to its smaller ratio of female legislators and Cabinet members. This makes Japan the worst-ranked on this issue among the Group of Seven industrialized countries. Kumiko Yuki, a 40-year-old Liberal Democratic Party politician in the Minato Ward Assembly, has a different story to tell. With two sons, ages 1 and 3, Yuki has no relatives nearby to depend on, relying on day care and baby-sitters. Yuki is known to be the ward’s first assembly member to give birth. “I had my workload reduced while I was pregnant, but I was worried that I might lose in the next election,” she recalled. At the same time, the assembly’s support and understanding regarding child-rearing increased after she gave birth. Demonstrating one of the changes, the assembly shortened its hours for plenary sessions by deciding to wrap them up at around 5 p.m. instead of around 8 p.m. “By having a child myself, I became more passionate about changing the policies on child-rearing. I want to draw on my experience,” she said.
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gender;women;jcp;ryoko fujita;kumiko yuki
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jp0000894
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[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/11/28
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Bee research may redefine understanding of intelligence
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The brain of a honeybee is tiny — the size of a pin head — and contains less than a million neurons, compared to the 85 billion in our own brains. Yet with that sliver of brain, bees can do some extraordinary things. They can count and interpret abstract patterns. Most famously, bees have the ability to communicate the location of flowers to other bees in the hive. When a foraging bee has found a source of nectar and pollen, it can let others in the hive know by performing a peculiar figure-of-eight dance called the waggle dance. The information contained in the waggle dance was first decoded by Austrian biologist Karl von Frisch, who picked up a Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1973. The dance in itself is not as complex as true language, but it’s remarkable in that it’s a symbolic form of communication. Recently, Hiroyuki Ai at Fukuoka University has made another breakthrough in our understanding of this extraordinary behavior, by investigating the neurons that allow bees to process the dance information. Bees get information from hearing the dance, as well as seeing it. During the dance, bees vibrate their abdomens as they run in a figure-of-eight pattern. These vibrations send out pulses that are picked up by an organ on the antennae called Johnston’s organ. Johnston’s organs are equivalent to our ears. Ai maintains hives of honeybees on the campus of Fukuoka University. (Incidentally, he says they have monthly meetings to discuss their research with students, after which they have tea parties and eat the honey produced by their bees.) Until recently, there has been very little understanding of how the bee brain deciphers the information encoded in the waggle dance. The reason, he says, is that bees only perform the dance in the hive, and it’s difficult to get them to do it in the laboratory. It makes sense that the bees pay attention to sound. “In a dark hive, they can’t see the dance,” Ai says. “Honeybees hear the dance.” Honeybees are very sensitive to vibration, so mimicking the noise of a waggle dance can cause bees to journey to the same place indicated by a real dance. Ai and his team recorded the vibrations made by the waggle dance, simulated the noises and applied the vibrations to the antennae of bees in the lab. This allowed them to track which neurons fired in response to the waggle dance, and follow their route in the insect brain. The team discovered three different types of “interneurons.” These are connecting neurons that allow communication between different parts of the brain. Ai, along with team members that include Thomas Wachtler at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, and Hidetoshi Ikeno of the University of Hyogo in Himeji, traced the path of interneurons in the part of the brain concerned with processing sound. They found that the way the interneurons turn on and off is key to encoding information contained in the waggle dance about distance. This mechanism of turning on and off — in neuroscience it is called “disinhibition” — is similar to one used in other insects. For example, it’s how crickets listen to the songs of other crickets as well as how moths assess the distance from the source of a smell their antennae have picked up. Ai and his team suggest there is a common neural basis in the way these different species do things. Communication is the key to forming complex societies. It’s what allows the honeybee to perform such extraordinary behaviors. And, naturally, language is a key factor in human success. Intelligence is required for both these things, so does this mean honeybees, with a minuscule brain, are intelligent? It’s a tricky quality to define. One attempt, from the American Psychological Association Task Force on Intelligence, defines it as the ability “to adapt efficiently to the environment and to learn from experience.” Bees are able to do this. There are six different kinds of dance, for example, and bees are able to learn and change their behavior accordingly. If bees encounter a dead bee at a flower, they change the pattern of dancing they perform back at the hive, suggesting they can perform a risk/benefit analysis. Both bee and human language are a consequence of intelligence, and research such as Ai’s forces us to rethink what we mean by intelligence. “There might be a common brain mechanism between humans and honeybees,” he says. What it certainly shows is that you don’t need a big brain to be smart. As with many things, Charles Darwin realized this, writing in 1871: “The brain of an ant is one of the most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man.”
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honeybees;bees
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jp0000895
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/11/17
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U.N. body urges Japan to improve protection of press freedoms amid secrecy law concerns
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GENEVA - A U.N. body on Thursday called on Japan to take steps to better protect press freedoms as concerns about the country’s laws aimed at curtailing leaks of state secrets could hinder the work of journalists. In another of the 218 nonlegally binding recommendations on Japan’s human rights record released by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s working group, Tokyo was urged to apologize and pay compensation to “comfort women” forced to work in Japan’s wartime military brothels. The recommendations reflected the views of some 105 countries. Of the issues raised, the U.N. council will adopt those that have been accepted by the country in question at a plenary session around March 2018. In relation to freedom of the press in Japan, the recommendation called on the country to amend Article 4 of the broadcasting law that gives the government authority to suspend broadcasting licenses of TV stations not considered “politically fair.” Japan had already attracted criticism, in particular from David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, over its law called the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, which came into force in 2014. Under the law, civil servants or others who leak designated secrets could face up to 10 years in prison, and those who instigate leaks, including journalists, could be subject to prison terms of up to five years. In his report, Kaye noted that the law may be arbitrarily enforced as subcategories under which information may be designated as secret are “overly broad.” On the issue of the comfort women, raised at the request of South Korea and China, the recommendation urged Japan to promote fair and accurate historical education, including the women’s stories, and to apologize and compensate the victims. The recommendation also said Japan should abolish or suspend the death penalty, reflecting calls from European Union countries, and continue to provide support to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear crisis caused by the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami. In particular, a directive to address health issues faced by pregnant mothers and children was noted. The U.N. Rights Council is mandated to “undertake a universal periodic review” of whether countries are meeting their human rights obligations and commitments. The examination is conducted on all 193 members of the United Nations in periodic cycles of a few years. The latest review was the third for Japan.
|
china;press freedom;u.n .;south korea;comfort women;secrecy law;japan
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jp0000897
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2017/11/10
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Survey shows households' financial assets increasing helped by Abenomics
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An improving job market driven by Japan’s economic recovery and booming stock prices helped increase households’ net worth this year, a survey showed, suggesting the benefits of Abenomics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economics policies, are broadening. Households’ average financial assets rose 6.8 percent from a year ago to ¥11.5 million in 2017 thanks to a 25 percent rise in stock prices, an annual survey by the Central Council for Financial Services Information (CCFSI), a body administered by the Bank of Japan, showed Friday. But uncertainty over social welfare provisions being maintained among a rapidly aging population prevented households from turning to riskier investments, underscoring the challenge the central bank faces in nudging the country’s risk-shy population to invest rather than save cash in accounts. The ratio of households who made ends meet as expected or felt better-off rose to 30.7 percent from 29.2 percent in the previous year, as more people joined the workforce amid a tightening job market, the survey showed. But 54.1 percent of households’ financial assets were held in savings and bank deposits, with only 8.9 percent held in stocks, the survey showed. When asked how they choose which financial assets to hold, 46.6 percent said they would prioritize security such as a guarantee of principal, with only 18.7 percent saying they focus on profitability. In a worrying sign for the consumption outlook, a record high 43.2 percent of single households said they had no plans to own a house, more than double the ratio 10 years ago. While it was unclear from the survey why households preferred not to own a house, it may be because more day care and other facilities catering to seniors are becoming available in the country’s aging society, said Kengo Kato, deputy director-general of the CCFSI. “More people may be feeling they don’t necessarily need to own a house” in preparing for retirement, he told a briefing. Thanks to robust exports and consumption, the economy likely expanded for a seventh straight quarter in the July-September period, a Reuters poll showed. The Nikkei average hit a near 26-year high this week on expectations of strong corporate earnings, while the jobless rate slid to levels the BOJ considers as close to full employment. But inflation and wage growth remain subdued, casting doubt over the long-term sustainability of the recovery. The survey targeted 8,000 households nationwide from June 16 to July 25, with 47.1 percent replying.
|
bank of japan;assets
|
jp0000898
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/11/10
|
Alone in the bunker: Trump apparently unaware of Abe's sand trap tumble
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his round of golf with visiting President Donald Trump was a good chance to relax and discuss difficult issues. It also was an opportunity to display some nimble gymnastics, according to TV Tokyo. The television network flew a helicopter over the Kasumigaseki Country Club on Sunday to capture the highly anticipated informal game. It broadcast a video showing a player identified as Abe trying repeatedly to hit his ball out of a steep bunker. As he finally made the shot, Trump began walking away, and Abe ran up the side of the bunker to catch up. But just as the 63-year-old prime minister stepped onto the grass, he slipped, making a backward flip down into the sand. He quickly stood up and picked up his cap. Trump apparently never noticed the flip as he walked away, his back to Abe. An attendant raking the sand also continued his work. Japanese widely shared the video on Twitter on Thursday. “Don’t miss Abe’s rolling-down-the-bunker video,” many of the tweets said. Some called the flip “cute.” Tabloid magazines raised questions over whether the two leaders really talked during the game. The popular Nikkan Gendai said they had little conversation, with Abe often falling behind Trump, who reportedly spent much of his time chatting with a third player, renowned pro Hideki Matsuyama. After the golf, Abe told reporters that he and Trump had a deep discussion on serious issues, but added that their scores were secret. The two leaders also played golf when Abe visited the U.S. in February.
|
shinzo abe;golf;donald trump;tv tokyo
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jp0000899
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/11/19
|
U.S. drafted request to deploy nukes on Honshu in 1960s, documents show
|
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government weighed its chances of convincing Tokyo in the late 1960s to allow the deployment of nuclear weapons in Japan if a crisis in East Asia were to break out, according to newly declassified documents. The idea, which was never proposed because its chances of success were apparently considered “very slight,” offers a look into how Washington sought to expand its military footprint in the region after World War II and the Korean War. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had left the Japanese public with a strong aversion to nuclear weapons, with the prohibition of their possession, manufacture and introduction in Japanese territory — first outlined in 1967 — coming to form the core of Japan’s nuclear policy. The documents, dated June 26, 1969, are composed of drafts of a joint communique by the leaders at the time — President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. The documents outlined the role of the U.S. military after the return of Okinawa to Japanese administration in 1972. One of the drafts noted that if the two countries agreed that if a “state of emergency existed in East Asia threatening imminent armed attack” on Japan, steps would be taken to “enable the U.S. forces in Japan to introduce the necessary forces and equipment to meet the danger.” While the two countries eventually made a secret agreement allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons to the southern islands even after the handover, the documents reveal for the first time that the U.S. government had a desire to deploy part of its nuclear arsenal in Honshu, according to Masaaki Gabe, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. The draft, written by the U.S. State Department, is labeled as “including all of the points desired by the U.S. . . . whose chance of full acceptance by the GOJ (government of Japan) is very slight.” Gabe obtained the previously top secret documents from the U.S. National Archives. The documents also include a separate draft of the joint communique that the State Department saw as “possibly more acceptable” to Japan.
|
history;nuclear weapons;u.s.-japan relations
|
jp0000900
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/26
|
In pitching 2025 Expo bid, Osaka must sell itself over Paris, and Africa may hold the key
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OSAKA - Imagine you’re in Osaka in 2025. After arriving, you’re welcomed by people on the streets, where you stop by a takoyaki vendor for a quick octopus dumpling snack before heading out to see the sights. Walking around Osaka, you’ll feel safe in the presence of police officers offering snappy salutes and small robots that look and sound like extras in a “Star Wars” film. Just the droids you’re looking for. On Yumeshima Island, only about 20 minutes from central Osaka, you’ll be able to visit the Osaka-Kansai Japan World Expo and enjoy not only attractions with zero waiting times but also interact with people from diverse backgrounds to cocreate in organic harmony. All with an eye toward helping achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. That’s the vision in anime form that Osaka’s leaders presented to the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions earlier this month for their World Expo 2025 bid. With one year until the BIE awards the expo, Osaka is gearing up to launch a domestic and international marketing campaign next year in the hope of winning a majority of the 170 delegate votes that will be cast. Officially, there are four candidates for the 2025 Expo. But Baku, Azerbaijan, and Ekaterinburg, Russia, are considered, at least by Osaka, to be long shots. The competitor that local officials and the central government are most concerned about is Paris, where local enthusiasm for the expo, especially among younger people, is far more visible than in Osaka. Domestically, one basic strategy is to heavily rely on the Osaka-based Yoshimoto Kogyo entertainment group to use its talent and influence with the television media nationwide to promote Osaka’s bid. But to win over the BIE delegates and gain international support, Osaka and the central government need to appeal to African and Latin American nations, where almost half of the BIE delegates hail from. African delegates alone account for 49 votes. That could be extremely difficult. Privately, many involved with Osaka’s bid say it’s highly unlikely Osaka will win many votes from African Francophone countries. Still, the message sent to the BIE delegates earlier this month by Osaka and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized Japan’s social and economic connections not only with Africa but also other parts of the world. It also highlighted Japanese technologies that can help countries meet the U.N. development goals, especially for human health. “We have a community of people around the world who share the same goal. Expo 2025 will be such an opportunity,” said Chieko Fujita, a spokeswoman for Osaka-based Nippon Poly-Glu Co., a maker of water purifying technology that has deep connections in dozens of African and Asian countries. She was followed by Joachim Rutayisire from Rwanda, who studied at a university in Kobe and spoke about how important Japan was to Rwanda’s development. Osaka officially introduced its bid in Paris as the “Osaka-Kansai Japan Expo 2025” bid. Both Abe and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry are heavily involved in the bid, and the aim is to emphasize Japan’s public and private economic ties, and potential economic opportunities, if Osaka is awarded the expo. “Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will set the stage for this cocreation to work even more closely with BIE member countries towards 2025,” the narrator of a video shown to the delegates says, as footage of an August 2016 meeting in Nairobi on Japanese private-sector investment in Africa is shown. “Japanese firms have had requests from various countries to enter their markets. The influence of Japan’s corporate world in these countries is something that can be relied upon,” Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui told reporters in Osaka just before departing for Paris. There were also inquiries in Paris, Osaka officials said, about how much the Japanese government, in the form of official development assistance, might budget for projects in African and Asian countries next year. Beyond questions of whether promises or hints of further Japanese government and private investment in BIE member countries would be an effective form of lobbying, there still lies the reality that Osaka is up against Paris. Given that Paris is one of the world’s major international media centers, the city can easily reach out to the world’s major wire services, newspapers, and TV stations with bureaus there. By contrast, Osaka, where there is virtually no foreign media presence, must bring in Tokyo-based international journalists for occasional press tours and rely on Tokyo to promote its bid overseas. Next year, BIE officials will visit Osaka to conduct a technical review of the city’s expo plan. It’s expected to receive a very positive assessment and could well be judged to be the best of the four candidates. But winning international events like the Olympics and expos is often more about politics, and economics, than technology and engineering. Whether Osaka and the central government can develop an international media relations strategy and BIE lobbying strategy that overcomes the built-in advantages of Paris and realize the 2025 Expo dream it displayed on a video screen earlier this month remains to be seen. But the clock is now ticking.
|
osaka;ichiro matsui;expo
|
jp0000901
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/11/21
|
'Diplocat' takes office in Jordan as British Embassy's newly appointed chief mouser
|
AMMAN - At the British embassy to Jordan, a former rescue cat is settling into his new position as chief mouser — as a traditional well established in the ministries of London goes global. “Lawrence of Abdoun” is a fluffy black-and-white tom who, according to his Twitter feed, reports directly to the Foreign Office’s Palmerston, a cat that delights his 57,000 followers with regular updates from the ministry in Whitehall via @DiploMog. Lawrence, named after T.E. Lawrence, a British military officer who fought alongside Arabs against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, has already gained 2,500 followers since being adopted from an animal shelter last month. Abdoun is the neighborhood of Amaan where the embassy is located. “Apart from his mousing duties, he reaches out to followers on Twitter. What’s quite interesting is the British public are seeing the U.K. embassy in Jordan in a different light,” said Deputy Ambassador Laura Dauban. “Through Lawrence’s Twitter account we’re trying to show a different side to Jordan, what it is really like, a peaceful, prosperous country that British tourists should come and visit.” Tweeting under the name @LawrenceDipCat, Lawrence has discovered the perils of social media, and has even been fat-shamed by trolls. “He’s been a bit upset because some people have said he looked a bit fat in the last tweet he did, so he’ll be doing some exercises and posting to sort of rectify that situation,” Dauban said.
|
animals;u.k .;jordan;offbeat
|
jp0000902
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/21
|
Secrets and wives: Gay Chinese hide behind 'sham marriage'
|
LIAONING, CHINA - When Xiaoxiong and her lesbian lover wanted to hide their relationship from their parents, they decided to find men willing to marry them. They had a specific type in mind: Gay. Searching out suitors for such a marriage of convenience proved difficult, so she created an online matchmaking forum to help others like her conform with family and societal pressures in China, where same-sex marriage is not legal and homosexuality remains taboo. “I was so relieved that there was a way to please my parents without getting trapped in a marriage with some poor straight man,” said Xiaoxiong, self-described tomboy, who did not want to give her surname to protect her privacy. “Some of us wish we could trick ourselves, too,” the 35-year-old added. She lives with her partner, Xiaojing, 36, their dog and two cats in Shenyang, the capital of northeastern Liaoning province, one of China’s more conservative regions. But during holidays and special occasions, they separate to be with their husbands’ and families, pretending to be traditional wives. In China being openly gay is still fraught with difficulties. Dressing a certain way or public displays of affection can draw stares and lead to family turmoil. Some Chinese parents have even brought gay children to “conversion” clinics for treatment. Homosexuality was classified as a mental illness in China until 2001 and a crime until 1997, and authorities have arrested gay rights activists. Around 90 percent of 20 million gay men in China are married to women who are usually straight and do not initially know their husband’s real sexual orientation, according to a 2012 study from Qingdao University. The study did not look at lesbians’ behavior. But gay men and women are increasingly marrying each other in so-called “cooperative” marriages. There are no estimates on the number of gay-lesbian marriages, but several websites dedicated to them have popped up in recent years. The largest one, Chinagayles.com , says it has amassed more than 400,000 users and facilitated more than 50,000 cooperative marriages in the past 12 years. “When I turned 25, my parents started to really pressure me to get married. So I searched the internet for ideas,” Xiaoxiong said. She started her own forum on the popular QQ social media platform to help gays like herself find an ideal fake spouse in northeast China. Some of the men she spoke with had unrealistic expectations, such as wanting her to grow out her buzzcut or move to a different city to live in the same house as in-laws. In 2012, she married a high school math teacher 10 years her senior whose laid-back demeanor immediately made her feel comfortable. But she cringes at the wedding photos of herself in a white gown and curly black wig. The video makes her “want to vomit,” she concedes. Within weeks of the ceremony, Xiaojing, her partner for eight years, had also wed a gay man. The two women run a traditional Chinese medical practice together, but they dedicate several hours each week to answer questions on the online matchmaking forum. But Xiaojing warns people interested in cooperative marriages to be prepared for potential complications. “Some people rush into a marriage with someone they barely know,” she said. “But just like real marriage, it only works between people who agree on important things like where to live and whether to have children, and who genuinely care about each other.” But some gay rights activists frown upon such arrangements. “By pretending to be straight and enjoying the social benefits, they are abandoning other LGBT people to face the pressure alone,” said Ah Qiang, a prominent activist who leads China’s PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) group. “I think a reason homophobia is still so strong in China is that many straight people don’t know any openly gay people,” he said. Xiaoxiong and Xiaojing believe their families likely know the truth about their relationship, but nobody wants to acknowledge the obvious. “We don’t wish for much,” said Xiaoxiong. “When we are home, when we are sitting side by side, we just feel so peaceful and happy.”
|
china;sexuality;marriage
|
jp0000903
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/11/21
|
Only known war memoirs by Emperor Hirohito to go up for auction in New York
|
What may be the only existing copy of Emperor Hirohito’s account of World War II and the era leading up to the conflict is set to go on the auction block in New York next month. The 173-page, two-volume document — known in Japan as “Showa Tenno Dokuhakuroku”(“Emperor Showa’s Monologue”) — was dictated by the Emperor to several of his aides soon after the war and transcribed word-for-word by senior diplomat Hidenari Terasaki. It was published by the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine in 1990, causing a national sensation. Emperor Hirohito is posthumously known as Emperor Showa. London-based auction house Bonhams said on its website that the volumes will be auctioned in New York on Dec. 6, with the document expected to fetch an estimated $100,000 to $150,000. “Bonhams is thrilled to have been given this opportunity to sell the only extant copy of a document that is critical to our understanding of 20th-century world history,” Joe Earle, Bonhams Senior Consultant for Japanese Art, said in a statement. The Emperor’s recollection of the turbulent time period was recorded in preparation for the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the Tokyo Trial, historians say. In 1946, five aides recorded the Emperor’s account from March 18 through April 8. The tribunal started in May the same year. Parts of the memoir were translated into English and submitted to the postwar Allied Occupation forces. The Emperor discussed topics such as Japanese politics at the time, Japan’s assassination of Manchuria warlord Zhang Zuolin in 1928 and the nation’s surrender at the end World War II in August 1945. The Emperor’s frank discussion about the history of the war has caused heated debate among historians, including how much the leader himself was responsible for key political decisions during Japan’s wars and conflicts in the 1930s and 1940s. “His aides tried to prove the Emperor was a peace-loving leader to prepare for the Tokyo Trial. That was their biggest motivation,” historian Ikuhiko Hata told The Japan Times on Tuesday. “So you have to carefully read the text, but the account is very interesting.” Bonhams didn’t say who currently owns the document. The document was originally discovered in Terasaki’s belongings held by his daughter, Mariko Terasaki Miller. Her mother, Gwen Harold Terasaki, born in Johnson City, Tennessee, was the author of a best-selling war memoir “Bridge to the Sun,” which was also made into a move and detailed her family’s experiences during the war. According to Hata, historical records suggest at least another two aides to the Emperor separately transcribed his accounts of history on different occasions. The government should disclose those records if they still exist, Hata said.
|
history;world war ii;auctions;emperor hirohito
|
jp0000904
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/11/07
|
'Donald & Shinzo' chumminess aside, Trump leaves empty-handed on trade as Abe digs in
|
They autographed baseball caps emblazoned with “Donald & Shinzo.” They played nine holes of golf with a Japanese sensation often compared to Tiger Woods and didn’t keep score. They shared an intimate dinner and repeatedly showered each other with praise. But for all the apparent chumminess between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it hasn’t resulted in much concrete action to address Trump’s main complaint: fixing what he sees as an unfair trade relationship with Japan. For Trump, more known for shoving a fellow leader aside than embracing one, the relationship with Abe is a way to show he can work with his peers around the globe. The two men also agree on a hard-line approach to North Korea. But throughout Trump’s two-day visit, Abe publicly ducked any talk of major trade concessions even though Trump kept bringing it up. The only major investment cited — a $1 billion project in Tennessee from auto parts maker Denso Corp. — was old news, contrasting with Trump’s plan to announce billions of dollars in deals on his stop in China later this week. Trump all but pleaded with Japanese carmakers to build more factories in the U.S., or let a few more American cars into Japan. Invest in the U.S., Trump said, and he promised to make sure they speed right through the approval process. Yet Abe’s deflections showed Trump that it won’t be that easy to narrow the $69 billion trade deficit with Japan, driven largely by U.S. imports of cars and electronics. One major problem for Abe is that he’s not sure what exactly the U.S. wants, according to Hiroyuki Kishi, a professor at Keio University and a former trade ministry bureaucrat. On autos, for example, Japanese officials argue the market isn’t closed to American cars — consumers just don’t want to buy them. “Trump is saying these things because he believes them and they are among his pledges,” Kishi said. “Looking at the actual reasons and what should be done would take negotiations. I don’t know whether we can actually reach that stage. Just talking generalities won’t change anything.” For the U.S., the Japanese trade deficit is second only to that with China. Trump has made clear that he tends to see the numbers as a sort of fairness scorecard, and any figure with a minus for the U.S. almost automatically means the other side is somehow breaking the rules. “Right now our trade with Japan is not fair and it isn’t open,” Trump told business leaders in Tokyo on Monday. But Abe hasn’t forgotten that it was Trump who pulled out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, a move the U.S. president once again defended Monday. Abe spent significant political capital to back the trade pact, particularly among farmers who don’t want to see tariffs on agriculture lowered. Japanese officials also say the TPP would have helped narrow the trade gap. Japan hasn’t ruled out the sort of bilateral partnership with the U.S. that Trump seeks but is spending most of its energy on a process known as “TPP 11” — an attempt to keep the framework intact without the U.S. Abe is also reluctant to put Japan’s highly protected agriculture sector further at risk in a bilateral deal. Still, the White House is eager to find ways to loosen barriers to exporting American agriculture and livestock. U.S. producers are concerned they’re losing market share, and would like reduced tariffs on beef, pork, dairy, fruit and vegetables, among other foods. Japan is eager to leave the trade talks to Vice President Mike Pence and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, a formulation that allows Trump and Abe to focus primarily on defense. Pence has urged Japan to roll back its emergency import restrictions on U.S. frozen beef, which saw tariffs rise to 50 percent from 38.5 percent. That’s led to a monthly drop in U.S. frozen beef exports. The Trump administration also wants Japan to expand its use of U.S. liquefied natural gas, hoping exports could cut into the trade deficit. Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, has voiced support for a terminal in the U.S. Northwest that would send tankers full of LNG to Asia. The White House is also hopeful that it can boost ties between the countries’ transportation sectors by coordinating infrastructure development and maintenance projects. Trump on Monday talked up recent Japanese purchases of defensive military equipment designed to blunt the threat of North Korea’s nuclear program. Abe listed several missile defense systems Japan is planning to buy as well as Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35A fighter jets. Yet all the deals had previously been announced. For Trump, one key accomplishment was showing a united front with Japan on North Korea. “No Japan-U.S. summit meeting has been so seriously focused on the security situation in Asia in the past few decades,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat and now visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University. “I would say this is very, very epoch-making in the sense that the two leaders of Japan and the U.S. are looking to jointly tackle their issues of concern in this part of the world.” On trade, Trump took what he could get, even if he is largely leaving Japan empty-handed. And while he called Abe a “very tough negotiator,” he also talked up perceived outcomes at every opportunity. “One of the things I think is very important is the prime minister is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should,” Trump said with Abe by his side. “It’s a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for Japan.”
|
shinzo abe;tpp;trade;u.s.-japan relations;donald trump;trump in japan
|
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