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jp0000905
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/11/07
|
South Korea invites wartime 'comfort woman' to state banquet for Trump
|
SEOUL - South Korea announced Tuesday that a wartime ‘comfort woman,’ who has spoken widely of her suffering due to being forced to work in a wartime Japanese military brothel, had been invited to attend a state banquet for U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office made the announcement before his talks in Seoul with Trump, who arrived earlier in the day from Tokyo as part of his five-nation Asian tour. Inviting the 88-year-old Korean woman, Lee Yong-soo, to the banquet may complicate South Korea’s relations with Japan, which could impact their joint efforts with the United States to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Japan and South Korea reached an agreement aimed at “finally and irreversibly” settling the comfort women issue in 2015. Another potential flashpoint came on the dinner menu itself. “Dokdo shrimp,” which come from waters around a pair of islets at the center of a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea. The South Korea-controlled, Japan-claimed islets are known as Takeshima in Japan. Japanese government officials are said to be puzzled over South Korea’s decision to raise such thorny political issues during Trump’s visit, at a time when ties between Tokyo and Seoul have been improving. In Tokyo, Japan’s top government spokesman expressed frustration over South Korea’s banquet arrangements. “We will continue to take every opportunity to resolutely appeal to South Korea to steadily implement the agreement,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a routine news conference. “We have explained our position to South Korea through diplomatic channels,” Suga said, while noting that the agreement has been praised by the international community. The spokesman had a stronger response to the choice of using the shrimp saying, “I wonder about that.” “At a time when stronger coordination between Japan, the United States and South Korea is required to deal with the North Korea issue, and when President Trump has chosen Japan and South Korea as the first stops on his trip, there is a need to avoid making moves that could negatively affect the close coordination between (the three countries),” he said. Trump is the first sitting U.S. leader in 25 years to come to Seoul in the format of a state visit. Lee is one of about 70 guests invited to the banquet, and is set to be seated at the same table as White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and others, according to Moon’s office. In addition to visiting foreign countries to talk about her grim experience, Lee has criticized the Japanese government and South Korea’s previous administration for striking the deal on the issue, a protracted sticking point in bilateral relations. The dispute over comfort women — a euphemism used to refer to the women and girls recruited mostly from Asian countries to provide sex to Japanese soldiers before and during the war — has been one of the major issues that have frayed Tokyo’s ties with Seoul. Lee and others have slammed the 2015 agreement as not reflecting the feelings of former comfort women. Japan has asked Moon’s administration to uphold the accord, under which Tokyo provided money to a fund to assist the women and Seoul promised it would strive to settle the issue in consultation with civil society organizations at home.
|
south korea;comfort women;donald trump
|
jp0000907
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/30
|
Hong Kong activists slam eviction of Beijing's 'low-end population' and razing of their dwellings
|
HONG KONG - Activists from dozens of labor rights groups marched in Hong Kong on Wednesday to protest the destruction of housing in Beijing for tens of thousands of migrant workers and eviction of the “low-end population” from the capital city. The Beijing municipal government launched a city-wide fire safety inspection of buildings in migrant-inhabited areas following a fire in one such neighborhood that killed 19 people on Nov. 18. Civil rights and labor activists claim the municipal government is using the tragedy to now tear down buildings deemed unsafe and evict tens of thousands of migrant worker families as part of a 40-day campaign launched last week. “Respect laborers’ rights! Stop the persecution of underclass workers! Shame on the Beijing government!” the protesters chanted as they marched toward the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre, where the acting mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining, was expected to attend the Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium. Police barred the about 50 protesters from entering the venue but allowed them to stage a rally outside, and Chen did not attend the event, local media reported. The South China Morning Post has reported that more than 100 scholars and social activists in mainland China have also signed an open letter urging the authorities to stop the “discriminatory” approach. Their letter says “Beijing has an obligation to be grateful towards all Chinese citizens, instead of being forgetful and repaying the country people with arrogance, discrimination and humiliation — especially the bottom income group,” according to the Hong Kong daily. Laborers have been migrating from the countryside to the capital for years in search of a better life. But many end up working in small shops, restaurants and factories for low pay, and living in migrant worker ghettos packed with shabby but cheap housing. The term “low-end population” has been used for years by Beijing municipal officials to refer to the capital’s teeming population of migrant workers, whose presence in the capital has been increasing problematic as China’s economic growth has slowed over recent years, and as pressure to alleviate deadly pollution has increased.
|
hong kong;beijing;labor unions;migrants
|
jp0000908
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/11/30
|
Japanese court rules provision allowing only men to file lawsuits denying legal fatherhood is constitutional
|
KOBE - A court on Wednesday found constitutional a legal provision that allows only men and not women to file a lawsuit denying the legal fatherhood of a child, dismissing a claim filed against the state by a family for damages related to the accuracy of their legal paternity. The ¥2.2 million damages suit was filed with the Kobe District Court by a woman in her 60s living in Kobe, as well as the woman’s two grandchildren and her daughter who is in her 30s. The plaintiffs argued that the Civil Code provision allowing only men to deny legal fatherhood is discriminatory and unconstitutional. They plan to appeal to a higher court. Presiding Judge Kazuhiko Tomita, however, said the legal provision is reasonable as it represents a compromise between the need to match biological and legal fathers, and ensuring stable paternal relations by determining them promptly. The lawsuit was the first court challenge over constitutionality of the legal provision, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. According to the suit, the woman lived apart from her husband because of his violence and had a baby girl with a different man in the 1980s. She then filed to register the birth of the daughter with the second man only for the birth report to be rejected, due to another Civil Code provision specifying that children carried by married women are “presumed” to have been fathered by their husbands. The Kobe woman considered asking the former husband to file a lawsuit to reject his legal paternity of the daughter, but decided against it as she wanted to stay away from him. As a result, the daughter and her two children were placed outside the official family registration system until last year. The plaintiffs claimed they suffered mental anguish and other disadvantages. For example, the daughter was not able to get married legally and her children did not receive notifications for enrollment in school or medical checkups. They argued such a situation could have been avoided if wives and children were also allowed to file lawsuits concerning legitimacy under the Civil Code. In the ruling, the judge highlighted the need to develop legal institutions to safeguard privacy in judicial proceedings and protect women from violence, adding that wives could otherwise find it difficult to file lawsuits for paternity denial even if they are granted the right to do so. According to the Justice Ministry, 715 residents across the country were unregistered as of Oct. 10. Their birth notifications had not been submitted to local governments due to their parents’ circumstances and other reasons.
|
family;civil code;fathers
|
jp0000910
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/08
|
Syria to join Paris climate accord, leaving only U.S. on outside
|
BONN - The United States is now the only nation staying outside the Paris Agreement, after Syria told the U.N. climate talks in Bonn on Tuesday that it would join the landmark treaty. “We are going to join the Paris Agreement,” the Syrian delegate, speaking in Arabic, told a plenary session at the 196-nation talks, according to Safa al-Jayoussi of the NGO IndyAct. The United States ratified the 2015 pact but President Donald Trump announced this year that he would pull out, saying the pact does not serve U.S. interests. “It is our understanding that the government of Syria announced today their intent to join the Paris Agreement,” said Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the U.N. climate body. Nuttall identified the Syrian delegate as Wadah Katmawi, the deputy minister of the ministry of local administration and environment. Syria must submit their “instruments of ratification” at the U.N. headquarters in New York before their adherence becomes official, he added. According to the Syrian parliament website, a bill was passed on Oct. 22 to ratify the Paris accord, “in accordance with the Syrian Constitution which stipulates the protection of the environment.” Other parties at the 12-day negotiations, tasked with elaborating and implementing the agreement, welcomed the news. “Syria joining the Paris Agreement will be a good thing,” said South Africa’s chief negotiator, Maesela Kekana. Chai Qimin, a climate negotiator from China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said, “They were the last party to the U.N. Convention to sign the Paris Agreement,” referring to 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the bedrock treaty for U.N. climate talks. “That leaves only the one who announced their withdrawal.” War-torn Syria would be the 197th country to sign on to the climate pact, which vows to hold global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Openly isolated on the climate issue at the Group of Seven and Group of 20 meetings earlier this year, the United States said it intended to withdraw “unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers and taxpayers.” The Trump administration has not said what those terms might be. “This means Trump is in splendid isolation. No one wants to be in his company,” said Alden Meyer, a veteran climate analyst at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. Paula Caballero, director for climate change at the World Resources Institute, said: “With Syria on board, now the entire world is resolutely committed to advancing climate action — all save one country. This should make the Trump administration pause and reflect on their ill-advised announcement about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.” Signed in Paris in December 2015, the treaty entered into force on Nov. 4, 2016. According to its terms, no country can formally submit its intent to withdraw until three years after that date. It then takes one year to fully withdraw. This means the earliest the United States could officially withdraw is the day after the 2020 election. “When even Syria — with all its problems — can see the sense of a global climate agreement, it really shows how ideologically wedded to climate denialism the U.S. Republican Party has become,” said Mohamed Adow of International Climate Lead for Christian Aid.
|
climate;u.s .;syria;u.n .;climate change;donald trump;paris agreement
|
jp0000911
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/08
|
Car kills New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern's famed cat, Paddles
|
WELLINGTON - Paddles, the New Zealand prime minister’s ginger cat, had six toes and a wide social media following but has run out of lives. Jacinda Ardern, the charismatic new leader, announced the death of the “prime moggy” on Wednesday after Paddles was hit by a car the previous evening, prompting an outpouring of grief on social media. Paddles’ rise to social media fame matched her 37-year-old owner’s meteoric ascent to the prime ministership after only taking over as leader of her Labour Party in August. A “First Cat of NZ” Twitter account was set up by an anonymous user last month, with regular tweets about the photogenic cat’s famous “mummy,” Ardern. It quickly attracted 11,000 followers. People from around the world posted messages such as “rest in peace” and “gone too soon” with the hashtag #paddles. The polydactyl cat’s feats included being able to hold a pair of glasses with her opposable thumb. She featured regularly in photos of Ardern at work. “To anyone who has ever lost a pet, you’ll know how sad we feel. Paddles was much loved, and not just by us. Thanks for everyone’s thoughts,” Ardern wrote on Facebook. Ardern’s rise to power has generated intense interest in her personal life and drew comparisons with other youthful trailblazers such as France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Justin Trudeau. According to Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, Paddles often played her part in affairs of state, even interrupting the premier’s first call with U.S. President Donald Trump in October. “As the call was transferred our cat (yes that bloody cat) came flying through the cat-flap,” Gayford, a television presenter, wrote in a column for the Spinoff news website. “She leapt up onto the chair next to Jacinda and began announcing her very squawky arrival,” he wrote.
|
animals;elections;new zealand;pets;offbeat;jacinda ardern
|
jp0000912
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/06
|
Ukai shares up after leaders dine at Ginza restaurant
|
As policy experts scramble to interpret the significance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Japan, there’s already one standout winner in the stock market. Ukai Co., which operates an upmarket restaurant chain, surged as much as 7.3 percent on Monday following a local media report that Trump had dinner with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at its flagship Tokyo store in the glitzy Ginza area on Sunday. Trump and Abe were accompanied by their wives, and had dinner at Ginza Ukai Tei, a restaurant known for teppanyaki , a cuisine popular among tourists where meat and vegetables are grilled on an iron griddle in front of customers. The guests were served a “special menu” that included grilled Hokkaido scallop, the restaurant’s “best quality” steak and a chocolate sundae, an Ukai spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Trump sparked a feeding frenzy on social media Monday when he was photographed dumping a box of fish food into a pond of Japanese carp. Trump and Abe began by delicately spooning out the food into the pond to the waiting koi, which had been rounded up by a clapping Japanese aide. But some said Trump apparently lost patience with this method and upended his entire wooden box into the pond. The incident caused outrage among fish lovers on Twitter, with many pointing out that fish cannot consume such a large amount of food at one time. Other users, however, pointed out that Trump was only following the lead of Abe, who also chose the short-cut in emptying his box. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, standing just behind Trump, appeared to break out in laughter at his boss’s no-nonsense approach to koi feeding.
|
shinzo abe;u.s.-japan relations;donald trump;teppanyaki;trump in japan
|
jp0000913
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/11/06
|
To bow or not to bow: Trump passes tricky protocol test with Emperor
|
To bow or not to bow: That was the question when U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in a closely watched meet-and-greet with the Emperor that was laden with potential protocol pitfalls. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama sparked a firestorm of criticism during one trip to Japan when he was photographed in an almost 90-degree bow to diminutive Emperor Akihito. U.S. conservatives chided Obama for the act of deference to the monarch, who is the son of Emperor Hirohito, the wartime emperor in whose name Japanese troops fought in World War II. He is posthumously known as Emperor Showa. So all eyes were on the meeting in famously polite Japan, where bowing is a way of life. But the gaffe-prone Trump appeared to plot a respectable middle ground, slightly inclining his head upon meeting the 83-year-old despite towering over him. The two couples were then led to a room where they engaged in deep conversation with the aid of interpreters. Afterward, Trump shook hands with the Emperor again, and tapped his arm repeatedly with his left hand. “Thank you for the great meeting,” he said. “I’m sure we will meet again.” Japanese guests are not supposed to touch the Imperial Couple or shake hands, but foreign guests often do. Hillary Clinton shook hands and air-kissed the Empress on both cheeks, then took her hand as they entered the palace when she met the pair as secretary of state in 2011, a month or so after the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster hit northeastern Japan in March.
|
u.s .;emperor akihito;donald trump;trump asia trip;trump in japan
|
jp0000914
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/11/06
|
Trump touts solidarity with Japan but refuses to shy away from trade
|
Hailing ties with Tokyo as the closest ever, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday emphasized America’s “solidarity” with Japan against “the North Korean menace,” but at the same time made no secret of his dissatisfaction with what he considers an unfair trade relationship with its top Asian ally. Trump’s comment came as he stood together with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a joint news conference designed to showcase what the two leaders touted as an unprecedented level of Japan-U.S. solidarity. Trump, who was in Japan on the first stop of his five-nation trip to Asia, was scheduled to finish his three-day stay in Tokyo on Tuesday morning when he flies to his next destination, South Korea. After the summit, two high-ranking Japanese officials called the overall outcome a success, with one noting that Trump had not, as feared, pressed Abe too hard on the trade front. The prime minister, for his part, said the two leaders “completely agreed” that the allies must continue to take a hard-line approach to nuclear-armed North Korea, a strategy that involves heaping “maximum pressure” on the regime. As part of this, the Japanese leader revealed that Tokyo will further tighten the screws on Pyongyang by putting a fresh freeze on assets controlled by 35 organizations and individuals in North Korea. “The United States of America stands in solidarity with the people of Japan against the North Korean menace. History has proven over and over that strong and free nations always prevail over tyrants,” Trump said. “We stand together to defend the security and sovereignty of both of our countries.” Reiterating the “era of strategic patience” has come to an end, Trump added: “Some people say that my rhetoric is very strong, but look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years.” Both Trump and Abe claimed that Japan-U.S. ties had reached a historic level. “At no time in the history of the Japan-U.S. alliance did the leaders of our two nations spend a year building so deep and tight a relationship as we have,” Abe said. Trump, too, noted the strong bonds. “There has never been such a close relationship” between the two nations’ leaders. The U.S. president, however, made it a point to note his dissatisfaction with the trajectory of Washington’s trade ties with Tokyo. “I’m committed to achieving a fair, free and reciprocal trading relationship,” Trump said. “We seek equal and reliable access for American exports to Japan’s market in order to eliminate our chronic trade imbalances and deficits with Japan.” Trump has pushed for a more favorable bilateral trade deal with Japan in lieu of the multinational Trans-Pacific Partnership accord, which he pulled out of in January as one of his first priorities as president. On Monday, as he met with a circle of Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, he stood firm on his anti-TPP stance, saying it was “not the right idea.” “We will have more trade than anybody ever thought of under TPP, that I can tell you,” he was quoted by the White House as telling the business leaders. “Ultimately I’ll be proven to be right.” Abe, for his part, tried to shift his emphasis from bilateral trade to his efforts to create a “fair and effective” economic order in the Asia-Pacific region. Abe also boasted that the two leaders agreed there was a need to work further to create a “free and open Indo-Pacific region,” a key diplomatic goal upheld by Tokyo as it seeks to promote an international maritime order — a move widely seen as an attempt to counter China’s growing assertiveness. In a moment perhaps typical of Trump’s braggadocio, the U.S. leader also said that Japan should be able to “easily” shoot down missiles fired by North Korea once the nation completes the purchase of a “massive” tranche of military gear from the U.S. The U.S. president had earlier questioned in a conversation with leaders from Southeast Asian nations why Japan, as a country of “samurai warriors,” didn’t intercept two missiles that flew over the archipelago earlier this year, according to reports. “One of the things I think really important is that the prime minister of Japan is going to be purchasing a massive amount of military equipment, as he should,” Trump said. “We make the best military equipment by far. … It’s a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for Japan.” Abe responded by confirming that Japan will indeed amplify its defense capabilities by introducing equipment, including F-35A fighter jets, from the U.S. Japan also plans to introduce the U.S. land-based Aegis Ashore system to counter the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
|
shinzo abe;north korea;trade;u.s.-japan relations;donald trump;trump in japan
|
jp0000915
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/06
|
Ahead of 2019 Rugby World Cup, Japan attempts to drum up enthusiasm from female fans
|
With the 2019 Rugby World Cup coming to Japan in two years, local governments hosting the event in the Chubu region are eagerly working to promote the sport, especially among women. They are hoping the epithet ragāru — combining the terms “rugby” and “girl” — will do for the sport what sūjo (female sumo fans) and kāpu joshi (female fans of a professional baseball team Hiroshima Toyo Carp) did for sumo and baseball. Some municipalities are organizing rugby game-watching tours that explain the rules and offer opportunities for female fans to interact with players. “It looks painful, but it’s really powerful,” a female fan said in surprise after watching rugby players tackle each other aggressively. In late September, the Shizuoka Prefectural Government invited 33 women in the prefecture who have never seen a rugby game to watch a Japan Rugby Top League match held at Shizuoka Stadium, one of the venues for the Rugby World Cup. They were accompanied by Kosuke Endo, 36, a former member of the Japanese national rugby team who used to play for Toyota Verblitz. He explained the basic rules, including fouls such as the knock-on or throw-forward. “I’ve always stayed away from rugby because I didn’t understand the rules, but it’s interesting once you learn them. I want to come to watch a game again,” said Terumi Matsushita, 37, an office worker from Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture. “Word spreads fast among women, and I hope they will come to see the matches repeatedly. We want to see the stadium packed during the World Cup,” said Kenji Takakura, head of the prefectural government’s 2019 World Cup promotion division who planned the group tour. The Toyota Municipal Government in Aichi Prefecture, which will host the World Cup matches at Toyota Stadium, launched a female-only fan group Litzgirl this spring. The group is organizing tours to watch Toyota Verblitz games in the Top League and creating pamphlets. “One of the highlights of the Top League is that fans get a chance to interact closely with the players after the matches. We want them to see their strong muscles,” said a municipal official. The Fukuoka Prefectural Government, another host of the World Cup matches, set up a “Ragāru Day” last month during the Top League season and held rugby lessons for women. Japan’s historic victory over the powerful South African team in the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and the popularity of fullback Ayumu Goromaru of Yamaha Jubilo contributed to increasing the percentage of female fans among the total Top League spectators to 40 percent, up from the previous 30 percent. “But the percentage is still low compared to soccer or baseball,” said a Japan Rugby Football Union official. The organizers for the 2019 Rugby World Cup aim to attract 2 million people in total, or approximately 40,000 people per game, but the difficulty lies in getting people to go and see matches that don’t involve the Japanese team. The match dates and venues were announced on Thursday and tickets will go on sale next year. “The most important thing is to get people interested in rugby first,” said a Toyota municipal official. The Rugby World Cup will be held in Japan, the first time in Asia, in 2019 between Sept. 20 and Nov. 2. A total of 48 matches will be held in 12 cities with 20 teams participating.
|
women;toyota;shizuoka;2019 rugby world cup
|
jp0000916
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/24
|
Philippines' Duterte ditches peace process with Maoist rebels
|
MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has terminated the on-again, off-again peace talks with Maoist-led rebels as hostilities have continued despite the negotiations, the president’s spokesman said on Friday. Ending the nearly half-century long conflict, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, was among Duterte’s priorities since he took office in June last year. “We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement late Thursday. “The president, as we all know, has always wanted to leave a legacy of peace under his administration. He has, in fact, walked the extra mile for peace,” Roque added. The president signed on Thursday the proclamation terminating the peace talks, which were being brokered by Norway. In May, government peace negotiators canceled the fresh round of formal talks with the Maoist-led rebels in the Netherlands as guerrillas stepped up offensives in the countryside. Revolutionary forces now have no choice but to intensify guerrilla warfare in rural areas, the Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), said in a statement. NDF, the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas, said it regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms.
|
conflict;philippines;insurgencies;rodrigo duterte
|
jp0000919
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/13
|
Aki Higuchi's mission: Giving Japan's young minds a global outlook and confidence to speak out
|
Aki Higuchi, 28, grew up in a multicultural home, where university students from different countries came five days a week to look after her and her younger sister up until she turned 18. On Monday it was a Turkish student, then a Bulgarian on Tuesday, followed by a Canadian, a South Korean and a Taiwanese, who came to work for the family after seeing a help-wanted ad put up by Higuchi’s working parents at university dormitories for international students. They picked Higuchi and her younger sister up from school, played with them, prepared meals and dined together. At the dinner table, her Japanese father and Chinese mother often debated with the students about controversial international issues like the interpretation of history. And her father always urged Higuchi and her little sister to voice their opinions even when they didn’t have much knowledge about the subject being discussed. “It was like learning about the world from home. They broadened my perspectives and made me realize that there are so many different cultures and ways of seeing things,” Higuchi said. Hoping to provide children with similar opportunities to meet people who could be role models and expand their life choices, Higuchi founded Selan Inc. in Tokyo in 2015 and launched a baby-sitting and English tutorial service staffed by fully bilingual tutors. Called OmSister — “om” being short for omukae , which means to pick up — the tutors pick children up from schools and provide English lessons in the home with an emphasis on cultivating presentation skills. The service became a hit with working parents, and the number of children they look after has grown quickly — to more than 200 in just over two years. “Children’s communities can be quite small. They often have only schoolteachers or their parents as their role models,” Higuchi said. “I want to expand such communities, and provide them with chances to meet tutors who could change their lives. “I know firsthand how important it is to have such opportunities when you are young,” Higuchi said. In October, in a bid to expand its reach, the company opened a liberal arts weekend school for elementary school children in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward. Named dot.school , the school teaches children subjects ranging from diplomacy and philosophy to human rights and business with classes in English. “These are really difficult subjects. So we are breaking them down to make it easy for children to understand,” Higuchi said. For example, in a diplomacy lesson, children are asked to think about and discuss the best ways to solve a territorial dispute between two countries without waging war. Children are encouraged to speak up, and regardless of what they say the teachers always praise students when they present their opinions, she said. “What we want is for them to obtain crucial abilities to survive in the 21st century, and become people who can live happily anywhere in the world,” Higuchi said. “After all, we never know what the future holds for them,” she said, noting that Japan’s population is estimated to fall below the 100 million mark in 2053 while the world population is projected to increase from the current 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050. In the near future, Higuchi wants to expand the school to other countries with the goal of eventually creating a “borderless classroom.” “I want to connect classrooms in different countries to create a global learning environment,” she said, adding that one possible approach could be to connect them via the internet using big screens. “Then you can see a class in China on a screen in front of you, and America at the back and the Philippines on the right,” she said. Higuchi’s passion for global education stemmed not only from her experiences as a child but also from the few years she spent in the United States and China, where she was encouraged to voice her opinions. But even for Higuchi, who grew up in such an environment, it was tough to compete with her Chinese peers in debates when she went to study at the prestigious Peking University, after she quit her university course in Japan in order to challenge herself more. Even when the topic of a debate was about Japan, she said she was no match for the Chinese students, who often had deeper knowledge. Such experiences made her realize the lack of liberal arts education in Japan, as well as the necessity to train students to think for themselves and articulate their opinions. Uniformity, after all, is still praised in Japan’s education system, and students are often discouraged from being different or unique, she said. “If we are to compete with those people in the world, I thought we have to nurture the ability to think for oneself from a young age,” she said. “I want them to be tough, and to have skills and the mindset to compete with people who are educated — to think and voice their opinions from an early age.” One challenge Higuchi is facing is that her educational programs currently come at a price, which means not every child can benefit. The monthly fee for dot.school is ¥16,000, and for OmSister the cheapest course is ¥22,800 a month. “I want to reach children whose parents don’t have much interest in education, or those who can’t afford the fees,” Higuchi said. “I eventually want to cooperate with public elementary schools to offer our programs there, to make them accessible to more children.” Another of Higuchi’s goals is to launch a scholarship program for elementary school students. “Currently there is no scholarship for elementary school students. I want to create financial support programs to help those who are eager to study and receive special education that nurtures a global mindset,” Higuchi said.
|
children;education;english;babysitters;bilingual;aki higuchi;selan inc .
|
jp0000920
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/11/13
|
With two patents under her belt, Aichi junior high school girl looks to help other inventive kids
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Asuka Kamiya, 14, a second-year student from Meisho Junior High School in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, has established with her father a company to help elementary and junior high school students apply for patents and commercialize their inventions. By using her experience in patenting her own invention two years ago, she hopes to help turn other students’ unique ideas into products. When she was a fifth-grader, for a science project she conducted over a summer holiday, Kamiya created a can-recycling bin that uses a magnet to automatically separate steel and aluminum containers. Kamiya applied for a patent at the recommendation of her father, Toyoaki, 42, who runs a liquor sales consulting firm and had obtained a patent himself for an invention related to wine. She was granted the patent for her “low-cost can-recycling bin” when she was a sixth-grader. After she entered junior high school and joined the basketball team, she discovered the importance of teammates supporting one another and she was reminded of the people who helped her apply for a patent and spread her idea. In June, she received her second patent for devising a way to separate plastic bottles as well. Then she thought it was her turn to help others, she said. Under the advice of Yasuteru Nimura, 38, chief coordinator of Anjo Business Concierge — a support base for small and medium-size companies in Anjo — she started the company Yaku ni Tatsu Mono Tsukuro (Let’s Make Something Useful) in September, with herself as the president and her father as the managing director who oversees day-to-day operations. The office is located at the premises where her father runs his company. Next April, Kamiya plans to start selling her patented can-recycling bin. The company collaborated with Hekikai Pack, a cardboard processing company in the same city, to produce a trial kit made of cardboard. The price for the kit is not yet decided, but profits will be used for the company’s operating funds. Children who purchase the kit can experiment by placing the magnet in different areas and work through the same trial-and-error process that Kamiya went through. The company is collecting funds to manufacture the kit through the Readyfor crowdfunding service. The goal is to collect ¥1.5 million, and the crowdfunding campaign runs until Nov. 13. The firm plans to gather ideas from other children through its website and sales of the learning kit. Then, with the cooperation of local firms, it will provide support to commercialize and apply for patents. “I want to support her ideas,” Kamiya’s father said. “I hope that children can cultivate their ability to think.”
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patents;inventions;aichi;anjo;asuka kamiya
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jp0000921
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/14
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Taiwan says it was shut out of U.N. climate talks due to China pressure
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TAIPEI - Taiwan said its environment minister has been prevented from attending an annual U.N. climate meeting even with credentials as a non-governmental participant due to pressure from China. It represents the latest case of self-ruled Taiwan not being able to take part in an international event because of opposition from China, which objects to the island it claims under its “one-China” stand being accorded anything akin to the status of an independent state. Environmental protection agency minister Lee Ying-yuan had hoped to attend a U.N. climate change meeting in Germany, the island’s foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday. “Due to China’s interventions, environmental protection minister Lee was unable to enter the UNFCCC meeting,” it said, referring to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since Tsai Ing-wen was elected the island’s president last year. China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan’s democracy and security. Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Andrew H.C. Lee, told a news conference in Taipei the president believed climate change was an important issue and the island would endeavour to take part in international meetings to address it. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China’s position was very clear. “On the matter of Taiwan participating in international events, China’s position is very clear; that is, it must comply with the One China principle,” Geng told reporters, without elaborating. Since 2009, when Taiwan announced its intention to participate in U.N. climate change meetings, the government has helped officials get credentials for talks as non-governmental observers to attend the international meeting. Taiwan participated last year with a lower-level delegation. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, having lost the seat it held in China’s name in 1971 when the Communist government in Beijing assumed the position. Under the previous Taiwan administration of the China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, Beijing permitted Taiwan to attend some U.N.-related events, including getting observer access at the annual U.N. World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva. This year, Taiwan was shut out of the health assembly, which the island also said was due to China’s coercion and threats. China has previously blamed Taiwan for its exclusion from international events, saying it is due to Taipei’s refusal to accept the “one China” principle. Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
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china;climate;taiwan;u.n .
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jp0000922
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/11/25
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Chinese barber deftly wields straight razor to give customers eyelid shaves
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CHENGDU, CHINA - Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer’s eyelid. “You should be gentle, very, very gentle,” said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan. Customers swear by the practice of “blade wash eyes,” as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong’s skill with the blade. “No, it’s not dangerous,” said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. “My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.” Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave. “It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterward,” he said. The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu. “Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,” she said. “When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.” She said there is a risk of infection if the equipment is not sterilized. “If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,” Qu said. While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor. “I am afraid to do it,” said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.
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china;offbeat
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jp0000924
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/11/25
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'Crappiest apartments of 2017' hashtag bemuses Twitter users
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ALYSSA, I. SMITH - Anyone who’s been living in Japan for any length of time has probably seen their fair share of perplexing apartment layouts. Microscopic storage spaces, unfathomably low kitchen sinks and shared bathroom amenities immediately spring to mind. A hashtag that started trending on Twitter on Nov. 14 took this one step further, giving people an opportunity to share the year’s most ridiculous living spaces. The hashtag #クソ物件オブザイヤー2017 ( kuso bukken obu za iyā , which can loosely be translated as “crappiest apartments of the year”) had the internet in stitches as it added examples of head-scratching layouts, cramped living spaces and, naturally, awkward bathroom or toilet placements. Standout entries in this year’s list are as follows: • @ebiebieshrimp posted an image of a layout that boldly placed a toilet in the middle of the apartment . Not only is the toilet accessible by every room in the apartment through separate doors, it’s also the only route to enter the apartment from the genkan (entryway). The post garnered more than 18,000 retweets and 20,000 “likes.” It’s also worth noting that combined size of the entrance and shoebox was almost as large as either the dining/living space or the bedroom, with @m_and_ora saying, “More than the toilet, my eye goes straight to the genkan/shoebox that is too spacious .” #クソ物件オブザイヤー2017 全室トイレからアクセス可能。 pic.twitter.com/bOoh6kSNRC — 朱里＠海の底 (@ebiebieshrimp) November 14, 2017 • @otto_morgen posted an entry on Nov. 14 titled “The Conspicuous Bath Unit” . The post included photographs of a listing in which the bath unit is positioned in the middle of the apartment’s only room and is only accessible through the toilet. @otto_morgen’s accompanying comment notes: “The see-through bath is a favorite (design choice) for architects, but this apartment has a see-through unit bath in the middle of the room. The best part is a caption that accompanies the listing. The apartment is so strange that the only way even the realtor with a rich Osaka vocabulary [read: sense of humor] could describe it was with a one-liner: ‘It’s unique!'” The post received more than 10,000 retweets and close to 10,000 likes. Twitter user @SeriousMoonliGT admired the horror movie-esque starkness of the apartment, saying, “ It looks like a room from ‘The Fly’ or ‘Saw .'” • @Mrbr3R’s entry was another favorite, with the post showing a mind-boggling apartment layout with rooms nestled inside another like matryoshka dolls . However, astute Twitter users were quick to point out that the image is a hoax. @KurokoTail writes, “ Excuse me for barging in but … this is 100 percent a developer tool in Chrome ” and added a cute animal emoji. Still, the post attracted more than 11,000 likes. • @jdf825 doubted the credibility of a supposed rotenburo (outdoor bath) in an apartment in Nishi-Nippori . While such facilities certainly sound luxurious, a closer examination of the photo shows it’s really just a standard bathtub and shower unit on a balcony. Most Twitter users were concerned about how cold it would be in the winter. • Last, but not least, @Range1116 posted a listing of single long room that is 4½ tatami mats in space that has a toilet at the end furthest from the entryway. This apartment is listed at ¥96,000 per month.
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architecture;twitter;humor;rent;apartments;accommodation
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jp0000926
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/10/04
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Japan tourism group builds social media presence with new Instagram account
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The Japan National Tourism Organization is finally turning to Instagram to attract overseas travelers amid an unprecedented tourism boom. A late adopter of the popular social media app, the government-backed organization this week launched its official Instagram account called Visit Japan International . On the account, it’s asking users to post Japan-themed pictures with the hashtag #visitjapanjp . JNTO said it will post one picture a day from the hashtag entries. It will also participate in a hashtag campaign Instagram started this month called #UnknownJapan . The account will also feature images taken by photographers from Tokyo Camera Club, Japan’s largest curated online photo gallery. Government tourism agencies have long embraced social media to lure travelers. Tourism Australia, the Australian government’s tourism promotion arm, already has 2.7 million followers on Instagram. As of Wednesday afternoon, Visit Japan International’s Instagram account had around 1,400 followers. “Maybe we should have opened an account sooner, but Instagram has 800 million monthly active users and is still growing. I don’t think we’re too late,” a JNTO official said. JNTO has been expanding its digital presence as the nation sees a surge in inbound visitors thanks to a weaker yen and the easing of visa requirements. Last month JNTO launched a free multilingual smartphone app that allows users to look up destinations, restaurants and train routes as well as free Wi-Fi spots. Japan saw 13.4 million visitors in 2014, 19.7 million in 2015 and 24 million last year. JNTO said the number of international travelers to Japan reached a record 18.9 million in the first eight months of 2017. The arrivals in August reached 2.48 million, up 20.9 percent from the same month last year and marking an all-time high for the month. The government hopes to see the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan reach 40 million a year by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic Games. Diamond Rising. Photo by Hidetoshi Kikuchi. Visit Japan’s official account is now open! We will be delivering the beauty and highlights of Japan through fascinating photos and videos. Also, we will be sharing photos of Japan posted with “#visitjapanjp” and its location. We look forward to your participation! #Japan #Photo #travel #travelgram #traveling #japantrip #ilovejapan #explore Follow: @visitjapanjp A post shared by Visit Japan International (@visitjapanjp) on Oct 1, 2017 at 8:43pm PDT
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tourism;social media;instagram;jnto
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jp0000927
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/10/05
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Firms pitch part-time work-at-home as way to ease leave-takers' return to office life
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Michika Kato, 27, a mother of a 1-year-old boy, works for up to two hours on her computer at home while her baby is playing on his own or sleeping. Kato, who works at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. and is currently on maternity leave, can’t find a slot at day care for her son so she has no clue as to when she can return to work full time. The shortage of day care slots remains a serious problem, leaving many children on waiting lists. “It is a good opportunity to have a glimpse at how everyone in the office is doing,” Kato said. Kato is one of 10 Mitsui Sumitomo employees who work for a few hours at home during leave. The company started asking its employees on child care leave in April whether they are interested in helping out, such as by making sales brochures during busy periods. “It’s aimed at ensuring their smooth return to work but it also helps us with our work,” said a Mitsui Sumitomo official. More companies are offering similar schemes to help employees maintain their work skills while on leave to facilitate their return to work. Still experts warn that companies need to make sure they aren’t forcing them to work. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. also introduced a similar program in January. Satoko Watanabe, 30, used to spend an hour or so at home for data entry work before returning to work in April. “I didn’t feel pressured when I started the work. It helped me remember how I used to work,” Watanabe said. Both companies said the new scheme helps those on child care leave keep in touch with their supervisors and colleagues and make it easier for them to come back to work. The government provides the child care leave benefit equivalent to up to 67 percent of a worker’s monthly pay. Those wishing to work at home can do so as a temporary job for up to 80 hours a month. The pay from the temporary job is added to the benefit unless the total amount exceeds 80 percent of a worker’s monthly pay. The maximum period of child care leave was extended to two years from 18 months starting this month, given that more than 26,000 children are awaiting enrollment in day care facilities. Kimie Iwata, chairman of the Japan Institute for Women’s Empowerment and Diversity Management, said extending the leave period could make it difficult to return to work and providing a wider range of options for ways of working should help reduce the difficulty. Shingo Tsumura, a 37-year-old employee at a technology company, did a similar short-hour job for about two months from last December while he was on child care leave. It’s because there was work he wanted to tackle on his own. “It was tough. But I found it helpful because I wanted to continue with my project while taking care of my child,” Tsumura said. Yuri Tazawa, president of telecommuting consultancy Telework Management Inc., said short-hour work fills a gap in work style between full time work and being idle. But Tazawa also warned that the new work style should not be used as an excuse to force people on leave to work. “Based on employees’ requests, some (work) conditions, such as strict monitoring of their working hours to prevent overwork, are necessary,” Tazawa said.
|
day care;mitsui sumitomo insurance;sompo japan nipponkoa insurance
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jp0000928
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/10/02
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Britain caught in crossfire, says it will fight to protect jobs amid Boeing-Bombardier row
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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Britain, caught in the crossfire of a damaging trade dispute between plane makers Boeing and Bombardier, said on Sunday it would fight its corner to protect thousands of jobs put at risk in Northern Ireland. Trade minister Liam Fox said Britain was working to find a resolution after the United States last week responded to a complaint by Boeing by imposing a 220-percent preliminary duty on Bombardier’s CSeries jets, whose wings are made in Belfast. “We’ve said that we will fight our corner,” Fox told the annual Conservative Party conference. “We’ve been caught in the crossfire of a much larger dispute.” “It worries me that we’re seeing a rise in protectionist behavior … the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) itself has pointed out protectionism always ends badly. If we can get them to have a resolution, which is what we are trying to do quietly, so much the better.” The tariff, which will take effect only if the U.S. International Trade Commission backs Boeing in a final decision expected in 2018, has dealt a major blow to the Canadian company’s flagship project. It has also cast a huge shadow over Northern Ireland, where Bombardier is by far the most important manufacturer and a pillar of Belfast’s economy, employing 4,200 people and supporting thousands more in the supply chain. And it also undermines the assurances by Brexit campaigners such as Fox that free trade and London’s close ties with Washington will drive Britain’s prosperity and global influence after it leaves the European Union in 2019. James Brokenshire, the British minister for Northern Ireland, echoed Prime Minister Theresa May in saying that Boeing was not behaving in a way the British government would expect a long-term defense partner to behave. May and other senior ministers have been highly critical of Boeing, suggesting it could miss out on future defense contracts, after the row put into jeopardy the local economy in Northern Ireland, home to a small party that May relies on to govern in Westminster. “I say to Boeing this case is unjustified and unwarranted. This action is not what is expected of a long-term partner to the U.K. They need to get round the table and secure a negotiated outcome to this dispute quickly,” Brokenshire said. May has warned that Boeing was undermining its commercial relationship with Britain and has spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump on the issue. However, May is unlikely to retaliate against Boeing, which says the firm and its suppliers account for more than 18,700 jobs in the U.K. Fox implied the government was working behind the scenes to find a resolution. Northern Ireland is the poorest of the United Kingdom’s four parts and is mired in political difficulties after emerging from decades of armed sectarian conflict. Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, says it is upholding trade rules and not trying to damage the CSeries. It accuses Canada and Britain of unfairly subsidizing Bombardier and says Bombardier has illegally dumped its products in the U.S. single-aisle airplane market out of desperation. “The support that the U.K. provided to the Bombardier operation in Belfast was and remains compliant with international requirements,” Brokenshire said.
|
boeing;britain;donald trump;brexit;theresa may;bombardier;u.s. tariff
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jp0000929
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/02
|
Three U.S. scientists awarded 2017 Nobel Prize for studies about body clocks
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STOCKHOLM - U.S. geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young have been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for shedding light on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living things. The team’s work revealed the role of genes in setting the “circadian clock” which regulates sleep and eating patterns, hormones and body temperature, the Nobel Assembly said Monday. “Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions.” All life on Earth is tuned to the rotation of our planet. Scientists have long known that living organisms, including humans, have an internal timekeeper that helps them anticipate and adapt to the rhythm of the day. Hall, 72, Rosbash, 73, and Young, 68, “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings,” the Nobel jury said. They identified genes that regulate the clock, and the mechanism by which light can synchronize it. Rosbash told Swedish Radio he was rattled when the committee’s call woke him from his sleep at 5:10 am. “I was called on the landline next to my bed which never rings unless someone has died or something of this magnitude happens,” he recounted. “I was restless, both literally and figuratively. My wife said: ‘Please start to breathe.’ “ The circadian clock is what causes jet lag — what happens when our internal clock and external environment move out of sync as we change time zones. It also regulates sleep, which is critical for normal brain function. Circadian dysfunction has been linked to depression, bipolar disorder, cognitive function, memory formation and some neurological diseases. Studies have indicated that a chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and circadian clock — irregular shift work for example — may be associated with an increased risk for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders and inflammation. Scientists are working hard on methods to alter the rhythm of errant clocks as a means to “improve human health,” said the Nobel team. Using the fruit fly as a model organism, this year’s laureates isolated a gene that controls the daily biological rhythm, called the period gene. “They showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night and is then degraded during the day,” the Nobel team said. “Subsequently they identified additional protein components of this machinery, exposing the mechanism governing the self-sustaining clockwork inside the cell.” The trio will share the prize sum of 9 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million). “Just about every facet of our body changes predictably over the course of the day and night and these changes are driven by this internal timing mechanism,” said Michael Hastings of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. “Every dimension of our health, every dimension of our personality or reactions to medicines, our reactions to disease are variable and are on the very precise program set by this internal body clock.” The medicine prize is traditionally the first Nobel to be announced. On Tuesday, the physics prize laureates will be revealed, followed by those for chemistry on Wednesday. The literature prize will be announced Thursday, the peace prize on Friday, and the economics prize will wrap things up Oct. 9. There are no short lists for the prizes and the committees are tight-lipped ahead of the announcements, sparking rampant speculation. For the literature prize, the Swedish Academy is expected to turn the page on last year’s surprise choice of U.S. singer songwriter Bob Dylan, which divided the literary world. This year it is expected to go for a more conservative pick, with the same names recurring in the speculation as in previous years: Italy’s Claudio Magris, Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, Syrian poet Adonis, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo of the U.S., Israel’s Amos Oz and Haruki Murakami of Japan. A newcomer dominating the rumor mill is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke. As for the peace prize — the only Nobel to be awarded in Oslo — a total of 318 nominations have been submitted this year. Last year, it went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to bring peace to a country ravaged by a half-century of conflict. Anti-nuclear efforts could take the prize this year, some have suggested. Tensions have escalated between Washington and Pyongyang after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, and there is growing uncertainty over the Iran deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up. Two key orchestrators of that accord, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, are seen as strong contenders by the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Henrik Urdal. Others believed to be on the list include Syria’s White Helmets rescue service, Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and Edward Snowden, who revealed the scope of America’s NSA electronic surveillance program.
|
medicine;biology;nobel prize
|
jp0000931
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/20
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New H7N9 bird flu strain in China has pandemic potential, U.S.-Japanese lab studies find
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CHICAGO - Lab experiments on a new strain of the H7N9 bird flu suggest the virus can pass easily among animals and can cause lethal disease, raising alarms that it has the potential to create a global human pandemic. The H7N9 virus has been circulating in China since 2013, causing severe disease in people exposed to infected poultry. Last year, human cases spiked, and the virus split into two distinct strains that are so different they no longer can be treated with existing vaccines. One of these has also become highly pathogenic, meaning it has gained the ability to kill birds, posing a threat to agriculture markets. U.S. and Japanese researchers studied a sample of this strain to see how well it spread among mammals, including ferrets, which are considered the best animal model for testing the transmissibility of influenza in humans. In the study, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues tested a version of the new H7N9 strain that was taken from a person who died from the infection last spring. They found that the virus replicated efficiently in mice, ferrets and nonhuman primates. It also caused even more severe disease in mice and ferrets than a low pathogenic version of the virus that does not cause illness in birds. To test transmissibility, the team placed healthy ferrets next to infected animals. The virus spread easily from cage to cage, suggesting that it can be transmitted by respiratory droplets such as those produced by coughing and sneezing. Two out of 3 healthy ferrets infected in this way died, which Kawaoka said is “extremely unusual” and suggests that even a small amount of virus can cause severe disease. “The work is very concerning in terms of the implications for what H7N9 might do in the days ahead in terms of human infection,” said Michael Osterholm, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota. Since 2013, the H7N9 bird flu virus has sickened at least 1,562 people in China and killed at least 612. Some 40 percent of people hospitalized with the virus die. In the first four epidemics, the virus showed few changes. But in the last flu season, there were 764 cases — double the previous level. “The whole world is worried about it,” Osterholm said. A new risk assessment tool from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks H7N9 as the leading animal flu strain with the potential of causing a human pandemic. The most recent global pandemic was the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak, which infected millions and killed more than 200,000 globally. Some researchers are concerned that the highly pathogenic strain could cause even more severe disease and higher death rates, but mortality from the low pathogenic strain is already “alarmingly high,” said Dr. Timothy Uyeki, a CDC flu expert. Existing H7N9 vaccines are based on the 2013 strain. The CDC has developed a new vaccine based on the low pathogenic strain of the mutated virus, Uyeki said. The low pathogenic strain accounted for most of the human infections last year. Uyeki believes the vaccine would likely also offer protection from the new highly pathogenic H7N9 strain, but it needs to be tested in people. In February, China gave the go ahead for clinical trials of H7N9 vaccines developed by state-owned Beijing Tiantan Biological. The company said in a filing that it was developing four vaccines against the H7N9 virus.
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china;u.s .;bird flu;h7n9;japan;pandemic;poultry;ferrets
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jp0000933
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/10/18
|
Japanese police processed 7,625 tailgating incidents in 2016, including apparent cases of road rage
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Police across the nation in 2016 took action a total of 7,625 times in cases where drivers failed to keep a safe distance between their vehicles and those ahead of them, citing violations of the road traffic law, National Police Agency data showed Tuesday. Of the total, 6,690 incidents, or nearly 90 percent, occurred on expressways, according to the data. “If you are followed by a tailgater, especially when driving on expressways, you should stop your car at a safe place, such as a rest area, and call the police,” an NPA official said, adding, “You shouldn’t open the door of your car.” According to the agency, 75 accidents happened on expressways last year due to drivers’ failures to maintain sufficient distances between vehicles. In June, Yoshihisa Hagiyama, a 45-year-old self-employed man from the city of Shizuoka, and his wife, Yuka, 39, died in an accident on the Tomei Expressway in the town of Oi, Kanagawa Prefecture, in which their car was hit by a truck after it was forced to stop on a passing lane by a male tailgater. The accident also left the couple’s two daughters injured. The Kanagawa Prefectural Police last week arrested the tailgater, Kazuho Ishibashi, a 25-year-old part-time construction worker in Fukuoka Prefecture, on charges including negligent driving resulting in death and injury. Ishibashi allegedly chased the couple’s car after Hagiyama complained to the man about his inappropriate way of parking at a rest area. The incident attracted wide media coverage and raised public attention to tailgating and other reckless driving behavior. In 2009, Japan toughened penalties on drivers failing to keep a safe distance on expressways, with violators facing a prison term of up to three months or a fine of up to ¥50,000.
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reckless driving;japan;police;tailgating
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jp0000934
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/10/27
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Research into reverse-sex genitalia deserved award
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In caves in Brazil there lives a tiny insect with the most extraordinary story. It feeds on bat droppings and chews on the dead carcasses of fallen bats. When it copulates, it does so slowly — a single sexual act takes up to 70 hours, or three full days. But that’s not even the oddest thing about it. In this species the female has developed a penis, and the male a vagina. Kazunori Yoshizawa is an entomologist at Hokkaido University in Sapporo. In 2011, he was visiting a colleague in Geneva who had collected some of the cave insects from Brazil. Yoshikawa examined preparations of the insects under a microscope and saw the female penis for the first time. “Quite immediately, I realized that not only the direction of genital insertion, but the direction of the sexual selection is also reversed in this insect,” he recalls. “The female penis has a function to hold the male coercively.” Let’s look at what this means. Sexual selection is a form of natural selection. It’s the competition that takes place between males to win mates, and it also operates when females choose between males. It’s why male deer have evolved antlers (and kabutomushi Japanese stag beetles have incredible horns) — to fight other males. And it’s why males also evolve beautiful displays, such as the opulent peacock’s tail. Females tend to be attracted to males that have the most attractive displays. That’s what usually happens. Sometimes, the situation is reversed. When males offer an edible gift to the female in return for access to mating, you sometimes get competition between females for the gift. Millions of years ago, this was probably the case in the Brazilian cave insects. The males of this insect, Neotrogla, produce a large and nutritious ejaculation. Females living on dry scraps of bat droppings are desperate for the extra food. Not only do they compete for access to the males, they have evolved an organ that grips hold of them. The female penis looks like that of many males in the animal kingdom: It swells inside the female and is spiked, both of which wedge the female inside the male. The very long duration of copulation is probably controlled by the females, the authors say, in order to extract maximum resources from the males. Last month, Yoshizawa and his colleagues won a prestigious Ig Nobel prize for their research. The spoof prizes are awarded at Harvard University each year to celebrate unusual or trivial discoveries in science. Yoshikawa’s team won the biology prize. Was he happy to receive this honor? “Of course,” he says. “I have been an Ig Nobel watcher for more than 15 years.” Neotrogla reminds me of another bizarre insect that lives in caves — the bat bug, which is found in caves in Kenya. In this insect, the males stab the female with a knife-like penis and inseminate directly into the bloodstream. The sperm then swim to the ovaries, bypassing the female reproductive tract. To try and limit the damage done by these attacks, females have evolved a counter-measure: defensive structures on their abdomens that soak up the damage. The odd thing — or even odder thing — is that the males are so keen to mate that they also stab other males and try to inseminate them as well. This seems to have had such an impact over the generations that males have evolved similar defensive abdominal structures to the females. Bed bugs — the ubiquitous pests that you find in unclean hotel beds — have a similar method of stabbing sex. Entomologists call it traumatic insemination. The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded by Marc Abrahams, who runs a magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research. They’re designed to make you laugh and then to think. In their acceptance speech (filmed from a cave in Japan), the scientists said: “Every dictionary around the world defines a penis as a male structure. Our discovery makes billions of dictionaries outdated.” As a biologist who has written about all kinds of bizarre animals, I wholeheartedly applaud the Ig Nobel prize for Neotrogla.
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evolution;brazil;ig nobel;insects;neotrogla;kazunori yoshikawa
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jp0000935
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/10/27
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Teen sues Osaka Prefectural Government for being forced to dye hair black to attend school
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OSAKA - An 18-year-old teen has filed a suit seeking ¥2.2 million ($19,000) in damages from the Osaka Prefectural Government, alleging her public high school demanded that she dye her naturally brown hair black to continue attending classes. The prefectural government, which runs Kaifukan High School in Habikino, requested the Osaka District Court dismiss the teenager’s lawsuit at the first hearing on Friday. Her mother had informed the school before the teenager started attending that her hair was naturally brown, but teachers repeatedly ordered the student to dye it black, according to the petition the plaintiff submitted to the court. The student developed a rash and scalp pain after dyeing her hair repeatedly but her teachers continued telling her that her hair was not black enough, demanding she comply or leave the school, the petition said. During a conversation with her mother, the school said it would even demand that blond foreign students dye their hair black because that was the rule, it said. The plaintiff said in the petition the school’s conduct constituted abuse because she was forced to dye her hair so often that it damaged her health. She stopped attending school in September last year, according to the document. Her lawyer, Yoshiyuki Hayashi, said despite the teenager still being a student, her name does not appear in a classroom register for the current academic year, which began in April, and there is no seat for her. The prefectural education board said rules regarding students’ hair are set by each school and declined to comment on the case due to the ongoing lawsuit. Many Japanese high schools ban students from dyeing their hair, and some demand that those with naturally brown hair submit documents stating their hair is not black.
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osaka;human rights;abuse;kaifukan high school;hair color
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jp0000936
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/10/27
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Secretary assault case of ex-lawmaker Mayuko Toyota handed to prosecutors
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SAITAMA - The police on Friday sent to prosecutors the case of a former lawmaker who made headlines earlier this year for verbal abuse, on suspicion of assaulting and injuring her former secretary. Former House of Representatives member Mayuko Toyota, 43, left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the wake of the abuse scandal and lost her Diet seat in Sunday’s general election after running as an independent. She drew attention after the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho claimed that Toyota, who was sitting in the back seat of a car driven by her then secretary, a man in his 50s, yelled at and struck him several times on the head and face last May. Shukan Shincho uploaded an audio file of the incident, claimed to have been recorded by the secretary, in which a woman can be heard hurling insults such as “baldy” and “You should die.” At a news conference in September, Toyota apologized for verbally abusing the secretary but denied assaulting him, saying, “I have never inflicted serious injury on him by being violent.” Toyota worked at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry before entering the Lower House lawmaker in December 2012. In Sunday’s snap election, she ran for the No. 4 single-seat constituency in Saitama Prefecture, seeking a third term.
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diet;prosecutors;power harassment;mayuko toyota
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jp0000938
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/10/11
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Japan's health ministry enlists anime hero in battle against overuse of antibiotics
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The health ministry has enlisted the help of Amuro, the protagonist of the popular anime series “Mobile Suit Gundam,” in its battle against the misuse and overuse of antibiotics — which can lead to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Amuro Ray’s famous phrase, “Amuro ikimasu !” (“Amuro is heading out!”), used when the pilot embarks on a flight to fight the enemy, is featured prominently on the official poster for the campaign launched on Sept. 29, albeit with a twist: “AMR taisaku ikimasu !” (“AMR countermeasures are heading out!”). Ministry official Hiroshi Naruse said he came up with the idea himself as he tried to figure out how to raise public awareness of the little-known acronym for antimicrobial resistance, which has lead to the prevalence of superbugs, or bacteria resistant to antibiotics. Doctors have long dispensed antibiotics for minor ailments, including sore throats or fevers, even though the drugs, which are meant to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, have little effect on colds or other viral illnesses. Abuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs has led to the emergence of powerful drug-resistant pathogens worldwide. “We need to approach doctors and patients at the same time,” Naruse said by phone last week. “Antibiotics are often prescribed because of the fixed style of communication between patients and doctors. Patients expect that, by visiting a clinic, they should be prescribed medicine. Doctors prescribe to meet such expectations. If only doctors are educated, patients will not understand why they are denied access to the drugs and leave the clinic feeling unsatisfied.” In 2015, the World Health Assembly issued a global action plan to address AMR, urging member states to commit to national versions of the program. Japan adopted its own action plan in April 2016, setting measurable targets to curb domestic consumption of antibiotics, including cutting total usage by 33 percent by 2020 from 2013 levels. Yet AMR remains an obscure concept for many people here. Enter Gundam. In fact, Naruse is not afraid of using anime or jokes to get people’s attention for a public health cause. Earlier this year, he came up with the idea of calling on outbound travelers to get vaccinated for mashin (measles) beforehand, using the popular anime series “Mazinger-Z.” The measles campaign poster, featuring a humanoid robot, bears the slogan: “Mashinga Zero” (“Measles to Zero”). Naruse, however, stresses that he’s not just cracking jokes. As for the Gundam poster, he argues that the superhero story resonates with the public and syncs with the message that AMR is a huge challenge that humankind needs to overcome. Also on Sept. 29, the ministry released a pocket-size manual for doctors to help them determine when to dispense antibiotics. The manual, based on guidelines unveiled on June 1 by the ministry, discourages doctors from dispensing antibiotics to treat colds, as well as acute sinus infections, sore throats, acute bronchitis and acute diarrhea. Drug-resistant superbugs cause about 700,000 deaths each year globally, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. If no measures are taken, superbugs could kill 10 million people by 2050, according to a 2014 report commissioned by the British government. That would surpass the 8.2 million cancer-related deaths recorded globally in 2012.
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drugs;gundam;health ministry;amr;antibiotics
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jp0000939
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/10/11
|
LDP's secretary-general says election loss 'impossible,' the party is not in danger
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As Japan braces for a snap election later this month, Toshihiro Nikai, the No. 2 man of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Wednesday dismissed it as “impossible” that his party will lose big enough to put the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the LDP in jeopardy. Questions are mounting over the low bar Abe set for the ruling coalition’s victory, aiming to win a simple majority, or 233 seats, in the 465-member Lower House in the Oct. 22 vote. Some critics say the goal is intentionally unambitious, citing the LDP and Komeito coalition’s overwhelming pre-election strength of more than 320 seats. That margin means the LDP alone could afford to lose as many as 89 seats before the two parties hit the minimum 233-seat threshold needed to maintain a majority in the Diet. Even a loss of about 50 LDP seats would be bad enough for the party, as it means the LDP would be close to forfeiting its own majority in the chamber. That opens the question of whether Abe would have to take responsibility in a scenario where the coalition maintains a safe majority but sees a substantial loss of seats that would signal a stern public rebuke of the LDP. When asked about this, Nikai, secretary-general of the party and known for his abrupt attitude toward reporters, said it won’t be an issue. “That’s a very grim hypothetical question to ask me before the election,” Nikai said in a joint interview with local media outlets on Wednesday. “Don’t worry. Such a scenario is impossible.” The LDP’s primary opponent in the election is Kibo no To (Party of Hope), which is led by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike. The latest polls suggest the LDP is headed for a reasonably solid win now that the initial hype for Kibo no To appears to have fizzled out. Koike, despite wide speculation, decided not to run for a Lower House seat in the upcoming poll, thereby failing to establish for her party a potential rival who could replace Abe as prime minister after his nearly five years in power. As yet Abe’s main challenger for prime ministership remains faceless since Koike still hasn’t named the candidate to succeed the incumbent if her party wins a majority. This leaves voters confused as to whom exactly Abe is pitted against for the nation’s top office. “At the risk of sounding rude, it’s almost unthinkable the next prime minister can be chosen from that party,” Nikai said, referring to Kibo no To. Koike, however, has dropped some hints as to whom she may have in mind. In what may have been an ingratiating gesture, her party refrained from fielding its own candidates in districts where some prominent “post-Abe” lawmakers — including ex-Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, ex-Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and internal affairs minister Seiko Noda — are running. According to media speculation, should the LDP lose a majority after the election, Koike may support one of these names to become the next prime minister and seek to join forces with the LDP to form a new coalition. “I don’t care,” Nikai said when asked about this scenario. “I don’t think (a partnership with Kibo no To) is likely.”
|
shinzo abe;ldp;elections;toshihiro nikai;kibo no to
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jp0000941
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/10/29
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Golfer Matsuyama and Pikotaro to entertain Trump during Japan visit
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Japan will roll out its top golfer and the singer known for his viral hit “PPAP” to entertain U.S. President Donald Trump, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe angles to maintain an upbeat mood during his official visit. In addition to having world No. 4 golfer Hideki Matsuyama play with the two leaders on a golf course near Tokyo, singer Pikotaro, an apparent favorite of one of Trump’s grandchildren, will attend a dinner party to be hosted by Abe, government sources said. A video showing Ivanka Trump’s daughter Arabella, singing along to “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” went viral in November last year. Abe was holding talks with Trump in New York at the time and told him he enjoyed the video, the sources said. Trump will visit Japan from Nov. 5 to 7 on the first leg of a five-nation tour that will constitute his first official trip to Asia. Abe and his aides think it is important to entertain the president on his visit as they believe the two leaders struck up a good relationship when they played golf in Florida in February, the sources said, adding that former U.S. President Barack Obama stuck to a business-like approach in dealing with Abe. The two leaders and Matsuyama are scheduled to play on Nov. 5 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, the course scheduled to host the golfing events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Pikotaro will join a dinner party to be held the following day after the day’s meetings are completed.
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shinzo abe;donald trump;pikotaro;trump in japan
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jp0000942
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/29
|
Osaka threatens San Francisco ties over sister city's 'comfort women' memorial
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OSAKA - The 60-year sister city relationship between Osaka and San Francisco looks to be heading for retirement if Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura and his allies in the city who oppose San Francisco’s new “comfort women” memorial get their way. The memorial to the so-called comfort women, who were forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II, was unveiled last month after the Japanese government as well as some Japanese residents in the U.S. and Japan protested. Yoshimura, a conservative with Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), a local political group, has a plurality in the city assembly, has charged that San Francisco’s erection of the comfort women memorial last month is a form of “Japan-bashing.” In a letter to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in late September, Yoshimura threatened to rethink the sister city relationship. Lee’s response was that the two leaders should look to the future, not the past. Yoshimura, whose handling of the issue has angered human rights activists in the U.S. and irritated some in Japan’s ruling parties who worry about the impact on bilateral relations, struck a more diplomatic tone in a follow up letter dated Oct. 23. “I once again strongly urge you to treat this issue with careful consideration. In this letter I hope you can realize the heartfelt request that I wish to convey,” the mayor said. Those in Osaka who oppose San Francisco’s comfort women monument are especially upset with the inscription on it that says hundreds of thousands of women and girls were sexually enslaved by Japanese Imperial forces in 13 Asian-Pacific countries between 1931 and 1945. “There is disagreement among historians regarding historical facts such as the number of comfort women, the degree to which the former Japanese army was involved, and the extent of the wartime harm,” Yoshimura told Lee in the September letter. Historians continue to debate the exact number, but most figures remain controversial. No detailed written records to corroborate various estimates, which range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, have surfaced yet, a point that Yoshimura and his allies have repeatedly stressed. But for San Francisco’s statue supporters, the larger issue is to properly memorialize — and symbolize — the suffering of women during wartime so that history does not repeat itself. On this point, the political leaders of Osaka and San Francisco are unlikely to ever see eye to eye, making a formal breakup before next year even more likely.
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wwii;comfort women
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jp0000943
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/10/16
|
Japanese Communist Party says dialogue, not pressure will work on North Korea
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The leader of the Japanese Communist Party says Japan should shift from pressure to dialogue in its effort to curb North Korea’s nuclear development program. JCP chief Kazuo Shii, in an interview Monday with The Japan Times, also slammed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s support for Washington’s policy on the North that “all options are on the table.” Abe’s “pressure-first” approach toward Pyongyang is one of the key issues the prime minister has stressed in the campaign for next Sunday’s general election. “In order to break through the current nuclear problems on the Korean Peninsula, it’s essential that Washington and Pyongyang talk directly,” Shii said. Abe has said he wants his get-tough attitude endorsed by voters before embarking on a series of much-anticipated meetings with world leaders later this year, including a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to Tokyo in November. “Economic sanctions against the regime are necessary, but they alone wouldn’t resolve the problem,” Shii said. “They need to accompany an effort to open up dialogue.” Shii likewise expressed concern that Abe’s publicly proclaimed support for the U.S. position that “all options are on the table ” — indicating military action — suggests Japan is ready to fight alongside the U.S. in the event of a war. Sunday’s election, Shii said, is a chance to “say goodbye to Abe-led politics.” “No past administration has ridden roughshod over the pacifist Constitution or abused power like Abe,” he said, referring to allegations the prime minister gave preferential treatment to a longtime confidant in establishing a new university department. “Opposition parties and citizens must stand up and put a stop to this administration and create a new Japan,” he said. “That’s the biggest issue in the election.” Shii said the JCP is serious about forming a coalition government “in the nearest possible future.” At the same time, he said he is keenly aware that his party needs to shred its radical image, often associated with its push for revolution, and convince voters it is capable of realistic policies and action. The leftist party has long been known for urging the abolition of the Japan-U.S. security treaty and the disbandment of the Self-Defense Forces, which it argues is incompatible with the Constitution. The past two years have seen the JCP soften its image. Shii and other party executives, for example, attended the opening ceremony of a Diet session for the first time in nearly 70 years in January 2016. Its long boycott was based on the grounds that an emperor’s presence at the event recalled the prewar constitution’s principle that “sovereign power resides with the Emperor.” In another compromise, Shii said during a nationally televised debate earlier this month that a JCP government would temporarily regard the SDF as constitutional unless an overwhelming majority of the public thinks otherwise. “We need to constantly evolve our policy so that the public will feel comfortable letting us hold power. If we oppose a consumption tax hike, for instance,we need to be able to demonstrate how else we would manage fiscal policy,” he said.
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elections;kazuo shii;jcp;2017 lower house election
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jp0000945
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/28
|
Organ donations and transplants still face obstacles in Japan
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It has been 20 years since the government legalized organ transplants from brain-dead donors, and seven years since the law was revised to allow children to donate organs and families to approve organ donations of loved ones unilaterally. But while the transplant rate in Japan has increased sixfold since 2010, it is still relatively low. According to a May 12 article in the Yomiuri Shimbun , only 64 took place in 2016 for all organs. The Japan Organ Transplant Network (JOTN) says that as of April there were 593 patients waiting for hearts, 321 for livers and 11,965 for kidneys. In the United States, the organ donation rate is 26 transplants per million; in South Korea it is 8.4. In Japan, it’s only 0.7. On the occasion of the anniversary of the transplant law, various media have pondered their role in spreading awareness of organ donation and while there are still cultural barriers that prevent understanding, there are other, structural difficulties that have to be overcome in order to make transplants an integral part of medical treatment in Japan. Japan has the strictest organ donation law in the world. Before 1997, donations could only be made to other family members and from people whose hearts had stopped, which greatly limits the kind of organs that can be transplanted. The 1997 law made it possible for individuals to indicate their willingness to donate organs if declared brain dead, but there was no net increase in the number of possible donors, because the same people who agreed in surveys to donate organs to family members now signed up to donate to anyone. Following a revision in 2010, which widened the pool of possible donors to children under the age of 15 and individuals whose families consented to donating their organs even if they themselves hadn’t indicated such beforehand, the number of actual brain-dead donors increased, but the number of heart-dead donors decreased. JOTN estimated that most of the people who prior to the revision were willing to donate organs if their heart stopped were now instead agreeing to donate organs if they were declared brain dead. In effect, there was no appreciable increase in new donors. NHK basically made a similar point on a recent installment of its explanation program, “ Jiron Koron .” The show cited a Cabinet Office survey in which half the respondents said they would not consent to a relative’s organ donation if that relative was declared brain dead. In cases where individuals themselves agreed to donate organs if they were declared brain dead, 87 percent of their relatives said they would give consent (family consent is still necessary for removing organs from brain-dead donors). Many believe the main obstacle to donation is an uneasiness with the idea of cannibalizing one’s own body or the body of a loved one, so the media, they believe, should provide clearer examples of organ donations. But since donors are anonymous, coverage is sketchy at best. Somehow, however, attitudes are changing. NHK found that young people are much more likely to fill out donor cards, so there should be a higher number of available organs in the future. But the system as it stands may not be able to take full advantage of a greater willingness to donate. The health ministry has designated 896 hospitals as being qualified to participate in the organ donation program, but of these only 435 say they are ready. In most cases, the other facilities say they have yet to draw up proper “manuals” for procedures, so if a situation occurs where an organ is available because a consenting donor dies at one of these hospitals, they will not be able to process the organs for transplant. Over the past 20 years, 60 percent of donations took place at 62 hospitals. Another issue is that brain death is often determined in emergency rooms, which are hectic under normal circumstances. ER doctors are not sufficiently prepared to deal with donors in such situations. What is needed is full-time professional support staff who can process donations. NHK says the work of transplant coordinators requires extensive training and experience, and there is a high job turnover rate in the field. The best impetus for organ donations is showing how successful transplants have become in Japan, and some media have highlighted the work of Dr. Takahiro Oto of Okayama University Hospital, considered one of the world’s foremost lung transplant surgeons. Several years ago, Oto was the subject of an award-winning Fuji TV documentary that simultaneously showed how advanced transplant techniques are in Japan and how far the donor system needs to go in order to properly exploit such techniques. Three years ago, Oto’s patients had a five-year survival rate of more than 80 percent, whereas the average five-year survival rate worldwide for lung transplants is around 50 percent. Oto could perform many more transplants than he does now, but he doesn’t have the time because he must also screen recipients and donors, as well as provide aftercare to transplant patients. In other countries, transplant surgeons only operate. Other necessary tasks are handled by different medical professionals. At one point in the documentary, Oto is in the middle of a surgery when he receives an urgent call from a hospital about a possible donor, but he can’t address the matter until the 10-hour operation is over. With donations, especially in the case of organs that are only viable from living — meaning brain dead — donors, time is critical. Japan’s medical world needs to work on these structural obstacles, then the problem of convincing people to donate may actually take care of itself. It depends on the circumstances. A recent article in the Asahi Shimbun told the story of a woman whose husband became brain dead after a series of strokes. Although grief-stricken, she saw a poster in the hospital about organ donation and asked the doctor if she could donate her husband’s organs. The doctor said, of course she could. He just hadn’t thought to ask her if she was willing to.
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nhk;asahi;transplant;yomiuri shimbun;okayama university hospital;japan organ transplant network;takahiro oto;jiron koron
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jp0000946
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/28
|
Twitter Japan confronts hate speech with mixed results
|
Following countless claims that Twitter has become a breeding ground for hate speech, the social networking service has started to take measures against hate speech on their platform over the past two years. After several events in September, however, it’s clear that Twitter Japan is still struggling to answer the needs of Japanese users who face harassment on it. In addition to the Hateful Conduct Policy the service introduced in December 2015 that prohibits discriminatory attacks or violent threats, Twitter made it easier for users to report abusive content in November 2016. While these efforts have shown some success in Europe, the United States and other English-speaking countries, Twitter Japan has had to review its approach when it comes to regulating hate speech following an incident with popular model and actress Kiko Mizuhara. Mizuhara, who is of American and Zainichi Korean descent, became a target of hate speech on Twitter in early September after she appeared in a series of promotional Twitter posts by Suntory’s Premium Malts account. The advertising campaign features domestic TV personalities enjoying beer, but this seemingly harmless content did not protect Mizuhara from receiving abuse online. Claiming that she is pretending to be Japanese or that she is anti-nationalistic, users on Twitter flooded the replies section with comments that are within the definition of hate speech, at least according to Twitter’s own policy. The incident was so overwhelming that Mizuhara made a statement on her personal Twitter account calling for the end of discrimination based on race and gender. “Neo-nationalists flocking to PR tweets that use Kiko Mizuhara, repeating abusive and discriminatory comments that you can’t even bear to read. This is the reality of the internet in the 21st century,” a user called @galasoku wrote. Another user called @visio1206654 pointed out that ignoring hate speech only hurts the company, saying: “Adding to the obvious point that hate speech is bad, incidents like this leads to fewer brands wanting to use Twitter.” At the same time that Mizuhara was being subjected to harassment on Twitter, volunteer anti-hate speech organization Tokyo No Hate protested in front of the Twitter Japan headquarters on Sept. 8. By displaying and distributing printouts of hateful tweets that have targeted minority groups, the group highlighted the harassment many people face on Twitter everyday. Twitter has drafted a guideline about its policy against hate speech, but enforcing such regulations seems to be the biggest challenge. On Aug. 20, a Twitter user tweeted about killing a pesky mosquito, which spurred the social networking service to suspend the account permanently. Directing a tweet at Twitter Japan under a new handle @DaydreamMatcha, they wrote: “My previous account was suspended permanently after I said I killed a mosquito. Is this a violation? Is Twitter (17th-century shogun) Tsunayoshi Tokugawa?” Many users suspected that Twitter’s algorithm picked up the threatening keywords out of context. Some believe algorithm-based support systems that aren’t monitored by native Japanese speakers are bound to fail. Yu Koseki, Buzzfeed Japan’s director of business development, provided some insight into the reason why so many Japanese accounts have recently been frozen. “The company believes users will return when the business isn’t affected economically. Twitter places a low priority on non-English language users, so they don’t think there’s a need to hire Japanese employees. In typical tech company fashion, user support is handled algorithmically,” he wrote under his Twitter handle @youkoseki. Following the incident with Mizuhara, Twitter Japan responded in a tweet posted on Sept. 6 saying that it “has been expanding its domestic response team in order to resolve problems in a timely manner.” If Twitter aims to serve as “a platform that allows people to express themselves safely,” as the service wrote in its tweet, the response team to harassment and abuse should comprise of more than just artificial intelligence. While a localized algorithm for user support could improve future incidents, human intervention appears to be the most effective solution at present.
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twitter;kiko mizuhara;hate speech;japan pulse;twitter japan
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jp0000947
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/10
|
'Turbocharged' sulfur component seen as pungent durian smell's driving force
|
WASHINGTON - Scientists have answered one of nature’s most pungent questions: what gives the world’s smelliest fruit its distinctive aroma. Scientists in Singapore said on Monday they have mapped the genome of the durian, known throughout Southeast Asia as the “king of fruits” for its unique smell, flavor and formidable spiny appearance. They identified a group of genes responsible for odor compounds called volatile sulfur compounds, and found that these genes become highly activated as the fruit ripens, driving its unusual smell. “The durian smell has been described as a mix of an onion-like sulfury aroma with notes of sweet fruitiness and savory soup-seasoning. A key component of the durian smell are volatile sulfur compounds, or VSCs, which have been characterized as decaying, onion-like, rotten eggs, sulfury and fried shallots,” said geneticist Bin Tean Teh, deputy director of the National Cancer Center Singapore, co-leader of the study published in the journal Nature Genetics. Unlike other plant species that typically have one or two copies of these genes, this species boasted four copies, demonstrating that VSC production is, as Teh put it, “turbocharged” in durian fruits. The researchers said this odor may be important to the durian in the wild, helping to attract animals to eat it and disperse its seeds. The scientists sequenced the genome of the Musang King variety of durian, discovering it has about 46,000 genes, nearly double the number in the human genome. They were able to trace the evolution of the fruit back 65 million years, finding an ancient relationship to the cacao tree, whose seeds produce chocolate. “Most of us in Singapore have grown up with the durian, and we are very familiar with it,” said geneticist Patrick Tan, a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. “However, even within the same family, there are individuals that love the taste, while others have learned to simply tolerate it, especially during durian season. For those who have never experienced durian before, it can indeed elicit opposing emotions of devotion and revulsion.” Durian is eaten fresh, cooked, fermented or as an ingredient in candies, baked goods and other food. The researchers said there are at least 30 other durian species, some edible, some inedible, and some with other distinctive features. Several are endangered. Durian is economically important, with imports to China last year worth $600 million to $800 million, the researchers said.
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china;singapore;durian;sulfur
|
jp0000948
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/26
|
Ancient Papua New Guinea skull called oldest-known tsunami victim
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WASHINGTON - A mysterious partial skull unearthed in Papua New Guinea in 1929 — that once was thought to belong to an extinct human species — now turns out to have another unique distinction. Scientists believe it belongs to the oldest-known human tsunami victim. Researchers said on Wednesday that new examinations of the sediments where the 6,000-year-old skull was found detected hallmarks of a tsunami, with a composition remarkably similar to the remnants of a deadly 1998 tsunami that lashed the same area. The skull was discovered near the town of Aitape, about 7 miles (12 km) inland from Papua New Guinea’s northern coast. It is one of the earliest human remains from the island of New Guinea, and initially was mistaken for a species called Homo erectus that died out about 140,000 years ago. Later scientific dating revealed it was actually 6,000 years old. “As probably the oldest-known tsunami victim in the world, the Aitape skull speaks volumes about the long-term exposure of human populations along the world’s coastlines and how such events in the past will have undoubtedly had fundamental effects on human migration, settlement and culture,” said tsunami expert James Goff of the University of New South Wales in Australia. The scientists examined geological deposits at the river-bed site where the skull was found, identifying clear signs of tsunami activity. They spotted microscopic organisms from the ocean in the sediment, similar to those found in soil after the 1998 tsunami. “We also employed chemistry and examined the size of sediment grains,” finding they were indicative of a tsunami, said anthropologist-archaeologist Mark Golitko of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and the Field Museum in Chicago. Tsunami, giant waves typically caused by underwater earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, are particularly dangerous natural disasters. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, caused by a massive earthquake off Sumatra, killed more than 230,000 people. The 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami killed more than 2,000 people, wiped out villages, destroyed crops and forced many survivors to relocate. The tsunami 6,000 years ago apparently was similar. “Much like the 1998 tsunami, we suspect that one or more large waves very suddenly impacted the coast, washing near-shore villages and anyone living there further back into swamps and lagoons that dot the coast,” Golitko said. The skull was found without other bones. The researchers noted that in the 1998 tsunami, many victims were washed into lagoons and their bodies scavenged by crocodiles. The research was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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history;tsunami;archaeology;earthquakes;papua new guinea
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jp0000950
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[
"national"
] |
2017/10/26
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Unclaimed land to cost Japan ¥6 trillion and extend to 90% size of Hokkaido by 2040
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Accumulated economic losses due to the neglect of unclaimed land, including damage from flooding or mudslides which can be caused by poor land management, will reach ¥6 trillion ($52.9 billion) by 2040, a private-sector study group said Thursday. With inheritors allowing property to go unregistered to avoid tax burdens, land with unclear ownership is projected to total 7.2 million hectares across the nation by 2040 — an area about 90 percent of the size of Hokkaido — according to estimates by the research group which includes former internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda. Alarmed by the predicted growth of unclaimed property, the government has been discussing ways to effectively manage the land through various measures such as giving usage rights to companies and nonprofit organizations and promoting registration by inheritors. “The area (of unclaimed land) is expected to expand very rapidly because the reasons for land usage will be lost amid accelerating population decline,” Masuda told a news conference. “The situation is very grave.” The former Iwate governor called for a change in attitudes about land inheritance and ownership, and proposed a flexible system to make use of land. In June, the study group estimated the total area of unclaimed land in Japan — including residential, agricultural and forest property — accounted for about 4.1 million hectares as of 2016, slightly bigger than the size of Kyushu. The group calculated the 2040 figure assuming no countermeasures would be taken by central and local governments. Close to 30 percent of the property available for inheritance between 2020 and 2040 could become unregistered, according to a poll surveying residents who are expected to inherit land. Land owned by aging baby boomers may also become vacated following their deaths. Such cases are also expected to increase sharply. Potential economic losses were calculated by estimating lost business opportunities on unused land with unknown owners, the costs of tracking owners down, as well as other factors. Estimated losses due to the weakening of land functions that prevent disasters accounted for around 60 percent of the total, at around ¥3.6 trillion. The group estimated annual losses from unknown ownership of land will surge to around ¥310 billion in 2040, from about ¥180 billion in 2016. When local governments plan to start public works projects they need to obtain the agreement of land owners, but finding them often costs time and money. The land ministry launched a panel in September to come up with effective measures, such as setting a time limit of around five years on the right to use land of unknown ownership for projects of public interest, including direct sales of farm products. The panel plans to wrap up discussions by the end of the year, and the ministry will submit a bill reflecting its recommendations to the ordinary Diet session to be convened next year. The Justice Ministry, which manages the land registration system, started simplifying the registration process for land beneficiaries in May to lighten their burden. It also established a study group earlier this month to encourage proper inheritance registrations. The group is expected to issue its report by 2019, possibly calling for changes to the law. In the fiscal year starting next April, the Justice Ministry and local municipalities will begin surveys to locate owners or inheritors of land that may obstruct public works projects, and urge them to register their property.
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tax;land;depopulation;hiroya masuda
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jp0000953
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/21
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Viral dance crazes highlight a generational shift
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Japan is certainly no stranger to viral dance videos and one doesn’t have to think too far back to recall the popularity of the koi (falling in love) dance routine that took the internet by storm last year. Popularized by TV drama “Nigeru wa Hajidaga Yaku ni Tatsu” (roughly translated as “Running Away is Shameful but Useful”), the quirky routine even prompted employees at U.S. government agencies in Japan to air their own winter holiday version featuring then-U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy. While such viral dance routines are nothing new, internet users have recently shown a fondness for videos that tap into cross-generational influences. Leading the charge is a dance troupe from Tomioka High School in Sakai, Osaka. The Tomioka Dance Club first caught the public’s attention when they won second place at Dance Stadium, a national high school dance competition, in August. The troupe’s hilarious routine was a throwback to Japan’s bubble era of the ’80s, featuring teenagers sporting brightly colored shoulder-padded suit jackets and wildly teased hair held aloft with copious amounts of hair spray, all dancing to Yoko Oginome’s 1985 hit “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up).” YouTube audiences were quick to spot the in-jokes that were incorporated in the exuberant dance moves, with one viewer named Mosa saying, “I was laughing and thinking ‘Wow’ at the same time.” Celebrities who were referenced in the routine were also quick to respond. Comedian Nora Hirano, whose catchphrases such as “ ottamage ” (“I’m shocked”) and “ shimo shimo ” (a wordplay on the telephone greeting “ moshi moshi “) appear in the soundtrack, tweeted her approval and ended her message by saying, “You are sickeningly fantastic.” Pop star Oginome, who provided the backing track to the routine, also sent the troupe a message , praising their energetic moves and thanking them for using her song. The troupe’s coach and choreographer later uploaded a YouTube video of the same routine titled the “ Bubbly Dance ” on Sept. 16 that was viewed more than 2.5 million times in the first two days, with another 6.5 million viewers watching it since. The slick new version features a high-energy mash-up of “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up),” Dead or Alive’s 1985 hit “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1997 chart-buster “Fantasy” and other pop favorites from decades before any of the troupe members were born. The polished video hits all the right notes: The moves are sharp, the expressions on the dancers’ faces are faultless and the routine harks back to a period of outrageous prosperity in Japan. It’s worth just noting that interest in the dance isn’t limited to Japan, and the video has also started to attract some attention on the Chinese social media site Weibo. The young troupe from Osaka isn’t the only group who has recently won over online audiences by referencing older influences in a new setting, with viewers flocking to a YouTube video that features dancers at the other end of the age spectrum. In a video that was originally posted in November 2016, three kimono-clad “grandmothers” effortlessly pop and lock to Bruno Mars’ 2016 hit “24K Magic.” The clip has since attracted more than 1.5 million views. The three women, who are all older than 50, are well-known in dancing circles, but many viewers were surprised by their talent. Several suggested these elderly women were able to bust out dance moves that could rival any young dancer. Mars himself tweeted the trio’s video with a post that read: “This made my day!! Thank You Ladies!” Meanwhile, YouTube viewer M Saez describes the video as being “the greatest thing I have ever seen in my life.” The popularity of the two videos suggests that dancers of all ages can succeed by referencing the pop culture of another generation. Throw in a bit of astute humor for good measure and internet audiences won’t be able to resist being involved in the fun.
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dancing;bruno mars;japan pulse;yoko oginome
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jp0000954
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/21
|
Commercials reflect a subtle shift in traditional parenting roles
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A series of TV commercials aimed at parents in recent months has sparked intense online debate over traditional family values and the reality of modern life. Manufacturer Cow Soap is the latest advertiser to generate discussion on this issue, releasing a commercial for Father’s Day titled “Ataerumono” (“What You Pass On”). The video was first aired on June 15 and has since gained almost 1.6 million views on YouTube. A few months earlier, manufacturer Unicharm released a commercial for its Moony diapers that was targeted at new mothers. While both commercials appeared to be trying to offer parents support and encouragement, many online viewers found the messages contradictory. The Cow Soap commercial follows a seemingly ordinary man as he completes an ordinary day in his life. He takes out the trash and, as he makes his way to work, receives a phone call from his wife, who asks him to pick up a cake and birthday present for their son. The protagonist ponders the importance of a “kind, family-oriented father” who is struggling to bridge the gap between the type of figure his father once was and the role of a modern father. In one scene in which the man looks back on his childhood, his father remains faceless and distant. Even when recalling a moment of familial bonding, he remembers a respectful formality to proceedings. Returning to the present day, the man decides to “wash away” his ennui with Cow Soap and join his family for a belated birthday party. On Twitter, users such as @sociologbook expressed disbelief at the man’s dire communication skills and the “ sa, arai nagaso ” (“Wash it away”) tagline that condoned his behavior. Other users, including @deviltruck2010, mocked the father for seeming to accept a basic chore such as taking out the trash as the extent of his paternal obligations. Viewers rejected the commercial’s sympathetic tone toward the man and his detachment from his family. Unicharm’s commercial presented a different message altogether. The Moony diaper commercial shows a montage of a woman caring for her newborn child as the song from Kana Uemura’s “Moms Don’t Cry” plays in the background. Each task is seen as a burden that is eventually “worth it.” The father is largely absent from the entire video, which ends with the mother nearing a breakdown. Many viewers recalled their own experiences of loneliness in their response to the video. A Twitter user using the handle @tukino_tuki wrote: “It reminded me of the most difficult time of my life and I wanted to throw up. … The video is not encouraging in the slightest.” Indeed, the overall consensus online appears to be that mothers shouldn’t be expected or encouraged to give up everything for their children, as the commercial suggests. Around the same time the Unicharm commercial was released, Pampers aired a diapers video of its own that placed emphasis on just how many people in the community helped raise a child. In contrast to the other two commercials, the Pampers video takes a more positive approach to parenthood and stresses that the mother and father shouldn’t take on the sole responsibility of raising their child. In highlighting the collective responsibility of the community in parenthood, it’s a message that should resonate with each and every one of us — whether we have a child or not.
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parenting;soap;commercials;unicharm;japan pulse;cow soap;pampers
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jp0000955
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/07
|
Determined toddler with limb difference wins fans across the web
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Meet Camden Whiddon. He’s a cheerful 4-year-old boy who adores his younger sister and brother, and loves to go down slides. He was also born without any limbs. But you might know all of that already — because his videos have gone viral in the past month. When Camden’s mother, Katie Whiddon, posted an adorable video of Camden putting a pacifier in his baby brother Jaxton’s mouth on Facebook on Aug. 29, she didn’t give it a second thought. Whiddon had posted numerous photos and videos of Camden as a baby before and this was just another one of those cute moments. This time, however, it was different. The number of views just kept growing exponentially before her eyes. On her Facebook page alone, the video has 8.5 million views so far. The next video she posted, in which Camden can be seen using his whole body to climb up a set of stairs in order to go down a slide , now has more than 14.5 million views. “I’ve always wanted a nice platform to raise awareness … but I never expected things to go viral,” 23-year-old Whiddon tells The Japan Times via Skype from Texas. “An hour later, it was 100 views and as the hours went on, it doubled and tripled and quadrupled and just got more and more and I was like, ‘This is insane!'” Camden was born with Amelia-phocomelia syndrome, a birth defect that involves malformation of a baby’s limbs, which Whiddon found out when she was 18 weeks pregnant. Whiddon, who had lived in western Tokyo for a couple of years as a teenager, was only 18 years old at the time of her pregnancy. Her doctor had warned her that her baby’s brain might never develop and his organs could fail before or after birth, and she imagined all of the things he would never be able to do. She scheduled an abortion but decided not to go through with it the day before her appointment. “I thought, ‘Nobody needs to live like that’ … I felt like (the doctors) basically gave my baby a death sentence,” Whiddon says. “(However) I couldn’t do it because I am too selfish. … I needed to meet him even if it was for two seconds or two minutes. I needed to know who he is, what he looks like, hear him cry if it’s possible at all and when I finally said those words to somebody, I felt such peace.” The video of Camden going up the slide shows how independent and determined he is. His younger sister, Ryleigh, goes up and down smoothly but Camden refuses to be helped. And his face bursts with happiness as he finally achieves his goal. Camden became the focus of media attention in both the U.S. and overseas after the video he was in was shared by celebrities such as rapper Snoop Dogg and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Whiddon is aware of the perils that can come with becoming famous online, however, and tries to avoid reading negative comments. Despite any inconvenience the fame has caused, Whiddon says she is still happy that the world has gotten to know her son and wants people to know they shouldn’t pity him. “I know sharing Camden with the world is doing more good … he is one of the happiest kids that I know,” Whiddon says. “I don’t want anyone to be sad at all because he is able to do everything that he wants to do. Just because he is different from us doesn’t mean he can’t do those things — because he will. He will just do them differently.”
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youtube;japan pulse;camden whiddon;katie whiddon
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jp0000957
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/07
|
Is the response to scams criminally slow?
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One of the more cynical dictums in Japanese goes “Shōjikimono ga baka o miru” (“Honesty doesn’t pay”). In pre-modern times, neither did crime. The Osadamegaki Hyakkajo — the criminal code enforced by the Tokugawa rulers — prescribed an extensive list of severe punishments for those found guilty of fraud and trickery. Currency counterfeiters were dispatched by haritsuke (public execution by perforation with spears). The penalty for use of fraudulent scales or measures of volume was decapitation, with the head displayed on a gibbet for three days. Forgery of an official seal on a document earned the offender confiscation of his property and banishment. Merchants caught dealing in fake goods were tattooed to mark them as criminals and banished. And habitual con men lost their heads irrespective of the amount they swindled. These, however, were apparently not enough to discourage aspiring crooks. In the view of historian Haruo Okubo, the number of violations and punishments included in the laws, covered in the code’s Article 67, suggests that criminal fraud must have been rampant in pre-modern times. Well, as they say in France: Plus ca change …. According to Tokyo Metropolitan Police data, the 2,089 cases of what is termed tokushu sagi (special types of fraud) reported in the first eight months of 2017 marked an increase of 961 incidents over the same period in 2016, a startling rise of 85.2 percent. These were broken down as follows: “It’s me, send money” scams (1,204 cases); demanding payment for products or services not ordered (428); fraudulent requests for guarantor funds (33); and spurious “rebates” of taxes or other outlays (424). The scale of losses during the first eight months of this year — approximately ¥4,691,700,000 (¥4.691 billion) — was up year-on-year by 35.2 percent. This problem continues despite all sorts of proactive publicity. NHK precedes its daily evening news broadcasts with “don’t let this happen to you” stories of actual frauds. Warnings appear on bank ATM screens and on receipts issued by post offices. The reason why types of fraud are always evolving and continue to grow, in a nutshell, can be attributed to three factors. One is the low rate of arrests and prosecutions. Chances are roughly four out of five the crooks won’t get caught. Second is that penalties for fraud are light. Considering the size of the rewards, the possibility of several years imprisonment is a calculated risk. It should be obvious, but the single largest factor that enables these acts of larceny is that Japanese have been unable to wean themselves from dealing in cash. Moreover, the amount of uncirculated currency has actually increased in recent years due in part to the adoption of the “My Number” system that enables the tax office to monitor individual bank deposits. Last April, Yukan Fuji cited an estimate by the research arm of the Daiichi Insurance Company to the effect that as of the end of February 2017, the total amount of such funds stashed away in people’s homes — called tansu yokin or chest-of-drawers savings — was in the neighborhood of ¥43 trillion. Another factor has been involvement by organized crime. While it has been rare for a high-ranking syndicate member to be prosecuted, this may be changing. On Aug. 31, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of four women who had brought a suit against the head of the Inagawa-kai gang and three syndicate members for abetting fraud. The men were ordered to pay the plaintiffs ¥26.65 million in compensation. According to Bengoshi.com , the technique used in the four cases involved telephone fraud in which callers posing as the women’s sons had requested funds to pay off women whom they had made pregnant. Attorney Hiroshi Murakami, head of the plaintiffs’ legal team, told the media, “Fraud has become a source of revenues for gangs. … We’ll be pleased if this is effective in discouraging similar crimes in the future.” The best-known of all modern-day scams was not devised by a gangster but by a loner: an ambitious crook named Kazuo Nagano, who founded a company named Toyota Shoji. It had no connection with the automaker, although Nagano and his cohorts made little effort to dissuade their victims from making such an association. Utilizing persistent oshiuri (hard-sell) tactics to badger mostly elderly individuals into purchasing fraudulent shares in a gold ownership scheme, Nagano presided over the biggest swindling operation in history, involving 3,885 victims and ¥12.8 billion in losses. Police were slow to take action, but the law eventually caught up with Nagano, who holed himself up in his apartment in Osaka’s Kita Ward while his lawyer tried to work a deal with the prosecutor’s office. On the afternoon of June 18, 1985, over two dozen reporters and photographers, tipped off that his arrest was imminent, camped outside Nagano’s door. They certainly got more than they bargained for. Two roughnecks strutted up, proclaiming to the reporters that they were going to “teach Nagano a lesson,” and — as the members of the Fourth Estate looked on in horror — one of the toughs smashed in the kitchen window, clambered inside and slashed Nagano to death with a military bayonet. This writer happened to be watching the news from Osaka and witnessed a murder committed on live TV for the second time — the first being when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald dead in Dallas on Nov. 24, 1963.
|
fraud;scam;criminals;police;haruo okubo;toyota shoji;kazuo nagano
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jp0000958
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/10/09
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Graffiti found at Nagano's historic Zenkoji Temple
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NAGANO - Police have launched an investigation into vandalism following the discovery of graffiti at Zenkoji Temple in the city of Nagano. Part of the temple is designated as a national treasure. Officials at the temple contacted police Sunday, and they later found at least 30 marks, mostly the letter X, written in white ink. The marks measured about 12 cm high, police said. They were written on columns and other parts of the temple’s five structures, including its main hall, which is a national treasure. It is unclear when the vandalism was carried out, but police said the marks were relatively fresh. The temple is believed to have been built in the seventh century, while the current main hall was rebuilt in 1707.
|
nagano;graffiti;vandalism;zenkoji temple
|
jp0000959
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/31
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China close to completing first offshore nuclear reactor
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SHANGHAI - China’s first offshore nuclear reactor is set to be completed soon, engineers involved in the project said, bolstering Beijing’s maritime ambitions and stoking concerns about the potential use of atomic power in disputed island territories. Beijing hopes offshore reactors will not only help win new markets, but also support state ambitions to become a “strong maritime power” by providing reliable electricity to oil and gas rigs as well as remote South China Sea islands. Zhang Nailiang, engineer with the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), said the technology was “mature” and the first demonstration project would be deployed soon at drilling platforms in northern China’s Bohai Sea. “We are confident we should be able to get it finished very soon,” he told Reuters at an industry meeting this month. He declined to give an exact date, saying only that it would be ready well before 2020. The demonstration project is being developed by a research team established by CSIC, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and two reactor builders, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power (CGN). The direct use of military technology has aided progress, Zhang said, noting that other projects — including one launched by CNOOC and CGN last year — are still at the testing stage. China has urged nuclear firms to develop technologies that will help boost domestic capacity and win projects abroad. Zhang said floating reactors also served a wider political goal to strengthen China’s maritime presence, an aim reiterated by President Xi Jinping during his Communist Party Congress address this month. “We in the nuclear and shipbuilding industries have a call of duty to construct a ‘strong maritime power,’ ” Zhang said in a speech. China National Nuclear Power (CNNP), CNNC’s listed unit, launched a floating nuclear power subsidiary in August and also said the technology would help China become “a strong maritime power.” Though CNNP did not mention the South China Sea, CGN and CNOOC’s rival project will be deployed in the region, which includes islands and reefs claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam as well as China. Experts warn offshore reactors could raise safety and security questions. “The problem is the remoteness raises all kinds of questions about security, safety, economics and logistics,” said Mark Hibbs, senior fellow of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Offshore nuclear power could lead to the militarization of disputed waters, with China arguing “they have to beef up their presence” in order defend the reactors, Hibbs said. “The big picture is that the Chinese see nuclear energy as a very strategic technology and as something that China will deploy to its strategic benefit,” he added.
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china;nuclear energy
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jp0000960
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/31
|
UNESCO adds records on Korean envoys to Japan and three monuments to Memory of the World list
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PARIS - UNESCO on Monday added 78 nominations to its Memory of the World heritage program, including diplomatic records of Korean envoys to Japan and three ancient stone monuments north of Tokyo. Meanwhile, a panel of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization recommended postponing a decision on whether to add documents on “comfort women,” who were forced to work in wartime Japanese military brothels. UNESCO did not add the records of late Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped some 6,000 Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution during World War II. The organization did not disclose the reason for the decision. The 333 documents on envoys sent by the Joseon Dynasty to Japan, mainly in the Edo Period between the 17th and 19th centuries, were jointly filed by Japanese and South Korean local governments and private entities. They include diplomatic papers and pictures of the envoys stored in 12 prefectures across Japan and in parts of South Korea. The three ancient stone monuments called the Three Stelae of Kozuke, in Gunma Prefecture, were built in the seventh and eighth centuries, with Korean immigrants who settled in the area assisting in their design. With their inscriptions in Chinese characters, the monuments reflect cultural interactions that existed in East Asia. One of the three, built in 681, is the oldest stone monument in Japan that exists in complete form. The addition of the documents brings the number of Japanese items on the UNESCO archive register to seven. This time around, UNESCO received around 130 applications for listing in the program. The issue of comfort women remains a thorn in diplomatic relations between Japan and other Asian countries. The International Solidarity Committee, which consists of private groups from seven countries and one region, had led the campaign to seek UNESCO registry of comfort women documents. They have demanded that the Japanese government acknowledge legal responsibility for sexual exploitation of Korean comfort women. Japan has maintained that all legal claims were resolved under a 1965 Japan-South Korea treaty that normalized bilateral diplomatic relations. Tokyo also says the possible registry would go against a deal struck by the Japanese and South Korean governments in 2015 to “finally and irreversibly” settle the comfort women issue. In a statement, the International Advisory Committee of the heritage program recommended facilitating a dialogue among the nominators of the comfort women documents and concerned parties. It also recommended “setting a place and time convenient to the parties for this dialogue, with a view to leading to a joint nomination to encompass as far as possible all relevant documents.” In 2015, Japan strongly protested UNESCO and temporarily withheld its obligatory dues to the body after documents submitted by China on the 1937 Nanking Massacre were added to the heritage list. Tokyo then called on UNESCO to improve the transparency and fairness of the screening and registration process as well as take account of opposing views. In response to such calls, on Oct. 18 UNESCO approved a plan for a new procedure that will heed the views of nations concerned with its Memory of the World heritage registration process and improve transparency. Although the new procedure will apply from the next registration screening process in 2019, UNESCO appears to have taken it into account during the current round.
|
comfort women;unesco;japan;gunma;korean envoys
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jp0000961
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/30
|
50 years later, U.S. Vietnam War deserter aided by Japanese group returns on speaking tour
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A former U.S. seaman who deserted during the Vietnam War with the help of a Japanese pacifist group and fled to Sweden is visiting Japan for the first time in 50 years to deliver speeches nationwide. During a recent lecture at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Craig Anderson expressed concerns over what he called Japan’s “remilitarization” as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes to revise the war-renouncing clause of the Constitution to establish the legality of the Self-Defense Forces. In Kyoto, Anderson, 70, also told the audience of around 50 to take actions in accordance with their consciences to secure peace. Anderson deserted from the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid with three young seamen when it docked at Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in October 1967. They eventually smuggled themselves out of Japan to reach Stockholm via Moscow with help from the Japanese Peace for Vietnam! Committee, also known as Beheiren. The four deserters, who became known as the “Intrepid Four,” considered themselves “patriotic deserters” acting on their belief that the Vietnam War was against the interests of their country, according to Anderson. Anderson was arrested after returning to the United States in 1971 and was detained for several months before being released with a bad conduct discharge. Around 200 people gathered for his speech at Rikkyo, including Shinobu Yoshioka, chairman of the Japan P.E.N. Club. Yoshioka was actively involved in Beheiren’s activities from the late 1960s to the 1970s sheltering U.S. deserters. “I was around 20 years old at that time, and the deserters were young people of my age,” Yoshioka said. “I left college without a diploma, but I learned a lot in establishing a relationship with the deserters, who opened my eyes to the outside world. The experiences gave me the opportunity to receive the best ‘college education’ I could.” Conscientious objectors from South Korea, where military service is mandatory, joined the Rikkyo session with their supporters. Anderson will stay in Japan until early November.
|
u.s. military;craig anderson
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jp0000962
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/30
|
UNESCO panel to back records on Korean envoys' Japan visits for Memory of the World
|
SEOUL - A UNESCO panel plans to recommend adding centuries-old diplomatic records concerning visits by Korean envoys to Japan to its Memory of the World Register, Japanese and South Korean sources close to the matter said Monday. Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will soon make the final decision on the documents, the sources said. The body’s International Advisory Committee in Paris assessed whether to list the records in a closed-door meeting last week. The 333 documents on envoys sent by the Korean Dynasty to Japan, mainly in the Edo Period between the 17th and 19th centuries, were jointly filed by Japanese and South Korean municipalities and private entities. They include diplomatic papers and pictures of the envoys stored in 12 prefectures across Japan and in parts of South Korea. From Japan, registration applications have been filed for three ancient stone monuments north of Tokyo and the records of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who helped some 6,000 Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution during World War II. So far, five sets of materials from Japan have been listed in the Memory of the World Register, which is aimed at preserving rare or ancient records and documents from around the world. The assessments are made on a biennial basis.
|
history;south korea;unesco;chiune sugihara
|
jp0000963
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/10/30
|
Rohingya asylum seekers face dim prospects of gaining refugee status in Japan
|
The plight of Rohingya Muslims has made headlines as the Myanmar military’s escalating attacks against the ethnic group, often described in media reports as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities,” have captured global attention. Following clashes between the country’s military and Rohingya insurgents in October 2016, the Myanmar Army began a major crackdown, prompting tens of thousands of Rohingya migrants to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and other nations. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25, when renewed insurgent attacks triggered a ferocious military response. A top UNHCR official has called Myanmar’s military crackdown a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” Rohingyas have suffered discrimination for decades, if not centuries. Deemed illegal immigrants by the government in Myanmar, they are denied citizenship, the right to vote and freedom of travel. A small portion of Rohingya refugees have fled to Japan to seek asylum. But only a handful have been granted refugee status by the Japanese government, which is notorious for its reluctance to accept asylum seekers. The following are questions and answers on Rohingyas in Japan. How many Rohingyas are living in Japan and where are they staying? There are approximately 250 to 300 Rohingya now living in Japan. About 130 are men, 80 are women and the rest are their children, according to Zaw Min Htut, executive director of Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan. Most of them live in Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, a city located near a large number of factories where Rohingyas can work. “Many jobs are available” in Tatebayashi that do not require “experience or language ability. It’s very convenient for Rohingya people,” Zaw Min Htut said, adding that the cost of living is much cheaper in Tatebayashi than in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Other than Tatebayashi, Rohingyas also live in Saitama, Kanagawa, Shiga, Aichi and Osaka prefectures, he added. Government data only provide breakdowns based on nationality, not specific ethnic groups. The Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau data show that 17,775 Myanmar people lived in Japan and 650 applied for asylum in 2016. How many Rohingyas have been granted refugee status? Of the 130 Rohingyas who sought asylum in Japan, only 18 have been granted refugee status, while others were given special residence permission for humanitarian reasons, said Zaw Min Htut. In addition, there are currently about 15 Rohingyas in the country seeking asylum, including three who are being held in immigration facilities, said lawyer Shogo Watanabe, who heads the Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees and works closely with Zaw Min Htut. In 2016, 10,901 applied for refugee status, up 44 percent from the year before, according to the Justice Ministry. Despite the rise in applications, Japan accepted just 28 refugees, increasing by one person from the previous year. Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in August that she has no specific plans to expand the intake of refugees. What kind of lives do Rohingyas in Japan actually lead? For one, Zaw Min Htut, 45, who fled from Myanmar to Japan in 1998, now lives in Saitama with his Rohingya wife and four children. He and his family run a recycling company. In 2002, Zaw Min Htut was the first Rohingya to be granted refugee status in Japan. Blacklisted by Myanmar’s military government for taking part in political protests, he obtained a passport on the black market and fled the country. But Zaw Min Htut’s refugee status counts him among the privileged. “They cannot work in Japan if they don’t have refugee status,” lawyer Watanabe said. Without such recognition, asylum seekers also aren’t entitled to social security and face a thorny path in Japan, he said. So Zaw Min Htut sees it as his mission to speak up about what’s happening back home. “Too many people have been killed. A thousand people have been arrested. Hundreds of Rohingya women have been raped,” Zaw Min Htut said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday. “One of my second cousins (has) been killed. Killed. I cannot be silent,” he said. What is the Japanese government’s stance on the Rohingya crisis? In September, Japan said it will offer $4 million in humanitarian aid to Rohingya refugees in Myanmar and Bangladesh. The United States has announced a plan to provide nearly $32 million to the refugees. Japan has also condemned the Myanmar military attacks on the Rohingya. Commenting on the Aug. 25 attacks in Myanmar, Foreign Press Secretary Norio Maruyama said in a statement in late August that they are “utterly unacceptable.” “Japan strongly expects that, with the restoration of security, the protection of civilian populations and humanitarian access is assured as soon as possible,” he said. But Zaw Min Htut believes Japan, with its ties to the Southeast Asian nation, can do more. “We, RANJ would like to appeal to Japanese Government to strongly demand the Myanmar Government and Military Chief SG. Min Aung Hlaing to immediately stop the violent attacks on innocent Rohingyas,” the Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan wrote in a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Taro Kono, delivered to the ministry on Sept. 27. The amount of aid that Japan is offering for 600,000 refugees “is very small,” Zaw Min Htut said. “The Japanese government should show more generosity to the people who are suffering.”
|
myanmar;refugees;ethnicity;discrimination;racism;rohingya
|
jp0000965
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/10/06
|
Emblematic Australian island stick insect not extinct after all
|
WASHINGTON - When black rats invaded Lord Howe Island after the 1918 wreck of the steamship Makambo, they wiped out numerous native species on the small Australian isle in the Tasman Sea, including a big, flightless insect that resembled a stick. But the Lord Howe Island stick insect, once declared extinct, still lives. Scientists said on Thursday DNA analysis of museum specimens of the bug and a similar-looking one from an inhospitable volcanic outcrop called Ball’s Pyramid, 14 miles (23 km) away, confirmed they are the same species. The finding could help pave the way for its reintroduction in the coming years. “The Lord Howe Island stick insect has become emblematic of the fragility of island ecosystems. Unlike most stories involving extinction, this one gives us a unique second chance,” said evolutionary biologist Alexander Mikheyev of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. The glossy-black insect, which grows up to 6 inches (15 cm) in length, is nicknamed the “land lobster.” Other stick insects are found around the world, so named because their appearance lets them blend in with trees and bushes to evade predators. As adults, the wingless Lord Howe Island stick insects shelter in trees during daytime and come out at night to eat shrubbery. The bright-green babies are active during daytime. By about 1930, they had vanished on Lord Howe Island, which was thought to be their only home. There were no land-dwelling mammals there when the rats arrived, and they also vanquished five bird species and 12 other insect species. A rock-climbing ranger made a curious discovery in 2001 on Ball’s Pyramid: a similar-looking insect. Since then, captive breeding programs have begun at the Melbourne Zoo and elsewhere. Because of certain differences between the Ball’s Pyramid insects and the Lord Howe Island insect museum specimens, there was some question about whether they were the same species. “We found what everyone hoped to find, that despite some significant morphological differences, these are indeed the same species,” said Mikheyev, who led the research published in the journal Current Biology. Officials are planning a program to eradicate the invasive rats on Lord Howe Island, which could allow the stick insects to return. “I imagine that maybe a decade from now, people will travel to Lord Howe Island and take night walks, hoping to glimpse this insect,” Mikheyev said. “In maybe 20 years, they could become a ubiquitous sight.”
|
nature;australia;animals;endangered
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jp0000966
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/10/24
|
Is Abe's free day care and kindergarten worth the cost?
|
Sunday’s general election is over and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s gamble seems to have paid off. But politics never stops and Abe is now obliged to carry out what he promised during the campaign. One of Abe’s most notable — and probably most costly — pledges was to provide free day care services and kindergarten to children up to age 5. Details of Abe’s plan, however, remain elusive. How much exactly will it cost? What are the pros and cons of his pledge? Following are questions and answers on Abe’s ambitious, yet contentious, plan to provide free day care and early childhood education: What precisely did Abe promise during the campaign? On Sept. 25, just three days before he dissolved the Lower House for the snap election, Abe announced that he would allocate about ¥2 trillion a year for five new social security and education programs. These include free day care services and kindergarten classes for all children aged 3 through 5. Children 2 years old and under from financially strapped households would also be given free day care services. These programs would be financed through the planned consumption tax hike to 10 percent in October 2019, up from the current 8 percent. Until now, the government had been planning to use ¥4 trillion of the additional ¥5 trillion per year in revenue from the tax hike to pay down the snowballing national debt. But under Abe’s plan, only ¥2 trillion would be used for the debt. According to the Finance Ministry, the government debt amounted to 230 percent of the country’s gross domestic product as of 2016, the worst among major developed countries. How much would it cost to provide free day care and kindergarten classes? Abe’s government hasn’t revealed a detailed breakdown, and nobody seems to know the exact cost. But it will probably take nearly ¥1 trillion a year and may increase further down the road. According to a rough estimate by the Cabinet Secretariat, the central government would have needed to spend an additional ¥730 billion to provide free day care and kindergarten classes for all children aged 3 to 5 as of fiscal 2016. As for free day care for children aged up to 2 from low-income households, Abe hasn’t explained how he would define “low-income household,” making any cost estimate impossible. But according to the Cabinet Secretariat, if the annual income cap is set at ¥3.6 million, it would cost the government ¥50 billion a year, while it would cost ¥230 billion a year if the cap is set at ¥6.8 million a year. But these estimates are based on data from fiscal 2016. If preschool facilities are made free of charge, more parents are likely to apply, which could push up the total cost considerably. Free child care service sounds nice. Are families with small children happy with Abe’s plan? Not necessarily. For a vast amount of child-rearing families, getting free day care and kindergarten isn’t their priority, experts say. “Many children have been on the waiting list for day care centers, and this problem has not been solved for years. More people want (the government) to address this situation first, rather than eliminate day care center fees,” said Mika Ikemoto, a senior researcher at Japan Research Institute. Indeed, a large number of children are still on day care waiting lists. As of April 1, about 26,000 children who had applied for the service were unable to get a slot in a certified day care center due to the acute shortage of facilities and qualified workers. The number has increased three years in a row, as more women want to return to work after giving birth. Ikemoto pointed out the government has already been providing considerable help with day care costs for financially strapped families. In fact, the government exempts such costs for families living on welfare. Additionally, fees are reduced significantly based on household income. “At present, people aren’t complaining so much about money. Rather, many people are willing to pay more if they can receive education and services of better quality,” she said. But the Abe government doesn’t seem particularly interested in the quality of day care services, Ikemoto said. For example, unlike many other advanced countries, Japan lacks an official evaluation system to check the daily operations of nursery facilities, Ikemoto said. The low pay for qualified day care workers meanwhile has resulted in an acute labor shortage. The government should spend more money to address problems like this, rather than eliminating fees for nursery facilities, Ikemoto said. What are the pros and cons of the government shouldering early childhood education? Promoters of free preschool education often point to overseas studies showing that early childhood education is effective in boosting life-time income and can even help a country achieve higher economic growth. But according to data provided by the OECD, 95 percent of Japanese children at age 4 already receive some kind of education, a ratio much higher than, for example, the United States, where the level is 68 percent, according to Hideo Akabayashi, a professor of economics at Keio University. “Making early childhood education free of charge for children aged 4 and 5 in Japan would only mean that the personal spending which parents are willing to pay would be covered by taxpayers’ money,” Akabayashi wrote in an essay posted June 13 on Synodos, a website devote to academic journalism. Akabayashi argues that the government should focus on increasing day care centers for children aged 3 or younger, rather than eliminating fees for children aged around 4 or 5. How many children are currently in day care or kindergarten? As of fiscal 2013, 1.59 million children aged 3 to 5 were in kindergarten, or 49.7 percent of all children in Japan in that age bracket, according to government data. Meanwhile, 2.22 million children aged up to 5 were in day care, or about 35 percent, it said.
|
shinzo abe;children;education;day care;fiscal spending
|
jp0000969
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/10/14
|
After earlier ambiguous stance, Koike flatly denies Kibo no To plans to form coalition with LDP
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Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, leader of Kibo no To (Party of Hope), has denied that her party will join a ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party after the Oct. 22 general election. Koike had left open the possibility of such a coalition, but apparently shifted her ambiguous stance in the face of recent media polls suggesting her party is unlikely to win as much support from voters as earlier expected. Asked about the possibility of her party launching a coalition government with the LDP, the popular governor told reporters Friday that there was “none at all.” Nevertheless, Koike did suggest that her party could still link up with the LDP on specific issues, including revising the pacifist Constitution and national security. “Kibo no To will examine the pros and cons of cooperation on each issue so that it can realize its policy pledges,” she said. The ruling party’s reported lead in the Lower House race is “primarily because opposition parties are divided,” Koike said. “Anyways, the campaign has only just begun, and we will promote our policies robustly,” she added.
|
ldp;yuriko koike;2017 lower house election;kibo no to
|
jp0000970
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/10/14
|
Osaka-Tokyo regional split seen keeping Koike's, Hashimoto's camps at arm's length
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OSAKA - The rise and — so far — fall in popularity of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s Kibo no To (Party of Hope) comes as no surprise in Osaka, where her ability to govern effectively, as opposed to deal with the media, has long been in doubt. Like former Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai co-founder Toru Hashimoto, Koike, an ex-television announcer, knows how to speak to the camera. Unlike the bombastic Hashimoto, Koike’s measured tone made her conservative and right-wing social leanings and associations seem less threatening to some viewers. Her speech often includes English buzzwords that can sound pretentious, unlike Hashimoto, who mostly avoided English jargon in arguing his points, like the lawyer that he is. But the leaders’ different rhetorical styles should not hide the fact that, on national security, diplomacy, and constitutional revision, there is virtually no difference between Kibo no To and Nippon Ishin. Both parties are also on the same page as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on most issues. Although if Abe wants Nippon Ishin to support constitutional revision, he is going to have to do more to convince the party that any Diet draft would be approved in a national referendum. So regardless of what happens in the Oct. 22 election, most pundits expect that, post-election, Kibo no To will essentially function as the “Tokyo faction” to the LDP-Komeito ruling bloc and Nippon Ishin will continue to behave like its “Osaka faction,” agreeing with the LDP on major issues. This is not to say Nippon Ishin and Kibo no To will be best friends in the Diet. Many in Osaka have serious doubts that Koike or Kibo no To will pressure either the ruling coalition or the central government bureaucracy for further regionalization of the kind Nippon Ishin wants. With the Tokyo Olympics less than three years away, there are suspicions in Osaka that Kibo no To will pursue an “Only Tokyo” policy that favors those in the capital rather than one that supports the general goals that Koike, Osaka Gov. and Nippon co-leader Ichiro Matsui, and Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura announced last month. Yet if Osaka is worried about Koike and Kibo no To being too Tokyo-centric, others worry that handing power to Nippon Ishin and Kibo no To will mean losing their political future to voters in hyper-urban areas who know nothing of, and care nothing for, issues affecting the Japan outside Tokyo and Osaka and Nagoya. “It’s inevitable to have concerns that, with the three regions coming together, city people will grab power and rural areas will be cast aside,” Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido said after Koike, Matsui and Omura announced their basic agreement to not field candidates directly against each other. Akita Gov. Norihisa Satake criticized the deal by saying it’s the provinces that are supporting Japan. Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi said there’s no reason for local governments to consist only of cities. Finally, Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka, who views neighboring Osaka as an economic rival, criticized the deal, which fell apart last week when Omura changed his mind and refused to endorse Kibo no To, as selfish. “The (three governors’) agreement is about putting big cities first. If all you do is greedily think of yourself, Japan as a whole won’t be helped,” he said. With about 30 million people, Osaka, Tokyo and Aichi prefectures have nearly a quarter of Japan’s population and share many of the same social and economic values, which are often at odds with those living elsewhere. But so far, there is no sign Koike and her party are trusted enough outside Tokyo, or that Matsui and his party are trusted enough outside Osaka, to realize a true, urban-based populist revolt that takes over the Diet and alters Japanese society for decades to come.
|
nippon ishin no kai;toru hashimoto;osaka;yuriko koike;kibo no to
|
jp0000971
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/10/14
|
Urban revitalization and exposure spark interest in Shinagawa and Kichijoji
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Desirable neighborhoods Real estate and housing company Suumo released its annual ranking of the most desirable places to live in Kanto in April and, while we acknowledge this is a little late, it did produce some interesting results. 2>1: Kichijoji topped the rankings this year, regaining the top spot after losing it to Ebisu in 2016. Suumo expressed some surprise at the result, but put it down to the extra exposure it received from being mentioned in TV shows such as TV Tokyo’s “Kichijoji Dake ga Sumitai Machi Desu ka?” (“Would You Like to Live in Kichijoji City?”). 13>5: Shinagawa, meanwhile, surged up the rankings this year, coming in at a record-high fifth place. So dramatic was the increase that it was just 20 votes shy of taking fourth place off Meguro, which is a traditionally popular neighborhood owing to its local government’s beneficial tax policies. According to Suumo, Shinagawa’s popularity was directly related to the construction of a new station on the Yamanote Line between Shinagawa and Tamachi stations. Called Shin-Shinagawa, the new station is part of a development project that will turn approximately 130,000 square meters of adjacent land into a commercial hub larger than either Tokyo Midtown or Roppongi Hills. It’s also worth noting that Shinagawa will be the terminal point for a magnetic levitation train that will commence service between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027. Shinagawa Ward also climbed the rankings for the most desirable ward in Tokyo to live in, moving up from 10th place to a respectable seventh. 4>11: Shinagawa’s rise came at the expense of Jiyugaoka in this year’s rankings, as the Meguro neighborhood dropped out of the top 10 altogether. We guess people really can get sick of endless shopping and tiny dogs.
|
tokyo;neighborhoods
|
jp0000972
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/14
|
Japan's 'way of the sword' baffles foreign observers
|
All cultures present aspects that cannot but baffle the foreign observer. For example: nothing in the native tradition equips a Japanese to grasp the concept of the blood of the crucified son of the one God washing believers clean of sin. The foreign observer of Japan may be no less baffled by the Japanese “way of the sword.” Sword masters, like Zen masters — most swordsmen were Zen men, seeking, sometimes attaining, Zen enlightenment through swordsmanship — speak of “transcending life and death”; of “the sword of life” as opposed to the sword of death; of the sword killing not people but egoism, duality, illusion. The true swordsman, says Zen master Daisetsu T. Suzuki, “has no desire to do harm to anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is as though the sword performs automatically its function of justice, which is the function of mercy.” With that somewhat cryptic pronouncement in mind, consider the following episode in the early life of the great swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645). It is told by William Scott Wilson in “The Lone Samurai.” A 13-year-old child at the time, something of a delinquent, Miyamoto was on his way home from a calligraphy lesson when he noticed a placard. It had been posted by an itinerant swordsman. There were many at the time, roaming the land, engaging in matches with fellow swordsmen, honing skills, winning renown — ultimately, they hoped, to be taken on by a feudal lord as a domain instructor. The placard was a challenge to a match. Young Musashi scribbled a note on the placard accepting the challenge. His uncle and guardian, when he heard, was horrified. He begged the swordsman, whose name was Arima Kihei, to forgive the childish prank. Kihei was willing, on condition of a formal apology. At the appointed time, the boy appeared — armed with a 6-foot staff. Instead of apologizing, he charged. The boy must have possessed enormous strength. Wilson sums up blandly: “He beat Kihei to death and returned home.” It was his first of 60 bouts. He never lost and sometimes (not invariably) killed. Another casualty, years later, was the famous swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Musashi used psychology against him, unsettling him by arriving late and matching his own calm against his opponent’s resentful impatience. We today might call it — and the surprise attack on Kihei no less — poor sportsmanship. It would be anachronistic. No such criticism emerged at the time. Musashi’s wooden sword “cracked down on (Kojiro’s) skull.” Historian Beatrice Bodart-Bailey (in “The Dog Shogun”) cuts through what to her, plainly, is religious-sentimental claptrap: “The famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi elevated killing to a fine art, boasted that he had never lost a fight, and exhorted his followers to dedicate their lives to the practice of the sword. His famous ‘Book of Five Rings’ consists of detailed instructions on how to kill quickly and effectively.” Bodart-Bailey’s point is that early 17th-century Japan, its peace still raw and unsettled after centuries of civil war, had yet to rise above barbarism, which Musashi, as a leading exponent of the “way of the sword,” exemplifies better than anyone. One culture’s barbarism is another’s highest value. A Zen priest named Takuan Soho (1573-1645), a friend to and influence on Musashi, wrote in a famous treatise on Zen and swordsmanship: “As a martial artist, I do not fight for gain or loss, am not concerned with strength or weakness, and neither advance a step nor retreat a step. The enemy does not see me. I do not see the enemy. Penetrating to a place where heaven and earth have not yet divided … I quickly and necessarily gain effect.” Attitude is all. A mind having transcended life and death neither kills nor dies. “For then,” says Suzuki, “destruction is turned against the evil spirit. The sword comes to be identified with the annihilation of things that lie in the way of peace, justice, progress and humanity. … It is now the embodiment of life and not of death.” Baffling. Is this accessible at all, to a modern mind uninitiated into the higher mysteries of Zen? “Thou shalt not kill,” honored more in the breach than in the observance, is all the same a mainstay of Western civilization and of modern non-Western civilizations whose modernization was in effect Westernization. It has no equivalent in premodern Japan. The attitude toward death and, therefore, toward life, that evolved there may well seem to outsiders a glorification of death, a license to murder. A central theme of Musashi’s “Book of Five Rings,” the book Bodart-Bailey dismisses with disgust, is the unity of all the arts. Art and religion are one, art is a higher form of life, swordsmanship is an art — therefore swordsmanship is a religious pursuit leading to a higher life. Musashi himself was not only a master swordsman but a master painter, and to study his most famous painting, a monochrome India ink wash drawing titled “Shrike on a Withered Branch,” is to catch (however tenuously) something of what Takuan and Suzuki are talking about. Wilson puts it this way: “In the unblinking eye and the hooked beak of the shrike, one can sense the almost nonexistent border between life and death. … And yet, with a slight shift of the imagination, it is a perfect scene of nature, a bird on a branch. This is the perfect quality of Musashi’s Zen: Nothing is as it seems; nor is it otherwise.” Most wandering swordsmen of Musashi’s day wandered only as long as they had to. They were in a sense looking for a steady job, preferably, as mentioned, as resident instructor on a feudal domain. Musashi was different. He never settled, never married. His wandering was lifelong. It was his “way.” The last chapter of “The Book of Five Rings” is titled “Emptiness.” Musashi writes: “Make the heart of truth your way. … Accordingly, you will make emptiness the way and see the way as emptiness” — “emptiness” not in the Western sense of bleakness but in the Zen sense of infinite potential.
|
miyamoto musashi;swords;william scott wilson;daisetsu t suzuki
|
jp0000974
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/10/25
|
Einstein's theory of happiness, written by hand at a Tokyo hotel, fetches $1.56 million
|
JERUSALEM - A note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo briefly describing his theory on happy living sold at auction in Jerusalem on Tuesday for $1.56 million, the auction house said. The winning bid for the note far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $5,000 and $8,000, according to the website of Winner’s auction house. “It was an all-time record for an auction of a document in Israel,” said Winner’s spokesman Meni Chadad. The buyer was a European who wished to remain anonymous, he said. The note, on Imperial Hotel Tokyo stationery, says in German that “a quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.” Bidding, in person, online and by phone, started at $2,000. A flurry of offers pushed the price rapidly up for about 20 minutes until the final two potential buyers bid against each other by phone. Applause broke out in the room when the sale was announced. “I am really happy that there are people out there who are still interested in science and history and timeless deliveries in a world which is developing so fast,” the seller said on condition of anonymity after the sale. A second Einstein note written at the same time that simply reads “where there’s a will, there’s a way” sold for $240,000, Winner’s said. The German-born physicist, most famous for his theory of relativity, was on a lecture tour in Japan when he hand-wrote the autographed notes, previously unknown to researchers, in 1922. He had recently been informed that he was to receive the Nobel Prize for physics, and his fame outside of scientific circles was growing. A Japanese courier arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to deliver Einstein a message. The courier either refused to accept a tip, in line with local practice, or Einstein had no small change available. Either way, Einstein didn’t want the messenger to leave empty-handed, so he wrote him two notes by hand in German, according to the seller, a relative of the messenger. “Maybe if you’re lucky those notes will become much more valuable than just a regular tip,” Einstein told the messenger, according to the seller, a resident of the German city of Hamburg. Two other letters Einstein wrote in later years were also auctioned on Tuesday, fetching prices of $33,600 and $9,600. In June, letters written by Einstein about God, Israel and physics sold for nearly $210,000 at a Jerusalem auction. Roni Grosz, the archivist in charge of the world’s largest Einstein collection at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said the notes shed light on the private thoughts of the great physicist, whose name has become synonymous with genius. “What we’re doing here is painting the portrait of Einstein — the man, the scientist, his effect on the world — through his writings,” Grosz said. “This is a stone in the mosaic.” Einstein served as a nonresident governor of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. When he died in 1955, he left the institution his archives, making it the owner of the world’s most extensive collection of his documents.
|
tokyo;jerusalem;auctions;imperial hotel;japan;albert einstein
|
jp0000975
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/07/03
|
Government mulls 'Kids Week' holiday to prompt overworked Japan to take paid leave
|
The government is considering plans to create a holiday called “Kids Week,” in an ongoing effort to change the country’s workaholic culture and allow more time for families. The hope is that the proposed holiday will boost private consumption and encourage workers to use their paid leave more. So far, the public has been pessimistic, with many unconvinced that the initiative would do much to change the notorious corporate culture of excessive long hours, where many don’t take their paid holiday allowances The following is a brief rundown of the government’s proposed initiative. What is Kids Week? It’s a weeklong holiday for schoolchildren slated to launch in fiscal 2018. In the envisioned plan, public school holidays in July and August will be truncated by five days. To make up for the shorter summer break, a week of time off will be given at another time during the school year. The timing of the Kids Week holiday will vary according to region. This would reduce the traffic jams or crowds often seen during the school summer break season, which would also be a benefit for people without school-aged children. The initiative could be a boon to the tourism industry by bringing a more steady flow of customers throughout the year. The government also hopes the initiative will prompt workers to take more paid holidays, enjoy more time with their families and spend more money on traveling. Mizuho Research Institute estimates that the new plan could boost private domestic travel consumption by about ¥400 billion if parents go on vacation during Kids Week. Similar policies are already the norm in some European countries, including France and Germany, to alleviate overcrowded resorts and traffic jams. Together with Kids Week, the government is set to urge companies to make their workers use three more paid holidays in fiscal 2018 compared with the current fiscal year. Will Kids Week be effective? The biggest hurdle will be whether parents can actually take days off from work during Kids Week. In the current corporate culture, many find it difficult to take paid vacations when they want, so experts are pessimistic that the initiative could effect significant change on people’s working styles. A poll conducted by Yahoo News Japan in May after the idea was reported showed that about 66 percent of 172,030 responses were against the initiative. Some said there is just no way they can take a weeklong holiday together with their children. Although employers, mainly large companies, are increasingly urging workers to take vacations, Japan still lags behind other developed nations when it comes to taking time off. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on 4,520 companies nationwide, the percentage of annual paid leave taken by workers in 2015 stood at 48.7 percent, far below the government’s target of increasing the figure to 70 percent by 2020. Small companies with 30 to 99 employees have the lowest proportion at 43.7 percent, compared with 54.7 percent at major companies with more than 1,000 workers. A different annual study released by online travel company Expedia Inc. said Japanese are the most vacation-deprived workers among 28 surveyed countries. While workers in France, Brazil, Spain, Austria and Hong Kong used all their given paid holidays, those in Japan only used half, according to the study conducted on 9,424 employees in 28 countries. Why don’t Japanese workers take paid holidays? Akio Doteuchi, a senior researcher at NLI Research Institute, pointed out that some refrain from taking paid holidays out of fear it could affect their evaluation and out of guilt for taking time off when their managers and colleagues are working. “It’s both an issue of workers’ mentality as well as ways of management,” Doteuchi said. In a 2016 labor ministry survey, more than 60 percent of respondents said they felt hesitant to take paid holidays. More than 70 percent felt that it would put a burden on co-workers, while 32 percent cited office environment as a reason for their reluctance. Workers at small and medium-size firms also have difficulty using all of their paid leave due to a chronic shortage of manpower. When do workers in Japan take vacations? Public holidays effectively serve as substitutes for unused paid holidays, Doteuchi said. With the latest addition of Mountain Day on Aug. 11 last year, Japan now has 16 public holidays a year, more than any of the other Group of Seven nations, including Britain with eight days and France with 11 days. Workers taking long holidays together during the same period could be productive in manufacturing sectors, experts say. But as more people today work in different industries, there’s also an advantage in offering more flexibility in taking paid holidays rather than increasing public holidays, they say. How have the government’s recent initiatives fared in changing work culture? Not well. The government introduced in 2015 the Yukatsu (evening activity) campaign, calling for an earlier start to the workday during the summer, so people can knock off work earlier and enjoy the evening with family and friends. But the practice has not taken root, especially in the private sector. The same can be said about the Premium Friday campaign launched in February. The program — designed to let people leave the office early, at 3 p.m., on the last Friday of each month — drew public attention at first, especially among restaurant and bar operators. But four months on, the promise of the initiative has faded as many continue to spend their Friday evenings at the office. The government on Friday set July and August as the months to boost work-life balance among national civil servants, encouraging them to implement Yukatsu and Premium Friday during the period. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda gathered the ministries’ vice ministers at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday and asked them to facilitate Yukatsu to reduce long working hours. Yasuko Matoba, a senior researcher at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, says such initiatives are important because they give opportunities for workers and companies to think about the status quo. “It’s important for the government to take initiative to change (the working environment),” Matoba said, pointing out that some companies are actually letting workers quit work early on Fridays.
|
children;workers;vacation;kids week
|
jp0000976
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/07/18
|
Nagoya assembly creates day care room for nursing mom among ranks
|
The Nagoya Municipal Assembly has created a private day care room for one of its members with a 1-year-old son, the first such facility among governments in the Tokai region and a rarity in other parts of Japan as well. “It has become easier for me to do my job and also breast-feed my child even when I have to bring him to the office,” said Misaki Hibi, 32, a member of the Democratic Party. Hibi was elected to her first term in a by-election to take the seat of her husband, Kentaro, who died in November at age 35. Usually she leaves her son, Takeru, with her parents-in-law who live nearby, but if they are not free she brings him to City Hall. Hibi said the day care center in her neighborhood does not have any vacancies. Until recently, she would bring her son to a large waiting room where all 17 Democratic Party assembly members have their desks, but she was always worried that he would disturb the others if he grows noisy. The party decided to convert a small document-storage room into a day care facility and brought in a crib and toys. “To create an environment which is friendly to women working and raising children, we decided to start small,” said Masaya Hattori, who heads the group of DP assembly members. “It’s very helpful when I suddenly have to come to the office to deal with a petition or other matters. I can concentrate on my work without worrying (about my son),” Hibi said. Mari Miura, a professor of political science at Tokyo’s Sophia University knowledgeable about the working environments of female assembly members, said she has never heard of a case in Japan where a room has been designated for mothers with young children. “I hope others will view this as a successful example and follow suit,” Miura said. The number of women in Japan’s political world is on the rise, but they still occupy only about 10 percent of the seats in local and prefectural assemblies. This is partly due to the harsh working environment faced by female politicians raising children, and experts have urged that the situation be improved and public awareness toward the issue raised. According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, women comprised 12.9 percent of municipal assemblies and 9.9 percent of prefectural assemblies as of the end of last year. Even on the national level, Japan ranks 164th out of 193 countries surveyed by the international organization Inter-Parliamentary Union in terms of the percentage of women in the Lower House, at 9.3 percent. “It is difficult both physically and mentally to fulfill the role of a mother while working as an assembly member,” acknowledged Reika Kurata, 35, the mother of a 2-year-old girl who is serving her third term in the Nerima Ward Assembly in Tokyo. Kurata currently leaves her daughter at a day care center, but in the past her mother would take a long-haul bus from Nagano Prefecture when the assembly is in session to look after the child in the ward office. She is expecting her second child in October. Following a revision of the rules by the National Association of Chairpersons of City Councils two years ago, childbirth is now accepted as a valid reason for being absent from the Nerima Ward Assembly, and Kurata plans to take maternity leave from September. However, she is still worried what voters might think if she takes a few months off. “While it is important for female assembly members to be active and recognized by society, it is also necessary to improve the environment to encourage women to work and to change the voters’ way of thinking,” Miura said. She also said Japan should adopt a quota system introduced by more than 100 assemblies worldwide that a certain percentage of legislatures or candidates must be women.
|
children;nagoya;women;day care;parents
|
jp0000977
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/07/18
|
Mothers voice support for vice minister using official car to transport son to nursery
|
A vice minister has given up using a chauffeured official car to take her child to day care after drawing political flak, but some working mothers have expressed sympathy for the 39-year-old lawmaker. The Shukan Shincho weekly magazine accused Megumi Kaneko of “mixing up official and private matters” when it reported in late June that she had used an official vehicle to transport her 1-year-old son to his nursery. Picking up on the report, Renho, leader of the main opposition force, the Democratic Party, criticized Kaneko, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, saying the conduct constitutes “private use of an official vehicle.” Kaneko, the parliamentary vice minister of internal affairs and communications, argued it was a nonissue because the nursery, Kids Square Nagatacho, is in the same building as her Diet office. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi also said it “does not constitute an operational problem.” Kaneko said she usually uses a stroller to take her son to the day care center, a 20-minute walk from her residence in a Diet dormitory, and walks back home if she needs the car for official duties in other parts of Tokyo. She said she only used the car to take her son to the nursery when she was short of time. But she pledged to take him there by stroller from now on. “I take all the criticisms seriously and offer a sincere apology to all who are struggling to find the right work-life balance if I made them feel uncomfortable,” she wrote in a post on her blog. Following the magazine report, former Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru, 59, who is also a TV celebrity, tweeted that Kaneko should show the public the sight of her pushing a stroller in the morning, which he said would encourage other working mothers and help gain public trust. But in response to Higashikokubaru’s comment, one of his Twitter followers tweeted: “What’s the problem? I’d rather she be allowed to spend her time more wisely.” During street interviews, many working mothers voiced support for the vice minister. “I envy her,” said an office worker in her 30s in Ota Ward, Tokyo, who was taking her 1-year-old daughter to a nursery by bicycle. “Women will never be successful without public understanding of their child-rearing role.” Banning the vice minister from using the vehicle would be “narrow-minded,” she said. Another office worker in her 30s from Yokohama said, “Because the vehicle is funded by taxpayers, she cannot help being criticized.” But the woman, who takes her 1-year-old son by stroller to a nursery every day, added, “Since the day care center is on her way to work, it should be acceptable.” Meanwhile, a 40-year-old self-employed woman from Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, who has a 1-year-old son questioned whether it is necessary to allot a vehicle to each parliamentary vice minister in the first place. But concerning this particular case, she said that Kaneko “uses day care for work, so I don’t think it is a case of mixing up public and private matters.” An academic expressed even stronger support for Kaneko. Lully Miura, a lecturer at the Policy Alternatives Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, said many Japanese believe family issues should not be brought to work. “She did not violate any rules and she should be allowed to use an official vehicle to juggle her responsibilities as a parliamentary vice minister (and mother),” said Miura, 36, the mother of a child herself. “It sets a bad example that lawmakers, regardless of whether they are men or women, are not allowed to use an official car to take their children to a nursery,” she said. “Other lawmakers raising children should have taken her side and supported her.”
|
children;women;day care;parents;megumi kaneko
|
jp0000978
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/07/27
|
One-armed, machete-wielding clown arrested in Maine
|
HOLLIS, Maine - A man is accused of drunkenly strolling down a Maine road wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to where his arm had been amputated. Maine State Police told WCSH-TV that 31-year-old Corey Berry, of Hollis, was arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal threatening. He was released after posting $200 bail. Police say Berry was first spotted in Hollis but then fled into the woods. He was taken into custody after re-emerging in Waterboro. Police say Berry was intoxicated but cooperative. He told officers that he was copying previous clown sightings as a prank. A phone number for Berry couldn’t be found Wednesday. It wasn’t known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
|
u.s .;police;drinking;maine
|
jp0000979
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/07/29
|
Rural Gunma city to start English-immersion program targeting urban students
|
MAEBASHI, GUNMA PREF. - A rural city in Gunma Prefecture will launch a program next year offering a year-long English-immersion dormitory experience for junior high and high school students. A three-month trial course set to run from this August has attracted more than 1,900 applications from across the country, according to the city of Takasaki. In the full program starting next April, about 20 students will be enrolled, attending schools within 6 kilometers of the dorm. At the dorm, they are expected to communicate only in English. On weekends, various outdoor activities will be offered, such as planting rice and hiking with English-speaking staff. Students can “relax and learn practical English in a natural setting,” said Naoki Ota, city official in charge of the program. The dorm is under construction at the site of a closed elementary school about 30 km from JR Takasaki Station. The city is also offering short-stay courses during summer and winter vacations as well as on weekends. Rural areas have long offered similar programs, referred to as sanson ryugaku (mountain village education). In conventional sanson ryugaku, depopulated rural areas offer programs targeting students mainly from urban areas to stay and study without their parents. Such programs began in the 1970s as a way to help promote depopulated areas. The concept then grew popular across the country. The number of students in such programs has decreased since peaking in 2004 due chiefly to the country’s decreasing birthrate, according to an association of areas offering the programs. The association welcomes Takasaki’s approach, saying it brings a “new change” to the concept. Takasaki has more generally put emphasis on English education. It offers English lessons at public schools from the first grade and hires native English teachers to work as assistants at all 80 of its city-run elementary and junior high schools. “We are aiming to offer leading-edge education and nurture global human resources,” said Mayor Kenji Tomioka, a former education ministry official.
|
schools;english;languages
|
jp0000980
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/29
|
Spare a thought for the secretaries
|
Few recent scandals have been as entertaining as Lower House lawmaker Mayuko Toyota ‘s verbal and physical attack on her secretary as revealed in a recording leaked to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho. With the recording coming to light in the week before the Tokyo assembly elections, Toyota decided to resign from the Liberal Democratic Party (though not her seat) to save the party some grief, but the scandal has subsequently lingered on the fringes of the tabloid media, providing insight into everyday office shenanigans in Nagatacho. Toyota’s tantrum was extreme by any standard. Making fun of her male secretary’s baldness (“ Kono hage! “) as he was driving and she sat in the back seat and beating him hard enough to cause injury was bad enough, but what was really disturbing was Toyota’s comment about a hypothetical car accident in which his grown daughter’s “head is crushed.” Shukan Shincho, understanding that transcribing Toyota’s outburst could not do justice to its dramatic quality, released the recording publicly and it was picked up by every TV station in the country. The performance was unjustifiable, but to some it was forgivable. Former LDP secretary-general Takeo Kawamura, Toyota’s mentor in the party, commented on his Facebook page that he “heard” it is “normal” for male lawmakers to treat their secretaries in such a way. His defense of Toyota was couched in the logic of anti-sexism — that because Toyota is a woman she was being punished for behavior that is not considered unusual among men. Most secretaries absorb the abuse and get on with their jobs, he implied. Certainly none would ever secretly record such a tirade and then take it to a weekly magazine. Kawamura eventually removed the Facbook post. As it turns out, the secretary in question did not send the recording to Shukan Shincho. According to an article in the July 14 issue of the tabloid Nikkan Gendai , a source “who understands the whole incident” said that while the secretary was willing to talk to the media about it, it was probably other former secretaries of Toyota who secured the recording and sent it to the magazine. As to how many participated in this act of image sabotage, it’s difficult to determine, since, according to Business Journal , Toyota has had more than 100 secretaries in her 4½ years as a Diet member. In other words, people don’t last long in the employ of Toyota, who was notorious for her irrational behavior even before the recording showed up. Political journalist Yumiko Yokota, writing in Asahi Shimbun’s June 26 edition of Webronza , mentioned a woman who worked on Toyota’s first successful election campaign in 2012. Such people are usually offered jobs in the office afterward, but this woman declined because during the campaign she noticed how often Toyota flew off the handle. What’s interesting about the woman’s story is that she previously worked for a member of the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan and quit because of “power harassment” related to money. Lawmakers are allowed three government-paid ( kōsetsu ) secretaries, whose salaries can be as high as ¥14 million a year, and if the politician needs any more, they have to pay for them themselves. The woman told Yokota that in her office private secretaries, whose pay was lower, and public secretaries changed status every six months or so, with the public secretaries being forced to “donate” a good portion of their pay to their boss’ political organization. Apparently, this is a common practice, which is why some lawmakers hire family members as secretaries (though spouses have been forbidden since the early 2000s). Secretaries put up with the practice, as well as with the haughty attitude that comes with it. Almost anyone who rises to that level in politics learns that such an attitude is natural, and in that regard Kawamura’s opinion that Toyota’s fall from grace was accelerated by her gender has some truth to it. Employed by the health ministry, which paid for her to attend Harvard, Toyota was nonetheless not on the ministry’s “elite track,” according to Yokota, so she was persuaded to run for office. The ease of her LDP-sponsored victory in 2012, when the DPJ was falling apart, sharpened her sense of herself as being superior to almost anyone. She was famous for snubbing office workers and kowtowing to her betters. The woman interviewed by Yokota said Toyota was called the “pink monster” in the halls of government because of her gaudy fashion sense. Secretaries do many things. Those designated as policy ( seisaku ) aides, the people who are supposed to draft legislation and do research, should be certified as such, and only 6.5 percent of examinees passed the relevant test in 2016, according to Yomiuri Shimbun . Otherwise, they have to be employed as a secretary for a certain length of time and then take a training course. The certification is good regardless of which politician the secretary works for, but in the end most end up being high-paid personal servants. The secretary in question was Toyota’s policy aide, so obviously such a position doesn’t shield one from the boss’ wrath. In fact, many are called upon to take a bullet. Whenever a lawmaker is caught in a money scandal, it’s often a secretary who is blamed . Several have even committed suicide, which seems to be taking loyalty to extremes. Obviously, loyalty was not what Toyota’s secretary felt toward her, but it remains to be seen if his recording of her tirade is a one-off case of revenge or will encourage others to speak up about their lot. Don’t count on it changing much. There aren’t many jobs for political secretaries. When they leave one politician they usually look for a new one, and rarely leave Nagatacho for the “real world.” The only alternative is to become politicians themselves , but in any case they’re trapped in that peculiar realm. Proof of this is the fact that in none of the reports about the Toyota scandal is the secretary named. If he was, it might be impossible for him to find another position. Once a punching bag, always a punching bag.
|
ldp;asahi shimbun;takeo kawamura;shukan shincho;webronza;mayuko toyota;yumiko yokota
|
jp0000982
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/07/28
|
Singapore scientists create probiotic beer
|
SINGAPORE - Researchers in Singapore have brewed up a beer containing probiotic bacteria that can improve gut health and boost the immune system. Food researcher Alcine Chan, 23, experimented for almost a year with a recipe of malt, alcohol, hops and a strain of probiotic bacteria until she got the formula just right. “The hops are the main ingredient that kills probiotics, so we had to find a way for the probiotics to overcome the hops,” Chan said, demonstrating the pre-fermentation process in a laboratory at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The popularity of beer promises huge market potential for the process, she said, adding that she hoped it would reach as many consumers as possible. Chan, who perfected the beer recipe as a project for the senior year of her degree, said she drew inspiration from the probiotic yogurt and dairy drinks she consumes every day. The pale, bubbly drink tastes slightly sweet and has 3.5 percent alcohol content, just under the 4 percent to 6 percent of regular beers. Every 100 milliliters (3.4 ounces) of the drink — just over a mouthful — contains 1 billion probiotic organisms. While probiotics have been shown to improve digestive function and boost the immune system, among other health benefits, project researchers stop short of making nutrition claims. “The beer is simply a new vehicle for delivering probiotics and the associated health benefits,” said Chan’s project supervisor, Liu Shao Quan, adding that it had not yet been given a name. Melissa Mak, founder of Fermentation Friends, a group that holds workshops on making fermented probiotic food and beverages, said she would give the beer a try. “It’s highly incongruous to think of beer as being a good thing in terms of nutrition,” Mak said. “No one knows for sure, but I think it’s a very exciting new product.” Liu’s team has also experimented with flavored coffees and wines made from Southeast Asia’s popular lychee and durian fruits. But it will be some time before bars can offer the new beer, as the researchers wait for their drink to be patented. The pair are also in talks with beer companies on marketing plans, Liu said, without giving details. The beer contains the Lactobacilus paracasei L26 probiotic strain, the researchers said.
|
singapore;health;biotechnology;alcohol;beer;drinking
|
jp0000983
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/07/10
|
Smart speakers powered by voice agents seen ushering in era of AI
|
Major tech firms have been keen to sell speakers equipped with voice-based artificial intelligence agents recently. The debuts of smart speakers are seen as the prelude to an AI era, ushering in a new technological age in which virtual assistants are expected to become as ubiquitous as smartphones, allowing people to connect to the internet by voice with greater ease. Whether these speakers will really take off and whether the technology will be popular in Japan remain to be seen. The following questions and answers explore these issues as well as why AI speakers are creating a buzz and what will be the role of Japanese firms in this field. What makes AI speakers special? They look like normal portable home speakers, but one big difference is that they communicate with users verbally. Users can tell the speakers to play music, search the internet, pull up weather forecasts, send text messages, make phone calls and perform other daily tasks. Currently, Amazon is leading the field with its 2014 U.S. debut of the Echo speaker series, which comes with a voice agent called Alexa. Google Inc. and Apple Inc. are following Amazon’s lead with their own speakers, Google Home and Apple HomePod. However, these AI speakers are not available in Japan yet. Virtual assistants, such as Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri, are already available as features in many popular smartphones. Other internet giants, including Microsoft and Alibaba, have also announced they will launch smart speakers, while Line Corp., Japan’s messaging app giant, will be promoting its AI engine, Clova. If voice assistants already exist in smartphones, why do we need AI speakers? Smart speakers enable users to speak to the devices more easily than smartphones, experts say. With smartphones, people usually need to hold their handsets and speak to them. AI speakers are equipped with high-quality microphones, so they can recognize users’ voice commands from relatively far away, enabling a “hands-free, location-free and focus-free” environment, said Kanae Maita, principal analyst at Gartner Japan, a technology research and consulting firm. People don’t even have to look at the devices to use them as long as they are within a reasonable distance, which is a new user experience, she said. Asked if other electronics devices, such as TVs, could be AI-powered, Maita said tech firms probably think the speakers are good devices as a starting point to introduce their AI voice agents. “TVs have speakers, too, but you can’t really carry them around. Moreover, you need to buy TVs that come with AI voice agents, but TVs are not something that people purchase very often,” said Maita. Why are tech giants now releasing these smart speakers? They are aiming to create new markets for voice-based AI systems, just like Google and Apple crafted huge app markets for smartphones. To create such markets, companies that already run content platforms have a competitive edge, Maita said. Amazon, for instance, has a gigantic e-commerce service with music and audiobook content that it can provide to users through the speakers. “Those that have content platforms are looking into providing them in different ways with a new user interface,” which is the voice-based interface, said Maita. Are speakers really the next big thing? Experts say that while some media describe AI speakers as a new tech trend following the smartphone revolution, the speakers themselves are not the core value. “The essence is not the speakers but those voice-based virtual assistants behind them. It’s Alexa for Amazon. It’s Clova for Line,” Kazuo Hiyane, general manager of advanced technology at Mitsubishi Research Institute, said. Those voice agents seem to be a package deal with the speakers, but the agents are actually on the internet, which means people will be able to access them anywhere an internet connection is available. Hiyane added that the speakers are the first step of the tech firms’ goal to integrate voice agents seamlessly by making things around people AI-powered. Gartner’s Maita agrees. With the emergence of voice-based AI assistants, people are likely to control computers more with their voice, “which is a paradigm shift for the computing platform,” she said. About 3.3 percent of households worldwide will be using AI speakers by 2020, according to Gartner estimates. It also predicts that more than 50 percent of the internet experience for those homes will be voice-based by 2020. Where do Japanese players fit in? Japanese firms don’t have a visible presence, with the exception of Line Corp. Line said it will launch its Clova-powered speaker this summer in Japan. Overseas rivals have yet to start selling their speakers in the country, positioning Line ahead of competitors in the domestic market. “When it comes to a service platform Japanese companies can create for voice-based applications, I think Line has good potential,” said Hiyane. Line already has tens of millions of users and provides many services, so it won’t be hard to craft another platform for the new voice market by using existing content, according to Hiyane. “Other than Line, it seems pretty tough. I think other Japanese makers can make speakers, but I don’t think they can create content ecosystems,” he said. Still, electronics giants such as Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. must be thinking about using virtual assistants, Hiyane said. Since Sony has music content, it may have a chance to compete with the rivals, but other electronics firms, such as Panasonic and Sharp, don’t really have soft content, so they will have a hard time providing attractive content platforms, he said. Will AI speakers be popular in Japan? Experts said they will eventually spread in Japan, but the initial stage may be challenging. Hiyane said this is partly because many Japanese probably find it awkward to speak to machines and give orders to do something for them. Thus, it might be key for the makers to come up with settings for users to be able to feel more emotional attachment to the AI agents and speak to them like they do with friends, he said.
|
google;apple;line;amazon.com;ai;iot
|
jp0000984
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/07/19
|
Yomiuri pitcher Yamaguchi benched after violent birthday scuffle
|
Yomiuri Giants’ Shun Yamaguchi was abruptly withdrawn from a game against the Chunichi Dragons on Tuesday over of a violent incident last week in which the pitcher is suspected to have been involved, according to the Central League ball club. In the early hours of July 11, Yamaguchi visited a Tokyo hospital after sustaining a wound on his right hand from broken glass at a restaurant where he was celebrating his 30th birthday. He was apparently drunk at the time. At the hospital, Yamaguchi is suspected of damaging a door and injuring a security guard, a team spokesperson said. Yomiuri said it is investigating the matter further and will bench Yamaguchi for the time being. The pitcher left the DeNA BayStars last offseason to join the Giants as a free agent. “I don’t know any more than what the team has announced,” Giants Manager Yoshinobu Takahashi said before Tuesday’s game at Nagoya Dome. “I have nothing to say as I don’t have the details.” After the incident came to light earlier Tuesday, the club hastily replaced Yamaguchi, who had been announced the previous day as the starter for Yomiuri, with pitcher Hayato Takagi. The Giants lost 6-1 to the Dragons. Yamaguchi first pitched for his new team in June, making a late debut due to problems with his shoulder. He has so far pitched in four games with a 1-1 record and a 6.43 ERA this season. This is the latest of several scandals to hit the Giants. In 2015, some players on the team were involved in illegal gambling on baseball games and were subsequently suspended indefinitely. The Tokyo police, confirmed such an incident occurred on July 11 in Meguro Ward that matches details reported by the Yomiuri Giants. They are investigating to confirm the connection to Yamaguchi. The police received damage reports from the hospital in Meguro with claims of property damage as well as a filed report from a security guard claiming bodily injuries, including bruises to the chest and lower back. While team officials have criticized Yamaguchi for his “low level of awareness” from having hurt his throwing hand, some Giants fans in Nagoya said they felt betrayed. “Personal troubles are also seen as the problem of the ball club itself,” said Ayana Matsuo, a 27-year-old who came to Nagoya Dome with her colleagues to cheer on the Yomiuri Giants. “With this coming after the gambling scandal, I think many fans are fed up.” Another female fan said, “It is disappointing if he was really involved in violence. Were the player and ball club hiding it until now? I hope they won’t do something that would tarnish the team’s image.”
|
yomiuri giants;shun yamaguchi
|
jp0000985
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/07/26
|
Osaka restaurant chain fined for forcing foreign student employees to work excessive hours
|
OSAKA - An Osaka-based restaurant chain operator and its top manager were fined Wednesday for making foreign student employees work longer hours than legally permitted. The Osaka Summary Court fined Ichimonkai, the operator of the Kushikatsu Daruma restaurant chain, ¥500,000 and 38-year-old Shohei Yabuguchi, who is the chief manager for all the stores, ¥300,000 as demanded by prosecutors for violating the immigration law. At the restaurant chain, which serves kushikatsu deep-fried meat and vegetables skewers, 11 foreign students work beyond the 28 hours a week allowed under their visas at several outlets in the city of Osaka between last September and November, according to the ruling. The defendants admitted to the charges during the court’s first hearing last month. “Defendant Yabuguchi bears a grave responsibility, as he prioritized profits despite being fully aware of the illegality involving foreign part-timers at some outlets at the end of 2015,” said Judge Setsu Inokuchi. The judge added that the company, however, did take steps later to prevent such illegal employment. Of the roughly 700 part-time workers at its outlets, 200 are foreign nationals, according to the company. After the ruling, Ichimonkai President Katsuya Ueyama, 56, said, “By learning from this lesson, we will abide by law regarding working hours not only for foreign employees but also for Japanese workers.”
|
ruling;foreign students;overwork;osaka summary court;kushikatsu daruma
|
jp0000987
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/07/21
|
Did DNA influence Japan's collectivist society?
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If you’ve spent any time in Japan you will have heard the expression, “ Deru kugi wa utareru ” (“The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”). The phrase is used to explain how Japanese society traditionally prefers conformity and social harmony to independence and individual expression. There is a similar saying in China — “The shot hits the bird that pokes its head out” — and no doubt something equivalent in South Korea, too. East Asian countries tend to have collectivist societies, while individualism typically prevails in the West. Over the years, if I wondered at all why East and West were different in this way I think I’ve put it down to something to do with the fact that the societies were steeped in values from Confucianism and Christianity, respectively. I didn’t think about any underlying evolutionary reason, probably because I thought culture and politics were more powerful, and quicker, at shaping high-level things such as societal structure. But Joan Chiao, a psychologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has thought a lot about it, and she has put together a fascinating idea: It comes down to a short chunk of DNA that we all have in varying amounts. The chunk is found in the serotonin-transporter gene on chromosome 17. You’ll have heard of serotonin, a chemical commonly associated with feelings of happiness. We tend to feel happier when there is more serotonin in the bloodstream, which is why stopping it from being mopped up by using drugs such as Prozac can benefit people suffering from depression. The serotonin-transporter gene’s job is to make a protein that carries serotonin away to be recycled. As in most genes, there’s a region of the serotonin-transporter that controls how much of the gene product is made. It controls the expression of the gene, which is like saying it’s the tap regulating water flow into a bath. In 1994, geneticists discovered that this region, 5-HTTLPR, occurs in two forms: a long and short form. People who posses the long form make more of the product than the short form, and more of the transporter product means less serotonin is left in the system compared with people with the short form. This discovery immediately had the neuroscientists and psychiatrists wondering: What would the behavioral effect of this difference be in people? In 2003, a bombshell paper in the journal Science suggested an answer. A small study of young men and women in Dunedin, New Zealand, found that people with the short form of the gene were more prone to depression, and even suicide, than people with the long form. People with the long form, in contrast, tend to be naturally happier people. Hundreds of research papers have since attempted to delve into the apparent effect of the 5-HTTLPR gene, but the results have not led to a clear answer. To study the genetics of such complex traits as happiness and depression requires huge sample sizes, and researchers simply haven’t had enough people to examine. Chiao knew that the short form of 5-HTTLPR occurs at a higher frequency in East Asia than it does in, say, Europe. The short form, remember, is the one linked to depression, while the long form is associated with greater reported well-being. Could these genetic differences between East and West form the basis of cultural differences in individualism and collectivism? She teamed up with colleague Katherine Blizinsky, who is also from Northwestern, to examine the idea. The pair gathered data on 5-HTTLPR from 50,135 people in 29 countries, including Germany, the U.K. and U.S., Japan, China and South Korea. They compared this with other data from those countries, such as cultural values, economics and disease prevalence. They found that collectivist cultures were much more likely to contain people with the short form of 5-HTTLPR. The relationship held even when they controlled for economic and health factors. The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B. In a typical sample of people from East Asia, 70-80 percent of people have the short form of 5-HTTLPR while the percentage for a typical European sample is 40-45 percent. “Collectivism,” the pair wrote, “serves an ‘anti-psychopathology’ function.” In other words, collectivist societies supposedly reduce the amount of psychological pressure people feel. They do this by lowering the amount of individual stress people feel, because society spreads out the stress rather than loading it up. No one is saying that differences in 5-HTTLPR caused Japan to become collectivist. But the apparent finding of differences in the frequency of the two forms between East and West serves as a useful reminder that societies are complex things. Chiao and Blizinsky say a complete understanding of the factors that contribute to societal structure requires us to look at genetics, as well as the usual social and environmental factors.
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europe;genetics;asia;happiness;serotonin
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jp0000989
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[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2017/07/07
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Japan's real wages up 0.1% on year, the first rise in five months
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Japan’s real wages in May gained 0.1 percent from a year earlier for the first rise in five months, the government said Friday. Total cash earnings per worker, including base and overtime pay, increased 0.7 percent to an average ¥270,241 (around $2,300), the second consecutive monthly rise, the Health and Welfare Ministry also said in a preliminary report. “As the ratio of part-time workers fell and that of regular and other workers with higher wages increased, growth in total earnings topped a rise in consumer prices,” a ministry official said. The number of workers grew 2.6 percent, while total hours worked, including overtime work, increased 1.2 percent, the first rise in eight months, the ministry said, adding these factors also contribute to the rise in wages in real, or inflation-adjusted, terms. Average base pay and other scheduled wages rose 0.9 percent to ¥241,008, while unscheduled wages, including overtime pay, grew 0.7 percent to ¥19,100.
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wages;japanese economy;economic indicators;workforce
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jp0000990
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[
"national"
] |
2017/07/07
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Nuclear Regulation Authority chief draws flak for saying North Korea should attack Tokyo instead of a reactor
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The head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority drew fire Friday for a comment he made Thursday saying it would be “far better” for North Korea to launch a missile at Tokyo than at a small nuclear reactor. “I don’t know the level of North Korea’s technology but it is far better to drop (a missile) right in the middle of Tokyo (than try to) drop it on a small reactor,” NRA Chairman Shunichi Tanaka said at an event in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, which hosts two reactors. He made the offhand comment when asked by a resident about how the NRA, which is affiliated with the Environment Ministry, would respond to a missile attack from the North. After the event, Tanaka told reporters the example he had used “was inappropriate.” “Only a peaceful country should use nuclear power. I hope that entering a state of war will definitely be avoided,” he said. On Friday, Environment Minister Koichi Yamamoto chastised the NRA chief. “Chairman Tanaka has offered an apology, saying that his comment was inappropriate. I want him to be careful with his words and actions from now on,” Yamamoto said. Takahama is home to reactors 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama nuclear plant. The reactors were recently booted up after passing the stricter safety requirements the NRA drafted in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. On Tuesday, North Korea said it tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed within Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan. It is the fifth time since last August that a North Korean missile has fallen into the EEZ, which extends some 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coastline.
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north korea;nuclear regulation authority;nuclear power plant;missiles;takahama;shunichi tanaka
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jp0000991
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[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/07/09
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Underwater music festival held at Florida reef
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BIG PINE KEY, FLORIDA - A radio station’s broadcast underwater in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on Saturday attracted about 400 divers and snorkelers who listened to music and announcements advocating reef preservation. The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival at Looe Key Reef, part of the world’s third-largest living coral barrier reef, featured four hours of music custom-programmed by station WWUS for subsea listening. “We have a captive audience down there,” said Bill Becker, the event’s co-founder and the station’s news director. “We have divers and snorkelers listening to public service announcements about reef preservation, coral reef etiquette and diver awareness. “It’s things that they can do to lessen their impact on the coral reef,” he said. The aquatic-focused playlist included the theme from the “The Little Mermaid,” the Beatles’ “Octopus’s Garden” and the theme from the iconic shark motion picture “Jaws.” “We just wanted to get their (participants) attention,” laughed Becker. Other songs included Jimmy Buffett’s “Fins,” the theme from the television classic “Flipper” and “Atlantis” by Donovan. Participants in the water could hear the commercial-free broadcast via Lubbell Laboratory waterproof speakers strategically hung from boats floating above the reef. Several divers were costumed, including two mermaids and a Sponge Bob cartoon character. Others pretended to play Florida Keys artist August Powers’ sculpted musical instruments. Becker described the underwater listening experience at “ethereal,” saying that the sound was not loud, but very clear and it seemed that music could be “felt through your body and not just through your ears.”
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music;nature;oceans;florida;festivals;stunts
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jp0000992
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[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/07/09
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Pediatric cancer center seeks donations to build more clean rooms
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The National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo is using crowdfunding to create two additional clean rooms needed to treat pediatric cancer. The center is aiming to raise ¥15 million by Sept. 8. Donations will be returned if the center fails to reach its target, it said. To treat leukemia and immunodeficiency disorders, patients may receive transplants of blood-forming stem cells from donors. They must live in a sterile room for three to four weeks as they are susceptible to infections. The center’s Children’s Cancer Center houses a hospital and research institute where 30 stem cell transplants are carried out annually. It has two clean rooms but needs more to cope with the rise in patients. To meet demand, the center is also soliciting corporate donations. It hopes to begin designing the rooms in fiscal 2018. A 17-year-old high school student who was treated in one of the clean rooms at the center said the atmosphere inside was gloomy and that its shower was out of order. “I will be happy if people who are using the room next time will be able to stay in more comfortable surroundings,” he said.
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children;cancer;crowdfunding;clean room
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jp0000994
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[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/07/31
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Kagoikes arrested over alleged subsidy fraud involving Moritomo Gakuen schools plugged by Abe's wife
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OSAKA - Prosecutors on Monday arrested the former chief of a scandal-mired nationalist school operator and his wife for allegedly defrauding the central government of public subsidies for their business. The arrest of Yasunori Kagoike, 64, former chief of Moritomo Gakuen, and wife, Junko, 60, follows the scandal over a sweetheart land deal allegedly linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe’s wife, Akie, was honorary principal of an elementary school Moritomo Gakuen intended to open in April. Before their arrests, prosecutors had questioned the Kagoikes on Monday afternoon after quizzing them for the first time last Thursday. Junko Kagoike served as a senior official at the schools. Yasunori Kagoike told reporters after the first round of questioning that he had “remained mostly silent.” He drew attention for securing a huge discount on a parcel of state-owned land in Osaka Prefecture where he wanted to build an elementary school. Moritomo Gakuen was found to have acquired the 8,770-sq.-meter plot in June last year for just ¥134 million, or roughly 14 percent of its appraisal value, after holding negotiations with the Finance Ministry’s local bureau in the area. Abe’s wife resigned her honorary post at the school after the deal came to light, but the possibility that she and the prime minister were linked to it came under scrutiny in the Diet. Abe denied that he or his wife played any role in the real estate deal, which some dubbed the “Akheed scandal,” playing on the infamous 1976 Lockheed scandal and the first name of Abe’s wife. The Osaka District Public Prosecutor’s Office’s special investigation squad opened an investigation into the Kagoikes after receiving a complaint in March that the school entity unlawfully claimed state subsidies worth about ¥56 million ($505,000) related to the construction of the elementary school in Toyonaka. Moritomo Gakuen gave up on opening the school as the scandal grew, and Yasunori Kagoike stepped down as its head in March. He also faces a criminal complaint filed in May accusing him of swindling Osaka Prefecture out of about ¥62 million in subsidies between fiscal 2011 and 2016 for a kindergarten in the city of Osaka. In June, the prosecutors raided sites linked to Moritomo Gakuen. In applying for the state subsidies, Moritomo Gakuen submitted a document listing around ¥2.38 billion in construction costs. But the operator is suspected of padding the costs to obtain higher subsidies, investigative sources said. The office intends to build cases on the two allegations in the belief that Yasunori Kagoike initiated the actions, the sources said.
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shinzo abe;osaka;yasunori kagoike
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jp0000996
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/08
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Abe’s hotel spa and gym visits inflame media speculation
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Are Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s weekly “workouts” masking something more ominous? An oft-cited adage goes, “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.” This principle could easily be applied, for example, to the unpredictability of the tenures of Japan’s prime ministers. Abe is still relatively young — he’ll turn 63 in September — but he is known to suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, a chronic, autoimmune condition first diagnosed when he was age 17. In February 2007, only four months into his first term as prime minister, several weekly magazines ran stories about concerns over Abe’s health after he visited Keio University Hospital in Shinanomachi to enter the “human dock,” as a complete physical examination is referred to in Japan. Abe’s visit, the media observed, was unusually long, lasting from 8 a.m. to 1:48 in the afternoon. Finally he emerged, smiling, and reassured the awaiting reporters with, “There’s no problem whatsoever. I can do my job with full peace of mind.” Seven months later and a year to the day he became prime minister, Abe resigned and was succeeded by Yasuo Fukuda, who all but publicly admitted his distaste for the job. In 2012, a year after northeastern Honshu was beset by catastrophic natural and man-made destruction, Abe made his comeback. His “miraculous” physical recovery — said to be thanks to the drug Mesalazine (also known as Asacol) — gave him the renewed vigor to regain LDP leadership. As of now, his two terms cumulatively make him Japan’s third-longest serving postwar prime minister, after Shigeru Yoshida (2,614 days) and Eisaku Sato (2,796 days). Since the end of World War II, it has become rare for serving prime ministers to die while in office. (The sole exception was Masayoshi Ohira in 1980). But the media is quick to pounce on telltale signs that the stress may be taking a toll on the health of the nation’s top politician. In this regard, Shukan Shincho (June 22) reported that on June 9, Abe and his wife celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary at an Italian restaurant. Later that night he collapsed and a physician was summoned. Although hospitalization was deemed unnecessary, the doctor advised bed rest. The next morning Abe stayed home; but that afternoon he went to the Nagomi Spa and Fitness Gym, a members-only facility inside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Roppongi, where — in seeming defiance of the previous evening’s episode — he reportedly worked out for over three hours. Leave it to Asahi Geino (July 6) to fill in the blanks. The magazine, whose contents normally cover celebrity gossip, sports and sex — topics nearest and dearest to Japan’s salarymen — cites a number of unattributed sources of the kind that may be said typical of tabloid reportage. In other words, it’s hard to tell where the facts end and the speculation begins. An unnamed political insider told the magazine: “While Mr. Abe has worked out at that gym in the past, the real reason he’s been going there is to receive medical checkups. The expensive membership fee, ¥1.5 million, is enough to ensure privacy, and he is able to slip from the gym to a suite in the same hotel, where he consults with a physician.” How has Abe managed thus far to conceal his use of a “top secret examination room” in the Roppongi Hyatt? Asahi Geino’s writer uses the word “ hitakakushi ,” which translates as “hiding at all costs.” Abe is reportedly being attended by a team of several doctors, and any changes in his condition are closely monitored. In addition to two physicians trained in conventional medicine, Asahi Geino noted he has also begun consulting a third doctor who specializes in traditional Asian herbal treatment, perhaps using Daikenchuto, a gastrointestinal prokinetic herbal medicine whose properties are beneficial for various chronic conditions and intestinal obstructions. “The powerful steroids Abe’s been taking as a part of his treatment have had strong side effects, and it’s believed that these are responsible for his sometimes ruddy complexion and bloated, moonfaced appearance,” a source at Keio University Hospital was quoted as saying. Asahi Geino deduces that Abe’s visits to the “secret examination room” at the Hyatt had heretofore been limited to about once or twice a month, but after returning from the Group of Seven meeting in Italy on May 27, he visits the gym for his “three-hour workouts” every Saturday. Has the accumulated psychological stress from a seemingly interminable string of domestic scandals, along with the looming threat of North Korean missiles, perhaps aggravated his condition? In any event, the English word “post-Abe” has been cropping up in the media with increasing frequency, even more so since the landslide victory by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s Tomin First party in the July 2 Metropolitan Assembly election. A reporter for a national daily suggests to Asahi Geino that Abe’s putting up a brave front reflects his determination, and he’ll continue projecting a healthy image until next year, when debate comes up for revising Japan’s Constitution. “The left-of-center media and political parties such as the Democratic Party and the Communists made the mistake of overplaying the Moritomo Gakuen scandal,” the reporter said. “Perhaps they had hopes of forcing out Abe to prevent revising the Constitution. But that strategy backfired, and Abe seems more determined than ever.” As things stand now, Abe may literally be staking his life on leaving behind his political legacy. Asahi Geino predicts the frequency of those surreptitious visits to the secret treatment room at the Grand Hyatt are likely to increase.
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shinzo abe;yasuo fukuda;yuriko koike;shukan shincho;w asahi geino;nagomi spa;keio university hospital;post-abe
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jp0000998
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[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/07/08
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Rare video footage of 'comfort women' released by South Korea
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SEOUL - The South Korean government has released rare video footage of Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, the first time moving images have been shown of the “comfort women.” A government-funded research team from Seoul National University found the footage, which was filmed in 1944 by an American soldier, in the United States National Archives after a two-year hunt. “South Korea has not had its own data on comfort women and (has) been relying on Japanese and American data,” said Kang Sung-hyun, an academic on the team. “It is crucial for South Korea to have our own data for the issue of comfort women,” he said. The 18-second black-and-white clip shows seven women lined up outside a brick house, being questioned by Chinese soldiers. The women were found by U.S.-China allied forces in China’s Yunnan province, the team said. The women were registered by U.S. soldiers, the research team said. Two of the women in the video had already appeared in previously released photos of comfort women.
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history;south korea;comfort women
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jp0001001
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/01
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Are crime syndicates in Japan sitting on a gold mine?
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The Japanese underworld loves gold — it has been the analog bitcoin of crime syndicates in recent years. The origins of gold are difficult to trace, and the material is easy to convert into cash and store. Crime syndicates are increasingly smuggling it, stealing it or robbing it from other smugglers who don’t have ties to gangs. A gold smuggler isn’t likely to report any theft to the authorities and therefore makes the perfect victim. Over the past three years, thieves have conducted a “Reservoir Dogs”-style gold heist dressed as police officers hijacked a Mercedes believed to have been loaded with gold and robbed gold dealers in broad daylight. According to the Finance Ministry, customs reported 294 cases of gold smuggling between July 2015 and June 2016. And yet crime syndicates have been interested in gold for some time. In December 2014, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi and an associate were arrested at Fukuoka International Airport after disembarking from a flight from Hong Kong. Hiroaki Ishimaru, 45, and Yuichi Nagano, a 30-year-old member of the Fukuhaku-kai, were subsequently charged with attempting to smuggle four blocks of gold weighing 1 kilogram each into Japan. The gold was estimated to be worth ¥18 million and the pair later told investigators they had been trying to avoid paying tax. This appears to be a common practice in crime syndicates. Customs officials say crime syndicates have been known to purchase gold in places such as Macau or Hong Kong, where the precious metal faces very little tax. The gold is then typically smuggled into the country by plane, often through Fukuoka, which has many international flights. By not declaring the gold to customs officials, the smugglers avoid paying the consumption tax rate of 8 percent. After the gold has been smuggled into Japan, it is sold for cash at stores trading in the precious metal, which are often similar to pawnshops. Smugglers are typically paid the consumption tax on top of the value of the metal, which they simply pocket as profit. When crime syndicates aren’t smuggling the gold themselves, they’re targeting the people who are smuggling it or anyone who deals in it. In July 2016, men disguised as police officers robbed a vendor of gold bars worth ¥750 million ($6.7 million) in Fukuoka. In May, police arrested 10 men suspected of being involved in the crime, with many believed to have ties to organized crime. Police in Aichi Prefecture are currently investigating whether an officer leaked information to the suspects, a suspicion that, if proven true, would be incredibly embarrassing. In 2013, a chief inspector from the prefecture was suspected of having leaked details of an investigation to none other than the Yamaguchi-gumi. Profit aside, there’s actually another significant reason that crime syndicates have been attempting to get their hands on a large amount of gold. “Since the organized crime ordinances introduced nationwide in October 2011, banks have used contract law to shut down all bank accounts run by crime syndicates. A gang member can’t open a bank account without committing fraud and being arrested,” an organized crime detective in Tokyo told me on condition of anonymity. “So what do you do when you have money but no place to save it? You buy gold. “People don’t see gold in the same way as something like drugs,” he adds. “There is less resistance to smuggling it and so crime syndicates have little trouble recruiting ordinary people to do it,” he says. “However, the payoff isn’t worth it. Think of any gang member involved as being like the title character in ‘Goldfinger.'” I’m sure you all remember the 1964 smash hit that was composed by John Barry and performed by Shirley Bassey for the opening and closing title sequences of that film but, in case you don’t, here’s a quick reminder: “Goldfinger/ He’s the man, the man with the Midas touch/ A spider’s touch/ Such a cold finger/ Beckons you to enter his web of sin/ But don’t go in.” And that’s the lesson, folks: Just don’t go in.
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yamaguchi-gumi;yakuza;organized crime;fukuoka;gold
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jp0001002
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[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/07/01
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Japan Times 1992: 'Oita village sells itself as "Twen Peaks" '
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100 YEARS AGO Sunday, July 1 1917 There are heard such cries as “To the mountains” as the hot summer approaches. As may be remembered, a number of excursionists met with disaster last year owing to the improvidence on their part as well as the inclemency of weather in the heart of mountains. These incidents, however, did not diminish the zeal and fervor of many young adventurers this year who have determined to make mountaineering trips. The Mountain and Forestry Bureau of the Home Department has therefore recently published a notice as a warning to such adventurers, giving them advice in regard to precautionary arrangements they should make before climbing. The notices says that such expeditions should only be undertaken with a certain number of men for company, and they must precalculate the distance they would make each day in reference to the speed of the slowest walker of the party. Regarding traveling outfit, the travelers should dress themselves in a jacket with a stick-up collar and half-trousers furnished with many pockets. Besides these garments, they should carry with them some woolen shirts and belly hoses, for warmth, and a hooded overcoat to guard against rain and straw mats for sitting. The following odds and ends are also suggested as being handy to carry by such travelers: map, watch, a case of magnetic needle, whistle, handbook, pencils, paper, name cards, knife, cane, towels, lint, bandages, flaxen ropes, oiled paper, water bottle, tallow matches, small kettles and pots, rice, dried bonito, dried boiled rice, biscuits, wheat flour, buckwheat flour, dried sweet “mochi,” salt, candy sugar, brandy, etc. 75 YEARS AGO Saturday, July 11, 1942 The latest U.S. craze is all things Japanese The successive debacles suffered by the U.S., particularly in the Pacific, are responsible for the enthusiasm ever mounting in that country recently for the study of Japan, reports the Asahi this morning, quoting information reaching authoritative quarters of this country on Friday. In the U.S. of late, books on Japan are being published in succession, while in newspapers and magazines, articles concerning the Pacific War are appearing abundantly, states the paper. According to a recent issue of Life, a popular American magazine, the Japanese language is being taught in the U.S. Army, while judo and Japanese chess are also in vogue, all for the purpose of learning Japanese strategy, the journal continues. In New York of late, a Japanese chess contest is held regularly every Monday evening, states the dispatch, adding that even Edward Lasker, a noted chess player, gave up his chessmen for white and black go stones. Go boards made by the Richard Howell Exhibits Co. are selling fast, while New Yorkers are rushing to book stores for a Japanese primer on go written by Walter de Havilland, father of noted Hollywood actress, Olivia de Havilland, who lived for a long time in Japan, adds the dispatch. Thus, with the expanding Japanese war achievements in the current War of Greater East Asia, American optimism of the past has been completely replaced by Japanophobia, resulting in their earnest study of things Japanese, adds the paper. 50 YEARS AGO Saturday, July 15, 1967 Elderly man embarks on 180-km row up river A man is struggling on his way to finish a 180-km adventure by rowing down the Mogami River, Yamagata Prefecture, in a small raft. Not much news compared with the stunning 10,000-km crossing of the Pacific (on Thursday), but the man is 70 years old and the ship is a 1½-meter-long rubber boat, 3½ meters shorter than Ikuo Kashima’s Korasa II. Chu Imai of Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, paddled off aboard the rubber boat with a flag of the Rising Sun flapping in the breeze on Wednesday morning at a point about 180 kilometers upstream from the river mouth. Imai plans to finish his adventure in eight days, sleeping on the river bank at night. He took three years to equip his all-weather rubber boat with an umbrella, stabilizing rubber inner tube on both sides and a flag pole. “I’m determined to prove an old man like me has yet enough guts left to compete with courageous young men,” Imai said with confidence. Ikuo Kashima became the first Japanese to complete a solo voyage across both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on July 13, 1967. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, July 31, 1992 Oita village selling itself as ‘Twen Peaks’ The tiny village of Maetsue, Oita Prefecture, and Kyushu Japan Railway Co. are riding on the bandwagon of the popular U.S. television series “Twin Peaks,” asserting that the local scenery closely resembles the fictional American town. A JR Kyushu poster designed to attract tourists to the area features a scenic photograph with a “Welcome to Twen Peaks” sign. The spelling was intentionally changed as a joke, a JR spokesman said. The poster also bears the slogan, “Your Twin Peaks might be there,” and an advertisement for the “Twin Peaks” movie with a photo of actor Kyle MacLachlan. Kikuya, a confectionary in Oita Prefecture, is selling cherry pies that are purportedly the same kind loved by FBI special agent Dale Cooper, who MacLachlan plays. The owner of the confectionary says that cherries imported from Michigan are used in the pies. He claims MacLachlan visited Japan, ate the pies and certified that “they taste just like the cherry pies back home.” Wowow will air David Lynch’s rebooted “Twin Peaks” in Japan from July 22.
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judo;chess;climbing;oita;hiking;twin peaks;go;ikuo kashima;maetsue;twen peaks
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jp0001003
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[
"business"
] |
2017/07/06
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Japan and EU seal FTA after four years of talks
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BRUSSELS - Japan and the European Union sealed a broad agreement Thursday on free trade in a deal they hailed as a sign of their joint efforts to promote an open economy. After four years of talks, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced a deal in Brussels that will form a market of nearly 640 million people and account for nearly one-third of the global economy. “Amid moves of protectionism, we could demonstrate our commitment to raising the banner of free trade. It’s an outcome to be proud of,” Abe said at a joint news conference with Tusk and Juncker. Referring to the agreement, Tusk said, “Although some are saying that the time of isolationism and disintegration is coming again, we are demonstrating that this is not the case.” Juncker said the deal “sets the standards for others, and it shows that closing ourselves off from the world is not good for business, nor for the global economy, nor for workers. As far as we are concerned, there is no protection in protectionism.” The broad agreement on the eve of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, was achieved after the two sides resolved thorny issues at a meeting the previous day on tariffs on sensitive products such as Japanese automobiles and European wine and cheese. Juncker said they will aim to reach a final agreement and put the pact into force in early 2019. Both Japan and the European Union are concerned about Trump’s “America First” approach to trade, as seen in the country’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact and recent suggestion of punitive tariffs on steel imports from Europe, Japan and other countries. Japan is a member of the TPP accord. The European Union has also seen talks stalled on a free trade initiative with the United States, called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, after Trump came to power. For Japan, the deal will be its biggest trade treaty unless the TPP takes effect with the participation of the United States. The new pact will represent a crucial part of Abe’s growth strategy to tap into growing overseas markets to offset a drop in domestic demand in the long term amid the country’s declining population. And, in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, the pact will also show skeptics in the European Union the benefits of staying in the grouping with access to inner and outer markets,, analysts said. The Japan-EU deal is expected to spur trade and investment by removing or lowering tariffs on a broad range of products, including farm and industrial products, while it is also to set common trade rules. Japanese automobile and electronics manufacturers are expected to regain competitiveness in the European market in competition with rivals from South Korea, which has already signed a free trade pact with the bloc, while European farmers are seeking to tap deeper into the Japanese market for wine, cheese and meat. Local dairy producers have been wary about the influx of competitive European products and the government is expected to compile measures to mitigate the negative impact on them from the pact. Negotiations for the Japan-EU pact were launched in 2013 but discord over whether and when to eliminate tariffs on Japanese automobiles and European agricultural products, such as cheese and wine, have slowed progress. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom endorsed the FTA on Thursday. Among key areas the two sides settled on, Japan will set up a low-tariff quota on European cheese that will be eliminated over 15 years, a source close to the matter said. The two sides will also scrap their tariffs on wine as soon as the pact comes into force, while duties on European chocolates and pasta will be scrapped in 10 years, the source said. The bloc will ease regulations on wine such as on sugar content and bottle size and also agreed to immediate cuts on tariffs on Japanese sake and green tea. In the automobiles sector, the two sides have agreed to phase out tariffs on Japanese automobiles after seven years and on Japanese TVs after five years. The bloc will also immediately get rid of tariffs on Japanese electronics, the source said.
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shinzo abe;eu;fta;epa;international trade
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jp0001004
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[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/07/06
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'Gloomy Japan' highlights a loss of hope
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“In recent times, reflections on the future of Japanese society have not generally been couched in optimistic terms,” says Yuji Genda, a professor of Labor Economics at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science. Many people probably know what he means. First, there’s the massive problem of an aging society and a declining birthrate. Then there’s economic hardship outside of the big cities, known as the “shrinking regions” problem. And then there are fiscal deficits, concerns about North Korea, as well as problems that other nations face such as increased globalization and growing social inequality. “These overwhelmingly gloomy prospects for society as a whole may in turn be taken to signal a widespread loss of hope,” says Genda, “which raises the question of whether, and in what form, hope exists among the individuals living in such a bleak society.” I hope you are still reading after that downbeat beginning, because I want to talk about Genda’s comparison of hope between Japan, the United States and Britain. Genda prepared a survey titled “The International Survey of Life and Hope” and sent it via research agencies to people aged between 20 and 59 in those three countries. As a result, 1,276 people in Japan, 1,316 in the U.K. and 1,321 in the U.S. responded to the same 20 questions. The survey was conducted in 2014-15 and has been published in Social Science Japan. Hope feels different in Japan. That’s perhaps because in English hope is mainly used as a verb: “I hope the train isn’t late.” In Japanese, however, hope is used as a noun: “My hope is that the train isn’t late.” However, you don’t really hear people saying that — and not just because the trains are never late. Instead, it’s more common to hear people say, “ Shoganai ” (“Nothing can be done”), which is basically an acceptance of fate. So there is a cultural difference about what hope means. Make of this what you will: The Japanese module on the International Space Station was named Kibo (“Hope”); Britons overwhelmingly voted to name a ship “Boaty McBoatface” (before it was rejected). However, let’s see what Genda found in his survey. The first question was, “Do you consider yourself to be happy?” The proportion who said they are “very happy” is 23.8 percent in the U.K. and 33.2 percent in the U.S. In Japan, it is 18.5 percent. More people in Japan responded that they are “somewhat unhappy” or “very unhappy” than in the U.K. or the U.S. This doesn’t feel too big a “happiness gap” to me — and I wonder even if it might be explained by a greater reticence among Japanese to answer that question positively. Or perhaps it is a greater honesty. However, I was more concerned by responses to the next question. Genda asked, “Do you have ‘hopes’ in the sense of things you want to realize in the future?” In Japan, 54.5 percent of respondents said yes. Not bad, but in the U.K. that figure was 86.7 percent, and in the U.S., 93 percent. Only 7 percent of respondents in the U.S. were literally hopeless — saying they had no hopes for the future — but 45.5 percent of Japanese responded in this way. The proportion of those who are doing many things to realize their most fervent hope is 41 percent in the U.K. and 51.6 percent in the U.S., but 25.4 percent in Japan. It is hard to look at these numbers and not see a lethargy, even a despair, among people in Japan. Genda dug into the reasons why hope and happiness appear to be in short supply in Japan. The biggest factor, he found, was a distinct lack of friends. In the U.S. and U.K., more than 30 percent of people replied that they have many friends; in Japan, that number is only 8 percent. “Given that the perceived number of friends has a steady impact on hope, the perception of having few friends is a substantial reason why Japanese respondents are less likely to express feasible hopes,” Genda says. The next issue Genda considered was how people responded to setbacks. If somebody is injured in some incident, they suffer a drop in happiness but a boost in hope in all three countries. If somebody suffers two or more such incidents, people in Japan still respond positively. “These results confirm that ordeals may influence people to act against difficulties in order to realize their hopes,” he says. The most important finding, Genda says, is that ordeals negatively impact upon happiness, but positively upon hope, whereas many other factors affect happiness and hope in the same way in all three countries studied. In other words, humans are resilient. “There is no story without setbacks or failures, for such a story, if it exists, would be uninteresting,” Genda says. “Only the experience of overcoming a setback can lead to the acquisition of eloquent words to talk about improvement in the future.” As a result, Genda sees a way to increase hope in Japan: Tell personal stories. We need to create a society where people are not afraid of being perceived as losers if they recount setbacks in the stories of their lives. It is the experience of overcoming a setback that inspires hope. Finally, a potentially hopeful finding from the survey found a shift in attitudes in Japan in recent years. It used to be the case that people placed their hopes for work above those for family, but now it’s the other way around. Genda thinks the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, played a big part in recalibrating people’s views on what is important. If that’s true, it may be something good that has come from that disaster.
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us;japan;uk;hope;optimism
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jp0001005
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[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2017/07/24
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He was purrfect: Honorary cat mayor in Alaska town dies
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TALKEETNA, ALASKA - Stubbs, the honorary feline mayor of the Alaska town of Talkeetna, has died at the age of 20. The animal’s owners announced the cat’s death late Saturday in a statement. “Stubbs lived for 20 years and 3 months,” the family wrote. “He was a trooper until the very last day of his life; meowing at us throughout the day to pet him, or to come sit on the bed with him and let him snuggle and purr for hours in our lap. Thank you, Stubbs, for coming into our lives … you are a remarkable cat and we will dearly miss you. We loved the time we were allowed to spend with you.” According to Stubb’s family, Mayor Stubbs, as the cat was most commonly known, went to bed Thursday and died overnight, KTVA-TV reports. Talkeetna, a town with a population of about 900, elected the yellow cat mayor in a write-in campaign in 1998. There is no human mayor in the town. Stubbs had survived an attack by a dog in 2013 and a false report of his death last year. But by late 2016, he was largely staying at home instead of being out and about at local Nagley’s General Store. Although Stubbs is gone, one of his owners’ kittens might be ready to take up his mayoral mantle. “Amazingly, Denali has the exact (same) personality as Stubbs,” the family wrote of the kitten. “He loves the attention, he’s like a little puppy when he’s around people. We couldn’t have asked for a better understudy than Denali — he really has followed in Stubbs’ paw prints in just about everything.” Japan has also had its share of feline “officials,” including a cat “stationmaster” in Wakayama Prefecture that was credited with rescuing the Wakayama Electric Railway Co. from financial difficulties by attracting tourists from across Japan and the globe.
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u.s .;animals;offbeat
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jp0001006
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/07/24
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Sendai elects opposition-backed Kori as next mayor, dealing another blow to Abe's LDP
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SENDAI - An opposition-backed former lawmaker won the Sendai mayoral election on Sunday, a result certain to pile pressure on the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which is reeling from scandals and waning public support. Kazuko Kori’s victory in Miyagi Prefecture is the second major local election defeat in a row for Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and further evidence the tide has turned against him since his party was crushed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election earlier this month. Kori, a former member of the House of Representatives who was parliamentary secretary of the Reconstruction Agency, defeated funeral home president Hironori Sugawara, who was backed by the LDP and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, by a vote of 165,452 to 148,993. Kori, 60, was backed by the Miyagi chapters of both the main opposition Democratic Party and the smaller Social Democratic Party. She also received additional support from the Japanese Communist Party and Liberal Party. Capitalizing on her experience from four terms in the Diet, Kori campaigned on a platform promising education reform and a quick resolution to Miyagi’s long waiting lists for child care facilities. Sugawara, 57, was backed by the local chapters of the LDP, Komeito and a smaller conservative force — Nihon no Kokoro o Taisetsu ni suru To (Party for Japanese Kokoro). In an apparent attempt to avoid negative fallout from the scandals that have shaken Abe’s Cabinet, he relied on the support of local politicians, including Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai and outgoing Sendai Mayor Emiko Okuyama. “The common sense of each and every citizen led to my victory,” Kori said after securing victory. “The residents of Sendai took their fate into their own hands.” Conceding defeat, Sugawara apologized to his supporters for not living up to their expectations. One supporter said Abe’s falling support rate and the LDP’s resounding defeat in the Tokyo assembly election amid favoritism allegations and a slew of other missteps had “no small impact” on Sunday’s election in Sendai. Turnout in the four-way contest was 44.52 percent, jumping from 30.11 percent in the previous mayoral election four years ago. In recent months, Abe and his administration have become ensnared in a string of scandals, including allegations he used his influence to secure government approval for a rare new university veterinary department on behalf of his good friend. His party’s defeat in the July 2 Tokyo assembly election was its worst ever. A Kyodo News poll in mid-July showed that his Cabinet’s approval rating had plunged to 35.8 percent, the lowest since Abe began his second stint as prime minister in 2012. That was followed by a Mainichi Shimbun survey on Sunday that showed he had taken a 10-point fall since June to a dangerous 26 percent. Another source of headaches has been allegations that Defense Minister Tomomi Inada covered up the existence of politically sensitive activity logs kept during the Ground Self-Defense Force’s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The scandal resurfaced in the final stages of the Sendai election. The main candidates’ two competitors were Hiroki Hayashi, 39, a former member of the Lower House who left the Democratic Party, and Miyo Okubo, 40, another former member of the chamber. Both campaigned as outsiders, stressing their independence from special interest groups.
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shinzo abe;ldp;elections;komeito;opposition;sendai;dp;kazuko kori
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jp0001007
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[
"reference"
] |
2017/07/24
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Abe's push for more veterinary schools seen as quantity over quality of education
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The way the government tells it, Japan is in dire need of veterinarians. In a speech in Kobe last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly announced his intention to spearhead an effort to create new veterinary departments in universities across the nation. The announcement may have been an attempt to rebuff the accusation that the government’s approval of a new veterinary department — the first in 52 years — at a university run by Abe’s longtime confidant, Kotaro Kake, had anything to do with favoritism. Instead, the government explains creating more veterinary departments will help alleviate the shortage of animal doctors. The following is our look into the status of veterinary education in Japan and the controversy over whether there is a shortage. What is the expected path for aspiring animal doctors? Japan currently has 16 universities, both private and public, that have veterinary departments. Students typically undergo a six-year course and, upon graduation, become eligible to take a national exam for veterinary practice. Of the 1,299 candidates for the exam in fiscal 2015, 1,024 passed, according to the agricultural ministry. The education ministry and other entities have long advocated against establishing new veterinary departments because veterinarians are putatively in full supply. How many vets does Japan have? As of 2016, there were about 39,000 licensed vets, according to the agricultural ministry. In terms of focus, 38.9 percent were providing care to pets while 11.0 percent were working with livestock. Another 24 percent had been public servants at central government ministries as well as municipalities — supervising food safety and consulting on public health measures against epidemics such as bird flu and foot-and-mouth disease. About 12 percent of those licensed had not been practicing as veterinarians, the ministry statistics show. The remaining vets tallied in the 2016 assessment were in related fields — i.e., faculty members at universities or researchers for drug development. Are more vets needed? Demand for vets to treat pets may have peaked, as the number of domestic dogs and cats have trended downward. Dog ownership in Japan stood at 9.87 million in fiscal 2016, down from its 2008 peak of 13.10 million, according to Japan Pet Food Association statistics, which show yearly data dating back to 2003. Domestic cats numbered 9.84 million, slightly down from the previous year’s 9.87 million, marking a significant fall from a peak of 10.89 million in 2008. A recent trend in the country shows a preference for smaller dog breeds such as the Pomeranian and the Chihuahua. Small breeds are generally less vulnerable than larger dogs to developing joint pain and cancer, and therefore tend to require fewer trips to the vet, said Shinji Takai, a professor of Kitasato University School of Veterinary Medicine. “Demand for pet doctors is losing momentum,” Takai said. The market for livestock vets has shrunk, too, with pigs numbering 9.54 million in fiscal 2014, compared with 10.62 million in 1994, suggesting demand for veterinary expertise in this area has also plateaued. “Given the unstoppable drop in the number of livestock, it is the position of the agricultural ministry that there is unlikely to be an uptick in demand for vets in the future,” Jun Warata, chief of the ministry’s Animal Products Safety Division, told a government deregulation meeting in January 2015, according to the meeting minutes. Why does the government say there’s a need for more veterinary departments? Contradicting the agricultural ministry’s stance, the Abe administration emphasizes a need for more vets. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has pointed to what he calls a “surge” in the need for vets to work on developing new drugs to treat conditions or illnesses such as dementia and cancer. “We have seen a situation where drug makers tasked with developing new medicines have been unable to fill the growing need for researchers who are qualified to conduct animal studies due to the shortage of veterinarians,” Suga told a regular news conference earlier this month. He noted that establishing new veterinary facilities would remedy the situation and “speed up Japan’s development of state-of-the-art medicines.” The government also cites a burgeoning threat posed by cross-border infections affecting livestock, such as avian flu. This could spell trouble for regions, such as Shikoku, that currently have no veterinary departments, Suga said. The shortage of vets, he said, leaves these regions woefully unprepared for a potential outbreak of flu, which could spread nationwide without experienced management. “Failure to contain epidemics could destroy the reputation of, and trust in, local agricultural products, and we believe a new veterinary department would help nurture human resources and boost overall abilities to control the infections,” Suga said. What are the possible results of creating more veterinary departments? The Japan Veterinary Medical Association agrees that there is a “localized” shortage of vets as claimed by Suga, but argues against creating new veterinary departments, citing an acute shortage of qualified teachers. As Takai of Kitasato University explains: “If we go ahead and churn out new departments amid this manpower shortage, there is no doubt the quality of our education will be further compromised,” he said. In response to Abe’s call for more facilities to be swiftly opened nationwide, Mutsumi Inaba, a professor of veterinary medicine in Hokkaido University, said in an open statement that the prime minister’s “dumbfounding” suggestion “could destroy the root of Japan’s veterinary education.” Less focused on adding new departments, the JVMA instead insists that the government should turn its attention to improving the veterinary education programs in Japan — long criticized for its poor practical training — in line with global standards. “We strongly feel that the competence of our students, despite having a six-year educational program, is far from sufficient at the time of graduation,” Takai said. To address this problem, universities launched a new system last year that would allow senior students to get clinical training — such as taking blood samples — as long as they pass what is called a common achievement test. But these efforts to improve the quality of education may be undermined by the government’s shortsighted plan to just crank out more departments, Takai said. In order to resolve the localized shortage of vets, the JVMA instead suggests that wages for livestock vets be raised to a level that reflects their harsh working conditions, in order to make the profession more appealing to younger candidates.
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vets;kake gakuen;veterinary medicine
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jp0001009
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/07/23
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Osaka's bid to outshine Paris for 2025 Expo still on shaky ground
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OSAKA - With only four months to go until it must unveil detailed plans for its 2025 World Expo bid, Osaka’s leaders plan to use the rest of the summer and early autumn to ramp up domestic and international efforts to raise the region’s profile and tout its advantages over arch-rival Paris . Two other bid cities, Ekaterinburg, Russia, and Baku, Azerbaijan, are deemed long shots. But with the prospect of receiving strong political assistance for the bid clouded by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s political woes, and criticism from local businesses that the public relations strategy is too vague, how effectively Osaka can wage an international campaign for the event is now the key issue. This week, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai will lead a nonpartisan group of Diet lawmakers to Osaka to hear out senior business leaders and discuss how best to challenge the Paris bid. While Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui remains convinced Osaka is a strong rival, the bid faces several challenges, starting with the fact that critical national-level support may be harder to come by now that Abe’s Cabinet is polling at around 30 percent. Kansai business leaders supporting the bid have two other concerns. The first is that an internationally renowned city like Paris has no need to introduce itself, especially to the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which will decide the Expo winner in November 2018. Osaka, on the other hand, is marketing its campaign as the “Osaka, Kansai” bid in the hope that being close to Kyoto will help raise its international appeal even as it attempts to sell the world on its own history and culture. Kansai is the name for the broad business area centered on Osaka but including Kyoto and Kobe. That basic strategy, unveiled by Matsui at a June meeting of the BIE, is drawing criticism. “The impact (of the presentation) was small. It’s not enough to just say ‘Osaka is a great place. Please cooperate with us,’ ” Hiroyuki Suzuki, co-chair of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives (Kansai Keizai Doyukai), said at a news conference last month. In particular, there are growing fears that Osaka’s theme, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” is too vague and fails to take into account broader political and social themes ranging from climate change and migration to youth empowerment. Paris, which used the 2015 climate change meeting that created the Paris Agreement to lobby for its 2025 bid, has promised to tackle these kinds of issues if it gets the Expo. “We want a plan that clearly shows what the dream of the future will lead to by holding the Expo in Japan,” said Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Hiroshi Ozaki at a separate news conference in June. Perhaps Osaka’s biggest disadvantage is media power. Paris is a major international media center, while virtually all of Japan’s international media are based in Tokyo. While Paris, and France, could easily talk up their Expo bid this month for free to the large numbers of media reps in town covering the just-ended weeks-long Tour de France, Osaka struggles to get journalists based in Tokyo or overseas to visit and report, even for a couple of days. Nevertheless, Osaka’s supporters, especially Matsui, believe it has two political advantages over Paris. The first is that Paris may soon be awarded the 2024 Olympics, a move that some in Osaka hope will convince the BIE the city doesn’t need two major events so close together. The second is security. Osaka, and Japan, are expected to emphasize at the November presentation steps to protect visitors during the six-month event. In his June presentation, Matsui spoke of Osaka being able to offer a secure environment. But as the dog days of August loom, Japan’s bid leaders must first make concrete decisions on how best to present themselves to the rest of the country, and the world.
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paris;bid;osaka expo
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jp0001011
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/15
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Fundraising loopholes, a political norm
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The Liberal Democratic Party lost a large number of seats to Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike’s upstart Tomin First Party in the Tokyo assembly election. Media surveys reveal that the public is dismayed by recent scandals involving the LDP, in particular the one surrounding educational company Kake Gakuen, which may have received special attention from LDP bigwigs in approving the company’s new veterinary department. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly a close friend of Kake’s chairman. Abe and the LDP continue to deny the allegations, and by doing so they can pin the poor election showing on the media, which is pursuing them. The LDP could make the case that the loss was caused by a malevolent, conniving press and thus disregard the accepted truth that the citizens of Tokyo, for better or worse, are impressed with Koike’s performance so far as governor. They supported the people she supports, some of whom bolted the LDP for Tomin First to take advantage of her popularity. Hakubun Shimomura, deputy secretary general of the LDP and the head of its Tokyo chapter, characterized the anti-media version of events even before the election was held. In its July 6 issue, the weekly Shukan Bunshun reported that while he was education minister, Shimomura received ¥2 million in political donations from Kake Gakuen that were not properly reported. Shukan Bunshun produced digital copies of internal documents to prove it. At a news conference on June 29 , Shimomura refuted the article, which was published on the same day. The money, he said, was donated by 11 individuals, and since each donation was less than ¥200,000 his office wasn’t required by law to report the donors’ names. Though Kake Gakuen appeared on the internal list of donors produced by Shukan Bunshun, Shimomura insisted that it was there only because a Kake employee had collected the money from the 11 unidentified people. The explanation sounded plausible on the surface, but anyone with knowledge of how political fundraising works would have been immediately skeptical. No one can make political contributions directly to politicians. They can only donate money to representative organizations or the political party to which the politician belongs. Also, political parties and groups cannot receive money from companies that have contracts with or receive subsidies from the government. Legally, Kake Gakuen cannot make political donations because, as a private educational organization, it has been the beneficiary of government largesse. Entities that want to grease the palms of relevant politicians have to find ways around these laws, and there are plenty of them. If Kake Gakuen wants to contribute money to Shimomura’s group, Hakuyukai, all it has to do is distribute money to enough individuals who, in turn, donate the money while remaining anonymous. Of course, Hakuyukai knows where the money is really coming from, as implied by the internal document leaked to Shukan Bunshun, but no one else has to know since they aren’t required to report it. If the list is genuine, a political funds expert told Shukan Bunshun, then it’s a violation of the law. It’s doubtful that anything will come of it. The political fundraising structure is riddled with loopholes that have been obvious for years. The ¥2 million at issue was raised through fundraising reception parties. Political groups throw parties at swanky hotels and donors buy tickets, usually for ¥20,000 to ¥30,000 a pop. Often they buy blocks of tickets and don’t even show up, because actual wining and dining isn’t the point. All they want to do is spread their money among lots of individuals, usually employees, without getting their name exposed publicly. Shukan Bunshun found other problematic organizations on the internal list of donors, like the nationwide prep school Toshin High School (¥500,000 worth of tickets for a Sept. 25 affair). There was no mention of Toshin in the reports filed with election authorities. Shukan Bunshun estimates that, over a three-year period, Hakuyukai received about ¥10 million in suspicious donations through party fundraisers. Businesses aren’t the only beneficiaries of the fundraising party loophole. Politicians also attend wingdings thrown by other politicians and donate money to them. This situation was explored last fall when three LDP executives — Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi — were grilled by the Japan Communist Party’s Akira Koike over receipts they had been given for purchasing party tickets. Apparently, the receipts were distributed “white,” meaning without payment amounts written down. The trio’s excuse was that it was too much trouble for the staff to provide yen amounts so they just give blank receipts for their offices to fill in later. Koike asked how they could call it a receipt if payers could write down any amount they wanted? It’s a matter of trust, they replied. Blank receipts can be used for padding expenses, and politicians receive funds from the government for political activities, so it’s another way to raise money, but this time the taxpayer is the donor, albeit an unwitting one. These practices are hardly exclusive to the LDP. All political parties except the JCP, which doesn’t accept government funding, do it and the media knows it. But no matter how often they expose the loopholes, nothing happens because politicians simply deny wrongdoing. The only ones who are prosecuted, such as former LDP honcho Ichiro Ozawa , are people who tend to bother the government. Ultimately, Shimomura partially blames fake news for the LDP’s loss in the Tokyo election. Interestingly, a former aide, Keisho Taira , who was fired from Shimomura’s organization for embezzlement and is believed to be the source of the documents leaked to Shukan Bunshun, went over to Tomin First and won a seat in Shimomura’s constituency. Now he’ll be throwing his own parties, as will Koike , who was once a pillar of the LDP and may, in fact, return to their not-so-loving arms. Nothing has changed, and it’s seems likely nothing ever will.
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liberal democratic party;hakubun shimomura;shukan bunshun;yuriko koike;kake gakuen;tomin first party
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jp0001013
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/07/15
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Doubt cast over Tomin First's national appeal
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“Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.” — Marshall McLuhan, in a 1972 interview The resounding victory in the July 2 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election by Gov. Yuriko Koike’s Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) group was seen in and out of Japan as not only a crushing defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party but also a “game-changer.” Some Japanese media pundits suggest a national “First” movement is at hand, while overenthusiastic foreign observers of Japanese politics hail the international media-savvy Koike and Tomin First as a “breath of fresh air,” or a sign that, finally, a “progressive,” “modern” political alternative to decades of LDP rule is at hand. But in Osaka? Yawn. Thanks to Osaka Ishin no Kai, we’ve seen this movie before. Skepticism that Tomin First is about to become a powerful national movement is still the prevailing reaction among Osaka pundits and local politicians. And, by the way, in case anybody bothers to look, Koike was quick to step down after the election. Her successor has certain conservative and right-wing views so extreme even Osaka Ishin co-founder Toru Hashimoto, a sometime critic of Koike’s governing style, is worried. In 2012, Kazusa Noda, who now heads Tomin First, suggested the current Constitution should be invalidated and that Japan should return to the pre-World War II Constitution. On a Monday television appearance earlier this month, Hashimoto, expressing the concerns of many in Osaka Ishin (and the ruling parties), said that kind of comment is grounds for being deposed. Koike’s record shows a history of involvement with right-wing and conservative groups, individuals and ideas. So nobody should be shocked that she has associated herself with Noda. But personal politics aside, Kansai political commentators, business leaders and politicians, based on the experience of Osaka Ishin, offer the following reasons why proclamations, especially abroad, of the Tomin First movement having national possibilities need to be taken with more than a few grains of salt: First, the “Our concerns are not Tokyo’s concerns” theory. Tokyo has 13.7 million people. That’s equal to the populations of Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Kobe combined. Political priorities in smaller cities start with battling depopulation and regional revitalization — not concerns a Tokyo-centered political party would seem to know, or care much, about. Second, the “Tokyo’s concerns are not our concerns” theory. The more politically incorrect Osaka-based pundits wonder if Tomin First’s attempts to go national succeed, it could mean local assemblies where their allies have control might be forced to bow to the Tokyo-based central headquarters’ Tokyo-based political needs first, and their own local needs second. At that point, what’s the difference between Tomin First and most of the established national parties? Third, the “lack of bureaucratic connections” theory. There is a difference between politics and governing. Tomin First might be good at the former if it goes national. But from Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui on down, there remains caution in Osaka about whether it would be effective in dealing with the central government bureaucracy. Can Tomin First-affiliated Diet members get things done for far off constituencies in the manner of long-established political parties that know all the written and unwritten rules and have deep connections to the bureaucrats who enforce them? Voters may be wary. The above reasons are merely some basic ones why many in Kansai believe Tomin First may well end up like Osaka Ishin, a local movement with limited appeal outside its geographical base, a national party that ends up as a de facto Tokyo faction of the ruling LDP coalition, still influential but not exactly revolutionary, despite its current image in certain quarters.
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ldp;yuriko koike;tomin first no kai
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jp0001014
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[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/07/12
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Japanese blogger challenges photo key to new Earhart theory
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NEW YORK - A Japanese military history buff has apparently undermined a new theory that Amelia Earhart survived a crash-landing in the Pacific Ocean during her historic attempted round-the-world flight in 1937. The history blogger has posted the same photograph that formed the backbone of a History channel documentary that aired on Sunday and argued Earhart was alive in July 1937 — but the book the photo appeared in was apparently published two years before the famed aviator disappeared. The undated black-and-white photo is of a group of people standing on a dock on Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. One of the people seems to be a slim woman with her back to the camera. The documentary argued that it proved Earhart, along with her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed in 1937 in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands, where they were picked up by the Japanese military and held prisoner. The History channel said Tuesday its investigators are “exploring the latest developments about Amelia Earhart and we will be transparent in our findings.” In the documentary, the photo is subjected to facial-recognition and other forensic testing, such as torso measurements. Experts on the show claim the subjects are likely Earhart and Noonan. A retired federal agent said he discovered the image in 2012 in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. “According to the original caption in Japanese, the photo was taken at the port of Jabor town in Jaluit Atoll,” said the blogger, Kota Yamano, who found the image digitized at the National Diet Library. Yamano, who goes by “Yamaneko Danshaku” (“Wildcat Baron”) on his blog, said he began to research the photo after hearing about the documentary through social media. Yamano declined to disclose his occupation. Yamano claims the photograph was first published in Palau — while it was under Japanese rule — in 1935 on page 44 of a book of photographs edited by Motoaki Nishino called “Umi no Seimeisen: Waga Nanyou no Sugata,” which can be translated as “A Lifeline in the Sea: The Aspects of my Southern Seas.” Nishino was based in Palau and the publisher was Futabaya Gofukuten, also in Palau, according to the blog. “So the photograph was taken at least two years before” Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937 and the person in the photo “was not her,” Yamano wrote on the blog. The disappearance of Earhart and Noonan on July 2, 1937, in the Western Pacific Ocean has been the subject of continuing searches, research and debate. A long-standing theory is that the famed pilot ran out of gas and crashed into deep ocean waters northwest of Howland Island, a tiny speck in the South Pacific that she and Noonan missed.
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wwii;marshall islands;japan;amelia earhart;fred noonan;history channel
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jp0001015
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[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2017/07/13
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Renho to disclose family registry in bid to quell furor over dual nationality
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Renho, the leader of the Japan’s main opposition party — who was born to a Taiwanese father and a Japanese mother — said Thursday she will disclose a portion of her family registry and other documents to prove she no longer holds foreign citizenship, amid criticism that doing so may encourage discrimination against those with dual nationalities. Renho’s decision appears to reflect an intention to put an end to a months-long dual nationality saga that has arguably marred her credibility as head of the biggest opposition party as well as a potential prime minister. Under Japan’s current nationality law, those with dual citizenship are required to choose one by age 22. “I’m ready to disclose a portion of my koseki (family registry) that shows I no longer possess Taiwanese nationality,” Renho, who only goes by her first name, told a packed news conference Thursday. She was elected the first female president of the Democratic Party last year. Since reports surfaced Tuesday that she intended to reveal a copy of her registry, critics have raised concerns that the move could be seen as succumbing to xenophobic pressure from conservatives to prove she is 100 percent Japanese, possibly setting a precedent that those with dual citizenship should accept unreasonable calls for disclosure. “The koseki is one of the most private pieces of information, and I’m aware I should never disclose it in response to pressure from those with racist and xenophobic ideologies, or that I shouldn’t set some sort of precedent,” she said. “This is not denial of the value of diversity. In fact, I believe I still remain a symbol of diversity. There is no doubt that the DP is committed to creating a diverse society. But at the same time, if this commitment is somehow being undermined by my fumbling over (the nationality issue), I’d like to clear up any suspicion.” Renho refused to elaborate on what documents she intends to reveal, saying she will hold a news conference on Tuesday next week to fully explain herself. While running for the DP’s top position last fall, Renho drew fire for an ever-evolving story about whether and when she had relinquished her Taiwanese citizenship in accordance with the nationality law. At the onset of heated media coverage last year over her possible dual citizenship, Renho originally insisted that she was Japanese since birth, only to later say she legally became Japanese upon giving up her Taiwanese citizenship at the age of 17 in 1985. But in September, Renho said she discovered that, despite the earlier claims, she had yet to relinquish her Taiwanese citizenship after all and pledged to swiftly take care of the necessary paperwork. She later claimed she had successfully made a declaration to choose Japanese nationality, but has since rebuffed calls from conservative forces, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, that she reveal her koseki as proof. Some within the DP blame Renho’s mishandling of the flap for the party’s continued lack of support from the public and its dismal showing in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election earlier this month. On Sunday, DP lawmaker Masato Imai took to social media to criticize Renho. “One of the things we should do in light of our huge loss in the Tokyo poll is resolve Renho’s dual nationality problem,” Imai said on Twitter. He added that the party’s failure to clear up the issue is the reason it has failed to gain support from voters. “For a start, she should disclose her koseki and explain herself,” he said. The DP’s Kazuhiro Haraguchi joined Imai in calling for a full explanation, adamant that his views are by no means xenophobic but based on the belief that Renho should improve her accountability as head of the party. “Sometimes there are things you need to explain about as a public figure — more so if you’re aiming to become prime minister in the future,” he said. “This has nothing to do with discrimination.” But Yoshifu Arita, a liberal DP lawmaker, had a different take. “Demanding Renho disclose her koseki is wrong and essentially amounts to social bullying,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s an attack on moves calling for a pro-diversity society, and means she has succumbed to xenophobia under the Abe administration.”
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taiwan;nationality;renho;dp
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jp0001016
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/07/13
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Liberal Party founder Itagaki favored Louis Vuitton goods, 1883 purchase record shows
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KOCHI - Louis Vuitton bags and purses are among the most luxurious brands beloved in Japan. But a recent purchase record shows that Itagaki Taisuke, a historic politician who pushed for democracy in the late 19th century, was also a Louis Vuitton fan. A record unearthed by Louis Vuitton in France showed that Itagaki (1837-1919) bought a suitcase over 130 years ago, apparently in January 1883, while traveling through Europe for about six months to see how prevalent democracy was in the West. The actual suitcase has been donated by his descendants to Kochi Liberty and People’s Rights Museum in the city of Kochi. Go Kumon, an executive of a nonprofit group that aims to spread Itagaki’s ideals, had been urging Louis Vuitton to check for records of his purchases. The unearthed records, made public earlier this month, contained Itagaki’s name and his initials I.T., as well as 7720, the same serial number as the one on the suitcase. It also had Jan. 9 written in French — the day he apparently bought it. According to Kumon, there was also a record of Sameshima Naonobu, Japanese ambassador to France, purchasing a suitcase five years before Itagaki did. A similar record was found for Goto Shojiro, a native of the Satsuma domain, but attempts to find both suitcases have failed. The museum is planning to put Itagaki’s suitcase on display in October. Itagaki, a native of the Tosa domain, or what is now Kochi, founded the first political party in modern Japan, the Liberal Party, in 1881. In 1882, Itagaki was almost assassinated by a right-winger to whom he allegedly said, “Itagaki may die, but liberty never will!”
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louis vuitton;itagaki taisuke
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jp0001017
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[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2017/07/13
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Nurse who allegedly drugged colleagues arrested on attempted murder charge
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CHIBA - A 71-year-old nurse has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder after allegedly drugging the drinks of two people and causing them to have a car accident, the Chiba Prefectural Police said. Police arrested Aiko Hatano on Tuesday for allegedly letting a 69-year-old woman who works at the same nursing care facility and her 71-year-old husband drink tea laced with a sleep-inducing drug on May 15, knowing they would later drive home. The two crashed into a van driven by a 56-year-old man in Sakura, Chiba. The woman broke her rib in the accident, and the two men suffered slight injuries. Hatano, from the city of Inzai, was first arrested on June 21 on suspicion of giving a colleague a beverage mixed with a sedative, according to the police. Since April, a number of workers reported feeling dizzy, sleepy and unsteady on their feet, according to the facility. Police said Hatano has admitted that she mixed the drugs into her colleagues’ drinks but was vague about whether she intended to kill them. An investigative source said Wednesday that another 60-year-old female worker at the facility was killed in a car accident on Feb. 5, and that police are investigating possible connections to other cases. Hatano has been working at the facility since October 2015 and had been in charge of managing health conditions of residents. The incident came to light in mid-June after a worker witnessed her pouring a liquid into a beverage served to another female worker in her 30s, which led to her initial arrest. Hatano took the same sleep-inducing medicine regularly and kept it at her desk in the facility, the police said. A 44-year-old man who heads the facility said the incident came as a “great surprise,” adding that there were no signs of discord among workers.
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murder;nurses;chiba;inzai
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jp0001018
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[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/22
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Try checking into a love hotel for a good night's sleep
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Around the end of each year’s rainy season in July, it’s common for the media to run articles on the subject of sleep. Hot weather is not the only factor that makes Japan less conducive to sleeping in summer. Since daylight savings is not practiced, the sun rises before 5 a.m., affecting many people’s sleep patterns. If more sleep were desirable than less, it would seem that Japan does not fare very well in international comparisons. In a survey undertaken in 2009 by OECD, out of 18 member countries, Japanese, with an average of 470 minutes (7.8 hours) per night, ranked 17th, ahead of South Koreans by one minute. The top five countries were France (530 minutes.), the U.S. (518), Spain (514), New Zealand (513) and Turkey (512). “The short sleeping time of Japanese,” Weekly Diamond (July 1) writes, “cannot be said to be unrelated to long working hours.” The issue devoted 36 pages to sleep, starting with the socio-economic implications. Makoto Uchiyama, chairman of the Nihon University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, estimates that various types of sleep disorders cost the Japanese economy close to ¥3.5 trillion a year, broken down as follows: ¥3.06 trillion in terms of reduced work efficiency; ¥73.1 billion in worker absenteeism; ¥81 billion in tardy arrivals; ¥7.5 billion in early departures and ¥241.3 billion in traffic accidents. Among age groups, males from age 40 to 49, and females from 50 to 59 are the most dysfunctional, with around half averaging less than six hours sleep a night. Not surprisingly, a government survey conducted in 2011 found that residents of prefectures on the periphery of either Tokyo or Osaka average the least sleep, almost certainly due to longer commuting times. Japan’s worst five are Kanagawa, Nara, Hyogo, Chiba and Saitama. On the other hand, Japan’s longest sleepers — who enjoy approximately 30 more minutes than their peers aforementioned, live in Akita, Aomori, Kochi, Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures. Other factors besides steamy nights can interfere one’s sleep. Sunday Mainichi (July 16) advises against bringing a smart phone or book into bed, because the brain fails to recognize that the bed’s purpose is for sleeping, making it more difficult to fall asleep. Physiologically speaking, to descend smoothly into a deep sleep involves a rapid drop in the temperature of the internal organs, so taking a hot bath just before hitting the sack is inadvisable, as are activities that stimulate the brain such as listening to music or watching TV. It’s important, advises Sunday Mainichi, to obtain a grasp of the factors affecting one’s own sleeping rhythm. A number of methods and devices for this purpose are offered on the market. One, a notebook called “ neru note,” allows a person to keep a log of periods of sleep and wakefulness, with a space to write in any changes brought on by activities, thus enabling the user to pinpoint factors that may aid or hinder sleep. Specialists are also available for consultation at reasonable costs, since such treatment is covered by health insurance. J-Cast News (July 14) reports that the nation’s love hotels are changing their business model to fit new types of consumer demand. These are establishments that permit check-in without registration and rent rooms by the hour. Kotoko Hyuga, a love hotel “critic,” waxes enthusiastic about the appeal of solitary overnight stays in such accommodations, where guests can avail themselves of rooms with wide-screen TVs, karaoke and massage chairs, not to mention Jacuzzi baths and spacious beds — which has earned them the nickname “urban resorts.” While many establishments adhere to a couples-only rule, Hyuga claims as many as 3,000 such hotels now offer single stay plans. “First of all, they’re great value for money,” she said. “Part of their appeal is the service: For an inexpensive outlay you can get a big bathtub and plenty of luxurious amenities. They are also located in or near entertainment areas, which makes them convenient for travelers.” More love hotels, Hyuga added, are taking on the other features and functions of ordinary hostelry; for example, the willingness to store a traveler’s luggage prior to check-in. As one example of a singles-friendly hotel, the article cites the Hotel Hyper ( bit.ly/hotelhyper ), located within walking distance of Osaka’s Namba Station. Three years ago it initiated a plan targeting business travelers. Its prime appeal is price: for as little as ¥5,000 per night, it is even cheaper than regular hotels in the area. “It would be best if all our rooms were occupied by couples,” said a member of Hotel Hyper’s staff. “But business conditions haven’t been that good. We make things easier for travelers by issuing receipts bearing the name of the holding company instead of the hotel itself.” From April of this year, Hotel Hyper began making more efforts to attract foreign tourists, and presently distributes explanatory pamphlets in English and Chinese to guests. Travelers who stay at the Hotel Lotus Oriental in Kyoto, meanwhile, can avail themselves of a computer and Wi-Fi, as well as a free newspaper delivered to the room. The least expensive rate is ¥7,500 per night, and the hotel subsidizes taxi fares for arriving guests up to ¥1,000. Hyuga claims that love hotels have also caught on among entertainers and artists who make the rounds of regional cities, often traveling overnight by bus and who check into love hotels to nap for a few hours before they perform. They are also used by people who engage in what she calls “nomad work,” i.e., those not confined to an office but who move around. “The rooms give them a place where they can concentrate, and being able to soak in a large tub and lie on a big bed puts them in a better mood,” Hyuga remarked. “I myself also work as a comic illustrator, and I check into one when I’m trying to come up with a good name or title. It really helps.”
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sleep;oecd;summer;love hotels;mainichi;weekly diawmond;makoto uchiyama;j-cast news;kotoko hyuga
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jp0001019
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/07/22
|
Public questions Japan's duck and cover drills
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On July 7, during a public assembly in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, Shunichi Tanaka , head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority, was asked how his organization would respond to a North Korean missile attack. Tanaka replied that it would make more sense for North Korea to hit Tokyo with a missile than “drop it on a small (nuclear) reactor.” Though meant as a joke, the comment was condemned by many, including the environmental minister, who is basically Tanaka’s boss. Tanaka apologized. In its July 11 edition, Tokyo Shimbun did not mention the remark, but it did reference the late journalist Yuyu Kiryu’s similarly dismissive attitude toward civil defense schemes in 1933, in an article about a safety drill that took place in Saijo, Ehime Prefecture on July 10. The reporters related how sirens blared and students at an elementary school, who were outside at the time, immediately ran into the gymnasium, crouched on the floor and put their arms over their heads. At a community center, seniors were weeding the grounds. They, too, ran indoors. The whole thing lasted 10 minutes. Tokyo Shimbun talked to participants and found that many, while understanding the purpose of the drills, didn’t seem to think they would be effective in the event of a real North Korean missile attack. “There would be no perfectly safe place,” one community organizer admitted. “And asking us to evacuate just causes confusion.” A good portion of the residents did not participate at all, apparently, either because they were busy with other things or just didn’t see the point. “I might have taken part if there were a bomb shelter,” a 69-year-old woman said, “But hiding in a school or community center makes no sense. Shouldn’t we first make an effort to avoid a war?” Saijo volunteered to host a drill when the Cabinet Office solicited local governments to hold them. In June another small city, Tsubame, Niigata Prefecture, carried one out. A city assembly member told Tokyo Shimbun, “Why do we have to do this? I don’t think North Korea is interested in our town.” Tokyo Shimbun speculates that the government wants to create a mood of crisis in order to justify its increase in defense spending. Another reason might be to distract the public from the scandals dogging the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Jiro Ishimaru of Asia Press told the newspaper that the administration exploits North Korean threats to shore up the Cabinet’s support rate, though he believes the drills may have backfired since a good portion of the public doesn’t see their value unless they are done in big cities like Tokyo or near U.S. military installations, which he says are more likely targets. But the government is thinking about those people, too. Most Japanese have learned about safety measures through conventional media — broadcasting, print and the internet. In late June, 43 commercial TV stations started airing a public service announcement with instructions in the event of an attack. The government also bought advertisements in 70 newspapers and boosted the status for its related website in browser searches. In all, the Cabinet Office spent ¥360 million on missile preparedness PR. All of this was before North Korea launched what many believe was its first inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 4, a move experts say is a game-changer and thus could be seen as justifying the government’s move to educate the public. But as professor Shunji Hiraiwa of Nanzan University told Tokyo Shimbun, while the North’s technology has obviously improved, missiles that can strike Japan were developed there a long time ago. The emergence of an North Korean ICBM doesn’t change Japan’s security status, which isn’t assured because its anti-missile defense structure isn’t reliable. Japan’s only plausible solution to the problem, he thinks, is diplomacy. This opinion was echoed by Ukeru Magosaki, a former ambassador to Iran, during a recent discussion on the website of the Independent Web Journal . He said that even if North Korea launched missiles with conventional warheads, the government’s instructions would be useless. Iran bombarded Iraq with North Korea-made missiles during the Iran-Iraq War, and Magosaki understands firsthand there’s no way to prepare for such an attack. Being inside a building is no guarantee unless the building has no windows. It’s the flying glass that kills. Magosaki says the government obviously has “limited understanding” of the consequences of a missile attack. But maybe the Cabinet Office’s reasons for the PR are different from what people think they are. In an article posted July 5, the web magazine News Post 7 ventured that the PR strategy has more to do with courting the media than with informing — or even alarming — the public. Since becoming prime minister for the second time in 2012, Abe has regularly wined and dined top executives of the major dailies and TV networks, including those of his bete noir, Asahi Shimbun. More significantly, he has overseen huge budgets for government ad campaigns. The missile counter-measure program is only one of them. In 2012, the Democratic Party of Japan, the ruling party at the time, spent ¥4.1 billion on PR. In Abe’s second year after his return, he spent ¥6.5 billion, mainly to push the new consumption tax. In 2015 it was ¥8.3 billion, and this year it should top ¥9 billion. The only press criticism of the missile preparedness PR program comes from Tokyo Shimbun and other nonmainstream media, because the government doesn’t buy ads from them. Journalists who discussed the News Post 7 article on the web news program DemocraTV insisted the campaign is incoherent, but with ad revenue shrinking, major media are happy to take the government’s money, they said, and a happy media is what the government wants, especially when the Abe administration eventually starts publicizing the referendum for changing the Constitution. News Post 7 estimates that campaign will be worth billions of yen in ad revenue. The media, apparently, is already counting on it.
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shinzo abe;takahama;shunichi tanaka;tokyo shimbun;jiro ishimaru;asia press;shunji hiraiwa;ukeru magosaki;north korea . missile
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jp0001020
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/07/25
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Taiwan looks back on 130-year railway legacy initiated by colonial ruler Japan
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TAIPEI - This year marks the 130th anniversary of the start of construction of Taiwan’s first railway, back when the island was part of China’s Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). Among the commemorative events, Taiwanese officials earlier this year celebrated two Japanese colonial-era train stations: the main station in the central industrial city of Taichung and a smaller terminal constructed north of Taipei in 1916 for visitors to Beitou’s famous hot springs. Japan has long been credited with Taiwan’s rapid modernization during its 50-year rule of the island, when colonial planners embarked on a range of large-scale infrastructure projects including ports, irrigation and sewage systems, and communications networks. But none contributed more to Taiwan’s prosperity than the railway system, one of the region’s most extensive when the Japanese left in 1945. To this day, Japan-initiated rail lines, some of which have operated for over 100 years, provide essential services to Taiwanese communities. And while trains no longer dominate island transportation as they once did, the Taiwan government has acknowledged the historical importance of no less than 32 colonial-era stations and committed to an ambitious plan to upgrade and restore them. The Japanese were not the first to build railroads in Taiwan. Chinese used trolleys drawn by water buffaloes to move raw materials like sugarcane and coal. In 1893, a line opened connecting Keelung on the north coast through Taipei to Hsinchu in northern Taiwan. But when the island was ceded to Japan in 1895, work began almost immediately on the construction of a modern railroad system. In time, Japanese administrators bought out privately owned railroads and integrated them with the public system, thereby improving efficiency. They also increased passenger services, first by mixing coaches with freight cars, then running trains exclusively for travelers and commuters. The Japanese saw railways as the “pioneers of civilization” and the foundation of their colonial economy, said Tsai Lung-bao, a history professor at National Taipei University. “They connect the island from north to south, west to east, improving lives and bringing development to the island.” Railroads benefited Taiwan in several ways, the most obvious being economic. Steam and then diesel trains transported bulk materials like coal, sugar, timber and gravel, much of which was destined for Japan. Where trains went, people and business followed, providing conditions necessary for early industrialization in factory towns like Yingge near Taipei, which became a center for ceramics production. The ability to move products quickly over long distances also transformed agriculture and improved Taiwanese diets, especially during the winter when perishable southern crops could be shipped north. Rail transport also changed Taiwan socially, first by encouraging urbanization and then by increasing mobility needed for cities to develop centralized business districts staffed by commuters from residential areas on the periphery. But perhaps the most consequential effect of the railways was the effect on how Taiwanese perceived time, as trains required synchronization and punctuality, said Lee Shiao-feng, a professor of Taiwanese culture at National Taipei University of Education. If time organized around the shifting phases of the moon served the needs of farmers and fishermen, railway time marked by the regularity of the clock inculcated habits essential for business and manufacturing. “To avoid missing your train and losing your job, working people became punctual, a virtue lacking before the Japanese came,” Lee said. The 1940s saw the first signs of decline in Taiwanese rail transport. This was due partly to the effects of World War II, which not only destroyed equipment but forced the suspension of services in many areas. But it was also a result of economic change. As lumber and mining declined in importance, lines serving those operations were shut down. After the war, the newly established Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) faced competition from new transportation interests: first bus and trucking firms, then cars. Metropolitan areas like Taipei and Kaohsiung also built their own transit systems, and soon a high-speed rail line joined major urban centers north and south. Instead of competing with new forms of transportation, the TRA decided to work with them, said TRA Deputy Director-General Hsu Jen-tsai, providing connecting links, for example, to high-speed rail stations located in suburbs. In time the TRA replaced diesel locomotives with electric while also improving its own intercity commuter services. It completed the last sections of the island-wide rail system in eastern and southern Taiwan, lines that rarely pay for themselves but fulfill the company mandate to provide services even in remote areas of the island. Despite rapid modernization, train travel in Taiwan has retained key fixtures of its history, its stations in particular. The recently refurbished Taichung Station celebrated its centennial earlier this year, six months after the TRA opened a mammoth new glass and steel terminal right beside it. An impressive structure long identified with the city, the old station was constructed in the free-classic style of Japanese architect Kingo Tatsuno, whose other works includes Tokyo Station and the Bank of Japan, according to Liou Shuenn-ren, a professor of architecture at National Cheng Kung University. Over the past century, Taichung Station greeted millions of visitors from all over the world, including then-Crown Prince Hirohito in 1923, who was in Taiwan to inspect the fast-growing colony. Stations in Hsinchu, Tainan and Kaohsiung provide equally striking examples of period architecture while continuing to serve thousands of travelers daily. Two stations were built in Taiwan’s capital during the Japanese period, the first in 1901, the second in 1941. Both were replaced as the city outgrew them. In 1989, Taipei unveiled its third station, which currently serves as a hub for TRA trains, high-speed rail and the underground mass transit system (MRT). But if Taipei Main Station appears more Chinese than Japanese, a few kilometers to the north the Xinbeitou train station looks like a page out of colonial history. Dismantled in 1988 to make way for an MRT station, the wooden Japanese-era building was reconstructed with new materials and reopened this spring close to its original location after decades of campaigning by local groups to have it restored.
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wwii;history;taiwan;rail
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jp0001021
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/09/04
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Japan's anime pilgrimages give untrod real-world locales economic boost
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The popularity of the blockbuster anime film “Your Name.” went beyond movie screens, with fans flocking to the real-world locales depicted in the romantic fantasy. Gifu Prefecture has seen more tourists since its sites appeared in the movie. The city of Hida attracted more than 1 million visitors in 2016 for the first time at least in three years. Such sightseeing — walking in the footsteps of fictional characters — is not new. It’s called seichi junrei (sacred pilgrimage). But given the immense popularity of Japanese anime overseas, Japan wants to further promote this type of tourism to international visitors. The following are some questions and answers about anime tourism: When did the trend first start? Avid anime fans had been retracing the steps of their favorite characters since the 1990s, according to Takeshi Okamoto, an associate professor at Nara Prefectural University who researches anime tourism. Fans of the “Sailor Moon” series, which first aired on TV in 1992, would visit a shrine in Tokyo featured prominently in the program. The activity was still low-key back then, he said, only to heat up with the widespread use of the internet in the mid-2000s. “Before that, all fans did was visit and take pictures. But the internet allowed them to share their experience and give other fans information about where to find these locations,” said Okamoto. Now a simple online search yields details on the real-life places behind the anime. Why does anime depict actual locations? Since the late 1990s, producers have increasingly been creating stories with real-life settings to depict the lives of ordinary people, said Okamoto The 1970s and 1980s saw a rise in the popularity of science fiction titles, especially stories that take place in space, such as “Space Battle Ship Yamato” and “Mobile Suit Gundam.” Many recent anime programs still incorporate sci-fi elements but tend to take place in worlds that closely resemble our own. “Current anime needs intricately detailed backgrounds” that looks realistic, said Okamoto, noting that animators who specialize in background images told him it is quite difficult to design such scenes from scratch. Thus it is easier to use the real locales as models. The production process has also moved away from traditional animation methods and background images are now typically traced from digital photos in an effort to lower production costs, said Okamoto. Therefore, many anime scenes parallel real-world sites. How will Japan promote anime tourism to international visitors? “Anime tourism has become more common within Japan, so we think our mission is to expand it to overseas,” said Fumiyuki Kakizawa, who is in charge of public relations at the Anime Tourism Association. The association was established last September by various firms, including anime distributor Kadokawa Corp., travel agency JTB Corp. and Japan Airlines. The group designated more than 80 cities, towns and wards as destinations in what is being dubbed the “Anime Tourism 88-Stop Pilgrimage” in August. The venues were chosen based on votes from about 50,000 anime fans. The association offers the list of spots in various foreign languages and plans to post a map on its website. Okamoto said some anime-linked locales are in rural areas and are hard for inbound tourists to find, so “I think it is a good thing that the association is making it easier to access them.” The Anime Tourism Association also collaborates with municipalities whose sites appear in programs. How much of an impact could anime tourism have on towns and cities? Anime tourism could provide a huge windfall for areas that would otherwise see few visitors. The city of Kuki in Saitama Prefecture is often touted as a success story, well known within anime circles because of “Lucky Star,” a series that aired in 2007. Featuring the everyday life of local high school girls, the show highlights an area in Kuki formerly known as the town of Washimiya. While several locations appear in the anime, the local Washinomiya Shrine became especially popular. Before “Lucky Star” premiered, the shrine saw about 90,000 visitors for the New Year season, compared with around 300,000 in 2008. Shinji Matsumoto, an official at the Kuki chamber of commerce, said it was shortly after the first broadcast of the anime program that local residents began to notice out-of-town visitors roaming about the sleepy community. “It was really surprising to see young people strolling around on weekdays,” said Matsumoto. In 2007, anime tourism was still a little known phenomenon in the country, but local residents soon wanted to provide something for “Lucky Star” fans other than just sightseeing, especially as many probably come from far away, he said. It takes more than an hour to get to Kuki from central Tokyo. So the chamber of commerce contacted Kadokawa, which was the publisher of “Lucky Star,” to see if it could hold events and sell original goods at local stores. Matsumoto said Kadokawa was happy to cooperate. The town created 1,000 “Lucky Star” themed straps for cellphones in December 2007 that sold out in just 30 minutes. “Also on that day, we had an event featuring a voice actor from the anime, and people had already started lining up the night before … we never had that kind of experience, so it was really mind-blowing,” he said. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the series’ premiere broadcast. Matsumoto said the number of visitors on regular days has declined, but many fans still attend seasonal events, such as the birthdays of the characters. Since the country plans to promote anime tourism, more towns are expected to partner with anime programs. Matsumoto said his city was lucky to have been featured in a popular show, but he was in no position to give advice to other towns. He said, however, that the key is to respect the fans. “I believe it’s not about pushing what the local areas want. We should always consider the fans’ perspectives,” Matsumoto said.
|
anime;tourism;kadokawa
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jp0001022
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/09/02
|
The naivete of youth can be a costly problem
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From Aug. 15, the Yukan Fuji ran a three-part series by investigative reporter Fumiaki Tada about the “dangerous summer” that confronts Japan’s young people, including the possibility of falling victim to fraud or robbery. In Tokyo and other cities, aggressive street touts called sukauto (scouts) approach teens on the sidewalk, asking them to take part in a survey about skin care. Then using high-pressure “catch sales” tactics, the victims are conned into signing up for an expensive series of beauty treatments. According to the Consumer Protection Center operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, a common ruse is for a woman claiming to be a magazine editor to ask a teen, “Have you ever thought about going into modeling?” Then, via telephone, they are invited to an office to register as a model. The next day, they are told work is available as a hairdressing model. But to improve their appearance they will need to undergo beauty treatments, like laser depilatory — normally costing ¥1 million, but as a special offer, only one half that amount. “Afterward I never got any modeling offers,” a girl in her early 20s relates. “I want to get out of the contract.” “These ‘model registrations’ are merely a pretext for tricking people into undergoing the expensive treatment,” explained a counselor at the Consumer Protection Center. “When multiple people come on with a hard sell offering some kind of work, which leads to something completely different, we describe it as ‘dramatic soliciting.'” That’s not to say that the aspiring young candidates have no chance at all to break into the business, but it’s more likely that they’ll get stuck with high fees they can’t afford and, unable to get out of the contract, may even be coerced into working off the exorbitant charges by appearing in adult videos. Quite a few young women idolize groups of young female performers and aspire to emulate them, but, Yukan Fuji warns, they need to be aware of these contemptible “scouts,” who lurk in front of stations and on sidewalks awaiting their next victim. In mid August, it’s common for younger kids in the cities to accompany their parents for obligatory visits to rural homes of their paternal or maternal grandparents. This, however, is no assurance of happy harmony. Shukan Post (Sept. 1) ran a story titled “Ahh, ‘grandchild fatigue’: Obon re-encounters with grandchildren can be ‘hellish.'” Take the 68-year-old grandpappy in Yamaguchi Prefecture, who has been feeling indisposed since the four-night, five-day visit by his grandchildren. “My grandsons are ages 5 and 7,” he said. “On the surface they look like sweet kids, but they’re really mischievous, and playing with them wore me down to a frazzle. Even though the temperature was over 35 degrees Celsius I had to take them to a nearby beach and an amusement park. When they left, they said, ‘We really wanna see grandpa again soon,’ but I was plumb knackered. Still am. “I was feeling nauseated and had no appetite so I went to the hospital. The doctor told me I had a ‘slight touch of heatstroke.'” Similar stories of what Shukan Post calls “grandchild fatigue” have been flowing in. “Since we don’t see them often, we wanted to make a home cooked meal for our grandchildren,” a 66-year-old housewife in Gifu Prefecture woefully relates. “Spent the whole day in the unairconditioned kitchen, doing our best to turn out something tasty. Slaving to prepare foods over the deep fryer was enough to give me vertigo.” Although grandparents are seldom obliged to fight snarled traffic on expressways or jam themselves into long-distance trains, traditional family get-togethers can still hit their pocketbooks hard. Last month, the Aozora Bank conducted a survey of 2,000 men and women between the ages of 55 to 74 regarding “seniors’ reality.” Just over 63 percent replied that they play host to their children and grandchildren and of these, roughly half said they pay part or all of their offspring’s travel expenses — an average of ¥31,900. On top of that, they said they paid an average of ¥41,600 for other expenditures during their relatives’ stay. What sort of outlays are we talking about? Well, it seems there’s a strong trend among families for grandparents to lay out funds to purchase randoseru , the leather knapsacks elementary school children use for carrying books and school supplies. Peer pressure demands a good one be purchased and they don’t come cheap: the average knapsack price, according to another survey by the Aozora Bank, is ¥50,400. A 67-year-old man in Shizuoka Prefecture tells Shukan Post he got stuck for ¥70,000. “These days, it’s a given that the knapsacks are made to order, with orders placed from July or August,” he sighed. “The popular brands sell for ¥70,000 or ¥80,000. I thought it made sense to go with something cheaper, but my daughter-in-law had told the kid that her father would buy it for her, and that put me on the spot.” As it turned out, the paternal granddad wound up paying for the knapsack, and the maternal granddad sprang for a study desk. “The present generation of children feel that, ‘As our grandparents’ generation experienced the period of high economic growth, they are affluent and can be relied upon materially,'” says Makiko Miyamoto, a specialist in family problems and author of a book aimed at educating the postwar baby boom generation who have become grandparents. “On the other hand, the older generation feels that they ‘knew Japan when it was poor,’ but are unable to impart such an awareness to their own children or grandchildren. That has resulted in the creation of a new generation whose members take things for granted and don’t feel gratitude for what they receive.”
|
education;teenager;school;summer;randoseru;scouts;yukan fuji;shukan post;fumiaki tada;makiko miyamoto
|
jp0001024
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2017/09/02
|
Japan Times 1992: 'Students get a taste of five-day school weeks'
|
100 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 28 1917 Saitama father makes a tragic jest about horse A tragic accident occurred on Sept. 20 in the village of Mizufuka, Saitama Prefecture. A man named Shigeji Hara, a country farmer, taking his child 3 years old in his arms to the stable belonging to him, made a feint, offering the child to the mouth of the horse and telling his boy that if he should cry without any cause, his father was willing to give him up to be eaten by the animal. At that instant the horse snapped at the child, which give it such a shock that it soon died. 75 YEARS AGO Thursday, Sept. 17, 1942 Japanese seaplane bombs U.S. mainland The shocking news of the first air raid on the American mainland plunged the people of the United States into tremendous excitement and confusion aggravated by wild rumors. Since the outbreak of the War of Greater East Asia, America has been exposed to the menace of the Japanese and Axis forces in the Pacific and the Atlantic, respectively. German submarines went deep into American waters and raided shipping in the Caribbean Sea, while Japanese submarines appeared off the western coast of America at will to destroy America’s marine transportation routes. Now, the Japanese Imperial Navy has taken the initiative to the air, raiding the American mainland and adding to the menace to America from both the sea and air. Japanese submarines severely bombed Santa Barbara, California, of Feb. 23; Vancouver Island, Canada, on June 20 and the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon, on June 21 and 22, throwing the enemy into utter consternation. Since the Japanese bombardment of the American mainland in February, the American people have been under the fear of an air raid by Japan, and air raid alarms have been frequently issued along the western coast. Now that fear has come true. Their consternation can be imagined. According to a communique issued by the U.S. Western Defense Command, a watchman named Howard Gardner sighted a seaplane of unknown nationality flying toward the mainland from the direction of the sea at 6 a.m. on Sept. 9, and subsequently witnessed black smoke rising in the locality over which the Japanese machine passed. “The United States Western Defense Command after careful examination of the fragments of an incendiary bomb, discovered by a member of the Oregon State Forest Service Bureau, have come to the conclusion that it was a Japanese bomb.” 50 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 24, 1967 TV firm seeks talented foreign performers Fuji Telecasting Co. in Tokyo is looking for foreign performers with special talents to appear in its 30-minute TV program to begin in November. The program, to be telecast between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. every Thursday, is billed as the company’s cooperative participation in the World Exposition to be held in Osaka in western Japan in 1970. It hopes to drum up interest in the exposition by calling on special talents all over the world to appear in its TV show. Called for are anybody from acrobats and magicians to occultists. It is searching for fire eaters, glass eaters and others with special appetites, those with superhuman strength, practitioners of mystic arts, those with keenly developed senses of perception — including persons with exceptionally high IQ. Anybody with unusual talent for feats or daring or supernatural powers of mysticism may apply. However, a performers may not necessarily possess a unique talent — he may, for instance, get a chance to appear on TV if he has an exceptionally long beard. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 13, 1992 Students get a taste of five-day school weeks Schoolchildren had no classes on Saturday for the first time in 120 years as a limited five-day week system started at public schools nationwide. Forty-seven thousand elementary, junior high and high schools closed as 18 million pupils and students joined alternative events organized at 5,000 locations, the Education Ministry said. Schools will have a five-day week once a month, with no classes on the second Saturday. The ministry plans to implement five-day weeks twice a month as early as 1994. Japan has had six-day school weeks since 1872, when a modern educational system was introduced by the government of Emperor Meiji. Various events were held to mark the start of five-day school week, including volunteer activities such as helping the elderly and neighborhood cleanup projects. Many schools opened their gyms, playgrounds and libraries for pupils, while others organized hikes, athletic meetings and even karaoke events for kids and their parents. A cram school in Osaka held a special class for sixth-graders to prepare for entrance examinations at private junior high schools scheduled for next spring.
|
education;oregon;world war ii;horses;osaka expo
|
jp0001025
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2017/09/20
|
Japan household assets rise to fresh record in June
|
Financial assets held by households rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier to a record ¥1.832 quadrillion ($16 trillion) at the end of June, up for the fourth straight quarter, Bank of Japan data showed Wednesday. The growth was boosted by the increasing value of stocks and other assets amid a moderate global economic expansion. By asset type, equities rose 22.5 percent to ¥191 trillion and investment trusts increased 15.6 percent to ¥100 trillion. Cash and deposits, which accounted for 51.6 percent of household assets, rose 2.6 percent to a record ¥945 trillion. The data also showed that the BOJ’s holdings of Japanese government bonds rose above 40 percent of the total for the first time, climbing 9.9 percent from a year earlier to ¥437 trillion. The central bank buys vast amounts of the debt as part of its aggressive monetary easing measures aimed at lifting the economy and spurring inflation toward 2 percent. Meanwhile, the outstanding balance of government bonds fell 2.1 percent to ¥1.085 quadrillion, down for the first time in roughly eight years as debt yields rose from their lows a year earlier. Yields move inversely to debt prices. Government bonds held by foreign investors gained 4.9 percent to ¥117 trillion, comprising 10.8 percent of the total.
|
stocks;assets
|
jp0001026
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2017/09/18
|
Japanese citizen group stages rally to battle hate speech on Twitter
|
A citizen group is standing up to discriminatory speech on Twitter, demanding that the social networking service take urgent measures to block hate speech and other abusive communication. Experts believe specific guidelines are needed to curb discriminatory tweets. Human rights advocates are concerned that unfettered abuse could lead to major nationalist rallies in Japan similar to those recently seen in the United States. Earlier this month, protesters gathered in front of the Japanese unit of Twitter Inc. in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, demanding that the company step up efforts to immediately remove from the platform hate speech, such as the many examples of offensive posts targeted against people of Korean descent. The group, Tokyo No Hate, catalogued over 1,000 discriminatory comments that its supporters found on Twitter and deemed as hate speech. The protesters took to the streets and placed some 400 printouts of the comments on the pavement in front of the Twitter office so people could step on them. “If we leave these kinds of posts (on Twitter) and the society continues to allow such hate speech to be published, an incident similar to that in Charlottesville would likely take place in Japan,” Masayuki Ishino, one of the main members of Tokyo No Hate, said during the two-hour protest held in the evening of Sept. 8, referring to the white supremacist rally last month in Virginia that turned violent, leaving one counterprotester killed from a car-ramming attack and two state troopers dead in a helicopter accident. Twitter guidelines prohibit tweets that threaten a person’s life or could foment violence against any targeted ethnic group or minority. A user account deemed in violation of this rule could be suspended temporarily or permanently. Users can report abuses, but Twitter can be slow to respond, Ishino said. “It takes about a month after a report is sent to Twitter before the firm responds. The response is slow, and in some cases, there is no response,” Ishino said. “When we send reports, we want (Twitter) to deal with the situation thoroughly. Rather than just suspending accounts based on the words used, (the company) should actually interpret their context, so it can judge properly whether the post is abusive or a violation of human rights,” he said. In response to questions by The Japan Times, a spokeswoman at the Japanese unit said in an email that the company is dealing with a large volume of tweets every day and receives many kinds of feedback on hate speech. “We’re making our best effort to improve (screening), and began revising Twitter policy from various perspectives,” she said. According to Reuters news agency, in Europe, companies including Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter have agreed to an EU code of conduct in 2016 to remove hate speech within 24 hours, while the German parliament passed a bill in June that would fine social media companies up to €50 million ($53.62 million) if they fail to remove discriminatory postings on their platforms in a timely manner. Japan’s first law aimed at curbing racial discrimination, known as the hate speech law, took effect in June 2016. However, experts on freedom of expression said social media companies such as Twitter should establish their own standards and guidelines aside from the law. The self-imposed rules should be specific on what content is inappropriate, and at the same time the social media companies should educate users. “It’s necessary for (social networking service) operators, including Twitter, to establish and share common guidelines. It’s desirable that each company establish its own guideline and share it with the rest,” said Shojiro Sakaguchi, a professor at Hitotsubashi University’s graduate school of law. However, he said that it is hard to draw a clear line between hate speech and political statement. Some political commentary could be construed as hate speech due to inflammatory content, he said, adding that eliminating such political tweets is undesirable. Kenta Yamada, a professor of media law at Senshu University, said Twitter’s Japanese unit should cooperate with other website operators in the country and act as one to combat hate speech. It will be a tough decision for Twitter however, Yamada said. “They should be responsible for what’s posted on their platform. But on the other hand, they must guarantee freedom of expression as much as they can. That is also their social role,” Yamada said.
|
social media;twitter;discrimination;hate speech
|
jp0001027
|
[
"reference"
] |
2017/09/18
|
Japan's free ambulance services stretched by aging population, nonemergency overuse
|
The sirens are going off about the state of ambulance services. Demand for ambulances, which respond to calls made to the emergency hotline, 119, has grown rapidly along with the population’s pace of aging. As ambulances have been mobilized with greater frequency, emergency services are taking longer on average to arrive at the scene. These delays could prove fatal, especially during critical situations in which seconds can mean the difference between life and death. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency has been working on the issue for years, trying to find a way of relieving the overburdened free service, operated by municipal fire stations and funded entirely by taxes. Experts have recommended that the government begin charging users as a way to discourage abuse and overuse. Here are some questions and answers on ambulance services: How busy are the services? In 2016, ambulances were requested a record 6.21 million times, up 2.6 percent from 2015, according to FDMA statistics. People transported by ambulances numbered 5.62 million, also a record high. The number of people taken to hospitals by ambulance typically surges during the summer, when heat exhaustion cases spike. The number also goes up in winter, at the height of flu season. During the New Year’s holidays, cases of people choking on mochi (sticky rice cakes) are fairly common. Every year in Tokyo alone, about 100 people are rushed to hospitals for mochi-related choking incidents, according to the Tokyo Fire Department. In 2015, the average time it took for an ambulance to arrive on the scene was 8 minutes and 36 seconds, compared with 8 minutes and 6 seconds in 2010 and 6 minutes and 30 seconds in 2005, according to the FDMA. Why is demand increasing? Authorities say that the dramatic increase in the size of Japan’s elderly population is the main reason ambulance services have been overburdened. Of the 6.21 million cases in 2016, sudden sickness accounted for 64 percent, followed by injuries at 14.9 percent. Inter-hospital patient transfers made up 8.4 percent of the total, while 7.9 percent were traffic-related injuries. A 2015 public opinion survey of 1,500 adults conducted by the Tokyo Fire Department showed some ambulance transports were not medically necessary. Asked why they called an ambulance, 28.8 percent of the respondents said they could not tell whether their condition was serious or not, and 19.6 percent noted they called for help late at night or on weekends when their neighborhood clinics were closed. What’s more troubling is that 3.5 percent said they thought the ambulance ride would mean prompter treatment, and 3.2 percent said they had no other means of transportation, suggesting that the ambulance is seen as a free taxi to a hospital. What is being done to relieve the burden? Some municipalities ask people to call #7119 when they are unsure whether to call an ambulance. The number connects the caller to an operator who asks questions to determine whether an ambulance is necessary. The service is currently available in four prefectures (Tokyo, Nara, Osaka and Fukuoka) and three cities (Sapporo, Yokohama and Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture). Miyagi Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture and Kobe are planning to join later this year. “We are trying to expand it further, dispatching officials from municipalities where #7119 have been introduced to other municipalities as advisers,” said FDMA official Kenichi Ogue. In March, the FDMA also launched a smartphone app (in Japanese only) that provides the same kind of guidance. Called Q-suke ( jtim.es/djPi30faItB ), it assesses the level of emergency according to symptoms and makes recommendations on whether to call 119 or other agencies, such as medical institutions that are open at night. Despite the rollout of services meant to alleviate the overburdened emergency hotline, only 13 percent of 1,790 people in a poll were aware of #7119, while 1.7 percent knew about Q-suke, according to the findings of a Cabinet Office survey released Sept. 9. What else can be done to stop the non-emergency use of ambulances? Debate has raged over whether a user fee should be introduced. In 2015, a Finance Ministry panel recommended a charge for some ambulance services, citing the roughly ¥2 trillion the nation spends annually on fire and disaster management. “If we keep the situation as is, we will see delays in responses to the sick and injured who face real emergencies, and could have problems saving their lives,” the panel said in its report on fiscal health. “We should consider making the service a paid one for patients with light symptoms, taking the practices of other countries into consideration.” Some cities, including New York, Munich and Paris, charge ambulance users directly or through insurance providers. Singapore charges fees for nonpressing cases. But the FDMA panel concluded in March 2016 that more discussions are needed before a decision can be made on whether to charge fees even for nonemergency cases. Many officials at fire stations oppose the idea, saying a fee would end up denying ambulance access to the poor. “If we are to make certain services chargeable, we need to have a national consensus on many factors, such as who we should charge, whether a doctor’s opinion is necessary for that determination, how much we charge and how we collect the fees,” the panel concluded. Some emergency-room doctors see things differently. According to a November 2016 article by the Nikkei Medical magazine, which polled 3,879 doctors, 46.7 percent of the respondents said all users should be charged for ambulance services and 39 percent said users should be charged if their cases are determined to be less serious upon arrival at the hospital. Only 13.4 percent replied that ambulances should remain free. An orthopedist commented to the magazine that some patients frequently call ambulances to take care of something as common as a cold. Another hospital doctor questioned why ambulance transport should remain free when ER services are not. Can 119 operators handle calls in languages other than Japanese? No. For now, both 119 and #7119 handle inquiries in Japanese only. But the FDMA has prepared a manual in English for when and how to use ambulance services: jtim.es/iBpX30faIva .
|
hospitals;patients;ambulances
|
jp0001028
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/09/27
|
Chinese university mocked over 'toilet building'
|
SHANGHAI - China has another entry when it comes to buildings that look suspiciously like something else: a 12-story university block strongly resembling a giant toilet. Architects have had a field day in China in recent years with a number of outlandish designs springing up across the country. The latest is a building on the campus of the North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power at Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan. The provincial government spent 86 million yuan ($13 million) on the building, which is for university graduates looking to start their own enterprises, the Henan Daily said. Despite the nature of the university, the building was not designed to resemble a toilet. But internet users have mocked the “toilet building,” which was completed last year and has an oval annex that could be the toilet bowl attached to a larger rectangular block that critics say looks like the cistern. “Before it was finished we joked that it was a toilet. And now it is a real toilet building, our university’s good name will be spread far and wide,” one of its students joked on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. Another Weibo user asked lightheartedly, “Does it make the people inside the building poop?” The ruling Communist Party last year said it had had enough of “weird” buildings, such as the Beijing headquarters of China Central Television (CCTV), fondly nicknamed “The Big Underpants.” There was also the Beijing HQ of the People’s Daily newspaper, which during construction bore an unfortunate resemblance to a giant penis.
|
china;universities;architecture
|
jp0001029
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/09/27
|
Role-playing video game helps fight against depression for counselor-shy Japanese
|
It’s a role-playing video game that, like many of its kind, allows users to choose and customize their own avatars, including a hairstyle and clothing. Set in a medieval fantasy world, users build up power as their characters travel across “provinces,” overcoming obstacles and challenges along the way. What’s unique about SPARX — which stands for smart, positive, active, realistic, X-factor thoughts — is that it’s designed specifically for people with mild to moderate depression. SPARX was developed in the late 2000s by researchers and clinicians at the University of Auckland in New Zealand who became alarmed by the high suicide rate among teenagers in the country. They decided to develop a way to reach out to young people who shy away from seeking face-to-face counseling. The game’s original English version is currently available only in New Zealand. But Ayako Shimizu, a 30-year-old entrepreneur and head of online counseling firm Hikari Lab, introduced a Japanese version as a smartphone app in May 2016, the game’s first availability outside of New Zealand. Shimizu, who spent a year in Australia as a high school student and another in the United States as a university student, says her time abroad made her aware of a vast cultural gap in approaches toward mental health, a gap she wants to help fill through the game. “When I was in high school in Japan, I had many people around me — like friends and relatives — who suffered from depression and anxiety disorders,” said Shimizu, who grew up in Kobe and Tokyo. “Many of them were sort of aware that they had mental health issues but were afraid to seek help from others. They were worried that, if they went public with their problems, not only they but their friends and families would be severely affected, and that their social life would fall apart. There was a great amount of stigma about the illnesses.” In contrast, she found people in the West were much more open to talking about mental health issues, with scenes depicting visits to psychiatrists appearing on TV shows and with counselors common and accessible at schools. “I felt that, if people in Japan can find help early on, it would help prevent their conditions from getting worse,” she said. In 2014, while in a graduate clinical psychology program at the University of Tokyo, Shimizu heard about SPARX from a fellow student. Right away, she was interested in bringing it to Japan. After contacting the creators at the University of Auckland, she finalized a licensing agreement in 2015. SPARX, comprised of seven modules, is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a well-proven talk therapy that helps people manage their stress by changing the way they think and behave. The therapy’s use has been approved for depression treatment in many countries, including Japan. As users play, they can naturally pick up various stress-coping skills, including controlling anger as well as recognizing gloomy, negative thoughts and swapping them with positive ones. “I was studying CBT at university and knew it was a highly reliable approach,” Shimizu said. “But in Japan, many people with depression had heard of CBT but didn’t know where to go to receive a session. I thought the game was a perfect way to introduce CBT to people who were interested but were still scared of undergoing it face-to-face.” In bringing SPARX to Japan, Shimizu tweaked the appearance of some characters — such as by making their eyes bigger — to make them attractive to anime-savvy Japanese users. She also asked game engineers to change the color of the sky from the original purple to light blue, and had it programed so the color of the sky would get brighter as the game progressed to visualize positive mood changes. Shimizu, who was not much of a video game player herself, says she was amazed by the power of characters. “When a counselor tells you in person, ‘Let’s be hopeful,’ it doesn’t quite sink in for many people. But if a character in a fantasy world that you trust says this, it can convince you,” Shimizu said. In the first module of the game, users are asked to take deep breaths. That deep breaths are good for health is well known, but many people simply don’t practice taking them. But in the game, the action is incorporated as a task so players have no choice but to practice, Shimizu said. Each of the seven game modules takes about 30 minutes to complete. Users are asked to play one session every week and practice what they learn in real life between sessions. The Japanese version, priced at ¥2,160, has been downloaded about 3,000 times so far. Shimizu said 80 percent of the users in Japan are men in their 30s and 40s. “While more women suffer from depression in Japan, men outnumber women in suicides by 2 to 1. Men tend to keep their problems to themselves,” she said. “SPARX might be helping men who hesitate to visit psychiatrists or counselors.” SPARX is part of a genre called “serious games,” designed to serve an educational purpose as opposed to providing pure entertainment. Such games are popular in the U.S. and Northern Europe, helping children overcome the fear of getting injections and going through cancer treatment, for example. But Shimizu says that, in the future, she wants to introduce games that focus more on entertainment. “SPARX still feels like a medical intervention,” she said. “Games won’t appeal to many people unless they are genuinely entertaining. I want to create games that make people feel better without them even noticing that they are receiving care.”
|
games;depression;mental health;sparx
|
jp0001030
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2017/09/11
|
Snapping-turtle expert in Chiba leads battle against invasive species
|
Takeshi Imazu’s daily tasks are far from what a typical prefectural official handles. For more than half of the week, he goes out to the Inbanuma marsh of Chiba Prefecture either to capture or study snapping turtles, a freshwater species that threatens local biodiversity. Snapping turtles, considered one of the 100 most destructive invasive alien species by The Ecological Society of Japan, pose a major threat to the ecosystem and can cause serious injuries with their strong bite. Imazu, 34, works at the Chiba Prefecture-run Chiba Biodiversity Center, and has dedicated his life to researching turtle ecology. He was hired by the prefecture in February as possibly the first-ever public servant in Japan tasked with developing new methods to capture and culling snapping turtles. Although it’s been only about six months since he started working at the center, his contribution could go a long way, potentially leading to the extermination of the species in the country. “I’ve always been researching turtles. I have experience in capturing snapping turtles, so I applied for the position to take advantage of that,” Imazu said during a recent interview with The Japan Times. Hiring Imazu was the biggest step the prefecture has ever taken to exterminate snapping turtles, according to the Chiba Biodiversity Center. In Chiba, snapping turtles were first seen in the wild in 1978. Since then, their population has exploded with few natural predators to keep its growth in check. With an estimated 16,000 snapping turtles now inhabiting the prefecture, the species threatens to destroy great swaths of local biodiversity — consuming native plants, fish and crustaceans. The prefecture aims to cull over 2,500 snapping turtles annually. It started its extermination program in 2007, but the population kept growing. Finally, Imazu was hired to put an end to the problem. Imazu said he is now trying out new capturing methods. A new organization was recently contracted to be involved in the extermination program, and Imazu has spent a great portion of his time teaching its ranks how to use a conventional trap. Imazu said he also wanted to test other tools, including fixed fishnets, but admitted that time is running out for this year. Starting in mid-October, as water temperatures drop, snapping turtles will gradually go into hibernation, he said. Meanwhile, he will continue using his own hands to dig mud to capture turtles, and release some of the animals with attached GPS tags to track their movements until spring, he said. Before joining the institute, Imazu studied at the biology department of Toho University, and later earned his master’s degree from the Meiji University’s graduate school of agriculture. While at Toho University, his graduation thesis focused on population characteristics and the ecology of Chinese pond turtles. He had specialized on the same type of turtle species in his research during graduate school. The results of his research were published in the Bulletin of the Herpetological Society of Japan, and he has been involved in studies run by other groups such as the Japan Wildlife Research Center. However, carving out a career as a turtle researcher comes with many challenges, Imazu said. “I’ve worked as an environmental consultant at several organizations, not as an official employee but as a part-timer or a temporary staffer,” he said. Imazu’s previous job title: a pet shop clerk keeping tropical fish. “I’ve always wanted to get a job where I could take advantage of my experience, but there were no such positions. Even a majority of the seniors at my university who studied turtles couldn’t find research positions. But this time, I was the perfect candidate for this job offer,” he said. Imazu’s team at the biodiversity center has captured over 600 turtles since April. Imazu, who also keeps 50 turtles at his home, said the extermination of invasive species of turtles is sad but unavoidable, noting that full blame for the problem can be laid at the feet of irresponsible pet owners who released the turtles into the wild. Snapping turtles, which originally inhabited the Americas, were believed to have been introduced to Japan as pets in the 1960s. The species can grow as heavy as 35 kg, with its shell measuring about 50 cm in length. As snapping turtles live for 40 years on average, with some living for up to 80 years, the animals can easily outlive the people who adopt them. After the novelty wore off and these exotic turtles grew unmanageable as house pets, some owners just threw them out into the wild to fend for themselves. “In most cases, snapping turtles were released when their owners got tired of keeping them. It’s hard to believe that the situation has become this bad,” Imazu said. Imazu’s contract term is three years. After that, he said he wants to continue pursuing a career that allows him to keep researching turtles and nothing else. To date, snapping turtles have been found throughout Japan, with many even thought to be living in Ueno Park’s Shinobazu Pond and Nerima’s Hikarigaoka Park in Tokyo. Spotted in at least 20 prefectures, the turtles are overpowering domestic species of turtles and other vulnerable organisms, according to the National Institute for Environmental Studies database. Chiba has high expectations for Imazu. “It’s only been a half of the year, and I admit I have had my share of missteps. So I haven’t thought too deeply about my future career just yet,” Imazu said. “But within the next three years, I’ll establish a new capturing method. After that, I will look for another job in which I can draw upon my experience.”
|
chiba;turtles;snapping turtles;takeshi imazu
|
jp0001031
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/09/29
|
Yoshimoto Kogyo comedians team up with Fukushima to restore disaster-hit scenic rail line
|
FUKUSHIMA - Fukushima Prefecture has teamed up with major entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. as the prefecture reopens a scenic local railway line that had been partially closed due to damage from torrential rain six years ago. Special tours were launched recently that took visitors on the Tadami Line with comedians from Yoshimoto along for the ride. The prefecture hopes the initiative will attract visitors by publicizing the attractions of the line, which offers spectacular mountain and valley views. “Thank you very much for traveling on the Tadami Line today,” Reiji, a member of comedy duo Nakagawake and a railway enthusiast, said in his welcome announcement as he played the role of a conductor on a Tadami Line train on Sept. 14, the first day of an overnight tour arranged by Yoshimoto. Reiji, clad in a conductor’s uniform, and 26 tour participants from the Tokyo metropolitan area rode on a scenic section of the line, which is operated by East Japan Railway Co. “There are only a few railway lines full of such superb views,” Reiji said. “The Tadami Line gives us a taste of all four seasons.” JR East plans to restore services on all sections of the Tadami Line by fiscal 2021. Part of the 135.2-km line, which links Aizu-Wakamatsu Station in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, and Koide Station in Uonuma, Niigata Prefecture, remains suspended following the July 2011 rain disaster, which led to the collapse of bridges over the Tadami River. The Tadami Line is famous for traversing secluded areas where access is very difficult. Before the disaster, the average number of passengers daily on the suspended section between Aizu-Kawaguchi Station and Tadami Station, both in Fukushima, was only 49. JR East will shoulder one-third of the total estimated reconstruction costs of ¥8.1 billion for the section, while the rest will be covered by the Fukushima government and 17 municipalities in the prefecture. The railway plans to start reconstruction work next spring. The prefectural and municipal governments will be responsible for ¥210 million of maintenance costs a year after the full restoration of the Tadami Line. On the recent tour, participants had the opportunity to paint their own akabeko , traditional cow figurines. The visitors also enjoyed sights in Aizuwakamatsu, a major tourist destination in Fukushima. “The abundant nature around the Tadami Line healed my heart,” Shoko Takano, an 18-year-old on the tour, said. “Comedy performances in the evening party were also interesting,” she said. The Fukushima Prefectural Government and Yoshimoto Kogyo have designed a total of 12 tour programs featuring train rides on the Tadami Line “We hope a lot of people will use the Tadami Line,” Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori, who joined the latest tour, said. “We aim to make it the country’s No. 1 local railway line.”
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fukushima;tourism;yoshimoto kogyo
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jp0001032
|
[
"national"
] |
2017/09/16
|
Osaka, Okawa at the forefront of demographic changes altering power structures
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OSAKA - On the surface, former Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Kazuhito Wada, the head of Okawa village, Kochi Prefecture, have little in common. Hashimoto is brash, confrontational and more interested these days in getting rich as a private citizen than in being a politician. Wada is quieter, a team player who comes across as a nice guy who cares deeply about the small village he serves. Yet both men have been influential in pushing to the fore a topic that political parties and bureaucrats don’t seem ready to grapple with: The impact of an aging and declining population on the structure of local democracy. Okawa made headlines earlier this year because its severe depopulation left the village government scrambling to find candidates for the next election. Maybe, Wada suggested, it was time to consider scrapping the assembly and replacing it with a village assembly meeting, similar in spirit to America’s town hall meetings in states such as Vermont. No elected officials. No political parties. Just direct democracy. One could almost hear gasps of outrage echoing through the corridors of power in Tokyo. But Wada’s suggestion struck a chord because he dared to utter out loud a frustration shared by thousands of smaller governments throughout Japan — many of which have elected bodies that are concerned about young voters running off to big cities and leaving behind only those who grow ever older. This week, Wada told the Okawa assembly he was suspending discussion on whether to abolish the town council and introduce a form of direct democracy after he received assurances from the prefectural government that it would help out. However, Wada’s action forced the central government to now formally study the issue. The story in Osaka is somewhat different. The local party Hashimoto founded continues his fight to integrate Osaka city and prefecture. He suggested getting rid of the city’s current form of local assembly, but did not advocate outright abolition of all elected local assemblies. Hashimoto said Osaka city and prefecture had to face facts and adjust to meet the needs of the smaller and older metropolis it will soon become: less government for fewer people. Whether to introduce direct democracy for small villages and consolidate the number of assemblies in urban areas expected to lose tens of thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of residents in the coming decades is one of the most contentious questions Japan faces for a simple reason. It asks citizens what kind of local democracy they want in the 21st century. Can fewer assembly members or no assemblies at all really protect democratic, constitutional rights for everyone? Can these choices deliver effective, affordable government services and generate sufficient tax revenue to ensure economic prosperity? Should we merge with our neighboring villages? Or should we just let the unelected bureaucrats in Tokyo or the prefectural office take over? Such questions may still be academic to those in heavily populated urban areas. But as Okawa demonstrates, smaller towns and villages can’t wait much longer. A 2016 survey of 928 local councils nationwide by the National Association Chairmen of Town and Village Assemblies showed about three-quarters of elected representatives were over the age of 60. Around 20 percent were 70 years or older. Ehime Prefecture, Kochi’s neighbor, had the highest average age for assembly members among the 47 prefectures — 65.4 years old for men and 64.4 years old for women. As Japan ages and the population declines, politicians, whether in cities such as Osaka, with a population of 2.7 million, or villages like Okawa, with just 396 people, face well-documented and unprecedented economic and social welfare challenges. However, there’s been less attention on what such changes mean for the democratic process. Thus two very different men in western Japan have, through their different actions, sounded the alarm on a problem once thought remote but which is now quite close.
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osaka;kawaguchi;osaka foreign settlement
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jp0001036
|
[
"business"
] |
2017/09/28
|
Britain warns Boeing it might miss out on defense contracts over Bombardier row
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BELFAST - Britain told U.S. plane-maker Boeing on Wednesday that it could lose out on future British defense contracts because of its dispute with Canadian rival Bombardier which has put 4,200 jobs at risk in Northern Ireland. The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday imposed a 220-percent duty on Bombardier’s CSeries jets, whose wings are made at a plant in Belfast, following a complaint by Boeing that accuses Canada of unfairly subsidizing Bombardier. The ruling is a political headache for Britain’s minority Conservative government, which relies on support from a Northern Irish party to stay in power. It also undermines the government’s assurances to Britons that free trade and London’s close ties with Washington will be pillars of Britain’s prosperity and global influence after it leaves the European Union in 2019. “This is not the behavior we expect from Boeing and it could indeed jeopardize our future relationship with them,” British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told reporters in Belfast. “Boeing wants and we want a long-term partnership but that has to be two-way.” Fallon later ruled out canceling existing orders with Boeing for nine P-8 spy planes and 50 Apache helicopters, but added the U.S. firm was seeking other U.K. contracts. “We know they will be back at the door,” he told Reuters. Bombardier is the largest manufacturing employer in Northern Ireland, which is the poorest of the United Kingdom’s four parts and is mired in political difficulties after emerging from decades of armed sectarian conflict. “Bitterly disappointed by initial Bombardier ruling,” said British Prime Minister Theresa May, who had personally asked U.S. President Donald Trump to help resolve the dispute. “The government will continue to work with the company to protect vital jobs for Northern Ireland,” she said on Twitter. Boeing said in a statement it was committed to the U.K., but gave no indication that it might change tack in the dispute. “We have heard and understand the concerns from the Prime Minister and the Government about Bombardier workers in Northern Ireland,” the statement said. Boeing said that since 2011 it had tripled its spending in the United Kingdom to £2.1 billion ($2.8 billion) in 2016, while the firm and its suppliers accounted for more than 18,700 U.K. jobs. The row has come at a bad time for May, who was severely weakened by her party’s poor showing in an election in June and who has been struggling to contain infighting within her top team over Brexit. Manufacturing Northern Ireland, an industry group, said the row was an ominous sign of the difficulties Britain could face after leaving the EU. “What we could be witnessing is the fundamental difference between being a fully-fledged member of an internal market and a junior partner in a free trade agreement,” it said. “This does not bode well for the U.K.’s plan to be a leader in global free trade nor indeed ambitions of a free trade agreement with the EU which cannot match the benefit we currently enjoy as part of the EU’s Single Market.” At the Bombardier plant in Belfast, workers were nervous about what impact the dispute could have on their livelihoods. “Nobody knows how it will end up,” said aircraft fitter George Burnside, 56, who has worked for Bombardier for 27 years. “I am concerned. I was shocked at the size of the tariff.” The U.S. penalty will only take effect if the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rules in Boeing’s favor. A final decision is expected early in 2018. British Business Secretary Greg Clark said he was confident the initial Department of Commerce ruling would be overturned. But Boeing conceded no ground, accusing Bombardier of illegally dumping its products in the U.S. single-aisle airplane market out of desperation. “Any claimed economic threat to Bombardier is due to the weakness of its product in the marketplace,” said Boeing. Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, the Northern Irish party that is propping up May’s minority government, signaled she would put pressure on May to act. “Everyone realizes how important Bombardier is to Northern Ireland and we will use our influence with our government to make sure that continues,” she told Sky News. However, London’s options in fighting Bombardier’s corner may be limited because of the importance of Boeing to its defense industry. Boeing says the United Kingdom is its third-largest supply base after the United States and Japan. It has recently begun constructing its first European parts manufacturing site in Sheffield, northern England. Britain’s armed forces have deployed Chinook helicopters, the C-17 transport plane and the E-3 Sentry airborne early warning and command post. A U.K. defense official told Reuters one of the potential future contracts Boeing would be bidding for was a relatively small data services deal. British defense analyst Howard Wheeldon said it was unlikely that Britain would pursue any reprisals against Boeing. “I think there is a lot of sabre-rattling, but in practical terms it is not on,” he said when asked whether Britain could cancel or reduce Boeing defense orders. “They can play politics, but can’t actually walk away from what they need and have committed to buying from Boeing.”
|
u.s .;boeing;belfast;britain;tariff;defense industry;bombardier
|
jp0001037
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2017/09/17
|
Koala survives trip in wheel well
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ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - For a stowaway who made a 10-mile (16-kilometer) journey squeezed in the wheel well, a koala was lucky to escape with just scratches. The driver of the four-wheel vehicle was unaware of the extra passenger until they arrived at their destination in the outskirts of Adelaide, Australia, and he heard some unusual cries. After seeing the koala in the wheel arch, he immediately called animal rescuers, who removed the wheel and eventually extricated the frightened but very lucky animal. “You think you’ve seen it all. No, I’ve never seen anything like that and it’s absolutely incredible,” said Fauna Rescue worker, Jane Brister. The koala suffered superficial injuries and was covered in grease from under the car. “She was crying a little bit, she was a little bit shaken, she was certainly in shock but I rushed her straight to the vet,” Brister said. The koala was dubbed Kelli, after one of the firefighters who rescued her. “Kelli’s one of our fine station officers and she led the rescue crew that day and she was quite excited to have such a good outcome,” said Dave Juniper of the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service. After being cleaned up and monitored for a week, it was released back into the bush on Saturday. “After everything she’s been through, she’s had so much stress and trauma, to see her just toddle off and up the tree, and currently she’s found the biggest fork in the tree, she’s snuggled up, she’s fast asleep,” Brister said. Rescue workers say it is not unusual for koalas to seek shelter in unusual places.
|
nature;australia;animals
|
jp0001039
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2017/09/09
|
Severe school anxiety puts teens at risk
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For the past two weeks there have been projections about a spike in juvenile suicides as the new school term approached. Suicides among junior high and high school students rise around Sept. 1, and teachers and parents were urged to pay close attention to young people. Naturally, the media paid close attention, and as of Sept. 3, two days after most schools reopened for classes, police said that in the Tokyo metropolitan area there had been three cases of what appeared to be suicide by persons under 18 and one attempted suicide by a person under 18. Various media outlets reported these deaths and even went into detail, despite warnings from the World Health Organization that such publicity can trigger other suicides. The main source of the fear regarding juvenile suicides at this time of year is a 2015 Cabinet Office study that reported 18,048 Japanese people under the age of 19 killed themselves between 1972 and 2013. Of these, 317 died on either Aug. 31, Sept. 1 or Sept. 2, an average of 105 for each of the three days over the 40 years surveyed. For the rest of the calendar year, the average would be 49 for each day, or half as many. A Sept. 2 Mainichi Shimbun article quoted Toshiaki Tanaka, a professor of child psychology at Kyushu Women’s Junior College, as saying that bullying and difficult social relationships aren’t the only reasons some students fear going back to school. There is also academic pressure and interactions with specific instructors. Tanaka urges “home room teachers, school nurses and counselors” to work together to look for signs of desperation among students. Given that the three suicides reported by the police happened before school opened, telling school personnel to be extra vigilant is like closing the proverbial barn door after the horses have fled. And while a number of related articles that appeared before Sept. 1 urged parents to do the same thing, there was another suggestion that actually sounded more effective in heading off potential student suicides. On Aug. 30, the official Twitter account of Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo posted a message saying, “If you have no place to run, come to the zoo.” The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a tapir, which, according to the zoo, instinctively dives into a body of water whenever it senses a predator nearby. The tweet continued by saying, “You don’t need permission to escape, you just run.” Ueno Zoo is a perfect place to hide out, because, it says, the animals contained therein are not subject to the rules of human society. If the purpose of the tweet was to increase attendance on Sept. 1, it’s a provocative PR scheme. All the media that reported the tweets agree that they targeted students who are nervous about going back to school, and one could argue that the zoo was exploiting this anxiety for its own benefit by directly encouraging truancy. The Mainichi Shimbun called the zoo’s publicity office and asked if the message was meant to “prevent suicides,” and the spokesperson said they don’t comment on “individual tweets.” However, another problem with Ueno’s rationale, if indeed it was trying to take certain teenagers’ minds off their dread of returning to school, is that seeing animals in captivity might have the opposite effect than the one intended. These creatures are, after all, even more subject to the rules of human society than the teens, since they are prisoners. As it turns out, the zoo’s idea wasn’t an original one. The Mainichi points out that in August 2015, the city library of Kamakura did something similar by tweeting that if you would “rather die” than go back to school, why not spend the day at the library instead? As an institution that provides enlightenment through reading, a library makes more sense as a sanctuary than a zoo. But what’s intriguing about these cases is that neither Ueno Zoo nor the Kamakura municipal library seems to have come under fire for suggesting that kids at risk should skip school. Even when Naoki Ogi, a prominent media pundit who specializes in education issues, spoke directly to such children in a recent Tokyo Shimbun op-ed, he said there was nothing wrong with staying home. “It doesn’t mean you are avoiding school,” he wrote. “It is as if you were escaping from a natural disaster in order to save your own life. Don’t feel bad or guilty about it, and if you do feel that way, remember you will recover from this feeling later.” He also told parents that if they sense something amiss they should discourage their sons and daughters from going to school. Of course, schools themselves are not telling students to stay home, and in some cases local educational committees have tried to come up with their own countermeasures. On Aug. 30, TV Asahi ran a feature about a program in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, that provides students with smart-phone apps they can use to report bullying incidents to their schools directly and anonymously. As one student said, the app is helpful in that the user can type out a message rather than speak directly to a person, which bullied students tend to avoid. However, it’s not clear from the report how the school district will use this information to prevent suicides. Four years ago, the government enacted an anti-bullying law that compels schools to investigate reasons for student suicides, but in certain instances educators have been accused of using the investigations to avoid responsibility. In July, parents of a 15-year-old girl who killed herself in 2015 said the board of education in Toride, Ibaraki Prefecture, purposely formulated a survey of students that implied their daughter’s problems had less to do with bullying at school than with general depression. There seems to be no sure, permanent solution to the teen suicide problem, but at least skipping school temporarily removes a source of anxiety for an adolescent who may have suicidal impulses. And sometimes a temporary solution is enough to prevent a permanent tragedy.
|
suicide;education;ueno zoo;tv asahi;mainichi shimbun;toshiaki tanaka;kyushu women 's junior college
|
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