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jp0009238
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/29
|
SoftBank's ¥2.4 trillion IPO reaches retail sales target
|
SoftBank Group Corp.’s ¥2.4 trillion ($21 billion) initial public offering for its Japanese telecommunications unit has successfully secured sales for the bulk of its shares to individual investors, sources have said. The lead underwriters, which had set a target of about ¥2 trillion worth of retail sales, have received enough reservations at around the indicated price of ¥1,500, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. One brokerage completed half of its volume at a retail branch on the first day, they said. SoftBank shares added to gains and rose as much as 3.9 percent to ¥9,597 in Tokyo — the highest intraday price in more than a month. Rivals NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp. fell to session lows. SoftBank will announce the price range for the offering Friday after a campaign to whip up public interest in the IPO of the wireless unit, which will be a new entity named SoftBank Corp. The issuer’s strong brand, high dividend payout, and a plan to split the lots to make the shares accessible to more people have helped to fuel demand. That may result in a pricing range higher than ¥1,500, the people said. If there’s enough demand to satisfy the overallotment of shares, SoftBank may succeed in selling as much as ¥2.6 trillion worth of shares. That would put it on track to exceed the record market debut in Japan of former national carrier Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. in 1987. SoftBank and brokerage representatives declined to comment on retail-investor demand and the price range. Joint domestic lead underwriters include Nomura Holdings Inc., Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. and SBI Securities Co. The underwriters’ efforts began with an unusual television marketing campaign aimed at a broad range of potential investors. The commercials will run through Friday. SoftBank and one underwriter, Mizuho, also rolled out a plan to use a smartphone-based brokerage backed by the bank, One Tap Buy Co., to sell shares. That would let people buy one share at the indicated price of ¥1,500 apiece, instead of the usual minimum block of 100 for ¥150,000, according to the prospectus. SoftBank’s executives and global coordinators for the share sale went on a worldwide road show in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Japan this month to pitch the IPO to analysts and fund managers. The IPO will probably be harder to sell to foreign investors, according to Anthea Lai, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. SoftBank may struggle to hold on to wireless subscribers if web retailer Rakuten Inc. enters the market with an attractive unlimited data plan, wrote Chris Lane, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., in a recent report
|
stocks;softbank;ipo
|
jp0009239
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Government agency approved not reporting retirement pay, says Carlos Ghosn's aide Greg Kelly
|
Greg Kelly, a close aide of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, claims Japan’s Financial Services Agency told him it was unnecessary to report the remuneration Ghosn was set to receive after retirement, sources with knowledge of the matter said Thursday. Tokyo prosecutors believe the two were aware of the need to report Ghosn’s post-retirement package but did not do so. Kelly, however, is likely to deny allegations that he intentionally falsified securities reports, they said. The former Nissan representative director was arrested along with Ghosn on Nov. 19 on suspicion of conspiring to engage in financial misconduct. Kelly has said he consulted with a public accountant and a lawyer in addition to the FSA over the need to report the post-retirement payment, according to the sources. He has also told prosecutors there was no need to report the remuneration as it had not yet been settled, the sources said. Kelly’s lawyer in the United States said Wednesday that Kelly “absolutely believes what he did was legal.” Under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, remuneration must be disclosed in a securities report when it is becomes set, even if the actual payout is planned in the future. The post-retirement payment that went unreported for eight years from fiscal 2010 totaled roughly ¥8 billion ($70 million) and was scheduled to be paid at least partially as consultation fees. Ghosn allegedly thought he should receive some ¥2 billion annually as remuneration but instructed Kelly to state in securities reports that he earned ¥1 billion a year instead and planned to receive the remainder after retirement, the sources said. The FSA said it does not comment on individual cases. Ghosn was arrested by prosecutors for allegedly violating the financial instruments law by underreporting his remuneration by around ¥5 billion over five years to March 2015, even though he received some ¥10 billion in the period. The prosecutors are also considering building a case against him for underreporting a further ¥3 billion in remuneration received over three years from April 2015. Ghosn has denied the charge. Meanwhile, the top executives of Nissan, Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced after meeting Thursday that they will maintain the three-way automaker alliance, stressing that their cooperation had produced success that could not be compared to anything else. Following the meeting, Nissan said the policy was confirmed as a result of the discussion between the three firms’ top executives. The leadership vacuum at one of the world’s largest automaker groups is turning into a power struggle between Nissan, which wants to review the alliance to have more say, and Renault, whose biggest shareholder — the French government — wants someone from the French automaker to lead the group. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa and Mitsubishi Motors CEO Osamu Masuko were expected to exchange views via video conference with Renault’s acting CEO Thierry Bollore at Renault-Nissan BV, a company overseeing the alliance in Amsterdam. Ghosn was dismissed as chairman at both Japanese automakers, but remains CEO and chairman of Renault following the 64-year-old’s arrest.
|
scandals;nissan;fsa;carlos ghosn;greg kelly
|
jp0009240
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko says Vladimir Putin wants his whole country, calling on NATO for help
|
BERLIN - Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of seeking to annex his entire country and called for NATO and Chancellor Angela Merkel to come to Kiev’s aid in the crisis. Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy ships and their crews Sunday near the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters — a charge Ukraine strongly refutes. In interviews with Germany’s Bild newspaper and the Funke newspaper group on Thursday, Poroshenko rejected Russia’s charge that the vessels’ entry into the Sea of Azov — a body of water shared by Ukraine and Russia on which the Ukraine ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk sit — was a provocation. “Don’t believe Putin’s lies,” he told Bild, Germany’s biggest-selling paper, comparing Russia’s protestations of innocence in the affair to Moscow’s 2014 denial that it had soldiers in Crimea even as they moved to annex it. “Putin wants the old Russian empire back,” he said. “Crimea, Donbass, the whole country. As Russian tsar, as he sees himself, his empire can’t function without Ukraine. He sees us as his colony.” Poroshenko also asked NATO members including Germany to send naval vessels to the Sea of Azov to back his country in the standoff with Russia. “Germany is one of our closest allies, and we hope that states within NATO are now ready to relocate naval ships to the Sea of Azov in order to assist Ukraine and provide security,” he told Bild. On Wednesday, Putin insisted that Russian forces were right to seize three Ukrainian ships last weekend. But Poroshenko charged that Putin wants nothing less than to occupy the area and the only language he understands is the unity of the Western world. “We cannot accept this aggressive policy of Russia. First it was Crimea, then eastern Ukraine, now he wants the Sea of Azov. “Germany, too, has to ask itself: What will Putin do next if we do not stop him?” he added. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Monday demanded Russia free the Ukrainian ships and sailors, warning Moscow that “its actions have consequences.” The seizure of the navy vessels has driven tensions to their highest since 2015, when Moscow-backed rebels rose against the Kiev government in the eastern Donbass region, sparking a war that has killed tens of thousands. Poroshenko urged Germany, the largest and wealthiest buyer of Moscow’s gas exports, to halt the building of an undersea gas pipeline that will allow Russia to supply Germany directly, cutting out Ukraine. “We need a strong, resolute and clear reaction to Russia’s aggressive behavior,” he told Funke. “That also means stopping the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.” Germany regards the pipeline, which is being built by Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom, as a private investment. But Merkel recently acknowledged its “political dimensions” and said Ukraine must continue to be a conduit for Russian gas sold to western Europe. German officials said Wednesday that their position on the pipeline remained unchanged and that talk of tighter sanctions against Moscow, demanded by the United States and many European politicians, was “premature.”
|
conflict;vladimir putin;russia;ukraine;petro poroshenko
|
jp0009241
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Latest Crimea strife gives Vladimir Putin a new opportunity to test the West's resolve
|
MOSCOW - The latest spike in tensions between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea offers President Vladimir Putin a fresh chance to test the West’s commitment to defending Kiev at a time when the U.S. and Europe are divided and distracted by internal squabbling. But the weekend skirmish that saw Russian naval forces fire on and seize three Ukrainian ships in the narrow channel between the Black and Azov seas could also set back Putin’s chances for rapprochement with the U.S. The Kremlin had been hoping his meeting with President Donald Trump at the Group of 20 summit this week in Argentina would lead to concrete steps toward a thaw in relations. Ukraine gained the early diplomatic advantage despite both sides pointing the finger at each other for orchestrating Sunday’s confrontation for political reasons. European capitals came out strongly denouncing the Russian action. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley laid the blame for the escalation on Moscow’s “outlaw actions,” but said Washington will let its allies take the lead in responding. The timing of the incident hardly works to the Kremlin’s advantage with Western governments ahead of the G20 gathering in Buenos Aires. Still, Putin has never been one to miss a chance to capitalize on a crisis, whether created by accident or design, according to Alexander Baunov of the Moscow Carnegie Center. “On the one hand, this type of foreign-policy escalation is risky and won’t help relations with the West,” Baunov said. “But if they swallow it, then it will look like another diplomatic victory.” Putin’s gamble It’s the kind of gamble that’s become increasing common for Putin, who’s sought to take advantage of the waning international focus on the Ukrainian conflict to steadily increase pressure on his counterpart in Kiev. Rekindling the patriotic fervor that accompanied his annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine could help offset growing domestic discontent over stagnant incomes and changes to Russia’s pension system. Likewise, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, who came to power after street protests forced his Kremlin-backed predecessor to flee the country, is facing an election in March that polls suggest he is unlikely to win. Poroshenko, whose campaign slogan is “army, language, faith,” has asked parliament to approve a declaration of martial law, a step some opposition lawmakers see as a ploy to boost his re-election bid. Prior to the weekend incident, Kremlin officials had been cautiously optimistic about the meeting Putin and Trump have scheduled for the G20. They said the momentum behind calls for new sanctions that followed Trump’s enthusiastic embrace of Putin at their last meeting, in Helsinki in July, had seemed to fade. Even with the flare-up, which sent the rouble and Russian stocks down the most in emerging markets Monday, Western reaction will likely be tepid, according to Eurasia Group. “The most that Washington and Brussels are likely to impose at this stage is more sanctions against individuals and entities,” Eurasia Group analyst Alex Brideau said in a note. “Stronger sanctions that might target new economic sectors or major Russian oligarchs are unlikely unless the episode escalates.” U.S. response The U.S. will maintain its current Crimea-related sanctions on Russia, Haley said in her speech. She stopped short of threatening further restrictions, saying only that “further Russian escalation of this kind will only make matters worse.” The latest violence came after months of rising tensions in the region as Russia incrementally squeezed Ukraine’s access to the Azov, a key waterway for exports of metals and farm products from ports just south of the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. The bridge Russia completed this year linking its mainland to Crimea spans the Kerch Strait, which separates the Azov from the Black Sea, opening global markets via the Mediterranean. The Kerch bridge limited the height of ship traffic. Russia began inspecting vessels headed to and from Ukraine over the summer, prompting the U.S. State Department to denounce what it called “harassment of international shipping.” The tensions continued, however, and Russia closed the strait to all ships for several hours Sunday for what it called security reasons. Ukraine says its vessels were intercepted in international waters, while Russia accused them of violating its territorial zone and ignoring warnings to change course. Alexei Chesnakov, a former Kremlin official who now consults authorities in Moscow on Ukraine policy, said Russia “couldn’t have acted any other way” in light of Ukraine’s behavior along their maritime border. “If a country shows strength then sanctions are possible,” he said. “But if a country shows weakness then sanctions are inevitable.”
|
conflict;vladimir putin;russia;ukraine;g20;crimea;petro poroshenko
|
jp0009242
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Kim Jong Un's diplomacy pays off: First the sound of puppy feet, then joint survey of North Korean railway system
|
SEOUL - Kim Jong Un’s gift of two hunting dogs to South Korea in September is starting to bear more fruit, first with a litter of puppies and now with a landmark railway deal. South Korea will send trains across the border to North Korea for the first time in a decade after the United Nations Security Council granted exemptions from sanctions, Seoul said Wednesday. The trips will be used for a study to assess what is needed to connect one other railway that has been separated since the Korean War. The development shows that South Korean President Moon Jae-in is making steady progress toward his goal of achieving “irreversible progress” on inter-Korean relations by the end of 2018. Earlier this month, his office disclosed pictures of six puppies delivered by one of the North Korean dogs. “Six were added to the gift of two, which is great luck,” Moon said in a Nov. 12 tweet, shortly after he sent 200 tons of tangerines to Pyongyang as a gift. “I hope North and South Korean matters would be just like that.” Still, Moon can’t go too fast. U.S. President Donald Trump has insisted that sanctions stay in place until Kim’s regime completely gives up its nuclear weapons. With a second summit between Trump and Kim now in doubt, Moon has stopped openly promoting potential economic benefits of greater engagement with North Korea. Moon “needs to build the foundations for inter-Korean reconciliation to continue once he leaves office,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Korea Chair at the Institute for European Studies in Brussels. The current administration “will continue to test the waters in the coming months, and will also ask for waivers and use aid to slowly strengthen inter-Korean economic links.” Here are areas of cooperation that Moon and Kim promised to make progress on this year: Military de-escalation As part of a military agreement to reduce accidental border clashes, the two Koreas each destroyed 10 guard posts, enforced a ban on military exercises in the area and imposed a no-fly zone. Last week, military officials from the two nations put down their guns and shook hands to discuss connecting roads to jointly excavate remains during the Korean War. Restoring communications Military officials from both sides also restored fixed-line phone and fax machines by upgrading to fiber-optic cables from copper, and government officials are working on improving the communication lines. They also opened a venue for around-the-clock communications: A liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. Rails and roads Seoul and Pyongyang will begin a joint survey of the North Korean rail system Friday for about 18 days. The neighbors have also discussed reconnecting roads and starting direct flights. Those moves, however, will require exemptions from sanctions that ban shipments of fuel or activities that could generate revenues for Kim’s regime. “Should South Korea request some sanctions relief aimed at economic aid that is part of inter-Korean easing, the U.S. should be able to live with that,” said Stephen Noerper, senior director at the Korea Society in New York. “North Korea has to show progress to give Moon the political space he needs to proceed.”
|
north korea;kim jong un;south korea;diplomacy;dogs;moon jae-in
|
jp0009243
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Philippine court jails three police officers for murder in first during Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs
|
MANILA - A Philippine court on Thursday sentenced three police officers to up to 49 years in jail for the murder of a 17-year-old high school student, the first to be convicted in President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. The Caloocan City regional trial court declared the three police guilty for the killing of Kian Lloyd delos Santos in August 2017 in a dark, trash-filled alley in a northern suburb in the capital Manila. “A shoot first, think later attitude can never be countenanced in a civilized society. Never has homicide or murder been a function of law enforcement. The public peace is never predicated on the cost of human life,” said the ruling by Judge Roldolfo Azucena. This was the first case of what human rights advocates say was an extrajudicial killing carried out by state agents in the 29-month war on drugs, which saw close to 5,000 people dead in police operations. Police reject allegations that the killings were executions, saying the drug peddlers and users were killed in shootouts, and that they were acting in self-defense. “We respect the decision of the court. We don’t tolerate any erring police officers,” said Benigno Durana, national police spokesman, adding the police force “stand fully behind police officers engaged in the drug war, who are doing their jobs within the bounds of the law.” The death of the school boy has stirred unprecedented public attention on what activists say are executions and systematic abuses by police backed steadfastly by Duterte. Duterte, a firebrand leader who unleashed a ferocious war against illegal drugs after coming into office in June 2016, has more than once said he would not allow the police to go to jail for killing drug users and pushers. But shortly after the verdict was handed down, Duterte’s spokesperson, Salvador Panelo said: “This is murder, there is intention to kill. The president would never tolerate that.” Duterte’s government has repeatedly said there was no declared policy to kill drug users and pushers. “The conviction of the three police officers for murdering Kian de los Santos is a victory for justice but it is not enough. The killings must stop,” said Jose Manuel Diokno, chairman of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG). FLAG has questioned the legality of the drugs war before the Philippine Supreme Court. Delos Santos was found dead in an alley with a gun in his left hand. Police said they killed him in self defense, but his family dismissed that as a lie. Security cameras showed the officers aggressively escorting a man matching delos Santos’ description in the direction of the spot where he was killed. “Justice was served for my son,” Kian’s mother, Lorenza delos Santos told reporters outside the courtroom. “We were able to prove that my son was innocent of all the accusations hurled against him.”
|
drugs;courts;philippines;rights;rodrigo duterte
|
jp0009244
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Syphilis infections in Japan top 6,000 for first time since 1970
|
Cases of syphilis infections this year totaled 6,096 as of Nov. 18, exceeding an annual amount of 6,000 for the first time since 1970, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Wednesday. The number of syphilis patients stood at 1,548 in Tokyo, the highest among the country’s 47 prefectures, followed by 1,043 in Osaka, 399 in Aichi, 314 in Kanagawa and 272 in Fukuoka. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government in April started providing more free syphilis testing to contain the disease, which is curable at an early stage but has serious consequences if left untreated. To prevent further spread of the disease ahead of the 2020 Games, the metropolitan government has earmarked funds in its fiscal 2018 budget to conduct more free anonymous tests and train doctors who have limited experience in treating syphilis. Syphilis is caused by bacteria called treponema. In the primary stage, the disease manifests as minor sores or ulcers in affected areas, such as around the genitals and lips, and can be cured by anti-bacterial drugs. But if left untreated, the infection can eventually cause inflammation throughout the body, as well as brain and heart complications. Pregnant women who contract the disease before or during pregnancy can pass it on to their baby. The disease, known as congenital syphilis, can cause stillbirth or affect infants through symptoms such as meningitis and skin rashes. According to the health ministry, the number of patients is markedly increasing among men in their 20s to 50s and women in their 20s to 30s. But the cause of the increase has yet to be identified. Beginning in January, the ministry will require doctors to report the use of sex industry services by their syphilis patients under a mandatory reporting system in order to identify the cause of the disease’s spread. The ministry is calling for the use of condoms, as well as examinations so the disease can be detected early.
|
medicine;drugs;sex;disease;syphilis
|
jp0009245
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/29
|
Kid-scaring Namahage among Japanese folk rituals approved for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list
|
PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS - A set of Japanese folk rituals, in which people dress up as gods and visit homes, was approved Thursday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the U.N. body said. The rituals featuring Raiho-shin — meaning a visiting deity — stem from folk beliefs that gods visit their communities to usher in the New Year or new seasons with good luck. Those to be listed include Oga no Namahage in Akita Prefecture, one of the most popular among such customs. During a meeting of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee in Port Louis, Mauritius, it was announced 10 such rituals from eight prefectures were to become part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The actual inscription on the list is scheduled to take place on Saturday, the last day of the session. Japan had pitched the significance of the Raiho-shin rituals, saying they are vital to the localities concerned because they “help strengthen the sense of belonging to the community.” In the city of Oga in Akita, young men wearing demon-like masks and straw capes visit local houses on New Year’s Eve or on Jan. 15, disguised as a deity called Namahage. They admonish children to behave and scold idlers by shouting and wielding wooden knives. The designated rituals also include Miyakojima no Paantou, performed on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture. Those who play the role of visiting gods wear a mask and cover their bodies with mud, strolling around towns and putting the mud on people for good health. Local leaders in the related communities expressed their pleasure. “It’s fairly easy to end traditions but hard to keep them alive,” said Mikio Miura, who heads an association to preserve Namahage. The 69-year-old has been involved in activities to pass on the tradition for over 40 years. “I hope the registration will create momentum, from which more people volunteer to perform Namahage,” he said. It has become harder for those communities to find people who can practice the rituals amid an aging and declining population, especially in rural areas across the country. The government had nominated Namahage as a single element for inscription on the UNESCO list, but the committee told the government its nomination was insufficient since it closely resembles another Japanese ritual, the Koshikijima no Toshidon, that was registered on the list in 2009. Therefore, the government changed its strategy and submitted the nomination of 10 Raiho-shin rituals encompassing Namahage and Toshidon, practiced in Kagoshima Prefecture, to the committee in March last year. In October this year, an advisory panel to UNESCO recommended that the Raiho-shin rituals be added to the list. Each of the 10 rituals has been registered as an Important Intangible Cultural Property in Japan. Since the latest addition to the list is considered as an extension of the registration of Toshidon, the total number of Japan’s elements on the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity remains at 21. Other Japanese elements on the list include “Yama, Hoko, Yatai festivals,” inscribed in 2016, and washoku , traditional Japanese cuisine, listed in 2013. Japan is now aiming for registration of ancient wooden architectural craftsmanship on the list in 2020, officials have said.
|
unesco;namahage;raiho-shin
|
jp0009247
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/11/29
|
South Korea's top court orders Mitsubishi Heavy to pay compensation for wartime labor
|
SEOUL - South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered major Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to pay damages to two groups of South Koreans for wartime labor, following a similar order last month against another Japanese company. The two rulings by the Supreme Court, which each drew an immediate protest from Tokyo, have set a clear precedent for similar cases involving Japanese companies, while affecting ties between South Korea and Japan that are often strained by issues of wartime history. The rulings “completely overthrow the legal foundation of the friendly and cooperative relationship that Japan and the Republic of Korea have developed since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965,” Foreign Minister Taro Kono said in a statement, calling the court decisions “extremely regrettable and totally unacceptable.” Kono said Japan is urging South Korea to take appropriate steps as the rulings go against international law, adding that failure by Seoul to take action will lead to countermeasures by Tokyo, including taking the cases to an international court. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference that the ruling could have a negative impact on Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ operations, though he did not elaborate further. The firm said in a statement that the top court decisions were “deeply regrettable,” adding that it will “take appropriate measures while maintaining communication with the Japanese government about this issue.” Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba summoned South Korean Ambassador Lee Su-hoon to the Foreign Ministry to lodge a protest. Akiba told Lee that Tokyo is ready to deal with the issue “resolutely,” according to the Foreign Ministry. Lee told reporters after the meeting that he and Akiba explained the stance of their respective governments. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it respects the rulings, adding that it is “very concerned” about “excessive responses” from the Japanese government to judicial decisions in South Korea. Tokyo takes the position that the issue over wartime laborers, some of whom were recruited or forced to work, has been settled under a bilateral accord attached to a 1965 treaty that established diplomatic ties between the two countries. The accord stipulates that issues relating to property and claims between the two countries and their peoples have been settled “completely and finally.” But the top court determined in Thursday’s rulings that the rights of victims of forced mobilization to seek compensation was not terminated by the accord as it is predicated on Japan’s “illegal colonial rule,” a line of reasoning also taken in its Oct. 30 ruling against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. The latest rulings upheld the decisions by lower courts that ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay damages to two groups, each consisting of five South Korean plaintiffs, over their labor in Japan during World War II. The plaintiffs in the first group filed a damages lawsuit in Busan in 2000, claiming they were forced to work in Hiroshima from 1944 and exposed to radiation from the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city. Their case was dismissed in a district court and subsequently in an appeals court. But in 2012 the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, ruled that the right of individuals to seek compensation was not invalidated by the 1965 accord, sending their case back to a lower court. In July 2013, the Busan High Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay the plaintiffs a total of 400 million won (about $365,500) in damages, prompting the company to appeal the ruling to the top court. All the plaintiffs in that case are deceased and their cases have been taken up by their bereaved families. The plaintiffs in the other group include members of the Korean Women’s Volunteer Labor Corps and sought compensation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for their wartime labor in Nagoya. In 2015 a high court in Gwangju in southwest South Korea ordered the company to pay a total of 562 million won to the plaintiffs. At a news conference after Thursday’s ruling, 89-year-old Kim Sung-joo, one of the plaintiffs made to work at the Nagoya factory during World War II, expressed appreciation for all those involved in her case. “We couldn’t do anything on our own other than suffer, but with all of your efforts, we’ve finally made it today. Thank you,” Kim said in a quivering voice. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say it is now the South Korean government’s responsibility to take the lead in figuring out how to carry out the court orders in consultation with the Japanese government. Also Thursday, the Seoul Central District Court upheld a lower court order against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay damages to three relatives of South Koreans mobilized to work in Japan during World War II. The pair of rulings came about a month after another top court ruling in South Korea that also ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to compensate four South Koreans subjected to work for the company during Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the October ruling “unbelievable” and indicated that Tokyo could take the matter to the International Court of Justice. Despite the 1965 normalization of diplomatic relations, issues related to wartime history continue to cast a shadow over ties between the two countries. In another twist in the relationship, Seoul decided earlier this month to disband a Tokyo-funded foundation created under a 2015 bilateral accord to settle the issue of South Korean “comfort women” who provided sex to Japanese soldiers in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will. Japan reacted strongly to the move as the December 2015 bilateral deal had been signed to “finally and irreversibly” settle the issue.
|
wwii;mitsubishi heavy industries;wartime labor;south korea-japan relations
|
jp0009249
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Dollar falls to around ¥113.30 in late Tokyo trading
|
The dollar was weaker at around ¥113.30 in Tokyo trading late Friday, hurt by lower Tokyo stock prices. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.29, down from ¥113.52 at the same time on Thursday. The euro was at $1.1343, up from $1.1338, and at ¥128.51, down from ¥128.70. In overseas trading, the dollar temporarily rose to levels near ¥113.70 as U.S. stocks erased early losses and turned higher following a reported remark by a U.S. senior government official that the United States will hold off on fresh tariffs on China. But the dollar’s topside grew heavy in early trading in Tokyo. The greenback fell below ¥113.40 in midmorning trading as the yen attracted safe-haven buying after the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average moved on a weak note, traders said. The dollar lost further ground in the afternoon as the Nikkei average extended losses. It slipped to around ¥113.20 in late trading. After the U.S. government official denied the reported remark, the market’s atmosphere turned risk-off, an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. On overseas trading later on Friday, a currency broker said, “Market players are expected to continue watching developments related to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union and U.S.-China trade friction.”
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex;currencies
|
jp0009250
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Tokyo stocks extend losses in thin trading, dropping to 21,680
|
Stocks lost further ground in thin trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, with active buying held in check amid a dearth of fresh positive incentives. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 123.28 points, or 0.57 percent, to end at 21,680.34, after losing 42.86 points on Thursday. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 9.67 points, or 0.59 percent, at 1,629.30. It fell 2.29 points the previous day. Despite an overnight rally in U.S. stocks, both indexes moved on a weak note for most of Friday’s session as investor sentiment was dampened by disappointing sales projections for November-January by major U.S. chipmakers Nvidia Corp. and Applied Materials Inc., released on Thursday, brokers said. Investors found it difficult to boost trading as there were few fresh domestic trading factors, with the earnings-reporting season nearly over, said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan Inc. Investors refrained from active buying in light of concerns about bearish stock price movements on Wall Street later Friday, Otani also said. “Trading may continue sluggish next week,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said, noting that foreign investors tend not to build up major positions ahead of Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,442 to 607 in the TSE’s first section, while 63 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.424 billion shares from 1.500 billion shares on Friday. Semiconductor-related names met with selling after the disappointing earnings projections of Nvidia and Applied Materials. Tokyo Electron lost 4.26 percent, Advantest fell 7.56 percent and Sumco dropped 7.96 percent. Mitsui Mining and Smelting sagged 1.51 percent after Daiwa Securities Co. revised down its investment rating and target stock price for the nonferrous metal producer. Other major losers included mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and game-maker Nintendo. On the other hand, Taiheiyo Cement gained 1.34 percent after Nomura Securities Co. raised its target price for the company. Also on the plus side were clothing retailer Fast Retailing and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average lost 170 points to end at 21,650.
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stocks;nikkei;tse;markets;topix
|
jp0009251
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/16
|
North Korea's Kim inspects testing of newly developed 'tactical' weapon
|
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the test of a new “ultramodern tactical weapon,” the North’s state-run media reported Friday in the first mention of such a test in months. Kim hailed the “great success,” which he said “serves as another striking demonstration of the validity of the Party policy of prioritizing defence science and technology and the rapidly developing defence capability of the country and as a decisive turn in bolstering the fighting capacity of the Korean People’s Army,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. The report said that Kim had visited a national defense institute site, overseeing the test of the unspecified new tactical weapon. Kim said that the weapons system tested was one that his late father, Kim Jong Il, was especially interested during his lifetime and led the development of personally. The visit was the first so-called field inspection by the North Korean leader of a weapons test since November last year, when he oversaw a test of the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile. Experts believe that missiles is capable of striking much, if not all, of the continental United States. While Kim’s visit was likely to raise eyebrows in Washington amid stalled nuclear talks between the two countries, the ambiguity of the weapon tested, as a well as a separate report by KCNA about an economic-focused visit by the North Korean leader, appeared intended to temper any criticism. The weapons test comes as questions swirl over progress in denuclearization talks between the North and the United States after the landmark June 12 summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump. At that summit, the two leaders agreed to work toward denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula. The 1½ page joint statement released at the meeting, however, was short on specifics, and negotiations have made little headway since. Pyongyang has demanded the relaxation of crushing sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs. Washington has balked at this demand, saying that there will be no easing in international sanctions until North Korea takes more concrete steps to relinquish its nuclear weapons program. Asked about the report, a U.S. State Department spokesman told The Japan Times that Washington is “talking with the North Koreans about implementing all” the commitments made in Singapore. “The president has made clear that if Kim Jong Un denuclearizes, there is a bright future for North Korea,” the spokesman said. “We remain confident that the promises made by President Trump and Chairman Kim will be fulfilled.” Trump on Tuesday criticized what he called “inaccurate” media reports that North Korea had not declared an estimated 20 missile bases, and added in a tweet: “I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been due to meet North Korea’s Kim Yong Chol, who is believed to be the right-hand man to Kim Jong Un, in New York earlier this month, but that meeting was suddenly postponed just days before it was scheduled to be held. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that Trump plans to meet Kim Jong Un again next year, and will push for a concrete plan outlining the North’s moves to abandon its weapons programs. In January, Kim declared his country had “perfected” its nuclear forces and later in the year announced that it was halting longer-range missile and nuclear testing, setting the stage for the June summit. But in the more than five months since, negotiators have yet to elicit from Pyongyang a declaration detailing its weapons programs or a promise to rein in the deployment of its existing arsenal. Instead, the North has touted the closure of its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site and the apparent ongoing shuttering of its Sohae missile-engine test facility. It has also dangled the possibility of closing others sites and allowing international inspections — but only if Washington takes “corresponding measures,” namely the relaxing of sanctions. These repeated demands of reciprocal moves, however, have been met with the same response by Washington: Pyongyang must first give up its nuclear weapons. This prompted North Korea to warn earlier this month that it could even revive its scrapped policy of pyongjin (parallel advance), in which the country simultaneously pursues economic and nuclear development, if the its demand is not met. In April, Kim abruptly announced he was retiring dual-track policy and adopting a “new strategic line” that focuses on rebuilding the country’s tattered economy. Perhaps more pressing for Washington and Tokyo than a return to this stance, however, have been recent media reports citing anonymous U.S. intelligence officials as saying that work on the North’s nuclear program continues unabated, despite its pledge to take steps in the opposite direction.
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;weapons;sanctions;denuclearization;donald trump;mike pompeo
|
jp0009252
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Khmer Rouge leaders found guilty of genocide in landmark ruling
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PHNOM PENH - Two top leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime were found guilty of genocide on Friday, in a landmark ruling almost 40 years after the fall of a brutal regime that presided over the deaths of a quarter of the population. The Khmer Rouge’s former head of state Khieu Samphan, 87, and “Brother No. 2” Nuon Chea, 92, are the two most senior living members of the ultra-Maoist group that seized control of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The reign of terror led by “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot left some 2 million Cambodians dead from overwork, starvation and mass executions but Friday’s ruling was the first to acknowledge a genocide. The defendants were previously handed life sentences in 2014 over the violent and forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975. But the judgment at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) also found Nuon Chea guilty of genocide against the ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslim minority group, among a litany of other crimes. “The chamber finds that Nuon Chea exercised ultimate decision-making power with Pol Pot and … therefore finds Nuon Chea is responsible as a superior for all the crimes,” presiding Judge Nil Nonn said. “This includes the crime of genocide by killing members of Cham ethnic and religious group.” Khieu Samphan was also found guilty of genocide against ethnic Vietnamese, though not against the Cham, he added. Both parties were sentenced to “life in prison,” merging the two sentences into a single term, Nil Nonn said. Hundreds of people, including dozens of Cham Muslims and Buddhist monks, were bussed to the tribunal located in the outskirts of Phnom Penh to attend the hearing. The events covered by the verdict span the four years of the Pol Pot regime and include extensive crimes against humanity. “The verdict is essentially the Nuremberg judgment for the ECCC and thus carries very significant weight for Cambodia, international criminal justice, and the annals of history,” said David Scheffer, who served as the U.N. secretary general’s special expert on the Khmer Rouge trials from 2012 until last month. The revolutionaries who tried to recreate Buddhist-majority Cambodia in line with their vision of an agrarian Marxist utopia attempted to abolish class and religious distinctions by force. The verdict read out by Nil Nonn presented a society where minorities were targeted and killed, Buddhist monks forcibly defrocked and groups of people executed, while men and women were coerced into marriages and forced to have sex to produce children for the regime. The atrocities fell under the additional list of charges, which the two men were found guilty of as well. Los Sat, a 72-year-old Cham Muslim man who attended the verdict hearing with his wife, said he had lost “too many” family members under the regime. “I am really satisfied with the sentences,” he said, beaming as he left the court. “They brought suffering to my relatives.” Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia — a research organization that provided the court with evidence — said the verdict will “affirm the collective humanity of the victims and give recognition to the horrible suffering.” “It can provide a sense of closure to a horrible chapter in Cambodian history,” he said. The hybrid court, which uses a mix of Cambodian and international law, was created with U.N. backing in 2006 to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders. Only three people have been convicted by the court, costing more than $300 million. Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife died without facing justice, while Pol Pot passed away in 1998. The number of allegations against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan was so vast the court split the trials into a series of smaller hearings in 2011. Many believe Friday’s decision will be the last for the tribunal, which has been marred by allegations of political interference. Prime Minister Hun Sen — himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre — has repeatedly warned he would not allow more investigations to proceed, citing vague threats to stability. Clair Duffy, a senior teaching fellow at Australia’s Bond University who monitored the tribunal for years, said the court’s “excessively high” bill compared to other tribunals was due to “persistent political barriers to justice erected by the Hun Sen government.” The court has launched investigations into four more Khmer Rouge cadres, though one was dismissed in February 2017, highlighting the difficulties of bringing lower level members of the brutal regime to justice. Craig Etcheson, who previously served as an investigator in the tribunal, said that despite the “expensive, slow, complex” process of the tribunal, the ECCC has provided some form of symbolic justice to the victims. “It is not enough, perhaps, but some justice is better than no justice,” he said.
|
history;courts;khieu samphan;nuon chea;khmer rouge cambodia
|
jp0009253
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/16
|
'Sense of closure': Khmer Rouge leaders face genocide verdict for first time as troubled tribunal wraps up
|
PHNOM PENH - Two senior leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime face a verdict Friday on genocide charges, in a ruling that experts say will bring down the curtain on the troubled U.N.-backed tribunal’s quest for justice. The Khmer Rouge’s former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 87, and “Brother Number 2” Nuon Chea, 92, are the two most senior living members of the ultra-Maoist group that seized control of Cambodia from 1975-1979. The reign of terror led by “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot left around 2 million Cambodians dead from overwork, starvation and mass executions. The two defendants were previously handed life sentences in 2014 over the violent and forced evacuation of Phnom Penh in April 1975. But Friday’s judgment at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) will decide whether the pair are guilty of overseeing genocide against ethnic Vietnamese and the Cham Muslim minority, as well as a host of other crimes. “The verdict is essentially the Nuremberg judgment for the ECCC and thus carries very significant weight for Cambodia, international criminal justice, and the annals of history,” said David Scheffer, who served as the U.N. secretary general’s special expert on the Khmer Rouge trials from 2012 until last month. The revolutionaries who tried to re-create Buddhist-majority Cambodia in line with their vision of an agrarian society attempted to abolish class and religious distinctions by force. Forced marriages, rape, the treatment of Buddhists, and atrocities that were carried out in prisons and work sites throughout the country fall under the additional list of charges against the two men. “(The verdict) will affirm the collective humanity of the victims and give recognition to the horrible suffering,” said Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia — a research organization that has provided the court with evidence. It could also “provide a sense of closure to a horrible chapter in Cambodian history. About 800 people, including some 200 Cham Muslims, are expected to attend the hearing on Friday, said ECCC spokesman Neth Pheaktra. The hybrid court, which uses a mix of Cambodian and international law, was created with the backing of the U.N. in 2006 to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders. Only three people have been convicted by the court, which has cost more than $300 million. Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife died without facing justice, while “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot passed away in 1998. The number of allegations against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan was so vast the court split the trials into a series of smaller hearings in 2011. Many believe the decision will be the last for the tribunal, which has been marred by allegations of political interference. Prime Minister Hun Sen — himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre — has repeatedly warned he would not allow more investigations to proceed, citing vague threats to stability. The court has launched investigations into four more Khmer Rouge cadres, though one was dismissed in February 2017, highlighting the difficulties of bringing lower level members of the brutal regime to justice. Scheffer said that “challenges of efficiency, funding, and access to evidence” are issues that plague all international criminal courts, but argued the successes of the Cambodian tribunal should not be diminished.
|
vietnam;cambodia;genocide;khmer rouge;hun sen;khieu samphan;pol pot;tribunal;cham muslims
|
jp0009254
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Family and supporters of deceased English teacher urge Japan to minimize use of physical restraints at mental health institutions
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Family members of a New Zealand man who died last year after he was strapped down at a mental hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture submitted a petition to the health ministry Friday calling for Japan to take measures to restrict use of restraints at mental institutions. In the petition, signed by 31 psychiatrists from the United States, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan, they urged the government to set up an international panel to improve the nation’s restraint practices at mental institutions. Kelly Savage, 27, died in May last year only days after being admitted to Yamato Hospital, a privately run psychiatric institution in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, after a manic episode linked to bipolar disorder. After Savage was found in a state of cardiac arrest 10 days later, he was rushed to another hospital in Yamato where he was resuscitated. He died from severe brain damage several days later. Savage’s mother Martha and his brother Patrick submitted the petition to the health ministry. “What we want in the panel are independence and international perspectives,” which would enable experts to come up with alternatives to restraints in comparison with more progressive practices abroad, Patrick told a news conference. “Cases like this happened frequently abroad once upon a time, but investigations done by independent and international groups, not internal review, would shed a spotlight on them.” The use of restraints has been harshly criticized, but in Japan hospitals are allowed to restrain patients to prevent them from harming themselves. Toshio Hasegawa, a professor of health sciences at Kyorin University in Tokyo who is working to reduce the use of restraints, expressed his concern about the growing number of cases in Japan where restraints are being used. A record high 10,933 patients were restrained in 2016. Hasegawa, who was also at the news conference, urged the government to revise relevant legislation to minimize the period of time patients are restrained. In a 2013 peer-review study cited in the petition, most developed countries ban restraints or limit the practice to up to a few hours. “We’ve been told that the (health) ministry was acting on it but that it takes time and they asked us for patience,” Patrick said. “He was my only brother and my best friend. … I want to do my part to make sure others wouldn’t have to suffer this kind of tragedy so that my brother’s death will not be in vain.” The Savages allege the use of prolonged restraints could have led to the formation of deep vein thrombosis, a condition in which blood clots block the flow of blood, leading to his death. Yamato Hospital claims the treatment was appropriate. The family is not planning to sue the hospital, Patrick said. Savage, who had a history of mental issues in New Zealand, came to Japan in August 2015 under the government-sponsored JET programme to teach English in Shibushi, Kagoshima Prefecture. “We were horrified that we thought that he was going to be safe in hospital. We were sure that we were doing the right thing because in New Zealand he had similar problems and the hospital helped him,” Martha said. “We had no idea that Japan would do that to him.”
|
new zealand;kanagawa;kelly savage;restraints
|
jp0009255
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Cabinet Office poster about sexual harassment draws online criticism
|
An attempt by the government to encourage men to take responsibility for preventing sexual harassment in the workplace has drawn an uproar online, with Twitter users saying it makes excuses for willful ignorance of the issue. The Cabinet Office poster features Japanese actor Mikihisa Azuma, who asks, when translated from Japanese: “Is this sexual harassment too?” The background contrasts his comments: “You’re prettier now that you’ve lost weight,” and “Cute outfit today — that’s my type of look,” with illustrations of disapproving women. “You’re not the one to decide what’s sexual harassment!” it extols. Users replying to a tweet this week unveiling the poster campaign said it serves to let sexual harassers off the hook by taking too sympathetic a view of their conduct. “I realized immediately that women weren’t involved at any stage of making this,” said one Twitter user. “They really don’t get it … this is why there aren’t women politicians,” another said. Other users defended the poster. One said: “I think it’s fine, because it’s a poster telling people who lack an understanding of sexual harassment that this is something that might involve you too.” The Cabinet Office said it’s aware of the criticism and is taking it seriously, though it has no plans to redesign the poster. “It’s true that we decided to aim this at the perpetrators of sexual harassment and increase consciousness of the issue among men, because it’s such a wide-ranging problem and it can be difficult for victims to speak up,’ Takanobu Hirowatari, of the office’s Gender Equality Bureau, said by phone. Hirowatari said women were involved in the project and the poster received the blessing of civic groups before its release. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to draw more women into the labor force and management positions as part of his womenomics policy as the country struggles with a shrinking and rapidly aging workforce. The poster is part of an annual education campaign about violence against women, which this year runs until Nov. 25. Earlier this year, a group of activists launched #WeToo Japan after deciding on a need for widespread support for victims of sexual harassment, saying it goes beyond the self-identification of victims in the #MeToo movement started in the U.S. last year.
|
social media;sex crimes;cabinet office;# metoo
|
jp0009256
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/11/16
|
Japanese expat overcame 'color bar' to become decorated war hero for Britain in WWI
|
LONDON - During the early days of World War I, a young Japanese man who had left his country behind seeking a new life enlisted in the British Army to fight the Germans. In the four ensuing years of war, Harry Fusao O’Hara would be wounded almost 70 times, receive multiple medals for bravery, and become the first and only known Japanese national to have ever flown in the Royal Air Force. According to his youngest and only surviving daughter, Geraldine Reedijk, 87, O’Hara was born in Yokohama in 1891. He attended Waseda University as a young man, where he developed “leftist ideas,” dropped out and ran off to India to work as a reporter for Japanese newspapers. He volunteered to join the British Army soon after the war broke out — Britain and Japan were allies at the time — and went on to amass what several contemporary newspapers called “a record unsurpassed in gallantry” before being seriously wounded in combat. Receiving a medal for his bravery, O’Hara then joined the Royal Air Force in 1917 as a mechanic before working his way up to becoming the force’s first and only known Japanese pilot. At the beginning of June 1918, O’Hara was shot in the jaw and evacuated to Britain, bringing an end to his military career a few months before the armistice was signed on Nov. 11. O’Hara applied to become a pilot at exactly the right time, according to RAF Museum curator Peter Devitt. Until World War II, the RAF officially discriminated against anybody of “non-European heritage” and barred them from becoming officers. “The color bar was explicit … you can’t get away from the fact that it was racist. In peacetime, you would never have seen these people (of non-European heritage) being accepted,” Devitt said. Devitt explained that the heavy number of casualties and acute need for more personnel in the latter part of World War I forced the RAF into letting O’Hara become a pilot alongside a “handful” of other ethnic minorities, although he never received an officer’s commission. A portrait of an intense-looking O’Hara stands out among the heroes — the only Asian among the portraits — that decorate the wall at the RAF Museum. After the war ended, O’Hara married a British woman named Muriel McDonald and settled in London, where they had three children. Although he remained a Japanese citizen for the rest of his life, he never went back to Japan. “He loved England, and the English way of life,” Reedijk, 87, said at her home in the Netherlands. O’Hara’s injuries made it difficult for him to hold down steady work. With only a meager pension the family struggled financially until he eventually found a job at a charity decorating trays and boxes with lacquer. “We weren’t rich, but we were very happy,” she said. “We had enough.” Reedijk described her father as a kind, quiet man who adored his children and “fitted in very well.” “He would go shopping and the girls would flock to help him, because he was very friendly,” she said. “He would bow, and they thought that was marvelous.” According to Reedijk, O’Hara hardly ever encountered discrimination in Britain for being Japanese, although she also said she rarely asked her father about his past because she was so young and World War II was breaking out. “We never asked him about the flying and so on, because we were in the middle of the war,” she said. “My brother was called up, and immediately the worry about my brother … filled our lives really,” she added. Reedijk has no memory of her father being interned during World War II and his name does not appear on any such records. O’Hara died from cancer six years after World War II ended at the age of 59, survived by his wife and three children. Although his injuries troubled him for his entire life, Reedijk said he was able to walk until shortly before his death. Reedijk’s son, Wim, 61, a retired theologian, is now researching his family’s past and has visited Japan to reconnect with his heritage. “Sometimes I have thought it all sounds too fantastic to be true, but then all of a sudden it is true,” he said. “He was even more interesting than I thought he was.” “He was very adventurous,” Geraldine Reedijk said. “I’m very proud of him.”
|
history;u.k .;wwi
|
jp0009257
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/28
|
From jet-setting superstar to jailed suspect: Carlos Ghosn's crazy week
|
When Carlos Ghosn’s private Gulfstream jet touched down at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at around 4:35pm on Nov. 19, the millionaire auto tycoon had an unexpected welcoming committee: an elite unit of prosecutors. The weak winter sun had set moments before and the brightly lit interior of the plane — call-sign ‘N155AN’ — twinkled through the oval windows as the boarding steps unfurled. The first sign Ghosn would have had that all was not as normal was when a white van pulled up onto the tarmac and a line of men in dark suits rushed up the steps. These were top investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, preparing to interrogate the 64-year-old businessman over allegations he underreported his income by about half over five years — concealing some $44 million. As the interviews began, shutters descended over the plane’s windows to offer privacy to the very public figure inside. This was all captured on a video that appeared on the website of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which broke the story in a special digital edition — “Ghosn to be arrested” — sparking pandemonium in newsrooms and trading rooms around the world. Meanwhile, investigators were springing into action. At around 5:00 p.m., more than 10 men suddenly appeared at the glass-walled reception desk at Nissan’s plush Yokohama headquarters. Another team stormed Ghosn’s luxurious apartment high up in a skyscraper in the affluent Tokyo neighborhood of Motoazabu. By 5:30 p.m., word was out and hoards of camera crews swarmed around the building — home to wealthy ex-pats and celebrities. The Brazil-born Frenchman himself spent hours inside the plane with prosecutors — initially on a voluntary basis — and was later arrested, a stunning development in a glittering career that made him a rare foreign household name in Japan. Lines soon began to form outside Nissan’s Yokohama HQ in expectation of a press conference by Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa that would be watched around the world. Hundreds of journalists clutching cameras and laptops waited patiently for three hours under a huge Nissan ad — “Innovation is our Finish Line” — before the doors opened and the press crammed into a windowless room as the tension built. At around 10:00 p.m., Saikawa delivered an extraordinary news conference dripping with emotion that lasted around an hour and a half. A trim bespectacled 65-year-old, his short black hair tinged with gray, Saikawa was known as one of “Ghosn’s children,” a company lifer who owed his career to his mentor. His voice sometimes catching, he spoke of his “resentment and dismay” at the allegations and lashed out at what he called “the dark side of the Ghosn era. Standing alone in front of hundreds of flashing cameras, he pointedly refused to offer the “apology” deep bow usually associated with corporate scandals in Japan and announced a board meeting in three days to oust Ghosn as chairman. As heavy rain now lashed the Japanese capital, Ghosn was spending his first night in a detention center in northern Tokyo — a far-cry from the jet-setting and glamorous life he usually leads. Rooms there are typically small and basic, with bars on a single window in the door. Experts say Ghosn is almost certain to be alone in his cell. Regulations at the concrete 12-floor center state he has a right to 30 minutes of exercise per day and two baths a week. The wake-up call is shortly before 7:00 a.m. and lights out at 9:00 p.m. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided. For an extra charge, inmates can order additional food from pre-approved options. Ghosn received consular visits from the French ambassador and the Brazilian consul. The latter told AFP he chatted in Portuguese with Ghosn through a screen and found him “in good health,” dressed in detention center uniform. Meanwhile, near-daily allegations surface in the Japanese media. Ghosn is said to deny them and he has not been formally charged. Fast forward to Thursday as Nissan board members gathered in the conference room near the top of the 22-story Yokohama HQ to jettison the boss credited with saving the company. The meeting started just after 4:00 p.m. and crowds of journalists huddled outside were told it would last probably a couple of hours. In the event, the five Japanese and two Frenchmen joining by video-conference spent more than double that time scouring the allegations. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Saikawa saw the two French executives — former Renault men Jean-Baptiste Duzan and Bernard Rey — as “very close” to Ghosn and needed more time to explain the scope of the internal investigation which had worked for months in secret to gather evidence. By the time the briefing was over, “everyone was at a loss for words,” according to the Asahi. Outside, photographers snapped every black saloon car exiting the building and reporters speculated feverishly on social media that the meeting could be over. But inside, a rare vote was taking place. Executives were asked to vote on the motion to dismiss Ghosn as chairman by simply saying “agree.” By 9:30 p.m., Ghosn’s fate as head of the company he had turned around was sealed. Nissan announced he had been sacked as chairman. Unanimously.
|
taxes;nissan;renault;carlos ghosn;japan
|
jp0009258
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Tokyo stocks extend rally on brisk U.S. equities
|
Stocks rose further on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, tracking an overnight advance in U.S. equities. The 225-issue Nikkei average gained 224.62 points, or 1.02 percent, to 22,177.02, its first finish above 22,000 since Nov. 12. It climbed 140.40 points Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 9.50 points, or 0.58 percent, at 1,653.66, after advancing 11.96 points the previous day. The key market gauges extended their winning streaks to a fourth session, thanks to the yen’s weakening against the dollar and a solid performance of Chinese stocks in addition to higher U.S. stocks, market sources said. “A sense of relief spread” among investors thanks to higher U.S. share prices, an official of an asset management firm said. Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division at Akatsuki Securities Inc., indicated that the Tokyo market attracted buybacks after the recent sharp falls. Wednesday’s rise reflected growing hopes for a successful summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, Fujii said. Such expectations were fueled by remarks by U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow showing an optimistic view about the closely watched summit, Fujii said. Kudlow said Tuesday that Trump sees a good possibility that the United States and China can reach a trade deal at the summit. On the TSE’s first section, rising issues far outnumbered falling ones 1,416 to 612, while 85 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.388 billion shares from 1.325 billion shares Tuesday. Kao Corp. closed 4.79 percent higher after the cosmetics maker announced Tuesday its development of a new technology to make a skin-like substance by spraying ultrathin fibers onto consumers’ skin, brokers said. Messaging app provider Line Corp. was also upbeat after announcing Tuesday its plan to offer online banking services in partnership with Mizuho Financial Group Inc. Other major winners included Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. and clothing retailer Fast Retailing Co. By contrast, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Subaru Corp. met with selling on a news report that Trump could impose tariffs on imported vehicles as early as next week, brokers said. Also on the minus side were optical equipment-maker Olympus Corp. and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny Holdings Co. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average rose 230 points to 22,230.
|
stocks;nikkei;tse;markets;topix
|
jp0009259
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Dollar rises close to ¥113.90 in Tokyo trading
|
The dollar rose close to ¥113.90 in Tokyo trading Wednesday, supported by higher Japanese stock prices. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.86-87, up from ¥113.58-59 at the same time on Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1277-1278, down from $1.1311-1311, and at ¥128.42-42, slightly down from ¥128.48-48. The dollar was aided by a rise in the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average and the Shanghai Composite stock index. “A view that Washington could win a trade war with Beijing continued to support the dollar” ahead of a summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. “Risk appetite has been growing on the back of higher Japanese and U.S. stock prices, as U.S. plans to raise tariffs on imports from China next year have been factored into the market,” an official of a major Japanese bank said. For now, market players are paying keen attention to a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell set for later on Wednesday. Powell is expected to signal the Fed’s intention to raise interest rates gradually, an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. “If this happens, an upward pressure will be put on the dollar,” the official said.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex;currencies
|
jp0009260
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Nissan's executive pay may have topped shareholders' ¥3 billion cap for fiscal 2017, sources say
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Nissan Motor Co.’s executive remuneration for fiscal 2017 may have exceeded the nearly ¥3 billion cap set by shareholders, with a large sum going to arrested former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, sources said Wednesday. While only ¥735 million ($6.5 million) was stated in the company’s securities reports as remuneration for Ghosn in the year that ended March, the sources said the payment to him may have actually been about ¥2.5 billion. In that case, Nissan may have paid Ghosn, who is facing allegations of falsifying securities reports, and other executives a total of more than ¥2.99 billion in fiscal 2017, eclipsing the cap that was adopted at a general shareholders’ meeting in 2008. The act could be a “grave breach of trust” to shareholders that could even lead to the delisting of the company, some experts say. Under company rules, remuneration payments for each executive should be decided through talks involving the chair of the board and representative board members. But the sources believe that Ghosn, the 64-year-old who led the company for nearly 20 years, had effectively been deciding the sum alone. Ghosn was arrested last week by Tokyo prosecutors for allegedly violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act by underreporting his remuneration by around ¥5 billion over five years to March 2015 . Prosecutors say he actually received ¥10 billion over the period. The prosecutors are also considering building a case against him on the suspicion that he underreported a further ¥3 billion in remuneration received over three years from April 2015. Ghosn has denied intending to falsify the financial statements, but admitted that he did not include in the documents part of the remuneration he was set to receive when he retires because the “payments have not been settled,” according to the sources. Ghosn allegedly believed he should receive some ¥2 billion annually as remuneration. But authorities suspect he instructed Greg Kelly, a former Nissan representative director who was arrested along with him for alleged conspiracy, to submit that he earned ¥1 billion a year in securities reports and was planning to receive the remaining amount after retirement. The post-retirement payment that was not reported was allegedly about ¥8 billion over the eight years from fiscal 2010. According to the sources, Ghosn is apparently trying to argue the validity of a purported document that showed Nissan agreed on the payment, arguing that he has not signed it. Under the financial instruments law, remuneration needs to be disclosed in a securities report when it is fixed, even if the actual payout is planned in the future. Kelly has denied any wrongdoing, according to his family lawyer in the United States who is offering him legal advice. “He absolutely believes what he did was legal. He believes it was appropriate. He believes it was with company interest, and he also believes he is not guilty of any criminal conduct, be it in Japan or be it in the United States,” Aubrey Harwell, a lawyer in Tennessee, said in a phone interview. Harwell also said Kelly “had plans to be with his family back in the (United) States for Thanksgiving,” but he is now in a “difficult situation” as he is detained and being subjected to interrogation. In a separate revelation, Nissan’s auditor had repeatedly questioned transactions at the heart of allegations of financial misconduct by Ghosn but Nissan said they were proper, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC questioned Nissan’s management several times, chiefly around 2013, about purchases of overseas luxury homes for Ghosn’s personal use and of stock-appreciation rights that were conferred on him. But the automaker said the transactions and financial reporting were appropriate, the source said on condition of anonymity. The revelation shows Nissan and its auditor were discussing the transactions, in apparent contrast with Nissan’s contention that the alleged misreporting of benefits for Ghosn was masterminded by Ghosn and Kelly. A spokesman for Ernst & Young ShinNihon, the Japanese affiliate of global accounting firm Ernst & Young, said he could not comment on specific cases. A Nissan spokesman declined to comment. Ghosn remains in custody and is unable to speak publicly. He is represented by former prosecutor Motonari Otsuru, according to media. Otsuru’s law firm declined to comment on Wednesday, and Otsuru has not responded to requests for comment. Nissan has largely pinned the blame on Ghosn and Kelly. “As a result of the investigation, we are certain these two are the masterminds,” CEO Hiroto Saikawa told a news conference on Nov. 19, referring to Ghosn and Kelly. He declined to say whether others at Nissan were involved in the alleged wrongdoing. An internal investigation is ongoing, and Nissan says it is cooperating with prosecutors. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. have removed Ghosn as chairman in the wake of his arrest. The French member of the three-firm alliance, Renault SA, retains him as chairman and CEO. Ernst & Young ShinNihon questioned Nissan management about Zi-A Capital BV, asking whether the Dutch unit — which purchased the overseas homes for Ghosn’s use — was conducting business in line with its stated aim as an investment company, said the source, who is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The carmaker said Zi-A was conducting its business appropriately, the source said. Japanese media have valued the transactions at more than ¥2 billion. Similarly, the source said, the auditor asked whether the stock-appreciation rights — which are like stock options but pay out in cash if a share rises to a certain price — should be declared, but Nissan replied that was not necessary. Japanese media say the rights were worth some ¥4 billion. Ernst & Young ShinNihon had been auditor for Toshiba Corp. and Olympus Corp. during financial scandals at the two companies in recent years.
|
scandals;nissan;renault;carlos ghosn;pay
|
jp0009263
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/28
|
South Korea moves closer to space launch vehicle with successful rocket engine test
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SEOUL - South Korea on Wednesday successfully conducted a rocket engine test launch, officials said, paving the way for the development of its own space launch vehicle. Video footage showed the single-stage rocket, propelled by a liquid fuel engine, lift off from the Naro Space Center on the southern coast and surge into the sky, trailing yellow and blue flames. “The test vehicle was successfully launched,” Vice Science Minister Lee Jin-gyu told journalists, adding collected flight data showed the engine was functioning normally. The rocket, weighing 52 tons and measuring 25.8 meters (84.6 feet) long, was fitted with a single engine with 75-ton thrust, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said. The engine, designed and developed as part of a $1.8 billion project, will be used to propel the country’s first indigenous three-stage launch vehicle — the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2). Engine combustion lasted for 151 seconds, surpassing an initial goal of 140 seconds, bringing the vehicle to an altitude of 75 km (46 miles) before the engine stopped. But it continued flying due to inertia, reaching a suborbital altitude of 209 km, 319 seconds after liftoff. It then splashed down into the ocean 429 km southeast of the southern resort island of Jeju. “This is a significant step forward in developing a launch vehicle with our own technology,” a KARI spokesman said. It is the first such launch in South Korea since 2013 when the country successfully put a small satellite into orbit following failures in 2009 and in 2010. But the significance of the 2013 launch was widely discounted as the launch vehicle had to rely on a Russian-developed engine for its first stage. On its launch — scheduled for 2021 — KSLV-2 will use five of the newly developed engines, a cluster of four for the first stage, another one for the second stage and a small, 7-ton thrust engine for the third stage, Lee said. Wednesday’s test was deemed successful as the engine combustion was maintained for more than 140 seconds during the test launch, he said. The KSLV-2 rocket, which will be South Korea’s first space vehicle wholly designed and built by itself, will be used to place satellites into the Earth’s orbit and for other commercial applications.
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space;south korea;astronomy
|
jp0009264
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Gene-edited baby trial 'paused': Chinese scientist
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HONG KONG - The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world’s first genetically-edited babies said Wednesday the trial had been paused, following an international outcry over the highly controversial procedure. He Jiankui defended his work in front of a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference, saying he had successfully altered the DNA of twin girls born to an HIV-positive father, an apparent medical first. A total of eight volunteer couples — HIV-positive fathers and HIV-negative mothers — had signed up to the trial, with one dropping out before it was halted. He said there had been “another potential pregnancy” involving a second couple, but when questioned further agreed it had been a chemical pregnancy — a term referring to a very early miscarriage. “I must apologize this result was leaked unexpectedly,” He said of the apparent breakthrough. “The clinical trial was paused due to the current situation.” The conference has been upended by the gene-edited baby revelations claims, after university professor He posted a video claiming the twin girls — born a few weeks ago — had had their DNA altered to prevent them from contracting HIV. The move prompted a heated debate among the scientific community, with many raising concerns over the lack of verified data and the risks of exposing healthy embryos to gene editing. Editing human embryos can create unintended mutations in other areas — so-called “off-target effects” — which can be carried through to birth, experts warned. But He took to the stage Wednesday to justify his work, and was bombarded with questions as he told the audience that the parents were aware of the potential dangers when they signed up. “The volunteers were informed of the risk posed by the existence of one potential off-target and they decided to implant,” he said. He also said the university where he works had been “unaware of the study’s conduct.” Southern University of Science and Technology, in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, had earlier distanced itself from He, saying he had been on unpaid leave since February and had “seriously violated academic ethics and codes of conduct.” Organizers of the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, which opened Tuesday, also said they had been unaware of He’s work. Conference moderator Robin Lovell-Badge said He’s trial was a “backward step” for the science industry, but described the babies’ birth as “momentous” nonetheless. “This is an example of an approach that was not sufficiently careful and cautious and proportionate,” he said. “Clearly however it is a point in history. … These two babies would appear to be the first gene-edited babies. So it is a momentous point in history.” Summit chair David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate, said there had been “a failure of self-regulation by the scientific community because of a lack of transparency.” He’s claim would “be considered irresponsible,” Baltimore said. He, who was educated at Stanford University, said the twins’ DNA was modified using CRISPR, a technique which allows scientists to remove and replace a strand with pinpoint precision. Gene editing is a potential fix for heritable diseases but it is extremely controversial because the changes would be passed down to future generations and could eventually affect the entire gene pool. In many countries the editing of human DNA is tightly controlled. Qiu Renzong, formerly the vice president of the Chinese Ministry of Health’s ethics committee, told reporters at the conference that lax regulations in China mean that scientists who break the rules often face no punishment, and think of the ministry as being “without teeth.” China’s National Health Commission ordered an “immediate investigation” into the case, the official Xinhua news agency reported, while the Shenzhen hospital meant to have approved the research program denied its involvement. A union of Chinese scientists issued a statement saying it “resolutely opposes so-called scientific researches and biotech applications that violate the spirit of science and ethics,” Xinhua said. The case has damaged China’s international reputation in the field, said the Chinese Union of Life Science Societies. This is not the first time Chinese researchers have experimented with human embryo technology. Last September, scientists at Sun Yat-sen University used an adapted version of gene-editing to correct a disease-causing mutation in human embryos. There is also a history of fraud within China’s academic community — including a scandal last year that led to the withdrawal of 100 “compromised” academic papers. A joint statement Monday from a group of 100 scientists in China criticized He Jiankui’s claims and called them a “great blow to the global reputation and development of biomedical research in China.”
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china;genetics;ethics;he jiankui
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jp0009265
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Philippine President Duterte's 'death squad' plan causes concern among rights groups
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MANILA - Rights groups raised fears Wednesday after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced plans to create a “death squad” targeting suspected communist rebels, saying it would worsen the “calamity” triggered by his deadly drug war. The Philippines’ 50-year fight against communist militants, one of Asia’s oldest insurgencies, long pre-dates his anti-narcotics crackdown that has killed thousands and drawn international censure. Duterte, like previous governments, initially held peace talks with the communists but shelved negotiations last year over deadly attacks against soldiers and police. In a speech Tuesday night, he took aim at the communist rebels’ hit squads known as “sparrow units.” “What I lack is my own sparrow. That is where they (communists) have an edge … So I will create my own sparrow, Duterte Death Squad against the sparrow,” the president said. “I will match their talent also for assassinating people,” he added. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday his team would study the plan “very closely. Who will compose it, who will supervise it, who will be the targets,” adding there was “great danger of abuse.” Since negotiations with the rebels broke down, Duterte also formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA) as terrorist organizations. The low-level, simmering insurgency has claimed 30,000 lives by the government’s count. The founder of the Communist Party, Jose Maria Sison, said on Wednesday that “sparrow units” only existed in the 1970s and 1980s at the height of the insurgency. “He is inventing so many sparrow units to justify his own death squads which are illegal,” Sison told ABS-CBN television. The president’s announcement drew immediate concerns from campaigners, who said the death squad would worsen the already lethal environment encouraged by the drug war. Police say they have killed nearly 5,000 alleged users and pushers, while rights groups say the toll is at least triple that and could amount to crimes against humanity. “His (Duterte’s) statement is a declaration of open season against rebels, leftists, civilians, and critics of the government,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “This new policy will only worsen the ongoing drug war-fueled human rights calamity in the Philippines.” Amnesty International also expressed alarm, citing the practice of labelling government critics as communist rebels or sympathizers. “What is scary is that anyone can be a target,” the group’s human rights officer Wilnor Papa said.
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human rights;philippines;crime;death squads;president rodrigo duterte;police
|
jp0009266
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/28
|
North Korea's Kim reportedly open to inspections at main Nyongbyon nuclear complex
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Exactly a year since nuclear-armed North Korea last tested a missile — its most powerful to date — news has emerged that leader Kim Jong Un is open to inspections at his country’s main nuclear complex. Citing a senior diplomatic source, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday that Kim is willing to let inspectors visit the Nyongbyon nuclear site. Kim had told South Korean President Moon Jae-in during their September summit that he would be willing to shutter the complex if the U.S. took “corresponding” measures. “I understand that Chairman Kim told (South Korean) President Moon (Jae-in) during their summit in September that if the U.S. took corresponding steps he would not only be willing to shut down the Nyongbyon nuclear facilities but also allow verification,” Yonhap quoted the source as saying. The source said Moon passed the message on to U.S. President Donald Trump when the two met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York later that month. While the proposed shutdown — in exchange for reciprocal moves — had been previously reported, the offer to allow inspectors at the site had not. According to international experts, Nyongbyon houses a 5-megawatt reactor, centrifuges, fissile materials such as uranium and plutonium for bombs, and other facilities and equipment. Asked about reports of North Korean willingness to allow inspectors in and whether there had been new developments, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that she was “not aware of any of that,” but noted Kim had agreed to inspections in a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently. “That’s something the secretary and Chairman Kim had agreed to and spoken about when the secretary was in Pyongyang about a month ago or so,” Nauert said. “So that’s something they agreed to and we look forward to Chairman Kim fulfilling his commitments.” It was not clear from her remarks whether Kim had specifically said inspectors could visit the Nyongbyon facilities. Critics have lambasted the offer to close the facility as merely for show, pointing to a number of other known and unknown nuclear sites. Some have even claimed that Nyongbyon had been built specifically for the purpose of allowing for its later dismantlement — while maintaining its clandestine sites. The last time North Korea allowed international nuclear inspectors into Nyongbyon was in 2009. Trump has repeatedly boasted about what he says are North Korean steps toward denuclearization, hailing the absence of missile or nuclear tests since last year and the return of remains of U.S. service members killed in the 1950-53 Korean War as “incredible progress.” Pyongyang’s last missile test — of its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts believe is capable of striking most, if not all, of the United States — was on Nov. 28, 2017. Trump has faced criticism over his claims, with some saying there is no evidence the North has taken significant steps toward denuclearization, despite the president’s remarks to the contrary. At a landmark June summit in Singapore, Kim agreed to a vaguely worded 1½-page joint statement to “work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” while Trump committed to “provide security guarantees” to the regime. But there has been little progress since, with denuclearization talks between the two countries effectively deadlocked. Talks were dealt another blow Wednesday, when it emerged that the top CIA official in charge of Korea affairs will resign at the end of the year, reports said. Andrew Kim, head of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, tendered his resignation effective Dec. 20 to move to a research post at Stanford University, Yonhap quoted a senior official at South Korea’s National Intelligence Service spy agency as saying. The Korean-American official played a key role in negotiations with North Korea before and after the Trump-Kim summit. The State Department’s Nauert declined to confirm the retirement, but served up praise for his accomplishments. “Andy Kim is fantastic,” Nauert said according to a transcript of a Tuesday news conference. “Andy Kim has been a great partner of Secretary Pompeo, not only at the agency, and I can’t speak for them, but certainly here at the State Department as well.”
|
u.s .;north korea;kim jong un;nuclear weapons;south korea;north korea nuclear crisis;donald trump;kim-trump summit
|
jp0009267
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Japan's Upper House begins debate on bill to expand use of foreign labor
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Debate on a bill to accept more foreign blue-collar workers began Wednesday in the House of Councillors after the ruling bloc forced it through the Lower House the previous day despite an outcry from opposition parties. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito are seeking passage of the bill during the ongoing Diet session that continues through Dec. 10. Meeting that schedule would allow the major immigration policy shift — an attempt to address serious labor shortages caused by an aging population and falling birthrate — to take effect in April. Opposition parties have argued for closer scrutiny of the bill. Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, lambasted the ruling camp for having “bulldozed” the House of Representatives’ deliberations on Tuesday. “Why on earth did such an empty bill clear the Lower House? I can’t hide my anger about the (ruling bloc) railroading it without taking questions,” he said at a meeting of the party’s Upper House members. Many opposition lawmakers have claimed the bill lacks details, and expressed concerns that specifics would be decided through ministerial ordinances without Diet deliberations. They also showed frustration that the bill was only deliberated for 15 hours and 45 minutes by the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee, which was shorter than the amount of time spent on other controversial bills in recent years. But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference that the Lower House had held “enough” discussions over issues related to the bill, which was also debated by the chamber’s Budget Committee. In a rare move, Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima on Tuesday called on the government to explain the “whole picture” of the new system to the Diet before the revised immigration law takes effect, showing a degree of consideration for the views of the opposition. On Wednesday morning, the LDP and Komeito agreed to abide by Oshima’s request, with LDP Diet affairs chief Hiroshi Moriyama saying, “It’s important to obtain public understanding and cooperation.” Meanwhile, opposition parties confirmed they would work together to block enactment of the legislation. CDP Diet affairs chief Kiyomi Tsujimoto told reporters the party will “seek to scrap the bill.” In rural areas where labor shortages are acute and many foreign laborers from overseas are expected to arrive, anxiety has been growing over a lack of preparations for helping them adapt to life in Japan — including with Japanese-language education and medical assistance. “Local governments would be in trouble unless the state prepares responsibly (for the inflow of foreign workers),” Iwate Gov. Takuya Tasso said Wednesday at a news conference. The ruling bloc rushed to wrap up Lower House deliberations in time for Abe’s departure Thursday for the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. So far, Japan has basically accepted the arrival of only highly skilled foreigners such as professors and doctors. But the bill under debate is expected to allow in many blue-collar workers from overseas in 14 sectors deemed to be suffering from labor shortages, ranging from nursing care to food services and the construction industry. Under the envisioned scheme, two new types of residence status for non-Japanese workers are expected to be created. The first, valid for up to five years, will be given to workers with certain skills but will not allow their family members to accompany them. The second new status will be for foreign nationals needed in fields that require higher levels of skill. The government does not plan to limit the number of visa renewals under this second status, paving the way for them to effectively live indefinitely in the country. The government has estimated that the nation would accept up to 47,550 foreign workers in the first year from next April, and up to 345,150 over five years. The number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record 1.28 million as of last October, doubling from 680,000 in 2012, according to the labor ministry. Chinese nationals make up the largest group at around 370,000, followed by Vietnamese and Filipinos.
|
immigration;ldp;diet;jobs;expats;labor shortage
|
jp0009268
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/28
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Tokyo avoids criticizing Moscow over Ukraine issue ahead of talks on Russian-held islands off Hokkaido
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Japan’s government has so far refrained from criticizing Russia over its recent firing on and seizure of Ukrainian naval ships by Russian coast guard vessels, ahead of the start of territorial negotiations with the Russian government. At a news conference Tuesday, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami said, “We hope that all the parties involved will exercise self-restraint and (that) the situation will calm down.” He stopped short of naming Russia. The Kremlin warned Tuesday that Ukraine’s declaration of martial law over Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian ships might trigger a flare-up in hostilities in eastern Ukraine, while Kiev blamed Russia for parading captured Ukrainian seamen on television. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for Sunday’s confrontation in the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The clash has raised the specter of renewing a full-blown conflict in eastern Ukraine, and has seen Russia strongly criticized at the United Nations by the United States and its allies. The Ukrainian Parliament on Monday adopted a motion proposed by the president to impose martial law for 30 days. The move is something Ukraine had avoided, even when Russia annexed its nearby Crimean peninsula in 2014 or sent in clandestine troops and weapons to insurgents in the country’s war-torn eastern regions. Tokyo’s position is to oppose any attempts to change the status quo by force, placing emphasis on freedom of navigation. But regarding the latest incident, which is highly likely to raise tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Nogami only referred to the importance of watching developments and concerns over a possible deterioration in the Ukrainian situation. As the United States and European countries step up criticism against Russia, a senior Foreign Ministry official admitted that the Russian acts do represent an attempt to change the status quo by force. But another senior government official showed reluctance for Japan to become involved in the problem, saying it is a faraway issue for this country. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to hold talks on the sidelines of the two-day summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in Buenos Aires from Friday. The two leaders agreed at a summit meeting in Singapore earlier this month to accelerate bilateral talks on a World War II peace treaty based on the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration, which calls for the return of Habomais and Shikotan, two of the four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty. The Singapore agreement will form the basis of the upcoming Abe-Putin talks. As Abe is determined to maintain a good relationship with Putin, the Ukraine problem would have no impact on the Japan-Russia territorial negotiations, a government source said.
|
shinzo abe;vladimir putin;russia;disputed islands;northern territories;ukraine;russia-japan relations
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jp0009269
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Liberal Democratic Party won't present Constitution revision plan to Diet this year
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has given up its plan to present draft amendments to the pacifist Constitution to the ongoing extraordinary Diet session, sources close to the matter said Wednesday. In a policy speech in the Diet last month, Abe expressed his strong desire to present his party’s constitutional revision plan during the current session through Dec. 10. The party is now expected to present its proposal during the ordinary Diet session from January. Abe’s administration is prioritizing a bill to bring more blue-collar workers into the country. The LDP-led coalition bulldozed the controversial bill through the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Deliberation on the bill in the House of Councilors began Wednesday and the ruling coalition hopes to get the bill passed by Dec. 10. Abe seeks to realize the first-ever revisions to the supreme law by changing its war-renouncing Article 9, which bans the maintenance of war potential, to end academic debate over the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces. The Constitution took effect in 1947 during the U.S.-led postwar Occupation. The Lower House Commission on the Constitution will be held Thursday for the first time in this Diet session.
|
shinzo abe;ldp;constitution;diet
|
jp0009270
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Japan gets mixed assessment from U.N. over efforts to curb greenhouse gases
|
OSAKA - The United Nations warned Tuesday that current national commitments to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient to meet a 2030 reduction goal, and that unprecedented and urgent action is required by all nations — especially from members of the Group of 20 — to ensure global warming stays well below 2.0 to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In its annual update on the global emissions gap, the United Nations Environment Program said only three G20 nations including Japan were on track to meet their nationally determined contribution targets under their current policies to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. Japan, which accounted for 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions last year, has committed to reducing its emissions by 3.8 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 26 percent below 2013 levels by 2030. But the nation is only currently predicted to achieve a 7.5 percent decrease in emissions by 2030, the report added. To cap global warming at 2.0 C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), national carbon-cutting pledges annexed to the 2015 Paris Agreement must collectively triple by 2030, according to the report. Based on current trends and policies, temperatures are on track to rise roughly 4 C by the century’s end — well past a global “tipping point” that could see unprecedented storms, draughts, and the extinction of many species. The U.N. report was released on the eve of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, which begins Friday and where climate change and agricultural production are expected to be discussed. The release also comes ahead of U.N. climate talks starting next week in Katowice, Poland. Given the urgency of reducing emissions and capping global warming to 2.0 C — and, more ideally, 1.5 C — the role of so-called nonstate actors, especially the private sector and local governments, in setting their own decarbonization policies is now key to implementing greenhouse gas reduction goals, the report said. The report did note, however, that the impacts of such measures are limited and uncertain, and that nonstate actors around the world need to adopt common principles when formulating their actions. In July, to help meet or surpass the goals of the Paris agreement at the local level and in the private sector in Japan, the Japan Climate Initiative was formed. In a telephone news conference with journalists Thursday night, Eri Nakajima, vice governor of Nagano Prefecture and a representative of the JCI, noted that the group consists of 300 local governments, private sector partners, research institutions, and NGOs and that many members, like Nagano, were formulating decarbonization policies that were far more ambitious than the national government’s efforts. “After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, we in Nagano realized the limits of a centralized, fossil fuel-based energy system. So we established a sustainable energy strategy that set a goal of greenhouse gas emission reductions of 30 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels,” Nakajima said. “This strategy also covers local policy measures, such as the promotion of increased efficiency in renewable energy.” That said, she added that in the case of Nagano the promotion of certain types have renewables have brought a new set of complaints. “We’re increasing renewable projects in Nagano. But environmental groups are protesting because some big companies have cut down forests to develop large scale mega-solar energy projects,” she said. “This kind of balance between biodiversity, and nature conservation and decarbonization is very important.”
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global warming;united nations;climate change;undp;environment
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jp0009271
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/28
|
Hiroshima introduces interactive map to get tourists to visit A-bomb sites off the beaten path
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HIROSHIMA - Hiroshima has unveiled the Hiroshima Peace Tourism project, which includes an interactive map showing routes intended to help visitors view the city’s many memorial sites beyond just the Atomic Bomb Dome in the Peace Memorial Park, the main and only destination for about half of tourists. “We want visitors to understand and appreciate the city’s commitment to peace,” a city official said. The Fukuromachi Elementary School Peace Museum, for example, is only a 10-minute walk from the Atomic Bomb Dome. It became a relief station after the bomb was dropped, and a wall inscribed with the words of those asking about the fate of their loved ones remains preserved and on display. But it receives few visitors. According to Masatoshi Yamamoto, 72, a graduate of the elementary school and now part of the museum’s management, only about 10 people come each day. On some days, he said, nobody shows up before noon. Many buildings that survived the atomic blast remain preserved and on display throughout the city. These include several museums with no admission fee. Visitors to Hiroshima, mainly from other countries, increased after 2016, when then-U.S. President Barack Obama visited the city. But many visitors just go to the Peace Memorial Park and then head for Itsukushima Shrine, a world heritage site in the city of Hatsukaichi. Visitors don’t spend much time and money in the city of Hiroshima, officials say. As part of the Peace Tourism project, the city has released recommended routes online. A walking route around the Atomic Bomb Dome includes surviving buildings such as the Fukuromachi Elementary School Peace Museum, the former Bank of Japan Hiroshima branch and Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum. Other routes take in memorial spots, including ruins of the Chugoku Regional Military Headquarters, which is said to be the first to have reported about the atomic bombing. Fukuya Department Store, which survived the blast and remains in business to this day, is also a recommended spot. The building was forced to close during the war as it was used by the army and state-owned companies, but in 1951 the building’s prewar store space was re-established. Tourists will be able to see photos and learn about these sites as they follow the city’s routes, which use GPS tracking to show their location. Hiroshi Harada, 79, former director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and now the head of a panel for the Peace Tourism project, said communication between the city’s numerous facilities had been disconnected. “Setting these routes will serve as a pillar of the city’s tourism on the theme of peace,” he said. “We want visitors to feel that, above all else, Hiroshima seeks peace.”
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wwii;history;hiroshima;tourism;peace;atomic bombings
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jp0009272
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/11/28
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Wall Street Journal says Carlos Ghosn enduring 'bizarre inquisition' in Japan
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NEW YORK - Ousted Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn is enduring a “bizarre inquisition” in Japan, a Wall Street Journal editorial said Tuesday. He has been “held in detention for days without being charged, interrogated by prosecutors without a lawyer present, and fired from his post amid media leaks claiming he’s guilty of financial malfeasance,” the U.S. business daily wrote. “Communist China? No, capitalist Japan, where … Ghosn is enduring a bizarre inquisition,” said the editorial printed in the paper’s Tuesday edition and headlined “The Ghosn Inquisition.” Japan’s judicial system allows detention of suspects for up to 23 days without charges being filed. “Such treatment is more appropriate for a yakuza mobster than an international CEO with no previous record of fraud or self-dealing,” the editorial said. The allegations that he underreported his pay in Nissan securities reports are “odd in that Nissan should long have been aware” of the practice, the article noted. It indicated that behind the arrest was friction between Nissan and its top shareholder and alliance partner, Renault SA. “You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to look at these events and wonder if they are part of a larger effort to end Mr. Ghosn’s plan to merge Nissan with Renault,” said the editorial. It added that without more transparency in investigations, “the Nissan ambush will stand as a black mark on Japanese business.”
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media;courts;scandals;nissan;carlos ghosn;police
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jp0009273
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/17
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Diet discussion halted after Justice Ministry says data in survey on missing foreign trainees was miscalculated
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The ruling coalition dropped a plan to start substantive deliberations in the Diet on Friday on a bill that would increase the number of foreign workers in the country amid a major backlash from opposition parties over errors in a related government survey. At an executive meeting of the Lower House Committee on Judicial Affairs, the government revealed that there were errors in its survey on missing foreign trainees. The opposition camp accused the government of undermining Diet talks on the bill. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan submitted a motion to dismiss the Lower House committee’s chairman, Yasuhiro Hanashi of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, for not halting proceedings despite the revelation of the survey errors. The motion is expected to be voted down at a plenary Lower House meeting Tuesday. On Friday, the judicial committee was set to hear explanations on the bill by Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita and hold a question-and-answer session between the ruling bloc and the government. The delay in the start of the parliamentary deliberations is likely to make it difficult to enact the bill by end of the ongoing extraordinary session on Dec. 10, the target set by the government, raising the possibility of the session being extended. For the 2017 survey in question, the Justice Ministry interviewed foreign trainees who had left jobs without authorization but were later found. Following the discovery of counting errors, the government revised the number of interviewed foreign trainees from 2,892 to 2,870, and the percentage of interviewees who said they fled trainee posts to seek higher wages was revised from 86.9 percent to 67.2 percent. “We’ll carefully explain the errors during Diet deliberations,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Friday, while reiterating the government’s hope for the bill’s enactment during the current session.
|
shinzo abe;ldp;diet;foreign workers;cdp
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jp0009274
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/17
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Japan Post seeks law revision to end delivery of ordinary mail items on Saturdays
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Against the backdrop of labor shortages and a fall in demand for postal services, Japan Post Co. has requested a law revision to allow it to limit deliveries of ordinary postal items to weekdays. The company currently delivers mail even on Saturdays based on the postal law requiring deliveries at least six days a week. The request was made Friday to a subcommittee of the Information and Communications Council, which advises the internal affairs and communications minister. Japan Post also sought changes in the law so it can see its next-day delivery obligation lessened. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications aims to introduce an amendment bill to the next ordinary Diet session starting in January. Estimating that net losses in the mail business will expand by as much as ¥20 billion each year, the Japan Post Holdings Co. unit hopes to shift personnel currently assigned for Saturday mail deliveries to its parcel delivery operation, which has been enjoying rising demand, company officials said.
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japan post;deliveries;mails
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jp0009276
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/17
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Keidanren faces flak for falling behind the times despite change in leadership
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The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) published an article on June 17 that was critical of the Japan Business Federation ( Keidanren ), a lobbying organization made up of more than 1,300 of the country’s biggest companies. The Nikkei has always been in Keidanren’s corner, so it was something of a shock to read a story suggesting that the organization appears to be incapable of changing with the times . The Nikkei more than likely had high hopes when Keidanren appointed Hiroaki Nakanishi of Hitachi Ltd. to the organization’s top post in May. Nakanishi was credited with saving Hitachi, which Nikkei described as a “sinking battleship,” and he seemed to possess a greater international sensibility than previous chairpersons in his position. However, not much had changed. All 18 current vice chairpersons were men over the age of 60. No foreign or information technology companies were represented. Only seven had ever worked abroad. Most significantly, there were no entrepreneurs or self-made businesspeople on the board. Every member was an organization man, having worked his way up the ranks within his respective company in Japan in a conventional way — namely, the lifetime employment system wherein one climbs the ladder through seniority. The Nikkei’s position that Keidanren should enter the 21st century was prominent in another article that appeared Oct. 16 , which covered a news conference in which SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda announced a joint venture to promote new mobile services. Toyoda said the venture was his company’s idea but that he couldn’t imagine entering such a field without Son’s help. Son expressed surprise that a company like Toyota wanted to work with him. The Nikkei pointed out that Toyota executives have headed Keidanren in the past but the organization has never been lead by someone such as Son, who was mostly educated in California and created his mobile communications behemoth “in the course of one generation.” Perhaps for those reasons, Japan’s business establishment has not recognized Son as one of its own. The Nikkei implied he could be the kind of chairman who would bring a progressive sensibility to Keidanren. Many students are no longer interested in joining Japan’s legacy companies due to what they see as these companies’ bureaucratic structures. Young entrepreneurs are less likely to “respect” the classic “salaryman leadership system.” Having someone such as Son in charge could mean a change in the federation’s outlook. Keidanren is obviously thinking about this matter because Nakanishi recently announced a shift in the organization’s university recruitment schedule . At present, Keidanren rules state that member companies should not invite prospective employees to recruitment sessions until the last month of their third year of study, meaning March. Job interviews in turn cannot start until the following June. Nakanishi wants to do away with these restrictions starting with the 2021 graduating class. Since more and more “excellent” students are interested in companies that aren’t members of Keidanren, the federation needs to relax its recruitment schedule in order to compete in what has become a sellers’ market. Last spring, the hiring rate for new graduates was 98 percent . As Dokkyo University economics professor Maki Fukasawa argued on a recent edition of Bunka Hoso’s “Golden Radio,” however, how can Keidanren members seriously think about attracting today’s graduates without changing a work culture that repels many of them? More significantly, the standard recruitment system, regardless of the schedule it follows, requires that new university graduates only be hired at the time they graduate, and an increasing number of companies, particularly foreign ones, don’t follow this system. They hire workers regardless of their age and whenever they want, based on the candidate’s experience and the companies’ needs. In fact, many young people these days think of their first job as a stepping stone. They aren’t interested in lifetime employment with one firm. They want to build a career and that tends to involve changing jobs. “A lot of my students now go overseas for work opportunities,” Fukasawa said, suggesting that they sidestep the whole process. Not everyone in the government is thrilled by this development. A Nov. 3 Asahi Shimbun column reported on a government-sponsored meeting that discussed the proposal to change Keidanren’s recruitment rules and concluded the present system should remain as it is in order to provide a level playing field for companies looking to hire new employees. The column’s pseudonymous author, who thinks the whole system should be done away with, points out that it’s rife with cheating. Many Keidanren members do not follow the recruitment schedule, anyway, since it is nonbinding. Companies and students who do follow the rules are at a disadvantage. Keidanren would appear to be moving forward by eliminating at least part of the system, the author says, while the government wants to keep things as they are. So do universities or, at least, private institutions, which are afraid that companies will be able to recruit students at anytime if schedule restrictions are relaxed, after which they will simply stop studying. However, that concern begs the question: Why are they studying in the first place? The author of the article in the Asahi Shimbun feels that if Japan wants to develop the kind of human resources that can compete in the world, then it needs to foster an educational environment that “maximizes students’ market value.” Keidanren’s recruitment rules are arguably self-serving and short-sighted, and while the government has always done the bidding of the business community — its controversial foreign worker acceptance policy is being implemented at Keidanren’s insistence — it also wants to maintain its authority in the area of education. Universities, on the other hand, just want to stay in business. Such a confluence of interests isn’t going to produce another Masayoshi Son anytime soon.
|
keidanren;japan business federation;hiroaki nakanishi
|
jp0009277
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/17
|
Live-action Pokemon trailer reaffirms Pikachu's enduring popularity
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Ever since the original release of the “Pokemon” games for the Nintendo Game Boy back in 1996, the series’ central character — the electric, yellow rodent Pikachu — has found a permanent place in the world’s pop-culture zeitgeist. Pikachu has since shown up everywhere, including on countless pieces of merchandise, an annual parade in Yokohama and even in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade . If you think Pikachu’s best days are behind him, you might want to head to your nearest Pokemon Center and revive yourself. Last week saw a shocking amount of Pikachu love on the internet that moviegoers, gamers and foodies will enjoy. The long-awaited “Detective Pikachu” trailer dropped on Nov. 12 and took social media by storm. The preview, which accumulated more than 20 million views in around 24 hours, will finally let Pikachu speak his mind, as he is voiced by none other than “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds. (Yes, technically Pikachu did speak briefly during a hallucination sequence in the “Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You!” of 2017 but let’s not talk about that.) The movie won’t be animated but will instead feature CGI Pokemon with fur and scales living in modern day, a style that both delighted and horrified some people online. IGN posted a video titled “Are Detective Pikachu’s live-action Pokemon cool or creepy?” while the BBC published an article titled “‘Gross’ furry Pokemon divides fans.” Twitter user @yuragi_oO , meanwhile, tweeted “The ‘Detective Pikachu’ movie is too scary. Kids will cry if they watch this.” One of the people behind the film’s controversial art direction is artist RJ Palmer, whose “realistic Pokemon” drawings have been blowing up on Twitter , Tumblr and DeviantArt for years. Thanks to his popular drawings that turned Pokemon from kawaii (cute) to kowai (scary), Palmer was contracted to work on the movie and redesign some of the most iconic Pocket Monsters. People have been posting memes and artwork about the trailer since it was released, including a tweet that received more than 100,000 likes and features the evolution of Pikachu from a crude, pixelated outline to a 3D monster with realistic fur. Before the movie trailer was shared online, however, the Pikachu hype train was already in full speed due to the Nov. 16 release of the newest “Pokemon” games for Nintendo Switch . Titled “Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!” and “Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee!” the latest entries will let players relive the original 1996 debut games in this 3D remake. (Not surprisingly, the “Pikachu” version of the game seems to be selling better on Amazon Japan.) To help market the game, Nintendo is taking a “real” Pikachu and Eevee on a tour in the United States, from California all the way to New York, letting visitors try out the game and even take a picture with their favorite Pocket Monster. One Twitter user posted photos of the event, noting that the long drive was “worth it when my daughter got to see Eevee & Pikachu.” If you would rather eat Pikachu than hug him, you’re in luck (if not a little weird). Mister Donut is now selling Pikachu- and Pokeball-shaped donuts as a marketing tie-in with the new games. Your results may vary, however. One Twitter user posted a photo of a rather deformed-looking Pikachu donut with lopsided eyes and an odd mouth that received more than 80,000 likes on the site. Others followed suit with their own photos of subpar sweets, forcing Mister Donut to suspend the Pokemon offerings temporarily and go back to the drawing board until it can nail down the perfect Pikachu recipe. If that doesn’t satisfy your Pikachu cravings, a pop-up Pikachu & Eevee cafe is also traveling around Sapporo, Fukuoka, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, offering such treats as Pikachu curry, lattes and more. No matter where you are in Japan, it looks like people just can’t get their fill of Pikachu.
|
nintendo;pokemon;pikachu
|
jp0009278
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/17
|
Nippon TV's top program rocked over allegation that it fabricated content at foreign 'festivals'
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Major broadcaster Nippon Television Network Corp. has been forced to suspend a segment on foreign festivals on its popular variety show after a weekly magazine reported earlier this month that the program fabricated some of the content. The program “Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q,” in which a popular comedian participates in unique festivals around the world, invented festivals in Thailand and Laos, according to the weekly Shukan Bunshun. The Thai “festival” featured in a broadcast in February last year involved a competition to harvest cauliflowers. The Laos one, broadcast this May, involved crossing a small wooden bridge on a bike. The variety show, which airs on Sundays, has a viewer rating of about 20 percent in the Kanto region, making it Nippon TV’s most popular program. “I apologize for creating suspicion and worries,” Nippon TV President Yoshio Okubo told a news conference on Thursday while denying the program set out to deceive. “There was no intention of fabrication or making things up,” he said. “The production team stretched the concept of the festival too much and featured some events as festivals, even though they were difficult for viewers to imagine as festivals,” he said. Okubo said a company in charge of coordinating overseas shooting for the variety show was involved in organizing some of the festivals, proposing festival projects or paying prize money from the budget for shooting expenses. An internal probe will investigate about 110 aired tapes, the president said, adding the broadcaster will consider whether to punish people involved with the program. A TV watchdog, the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization, has demanded that Nippon TV report on the issue. Some in the industry fear the alleged fabrication may make people lose trust in broadcasters at a time when an increasing number of people, particularly youth, are said to be turning away from TV amid the rise of the internet and social networking services. “We’re in an era when even a lie regarded as acceptable in the industry leads to ruining viewers’ trust in us,” said a senior official of a major broadcaster. “We must be aware of their strict attitude.” Takahiko Kageyama, a professor of media theory at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, said, “Producers tend to think news reports and variety shows are different, but for the viewers, they are both the same TV broadcast. Creators should never forget that.”
|
television;shukan bunshun;nippon tv
|
jp0009280
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/17
|
Kansai business community sees future foreign worker influx with both hope and concern
|
OSAKA - The news last week that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government is preparing to admit up to 345,000 foreign workers by 2023 has been met with a combination of hope they will help prop up agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors that are struggling to find workers, and concern that Abe has rushed through an immigration policy that will create massive social problems. This mixture of hope and fear is clear in the Kansai business world. The Kansai Economic Federation and the Osaka Chamber of Commerce, after long insisting it was “too soon” and the climate was “not right” to talk about more foreign workers, finally began earnest public discussions a few years ago. But their talks focused on more high-skilled foreign workers whose knowledge would benefit large corporations involved in critical industries or small businesses producing innovative technologies. Give us your strong, your wealthy, your educated, your prosperous middle or upper middle class masses, yearning to start, but not finish, their careers in Kansai. That sounded like the unspoken message. Nobody seemed willing to talk about bringing in “lower skilled” construction workers, farmers, and service industry employees. No longer. Today, much of the local business community recognizes the need for foreign workers who don’t have Ph.D.s in electrical engineering or MBAs. But not everyone. The reluctance in parts of Kansai reflects concerns elsewhere that politicians will have to address. If not now, then on the campaign trail when nationwide local elections take place in April 2019, followed by an Upper House election next summer. A survey conducted by the Kansai Economic Federation and the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in September among 430 firms showed a stark difference in attitude toward foreign workers between large corporations, which have the resources to assist them in their transition to life in Japan, and small and medium-sized enterprises, which cannot, or simply will not, support anything other than their training. While only 30 percent of Kansai’s large firms said they had no plans to hire foreign workers, 63 percent of small and medium firms replied they would not take on foreign staff. Concerns about foreign workers included worries about their ability to communicate in Japanese (79 percent of all respondents), doubts about their ability to adapt to the way Japanese firms operate (48.7 percent), and fears that the firm will see their labor management and logistical burdens increase (27.1 percent). More than a quarter (26 percent) also cited having to account for the religious views of foreign workers as an issue. Only 11.8 percent were nervous about worsened public security with more foreign workers. Just 8.6 percent expressed concern about their effect on the employment of Japanese workers. The debate about accepting foreign workers in Kansai, like the national debate, often seems driven by the needs of powerful corporations. Yet, as human rights groups have warned, it is folly to “accept” foreign workers into a company and then ignore the social environment in which they live. The possibility of xenophobic attacks in the form of online hate speech, anti-foreigner rallies or even physical attacks must be addressed by local governments and, better still, national legislation. To their credit, Osaka Prefecture and Osaka city were among the first in Japan to take local steps to crack down on groups engaging in hate speech. It’s far more difficult to hold anti-foreigner rallies in Osaka than it was a few years ago. Of course, local governments can only advise Tokyo on how they deal with local foreign residents. But if Tokyo is smart, it will consider the best administrative practices of local governments like Osaka as the basis for national legal protections for foreign workers, protections needed now more than ever. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.
|
osaka;foreign workers;kansai region;graying society;labor shortage
|
jp0009281
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/11/10
|
Body of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi dissolved in acid, poured down drain: Turkish newspaper
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ANKARA - The killers of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi poured his remains down the drain after dissolving him in acid, a Turkish newspaper reported Saturday. Samples taken from the drains at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul showed traces of acid, the pro-government daily Sabah said, without quoting sources. This led investigators to believe the dead body of the insider-turned-critic of the Riyadh regime was disposed of through the drains as liquid, the paper said. Khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain documents for his forthcoming marriage. His body has never been found. After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted the 59-year-old had been murdered at the mission in a “rogue” operation. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the “highest levels” of the Saudi government of ordering the hit, while some officials have pointed the finger at the all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Erdogan, suggested last week the body may have been dissolved in acid. And on Monday, a Turkish official said Saudi Arabia sent two experts to Istanbul with the specific purpose of covering up evidence after the murder. Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, took to Twitter on Thursday, writing, “I’m unable to express my sorrow to hear about dissolving your body Jamal!” “They killed you and chopped up your body, depriving me and your family of conducting your funeral prayer and burying you in Madinah as wished.” A Turkish official this week confirmed a Sabah report that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team sent from Saudi amid investigations into the murder. The paper said they visited the consulate every day from their arrival on Oct. 11 until Oct. 17. Saudi Arabia only allowed Turkish police to search the building on Oct. 15.
|
murder;saudi arabia;crime;istanbul;jamal khashoggi
|
jp0009282
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/10
|
Rape victim details South Korean military crackdown during Chun's '79 coup
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SEOUL - It is nearly four decades since South Korean protester Kim Sun-ok was raped by an army officer after a crackdown on democracy demonstrations, and she still cannot bear the sight of a green uniform. Kim was a fourth-year music education student in May 1980 when she went out to buy books but instead found a body in the street, riddled with gunshot wounds. Hundreds of thousands of people in Gwangju, a traditional hotbed of democratic sentiment, had risen in protest against a military coup by Gen. Chun Doo-hwan. Chun, who was seeking to fill a power vacuum following the assassination of dictator Park Chung-hee, launched a bloody crackdown, leaving more than 200 civilians dead or missing, according to official figures. Kim’s ordeal — for which South Korea’s defense minister apologized on Wednesday — is a microcosm of the trauma that endures from the decades of dictatorship in South Korea, despite its transformation into a robust democracy and the home of K-pop. After seeing the corpse, instead of returning home, Kim joined protesters at the provincial government building in the southern city, helping with loudspeaker broadcasts and issuing press IDs. She left the facility — the demonstrators’ last holdout — before troops retook it but was arrested weeks later while working as a trainee teacher. “‘Here comes a female commander,'” interrogators taunted when she was brought to a military prison, she said. Incarcerated for more than two months, she was beaten with sticks, kicked, punched and forced to kneel for hours on end. Finally an interrogator sporting a major’s insignia treated her to a bowl of bibimbap — a Korean mixture of rice and vegetables — at a restaurant before raping her at an inn. “As I was physically wrecked by torture, I was unable to fight back at all, and this makes me angrier now than the fact that I was subject to torture,” Kim said in her first interview with foreign media. “I still can’t bear seeing anyone in a green uniform,” said Kim, now 59. “Just the sight of such clothes sends my heart rate rushing.” The Gwangju uprising is a touchstone event for the South Korean left. After the advent of democracy, Chun was convicted of treason and corruption and was sentenced to death, though the sentence was commuted. He was later pardoned with the backing of Kim Dae-jung, the first liberal to be elected president, who had a limited power base and sought reconciliation rather than recrimination in the face of entrenched vested interests. Divisions persist in South Korean society. Conservatives view the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion, and Chun last year published a controversial memoir denying responsibility for the bloodbath, damning key witnesses as liars. Despite a price of 150,000 won ($135), it sold more than 20,000 copies. At the time of the pardon, current President Moon Jae-in was a human rights lawyer and one of the activists pushing for wider investigations. He made Gwangju a campaign issue last year and has launched inquiries into the actions of past military dictatorships and conservative administrations. His administration was looking to “restore the status of the Gwangju pro-democracy protests in history” said Yoon Sung-suk, professor of political science at Chonnam University — Kim’s alma mater — while at the same time using them to shore up its public support. Kim herself was instrumental in one of the probes. Chun’s troops were long believed to have carried out widespread sexual assaults against women, but the issue was swept under the carpet because traumatized victims remained reluctant to come forward. Emboldened by South Korea’s growing #MeToo movement, Kim told a television interviewer about her experiences in May. An official probe later confirmed 17 cases of rape and sexual assault, the victims including teenagers and women unconnected to the protests. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo issued a formal apology, bowing in regret for the inflicting of “unspeakable, deep scars and pain” on “innocent women” who were raped and subjected to “sex torture” by soldiers cracking down on protests against Chun’s military coup. After raping Kim, the man told her to “forget what has happened so that you may live on.” A few days later, she was released and allowed to return to her teaching job after signing a written pledge to keep silent and behave herself. She was under regular surveillance during her 20 years working as a music teacher, and has suffered long-lasting consequences from the assault — even attempting suicide. “I’ve been living through the past four decades like a mute with deep wounds in my mind,” she said. Kim appeared before the government inquiry and believes it has identified and traced her assailant — adding that unless he is punished, “a million apologies would be meaningless.” “I am grateful that my testimony served as a catalyst in investigating what has been left untold so far,” she said. “I decided to come out with the truth to put this behind me before I die.”
|
history;military;women;protests;south korea;sex crimes;chun doo-hwan;park chung hee;kim sun-ok
|
jp0009283
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/10
|
47 Japanese confirmed safe after flash floods in Jordan
|
ISTANBUL - A total of 47 Japanese have been confirmed safe in the historic city of Petra in Jordan after flash floods hit sightseeing spots in the area on Friday, Japanese officials there said. The 47 consist of 45 tourists and two tour guides, none of whom were injured, they said, adding that the Japanese Embassy in Jordan is trying to confirm whether there were any other Japanese in the area. Led by one guide each, the two groups were in the city when the floods struck and more than 10 of the members could not be accounted for immediately. Petra, an ancient city believed to date back to 9,000 B.C., was designated a World Heritage Site by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1985.
|
weather;jordan;rain;floods
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jp0009284
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/10
|
Japan's news outlets weigh in on Jumpei Yasuda's culpability in Syria kidnapping
|
Freelance reporter Jumpei Yasuda gave a three-hour news conference at the Japan National Press Club on Nov. 2 about his hostage ordeal, describing in detail how he was kidnapped after entering Syria in 2015 and then held for more than three years. He also discussed the situation in the Middle East and why it was important for Japan to know about what was happening in the region. However, many people seemed only interested in one thing — whether Yasuda would apologize to the government and the public for putting himself in harm’s way. As expected, based on past hostage incidents involving Japanese nationals, when Yasuda was released last month, the news was met with criticism of his “personal responsibility” ( jiko sekinin ). The government discourages individuals and groups, including those involved in news-gathering activities, from working in conflict areas, its message being that anyone who does go to such a place is responsible for whatever happens to them, which presumably means they’re on their own. Of course, the government is expected to do everything in its power to help Japanese who get into trouble overseas, but victims of kidnapping and the like typically face fierce resentment in Japan when they’re freed because they are seen to have flouted official directives for self-serving reasons. A Canadian man who was also recently held captive in Syria explained to Kyodo News that he, too, was roundly condemned after his release by people who said he “deserved” what he suffered, but the main difference between this man and Yasuda is that the former is not a journalist. Yasuda received condemnation not only from the Japanese public, but from some in the Japanese media — that is, his own profession. On Fuji TV’s lunchtime information program, “Viking,” guests commented on the news conference as it was broadcast live and, according to the web magazine Litera , no one in the studio seemed to care much about Yasuda’s explanation of the situation in Syria. They only cared about an apology, which Yasuda delivered at one point. “I’m relieved he finally apologized and thanked people,” comedian and former Miyazaki Prefecture Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru said. “If he hadn’t, I would have stood up and walked out.” Since Higashikokubaru was not physically at the news conference, it’s difficult to say what “walking out” would have accomplished. Comedian Teruyuki Tsuchida was not impressed, saying he wasn’t interested in listening to stories about Yasuda’s years of captivity. “I want to hear the Q&A as soon as possible,” he said. Lawyer and former Diet lawmaker Katsuhito Yokokume was more understanding, praising Yasuda’s “detailed and logical” explanations, but he was bothered that Yasuda didn’t discuss how he felt about becoming a hostage or what he thought when he heard the government had become involved in his case. He wanted Yasuda to talk more about his “remorse.” This line of inquiry continued into the adjoining information program, “Chokugeki Live Goody,” since the news conference hadn’t finished. In passing the baton to “Goody” host Yuko Ando, “Viking” host Shinobu Sakagami complained that for three hours Yasuda had just “talked about his situation” rather than the public’s main concern — his personal responsibility. Ando, who, unlike the participants on “Viking,” is a career journalist, took up this concern. She seemed disappointed that “at the core” Yasuda didn’t talk much about jiko sekinin. Although it would seem that as individuals most journalists do not resent Yasuda, media companies have institutionalized the government’s restrictive position. In a different article in Litera , former Kyodo reporter Osamu Aoki says that as far back as the Vietnam War, domestic news organizations have never sent reporters into conflict areas, relying instead on freelancers. If they do report on conflicts, it’s usually through correspondents who are far away from any fighting. Even when the Fukushima nuclear disaster happened in March 2011, companies told their reporters to evacuate, which meant all news came through the authorities. Aoki says these companies don’t want to pay compensation if anything happens to their employees. Using freelancers is cheaper, because if something does happen, they aren’t responsible. What’s troubling about this attitude is that it runs contrary to the spirit of journalism. Yasuda wanted to convey to the Japanese public, in their own language and in terms that made sense to them, why the Syrian civil war was creating so many refugees. Toru Tamakawa, a regular commentator on TV Asahi’s “ Shinichi Hatori Morning Show ,” said that journalists safeguard “democracy” by bringing to light the issues of the moment and, in that regard, Yasuda should be welcomed home as a “hero.” Veteran reporter Taro Kimura elaborated on this idea in his column for the Tokyo Shimbun . In 1973, when he was working for NHK, he covered the effects of the oil embargo on Japan, when consumers panicked and started hoarding toilet paper. Kimura realized that the situation in the Middle East was influencing the lives of average Japanese, but no one was reporting on it from there. He talked NHK into sending him to Beirut, where he was stationed as civil war raged in Lebanon. The background of that war was deep and complex, and could only be understood by someone on site. Yasuda was doing the same thing, wrote Kimura, and while foreign news organizations can convey what’s going on, they aren’t going to do it with the concerns of Japanese people in mind. Reporters such as Yasuda will. As for understanding the dangers, that is an essential part of the job. Yasuda fully accepted the risks, even if he misjudged them. Kimura’s point is valid, but he’s talking from the standpoint of a dedicated journalist whose work is invested in the need to know. What he doesn’t mention is whether the Japanese public, or media companies in general, share the same desire.
|
kidnapping;syria;jumpei yasuda
|
jp0009285
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/10
|
Illustrators use social media to highlight the minutiae of everyday life in Japan
|
Garbage collectors perform a service that is essential to the functioning of society, and yet their contributions are often overlooked. Whatever a person’s social standing, however, it doesn’t mean their observations on life aren’t worth examining. Social media allows anyone to attract attention if they offer up an interesting perspective on life. Garbageman Shuichi Takizawa encapsulates this state of affairs succinctly on his Twitter account. The Adachi Ward-born worker creates comics about life collecting trash and shares them on his Twitter account . 『ゴミ清掃員の日常』 ・息子が始めたごみ分別 を「漫画」にしてみました #ゴミ清掃員の日常 pic.twitter.com/6qExyTG1T9 — マシンガンズ滝沢 (@takizawa0914) August 10, 2018 Takizawa, who also works as a comedian, has managed to attract a sizeable audience online by sharing his experiences on the job. His illustrations can rack up myriad likes and retweets — one recent offering boasts more than 76,000 retweets — and, in September, he even managed to publish a book on the subject . Most importantly, however, he’s offering followers an insight into the daily lives of garbage collectors in Japan. 『ゴミ清掃員の日常』 ・ペットボトル工場 を「漫画」にしてみました。 #ゴミ清掃員の日常 #このゴミは収集できません pic.twitter.com/66ONccC8Wn — マシンガンズ滝沢 (@takizawa0914) October 19, 2018 Takizawa is just one example of someone using online illustrations to share a perspective that rarely attracts much attention in Japan, let alone in traditional media spaces. A wide variety of Japanese people have used illustrations on social media to offer followers a sneak peek into their lives, whether they be parents on the northwestern coast of the U.S. or employees of a manga cafe in Japan . Social media can help expose people to new viewpoints that originate from all kinds of unlikely places. The internet was originally created so that people could “share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries.” For the time being, the jury’s still out on just how well humanity is doing in this regard and yet, in spite of the doubts, the web continues to be a great space for independent creators. In Japan, blogging services such as Ameba helped fledgling comics creators to blossom in the 2000s, with a memorable example being the popular family-centric “ Uchi no Sanshimai .” In recent years, however, social media has also become increasingly influential as far as artists are concerned, as it is far easier to have your work shared on platforms such as Twitter. This state of affairs has subsequently produced a healthy community of social media creators such as Qrais and Mojiji , who have gone on to earn physical releases and theme cafes , respectively. These days, however, comic artists on social media tend to focus on the minutiae of everyday life in Japan. Many discuss what it’s like to raise kids, homing in on the funnier moments in particular. That’s certainly the draw of “ Gyuunyu Niki ,” which chronicles the daily existence of a mother and her two kids as they go to Sylvanian Families’ toy events and draw animals . It’s simple, but it has managed to attract more than 200,000 followers on Twitter . It’s a genre also highlighted by creators such as @horahareta13 and @aomuro , who mix stories about their kids with fairly ordinary topics. Others bring more unique situations to their digital panels, such as a comic focused on the challenges of a Japanese mother raising a baby while in Seattle (featuring bonus commentary on American culture ). Moving beyond toddlers, these funny takes on the benign cover everything from raising sneaky cats to enjoying meals , complete with recipes. The prevalence of such ho-hum observations was once one of the biggest criticisms leveled at social media — namely, “Why would I want to see what someone ate for lunch?” (In 2018, however, I imagine many users these days go so far as to wish their feeds were actually filled with pictures of Instagram-worthy sandwiches.) Online comics offer Japanese netizens something equally easy to digest, with plenty of humor thrown into the mix. At their best, online comics bring a new perspective to situations that many don’t think about in their daily life. In a popular comic from earlier this fall, an artist reflected on their time in a part-time job at a manga cafe , touching on a series of illuminating challenges. Another found an artist recounting the time she worked with Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on a project , only for the organizers to mess up and try to charge her money for their screw-ups. Her tale angered many and, hopefully, made some aware of the challenges freelancers face (OK, I admit it — I’m projecting here). Take a look at comics made by @ringoanu on Twitter. This creator drew attention online at the start of 2018 with a series focusing on a woman who isn’t really sure what the point of life is as she goes through the daily grind. Many could relate to the comic’s musings, especially if they were feeling similarly bleak . If nothing else, such illustrators have managed to establish a connection with readers online, who are both surprised by the frankness of the drawings and as well as finding plenty to relate to.
|
twitter;ameba;uchi no sanshimai
|
jp0009288
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Dollar dips below ¥112.80 in late Tokyo trading
|
The dollar was weak below ¥112.80 in late Tokyo trading Monday, with its downside backed by purchases reflecting firm Tokyo stock prices. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥112.75-75, down from ¥113.29-30 at the same time Friday. The euro was at $1.1407-1411, up from $1.1343-1343, and at ¥128.62-62, up from ¥128.51-52. The dollar dropped to levels around ¥112.60 in early trading following its weakness Friday in New York due to a decline in U.S. long-term interest rates. The U.S. developments came after Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida said the Fed should stop raising interest rates when its policy rate hits a neutral level, adding that the U.S. central bank is close to that point. Later in Tokyo, the U.S. currency cut losses to approach ¥112.80, buoyed by a firm start of the Nikkei 225 stock average. After falling below ¥112.70 again, the dollar recovered to levels near ¥112.80 in the afternoon, as U.S. long-term interest rates stopped falling and the Nikkei average held steady. “Hopes for easing of U.S.-China trade friction withered” after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum member economies failed to adopt a joint communique at their summit in Papua New Guinea on Sunday, a currency market broker said. “The dollar rebounded, but its rally was weak,” the broker continued. If U.S. stocks bottom out on positive developments on the trade front, the dollar will rise against the yen, an official of a foreign-affiliated securities firm said.
|
exchange rates;forex;currencies
|
jp0009289
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Tokyo stocks rally as investors seek out bargains
|
Stocks bounced back Monday as investors snapped up bargains after recent declines. The Nikkei 225 average rose 140.82 points, or 0.65 percent, to end at 21,821.16. On Friday, the key market gauge fell 123.28 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, finished 8.31 points, or 0.51 percent, higher at 1,637.61 after losing 9.67 points Friday. Stocks moved mostly higher, assisted by repurchases of beaten-down issues including semiconductor-related companies and electronic parts makers, brokers said. “Individual investors were seen as major bargain buyers today,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. The official added that overall trading was thin, however. Explaining the day’s rally, Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Toyo Securities Co., pointed to investor hopes for some easing of U.S.-China trade friction ahead of a planned summit between the world’s largest economies as early as the end of this month. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday his country may not slap more tariffs on Chinese products if Beijing makes some more concessions, providing a lift to U.S. equities that day. “For the Tokyo market to stage a full-fledged recovery, external uncertainties need to be cleared,” an official of a midsize securities firm said. Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,289 to 756 in the first section, while 67 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.286 billion shares from 1.424 billion Friday. Higher semiconductor-related names included Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Screen Holdings, Sumco and Shin-Etsu Chemical. Electronics parts makers Murata Manufacturing, Alps Electric and Kyocera fared well. China-linked issues advanced on hopes for the U.S.-China summit, brokers said. Among them, industrial equipment manufacturers Fanuc gained 1.93 percent and Yaskawa Electric 3.04 percent. Other major winners were mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and game maker Nintendo. On the other hand, lower U.S. interest rates battered financial names, such as mega-bank group Mitsubishi UFJ and insurer Dai-ichi Life. Also lower were clothing retailer Fast Retailing and Shizuoka Bank.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009290
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/19
|
SoftBank's new robot Whiz skips the chit chat, gets to work mopping office floors
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SoftBank Group Corp. is introducing a new robot that, unlike the talkative Pepper, skips the chit chat and just mops the floor. Whiz, an autonomous floor-cleaning machine for businesses, will go on sale in Japan in February, the company announced Monday. The 32-kg machine is powered by self-driving software and an array of sensors from Brain Corp., a San Diego-based startup that is part of SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund. It will be available for rent for ¥25,000 a month. Pepper, SoftBank’s first foray into robotics, was marketed as a companion in the home and as a sales assistant on the shop floor. While that robot is capable of expressing humanlike body language, keeping eye contact and engaging in limited small talk, it failed to catch on. Brain doesn’t make its own hardware. It focuses instead on developing software that endows machines with autonomy in closed environments. “At Brain, we want to see the future where robots are everywhere,” Eugene Izhikevich, founder and chief executive of Brain, said at a briefing in Tokyo. “We want to enable this revolution.” The robot comes with a handle which a human uses to “teach” it the layout of the space that needs cleaning. After that it can perform the task autonomously. The machine comes equipped with a laser range finder, 3D camera, collision sensor and a battery that can power it for as long as three hours. It can operate safely even when humans are present. SoftBank itself pays about ¥180,000 a month for a crew of three people to tidy its own headquarters, said Kenichi Yoshida, chief business officer at SoftBank Robotics. Because floor cleaning accounts for about 40 percent of the work, using Whiz could shave about ¥35,000 off that bill, Yoshida said.
|
softbank;robots;whiz
|
jp0009291
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Carlos Ghosn, the auto world's 'cost killer,' won praise in Japan for hard-nosed, workaholic image
|
PARIS - Brazilian-born Carlos Ghosn has long stood out among the world’s auto executives as a hard-nosed workaholic able to get a troubled company back on its feet quickly. As head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, Ghosn has created an industrial behemoth, its combined 470,000 employees selling 10.6 million vehicles last year from 122 factories around the globe. But the combined group now looks troubled after Japanese police arrested Ghosn on suspicion he failed to report his full compensation to stock market authorities as chairman of Nissan. Nissan’s board has said it will seek his removal after a monthslong inquiry prompted by a whistleblower uncovered “significant acts of misconduct.” Long nicknamed “Le Cost Killer” in France, Ghosn began his career with the tire maker Michelin and, after a early stint in Brazil, was quickly promoted and earned a reputation for turning around its North American operations. From there, he was recruited by Renault in 1996 to work alongside then CEO Louis Schweitzer where he helped return the company to profitability. Just three years later, he was sent to head the newly acquired Nissan group with the challenge of doing the same thing within two years. He managed it within one. The performance made him a hero in Japan, where manga comics are devoted to the suave businessman known for always being up before dawn after just six hours of sleep a night. “A boss has to have 100 percent freedom to act and 100 percent responsibility for what he does. I have never tolerated any wavering from that principle, I will never accept any interference,” he once said. Crossing borders has never been a problem for 64-year-old Ghosn. His Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French and English are fluent, and he has picked up a working knowledge of Japanese during his time at Nissan. Born in Brazil on March 9, 1954, to Lebanese parents, he was reportedly able to distinguish types of cars at the age of 5 just by the sound of their horns. At the age of 6, he went to live in the Lebanese capital Beirut with his mother and attended a Jesuit high school there. Later he went to Paris where he picked up degrees at two of France’s most elite schools, including the Polytechnique engineering university, and he has a French passport. After restoring Renault and Nissan to sound financial footing, he soon shifted into higher gear by pressing hard to develop electric cars, one of the first in the industry. Yet he also fiercely guarded his personal time with his wife and four children. “I do not bring my work home. I play with my four children and spend time with my family on weekends,” he once told Fortune magazine. “When I go to work on Monday … I come up with good ideas as a result of becoming stronger after being recharged.” But the hefty pay packages that have come with his success have at times raised hackles, not least with the French government, which owns 20 percent of Renault. His combined compensation reached €13 million ($14.8 million) last year, according to the corporate governance advisory firm Proxinvest. In 2016 the French state joined 54 percent of voters at the automaker’s annual meeting in refusing to authorize a €7.25 million pay package for his position at Renault. The vote was overruled by Renault’s board, but Ghosn later accepted a pay cut after Emmanuel Macron, France’s finance minister at the time, threatened to step in with a new compensation law. Relations have eased since then, with the government approving a new mandate for Ghosn as Renault CEO in exchange for a 30 percent pay cut and the nomination of Thierry Bollore, his expected successor, as his deputy.
|
scandals;nissan;carmakers;carlos ghosn
|
jp0009292
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Two years after Philippines 'divorced' U.S., President Rodrigo Duterte still waiting on China dividend
|
MANILA - Two years after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced a divorce with old ally the United States in return for bumper business ties with China, he doesn’t have much to show for it. Duterte left Beijing in 2016 with $24 billion of Chinese loans and investment pledges for his ambitious infrastructure overhaul, a few weeks after saying the Philippines was being treated like a dog by Washington and would be better off with China. But only a fraction of China’s pledged support has materialized, exposing Duterte to criticisms he has been complicit in allowing China to pose threats to Philippines’ sovereignty, and been left high and dry by Beijing. When President Xi Jinping visits the Philippines this week, Duterte will need the Chinese leader to put his money where his mouth is and help Duterte justify his geopolitical concessions to a historic rival, according to Richard Heydarian, a Manila-based defense and security analyst. “Otherwise, we can definitely conclude that there’s really nothing much in the rhetoric and the Philippines has been taken for a ride,” Heydarian said. “Duterte’s naivety with China has been a slam dunk strategic coup for China, no doubt about it.” Philippine’s Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said it would be unreasonable to expect all the Chinese pledges to come through after only two years, but officials are hopeful intervention by Xi after his visit could help. “We’re very optimistic this will, their head of state, will pressure their bureaucracy to speed up the process,” he said last week. Duterte’s signature “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, the centerpiece of his economic strategy, involves 75 flagship projects of which about half are earmarked for Chinese loans, grants or investments. But according to publicly available Philippine government documents reviewed by Reuters, only three of those — two bridges and an irrigation facility worth a combined $167 million — have so far broken ground. The rest, including three rail projects, three highways and nine bridges, are at various levels of planning and budgeting, or are awaiting Chinese government approval for financing, or the nomination of Chinese contractors. ‘Positive results’ China’s Foreign Ministry said major projects agreed by both sides “are proceeding smoothly and continue to achieve positive results.” China wanted to boost trade and investment and “promote the early commencement of building of even more agreed upon projects,” the ministry said in a statement. Committed Chinese investments in the Philippines in the first half of this year were just $33 million, about 40 percent of that of the United States and about a seventh of Japan’s, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, tracking a similar trend the previous year. Trade between China and the Philippines has picked up significantly, but data suggests mostly in China’s favor. Chinese exports to the Philippines grew 26 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from the same period a year earlier, outpacing its imports from Manila, which grew 9.8 percent. Net foreign direct investment from China has, however, surged to $181 million for the first eight months of this year, from $28.8 million for all of 2017, according to the Philippine central bank. Pressure needed Duterte has made a point of praising China effusively and confessing his “love” for Xi. He even jokingly offered his country to Beijing as “a province of China.” Many ordinary Filipinos as well as international lawyers and diplomats are incensed by Duterte’s refusal to even raise with China the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s (PCA) 2016 award that ruled in the Philippines’ favor, and invalidated Beijing’s claim to most of the South China Sea. Instead, Duterte is seeking an agreement with China to jointly explore offshore gas at the disputed Reed Bank in the resource-rich and strategic waterway. Some lawmakers fear that could be tantamount to recognizing Beijing’s claim to a site that the PCA ruling said China has no sovereign rights to under international law. Duterte has also been against Southeast Asian countries taking a united stand against China militarization and at a regional summit last week, he warned against causing friction, because the South China Sea was “now in their (China’s) hands.” Heydarian said if Duterte is unable to show an economic dividend from his China gambit, it could weaken his hand ahead of 2019 mid-term elections that might determine the success or failure of his presidency. To stand a chance of delivering on his policy agenda, Duterte needs his allies to command a majority in Congress and the Senate to ensure key legislation is passed to enable reforms aimed at generating revenue, attracting investment and creating higher-quality jobs. “If after Xi Jinping’s visit, there’s still no big move by China to invest in the Philippines, if China’s militarization and reclamation will just continue unabated, you’re going to have a situation where Duterte will come under extreme pressure,” he said. “The opposition is going to use that to pin down Duterte and his allies as Chinese lackeys.”
|
china;philippines;xi jinping;rodrigo duterte
|
jp0009294
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/19
|
APEC's relevance called into question after forum fails to reach deal on communique amid Sino-American clash
|
PORT MORESBY - The “C” in APEC stands for Cooperation. But when the two biggest members are fighting a trade war and using the forum to attack each other’s policies, it was always going to be hard work delivering on that. The weekend’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby was one of open disagreement, led by disputes between the United States and China over trade, security, and who would be the better investment partner for the region. As APEC approaches its 30th anniversary, the failure to agree on a communique for the first time calls into question its relevance in a crowded summit calendar and as the Trump administration makes clear its aversion to multilateralism. “It does mark the death of APEC’s founding trade vision,” Euan Graham, executive director of La Trobe Asia at Australia’s La Trobe University, said on Twitter, adding APEC was the “most disposable of the regional summits.” Rather than cooperation, the theme seemed to be conflict and containment as Beijing and Washington directly criticized each other’s policies and staked their claims as to why they were the security and investment partner the Pacific should choose. “It’s not even supposed to be binding, it’s APEC,” said one diplomat involved in negotiations for the communique, surprised that the members couldn’t agree on what is usually a humdrum summary of issues discussed. “China and the U.S. hijacked the APEC spirit, I suppose,” the diplomat added. The United States even preferred its own terminology of Indo-Pacific, which it defines as running from “the western shores of Latin America to the furthest reaches of the Indian Ocean,” with Vice President Mike Pence mentioning APEC five times and Indo-Pacific 41 times in his APEC speech Saturday. Founded in 1989 with a view to fostering trade and economic ties around the Pacific Ocean, it operated at a ministerial level until 1993 when U.S. President Bill Clinton established the annual leaders meeting. Each meeting had produced a joint statement at its conclusion, until Sunday. “This is very concerning from a systemic perspective. The WTO faces similar challenges,” said Charles Finny, a Wellington-based trade consultant and a former New Zealand government trade negotiator. In an editorial, Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said the absence of a communique was “not a big deal,” and placed more significance on an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders are expected to meet at the Group of 20 summit, which starts in Argentina next week. “It is hoped Washington makes serious preparations for the summit and not pin its hopes on exerting pressure,” said the tabloid, which is known for its nationalistic stance. Still, there did seem to be some Chinese concern over the communique, with officials rebuffed on Saturday when they tried to meet Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato on the issue. Pato confirmed that Chinese officials had wanted to see him, but said they had not made “necessary arrangements.” As the APEC host it was Papua New Guinea’s role to produce a communique. But the hostility and conflicting visions on display meant few blamed the group’s poorest country for being caught between two feuding superpowers. “In these times, chairing a gathering such as the leaders that we had over the last few days is no easy task,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, adding Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill had shown great integrity and leadership. Indeed, one big change was long-forgotten Pacific nations found themselves aggressively courted by the two big-spending superpowers competing for influence in the strategically important ocean. Pence said the United States would join Australia to help Papua New Guinea build a navy base on its Manus Island, which was a U.S. base in World War II, after China had emerged as a possible developer of the deep-water port. Analysts had said a Chinese presence on Manus could have impacted the West’s ability to navigate in the Pacific while offering China a site close to U.S. bases in Guam. And the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand unveiled a $1.7 billion plan to bring electricity and the internet to much of Papua New Guinea, a collective counterattack to the lure of Beijing’s flagship Belt and Road program. “Whatever concepts have been raised by the United States or China or Australia doesn’t necessarily mean that these are the same concepts for Papua New Guinea,” Wera Mori, Papua New Guinea Commerce and Industry Minister said by phone. “We have our own situations and our own priorities to focus on.”
|
china;u.s .;trade;apec
|
jp0009295
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/19
|
After finding no takers, Rohingya repatriation, relocation plans pushed back to 2019
|
COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH - Bangladesh’s plans to tackle the Rohingya refugee crisis have been stalled until the new year with repatriation and relocation programs only likely to be revisited following year-end general elections, a top Bangladeshi official said on Sunday. Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told Reuters “a new course of action” needed to be adopted on repatriation that took into account refugees’ key demands. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled a sweeping army crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, according to U.N. agencies. The crackdown was launched in response to insurgent Rohingya attacks on security forces. Rohingya refugees say soldiers and Buddhist civilians killed families, burned many villages and carried out gang rapes. U.N-mandated investigators have accused Myanmar’s army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar has denied almost all the accusations, saying its forces engaged in a counter-insurgency operation against “terrorists.” In late October, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to begin to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled, but the plan has been opposed by the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the U.N. refugee agency and aid groups, who fear for the safety of Rohingya in Myanmar. The repatriation of the first batch of 2,200 refugees was to begin officially on Nov. 15, but it stalled amid protests at the refugee camps. None of those on the list agreed to return if their demands for justice, citizenship and the ability to go back to their original villages and lands were not met. “I don’t think anyone’s agreeing to go back without these,” said Kalam, who last week called on the international community to pressure Myanmar to accept certain “logical and acceptable” demands in order for any repatriation to take place. Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya a native ethnic group and calls them “Bengalis,” suggesting they belong in Bangladesh. It has agreed to take the Rohingya back and said they would need to accept the National Verification Card, which it says would allow Rohingya to apply for citizenship. The Rohingya reject the card, saying it brands them foreigners. Kalam said he believed Myanmar needed to propose a “clearer path” to citizenship for the Rohingya if any returns were to take place, adding he would raise the matter at the next bilateral meeting on repatriation, likely to take place next month. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay was not reachable on Sunday for comment. With Bangladesh now set to go to the polls on Dec. 30, any decision either to repatriate people, or relocate refugees from the crowded camps to Bangladesh’s Bhasan Char island will not proceed until 2019, Kalam said. “Elections are coming up now, so the government will only finalise a future course of action after the elections,” said Kalam, adding that Bangladesh remained ready to repatriate refugees if any volunteered to return. Bangladesh has vowed not to force anyone to return. Kalam said construction work on alternative housing on Bhasan Char was “nearly complete.” He said he was hopeful some refugees would agree to move, given the island’s “livelihood opportunities” such as fishing and farming. Aid agencies express caution as the island is prone to flooding.
|
myanmar;u.n .;elections;refugees;bangladesh;genocide;rohingya;rakhine
|
jp0009296
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/19
|
In Australia, refugees ditch overcrowded cities to live a slower paced life in small outback towns
|
GRIFFITH, AUSTRALIA - A Hazara refugee who now calls the Australian outback home, Ali named his new venture the Afghan Friendship Restaurant, a tribute to the warm welcome he says he received after moving to the town of Griffith five years ago. The 44-year-old father of three is among a growing number of refugees and migrants to Australia who have opted to live in the bush rather than among the bright lights, hustle and bustle and astronomical prices of Sydney or Melbourne. The word friendship hovers over Ali’s head in bright red lettering while he cooks lamb skewers, his face a picture of concentration as the rich wafts of fragrant smoke lure in hungry customers. It is the first-ever Afghan eatery in Griffith — a six-hour drive west of Sydney — and a far cry from the pie and chips staples of the Australian bush. “I suggest to all of my friends, especially Afghan people, to come to Griffith, because here’s very friendly,” Ali, who asked that his surname not be used to protect family still in Afghanistan, said during a break from cooking. “Also we can find a job as well, because the population is not too much.” A nation of immigrants, nearly half of Australia’s 25-million-strong population was either born overseas or has at least one parent born abroad. The country takes in around 14,000 refugees annually, with one-off exceptions to allow additional asylum-seekers, such as a recent system for 12,000 Syrians and Iraqis. But harsh anti-asylum policies against boat arrivals and high-profile incidents of racism have given the country a reputation as inhospitable to non-white immigrants. There’s been a spike in anti-immigration sentiment, according to the Lowy Institute think tank, despite the overall intake of migrants — capped annually at 190,000 — remaining stable. Lowy’s annual poll found that for the first time this year, more than half the Australians surveyed said the number of migrants was “too high” — up from 40 percent in 2017. The poll’s authors said the shifting attitudes could reflect a lurch to the right, particularly as conservative politicians call for intake cuts amid urban pressures. Rapid demographic changes in Australian cities over the past decade have caused disquiet as residents grapple with congestion and high house prices. Yet at the same time many regional towns are “crying out for more people,” according to Population and Cities Minister Alan Tudge. His government is proposing that new arrivals live in smaller towns for a few years, in the hope they might make it their home. Critics say the policy is not enforceable, and add that migrants would struggle to integrate into rural populations amid language and cultural differences. But that is not what Jock Collins at the University of Technology Sydney, who is currently surveying 250 recently arrived families from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, has found. Collins says many migrants have positive feedback to share after being settled in smaller towns. In addition to job opportunities and a supportive environment — “where the town goes out of its way to welcome refugees” — the presence of other migrant communities can ease the transition, Collins says. “A lot of regional and rural towns are losing populations and in particular, the young people are leaving … so immigration can help fill that gap.” Some immigrants also find it difficult to adjust to the busy rhythms of city life, making smaller towns an easier fit. Incentives like extended family visas — which the conservative government has been cutting back on in favor of younger working-age migrants — could also attract and keep refugees in the bush. One success story is Mingoola, a small rural township in New South Wales, on the border with Queensland, that was slowly dying as its population aged. Desperate for an injection of new blood, the town finally found a match with refugees from rural East Africa who were struggling in Sydney. Similar praise has been heaped on Nhill, a town four hours’ drive from Melbourne that has boomed since local poultry firm Luv-a-Duck found a Karen community, a minority group persecuted in Myanmar, willing to move there. Eight years on, business is booming and the Karen now make up 10 percent of Nhill’s 2,000-strong population. “From a position of decline, these towns are now thriving,” says Jack Archer of the Regional Australia Institute, which is pushing for a national strategy instead of isolated efforts to match needy towns with job-seeking migrants. Back in Griffith, refugee entrepreneurs are boosting local jobs. Ali’s restaurant employs another refugee and a migrant from Malaysia, while his wife also helps with the cooking. In more than one way, Ali is altering visitor flows between cities and rural towns. One couple have traveled from Sydney three times to eat at the restaurant. It’s “for the soup,” he says. “They like my soup and because of that they come here.”
|
immigration;australia;afghanistan;refugees;asylum seekers
|
jp0009297
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Restraints used on nearly half of dementia patients in regular hospitals in Japan
|
Nearly half of those with dementia who have been hospitalized in Japan were physically restrained at some point to prevent them from harming themselves. A nationwide survey carried out early last year at 3,446 hospitals and receiving valid responses from 937 found that among 23,539 patients with or suspected of having dementia, 10,480, or 45 percent, were physically restrained during their stay. The joint survey by the National Cancer Center and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science said the results show that hospitals are going too far in restraining dementia patients and that the practice “may be becoming habitual.” The findings highlight practices such as tying patients to wheelchairs, and indicate that more studies are necessary regarding the appropriate way to care for the elderly in a country whose population is rapidly graying. “We should examine the demerits of restraints, including a decline in bodily functioning and the progression of dementia, and take measures to reduce unnecessary cases,” the survey team said. The poll focused on regular hospitals, where physical restraints are allowed by law and are used at the discretion of medical staff. This is in contrast to psychiatric hospitals, where restraints are allowed only in certain situations, and nursing facilities, where they are in principle banned. The survey, which allowed multiple answers, found 69 percent of such cases involved enclosing a patient’s bed with a barrier, while 28 percent entailed strapping patients to a wheelchair with belts and 26 percent involved putting mittens on patients to prevent them from pulling out catheters. Asked about the reasons for taking such steps, the measures were taken in 47 percent of cases due to a risk of patients falling, 14 percent were due to the possibility of them pulling out catheters and 10 percent were because they had pulled out catheters before.
|
survey;aging;hospitals;dementia
|
jp0009298
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Rubella spreading across Japan, raising concern before Tokyo Games
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Rubella infections are spreading across Japan, raising concern that a potentially long-term epidemic could sap travel demand ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. With the total number of rubella patients this year expected to top 2,000 for the first time in nearly five years, experts are stressing the importance of taking antibody tests and vaccinations. The spread is mainly because many men in their 30s and older are unvaccinated. When the rubella outbreak began in the week between July 23 and 29, only 19 patients were reported in five prefectures including Tokyo, Chiba and Aichi, according to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. But the weekly number of rubella patients surged to 154 in the period between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4 in 26 prefectures, with notable rises in the Kansai region. The number exceeded 100 for the ninth consecutive week, already bringing the overall figure for patients so far this year to at least 1,884, the institute said. In late October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its alert level for the rubella outbreak in Japan to Level 2, the second-highest of three levels, warning that pregnant women should not travel to Japan unless protected through vaccination or previous infection. If unborn babies are infected with rubella through their mothers in the early stages of pregnancy, they can suffer birth defects such as hearing impairments, cataracts and heart disorders. A rubella epidemic could last several years, regardless of season and weather conditions, according to experts. If the situation does not change, it could lead to a fall in the number of foreign visitors to Japan. The current outbreak’s characteristic is that a large number of patients are men in their 30s to 50s. Japan’s vaccination policy has changed many times and men aged 39 or older did not have an opportunity to get a shot against rubella through regular public vaccination programs offered by municipalities. Vaccination rates for both men and women aged between 31 and 39 are also low as they needed to go to clinics on their own to get shots rather than in groups when they were in junior high school. In the wake of the epidemic, some municipal governments and companies have started offering free antibody tests or vaccinations. But Keiko Taya of the institute’s infectious diseases and epidemiology center, said many people are still unaware of publicly supported vaccination services. “I want people to search (information) online and (get vaccinations) immediately. We have to stop a rise in the number of patients to prevent a pandemic,” Taya said. Among Japanese companies taking initiatives, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. began covering the full costs of rubella vaccinations for around 1,700 employees from October. Believing that many workers are unable to find time to go to clinics to get shots, the company decided to organize group vaccinations at its offices in Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto. Hirotoshi Yamada, a 44-year-old Rohto employee who got vaccinated, said, “I did not want to cause any trouble to female colleagues at work, but taking a day off only for that purpose was difficult so I appreciated this chance.”
|
tourism;rubella;vaccination
|
jp0009299
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Don't eat Jiro persimmons, drink them, town in Mie urges
|
Members of the Nippon Bartenders Association’s branch in Mie Prefecture have created original cocktails that make use of typhoon-damaged Jiro persimmons — a local specialty of the town of Taki that is now in harvest — that cannot be shipped for sale. Until now, persimmons unfit for sale had been consumed by producers and their neighbors. But since ripe Jiro persimmons have sugar content as high as 17 degrees Brix, the Taki Municipal Government, concerned about excessive sugar intake by residents, asked the association to develop cocktails based on the fruit. The bartenders developed eight cocktails, including a Moscow Mule variation made by grating half a Jiro persimmon and mixing it with orange juice, vodka and ginger ale, a concoction that involves mixing the fruit with ume (plum) liquor and a nonalcoholic drink made by mixing persimmons and oranges with crushed ice. The cocktails have been offered at 14 bars in the prefecture since Nov. 9 after debuting at a tasting event Nov. 6 at City Hall. Taki Mayor Yukio Kubo, who sampled a nonalcoholic Moscow Mule at the event, said, “There is the appealing flavor of persimmons.” “Even if they are damaged, they taste as good (as undamaged ones),” said Chitose Michigami, 47, head of the association’s Mie branch. “We hope to cooperate with other branches so (the new cocktails) will be offered widely.” Persimmon producers will provide bars with the damaged fruit at low prices, and the bars plan to offer the new cocktails until the end of the month. The project for utilizing damaged persimmons started after officials in the municipal government found out five years ago that medical expenses for treating lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are roughly 20 percent higher in persimmon-producing areas compared with other areas in town. After looking into the results of past health checkups and interviews about people’s dietary habits, they found that residents in persimmon producing districts consumed larger numbers of damaged persimmons — three to five a day for some people — resulting in high triglyceride levels. Although the officials have not concluded that persimmons are the reason for the high medical expenses, they started looking for other ways to make use of damaged persimmons in light of the possibility that eating too many could have adverse effects. Shipping about 600 tons of Jiro persimmons a year, Taki is the second-largest producer of the fruit after Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. “Due to typhoons and other reasons, about 10 percent of the persimmons can’t be shipped every year,” said Kenichi Ono, 69, a grower who heads a group of persimmon producers at a local agricultural cooperative. “We can’t bear to see them disposed of. We hope (the cocktails) will help increase consumers of damaged persimmons, which should also contribute to increasing farmers’ income.”
|
disease;diabetes;mie;cocktails;persimmons;taki
|
jp0009300
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/19
|
Wrangling over planned shake-up of Japan's immigration control law intensifies after government admits to data errors
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Political wrangling over an envisioned shake-up of the immigration control law has intensified in recent days after the government admitted last week to multiple statistical errors concerning the state-sponsored foreign trainee program. The government wants to pass the legislation by the end of the ongoing Diet session, which is slated to wrap up Dec. 10. The intended revision marks a drastic break with previous policy in immigration-shy Japan, paving the way for an influx of blue-collar foreign workers in some of the most labor-hungry industries for what could become an indefinite period of time. An opposition backlash to the amendment, however, has flared anew over the lapses in preparing statistics, which came to light Friday, leading to a stalemate among lawmakers in the Diet that could derail the government’s intended timeline for passing the amendment. But even so, the ruling bloc could theoretically resort to extending the legislative session to ensure the bill clears the current Diet session — a prerequisite for the new visa system to come into effect in April next year as has been hoped by the government. The Justice Ministry admitted Friday to data inaccuracies in its 2017 probe into foreign trainees who went missing from their workplaces, and issued a number of corrections at an informal gathering of Lower House judiciary committee members. The data errors immediately prompted the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to submit a resolution seeking to remove Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Yasuhiro Hanashi from his position as head of a Lower House judicial affairs committee, which is tasked with discussing the immigration law. A resolution against Hanashi is expected to be voted down by the ruling coalition in Tuesday’s plenary session, but has succeeded in pushing back deliberations on the amendment by a few days. The inaccuracies in the data included describing those who had decided to leave their workplace because of low wages as having gone missing because they “sought jobs with higher wages.” As a result, the ministry’s original data overstated the number of interns reported to have said their motive for leaving was to seek better pay, rather than to escape from rock-bottom wages or workplace violence. The government had argued that the reason so many foreign trainees exit the program is because they wanted better opportunities with higher wages. On Friday, the ministry revised the number who had gone missing to seek “better job opportunities” from the original 2,514 down to 1,929. On the other hand, the number of people reported to have claimed they had left because they had been disciplined harshly by their superiors more than doubled, with the figure rising from 155 to 362 people. The number of people who claimed they had been subjected to physical abuse also jumped, from 88 to 142. On an NHK program on Sunday, CDP lawmaker Akira Nagatsuma said the faulty data paints an inaccurate picture of what is formally called the Technical Intern Training Program, obfuscating the reality of abuse and exploitation that critics often say underlies the program. “The original data on the missing interns made it look like they escaped in pursuit of higher wages, when in fact that’s not entirely true. Many were desperate to get away because they faced violence or were forced to work for wages lower than the minimum level,” Nagatsuma said. The Justice Ministry attributed the errors to the mishandling of an Excel spreadsheet. But a closer look into the multiple-choice survey also reveals that the ministry lumped together responses such as “wage is low,” “actual wage is lower than contracted wage,” and “actual wage is below the minimum level” into one and presented it, simply, as “seeking higher wages.” Separately, the number of those who deserted employers because they wanted to continue working after their enrolment in the foreign trainee program expired also rose from 392 to 510. Moreover, the report, which surveyed in 2017 a total of 2,870 trainees who went missing from their workplaces that year, showed that 2,664 individuals — or about 90 percent of the trainees surveyed — received a monthly wage below ¥150,000. Speaking on the same NHK program, lawmakers from the LDP-Komeito ruling bloc admitted that the errors were problematic. Still, Norihisa Tamura of the LDP defended the envisioned new visa system, saying it would replace the trainee program as an official source of foreign labor and go a long way toward making it function in a more conventional manner. “The thing about the foreign trainee program is that employers sometimes operate under the misguided notion that they don’t need to give the trainees minimum wages because they are not official workers, but just interns,” Tamura said. “Under the new system, the interns can transition to gain official employment status, which would help them secure their rights as laborers … Once the new system takes hold, the trainee program will then specialize in its original purpose” of fostering foreign talent who can learn and take Japan’s industrial expertise back to their home countries. Nagatsuma, however, said that the government’s effort to pass the bill by the end of the current Diet session — in the absence of proper budgetary measures or thorough soul-searching about the existing problems under the trainee program — will only lead to further problems, and insisted that debates on the law should be carried over until next year. He went on to suggest that the government’s lack of preparation echoed miscalculated immigration policies seen in Germany and France in the mid-20th century that led to those known as guest-workers being alienated from mainstream society. “Those foreign workers are human — not some object you can accept and then throw away once their demand has fizzled out. We need to have a serious think about this in the Diet,” Nagatsuma said.
|
immigration;labor shortage;foreign labor law reform
|
jp0009301
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Tokyo Stock Exchange to probe Nissan over Carlos Ghosn's alleged misconduct
|
The Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to probe Nissan Motor Co. over alleged financial misconduct by former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, according to informed sources. The TSE will examine the matter in detail, including the background and Nissan’s internal management system, based on the exchange’s listing rules. It also plans to conduct hearings with Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, the automaker’s auditor. Ghosn and former Nissan Representative Director Greg Kelly were arrested last week for their alleged involvement in underreporting Ghosn’s pay by some ¥5 billion in securities reports over the five years through fiscal 2014. The TSE will consider possible punitive measures against Nissan. Under the TSE’s listing rules, companies that falsify securities reports can be delisted from the exchange. The whole picture of the latest case is not yet fully clear, but at this point many experts believe the automaker is unlikely to be delisted. Even if Nissan escapes delisting, it may be put on the TSE’s watch list if the bourse sees a high need for improvement in the company’s internal controls. The TSE put Toshiba Corp. on the watch list after accounting irregularities at the electronics and machinery maker came to light in 2015. It took two years and a month for Toshiba to be removed from the list. ShinNihon was also the auditor of Toshiba at the time of the accounting scandal. The Financial Services Agency ordered ShinNihon to suspend part of its operations at the end of 2015 for its failure to detect Toshiba’s accounting fraud.
|
corruption;scandals;nissan;carmakers;tse;carlos ghosn
|
jp0009302
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Japan may extend tax deduction period for housing loan users
|
The government and the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling camp are considering extending the tax incentive program for housing loan borrowers, in a bid to cushion the impact from next October’s rise in the consumption tax, according to informed sources. The discussion is focused on a proposal to extend the eligibility period for the tax break by up to five years from the current 10, the sources said. The step is under consideration as part of measures to curb an anticipated decline in spending after the consumption tax is raised to 10 percent from the current 8 percent, especially for big-ticket items like houses and cars. Also behind the move are calls for the program’s expansion from the housing industry, which is concerned about a possible fall in demand as condominium prices are on the rise amid surges in labor costs and construction material prices. Currently, the program deducts the amount equivalent to 1 percent of the borrowers’ year-end loan balances from their income tax payments for up to 10 years. The upper limit of the balance is set at ¥40 million. The proposed extension is expected to be implemented in combination with lowering the loan balance upper limit, the sources said. A senior official of Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, has expressed the party’s readiness to accept a lower upper limit, saying that “it’ll be fine as long as the burden on consumers decreases as a whole.” For fiscal 2018, the program is expected to push down the government’s income tax revenue by some ¥670 billion. Some LDP lawmakers are cautious about expanding the program due to worries over its impact on tax revenues. “The current system already has a certain positive effect,” a LDP lawmaker said.
|
tax;ldp;consumption tax;komeito
|
jp0009303
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Singapore serving as a testing ground for halal Japanese dishes prepared in Kumamoto
|
SINGAPORE - Curetex Corp. is using Singapore as a test bed to promote Japanese cuisine permissible under Islamic law as part of its efforts to expand sales of such food products in Japan and Southeast Asia. The Tokyo-based company recently sold both Japanese and Singaporean halal dishes at Isetan Singapore’s Scotts store following the launch of a halal-certified food-processing facility in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture. In May, Curetex began using sauce imported from a restaurant at the Bangi Golf Resort, a luxury resort in the central Malaysian state of Selangor, to produce processed chicken and seafood products at the facility authorized by the Nippon Asia Halal Association. The Japanese association is mutually recognized as a halal-certified body by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia, its counterpart in the predominantly Muslim country. The Tokyo-based firm has developed around 10 types of dishes, including seafood curry and charbroiled skewed chicken satay as well as Japanese dishes such as a rice bowl with sliced raw fish, all halal-accredited. Muslim tourists to Japan face limited choices of food since Japanese cuisine often uses soy sauce and Japanese cooking sake, which are banned under Islam due to the inclusion of alcohol. Curetex adopted an alternative kelp-based stock to add a unique Japanese flavor, Ayumi Fujishiro, assistant general manager of Ippin PTE, Curetex’s Singapore arm, said at its first halal promotional event outside Japan last week. As the company aims to export its halal food products to Muslim countries, it is establishing a Malaysian unit to sell halal food shipped from the Amakusa facility.
|
tourism;halal food;curetex corp .
|
jp0009304
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Dollar firmer above ¥113.20 in late Tokyo trading
|
The dollar was stronger above ¥113.20 in Tokyo trading late Monday, helped partly by a rise in Japanese share prices. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.23-23, up from ¥113.01-02 at the same time Thursday. The Tokyo currency market was closed Friday for a national holiday. The euro was at $1.1361-1362, down from $1.1400-1400, and at ¥128.63-69, down slightly from ¥128.85-85. The dollar was driven higher by purchases from Japanese importers and buybacks inspired by a rise in the Nikkei 225 average, traders said. The U.S. currency also attracted “short-covering buying from nonresidents as it did not fall below levels around ¥112.65, a recent low marked late last week,” an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. “The dollar’s rise also came as uncertainty about Britain’s exit from the European Union receded after EU leaders approved an agreement on the country’s withdrawal,” an official of another foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. Currency market players’ attention has already shifted to a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week as the world’s two largest economies have been locked in a battle over trade, traders said. “It is difficult for currency market players to trade actively until the result of the summit is known,” an official at a major Japanese bank said.
|
exchange rates;forex;currencies
|
jp0009305
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Tokyo stocks rise on repurchases
|
Stocks gained Monday, buoyed by buybacks after the recent drops. The Nikkei 225 average climbed 165.45 points, or 0.76 percent, to end at 21,812.00 after rising 139.01 points Thursday. The Tokyo Stock Exchange was closed Friday for a national holiday. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the TSE, closed 3.24 points, or 0.20 percent, higher at 1,632.20. It gained 13.07 points Thursday. The key market yardsticks moved on the sunny side for most of the day Monday. A solid performance of Chinese equities lifted investor sentiment, market sources said. Tokyo stocks attracted buying “on hope for a technical rally of New York stocks” later Monday, Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., said, referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s recent plunges. An official of an online brokerage firm noted that the dollar’s rise above ¥113 served as a tail wind for the Tokyo stock market. Construction- and transport-linked issues were boosted by news Friday that the city of Osaka was selected to host the 2025 World Expo, brokers said. Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co., indicated that the news was a positive surprise to investors, saying it “had not been factored” in the market. Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,119 to 915 in the first section, while 78 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.339 billion shares from 1.201 billion Thursday. General contractor Obayashi, logistic service firm Kamigumi and Nankai Electric Railway were among issues that attracted buying linked to the 2025 Expo, brokers said. Other major gainers included clothing retailer Fast Retailing and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny. By contrast, oil names Japex, Inpex and JXTG met with heavy selling following a tumble in crude oil prices. Employment information service firm Recruit Holdings and drugmaker Shionogi were also on the minus side.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009306
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Syrian Kurdish women march to end gender-based violence
|
QAMISHLI, SYRIA - Hundreds of female protesters took to the streets of the Syrian Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on Sunday to call for an end to violence against women. Some banging large drums and others ululating, they marched through the streets, an AFP correspondent said. “Underage marriage is a crime,” said one sign held up by a protester, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Another demonstrator held up the picture of a woman with a swollen eye, her mouth covered with one hand. “We must take part in this day in large numbers,” said Hanifa Mohammed, 47, wearing a green jumper and a dark-coloured headscarf. “Women must organize and reach decision-making positions,” she said. “They must determine their future.” Women of all ages carried the portraits of fighters in the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the all-female branch of the Syrian Kurdish militia. Syria’s Kurds have largely stayed out of the country’s seven-year war, instead setting up semi-autonomous institutions in areas they control in its north and northeast. Local institutions are usually co-directed by a man and a woman. Syria’s Kurds pride themselves in promoting equality of the sexes even in combat, as the YPJ play a key role in the battle against the Islamic State jihadi group. Some protesters lashed out at neighbouring Turkey, which considers the Syrian Kurdish militia to be “terrorists.” Ankara and its Syrian proxies have led two campaigns inside Syria against the Kurds, most recently seizing the northwestern enclave of Afrin in March. Organizers dedicated the protest to the women of the enclave, now under control of pro-Turkey rebels.
|
syria;women;turkey;domestic violence;kurds;ypg;me too
|
jp0009307
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Taiwanese pro-China party's big win puts Tsai Ing-wen's future in doubt
|
TAIPEI - Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s pro-independence leader, has just over a year to win back public support if she wants to avoid going down in history as the island’s first one-term president. Her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered a resounding loss to the China-friendly Kuomintang on Saturday. The scale of the defeat was far greater than forecast, with her party losing seven cities and counties of the 13 they held — including its traditional bastions of Kaohsiung and Yilan. Now with just 14 months to go until the presidential election in January 2020, Tsai faces a challenge to turn things around. Although she resigned as head of the DPP after the election loss, Tsai faces no obvious challengers from within who might stop her from seeking a second term as president. “This result demands a response from Tsai, and the obvious change would be to emphasize the DPP’s strengths and the things that got Tsai in,” said Jonathan Sullivan, director of Nottingham University’s China Policy Institute. “Tsai has made a liberal, progressive society a big part of her appeals to the rest of the world to support Taiwan in juxtaposition to an increasingly repressive China.” Saturday’s election saw a “blue wave” sweep Taiwan in a resurgence of Kuomintang after Tsai comprehensively ousted the party from power in 2016. Kuomintang promotes better ties — and eventual unification — with China. A return to power for the party would be seen as a welcome development by the authorities in Beijing, which have frozen all direct contact with Tsai after she declined to accept it’s claim that Taiwan belongs to “one China.” Still, Tsai’s caution regarding key domestic issues such as labor reforms and same-sex marriage — rather than her dealings with China — were seen as key causes for the DPP’s defeat. In a number of referendums held at the same time as Saturday’s elections, voters also rejected marriage equality for same-sex couples and a proposal for athletes to compete under the name “Taiwan” rather than the current moniker, “Chinese Taipei.” “The elections this time did not have much to do with unification with China or Taiwan independence,” said Austin Wang, a political scientist at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “What voters cared about was penalizing the DPP and Tsai Ing-wen.” The star of the Kuomintang’s revival was Han Kuo-yu, who was elected mayor of Kaohsiung City — a seat the DPP has held since 1998. The pugnacious former lawmaker was given little hope of succeeding in one of the DPP’s southern strongholds, even by some in his own party. But a combination of Han’s plain campaign language, his blunt assessments of Kaohsiung’s ills and his promise to bring an economic boom through better ties with China won the city’s residents over, according to Kaohsiung-based radio host and political commentator Chen Tzu-yu. Some of Tsai’s backers attributed the loss to widespread dissatisfaction with her leadership. Her efforts to cut retired public servants’ pensions angered Kuomintang voters, who make up a large portion of Taiwan’s civil service, while DPP supporters said she did not do enough to pursue promised reforms or support progressive referendum proposals. “The electoral results did not mean Taiwanese people have chosen to become closer to China,” said Lai Chung-chiang, head of civil group Economic Democracy Union, which was heavily involved in 2014 protests that thwarted former Kuomintang President Ma Ying-jeou’s attempt to deepen Taiwan’s trade ties with China. “Rather, the outcome marked voters’ dissatisfaction with President Tsai Ing-wen’s governance.” To win back support, several analysts said Tsai should move closer to the U.S., which sells weapons to Taiwan to defend against forceful unification by the mainland. “She will need to express clearly that Taiwan is happy to bolster cooperation with the U.S., while she also needs to make it clear that Taiwan is not trying to lock horns with China” said Jou Yi-cheng, who was once a speechwriter for former President Chen Shui-bian, a DPP member. “Taiwan doesn’t deny its cultural links with China, but instead it is championing the universal values of freedom and democracy.” Nottingham University’s Sullivan said Tsai should take an even tougher stance on China. “It is time to take the shackles off,” he said. “Caution in cross-strait policy has delivered nothing — China won’t work with her and has really stepped up its pressure across the board, so its difficult to see what Tsai loses by pursuing the more robust path the pro-Taiwan base demands.”
|
china;taiwan;elections;tsai ing-wen
|
jp0009308
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Taiwan's same-sex couples put future on hold after vote defeat
|
TAIPEI - After more than three decades together, Wang Tien-ming and Ho Hsiang finally decided to tie the knot when Taiwan’s top court ruled last year that same-sex marriage must be legalized. But those wedding plans are on hold after conservative groups won a referendum battle over equal marriage which couples fear could water down their newly won rights. The original landmark court decision in May 2017 made Taiwan the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage — it ruled the change must be implemented within two years and sparked a wave of optimism in the LGBT community. But almost 18 months have already passed as the government drags its feet in the face of conservative opposition. A referendum on whether marriage should only be recognized as between a man and a woman in Taiwan’s Civil Code won more than 7 million votes Saturday, as did another calling for same-sex unions to be regulated under a separate law. Gay rights activists had proposed that the Civil Code should give same-sex couples equal marriage rights, but only garnered 3 million votes. Ho said that after the original court ruling he believed he and Wang would be granted rights given to heterosexual married partners, including recognition as next of kin. This made the couple think they could at last buy a house together, Wang said, assured that if one of them died the other would inherit. Wang, 57, is also the main caregiver for Ho, 75, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. He describes their relationship as “love at first sight.” “I want to get married because I want to say to the world: ‘I don’t want to be deprived of what is my basic right,'” Wang said. Although the government has made clear the referendum results would not impact the court’s original decision to legalize gay marriage, which should automatically be implemented next May, pro-gay marriage campaigners worry that their newly won rights will be weakened. The court did not specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in, leaving room for conservative groups to call for separate regulations. As Saturday’s conservative referendums passed the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters, the government must by law take steps to reflect the result. Ho said he would not accept anything less than the amendment of the existing marriage law as laid out in the Civil Code to put gay couples on an equal footing with heterosexual couples. “Having a special marriage law (for gay couples) means we are like second class citizens,” he said, adding that having a two-tier system would dent Taiwan’s reputation as a trailblazer for equal marriage rights on the international stage. “The Taiwanese value equality and freedom. If the gay community is been treated like second class citizens, where’s the equality? This is our soft power,” he said. Taiwan’s government has not yet responded to the referendum result and what impact it will have. Kuo Huai-wen and her partner of 13 years had also been hoping to marry on the first day that the court’s decision was implemented — a day that is yet to come. Kuo, 40, said she was “saddened and disappointed” over the referendum result, but still felt encouraged that 3 million people had backed the pro-gay marriage vote. Kuo is pregnant with the couple’s second child and said they would be forced to accept a union under a separate law for the sake of their children, even though they do not agree with it and want equal marriage rights. “We have to be practical as we have kids and we can’t afford to have all or nothing,” said Kuo. “We will register even if it’s under a separate law, not because we are satisfied with that but because we need immediate protections.”
|
taiwan;lgbt;sexuality;same-sex marriage
|
jp0009309
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/26
|
U.K. watchdog to probe China state media over role in 'confession'
|
LONDON - A British fraud investigator has asked the country’s media regulator to revoke Chinese state media’s broadcast license for helping to stage his allegedly forced confession and subsequent jailing in China. Peter Humphrey, who was sentenced to over two years in prison by a Shanghai court in 2014 but released seven months early and deported, wants the British watchdog Ofcom to punish China Central Television (CCTV) for its alleged role in the episode. “CCTV journalists cooperated with police to extract, record, make post-production and then broadcast his confession,” the letter of complaint states. Humphrey accuses Chinese authorities of drugging him and locking him in a chair inside a small metal cage to conduct the confession. “China Central Television (CCTV) journalists then aimed their cameras at me and recorded me reading out the answers already prepared for me by the police,” his complaint added. It added the images were then released worldwide through its international channels. Humphrey told AFP this was the first legal action he has launched against any of the Chinese entities involved in his incarceration. “It will not be the last,” he added. A spokesman for Ofcom confirmed it had “received a complaint which we are assessing as a priority. “If, following investigation, we find our rules have been broken we would take the necessary enforcement action,” he added. Ofcom has the power to fine broadcasters for breaching British rules, and can revoke their licenses in the most serious cases. Humphrey’s complaint notes Ofcom previously revoked the license of Iranian state media after ruling it had collaborated with police to record and then broadcast the forced confession a Canadian-Iranian journalist. Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng, a naturalized U.S. citizen, were linked to a corruption case in China involving pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The couple ran an investigative firm which was hired by GSK to probe a sex tape of the company’s then China boss and other issues shortly before the British pharmaceutical company itself became the target of a Chinese government investigation.
|
china;media;u.k .;torture;cctv;broadcast license;ofcom;peter humphrey
|
jp0009310
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Japan's ancient castle walls drawing tourists but not enough masons to keep them up
|
Castle walls have recently become popular with tourists, especially rekijo (female history buffs) who like to view them even when the castle itself is no longer there. Since the Meiji Era, however, the number of masons who repair and preserve the stone walls has been on the decline, and many walls have collapsed during disasters. The government has set on fostering young masons and introducing cutting-edge technology to conserve castle walls, which are regarded as cultural assets. In late October, several visitors were seen climbing a long flight of stone steps leading to the ruins of Iwamura Castle in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, known for a tragic female castle lord. Although the castle keep was razed in the Meiji Era and only the moss-covered stone walls remain, the site has been attracting many tourists. “It is interesting to imagine how such massive stone walls were built so high up on the mountain and what kind of lives people led there,” said Fumiho Hagino, 44, who came from the city of Gifu. The place was ranked 10th in TripAdvisor’s top 20 best castles to visit in Japan this year, higher than more famous castles in the neighboring prefectures, including Nagoya Castle and Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture. “After World War II, the place was full of weeds and nobody paid attention to it,” said Yasuo Sasaki, 78, who works at a historical museum at the foot of the castle, adding it is quite surprising that the place has become so popular. Castle ruins grew popular after the Takeda Castle ruins in Asago, Hyogo Prefecture, became known as tenku no shiro (castle floating in the sky) because of the way it appears over a sea of clouds on foggy autumn mornings. Thanks to its appearance in TV commercials and other media, visitors to the ruins skyrocketed to 224,000 in fiscal 2017, from around 33,000 in fiscal 2005. Visitors to the Naegi Castle ruins in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, known for its scenic view, increased 5.5 times last year to 77,000, compared to those logged four years ago. The Sawayama Castle ruins in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, which had been the residence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s right-hand man, Ishida Mitsunari, attracts many history fans although only a couple of stones remain of the castle. “More people are beginning to think they can better feel the atmosphere of the times (at castle ruins) rather than seeing reproduced castle towers and buildings,” said Yoshihiro Senda, 55, an archaeologist specializing in castles. However, many castle walls nationwide are becoming fragile due to the lack of masons to manage them properly. The walls of Kumamoto Castle in Kumamoto Prefecture collapsed following a major earthquake and those of Marugame Castle in Kagawa Prefecture were damaged by heavy rain. In 2009, the Cultural Affairs Agency designated castle wall-building as a traditional skill that needs to be preserved, and created a manual for stone wall conservation in 2015 to support the fostering of young masons. Cutting-edge technology was also adopted to restore damaged walls, using computers to analyze the photographs of the walls before collapse and putting back stones within an error range of a few millimeters. As for Nagoya Castle, the Nagoya Municipal Government plans to build a wooden castle tower to replace the concrete tower built after World War II, but the project is at a stalemate, as experts are voicing strong opposition to the prioritization of castle tower construction over preservation of the stone walls. The stone walls of Nagoya Castle are regarded as having high cultural value, being in relatively good condition. But 400 years after the completion of the castle, the walls have started deteriorating, with the north side swelling. The city checked the walls and submitted a report to an expert panel in July saying they “are more or less stable.” But the report was met with strong criticism from the panel, forcing the city to postpone submission of the construction plan to the Cultural Affairs Agency that was scheduled for this fall. The city is seeking advice from masons to come up with a convincing plan to restore both the castle tower and the stone walls, which is likely to become a model for restoring other aging castles nationwide.
|
history;nagoya;gifu;preservation;castles;iwamura castle
|
jp0009311
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Taipei faces tension in ties with Tokyo after Taiwan passes 'political' referendum to maintain food ban
|
TAIPEI - After voters in Taiwan approved Saturday a referendum to maintain a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, concern is stirring about the impact of the result on bilateral relations. About 7.8 million of Taiwan’s 19.76 million eligible voters approved the measure — more than the 25 percent needed to make the outcome valid. The result immediately prompted speculation about why the referendum had succeeded, and what happens next. The vote was initiated by the main opposition force, the Nationalist Party (KMT), whose motives were largely political. There is little to indicate the party truly favored continuing restrictions on food products from Fukushima and nearby Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi and Chiba, the five prefectures nearest the catastrophe-struck Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Not only did the KMT make little effort to promote the initiative in the run-up to the vote, but the party even once advocated lifting the ban. Speaking on behalf of his party during a televised debate two weeks ago, KMT legislator Lai Shyh-bao said he was not against relaxing restrictions as long as all food imports from the region pass a zero-tolerance check for radiation. That was the same demand made by the Democratic Progressive Party in 2015, when it was in opposition and looking for ways to embarrass the then ruling KMT. On that basis, some observers suspect the main motive for the referendum proposal could have been revenge. As Lai put it, he wants to see the DPP apologize for its policy U-turn — suggesting that if the party had been more reasonable in the past, the Japanese food ban would have been lifted long ago. Right now the DPP would benefit from an end to the ban, as it seeks to offset worsening relations with China by cultivating closer ties to Japan. In Tokyo on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga commented on the outcome of Taiwan’s referendum. “It’s extremely disappointing that Taiwanese consumers have yet to be fully convinced” about the safety of food products from the five prefectures, the top government spokesman said. “We will use every opportunity available and keep asking (Taiwan) to lift the ban at an early date,” he added. Rather than admit their role in allowing the situation to develop, the ruling DPP has read a more nefarious motive into the referendum. Taiwan’s representative to Japan, Frank Hsieh, has criticized the initiative as “a KMT scheme aimed at undermining bilateral relations between Taiwan and Japan.” He also warned before the vote that if the referendum was approved, Taiwan would have a “grave price” to pay. That “grave price” could include Taiwan’s bid to join a Japan-led trade pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. On numerous occasions, Taiwan has expressed its desire to participate in the second-round of accession talks. The CPTPP, which currently comprises 11 member states, is on track to come into force by the end of this year and start accession talks with potential new members next year. Hsieh did not clearly say that the KMT initiated the referendum just to cause trouble for the DPP. But his message was clear: Taiwan needs to maintain close relations with Japan as it seeks ways to protect itself from an increasingly belligerent China. Despite that, the KMT was able to persuade the Taiwanese public that food products from those five prefectures are unsafe and that the DPP government would be unable ensure their safety were the ban to be lifted. So now that the referendum has passed, what happens next? As the referendum is legally binding, the DPP government must honor the result: the comprehensive ban on food products from the five prefectures must remain in place. Government officials indicated on Sunday that the will of the Taiwanese people would be respected. Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said the Executive Yuan, as the Cabinet is known in Taiwan, will ask the Ministry of Health and Welfare to continue inspections of imported Japanese food products to ensure public safety. Hsu Fu, director of the Executive Yuan’s food safety office, said the office respected the referendum result and will work closely with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on the matter. But the result puts the Tsai administration in a bad spot, after having advocated relaxing the restrictions when that now appears to be impossible. One potential way out of the impasse would be to hold another referendum, hoping for the opposite result. As the 2020 presidential and legislative elections are approaching, the DPP has time to convince the Taiwanese public that food products from those five Japanese prefectures are safe and that it can ensure their safety. However, the DPP could again fail to secure voter approval in a second referendum to lift the ban. And no sensible party would want to mount a referendum that not only was uncertain to help it score political points but could significantly harm its reputation, by suggesting party interests were being put ahead of public health, for example. But there may be another solution. While the Referendum Act stipulates that the president or government agencies responsible for the ban must “take necessary steps” after a referendum passes, there is no punishment if they do not. In other words, if President Tsai decided to relax the restrictions of food imports from those five Japanese prefectures, she may have political repercussions to deal with but would suffer no legal consequences, according to lawyer and political analyst Lu Chiu-yuan.
|
fukushima;radiation;taiwan;food imports
|
jp0009312
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/26
|
South Korean lawmakers visit disputed Takeshima islets, stoking anger in Tokyo
|
SEOUL - A group of South Korean lawmakers on Monday visited a pair of islets controlled by South Korea but also claimed by Japan, drawing a formal protest from Tokyo. The eight-member bipartisan group, led by Na Kyung-won of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, intends to inspect security facilities on the islets, known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, the group said. Monday’s trip to the disputed islets in the Sea of Japan followed a similar visit by another group of South Korean lawmakers on Oct. 22, which was led by the chairman of the National Assembly’s Education Committee. The Japanese government immediately lodged a protest with the South Korean government through diplomatic channels both in Tokyo and Seoul as Japan views Takeshima as an inherent part of its territory, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. Kenji Kanasugi, director general of the ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, conveyed to a senior South Korean Embassy official in Tokyo that the lawmakers’ visit is “totally unacceptable” to Japan, according to the ministry. Na’s group, formed to support South Korean security personnel stationed on the islets, had increased the money it was spending on repair and upgrade work at the facilities following its previous visit in August, according to the group. South Korea has stationed security personnel on the islets since 1954 and constructed lodgings, a monitoring facility, a lighthouse, and port and docking facilities. The islets are located roughly an equal distance from the Korean Peninsula and Japan’s main island Honshu.
|
disputed islands;takeshima;south korea-japan relations
|
jp0009313
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Cafe opens with robot waiters remotely controlled by people with disabilities
|
A cafe featuring robot waiters remotely controlled from home by people with severe physical disabilities has been launched in Minato Ward, Tokyo. Five robots measuring 1.2 meters tall, controlled by people with conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neuron disease, took orders and served food as the cafe opened Monday on a trial basis. The cafe will be open until Dec. 7. The OriHime-D robots transmit video images and audio via the internet, allowing their controllers to direct them from home via computer. “(The robots) enable physical work and social participation,” said Kentaro Yoshifuji, CEO of Ory Lab Inc., the developer of the robot and one of the three entities organizing the cafe. Ten people with ALS will earn ¥1,000 an hour controlling the robots. The three entities, including the Nippon Foundation and ANA Holdings Inc., aim to launch a permanent cafe by the time the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics roll around. The organizers said Monday they have also formed a partnership to further promote employment assistance for people with disabilities by utilizing remotely controlled robots. “(Avatar robots) have potential … for transportation and communication,” ANA Holdings Chairman Shinichiro Ito said.
|
robots;disability;orihime-d
|
jp0009314
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Casino advocate Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka beats only challenger to secure fourth term
|
WAKAYAMA - Wakayama Gov. Yoshinobu Nisaka, who is aiming to host a casino resort as a way to revitalize the economy of the prefecture, secured a fourth consecutive term Sunday according to exit polls, beating a challenger backed by the Japanese Communist Party. The 68-year-old governor won another four-year term with the help of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito as well as opposition parties the Democratic Party for the People and the Social Democratic Party. Achievements highlighted during the campaign included disaster prevention measures. Nisaka said he will seek to host a casino resort in the prefecture to spur tourism, after the Diet passed a bill in July authorizing the establishment of casinos as part of “integrated resorts” that comprise hotels, conference rooms and shopping facilities. The first integrated resorts will likely open in the mid-2020s after the government selects locations, with Nagasaki, Osaka and Wakayama prefectures as well as Hokkaido having expressed interest so far. Nisaka’s sole challenger, Masayoshi Hatanaka, 66, who works for a citizens’ ombudsman and was supported by the Japanese Communist Party, voiced opposition to hosting a casino resort citing concerns about gambling addiction.
|
election;casinos;wakayama;yoshinobu nisaka
|
jp0009315
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Time running out for Osaka leaders seeking to push city-prefecture integration plan
|
OSAKA - When Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura left for Paris early last week for one final lobbying effort for the 2025 World Expo, they left behind a city and prefecture that remain deeply divided over their most basic political goal — the integration of Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka. Earlier this month, the two leaders and their local political group, Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), had hoped a joint prefectural and municipal committee of elected officials from all political parties would discuss a report prepared by researchers at Tokyo-based Kaetsu Gakuen. Their conclusion was that if the city of Osaka abolished its 23 wards and integrated itself into four semi-autonomous zones, the economic effect over a decade would be more than ¥1.1 trillion, much of that from savings due to a more streamlined local bureaucracy. But it was a conclusion that the local chapters of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito, which have long opposed Osaka Ishin’s integration plan, scoffed at. “This figure is fake. All the governor and mayor are trying to do is make things up, and we have no desire to get on board with them,” Osaka Prefectural Assembly member Mitsuyoshi Hanaya, of the LDP, told reporters on Nov. 12. An angry Yoshimura defended the figures. “It’s clear these are not arbitrary but objective. Unlike the previous effort (in 2015) to draw up a plan, the economic and statistical results are explained,” he said. Komeito, with which Osaka Ishin must cooperate to form a majority in the municipal and prefectural assemblies, is also skeptical of the ¥1.1 trillion economic effect, saying that the report offered no clear proof. The party, along with the LDP and all of the other opposition parties, boycotted a mid-November meeting set up to discuss the report, drawing anger from both Osaka Ishin leaders. “The opposition parties should listen to the opinions of the experts and debate the issue, but that didn’t happen with parties who say that there’s no economic effect from integration,” Matsui said after the meeting, which was cut short when only members of Osaka Ishin showed up. Matsui had originally wanted to hold a referendum on the plan by this fall. When that became impossible, he pushed the goal to May 2019. “That’s still the target. It hasn’t changed,” he said in early November, before the boycott of all other parties to discuss the report of a purported ¥1.1 trillion economic effect. The problem for Matsui, Yoshimura, and Osaka Ishin is that their effort to hold the referendum is dependent on next year’s political events. Despite last week’s win of the 2025 World Expo, a victory that could strengthen Osaka Ishin’s political hand, opposition among LDP and Komeito members remains strong. In April, elections for the prefectural and municipal assemblies take place. The Osaka integration project is expected to be the main local issue in both elections. But without clear progress, voters could rebel against Osaka Ishin. Further losses of the party’s plurality in April would make it even more reliant on Komeito. It’s even possible that, if the LDP were to pick up enough seats in those elections, the local chapter of Komeito would abandon Osaka Ishin for good and cooperate with the LDP to form a majority in one or both assemblies, a prospect that would be welcomed by the national leaders of both parties. If that were to happen, it’s unclear how well Matsui and Yoshimura’s national party, Nippon Ishin, would fare in the projected July Upper House election. Setbacks in April and June would then leave Matsui and Yoshimura in a weak position come November 2019, when the gubernatorial and mayoral elections are expected to be held. While both men can enjoy the strong wind at their backs now because of the 2025 Expo bid victory, their merger efforts are likely to continue to face rough weather in 2019.
|
osaka;ichiro matsui;osaka ishin no kai;hirofumi yoshimura;2025 world expo
|
jp0009316
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/11/26
|
Foreign Ministry official arrested in Kabukicho over possession of illegal stimulant
|
A Foreign Ministry official has been arrested in Tokyo’s famous Kabukicho nightlife district for allegedly possessing an illegal stimulant drug, police said Monday. Yasutoshi Tanimoto, 46, is suspected of having 0.6 grams of the drug on him on a street in the district of Shinjuku Ward on Saturday afternoon, the police said. Tanimoto, deputy director of the Passport Division, has admitted to the allegation and was quoted by the police as saying, “I was stressed out. I bought it online to use it for myself.” Tanimoto was questioned after he moved away from a police car on patrol in the district and the police said they found the drug inside a small clear bag that he had in his wallet. He tested positive for the banned stimulant in a urine test, the police said, adding that they suspect him of having used it. “It is regrettable that one of our staff was arrested,” the Foreign Ministry said. “We will strengthen our discipline.”
|
drug;arrest;foreign ministry;stimulant
|
jp0009317
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/21
|
Tokyo stocks continue to slide on U.S. market weakness
|
Stocks lost further ground on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday following an overnight tumble on Wall Street. The Nikkei 225 slumped 75.58 points, or 0.35 percent, to end at 21,507.54, after losing 238.04 points on Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 9.78 points, or 0.60 percent, at 1,615.89. It had fallen 11.94 points the previous day. The Tokyo market got off to a weak start on the heels of a setback in U.S. stocks the previous day. The Nikkei briefly lost over 300 points early in the morning. But both indices trimmed losses throughout Wednesday’s session, backed by bargain hunting mainly of semiconductor-related names, brokers said. Investors were reluctant to tilt their positions significantly ahead of Thanksgiving Day in the United States on Thursday, an official at a bank-affiliated securities firm said. Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co., said the Tokyo market’s losses were limited due to a lack of futures-linked arbitrage selling. Resource-related issues such as steel-makers, shipping firms and trading houses were major losers. “Investors were concerned about the outlook of the global economy,” an official at a major brokerage firm said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,431 to 596 in the TSE’s first section, while 85 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.392 billion shares from 1.430 billion shares on Tuesday. Oil names were downbeat after the key West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract hit its lowest close since October last year. They included JXTG, Showa Shell, Cosmo Energy and Idemitsu. Square Enix sagged 3.98 percent after Credit Suisse Securities (Japan) Ltd. revised down its investment rating and target stock price for the game maker. Other major losers included clothing retailer Fast Retailing, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, and shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. On the other hand, semiconductor-related issues attracted buybacks after recent declines. Major gainers included Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Screen and Sumco. Also on the plus side were mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and power firm Tepco. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average dropped 20 points to end at 21,520.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009318
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/21
|
Shinzo Abe mulls visits to Netherlands, Uruguay and Paraguay in December
|
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering visiting the Netherlands, Uruguay and Paraguay, in addition to a planned trip to Britain, in December, government sources said Tuesday. Abe is mulling the travel to the four countries through Dec. 7 after attending the two-day summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in Buenos Aires from Nov. 30, the sources said. He may visit more countries during the tour, according to the sources. In the Netherlands, Abe will meet with Prime Minister Mark Rutte for discussions on the their countries’ cooperation to promote free trade, following the signing of the Japan-European Union economic partnership agreement in July. Abe will aim to boost Japan’s economic relations with Uruguay during his meeting there with President Tabare Vazquez. He also hopes to build relations with Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez, who took office in August, the sources said. Abe would be the first Japanese prime minister to visit the two South American countries. In Britain, Abe will meet with Prime Minister Theresa May and call again on the country to ensure that its planned exit from the EU will not affect Japanese companies operating there. Abe and May are expected to exchange views on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, which is seen entering into force late this year. Britain is believed to be interested in joining the free trade pact agreed between Japan and 10 other countries. Abe is slated to leave for Argentina on Nov. 29 to kick off the tour. The prime minister is expected to make a final decision on his travel details while taking into account matters related to the Diet, according to the sources, as the current extraordinary Diet session is scheduled to end on Dec. 10.
|
shinzo abe;britain;eu;netherlands;g20;uruguay;paraguay
|
jp0009319
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/21
|
Diplomats take aim at delay in U.N. Security Council reform
|
NEW YORK - Diplomats expressed frustration Tuesday during a U.N. General Assembly session about long-overdue negotiations to reform the Security Council. Japan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Koro Bessho, was among those who highlighted the lack of tangible progress so far. “If we fail to make significant headway in this coming session, I fear that the legitimacy and viability of the IGN process itself will come into question,” he said, referring to the intergovernmental negotiations on the reform of the powerful 15-member council. “We believe that the current IGN process should be reviewed,” Bessho said. “If we need consensus for decision-making, it gives a de facto veto over the process to just a few countries, which we believe is not the will of the great majority.” The negotiations have been going on for the past 10 years with various groups representing different positions on how reform should be manifested and has relied on a consensus-based decision-making style. The council is currently made up of five permanent members with veto powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 nonpermanent members who are elected from regional groupings for a two-year term. The Group of Four comprising Brazil, India, Germany and Japan believes that it is necessary to enlarge the council by adding more permanent and nonpermanent seats. Uniting for Consensus, a grouping that counts countries such as Italy, Pakistan and South Korea among its members, has been pushing only for increasing the number of nonpermanent members, although it has proposed extending their term beyond the current two years. In his remarks presented as the G-4 representative, Indian Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin described how “little progress” has been made despite the fact that next year marks four decades since the issue was placed on the General Assembly agenda. “Talk now needs to be followed with action to achieve credible progress in the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly,” he said, adding that text-based negotiations must begin.
|
united nations;security council
|
jp0009320
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/07
|
British women protest as their pension age rises to meet men's at 65
|
LONDON - Millions of British women feel “betrayed” and many are facing poverty, campaigners said on Tuesday, as the age they can claim the state pension rose to 65 to match that of men. The government is accused of failing to give women enough warning of the steep rise in the state pension age, which experts say leaves women poorer than men because it amplifies the effect of lower lifetime earnings. “For some women it’s absolutely devastating,” said Debbie de Spon, a spokeswoman for the campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI). “We are angry that we have been treated this way having gone through our lives doing what was expected of us. … A word we often hear is ‘betrayed.’ ” The government said means-tested support was available for those struggling to manage. “The decision to equalize the state pension age between men and women was made more than 20 years ago and achieves a long-overdue move towards gender equality,” said a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions. In the past, British women were able to claim their pension at age 60, while men had to wait until they were 65, but the government has moved to gradually equalize their positions. The overall pension age for both sexes is also due to rise to age 68 by the mid-2030s to offset longer lifespans. A decision was first made in 1995 to lift the women’s pension age by 2020, but WASPI says many women were not informed for more than a decade afterwards. The government then decided to speed up the process in 2011. The changes particularly affected about 3.8 million women born in the 1950s who were approaching their pension age as the changes took place, said WASPI. Some will have work six years extra, it said. It is calling for a lower bridging pension for women born in the 1950s during the extra years they have to work or compensation for those who have reached pension age but have suffered as a result of the way the changes were introduced. Experts said the move will leave women worse off than men because they usually have less saved for retirement. A study carried out by pensions and asset management firm Aegon last December found that at age 50 women have an average pension fund of £56,000 ($73,220) — half that of men. The firm’s director Steven Cameron said it was “hard to argue against equalizing state pension ages,” but there was no doubt it left older women at a disadvantage to men. “It has just made the gender pension gap overall bigger because up until now the one thing women had that men didn’t have was an earlier state pension age,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
|
u.k .;women;pensions;waspi
|
jp0009321
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/07
|
Tokyo stocks turn down on growing concerns over U.S. elections
|
Stocks closed lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, as investors grew concerned about the results of the closely watched U.S. midterm elections. The key 225-issue Nikkei average fell 61.95 points, or 0.28 percent, to end at 22,085.80. It gained 248.76 points Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 6.92 points, or 0.42 percent, at 1,652.43. It rose 18.96 points the previous day. The Nikkei average briefly dipped into negative territory in early morning trading following media reports that the Democratic Party was likely to win back a majority in the House of Representatives, leading to a divided Congress. The key market gauge soon swung back into the sunny side and extended the gain after Republicans’ lead in the House race was reported, market sources said. In the afternoon, however, both Nikkei and Topix indexes turned to head south as vote counting progressed and Democrats’ victory in the House contest became certain, the sources added. Democrats’ regaining of control of the House will prevent smooth enactment of bills introduced by the administration of President Donald Trump, brokers said. Wednesday’s market downturn came as “expectations receded” for the realization of further tax cuts and other Republican economic policy measures, said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. Meanwhile, Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., offered the view that stock transactions were led by short-term players. Democrats’ reported victory in the House was “not much surprising,” Miura also said, indicating that it had largely been factored in. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,095 to 939 on the TSE’s first section, while 77 issues were unchanged. Volume grew to 1.683 billion shares, from 1.342 billion shares Tuesday. Nonferrous metal producer Mitsubishi Materials Corp. closed 8.33 percent lower after revising down its operating profit forecast for the year through March next year. Other major losers included pharmaceutical company Astellas Pharma Inc. and air conditioner-maker Daikin Industries. By contrast, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. finished 4.85 percent higher as investors took heart from its brisk earnings results and rosy forecasts, as well as a plan to buy back own shares. Also buoyant were semiconductor-related Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. and clothing store chain operator Fast Retailing Co. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average sagged 80 points to end at 22,120.
|
stocks;nikkei;topix
|
jp0009322
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/07
|
Dollar weaker around ¥113 in Tokyo trading
|
The dollar eased to around ¥113 in Tokyo trading Wednesday, dampened by media reports predicting that the U.S. opposition Democratic Party would regain a House majority in midterm elections. At 5 p.m. the dollar stood at ¥113.06-06, down from ¥113.33-33 at the same time Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1453-1453, up from $1.1413-1413, and at ¥129.49-49, up from ¥129.34-34. After moving around ¥113.40 in early trading, the dollar fell below ¥113 following media reports that Democrats took the upper hand over Republicans in the House of Representatives race. Later in the morning, the greenback shot up to around ¥113.80 as Republicans were reported to be catching up with Democrats to keep their control of both chambers of Congress. But the dollar bowed to stepped-up selling after it became certain that the House would be controlled by Democrats and the Senate by Republicans, traders said. The U.S. currency “met with selling to square dollar-long positions built on the positive speculation for Republicans,” a Japanese bank official said. The dollar was also pressured by a drop in long-term U.S. interest rates, according to a securities firm official.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex
|
jp0009324
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/07
|
Citizens' group leader Fumiko Hiyoshi, who worked for sufferers of Minamata disease, dies at 103
|
KUMAMOTO - Fumiko Hiyoshi, who headed a citizens’ group and supported Minamata disease sufferers for more than half a century, died Wednesday due to old age at a nursing home in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, a person close to her family said. She was 103. Hiyoshi, who was an elementary school teacher before serving as a city assembly member of Minamata for 16 years from 1963, campaigned for the predecessor of chemical company Chisso Corp. and the government to accept responsibility for the disease, which is caused by mercury poisoning. The company had released mercury-tainted industrial wastewater into the sea, and local residents who consumed contaminated seafood developed neurological symptoms from the poisoning. The disease also caused birth defects. Hiyoshi established the citizens’ group in 1968 to support the patients and their families. The same year the government recognized Minamata as a disease caused by pollution.
|
minamata disease;fumiko hiyoshi
|
jp0009325
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/07
|
Tokyo Medical University to accept applicants rejected due to rigging
|
Tokyo Medical University on Wednesday announced measures to rectify the situation for applicants who were rejected in 2017 and 2018 due to a rigged admissions process. A total of 101 students, many of them women, will be allowed to attend classes from the start of the next school year if they so desire. There are 32 such applicants from last year and 69 from this year. “We were notified that we acted inappropriately on matters relating to entrance exams. We deeply apologize to everyone who was affected,” Yukiko Hayashi, who became the university’s first female president after the scandal came to light this summer, said at a news conference. An independent committee report said in October that 69 applicants who took the general entrance exam and a common admission test used by most universities in 2017 and 2018 would have qualified for admission if the process had been fair. Of these, at least 55 were women. Tokyo Medical University admitted in August that it had been deducting points from exam scores for over 10 years to curb female enrollment. It also said it deducted points for men who had failed the exam previously. The discriminatory practice was discovered amid a bribery investigation involving Futoshi Sano, a high-ranking education ministry official, and Masahiko Usui, former chairman of the university. The education ministry is currently investigating other medical schools nationwide to see whether they have also manipulated the student selection process. So far, 81 schools nationwide have been probed. Last month, Showa University revealed it had padded scores for applicants, while Juntendo University also announced it will set up a panel to investigate allegations of bias against female applicants.
|
scandals;gender discrimination;tokyo medical university
|
jp0009326
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Bridge collapse costs Genoa companies €422 million in damages: Chamber of Commerce
|
MILAN, ITALY - The collapse of a bridge in Genoa, which claimed 43 lives, has cost companies in the Italian city around €422 million ($482 million) in damages, the Genoa Chamber of Commerce said. The chamber’s estimate was based on a survey of hundreds of companies affected after the bridge operated by a unit of Italy’s Atlantia collapsed on Aug. 14. The survey was aimed at helping firms claim relief from state disaster-aid funds, but could also be the base for future lawsuits against whoever is found responsible for the collapse. Damages to properties, buildings, machinery and stocks were estimated at 63 million euros, while higher costs and lower profits reported by some companies due to the collapse amounted to a combined €359 million, the Chamber of Commerce said. The government has blamed Atlantia’s unit Autostrade per l’Italia, which operated the bridge, for the disaster. The company and its top managers are under judicial investigation, along with transport ministry officials, for culpable homicide. Autostrade has denied any wrongdoing, saying regular, state-supervised inspections had indicated the aging bridge was safe. The transport ministry has also said it had no responsibility. Italian freight forwarders, who say their business has been hurt by the bridge collapse, told Reuters they were taking legal advice and considering whether to sue toll-road operator Atlantia if the group is found responsible.
|
italy;damages;insurance;chamber of commerce;genoa;bridge accident
|
jp0009327
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Nikkei falls back on lack of incentives following powerful rally
|
Stocks turned lower Friday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following selling prompted by a 401-point surge the previous day. The key 225-issue Nikkei average fell 236.67 points, or 1.05 percent, to end at 22,250.25 after jumping 401.12 points on Thursday. The Topix index of all first-section issues lost 8.27 points, or 0.49 percent, to end at 1,672.98, after climbing 28.82 points the previous day. After fluctuating around the previous day’s closing levels in early trading, the key market gauges headed south later in the morning as investor sentiment was battered by sluggish performances by Chinese stocks, market sources said. The yardsticks remained in negative territory in the afternoon as selling of mainstay issues continued, the sources said. The Tokyo market was affected by weakness in other Asian stocks “in the absence of fresh incentives in Japan,” Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., said, adding that the yen’s fall against the dollar failed to offset the downward pressure. Otsuka indicated that Tokyo stocks fell more sharply than he expected while selling incentives were limited. An official at an online brokerage pointed out that selling pressure grew when the Nikkei approached 22,500. “It is difficult for investors to take risks” before Japanese companies are set to release their scorecards at the peak of the earnings reporting season, the official added. Despite the falls of the key indexes, rising issues outnumbered losers 1,047 to 971 on the TSE’s first section and 94 issues were flat. Volume decreased to 1.447 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.537 billion shares. Shiseido tumbled 4.99 percent after investors were disappointed by the major cosmetics maker’s announcement Thursday that it left its earnings projections for the full year to December unchanged. Nonferrous metal producer Sumitomo Metal Mining met with selling following a downward revision to its earnings estimates for the year to March 2019, also released Thursday. Lower crude oil prices weighed on oil wholesalers Cosmo Energy and JXTG. By contrast, automaker Suzuki, food producer Meiji Holdings and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny were upbeat. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average fell 230 points to 22,270.
|
stocks;nikkei;topix
|
jp0009328
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Dollar slightly firmer above ¥113.80 in Tokyo trading
|
The dollar was trading slightly above ¥113.80 in late Friday trading in Tokyo after cutting some of its earlier gains in the face of position-adjustment sales ahead of the weekend. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.84-85, up from ¥113.69-70 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1336-1337, down from $1.1435-1435, and at ¥129.06-06, down from ¥130.02-02. The dollar moved around ¥114.00-10 in early trading, inheriting its overnight strength abroad and reflecting hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its next policy meeting in December on the back of its upbeat view of the U.S. economy. At its two-day meeting through Thursday, the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee decided to keep its federal funds rate target range at 2.0-2.25 percent. But in a policy statement, the Fed indicated its plans to continue raising its rate target gradually, saying economic activity has been rising “at a strong rate.” After the early firmness, however, the greenback fell below ¥113.90 toward noon Friday in Tokyo, pressured by profit-taking and sales induced by a decline in the benchmark Nikkei stock average, traders said. “Selling on a rally grew when the dollar rose near one-month highs around ¥114,” an official of a foreign-exchange margin trading service firm said. Still, the dollar “was hunted around ¥113.80 on expectations for a wider gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates” following the Fed statement, the official said. The dollar’s topside was capped amid concerns about possible economic slowdowns in Europe and China, and uncertainty over fiscal conditions in Italy, market sources said.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex
|
jp0009329
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Huge lizard that terrified Florida neighborhood caught
|
DAVIE, FLORIDA - Florida authorities have caught a huge lizard that terrified residents of a suburban Miami neighborhood for months. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Thursday the Asian water monitor lizard measures more than 8 feet (2.5 meters) long. The lizard is an escaped pet. It was first reported loose in August in a Davie neighborhood. Residents said it lurked in their backyards and scratched at their patio doors. Wildlife officers and Davie police officers caught it Tuesday after getting a tip from a resident who said the lizard frequently appeared on his property around midday. A wildlife commission statement says the lizard will be returned to its owner, who received a criminal citation for its escape. Owners must have cages to keep these lizards as pets. It is illegal to release nonnative species in Florida.
|
animals;pets;florida;pests
|
jp0009331
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/09
|
A sad legacy of postwar upheaval, neglected graves hinder safety works in Okinawa
|
The area around the banks of the Hija River in the town of Kadena, Okinawa Prefecture, is dotted with graves that are left unattended with no one to inherit them, posing a growing problem for urban development and safety works. Ownership of 90 percent or more of the 116 graves within nearby Yarajoseki Park, which is operated by the town and is soon to undergo renovation work, is currently unknown. Carved into the cliffs below housing operated by the prefecture, where work is being urgently conducted to prevent rockfalls or the cliff collapsing, graves where the identities of the owner and the remains interred are unclear have left authorities at a loss regarding how to proceed. In Okinawa, many graves are overseen by family members, and those with knowledge of the situation point out that amid Japan’s low birthrate and graying population, cases of graves no longer being maintained are likely to increase. Designated a park in 1979, Yarajoseki is scattered with graves that appear to have been made after World War II. In order to conduct large-scale works in the park, the Kadena Municipal Government judged that the graves would need to be moved, and in fiscal 2016 about ¥11.55 million was spent on establishing whether or not they were in use. Despite making inquiries and monitoring the graves during occasions such as Shimi — an observance in April when Okinawan family members gather in front of the family tomb — there was no sign of any owner for 107 of the graves, 30 of which contained bones or funerary urns. In the Mizugama neighborhood near the park, a number of graves of unknown ownership are located at the foot of a high-rise prefectural housing building. The prefectural housing division is keen to proceed with engineering work to roll out safety measures in the area, due to the risk of the cliff collapsing, but despite erecting signboards and publishing notices for a number of years, the division has not received any information about the graves. Under the Graveyards and Burials Act, landowners of unmanaged graves can transfer them for reburial if they receive no response for a year after publishing a notice seeking ownership information in the central government’s official gazette. Town authorities published notices in April of last year and posted signs in front of the graves. But, while the legal arrangements for transfer and reburial have been made, those responsible for the work remain concerned and note that “the extent of the cost of reburials for a large number of graves is not yet known.” Prefectural authorities in charge of taking safety measures on the cliffs below the prefectural housing, on the other hand, take the view that while the work has been postponed until now, the risk of rockfalls has increased due to factors such as the effects of typhoons, making further delays no longer possible. As a last resort, the policy has been to proceed with safety works while trying to avoid activities directly above the graves. Years of neglect So far, municipal authorities within the prefecture have been at a loss as to how to deal with neglected graves in cases where there are no longer family members to manage them. The situation within the prefecture contrasts starkly with the rest of the nation, where it is much more common to set up graves within cemeteries, such as those operated by temples. It is all too easy for graves to become unmanaged or abandoned for many years in Okinawa, where a preference remains for individual graves within a family resting place. There are also many unauthorized graves, to the extent that it is unfeasible for most municipal or prefectural authorities to accurately assess the scale of the issue. In addition to having a negative effect on their surroundings, neglected graves cost time and money if they are reburied at an alternative location. “We know there are a lot of them in the mountains, but we have no way of finding out who is connected with them,” said a town representative from the north of the prefecture. “Unless there’s a problem with them, it’s hard to get involved,” they added. In urban areas where residential land development is underway, the need for effective measures is urgent. Seven years ago, the Urasoe Municipal Government in the prefecture estimated that of around 7,000 graves in the city, 300 or so had not been maintained for many years. The Okinawa Municipal Government receives inquiries about four to five times each year from building contractors or residents regarding unknown graves found on newly purchased land. While the Naha Municipal Government estimated 16 years ago that among the around 17,000 graves in the city, roughly 1,100 were unattended or unused, “the numbers are definitely growing higher than that now,” an official said. In principle, landowners are responsible for paying any costs incurred to perform reburials for neglected graves. Since such graves are also found on privately owned land, parties involved are often concerned over potentially escalating costs, as well as delays of at least a year due to procedures such as the publishing of notices in the official gazette. Chaotic postwar years Well-versed in the city’s history, Kadena’s former Superintendent of Education Katsuo Iha, 79, believes that many of the graves located across the Hija River area were likely to have been erected in the chaotic postwar years, without permission from landowners. “Graves are thought to have accumulated in the area at a time when land was requisitioned for U.S. military bases and there wasn’t anywhere to live,” he said. “In most cases the family members who attended them may have passed away, or the graves may no longer be used after remains were transferred elsewhere,” Iha suggested. According to Hajime Kinjo, a consultant specializing in grave-related issues, “it typically becomes hard to find a successor to manage individual graves in family tombs after around three generations.” “The only solution is to prevent the graves from becoming neglected by erecting them together in cemeteries that are managed by authorities or private companies,” he added.
|
okinawa;wwii;graves
|
jp0009332
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/09
|
TV Asahi cancels performance of K-pop group BTS over member's Hiroshima A-bombing T-shirt
|
TV Asahi Corp. said Thursday it had canceled a live performance by K-pop group BTS amid a furor over a member having worn a controversial T-shirt, said by some to celebrate the use of atomic weapons against Japan during WWII. The controversy erupted over photos of BTS member Jimin wearing the T-shirt, which commemorates the day the Korean Peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945. But the design, which has drawn flak from many Japanese, also includes a photo of an atomic bomb exploding over Japan. @BTS_twt This is an atomic bomb t shirt dropped in Japan. It is a group that also works in Japan, so please have a little more consciousness. I am sorry just because I like Jimin and I am supporting bts. pic.twitter.com/xRm4tADLBs — . (@iGkmPqdcpB10C6L) October 30, 2018 Tokyo-based TV Asahi said it decided to call off BTS’s Friday night performance on its “Music Station” program, and has asked the band’s agency to explain the member’s intention in wearing the shirt. The broadcaster’s statement also apologized to viewers over the cancellation. Company spokesman Shinya Matsuki declined further comment. For its part, BTS apologized in a statement to its Japanese fans for not being able to make the appearance, without elaborating. Universal Music said it will continue to support BTS and confirmed that their appearance scheduled for Friday was canceled. The A-bomb T-shirt was one of the top trending topics on Twitter Friday morning. ‘Music Station’ is one of Japan’s most prominent music programs, and one of TV Asahi’s main shows. Some Japanese fans of the band expressed disgust on Twitter that their show was canceled over a T-shirt, while other users of the social network described the group as making light of the atomic bombings. The incident comes as ties between Tokyo and Seoul are once again strained over historical issues. The latest controversy follows a recent decision handed down by South Korea’s Supreme Court that said Japanese firms can be held liable for forced labor that occurred before and during World War II. Work by seven-member boy band BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, has reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. The group has also collaborated with Japanese American DJ and musical artist Steve Aoki.
|
k-pop;atomic bombings;tv asahi;bts
|
jp0009333
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Keio University submits research plan with goal of performing Japan's first womb transplants
|
A Keio University team hopes to carry out Japan’s first clinical research into transplanting wombs to women who do not have the organ, according to sources. The team submitted the research plan to the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology on Wednesday, asking for its input. The society will start discussions on ethical and safety aspects. The plan was produced by the team led by Iori Kisu, specially appointed assistant professor at the university. Under the plan, five women with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuester-Hauser syndrome, which caused them to be born without wombs, would receive operations to transplant wombs donated by their mothers or sisters. The team would inject drugs to suppress the women’s immune systems to avoid rejection responses, and put externally fertilized frozen eggs back into the wombs so that the women can become pregnant. Womb transplant operations have already been carried out in some areas in the United States and Europe, resulting in successful pregnancies. So far no such operations have been conducted in Japan. Issues that need to be examined include the effects of drugs to suppress the immune system on fetuses in wombs, risks to those who donate wombs and whether it is appropriate to receive organs despite not suffering from a life-threatening disease.
|
women;transplants;keio university
|
jp0009334
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Kyoto University performs world's first iPS cell transplant for Parkinson's
|
KYOTO - Kyoto University said Friday it has conducted the world’s first transplant of induced pluripotent stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease. Nerve cells created from the artificially derived stem cells, known as iPS cells, were transplanted into the brain of a patient in his 50s in October in a treatment researchers hope to develop into a method that can be covered under Japan’s health insurance system. “By also cooperating with companies, we want to develop a mass production system that enables us to deliver nerve cells derived from iPS cells to all over the world,” said Jun Takahashi, a professor at the university’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application who led the research team, at a news conference. Parkinson’s disease reduces dopamine-producing neurons in the brain and results in tremors in the hands and feet and stiffness in the body. While there are treatments to relieve the symptoms, there is currently no cure for the disease. In Japan, an estimated 160,000 people suffer from the progressive neurological disorder. Many patients develop symptoms when in their 50s or older, and the number of patients is rising due to the graying of society. The clinical trial was carried out by the research center and Kyoto University Hospital, with doctors verifying the transplant’s safety and effectiveness. Shinya Yamanaka, who heads the center, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012 for discovering iPS cells, which can grow into any type of body tissue and are seen as a promising tool for regenerative medicine and drug development. According to the treatment plan, the nerve cells transplanted into the patient’s brain were created using iPS cells derived from people who had types of immunity that made them less prone to rejecting transplants. The nerve cells are expected to supplement dopamine-emitting neurons. During a course of treatment that will be monitored for two years, immune suppressor drugs will be injected to reduce the possibility of rejections. The transplant performed last month is aimed mainly at verifying the safety of such a therapy, by checking whether any tumors develop in the brain. So far, no hemorrhages within the brain or other harmful symptoms have been found, according to the university. At the news conference at the hospital, Takayuki Kikuchi, a surgeon, elaborated on the process of the three-hour operation he performed. “We made a hole in the frontal part of the left side of the head and transplanted some 2.4 million cells,” he said, adding that the patient smiled with relief after the operation. The study will involve seven patients in their 50s and 60s, who fulfilled the criteria of having received drug treatments without effective results and having suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than five years. “Having heard the news of the first trial, I feel the research is steadily moving forward step by step. We are all looking forward to hearing a positive outcome,” said Hisao Hiramine, a 70-year-old who suffers from the disease and chairs a Tokyo association of patients and their families. Asked about his eventual goal, Kyoto University’s Takahashi said, “The best scenario is to see patients improve to the extent they do not have to take any medicine.” He added: “For surgeons, the result is all that matters.” Outside Japan, nerve cells from aborted fetuses have been transplanted into patients’ brains in clinical research conducted since the 1980s. Although the method proved effective to a certain extent, it entailed ethical problems and side effects in which patients’ bodies moved unintentionally. The iPS cells used in this study are of high quality, for clinical use, and could also be prepared in a large volume. The application of iPS cells to health treatment follows the world’s first clinical study by the Japanese government-backed Riken institute to transplant retina cells grown from stem cells to treat patients suffering from serious eye problems. Among other clinical trials related to regenerative medicine, Osaka University is planning to transplant heart muscle cell sheets derived from iPS cells into the hearts of patients who are suffering from serious heart failure. Another research team at Kyoto University is expected to begin a blood transfusion test using platelets created from the stem cells in order to treat patients with aplastic anemia.
|
medicine;ips;kyoto university;disease;parkinson 's disease
|
jp0009335
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/09
|
New foreign worker status raises hopes in industries short of staff
|
The envisaged new status for foreign workers in Japan is raising hopes in industries facing severe labor shortages, such as the restaurant and manufacturing sectors. The new residence status “will help us hire more talented foreign workers,” an official of a major izakaya (traditional Japanese pub) chain said, welcoming a bill to revise the immigration control law as the restaurant industry has been struggling with chronic labor shortages. “It’s good for both Japanese and foreign staff as we can learn languages and customs from each other by working together,” an official at a major hotel operator said, hoping for synergies that will help improve service quality. In the manufacturing industry, Isuzu Motors Ltd. President Masanori Katayama said that it will be good to have more hiring options, as his company is suffering from a shortage of workers, . “Many Indonesian people are already playing a major role and we would face problems without them,” an official in the shipbuilding industry said. Companies in the industries that are expected to be covered by the planned new residence status are eager to actively hire foreign workers, sources said. The government submitted the bill to revise the immigration control law to the Lower House, last week. The bill is designed to accept more foreign workers in Japan, including unskilled workers, to resolve labor shortages. It calls for creating two types of new residence status. The government is considering giving Type 1 status to foreign workers with certain levels of knowledge or experience in 14 industries, including the agriculture, fishery, restaurant and hotel sectors. Type 2 status would be granted to highly skilled foreign workers in some five industries, including construction and automobile maintenance. Faced with a drop in the aging farmer population, the agriculture industry is welcoming the policy of accepting more foreign workers. But there are cautious opinions as well. Toru Nakaya, head of the Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives, or JA-Zenchu, said there are concerns about problems involving foreign workers and the deterioration of public security. “It’s necessary to dispel such concerns and provide a friendly environment for foreign workers,” Nakaya said. Currently, some companies in Japan accept foreign workers under the country’s technical intern training program. But the program has been plagued with problems. Abusing the system, some companies refused to pay wages to their trainees, while some interns have gone missing. “It’s our mission to create a work environment allowing each worker to utilize their capabilities regardless of nationality and gender,” said Noriaki Horikiri, president of major Japanese seasoning-maker Kikkoman Corp.
|
agriculture;manufacturing;foreign workers
|
jp0009336
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Time employed under new visas won't count toward working period requirement for permanent residency
|
The Justice Ministry does not intend to count time spent employed under one of two new visas set to be introduced next spring when checking whether those who apply for permanent residency status meet requirements, government sources have said. One of the prerequisites for permanent residency in Japan is having five years of work experience in the country. But according to the sources, those working under the new proposed visa status — which will be available to individuals with considerable knowledge or experience in areas where human resources are lacking in the nation — will not be able to cite time spent under this status as working time when they apply for permanent residency. The new visa, along with another type intended for individuals with more seasoned skills in areas similar to those under the first type, is aimed at making up for labor shortages in certain job categories, and will open the door to more foreign blue-collar workers. In the meantime, the ministry is still considering how to handle time spent working in Japan under the second type of visa, the sources said. Last week, the government submitted to the Diet a bill that would revise related laws to establish the two new visa types in April. Under the bill, those who fall under the first category will receive renewable visas for periods ranging from one to five years, for a combined total of five years, but will not be allowed to bring their families with them. The second new visa type will also be renewable, pending necessary checks, for as long as one’s employment contract is renewed. It will also let the recipient bring their spouses and children to the country. Both statuses require applicants to have adequate Japanese language proficiency to get by in daily life. Those in the first type can apply to change their status to the second type, if they fulfill the requirements. In Friday’s first meeting of the Lower House Committee on Judicial Affairs, Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita said the bill, if passed, would enable employers suffering from serious labor shortages to secure staffers who can immediately contribute to the workforce. Those applying for permanent residency under the ministry’s guidelines must fulfill requirements including good behavior, having adequate assets and skills to live in the country, and 10 or more years residing in Japan including at least five years under work visas. The time under the first new visa type will be counted toward the residential requirement, but not the working period requirement. The bill to introduce the visas has already been deliberated in Lower and Upper House budget committees, where opposition lawmakers criticized the legislation for lacking clarity on details — including which industries would be within scope for the new visas and how many people were expected to come to Japan. “We will proceed with preparing the environment and compile a comprehensive set of measures by the end of the year toward realizing a society in which Japanese and foreigners can coexist,” Yamashita said. Yamashita repeated Friday that the new systems are not meant to promote immigration, noting that they will not directly lead to permanent residency. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that the Justice Ministry is currently considering how the new visa types will be handled when considering applications for permanent residency. He said the decision on approvals will basically continue to rest with the justice minister in consideration of the situation surrounding each application.
|
immigration;justice ministry;visas;foreign workers
|
jp0009337
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Foreign trainees tell Diet hearing about poor work environments in Japan
|
At a joint hearing conducted by major opposition parties Thursday, foreign trainees in Japan complained of low wages, long working hours, violence and power harassment at their workplaces. A Chinese woman who arrived in Japan in 2015 and worked at a paper mill in Shizuoka Prefecture said she had developed depression after experiencing discrimination and bullying at her workplace. She said she tried to commit suicide when her request for a transfer was rejected. Another trainee who attended was a Vietnamese man who came to Japan in 2015, to gain skills in handling reinforcing rods and creating molds for concrete at construction sites. He claimed his job at a construction company in Fukushima Prefecture mostly involved decontamination work after the 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant. The man said he’d wanted to learn expert skills but that never happened, adding that he’d also realized his hopes would never be fulfilled three years after his arrival in the country. The joint hearing was held after the government last week submitted a draft revision to the immigration control law, to accept more foreign workers in order to ease labor shortages. Among the participating politicians were Akira Nagatsuma, acting leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), and Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Diet affairs head of the Democratic Party for the People. In an statement drawn up Thursday, the CDPJ said the proposed revision may “further deepen and prolong problems arising from the technical intern training program.” The government is aiming for the revision to be passed during the current Diet session, which is set to end in December. The CDPJ said it cannot accept the government’s position as the revision will create a source of significant difficulty in the country’s future. At a press conference, JCP leader Kazuo Shii said his party will endeavor to get the bill scrapped through Diet debates.
|
immigration;forieign trainees;the constitutional democratic party of japan;the democratic party for the people
|
jp0009338
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/11/09
|
Chinese trainee wins compensation from Japanese farm after overtime pay amounted to ¥400 per hour
|
MITO - A Chinese trainee won compensation Friday from a Japanese farm after being underpaid, in what is the latest incident of abuse involving a program often accused of being a cover for importing cheap labor. The Mito District Court ruled that a father and son who run a farm in Ibaraki Prefecture must pay the Chinese trainee ¥1.99 million ($17,500) for wages owed, and a similar amount as a fine. The 32-year-old woman started working at the vegetable farm a month after arriving in Japan in September 2013, according to the complaint. The court recognized that her overtime pay was ¥400 per hour, calculating that she bundled 200 bunches of Japanese basil an hour and was paid ¥2 per bunch. The ruling said that she worked every day until 9 or 10 p.m. and occasionally until midnight. The wage paid to the trainee was far lower than the minimum hourly wage of around ¥700 at that time set by local labor officials. “A ¥400 hourly wage is wrong and there are many similar cases in Japan,” said Shoichi Ibuski, her defense lawyer and expert on foreign labor issues. “It is the reality for trainees that they cannot claim their rights or protest,” he said, criticizing the vegetable farm for taking advantage of the situation. The court dismissed the woman’s damages claim over alleged sexual harassment at the farm, and against the foreign trainee supervisory organization that arranged her employment there. The training program was introduced in 1993 with the goal of transferring skills to developing countries.
|
courts;expats;foreign trainees;foreign workers;mito district court;shoichi ibuski
|
jp0009340
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Tokyo stocks end higher for sixth session
|
Stocks extended their winning streak to a sixth session on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday, as buying increased after the recent drops. The 225-issue Nikkei average climbed 88.46 points, or 0.40 percent, to finish at 22,351.06, the best finish since Nov. 8. It rose 85.58 points Thursday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 7.98 points, or 0.48 percent, at 1,667.45, after gaining 5.81 points the previous day. Stocks moved without direction in the morning amid a wait-and-see mood ahead of the closely watched meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to be held on the sidelines of the two-day Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires from Friday, market sources said. In afternoon trading, the Nikkei average firmed as mainstay issues, including drugmakers and some automakers, attracted purchases after their recent falls, according to the sources. Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said that the market’s firmness came as “Chinese stocks moved on a relatively firm note.” Behind Friday’s rise was “hope for progress” in trade negotiations between the United States and China, an official of an asset management firm said about the Trump-Xi meeting. The official indicated that futures-led purchases on the back of the speculation that the world’s two largest economies would reach a certain agreement on trade buoyed the market. Meanwhile, an official of an online brokerage firm warned that the Nikkei average could fall close to 21,000 in the near future if the Trump-Xi talks fall apart. Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,311 to 737 in the TSE’s first section, while 69 issues were unchanged. Volume rose to 1.819 billion shares from 1.302 billion shares on Thursday. Among automakers, Honda and Suzuki were upbeat thanks to buybacks, a market source said. Drugmakers Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Shionogi were also buoyant. Electronic parts supplier Murata Manufacturing closed 2.52 percent higher, as investors took heart from its bullish earnings targets for fiscal 2021 released Thursday, brokers said. By contrast, Seiko Epson lost 5.70 percent after SMBC Nikko Securities revised down its stock target price for the printer-maker Thursday. Also on the minus side were clothing retailer Fast Retailing and air-conditioner-maker Daikin. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average rose 110 points to end at 22,350.
|
stocks;nikkei;tse;markets;topix
|
jp0009341
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Dollar slightly firmer above ¥113.40 in Tokyo
|
The dollar was slightly firmer above ¥113.40 in late Tokyo trading Friday, supported by position-adjustment buying. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.46, up from ¥113.24 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1379, down from $1.1383, and at ¥129.12, up from ¥128.91. The greenback moved narrowly around ¥113.40 throughout Friday, with its downside supported by purchases from domestic importers and position-adjustment buying, traders said. Active trading was held in check ahead of the closely watched meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend, market sources said. An official of a major securities firm predicted that the U.S.-China trade fiction “won’t improve drastically” after the meeting. Currency market players “are expected to buy dollars” next week after the Trump-Xi meeting and congressional testimony by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday, an official of a bank-linked securities firm said.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex
|
jp0009342
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Michael Cohen's plea suggests Russians held 'kompromat' on Trump
|
NEW YORK - Michael Cohen’s latest guilty plea revealed a closely guarded Trump business secret. But in a deeply uncomfortable turn for President Donald Trump, one of the people in the know was an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thursday’s dramatic turn of events is problematic for Trump because it suggests the Kremlin knew something that people around Trump were working hard to hold close — that Trump was moving forward with a Moscow business deal at the same time he was deep in the race for the U.S. presidency. Any undisclosed foreign arrangements would raise red flags about candidates for national office, making them vulnerable to blackmail by others privy to those secrets. Russians call such nuggets of damaging information “kompromat,” a concept that’s become familiar enough to enter the international lexicon. Whether Russia used such information is a matter for speculation. But Cohen’s revelation shows that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is digging deep into financial relationships between Trump’s business and Moscow, taking him to the heart of the connections he was appointed to explore between Russia and Trump’s campaign. The Moscow real-estate deal Cohen described Thursday was under consideration through June 2016, five months longer than he had previously admitted. By then, Trump was already surging toward the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidential race. Russia had already embarked on efforts to support Trump’s candidacy through hacking and social-media manipulation, according to previous filings by Mueller. The public deserves to know if elected officials have conflicted motives or interests in their decision-making, and whether other governments have leverage over elected officials, said former Manhattan federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah. “Trump has long acted like someone over whom Putin has leverage,” Rocah said. “Now we know he very likely did in one specific way. And I’m guessing there will be more we learn about.” The idea that Trump could be vulnerable to kompromat has come up before, most famously in the so-called Steele Dossier. The dossier’s most explosive claim, that the Kremlin has a recording of a sexual nature that would compromise Trump, hasn’t ever been verified. The less lurid detail that Cohen offered up in his guilty plea, however, is still potentially powerful. Trump has denied having any business deals in Russia, and said Thursday that Cohen was lying. Cohen said he and a partner pursued the plan build a Trump tower in Moscow through the middle of 2016. He said he briefed Trump and family members along the way, even discussing with Trump a trip to Moscow. That was at odds with what Cohen told lawmakers last year — that he hadn’t told the family about the plan, characterizing it as dead by January 2016. Cohen said he lied out of loyalty to Trump, who is referred to in court documents as “Individual 1.” The lies, Cohen added, were consistent with Trump’s political messaging at the time about his relationship with Russia and Russians. What’s notable about Cohen’s admission, as presented by Mueller’s team, is that Russians, too, knew about the real-estate plan. In his plea deal, Cohen described sending an email in early 2016 to a Russian official — who has previously been identified as Dmitry Peskov, a Putin aide and press secretary — about the project. He described receiving an email in response from Peskov’s office and said he subsequently spoke on the phone for about 20 minutes to a woman there. She asked questions and took notes, according to documents filed Thursday, and promised to follow up on Cohen’s proposals. After Cohen’s call, his partner in the effort, Felix Sater, emailed him about Putin. “They called today,” Sater wrote, according to the filings. The discussions with Moscow continued over the next five months, culminating in an invitation from Peskov’s office for Cohen to attend the St. Petersburg Forum in June 2016, where Cohen would be introduced either to Putin or to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. In mid-June, Cohen informed Sater that he wouldn’t be traveling to Russia after all, without explaining the reason. That account is at odds with what Cohen told lawmakers in August 2017 — that he didn’t recall receiving any response from the Russians in early 2016 and that he decided to abandon the project shortly thereafter. Around the same time that Cohen downplayed the deal with lawmakers, Peskov went public with an account mirroring Cohen’s. The Kremlin received an email from Cohen seeking help with a Trump Tower project, Peskov told reporters on a conference call in late August, adding that the office never replied to it. “We don’t respond to such business topics. It’s not our job and we left it without a response,” Peskov said at the time. Peskov also said the Trump Tower Moscow project was never discussed with Putin. National security officials in the U.S. are constantly looking for any instances where members of an administration could be blackmailed by a foreign power. One of the fundamental purposes of government background checks is to determine whether a would-be federal employees could be vulnerable because they have secrets they’re trying to keep. President Trump had to deal with a similar issue involving General Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser. Prior to Trump’s inauguration, Flynn had spoken with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The FBI later interviewed Flynn at the White House, where he denied that he’d discussed sanctions that then-president Obama had just imposed on Russia. After reports of the Kislyak conversation emerged, Vice President Mike Pence defended Flynn publicly, saying the national security adviser had assured him he hadn’t discussed policy with Kislyak. After determining that Flynn had lied to the FBI agents about the meeting, then-acting Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates informed White House general counsel Don McGahn that she was concerned Flynn had lied to Pence. Asked by McGahn why Flynn’s lie to Pence should be of any interest to the Justice Department, Yates explained that the Russians were aware that Flynn had lied to Pence, and could use that information to blackmail him. “To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians,” Yates told a congressional committee last year.
|
u.s .;russia;espionage;robert mueller;donald trump;2016 u.s. presidential election;michael cohen
|
jp0009343
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Iceland harnesses hot springs to power year-round farming
|
HUSAVIK, ICELAND - For half the year, the temperature on Pall Olafsson’s remote farm in Iceland often dips below freezing and the sun barely makes an appearance. Yet the heat and light in his greenhouses allow Olafsson to grow his juicy tomatoes and cucumbers even in the depths of winter – thanks largely to the geothermal energy that gives his tiny North Atlantic nation its title, the Land of Fire and Ice. “When we started using the lights and growing all year round, then it changed a lot,” said Olafsson as workers busily pruned plants behind him. “(Before), you were picking the last tomatoes in November and next you pick in April. Maybe 20 years ago, it was like that.” Olafsson credits the hot springs that bubble up from the earth a short distance away with turning Hveravellir into one of Iceland’s biggest vegetable farms, producing about 500 tons of tomatoes, cucumber and paprika a year. Iceland’s volcanic origins have blessed the island of 350,000 inhabitants with abundant geothermal energy – a renewable resource that, unlike solar or wind power, is unaffected by its unpredictable weather. Geothermal energy makes up a quarter of Iceland’s electricity, all of which comes from renewable sources, and has helped boost the year-round availability of fresh food in the past two decades. The naturally hot water is piped in to heat the greenhouses, and the hot springs are also a key power source for the artificial lights that help farmers grow their crops even in winter, when the island sees barely three hours of sunlight a day. Icelandic farmers began artificially lighting their greenhouses about 20 years ago. But the real game-changer was the technology that allows them to control every detail remotely from a smartphone, said Knutur Rafn Armann, who runs the Fridheimar tomato farm with his wife Helena. “We have a steering computer in every greenhouse connected to our weather station, connected to our model PC computer, which is connected to the internet,” he said. “So whenever I go somewhere I always have my iPhone with me and I can water the plants, open windows, and change settings or steer everything through my phone.” The remote island historically imported much of its food. But the double whammy of the 2008 financial crisis and a volcanic eruption that prevented planes from landing in 2010 have encouraged greater self-sufficiency. Now, at least half the tomatoes and cucumbers sold here are locally grown, said Gunnlaugur Karlsson, managing director of Solufelag Gardyrkjumanna (SFG), which packages and markets fruit and vegetables. He believes it is common sense for a remote, disaster-prone island to produce as much of its own food as possible – and besides, local produce sells. This year SFG began working with farmers to take their food into kindergartens, ensuring that children eat produce that is locally grown and pesticide-free. The industry is doing what it can to encourage people to buy local, but many believe the government could do more to help. “The authorities do not care if the food is imported or locally grown, as long as it is not contaminated with harmful chemicals, etc,” said Helgi Johannesson, a farming consultant. A spokesman for Iceland’s Ministry of Industries and Innovation said the government was working on a policy to procure local food for government institutions. However, farmers say the government could achieve more by giving them preferential rates for electricity. Currently just 0.5 percent of Iceland’s total power goes to farmers, who say they have to pay a higher rate than the electricity-hungry aluminium industry. The state-owned power provider Landsvirkjun does not disclose prices and the Icelandic government declined to comment. “I often say to the government, if we decide to use 1 percent of electricity to make healthy, good food for ourselves, that would be great,” said Armann. “But of course (they) would have to lower the prices to the farmers.”
|
iceland;farming;geothermal energy
|
jp0009344
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/11/30
|
As fear grows over what Robert Mueller knows, Trump's attacks on Russia probe intensify
|
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s intensifying attacks this week against the Russia collusion investigation underscore a growing nervousness over the how much evidence investigators may have accumulated on the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Moscow. In new charges unveiled Thursday by special counsel Robert Mueller, former top Trump aide Michael Cohen admitted direct communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office on behalf of Trump’s business through the first half of 2016. Trump, who earlier tweeted that the Mueller probe was an “illegal Joseph McCarthy style Witch Hunt,” blasted Cohen as a “weak person” who lied to get a reduced sentence. But the most recent news from the investigation suggests that Mueller, a cagey former FBI director, is holding back and could have more shocks in store for the U.S. leader as he nears the conclusion of the 18-month-old investigation. Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer and a senior executive in the president’s real estate business, the Trump Organization, admitted to having lied to Congress about trying to negotiate a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow well into the middle of 2016, even when Trump had wrapped up the Republican nomination for president. Trump in the past denied any ongoing contacts with Moscow. But the criminal complaint filed Thursday depicts Cohen in regular contact with Putin’s top spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, during that period, seeking to arrange a trip by Trump to Russia to meet Putin. The complaint also says that Cohen kept senior Trump campaign figures, including members of Trump’s family, informed of these efforts — suggesting Trump himself might have been in the loop. That could be trouble for a number of people if they have denied to Mueller or Congress knowledge of Russia contacts during that period. Mueller has already shown he has evidence that the Trump campaign and Trump’s family entertained offers of dirt on Trump’s Democratic election rival, Hillary Clinton, from Russia. He is expected to soon charge conservative activist Jerome Corsi and campaign adviser Roger Stone in relation to their alleged attempts to coordinate with WikiLeaks over July-October 2016 as the group published Democratic emails damaging to Clinton. The U.S. says the emails were hacked by Russian intelligence, which supplied them to WikiLeaks, aiming to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. Mueller has already indicted 25 Russians as part of a criminal “conspiracy” to influence the election. The key question is, does Mueller have evidence that, in trying to contact WikiLeaks, Corsi and Stone were working on behalf of and with the knowledge of Trump or top Trump campaign officials? And would that mean they could be seen as conspiring with the Russians? On Monday Mueller accused former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of violating a cooperation deal by lying to investigators. What the lies were about remains a mystery, but it could underscore what most observers believe: that Mueller has far more evidence than his targets know. Trump has held out the possibility of a pardon to Manafort, who he says was treated “cruelly” by the investigation. Now questions are being raised on whether Trump has obstructed justice by suggesting the pardon. The new Cohen and Manafort charges came just after Trump returned answers to a long list of questions submitted to him by Mueller that focus on Russia contacts. The White House delayed answering the questions since the beginning of this year, worried that Trump could be trapped in a possible lie by making statements contrary to evidence presented Mueller by others. Trump’s anger about the investigation raises the possibility that his answers might be contradicted by Cohen, Manafort and others.
|
wikileaks;robert mueller;donald trump;paul manafort;trump organization;roger stone;russia probe;michael cohen;jerome corsi
|
jp0009345
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/11/30
|
30 journalists killed by organized crime in past two years, watchdog RSF reports
|
PARIS - Journalists are increasingly becoming easy targets for organised crime, with more than 30 killed worldwide over the last two years, a media watchdog warned Thursday. “The Mob has spread its tentacles around the globe faster than all the multinationals combined,” Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a new report on the dangers. “From Beijing to Moscow, from Tijuana to Bogota, from Malta to Slovakia, investigative journalists who shed light on the deals that involve organized crime unleash the wrath of gangsters, whose common feature is an aversion to any publicity unless they control it,” said its author, French investigative journalist Frederic Ploquin. He said the only way to counter the threat was for reporters to work together to protect each other. The biggest danger was in investigating corruption, Ploquin said, now that ruthless crime groups have “established a kind of pact with the state” in many countries, “to the point that you cannot tell where one stops and the other begins.” “How is it possible that Mexico’s drug cartels sprout like mushrooms without the support of part of the state’s apparatus?” asked RSF after nine of the 14 journalists murdered worldwide in 2017 by organized crime groups were killed in Mexico. Eight more have already died so far in 2018. Three reporters were also killed this year in Brazil and three more elsewhere in Latin America. An Indian journalist who was investigating his country’s “sand mafia” was run over by a truck. The toll has also become worrying in Europe, the report said, with journalists assassinated in Russia, Slovakia and Malta since 2017. Both Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed last year in by a car bomb in Malta, and Jan Kuciak, shot with his girlfriend in Slovakia in February, had been looking into the Italian Mafia and its links with local politicians. In 2017 alone, 196 Italian journalists were said to have had some kind of protection, with a dozen including Roberto Saviano, the author of the bestselling book “Gomorroa” on the Naples crime syndicate the Camorra, living under permanent police guard.
|
murder;organized crime;mexico;mafia;malta;journalists;rsf
|
jp0009346
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Taiwan to enact separate law on same-sex marriage, raising fears about LGBT equality after referendum backlash
|
TAIPEI - Taiwan will enact a separate law for same-sex unions after conservative groups won a recent referendum battle, the premier said, as LGBT activists Friday urged the government to abide by a landmark ruling to offer equal marriage rights. Gay rights campaigners want the existing marriage law to be amended and have said separate regulations would make them second-class citizens. But conservative groups argue that gay marriages should not come under the current Civil Code, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Taiwan’s top court last year voted to legalize gay marriage, the first place in Asia to do so. It ruled that the change should be implemented in two years but did not specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in. Premier William Lai of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party announced the plan for a separate law during a meeting with lawmakers Thursday to review the party’s local election defeat last weekend. Some observers have said the gay marriage issue played into the results and hit a nerve in conservative southern Taiwan, the DPP’s traditional stronghold, where it lost control of Kaohsiung city for the first time in 20 years. President Tsai Ing-wen had championed gay marriage before she was elected but has since said there needs to be more consensus in society. Rival referendums on same-sex unions held alongside the local elections Saturday saw “pro-family” groups defeat pro-gay campaigners in what Amnesty International called a “bitter blow and a step backwards for human rights in Taiwan.” A referendum on whether marriage should only be recognized as between a man and a woman in Taiwan’s Civil Code won more than 7 million votes, as did another calling for same-sex unions to be regulated under a separate law. Gay rights activists had proposed that the Civil Code should give same-sex couples equal marriage rights, but only garnered 3 million votes. “We have to respect public opinion and abide by the referendum outcome. We have to revise a law other than the Civil Code, which is (to enact) a separate law,” cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka told reporters, quoting the premier. She said the government would abide by the Constitutional Court ruling when drafting the new law. “As for the characteristic of the separate law and what it will be called … we will propose a bill that reflects and meets public consensus,” she said. LGBT activists in Taiwan now fear their newly won rights under the court ruling are under threat. “We hope the social turmoil can come to an end soon and cause no more division and harm to any more families,” rights group Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan said in a statement. According to the group, three gay people committed suicide after the referendum result, while more than a dozen have attempted suicide or self-harmed. It urged the cabinet to abide by the top court ruling as well as consulting gay rights group when drafting the bill. “Pro-family” groups on Friday urged the government to realize the referendum outcome as soon as possible and vowed to set up a task force to monitor the law-making process. “The ball is in the government’s court. The people are watching with their eyes wide open if it acts seriously and responsibly to realize their decision,” said the Coalition for the Happiness of Our Next Generation in a statement.
|
taiwan;rights;lgbt;same-sex marriage
|
jp0009348
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Japanese startup among firms chosen for NASA's moon delivery bid
|
WASHINGTON - NASA announced Friday nine U.S. space companies chosen to bid on delivery services to the moon, including Draper Laboratory Inc., whose team includes Japanese lunar exploration startup ispace Inc. NASA is soliciting proposals to deliver science and technology payloads, such as small rovers and instruments, to the lunar surface for eventual human exploration of the moon. The Commercial Lunar Payload Services contracts to be awarded by NASA have a combined maximum value of $2.6 billion during the next 10 years. Lunar payloads could fly on these contracted missions as early as 2019, the space agency said. The nine companies include Lockheed Martin Corp., Deep Space Systems Inc. and Moon Express Inc. The missions enable important technology demonstrations that will inform the development of future landers and other exploration systems needed for humans to return to the lunar surface, NASA said. In the team of Draper Laboratory, which cooperated with NASA on the Apollo moon landings, ispace will act as the design agent for the lunar lander Artemis-7 and mission operations, as well as provide high-frequency ride-share opportunities. “The selection (of the nine companies by NASA) marks an important turning point in the change of the initiative for lunar exploration from government-led to private-led,” ispace said in its Japanese press release. “We will increase our efforts to expand our living sphere into space.” Ispace’s team Hakuto was one of the five finalists in the Google Lunar XPrize competition to send the first privately funded spacecraft to the moon, but the race ended in March as none of the five accomplished the goal before the deadline. The space venture also said in September that it expects to launch a lunar module and rover in 2021.
|
nasa;space;moon;ispace
|
jp0009349
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Revenue for Abe's LDP overwhelms other political parties in Japan
|
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party booked ¥25.86 billion ($228 million) in revenue for 2017, by far the largest among Japanese political parties, government data showed Friday. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, set up in October last year, reported ¥1.25 billion, according to an annual report on political funds released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, covering nearly 3,000 groups. The LDP marked a 7.2 percent increase in revenue at its headquarters from the previous year, remaining at the top of the list for the fifth straight year. Donations to the LDP’s funding body from companies and organizations also rose 2.9 percent to ¥2.39 billion, growing for the sixth consecutive year since Abe returned to power in 2012, highlighting his close ties with the business community and prompting critics to urge continued efforts to ensure the transparency of political activities. Japan has a record of political fund scandals involving high-profile lawmakers with Cabinet posts. Most recently, Satsuki Katayama, Abe’s pick as regional revitalization minister, has been under scrutiny over repeated corrections in reports submitted by a political group. The largest portion of the LDP’s revenue came in the form of state subsidies at ¥17.6 billion, accounting for 68.1 percent of the total. The subsidies to political parties are funded with taxpayers’ money. Donations to its funding body — the People’s Political Association — included ¥80.4 million from the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, which topped the list. The Japan Iron and Steel Federation came second with ¥80.0 million, followed by ¥77.0 million from the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association and ¥64.4 million from Toyota Motor Corp. The Japanese Communist Party ranked second in total revenue at ¥21.27 billion, down 1.9 percent, followed by the LDP’s junior coalition partner Komeito at ¥12.05 billion, down 12.9 percent. The total outlay for all political groups in 2017 climbed 1.1 percent to ¥108.59 billion, affected by ¥10.98 billion in expenses related to last fall’s general election.
|
shinzo abe;ldp;political funds;cdp
|
jp0009350
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Carlos Ghosn misses family and has written to them, says Brazilian consul general after meeting at Tokyo Detention House
|
Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested last week on suspicion of financial misdeeds, misses his family and has left a brief message for them, according to Joao de Mendonca, Brazilian consul general in Tokyo. In an interview Thursday, Mendonca said he has met with Ghosn three times at the Tokyo Detention House since his arrest, and that he gave him books about European and Brazilian history as well as foreign magazines at his request. Mendonca said he has also passed a “very simple and very private” message to his family members, including his mother, who live in Brazil. Mendonca said that Ghosn was in “good health and good spirit” and seemed to be “well treated” at the Tokyo Detention House. In the meetings, each of which lasted about 20 minutes, Mendonca spoke in Portuguese with Ghosn, who has Brazilian nationality, according to the consul general. Ghosn seemed “happy to be able to speak Portuguese,” Mendonca said. They did not talk about the scandal at all because the purpose of the so-called “consul visits” is simply to see if Brazilians are “well taken care of” and to give them “assistance if needed,” Mendonca added. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office arrested Ghosn on Nov. 19, on suspicion of understating his executive pay in Nissan’s securities filings in violation of Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.
|
brazil;corruption;scandals;nissan;carmakers;carlos ghosn
|
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