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jp0009351
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/30
|
State sticks to stance on funding Imperial ritual despite Prince Akishino's misgivings
|
The government said Friday its position on using state funds to hold a key Shinto ritual during next year’s Imperial succession remains unchanged, despite the fact that the younger son of Emperor Akihito has raised a question about financing the religious event. “We are aware that his highness was just stating his own idea. We have no plan to make any response,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told a news conference. Ahead of his 53rd birthday on Friday, Prince Akishino raised doubts about the constitutionality of the Daijosai (Great Food Offering Ceremony), because the Constitution bans the state from engaging in religious activities. The Daijosai is scheduled to be carried out over two days from Nov. 14 as an Imperial event, rather than a state occasion. Critics say it could threaten the separation of religion and state if the costs are paid by the government. Nishimura said the government has decided to cover the cost with public funds, following a precedent set in 1990, the year after Emperor Akihito ascended the throne upon the death of Emperor Hirohito. The prince’s remarks caused a stir because the supreme law stipulates the emperor “shall not have powers related to the government.” Members of the Imperial family are thus supposed to distance themselves from political affairs. Prince Akishino will become first in line to the throne after his elder brother Crown Prince Naruhito becomes the new emperor on May 1. Their father, Emperor Akihito, will abdicate a day beforehand. But Nishimura stressed the government does not see any constitutional problem because the prince’s remarks do not have an impact on the government’s decisions. Speaking to a Diet panel, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the series of Imperial succession rituals “do not run counter to the sovereignty of the people and separation of religion and state stipulated by the Constitution.” During his news conference on Nov. 22, Prince Akishino said he was opposed to using public funds to cover the previous Daijosai and that the upcoming one should be financed with fundsused to cover the personal expenses of the Emperor. Asked about the prince’s assertions that the chief of the Imperial Household Agency did not listen to his opinions, Nishimura declined to comment, other than to say, “We are aware that the Imperial Household Agency has explained the situation to his highness.” Some government officials expressed frustration with the prince’s comments and cast doubt on the Imperial Household Agency’s response. A source at the Prime Minister’s Office said, “I don’t think it was appropriate, given his status, even if that was his own idea.” A high-ranking government official said the agency “failed to suppress the remarks.” But a senior official at the agency said it is impossible to do so because members of the Imperial family also have opinions. “But I can’t understand why he made remarks that could cause ripples as the Crown Prince has already approved how to perform the Daijosai.” At the same news conference, Prince Akishino also adopted a strict stance on postponing the marriage of his daughter, Princess Mako, with university boyfriend Kei Komuro, asking Komuro’s family to resolve their outstanding financial issues if they want the wedding to go ahead. “If the two still have feelings for marriage, there should be responses accordingly,” the prince, the younger son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, said at a news conference held before his 53rd birthday Friday. The Komuro side “needs to clear the issue,” Prince Akishino said of the financial dispute hanging over the family, asking them to make their explanations public. “If (their marriage) cannot be celebrated by many people, we cannot hold the betrothal ceremony called Nosai no Gi,” which was originally scheduled to take place on March 4 this year. In September 2017 the couple announced their engagement after receiving the Emperor’s blessing and said their wedding would take place on Nov. 4 this year. But the Imperial Household Agency said in February the couple would push the date back to 2020, with the princess saying through the agency she “came to recognize the lack of time to make sufficient preparations.” The abrupt postponement followed a string of reports that Komuro’s mother is involved in a dispute over money, including her son’s educational expenses, which her former fiance shouldered. In the meantime, Komuro, a paralegal at a Tokyo law firm, started a three-year course at Fordham University’s law school in New York in August, aiming to pass the state bar examination. As to how the princess is faring in light of the developments, Prince Akishino only said, “I don’t know as I have not had much chance to talk to her recently.” His wife, Princess Kiko, said at the same news conference, “From the end of last year, as the temperature started to fall, there have been more cases where my eldest daughter did not feel well. “But despite such circumstances, my daughter has worked hard to fulfill the assignments given to her,” she said. “I would like to continue to watch over her carefully.” The financial issues involving the Komuros first surfaced in a weekly magazine in December last year. According to the former fiance of Komuro’s mother, he lent her some ¥4 million to cover her son’s education and his living costs between 2010 and 2012, the period when they were engaged. After they broke off the engagement, the former fiance asked her to pay back the loan, but the Komuro side claimed the money had been donated, according to a source close to the matter. The Komuro family gave a similar explanation to the princess’ family, who were not notified beforehand of what was reported as a “debt problem,” the source said. In addition to demanding that the Komuros resolve the matter and issue a public explanation, they have also asked Komuro to present a life plan, including the career he intends to pursue after his paralegal job, as a condition for his formal engagement and marriage to Princess Mako, the source said. Following the request, conveyed between late 2017 and early this year, Komuro decided to attend the law school in New York, the source said. Komuro and Princess Mako met in 2012 at International Christian University in Tokyo and soon began dating.
|
scandals;imperial family;prince akishino;princess mako;kei komuro
|
jp0009352
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Prince Akishino questions Japanese government financing of Shinto-linked rite
|
Prince Akishino, the younger son of Emperor Akihito, has questioned whether the state should finance one of the Shinto-linked rituals to be held following the Imperial succession. The prince, speaking at a news conference held before his 53rd birthday Friday, also had a message for Kei Komuro, the boyfriend of his daughter, Princess Mako. The prince urged Komuro — whose mother is involved in a dispute with her former fiance over money spent on Komuro’s education — to deal appropriately with the issue if he wants to marry her. Prince Akishino will be promoted to first in line to the throne after the enthronement of his brother, Crown Prince Naruhito, on May 1, 2019. He expressed doubts at the news conference about the constitutionality of the Daijosai grand thanksgiving rite to be held in November next year, saying he believes it is a “highly religious” event. The supreme law bans the state from engaging in religious activities. Shinto is Japan’s indigenous religion, in which the Emperor is venerated as a descendant of the sun goddess. “I wonder whether it is appropriate to cover the highly religious event with state funds,” the prince said, adding that he believes the ritual should be paid for with money used to fund the Emperor’s private expenses. The prince said he was also opposed to using public funds the last time the rite was held, in 1990, a year after his father ascended the throne in 1989. Although the ceremony will be treated as an Imperial event — not as a state occasion — critics claim it will threaten the separation of religion and state if public funds are used. The prince said he has conveyed his views to the chief of the Imperial Household Agency but that the government has already decided to use public funds for the ceremonies in line with the succession rites for Emperor Akihito. The prince said he felt regret that “the agency did not listen to me.” In response, the agency’s Grand Steward, Shinichiro Yamamoto, said it was “painful” to hear the prince’s remarks and that he was sorry if his attitude was misunderstood. But Yamamoto added: “As the previous Daijosai (funded by public money) was held with public support, it is reasonable to follow the precedent.” The Daijosai is the name given to the first annual Niinamesai harvest festival to be performed by a new Emperor and always follows an accession to the throne. In the rite, to be held from Nov. 14 to 15, the new Emperor will offer new rice to the Imperial ancestors and to the Tenjin Chigi, the deities of heaven and earth, while praying for peace and abundant harvests for the country and the people. Although annual Niinamesai rituals are covered by the Emperor’s personal expenses, the Daijosai will be financed with public “palace-related expenses” used for the Imperial family’s official duties such as ceremonies and state banquets In relation to the previous Daijosai in November 1990, which cost about ¥2.2 billion ($19 million), a number of lawsuits contesting its constitutionality were filed across Japan, but they were all dismissed. But a 1995 ruling by the Osaka High Court noted that doubts remain over whether the government financing of Shinto-linked rituals breaches the Constitution. Prior to the upcoming Daijosai, at least 120 people, including Christian and Buddhist followers, are planning to file a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court — possibly in early December — in a bid to block the state funding of the rite, according to their representatives. On his daughter’s engagement, the prince said Komuro “has to solve the problems that have surfaced. If (their marriage) cannot be celebrated by many people, we cannot hold the betrothal ceremony of Nosai no Gi,” which was originally scheduled to take place on March 4 this year. The agency announced in September last year that a wedding between Princess Mako and Komuro, both 27, would take place on Nov. 4, 2018. But the agency said in February that the couple will push back the schedule until 2020 following a string of reports that Komuro’s mother is in a dispute over money with her former fiance over her son’s educational expenses, which the ex-fiance shouldered. In August, Komuro, a paralegal at a Tokyo law firm, started a three-year course at Fordham University’s law school in New York, aiming to pass the state’s bar examination. The Imperial succession slated for next year comes after the 84-year-old Emperor expressed his desire to step down due to his advanced age and failing health. Following the abdication of the Emperor on April 30, 2019, Prince Akishino will be given the title kōshi — first in line to the throne.
|
imperial family;prince akishino;princess mako
|
jp0009353
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Old and new pregnancy and parenting publications strive to ease pressure on young parents in child rearing
|
For 25 years, pregnancy and parenting magazines Tamago Club and Hiyoko Club have served as a platform for new mothers, giving them a place to share their concerns and support one another. In a similar vein, some groups have launched services connecting new moms via email and social media as more parents, feeling as if they don’t have anyone to turn to, rely on the internet to find information on child rearing. Tamago Club (Egg Club) and Hiyoko Club (Chick Club) debuted in 1993 with the motto: “valuing ordinary citizens’ perspective.” Kazuyuki Sakai, who once served as the two magazines’ chief editor, recalls being blown away with a trick for changing diapers that was shared by a female reader in Chiba Prefecture. The tactic involved quickly changing the diaper while blowing a party horn to distract the baby. The reader said it was a strategy that her mother had used when she was a baby. Though the diaper trick may not have been a new idea for all of the magazine’s readership, it wasn’t common for readers to share such small tips with one another back then. Parenting magazines at the time would typically fill their pages with instructional content such as advice from doctors. But the two magazines took a different route, asking readers to share their parenting stories and experiences. Back when the magazines were founded, the phrase “park debut” was coined in the media to refer to new mothers bringing their small children to a park and introducing themselves to the local community. Tamago Club and Hiyoko Club branded themselves as “sandbox magazines” in order to conjure up an image of mothers chatting about child rearing while their kids play at the park. Under the guiding principle of “sharing the readers’ worries and finding solutions together,” the magazines published anecdotes of failure in addition to success stories. The intent was to assure readers that raising children can’t be done by following a textbook and ease the pressure placed on parents. In the digital age, however, some parenting magazines have been forced to cease publication as people increasingly look for child care information online. Filling that void, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization called Kizuna Mail Project has been delivering experts’ and doctors’ advice on pregnancy and child rearing to about 37,000 subscribers through email and social media since 2011. The subscribers receive tips every day during their pregnancy and for the first 100 days after a baby is born. After that, they receive information roughly once every three days until the child turns 1. Information they receive varies, covering topics ranging from fetal growth to vaccination. One message reads: “Dear today’s mom, You are 10 weeks and one day into your pregnancy. Your body is dealing with a lot more stress than usual as your baby is growing rapidly inside you. It’s natural that you feel exhausted.” The message’s style, starting with “dear mom,” is well received by the users who say it offers a sense of familiarity. Depending on where the users live, they are also able to receive information about events related to child rearing in the local area. “It is important to deliver accurate information to those raising children as it may be difficult to find necessary items from a massive amount of information,” said Yukio Oshima, the head of the Kizuna Mail Project. While one in 10 mothers are said to suffer from postnatal depression, Oshima says being on the side of new mothers is important. “What matters is the sense of being supported by others. It contributes to preventing child abuse and the feeling of isolation,” he said.
|
pregnancy;child-rearing;magazines;tamago club;hiyoko club
|
jp0009354
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/11/30
|
Tokyo court OKs extended detention of Carlos Ghosn by prosecutors
|
A Tokyo court on Friday approved a request from prosecutors to extend the detention of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, after he was arrested last week for alleged financial misconduct, an official said. Ghosn can be held in custody for another 10 days through Dec. 10, at which time prosecutors must decide whether to indict or release him. But the 64-year-old could be detained longer if they add further charges with fresh warrants and if a court assents. The district court also decided to extend the detention of Greg Kelly, a former Nissan representative director who was arrested along with Ghosn, for alleged conspiracy. While further allegations of financial misconduct by the 64-year-old Ghosn are making headlines, Japan has faced criticism overseas for continuing to keep the man viewed as the savior of the Japanese automaker in detention. Ghosn, who holds French citizenship, was arrested Nov. 19, and his detention period was extended 10 days through Friday based on a court decision issued on Nov. 21. Japanese law sets detention limits for a suspect at 23 days for an arrest warrant served by police and 22 days for a warrant served by prosecutors. Authorities can add further charges with fresh warrants, meaning a person can be detained indefinitely if a court approves it. French media reports have been critical of the way Ghosn has been treated since his arrest, with some describing the situation as harsher than when a person is caught for terrorism. But Shin Kukimoto, deputy prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office, told a regular news conference Thursday that “there is no problem” with Ghosn’s detention, arguing that it is based on “necessity.” He also questioned the appropriateness of “criticizing a country just because it has a different system” from other countries. Ghosn was arrested on suspicion of reporting only about ¥5 billion ($44 million) of nearly ¥10 billion in compensation over five years from fiscal 2010. The prosecutors also suspect that Ghosn underreported a further ¥3 billion in remuneration received over three years from April 2015. Joao de Mendonca, Brazilian consul general in Tokyo, meanwhile said Ghosn misses his family and has left a brief message for them. 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.
|
scandals;nissan;carlos ghosn
|
jp0009355
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/30
|
What's behind the controversy over funding of Imperial succession ceremonies in Japan?
|
The following questions and answers relate to controversy over Imperial succession rituals set to be held following the enthronement of Crown Prince Naruhito on May 1, the day after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicates. How does the Constitution separate religion and state? Article 20 of Japan’s postwar Constitution bans the government from engaging in religious activities, and stipulates that no religious organization shall receive any privileges from the state or exercise any political authority. What is the status of the role of emperor? The emperor was considered divine under the prewar Meiji Constitution. In contrast, he is defined as “the symbol of the state” with no political authority in the current Constitution. Article 4 says “the emperor shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in this Constitution and he shall not have powers related to the government.” As the Constitution does not elaborate on the activities of other Imperial family members, their engagement in politics is deemed a gray zone. Why are some rituals viewed as problematic in relation to the Constitution? Many succession rituals are related to Shinto, in which the emperor is venerated as a descendant of a sun goddess, and some of the rituals are designated as state occasions to be financed by public funds. For instance, in the Kenji to Shokei no Gi ritual that is treated as a state event, the emperor will inherit traditional regalia including sacred items believed to have been given by the sun goddess Amaterasu to her grandson, Ninigi, when he descended, according to legend, to rule over the Japanese archipelago. The design of the canopied throne to which the incoming emperor will ascend in the Sokuirei Seiden no Gi is also said to represent the descent of Ninigi to Earth. What are inner court expenses and palace-related expenses? Inner court expenses are the personal budgets dedicated to the families of the emperor and crown prince, while palace-related expenses are used for the Imperial family’s official duties such as ceremonies, banquets and public visits to foreign countries. As palace-related fees are public funds subject to the Imperial Household Agency’s accounting, critics consider the use of the expenses to infringe the separation of religion and state. For the current fiscal year through March 2019, ¥324 million has been allocated for inner court expenses and ¥9.17 billion for palace-related expenses. What are the views of Japanese courts regarding past succession ceremonies? In relation to the enthronement ceremonies of Emperor Akihito in 1990, a number of lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of the rites were filed across Japan but they were all dismissed. However, the Osaka High Court pointed out in a ruling in 1995 that doubts remain over whether the government financing of Shinto-linked rituals breaches the Constitution. Are there any legal actions being taken against succession ceremonies next year? At least 120 people, including Christians and Buddhists, are planning to file a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, possibly early this month, to block state funding of the Shinto-linked enthronement ceremony and the Daijosai rite, the Great Food Offering Ceremony.
|
religion;constitution;royalty;emperor akihito;imperial family;emperor naruhito
|
jp0009356
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/08
|
Dollar rises to levels around ¥113.70 in Tokyo trading
|
The dollar rose to levels around ¥113.70 in Tokyo trading Thursday, after the closely watched U.S. midterm elections ended without a negative surprise. But the dollar’s topside was capped, with traders gradually retreating to the sidelines ahead of the announcement later in the day of a monetary policy decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.69-70, up from ¥113.06-06 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1435-1435, down from $1.1453-1453, and at ¥130.02-02, up from ¥129.49-49. After moving around ¥113.50 in early trading, the dollar gathered steam and rose above ¥113.70 in the afternoon thanks partly to a surge in Japan’s key 225-issue Nikkei average following the U.S. elections on Tuesday. The midterm elections fell in line with market expectations, with the Democratic Party regaining a majority in the House of Representatives and the Republican Party keeping its control of the Senate. Investors’ risk appetite is growing now that the elections are over, traders said. But an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said, “The dollar’s rise was limited despite the surge in stock prices.” Selling grew when the dollar advanced close to ¥113.80, one market source said. In the afternoon, a wait-and-see mood increased as the Fed is set to announce the results of a two-day meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee later on Thursday, while the U.S. central bank is widely expected to keep its policy unchanged, traders said. The margin trading service company official said, “The dollar is unlikely to strengthen against the yen one-sidedly, because it is unclear whether the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will move for reconciliation with the Democrats” after the midterm elections resulted in a divided Congress.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex
|
jp0009357
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/08
|
Tokyo stocks rebound strongly after post-election surge on Wall Street
|
Stocks bounced back sharply on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, aided by an overnight surge in U.S. equities following the closely watched U.S. midterm elections. The key 225-issue Nikkei average jumped 401.12 points, or 1.82 percent, to end at 22,486.92. It lost 61.95 points on Wednesday. The Nikkei gained nearly 500 points at one point in morning trading. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 28.82 points, or 1.74 percent, at 1,681.25, after shedding 6.92 points the previous day. A sense of relief prevailed in the market as the U.S. elections fell broadly in line with expectations, with the Democratic Party winning back a majority in the House of Representatives and the Republican Party maintaining its control of the Senate, brokers said. Investor sentiment was lifted also by the yen’s weakening against the dollar, market sources said. Japanese shares “were bought back because a factor that had made investors retreat to the sidelines is out of the way,” Hiroaki Hiwada, strategist at Toyo Securities Co., said, referring to the elections. An official at a bank-linked securities firm said the Tokyo market attracted hefty purchases from investors who had been cautious about the possibility of Democrats taking control of both chambers of Congress. But the official said it will be “very difficult” for the Nikkei to reach the recent highs above 24,000 set in early October due to signs of deterioration in Japan’s economic fundamentals, including dismal machinery orders for September, released just before the start of Thursday’s session. According to the government data, core machinery orders, or private-sector orders excluding those for ships and power equipment, a key leading indicator of corporate capital spending, plunged 18.3 percent month on month in September after seasonal adjustment, logging the sharpest fall since the current statistics format was adopted in April 2005. Rising issues far outnumbered falling ones 1,733 to 324 on the TSE’s first section, while 54 issues were unchanged. Volume fell to 1.537 billion shares from Wednesday’s 1.683 billion shares. Semiconductor-linked Sumco closed up 4.05 percent after announcing Wednesday that its group operating profit in January-September shot up 2.23-fold from a year before to ¥64.252 billion. The company also said that its operating profit in the full year to December will likely double from the previous year to ¥85.2 billion. Precision parts maker MinebeaMitsumi was also buoyant on the back of its announcement Wednesday that it has revised up its consolidated net profit estimate for the year to March 2019 to ¥67 billion from ¥66 billion. Air conditioner maker Daikin and clothing store operator Fast Retailing were among other major winners. By contrast, automaker Suzuki and industrial machinery maker Yaskawa Electric were downbeat. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average soared 380 points to 22,500.
|
stocks;nikkei;wall street;topix;2018 u.s. midterm elections
|
jp0009359
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2018/11/08
|
'Trump from Pahrump': Dead Republican brothel owner wins election in Nevada
|
NEW YORK - A brothel-owning, evangelical Christian-backed Republican candidate who died last month won his race for the Nevada state legislature late on Tuesday, according to state election officials. Dennis Hof, 72, defeated Democratic candidate and educator Lesia Romanov in the race for Nevada’s 36th Assembly District, earning about 68 percent of the vote. County officials said they would appoint a replacement candidate from the same party for his seat. A representative for Romanov did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hof, who presented himself as an American pimp, was a strip-club owner who ran multiple brothels. He had nicknamed himself the “Trump from Pahrump,” after the town where he lived in Nevada. In a June interview with Reuters at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near his home in Pahrump, Nevada, Hof said his political fortunes had parallels with those of U.S. President Donald Trump. “This really is the Trump movement,” Hof said. “People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office.” Chuck Muth, Hof’s campaign manager, was one of many who predicted last month that Hof would win, stating that Republicans had a two-to-one advantage over Democrats in the state Assembly district in terms of voter registration. “I know Republicans in Nevada got massacred tonight, but my man Dennis Hof crushed his opponent from the great beyond in AD-36 & we crushed the anti-brothel initiative in Lyon County by about 80%,” Muth wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “So pardon me, but I’m celebrating.” The Nye County Sheriff’s Office said Hof was found dead last month at one of his properties in Crystal, Nevada. It was not immediately clear what caused his death. Friends found him dead when they went to wake him for a meeting hours after his 72nd birthday party, his campaign manager, Chuck Muth, said on Twitter. He said Hof appeared to have died in his sleep. The thrice-divorced author of “The Art of the Pimp,” who appeared on HBO’s “Cathouse,” owned a strip club and five legal brothels in Nevada, the only U.S. state with legalized prostitution.
|
gop;nevada;u.s. midterm elections;donald trump;dennis hof
|
jp0009360
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2018/11/08
|
Can Matthew Whitaker, new U.S. attorney general, shut down the Mueller probe?
|
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on Wednesday to oust Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replace him with a noted critic of special counsel Robert Mueller raised immediate fears about the future of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump appointed Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, as acting attorney general under the U.S. Vacancies Reform Act, which lays out general rules for temporarily filling positions in the executive branch. The department confirmed he would be assuming oversight of the Mueller probe from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein had oversight and appointed Mueller because Sessions, acknowledging previously undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador and citing his work as a Trump campaign aide, recused himself from the Russia investigation in March 2017. The Alabama Republican had been the first senator to endorse Trump, and his crime-fighting agenda and hawkish immigration policies largely mirrored the president’s, but his decision infuriated Trump. The rift lingered for the duration of Sessions’ tenure even though the attorney general praised the president’s agenda and hewed to his priorities, though he never managed to return to Trump’s good graces. The investigation is looking into U.S. allegations of Russian meddling in the election two years ago and any possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The appointment generated immediate controversy, given Whitaker’s previous public comments criticizing the probe. During a stint last year as a conservative legal commentator on CNN, Whitaker often appeared as a Trump defender, saying he saw no evidence the president colluded with Russians during the 2016 campaign or obstructed justice. He wrote last year on CNN.com that Rosenstein should limit the scope of Mueller’s investigation to stop him from delving into Trump’s finances. On Wednesday, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called on Whitaker to recuse himself over his previous statements and Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler said the House Judiciary Committee would investigate Session’s firing once he assumes the chairmanship in January. Here is a look at how Whitaker might stop or slow the Mueller investigation and the risks he might run in doing so. Can Whitaker be forced to recuse himself? Under government ethics regulation, federal employees are required to recuse themselves from matters where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Sessions had recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation under a similar rule that prohibits officials from overseeing investigations into subjects with whom they have a “personal or political relationship.” Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University in St. Louis, said Whitaker’s previous comments about the Mueller probe raise questions about his impartiality and warrant his recusal. But Clark said there is no clear enforcement action, like a lawsuit, that could force Whitaker to recuse himself if he declined to follow the rule. “Essentially, we need to shame him into acting in compliance with the law,” she said. Can Whitaker fire Mueller? The special counsel regulation under which Mueller was appointed gives the attorney general or acting attorney general authority to fire Mueller only for “good cause,” such as misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity or conflict of interest. If Whitaker decided to fire Mueller, he would need to inform the special counsel in writing of the specific reason for his termination. Good cause is a difficult thing to show, especially since Mueller’s actions were approved by the deputy attorney general, said Jens Ohlin, a professor of criminal law at Cornell Law School. “I don’t think Whitaker has good cause to fire Mueller. He would have to trump up some charges,” Ohlin said. Could a Mueller firing be challenged on legal grounds? Mueller could seek to challenge his own firing if he felt Whitaker lacked the good cause required by the special counsel regulation, said Ohlin. A court might then issue a temporary restraining order blocking his removal. Any action by Whitaker could potentially be challenged under the Vacancies Reform Act. It is not clear if the law, intended to address vacancies created by deaths or resignations, also applies to those created by firings. There is some question over whether Sessions was fired or resigned. The former attorney general submitted a letter of resignation that said he had done so at the president’s “request.” The possibility that Sessions was fired could open Whitaker’s appointment to court challenge by a range of people affected by his actions, including Mueller, Ohlin said — or even by people who have nothing to do with the Russia investigation. But Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior counsel to independent counsel Kenneth Starr, said he thought such a lawsuit would be unlikely to succeed because the Supreme Court has said the president has wide latitude to fire executive branch officials. How could Whitaker impede Mueller without firing him? Under the special counsel regulation, Whitaker has the power to block any “investigative or procedural step” Mueller recommends, such as bringing an indictment or subpoena, if he determines it to be “inappropriate or unwarranted under established Departmental practices.” Whitaker would be required to notify Congress of such a decision. The attorney general could also cut the budget for the special counsel’s office. In fact, Whitaker told CNN last year that a future attorney general could limit Mueller by reducing the budget “so low that his investigations grinds (sic) to almost a halt.” Such actions would likely draw less political backlash than firing Mueller directly, said Rosenzweig. Short of legislation intended to protect Mueller, which is unlikely to pass, there is little Congress can do to challenge Whitaker’s oversight of Mueller, said Rosenzweig. The requirement that Whitaker notify Congress if he blocks Mueller from doing something is “about political accountability, not legal accountability,” Rosenzweig said. “The notification to Congress is mostly about transparency.”
|
scandals;robert mueller;donald trump;2016 u.s. presidential election;russia probe;matthew whitaker
|
jp0009361
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/11/08
|
Wheelchair ramp jump tops list of new Guinness World Records for 2018
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LONDON - Guinness World Records celebrates its annual records day on Thursday, honoring a long list of people who have done highly improbable things better than anyone else. The World Records Day often includes a Rubik’s cube solved in unlikely circumstances against the clock, and this year was no exception. China’s Que Jianyu recorded the fastest time to crack the puzzle upside down: 15.84 seconds. The Harlem Globetrotters, the U.S. stunt basketball team, generally fields a number of record-setters, or at least attempts. This year, one of them was Torch George, who managed the most under-the-leg tumbles — 32 — and at 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm) may also set a record as the most diminutive Globetrotter. Under-the-leg tumbles are a sort of horizontal roll, supporting yourself on one hand while dribbling a basketball with the other hand, between your legs. Do not try this at home. Another Globetrotter, Bull Bullard, managed to sink the world’s longest basketball shot released in the middle of a backflip: 17.71 meters (58 feet, 1.2 inches). A basketball court is 94 feet (28.6 meters) long. In a category all his own was Aaron Fotheringham of the United States, who set three records, none of which sound easy. They were: the tallest quarter pipe drop-in while in a wheelchair, 8.4 meters (27 feet, 6.7 inches); highest wheelchair hand plant, also 8.4 meters; and the farthest wheelchair ramp jump, 21.35 meters (70 feet, 0.5 inch). And yes, that means he launched himself down a ramp and flew 21 meters in a wheelchair. Do not try this anywhere.
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records;stunts
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jp0009362
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[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/08
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Unmanned Japanese cargo vessel Kounotori heads home from ISS carrying experiment samples
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The Kounotori 7 unmanned cargo transporter departed the International Space Station on Thursday to return to Earth with experiment samples, in a first for Japan’s space agency. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the cargo vessel, the name of which is Japanese for white stork, has been loaded with waste from the ISS and is scheduled to burn up in a controlled manner when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere Sunday. Before burning up, it will eject a capsule containing protein crystals that were grown in experiments carried out on the space station. Launched Sept. 23 on an H-IIB rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, the vessel, formally called the H-II Transfer Vehicle-7, delivered some 6 tons of food, clothes and experiment supplies, including new lithium-ion battery cells, to the ISS that orbits some 400 kilometers above Earth. The conical-shaped capsule, measuring some 84 centimeters wide and 66 cm high, is expected to make a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific near Minamitorishima Island on Sunday and be retrieved by a JAXA ship. Previous models of the Kounotori transporters were unable to carry materials back to Earth unscathed by the heat generated during re-entry to the atmosphere. The new capsule can withstand the extreme temperatures and keep samples inside cool using a vacuum insulated container covered by protective materials, according to JAXA. It was jointly developed by JAXA and Tiger Corp., an Osaka-based home appliance maker known for producing vacuum insulation containers. The successful re-entry and collection of samples are expected to contribute to Japan’s efforts toward the development of manned space missions in the future. The nation has been holding tests at its own experiment module on the ISS named Kibo, which means hope in Japanese. But until now it has required U.S. and Russian spacecraft to bring back samples that were produced during the tests. JAXA’s dependence on other countries has meant it has no control over when samples can be collected. If Kounotori 7 is successful on its seven-week journey, Japan will be able to transfer materials as needed. It was feared the nation’s latest mission may be delayed by a manpower shortage, following the failed launch last month of a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts and supplies to the ISS. The two astronauts aboard the Soyuz ejected safety, but it meant the ISS was left with only three astronauts to perform experiments and carry out work outside the craft.
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iss;space;jaxa;astronomy
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jp0009363
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/08
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Hiroshima A-bomb survivor: Yoshinori Kato regrets failing to save the lives of trapped schoolchildren
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Words of regret run repeatedly through the mind of Yoshinori Kato: “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” On Aug. 6, 1945, when the city of Hiroshima was hit by a U.S. atomic bomb, Kato, now 90 but who was 17 at the time, said he desperately tried to rescue children who were trapped under the collapsed building of Danbara National School (now Danbara Elementary School). However, he had no choice but to leave the children behind as raging fires closed in. Before then, Kato was a first-year student at the Hiroshima Technical Institute (now Hiroshima University). But classes were suspended because of the war; instead, he was mobilized to work at the Kure Naval Arsenal, an assignment that lasted until July 1945. Because of the air raids on the city of Kure, he was ordered to return home to Hiroshima. His father had died of illness two years before and, seeking a safer location, his mother and three brothers had moved to his grandparents’ house in the village of Tabusa (now Shobara) in the northern part of the prefecture. Kato lived in Hiroshima with his aunt and uncle. The first class since his enrollment at the institute had been planned for Aug. 6., and Kato, along with his classmates, went to the Ozu factory of Chugoku Hayden (now the Chugoku Electric Power Co.), which was located about 3.4 kilometers from the center of the blast. “I was excited about finally getting down to academic work,” Kato said. But when his physics class began, there was an intense flash, immediately followed by the ceiling collapsing. Then there was darkness. “After we made sure that everyone was all right, we went out of the building. We were just shocked by what we saw,” he said, recalling a huge mushroom cloud rising in the blue sky. Kato and his friends began walking toward his house. Along the way, they came across many survivors who were nearly naked and had bloated faces. “No one really knew what happened,” he said. Fire was blazing so fiercely around his house that he could not approach it. Suddenly, a man — a teacher from Danbara National School — grasped him by the hand. When Kato reached the school, he saw seven or eight children trapped under the collapsed school building. There were flames right above them. Kato and his friends tried to pull them out, but they cried out in pain because their bodies were wedged inside the wreckage. He told them to hold on. “We didn’t want to give up, but the fire was merciless. In the end, I gave some water to a girl then had to leave her.” Kato and his friends were able to save only one child. “When we arrived at the (school’s) East Drill Ground, we were in a complete daze,” he said. Before dusk fell, he began walking toward his house through a garden called Sentei (now known as Shukkeien Garden). It was hell. “There were countless bodies, their heads in the pond,” he said. He followed the river, which had little water in it, until the Kyobashi Bridge, and there he came across his aunt. The next day, he went to the Hiroshima post office, where his uncle worked, but was unable to find any trace of him among the charred ruins of the building. His aunt wanted to continue searching for him, but Kato persuaded her that they should go to where his mother was. They walked to Kumura Station, on the Geibi Line, and were finally able to board a train on Aug. 8. Toward the end of September, his hair fell out in clumps. “I thought I would die soon,” he said. He was prepared to accept his fate, but his hair began to grow back at the beginning of the following year and he regained the strength to go on living. After the war, Kato got a job at Chugoku Electric Power. At the age of 27, he came down with tuberculosis and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Thinking that he should tell people what happened to the students at Danbara National School, Kato drew pictures of them based on his memories. Around 30 years after the atomic bombing, he began offering prayers at the elementary school on Aug. 6, though he did not tell anyone about it. Half a century after the bombing, he sent a letter to the school, describing his experience, then started sharing his account with the students there. To remember the victims, he donated a statue of Jizo, the guardian of children, and had it placed at the site where he could not save their lives. Due to his advancing age, this year he had to stop speaking to students about his experience. “But if children pass on my account to the generations that follow, I think the victims will be pleased,” he said, placing his hands together in prayer for a world where no more lives will be lost in such a way.
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children;hiroshima;atomic bombings;yoshinori kato
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jp0009364
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/01
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Dollar softer around ¥112.90 in late Tokyo trading
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The dollar was softer around ¥112.90 in late Tokyo trading Thursday, hurt by selling that was inspired by a fall in Tokyo stocks. At 5 p.m. the dollar stood at ¥112.89-90, down from ¥113.19-19 at the same time Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1359-1359, up from $1.1346-1347, and at ¥128.24-24, down from ¥128.44-44. The dollar fell below ¥113 on position-squaring selling, after exceeding ¥113.30 in overnight trading abroad thanks to stronger-than-expected readings of Automatic Data Processing Inc.’s U.S. employment report for October, released Wednesday, traders said. In midmorning trading in Tokyo, the greenback fell below ¥112.80 following a drop in the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average. The dollar showed some resilience around ¥112.90 in late trading, as the yen met with sales reflecting receding risk aversion following the yuan’s stable moves. The U.S. currency “has grown susceptible to selling after month-end buying ran its course,” an official at a Japanese bank said. Another official at a major Japanese bank cited a rise in long-term U.S. interest rates as a dollar-positive factor. “The dollar will advance against the yen” if the U.S. Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for October, due out later on Thursday, turns out strong, they added.
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exchange rates;foreign exchange;forex;currencies
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jp0009365
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/01
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Tokyo stocks turn sharply lower as telecoms sector sees heavy selling
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Stocks turned sharply lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday as heavy selling pummeled telecommunications issues. The 225-issue Nikkei average plunged 232.81 points, or 1.06 percent, to end at 21,687.65, after surging 463.17 points Wednesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 14.07 points, or 0.85 percent, at 1,632.05. It rose 34.66 points the previous day. The telecommunications sector rout came after major carrier NTT Docomo announced Wednesday that it will cut monthly mobile phone rates by 20-40 percent from the April-June quarter next year. Concerns grew over the sector’s earnings following the announcement, market sources said. Heavy selling hit not only NTT Docomo but also its peers, KDDI and SoftBank Group, both heavyweight components of the Nikkei average, said Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. “Selling on a rally built up” after the Nikkei average advanced about 770 points over the previous two days through Wednesday, Ota also said. He added that the market met also with selling inspired by dismal earnings reports released by major Japanese companies, including Tokyo Electron, recently. Investors “took a wait-and see stance amid uncertainty over the global economic outlook,” said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. Miura indicated that buying was held in check prior to the release later Thursday of the U.S. Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index for October. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,108 to 937 in the TSE’s first section, while 66 issues were unchanged. Volume dropped to 1.78 billion shares from 1.81 billion Wednesday. NTT Docomo closed 14.71 percent lower, and KDDI and SoftBank Group tumbled 16.15 percent and 8.16 percent, respectively. Tokyo Electron, which manufactures semiconductor-making equipment, fell 6.28 percent following downward revisions to its profit and dividend estimates for the year through next March. Pharmaceutical maker Astellas and electronics parts producer Nitto Denko were also on the minus side. By contrast, electronic parts supplier Murata Manufacturing jumped 9.73 percent as its consolidated operating profit forecast for the year through next March turned out stronger than market expectations, brokers said. Clothing retailer Fast Retailing and technology firm TDK were among other major gainers. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average plunged 340 points to 21,540.
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stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009366
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/01
|
Japanese research shows skipping breakfast leads to weight gain
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NAGOYA - Skipping breakfast disrupts the internal body clock and leads to weight gain, a recent study by a Japanese team has shown. The study, led by Hiroaki Oda, associate professor at Nagoya University Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, was published online by the U.S. scientific journal PLOS One on Wednesday. In the study, the team divided 56 rats into two groups and gave the same amount of high-fat feed to both groups for 14 days. Rats eat intermittently when they are awake. One group was given the feed normally and the other group four hours after they woke up. The team regarded the former group of rats as a model for people who have breakfast at 8 a.m. and the other as those who skip breakfast. After 14 days, the latter group of rats gained some 7 to 8 percent more weight on average than normal. Analysis of the rats’ livers found that there was a four-hour delay in their activities in the latter group and the rats had a shorter period of high body temperatures. The result suggests that the rats gained weight as body clock disruptions reduced energy consumption due to less activities, the team said. “The rats showed that skipping breakfast causes weight gains,” Oda said. “The study is applicable to humans.”
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research;nagoya university;breakfast;weight
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jp0009367
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/01
|
Japan's nuclear industry growing but likely to miss government's 2030 target
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The domestic nuclear industry will miss a government target of providing at least a fifth of the country’s electricity by 2030, analysis shows, but the sector is showing signs of life more than seven years since the Fukushima crisis. With eight reactors running and one more set to come online in November, nuclear has this year overtaken nonhydro renewables in power output for the first time since the 2011 catastrophe, when all of the country’s nuclear plants were idled. Yet operators can expect as few as six units to restart in the next five years, and fewer than 20 by 2030, the analysis shows. That is far short of the 30 needed to meet the government target reiterated this year. Based on the analysis, the world’s third-largest economy may get about 15 percent of its power from nuclear in 2030, compared with a government target of 20 to 22 percent. “It’s impossible to meet the target, that’s pretty much confirmed,” said Takeo Kikkawa, an energy studies professor at Tokyo University of Science, who sat on an official panel that reviewed the country’s energy policy this year. He said he did not expect another round of restarts before 2020. One major trading house predicts nuclear will account for 14 percent of power production in 2030, according to a presentation given at a private seminar this year and shown to Reuters. Nuclear remains an unpopular energy option in Japan and the country will reboot only a fraction of the 54 reactors it had before the disaster. Six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are being dismantled in a decadeslong exercise that is fraught with technological challenges and radioactive waste. Operators have decided to decommission another 10 units across the country since Fukushima. The Nuclear Regulation Authority created new safety standards from scratch after the disaster highlighted failings in the industry and its overseers. All reactors must be re-licensed before restarting. Yet Japan’s nuclear industry, which before Fukushima operated the world’s third-largest number of reactors and provided about 30 percent of the country’s electricity, has staged a significant recovery. The turnaround has exceeded expectations of analysts and the utilities themselves. Kansai Electric Power and Kyushu Electric Power, for instance, have won approval to restart or are on course to win approval for all the reactors they applied to re-license. Those units are far from Tokyo and are pressurised water reactors (PWR), unlike the boiling water reactor (BWR) designs favored in eastern Japan, including those that melted down at Fukushima. Many court cases are pending for reactors in the eastern part of the country. Local political support varies, and the regulator is locked in disputes with operators over earthquake risk assessment. The older BWR technology used in many of the reactors under review is also an issue because the stigma of Fukushima hangs over them. “When you come to the BWRs, the issue becomes very politicized,” said Nobuo Tanaka, the chairman of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation who was the head of the International Energy Agency between 2007 and 2011 after a stint in the industry ministry. The reputation of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. also looms large, Tanaka said. “Tepco does not have any support as a nuclear operator,” he said. The utility has to be removed from the equation before progress on BWR reactors can be made, he said. Tepco has reached the first stage of approval, but faces strong opposition from local residents. But Japan’s utility lobby group said progress was being made. “The safety reviews of PWR plants took time but they have been progressing steadily and there have been some developments in the BWR category as well,” Satoru Katsuno, the chairman of Japan’s federation of electric utilities and president of Chubu Electric, said of the outlook for restart approvals. Chubu Electric has been locked in a dispute for years with the regulator over disaster resilience measures at its Hamaoka plant, which uses BWR reactors. The analysis suggests that Japan will rely on fossil fuels, particularly liquefied natural gas and coal, as the pace of renewables expansion slows. That will make it harder to meet its emissions targets under international agreements. The government estimates costs for replacement fuel — mostly LNG — to compensate for idled reactors totaling ¥14.6 trillion across the industry in the six years through March. The lack of realistic energy targets makes it harder for the industry to plan for investment, utility officials say. And the issue of disaster resilience is not going away: a big earthquake struck Hokkaido in September and left a nuclear plant reliant on backup generators.
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energy;nuclear energy;restarts
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jp0009368
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/01
|
Tokyo police arrest 13 in Shibuya after Halloween mayhem
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Police arrested 13 people between Wednesday and Thursday in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward for alleged groping, assault and theft as a massive crowd of Halloween revelers swamped the district. The 13 arrested were men ranging from their teens to their 40s, the police said. Several hundred police officers were dispatched to the area to control the crowd, including some special officers dubbed “DJ police,” who aim to marshal crowds in a light-hearted manner. Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe told reporters Thursday morning that the ward may have to consider making Halloween a paid event at a place like Yoyogi Park from next year. “There are many people who behave well and have fun. But it turned out to be a regrettable Halloween because of a small number of people,” he said. On Wednesday night the famous scramble crossing and shopping district near Shibuya Station were packed with people dressed in elaborate costumes, including witches, zombies and characters from popular video games. The area was left scattered with garbage Thursday morning that young volunteers helped clean up. Manami Suzuki, a 27-year-old nail artist clad in a colorful costume, was picking up garbage with a bag she brought from home, as she knew the trash would build up during Halloween. “I did it because I want to have fun at Halloween next year and beyond,” she said. A 28-year-old man also bought a garbage bag and joined the cleanup effort, even though he said he hated Halloween. “I wanted to help those picking up the garbage,” he said. To avoid trouble, some store owners closed their shops earlier than normal. “Every year, a huge number of people congregate in front of our store. I had no option but to close it for security reasons,” said a store manager who pulled down the shutters of his establishment at 5 p.m. Toshiyuki Ono, who heads a Shibuya shop owners’ association, said the Halloween celebrations have descended into something akin to a “riot.” “I fear (Shibuya) will be labeled a scary place. I want (Halloween street parties) to be banned next year,” Ono said. Most people, however, appeared to simply enjoy the ever-growing annual gathering. “It’s good to have fun while remaining well-behaved,” said Akane Tamana, a 21-year-old university student dressed as Mario. At around 6 p.m. Wednesday, a fire broke out in a building in the area’s iconic Center-gai shopping street, with crowds watching as smoke poured from a rooftop exhaust duct. No injuries were reported, according to the police, who said the building hosts a number of restaurants. They said the cause of the fire has not been established. The morning after: Shibuya Halloween cleanup 2018
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shibuya;halloween;parties;police
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jp0009369
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/06
|
Tokyo stocks rebound on buybacks
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Stocks turned higher Tuesday, boosted by buybacks following the previous day’s plunge. The Nikkei 225 average rose 248.76 points, or 1.14 percent, to end at 22,147.75. It tumbled 344.67 points Monday. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 18.96 points, or 1.16 percent, higher at 1,659.35. It retreated 18.37 points Monday. The market was supported by futures-led buying to adjust positions ahead of the U.S. midterm elections Tuesday, market sources said. Market players expect that there will be no big surprise in the elections, Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said. In the elections, the Democratic Party is widely expected to win a majority in the House of Representatives, while the Republicans are seen maintaining their Senate majority. Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division at Akatsuki Securities Inc., indicated that some investors bought shares in anticipation of a stock market rise after the elections, saying that the closely watched political event has been “an uncertain factor” for the market. “Issues backed by brisk earnings were bought back” although a wait-and-see mood persisted prior to the U.S. elections, Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., said. Akatsuki Securities’ Fujii said that “a sense of relief spread (among investors) thanks to Toyota Motor’s upward revision” to its fiscal 2018 group sales and profit estimates, released Tuesday. Rising issues overwhelmed falling ones 1,362 to 674 on the first section, while 75 issues were unchanged. Volume dropped to 1.342 billion shares from 1.489 billion Monday. Toyota closed up 2.09 percent. The leading automaker raised its sales estimate for the year to next March to ¥29.5 trillion from ¥29 trillion and its operating profit forecast to ¥2.4 trillion from ¥2.3 trillion. Price comparison website operator Kakaku.com attracted hefty purchases after announcing Tuesday that its group operating profit in the six months to September rose 11.3 percent from a year before to ¥11.683 billion. Also on the plus side were supermarket and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny and clothing store chain operator Fast Retailing. By contrast, Suntory Beverage and Food fell 3.12 percent, with investors disappointed by the company’s announcement Monday of a downward revision to its 2018 group operating profit estimate to ¥118 billion from ¥127 billion. Other major losers included mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and semiconductor-related Tokyo Electron.
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stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009370
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/06
|
Dollar briefly hits one-month highs above ¥113.40 in Tokyo
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The dollar Tuesday afternoon briefly hit one-month highs above ¥113.40 in Tokyo, supported by purchases from short-term players. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.33-33, up from ¥113.17-18 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1413-1413, up from $1.1382-1382, and at ¥129.34-34, up from ¥128.83-83. The dollar drifted around ¥113.20 in early trading and climbed to around ¥113.30 later in the morning thanks to a rebound by the Nikkei 225 stock average. The buying spree ran its course toward noon, but the greenback regained steam to top ¥113.40 in the afternoon as short-term players moved to buy the U.S. currency while a wait-and-see mood spread ahead of the U.S. midterm elections Tuesday, traders said. Still, the dollar shed some of the gain to fall back below that mark in late trading. An official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said that the dollar’s advance “was backed by purchases induced by the Nikkei’s rebound.” But the U.S. unit was sold back as investors found it difficult to step up dollar buying further ahead of the key U.S. elections, the official added. The Democratic Party is expected to regain the House of Representatives, while the Republicans are seen keeping their Senate majority. If the Republicans suffer a huge setback in the House, it could be taken as a vote of no confidence against the Trump administration, possibly driving down stocks and the dollar as a result, the margin trading service company official said. Meanwhile, an official of a Japanese bank pointed out that some investors moved to purchase the dollar on the back of the view that Republicans were catching up with their Democratic House opponents.
|
exchange rates;forex;currencies
|
jp0009371
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/06
|
Gunmen kidnap 79 pupils, mainly boys, in troubled English-speaking Cameroon region
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YAOUNDE - Gunmen kidnapped 79 school students on Monday in an English-speaking region of Cameroon where separatists are fighting an armed campaign for independence, security and government sources said. The abductions, the worst incident so far in 13 months of unrest, came just a day before longtime President Paul Biya was to be sworn in for a seventh term in office. “Seventy-nine pupils and three supervisors” were seized, Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who is also government spokesman, told AFP. A government official said the three comprised the school’s principal, a teacher and a driver. A source close to the school said the abducted students “are mainly boys.” A six-minute video seen by AFP, but which could not be immediately confirmed independently, showed 11 boys apparently aged about 15 giving their identity and name of the school in English, and adding that they were abducted by the “Amba Boys” — the name for anglophone separatists. The first mass abduction in Cameroon follows two major such incidents in neighboring Nigeria, where the Islamist group Boko Haram snatched more than 200 schoolgirls from the Borno state town of Chibok in April 2014. Some 107 girls have since been released or found, but the Islamist group abducted scores more schoolgirls from neighboring Yobe state in February. The students kidnapped Monday were enrolled at the Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s Northwest Region — one of two regions hit by attacks by anglophone militants that have met with a brutal crackdown by the authorities. “The search for the hostages has been launched — every man has been called in,” the government source said, speaking after a crisis meeting. Elsewhere in the region, a high-ranking local official was also seized, a security official told AFP. The school’s website says that the student body numbers more than 700, drawn from “all the religious and linguistic origins of Cameroon.” The kidnappings coincide with an upsurge of political tensions in the majority French-speaking country. It comes after elections on Oct. 7 in which 85-year-old Biya, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 35 years, was credited with 71.3 percent of the vote. The polls, however, were marred by allegations of widespread fraud, low voter turnout and violence. Around a fifth of Cameroon’s 22 million people are English-speaking — a minority whose presence dates back to the colonial period. Cameroon, once a German colony, was divided between Britain and France after World War I. The French colony gained independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon. The following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, giving rise to the Northwest and Southwest regions. But resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority, especially in education and the judiciary, began to build. In 2016, demands for greater autonomy grew but have been rebuffed by Biya. As radicals took the ascendancy, the anglophone movement declared the creation of the “Republic of Ambazonia” in the Northwest and neighboring Southwest Region on October 1, 2017. No country has recognized the self-declared state. The separatists have gunned down troops and police, boycotted and torched schools and attacked other perceived symbols of the Cameroonian state. They have decreed a boycott of schools, saying that the French-speaking education system marginalizes anglophone students. At the start of the school year in September, several secondary schools were attacked, a headmaster was killed and a teacher was badly mutilated. The authorities have responded with a massive crackdown by police and troops. At least 400 civilians have been killed this year as well as more than 175 members of the security forces, according to a toll compiled by nongovernmental organizations. The conflict has seen a resurgence in the Northwest region after several months of calm while fighting was worse in the Southwest region. More than 300,000 people have fled the violence, many of them living hand-to-mouth in the forests, and some across the border into Nigeria. In the October 7 election, turnout was a meager 5 percent in the Northwest and 15 percent in the Southwest — but Biya won more than two-thirds of the vote in both regions.
|
kidnapping;boko haram;nigeria;cameroon;paul biya;pupils
|
jp0009372
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/06
|
Suicides of middle-aged men in Japan tend to surge on Monday mornings: research
|
The number of suicides by middle-aged men in Japan tends to surge on Monday mornings, according to research conducted by a team from Waseda University and Osaka University. The psychological state of so-called blue Monday, in which people become depressed as Monday approaches, has been well known. But this was the first research to find, based on data analysis, the specific times of the day with a number of suicides, according to the team. The research group is hoping the result will be utilized to devise effective suicide prevention measures, such as expanding telephone consultation services during the times of the day when many suicides tend to occur. Through an analysis of data on some 870,000 adults who took their own lives in Japan between 1974 and 2014, the team found that days of the week and times of the day when people tend to die by suicide differ by sex and age. Among men aged 40 to 65, suicides between 4 a.m. and 7:59 a.m. hit a peak during the period from 1995, when Japan’s economic conditions began to deteriorate, to 2014. Men in that age group had a higher rate of suicide than men and women in other age groups. The number of suicides among men in that age group during the daytime was 1.57-times higher than late at night. The number of middle-aged men who took their lives on Mondays was 1.55 times as high as that on Saturdays. The same pattern was also seen for men aged 20 to 39, but such a trend was not seen before 1995, according to the group. It is believed that many men took their lives before leaving home for work in the morning — as opposed to during their commute — as most cited causes of death were hanging and gas poisoning, the group said. Men age 66 and older and women in general tended to take their own lives during the daytime, hitting a peak at around noon, the group said. While telephone consultation services to prevent suicides are often offered from evening to late at night, the researchers say such services should also be offered during early morning hours. The group also called for more community support for women and the elderly, who are thought to be taking their own lives during the day when they are alone at home.
|
suicide;research;waseda university;middle-aged men
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jp0009374
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/24
|
Canada francophones gear up for fight over education, rights
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TORONTO - A French-language university canceled by Ontario’s government this month has kindled the passions of Canada’s francophone minority, who are set to replay their historical rights struggle. In addition to nixing the proposed university that was to open in Toronto in 2020, the province with the largest francophone minority in the country — outside of Quebec — also cut funding for francophone theater troupes. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the brother of Toronto’s late crack-smoking mayor, responded to a barrage of criticism, saying the move “has nothing to do with personal (grudges or other) against any franco-Ontarians.” “They’re great people,” he told reporters. “But we also canceled three other universities, English-speaking universities.” Ford insisted that budget constraints were behind the decision, which will save Ontario 80 million Canadian dollars ($60 million) over seven years. But it has rattled Ontario’s 600,000 francophones, who represent about 4 percent of Ontario’s population. The move also drew criticism and calls to reverse course from the federal government and others including the government of Quebec, where francophones are the majority. Canada’s nearly 8 million francophones represent 20 percent of its population, but most are in Quebec. “I know personally from having taught French in Vancouver, from having spoken with minority communities right across the country, how much they look to the federal government to try and stick up for them, regardless of what the provinces do,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “And we will certainly be engaged with the provincial government to try to ensure they do this.” His father, the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, enshrined bilingual language rights in the nation’s constitution. Justin Trudeau’s languages minister, Melanie Joly, was scheduled to confront her Ontario counterpart, Caroline Mulroney, about the issue Friday. Joly also announced CA$5 million for a “court challenges program” which provides financial assistance for important court cases that advance constitutional rights. Francophone groups have dusted off their picket signs and plan to march for their rights in 40 locations across Ontario on Dec. 1. “We feel betrayed,” said Carol Jolin of the lobby group Assemblee de la Francophonie de l’Ontario. Ford had pledged during the June election support for the new university that was to enroll 3,000, Jolin said. “Everything was going pretty well for francophones in Canada in recent years,” Jolin said. “But we’re worried now about a backsliding.” The late 1960s and the two decades that followed had marked a turning point for Canadian francophones in their fight to have their rights to an education and government services in French recognized. This included a Manitoba insurance broker’s 1976 Supreme Court challenge of a parking ticket issued only in English as a means to restore French language rights in that province, and a 1990s battle against budget cuts to keep open Ontario’s only francophone hospital, Montfort in Ottawa. French language rights were laid out in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and other laws. New Brunswick went the furthest, making French one of its two official languages in 1969. But the province suffered a relapse in September when a fringe party that campaigned on slashing “costly” French services emerged as a potential kingmaker in an election that failed to secure a majority. Trudeau’s Liberals have sought to make the rights row an election issue in 2019, as Ford’s government is closely allied with the federal opposition Conservatives and their leader, Andrew Scheer. “This decision is unacceptable,” Joly said, demanding that Ford back down and “that Andrew Scheer denounce it too.” Scheer, however, distanced himself from Ford on the issue. “We are a bilingual country with many francophones outside of Quebec and the federal government must work with the provinces to ensure that all Canadians have the same rights and access to services and programs,” the Conservative leader said during a Quebec tour. Jolin held out hope that a negotiated solution may be reached with Ford, but added that his group is ready to go to court to fight for its linguistic rights. He noted that demographic trends point to Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis, becoming the nation’s biggest francophone cluster outside of Quebec within a few years. If 100,000 francophone students in Ontario — along with 200,000 enrolled in French immersion programs — cannot continue their post-graduate education in the language of Moliere, the community will decline, Jolin said. “It’ll contribute to the assimilation of our young people,” he said. “If they study in English and then go on to work in English, French will stop being a part of their life.”
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canada;quebec;languages;ontario;francophones;french language
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jp0009375
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/24
|
Kaparu's victory in 2018 mascot awards gives Saitama a reason to shine
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The Yuru-kyara (Promotional Mascot) Grand Prix in Japan has become one of the internet’s most anticipated events of the year. The 2018 edition lived up to expectations, and even featured a little voting drama . In the end, the city of Shiki’s Kaparu captured the crown. Reaction came in fast, most celebrating Kaparu’s triumph. The kappa -inspired character generated plenty of fan art , several comics and even a latte design . Other costumed legends offered their congratulations . And Kaparu got plenty of media shine, including on Buzzfeed Japan’s web show, where hosts talk about topics while playing with puppies . However, Kaparu’s victory carried undertones of a different kind of celebration. Shiki sits in Saitama Prefecture, and the green mascot’s triumph quickly became a win for the region at large. Many online users, hyped by the result, had Saitama listed somewhere on their profile. One of the publications celebrating the results happens to be a digital portal devoted to all things Saitama . Even Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda played down the reasons for Kaparu’s victory , saying that “people know its face.” It was a chance for Saitama netizens to — ever so briefly — walk back the narrative surrounding their home prefecture. Few places in Japan are as mocked and degraded online as Saitama. In 2018, however, folks from this derided prefecture are getting a chance to celebrate it in their own way. Saitama’s reputation came about well before the rise of the internet. TV celebrity Tamori reveled in poking fun at the prefecture in the 1980s, playing the comedy song “Naze Saitama” (“Why Saitama?”) and implying that most of the young people participating in takenoko-zoku (the ’50s-style rock-a-billy dancing that was once omnipresent in Yoyogi Park) hailed from the neighboring area. Most importantly, he coined the term “dasai-tama” (ダ埼玉, or ダさいたま), a portmanteau that pretty much sums up the prefecture’s uncoolness. The term has been used for decades and is now commonplace online. Lists have been assembled trying to figure out why this reputation persists — one theory: Saitama is not located next to the ocean — while the Wikipedia entry for the term is surprisingly thorough and includes a detour into ancient history . Even if the term isn’t referenced directly, many of the stereotypes linger. Saitama residents are believed to be far less sophisticated than their Tokyo counterparts, and only come to the city to get up to no good. See this year’s Halloween mess in Shibuya as one example, which netizens blamed on people from prefectures outside of the capital — but especially Saitama). It’s classic city vs. countryside dynamics in the same vein as the way in which New York views almost every other part of the United States. This image of Saitama has lead to conflicted views from many actually born and living in the prefecture over the years, often played out online. The biggest response is the “ Saitama pose ,” a popular gesture where you cross your arms while making an “OK” sign with your fingers. Entire music videos have been made celebrating it, soundtracked by songs riffing on the “dasai-tama” phenomenon. It has also graced the cover of magazines . Others kick back, however, or at the very least openly question the prefecture’s tarnished reputation. This year, YouTubers have made videos rallying against Saitama’s uncool image . They have also highlighted the prefecture’s attractions, or uploaded more gimmicky posts in which they try to name 100 good things about Saitama in a limited amount of time (spoiler: they made it as far as 48). Recently, the man claiming to have invented the Saitama pose released a book that focuses on why Saitama people appear to be OK with being teased. On Twitter, however, there have been plenty of chances for anybody to celebrate Saitama in their own way. Kaparu’s triumph in the grand prix gave people a chance, as did the “Saitama No Hi” (Saitama Day) hashtag . Held on Nov. 14, Saitama Day allowed users to share maps explaining what the region was all about (or even ones from early in the Showa Era ), create comics honoring non-kappa-inspired mascots and produce and show off their best Saitama photos . Or, simply enough, it gave famous folks from the area a chance to show some pride . Saitama’s overall image is probably not going to change anytime soon, but more individuals who call the prefecture home are willing to defend and honor it … or, at least, twist the dasai-tama idea around a bit. And don’t expect either side to disappear. The trailer for the live-action adaptation of “Tande Saitama” was released recently. It is based on a comic from the 1980s about how people from Saitama are persecuted by those in Tokyo. And the clip features both portrayals of Saitama as virtual badlands … and of characters doing the Saitama pose. Here’s hoping Kaparu can make a late cameo and really get the discourse going.
|
saitama;mascots;yuru-kyara grand prix;japan pulse
|
jp0009376
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/11/24
|
Variety show's fabrication scandal offers a glimpse into the nature of TV content
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Earlier this month, weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun ran several articles on Nippon Television Network Corp.’s Sunday night variety show, “Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q,” claiming that the program had fabricated “festivals” in foreign countries and presented them in one of its semiregular segments as real local events. Allegations of yarase (faking it) are not uncommon in Japanese television, especially when it comes to variety show programming, with its focus on reporting that tests a viewer’s capacity for incredulity. The Bunshun pieces betrayed a tone that implied an even greater level of incredulity: Did Nippon TV really think anyone would believe this stuff? When the Bunshun writer confronted Nippon TV with his suspicions , the company insisted the festivals were genuine. Later, after further scrutiny by other media outlets, Nippon TV walked back its defense and admitted that some things in the segments weren’t kosher. The matter is now being investigated by the network and the foreign festival segment has been pulled from the program for the time being. Given the implausibility quotient of variety show content, this matter shouldn’t be that big a deal, but “Itte Q” is one of the most popular TV series in Japan and, more than exposing the show’s producers as possible charlatans, the scandal reveals how overconfident Nippon TV has become in an industry that has refused to acknowledge its steady erosion of significance. According to a 2017 survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the University of Tokyo , people under the age of 50 spend more time online than they do watching TV. Overall, peak viewing time seems to be Sunday evenings, and the survey says the audience is split “clearly” between people who watch NHK’s historical drama at 8 p.m., and those who watch commercial TV stations. In a Nov. 17 article about the scandal, the Tokyo Shimbun said that, ratings-wise, Nippon TV owns Sunday night based on four programs: the long-running comedy show “ Shoten ” at 5:30 p.m.; “ The Tetsuwan Dash ,” starring boy band Tokio, at 7 p.m.; “ Itte Q ” at 8 p.m.; and the legal advice show “ Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo ” at 9 p.m. Of these, “ Itte Q ,” which premiered in 2007 and whose audience share can go as high as 20 percent, is the anchor, but a source at Nippon TV told the Tokyo Shimbun that ratings have not been “stable” lately, implying that the network takes the scandal seriously. Variety shows in Japan typically follow a pattern. TV personalities comprised mostly of comedians assemble in a studio and comment on recorded segments featuring other comedians and shot on location. In the case of “Itte Q,” these comedians go to foreign countries where they “challenge” some activity that is difficult and/or dangerous. The comedian featured in the “festival” segments has always been Daisuke Miyagawa, who is dispatched wearing typical Japanese neighborhood festival regalia to attend festivals in other countries, although the show’s definition of “festival” is loose. One could credibly call the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, an event Miyagawa once attended, a festival, but most of the events depicted are really competitions — the stranger the better: a cardboard-box boat race in Italy, a log-rolling contest in the United States, an office chair grand prix in Switzerland; essentially, anything that holds Miyagawa’s amateur game face up to ridicule. On-air personalities are the driving force behind all variety shows, as professor Noboru Saijo of Edogawa University told the Tokyo Shimbun . The primary limitation for producers is the schedules of the selected talent. For “Itte Q,” that means the program can only attend festivals when Miyagawa is available, and Saijo thinks many of the events featured can’t realistically be called “festivals.” From this interpretative stretch it’s a short leap to actual fabrication, which, according to Bunshun, is what Nippon TV did in a segment that took place in Laos. The segment, shown in May , claimed to cover a “bridge festival” centered on a stunt wherein contestants ride bicycles across a narrow plank laid over a manmade pool of muddy water. The Bunshun reporter said he was alerted to the show after it aired by friends who doubted its veracity. He then watched a recording of the segment “in shock” at how obviously fake it was. In fact, Miyagawa himself, when he sees the “bridge” layout for the first time, says that it reminds him of “Takeshi’s Castle,” an old variety show that popularized this kind of slapstick stunt. If anything, the bridge setup depicted is a variety show cliche. The Bunshun writer flew to Vientiane and found that the bridge was built by the “Itte Q” staff at the edge of a festival to promote local coffee production. The writer talked to local officials who said there was no such thing as a “bridge festival” and, in fact, bicycles were very rare in Laos. The Nippon TV crew had simply shot footage of the coffee festival to use as crowd scenes and paid a few laborers to pretend they were contest participants. Logistics was carried out by a contracted company from Thailand. In other words, Nippon TV had made up a festival that couldn’t be considered even remotely Laotian. Prior to the episode of “Itte Q” broadcast on Nov. 18, the producers aired an apology and explained that their use of the word “festival” didn’t necessarily align with the meaning that Japanese people are familiar with. It was used to cover a wider range of activities. Since no one will mistake anything on “Itte Q” for journalism, viewers may not care whether the apology is sincere. They tune in to laugh. All the segments on the program use a template that Japanese variety shows have pushed for decades: Show foreign cultures in an entertaining light and humiliate the Japanese celebrities in their attempts to understand those cultures. In that regard, resorting to yarase could be seen as admitting they ran out of ideas a long time ago.
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nippon tv;daisuke miyagawa;sekai no hate made itte q
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jp0009378
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/23
|
Kura's Kunihiko Tanaka: From peddling vinegar to running a sushi empire
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Kunihiko Tanaka was peddling vinegar to sushi restaurants in western Japan when he spotted the opportunity that would change his life. It was the 1970s, and the sushi industry was set to boom. But Tanaka thought it was seriously flawed in how it operated. Artisan chefs presided over restaurants with poor quality control. They charged different prices to different people for the same meal, and bills weren’t affordable to the average person, except for special occasions. Tanaka decided to establish his own sushi restaurant. But he would do it differently. And so, with ¥3 million that he’d borrowed, he opened his first restaurant in 1977, setting out on a path that would eventually lead to the founding of Kura Corp. in 1995. The firm embraced a range of modern technologies, aiming to bring sushi to the masses. Kura is now Japan’s second-largest chain of kaiten sushi restaurants, where the food is delivered on revolving conveyor belts. It has a market value of about ¥130 billion and hundreds of outlets nationwide. “I believed kaiten sushi would keep the sushi legacy going,” Tanaka said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. “And I was right.” Kura’s restaurants are about as far removed as it gets from the notion of artisan sushi-making. The chain uses robots in the kitchen for some tasks instead of expensive and sometimes erratic chefs handling the food with their bare hands, and an express delivery order lane above the revolving conveyor belt that speeds dishes to customers’ tables. Kura is also different from other firms in that it refuses to use additives or preservatives in its food. In a typical sushi restaurant, those would be in the vinegar for the sushi rice and the soy sauce and wasabi used to flavor the sushi, but in Kura’s restaurants, they’re all custom-made to avoid this, according to Tanaka. He says he eats many meals at his company’s restaurants. And the sushi dishes are cheap, starting at around ¥108, a price that has barely changed for three decades, even as many of its rivals gradually raise their prices. Tanaka says he keeps the prices low through tight cost control, which includes an automated cleanup process. Finished plates are dropped by customers into a slot at their table, from which they’re transported automatically to the dishwasher and counted to calculate a customer’s bill. This means the company’s restaurants can operate with a small staff. Kura owns 31 patents for inventions it made in developing the restaurants’ unique system. The most-prized one is called Sendo-kun, or Mr. Fresh, which is a transparent dome-shaped cover placed on top of each plate of sushi. It flips open when you slightly lift the plate. That way, customers or chefs never need to touch the cap, reducing the risk of germ transmission. Not only that, it contains an embedded chip that lets Kura’s monitoring center keep track of how long a plate has been making the rounds. Surging stock Kura has more than 420 outlets across Japan, 19 restaurants in the U.S. and 15 in Taiwan. Its stock has risen more than fourfold since the start of 2014, hitting a record in May before tailing off with the broader market. Tanaka said he wanted to “dream big” when he was growing up in western Japan. With the country reeling from the war, his parents sold goods at markets to support the family. Tanaka had no interest in pursuing academic goals, so he joined a vinegar company after college. Vinegar is a key ingredient in the rice used in sushi. He remembers nervously borrowing about ¥3 million to start the business after his visits to sushi restaurants convinced him that the model had to change. He recalls being served raw squid in one restaurant and breaking out in a severe rash, finding out later that the squid had been meant for fried dishes, not for raw consumption. He couldn’t believe how careless the restaurant had been. Saturated market? Kura commands a 20 percent share of Japan’s kaiten sushi market, according to CLSA Ltd. That puts it second after Sushiro Global Holdings Ltd., which has a share of 26 percent, the brokerage says. But while the domestic industry has grown rapidly, commentators say that it’s becoming increasingly mature, creating challenges for firms such as Kura. “You’re reaching a point where it’s not a saturated market but it may get that way in a couple of years,” said Robert Purcell, an analyst at CLSA in Japan, who rates Kura as a “buy”. “So, will they acquire someone else? You need other growth opportunities.” Tanaka has said that Kura isn’t looking at domestic mergers and acquisitions. Instead, he’s focusing on overseas growth, betting that Kura’s additive-free food will take off globally amid an increasing consumer trend toward healthy diets. The company hopes to add at least 10 restaurants each in the U.S. and Taiwan every year, and to go public in the U.S. as early as 2020. He anticipates bringing Kura to Europe one day, and also listing shares in Taiwan. Time will tell whether he succeeds in these plans, but whatever happens, Tanaka has come a long way since his days as a traveling vinegar salesman. At current prices, his family’s stake in Kura is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But he isn’t content with that success. “I’m not there yet, far from it,” he said when asked if he’s realized his dream. “The real show starts now.”
|
sushi;kura sushi;kunihiko tanaka
|
jp0009379
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/23
|
China seeks new markets for its traditional medicines
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SHANGHAI - A crowd gathers at a Shanghai hospital, queuing for remedies made with plant mixtures and animal parts including scorpions and freeze-dried millipedes — medicines that China hopes will find an audience overseas. With a history going back 2,400 years, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is deeply rooted in the country and remains popular despite access to Western pharmaceuticals. Now the authorities are hoping to modernize and export the remedies, but they face major obstacles. A veritable forest of medicinal plants surrounds patients waiting at Yueyang Hospital’s pharmacy. Some leave with boxes of pills, others take away plastic sachets filled with herbal extracts. Lin Hongguo, a 76-year-old pensioner, has bought herbal remedies that he will boil to make a tea to treat his “slow beating heart.” “I prefer it to Western medicines. It’s not about the cost, it’s because it works well,” he said. Another patient, pet fish-seller Wang Deyun, 51, is also a believer. “Two months ago my skin had an allergic reaction to a modern medicine for high blood pressure,” she said from her hospital bed. But after a treatment of face masks and plant infusions, she said she’s almost fully healed. Traditional medicine is subsidized in China and is cheaper than Western medicine. It consistently makes up one quarter of the country’s pharmaceuticals market — even as China increasingly opens up to modern medicine. The World Health Organization will next year include a chapter on traditional medicine in its “International Classification of Diseases” — a tome of reference for medical trends and global health statistics. China hopes the WHO inclusion will spur global recognition of its traditional remedies as it seeks to export them. But Beijing still faces significant hurdles, not least the fact that TCM focuses on tailoring treatment to each individual, which means different people with the same condition can be prescribed different medicines and dosages. “It’s like a painting — it’s composed differently each time, while Western medicine is more similar to photography” with its standardised products, said Wang Zhenyi, a proctologist at Yueyang Hospital. That is the crux of China’s challenge in gaining overseas acceptance: its traditional medicine is largely incompatible with modern clinical trials, which require an identical product to be tested on a large number of patients. As these medicines typically contain dozens of ingredients, understanding how they work together and proving their effectiveness is a complex task. Even within China there have been public skirmishes over the efficacy of TCM, pitting its proponents against doctors who advocate evidence-based, peer-reviewed medicine. Conservationists also say growing demand for products such as rhino horn and pangolin scales — which are used by some practitioners even though they have no proven medical properties — have decimated vulnerable species. China partially lifted a ban on trading tiger bones and rhino horns last month despite warnings from conservationists, though state media later quoted an official saying the change had been “postponed.” Chinese experts say endangered animal parts are increasingly being replaced by synthetic versions, but TCM may still prove a tough sell abroad. “I think the best potential is in the consumer market, such as nutritional supplements,” said Tony Ren, a pharma analyst with Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong. Few Western pharmaceutical companies are keen to try to untangle these difficulties. But French biotech company Pharnext has taken on the challenge, partnering last year with Tasly, one of China’s biggest producers of traditional medicines. Together, they are looking to transform the industry by streamlining “the procedures to have a more stable production of plants which have identical properties and understand why the mixture works,” said Daniel Cohen, founder and CEO of Pharnext. The two companies are using artificial intelligence to understand how the medicines work as they look to standardize them, he added. They face an uphill battle. In the United States, Tasly has been trying for more than 20 years to get approval for Dantonic, an angina medicine based on sage and ginseng that was legalized in China in 1993. Though the firm has completed medical trials, it has come up hard against U.S. law, which does not allow treatments composed of different plants. But Chinese medical professionals still feel the quest for acceptance abroad is worth the effort. “Medicine is still a very young science, with many unknowns. You increase your ability to heal if you know both Western and Chinese medicine,” said proctologist Wang of Yueyang hospital. “It’s the result that counts.”
|
china;medicine;traditional chinese medicine;pharnext;tasly
|
jp0009381
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/23
|
In 27-24 vote, Hong Kong lawmakers reject motion to consider same-sex unions
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LONDON - In a region where no country allows gay or lesbian couples to marry, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Thursday rejected a motion that could have paved the way to legalizing same-sex unions. The measure, which would have urged the government to consider granting “equal rights” to same-sex couples, was rejected by 27 votes to 24, with six abstentions, the council said on its website. “The government keeps avoiding studying policies for homosexual groups,” the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, quoted gay lawmaker Raymond Chan, who proposed the motion, as saying. “Opponents of this motion have to explain why they reject even such a small step forward.” No country in Asia currently allows same-sex couples to marry or enter civil unions of any kind. Socially conservative attitudes prevail across the region, and opponents of same-sex marriage say such unions could destroy society and family institutions. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1991 in Hong Kong, which is more supportive of LGBT+ rights than mainland China. However, marriage is legally defined as a monogamous union between a man and a woman and same-sex marriage is not recognized. Hong Kong said in September it would recognize overseas same-sex partnerships when granting dependent visas, a move that was supported by global banks and law firms operating in the former British colony. Chan’s motion would have urged the city’s government “to study the formulation of policies for homosexual couples to enter into a union so that they can enjoy equal rights as heterosexual couples.” Lawmaker Priscilla Leung opposed Chan’s motion on the grounds that Hong Kong should keep marriage between men and women and “refrain from shaking existing marriage institutions.” The self-ruled island of Taiwan, regarded as a beacon of liberalism in Asia, on Saturday will vote in a referendum on whether it should recognize same-sex marriage. Taiwan’s Constitutional Court said last year that same-sex couples have the right to legally marry, the first such ruling in Asia.
|
china;hong kong;lgbt;sexuality;same-sex marriage
|
jp0009382
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/23
|
As attacks and rising rhetoric stoke concern in Malaysia's LGBT community, punk band Shh...Diam! uses music to fight bias
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KUALA LUMPUR - With songs like “I woke up gay” and “Lonely lesbian,” LGBT punk band Shh…Diam! is making a rare splash in Malaysia, using music to fight long-running discrimination. The four-member group is a rarity in a country where gay and transgender issues are often seen as taboo, cross-dressing is illegal and anal and oral sex are banned under a British colonial-era “anti-sodomy” law. The band’s name, which means “shut up” in the Malay language, is meant to mock critics for seeking to silence the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. “We never intentionally set ourselves up as an LGBT band,” lead singer Faris Saad said before a performance on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur. “But eventually your life experiences make their way to your music so you can’t help it. You’ve got to be honest — so that’s what we are with our music,” said the 34-year-old transgender man, who began transitioning in 2014. Several incidents in the Muslim-majority nation this year have stoked concerns among campaigners that the climate for the country’s LGBT community is deteriorating further. In August, government officials ordered the removal of portraits of two LGBT activists from an art exhibition and a transgender woman was attacked, sparking public outrage. In September, two women in the conservative state of Terengganu were caned under Sharia law after being caught attempting to have sex in a car. Shh…Diam! had its unlikely beginning nine years ago. The organizer of a lesbian pool party was looking for a band to entertain revellers, so aspiring musician Faris quickly assembled the group with some acquaintances. Since then, it has built up a small but steady fan base among the LGBT community, producing two albums and performing in several European countries. Raised in a Muslim family, Faris knew from a young age that the female body he was born with was wrong. He decided to transition soon after turning 30. But to get the hormone treatment he needed, he had first to undergo a six-month psychiatric evaluation to be diagnosed with “gender identity disorder.” “I feel more confident that I am now in my own body,” said Faris, adding that the band wanted to encourage other LGBT people to embrace themselves as he has, while changing skewed perceptions toward the community. “We have been vilified by the government. According to the government, LGBT people are perverts and pedophiles,” added Faris, who also works as a freelance journalist. “I want to change that.” The recent surge in attacks on the LGBT community and anti-gay rhetoric from senior officials has dovetailed with what critics say is a rise in religious conservatism, which has eroded Malaysia’s traditionally tolerant brand of Islam. More than 60 percent of Malaysia’s 32 million people are Malay Muslims, but the country is also home to a large number of ethnic minorities who practice other religions. Religious leaders are among those who have spoken out against the LGBT community, arguing that homosexuality is forbidden by religious teachings. “God has created man and woman and created them in pairs. We cannot go against this — it is wrong,” said Harussani Zakaria, an outspoken Islamic scholar. “We are not against democracy, we just can’t defy God’s orders. Even animals do not engage in homosexual acts,” he added. Since Shh…Diam! was set up it has not had any run-ins with the authorities, and has stuck to performing in independent venues and in urban areas that its members see as generally accepting of their music. The band’s sound is a mix of metal, punk and jazz. Their songs also touch on topics as broad as housemates fighting and Bollywood movies. The guitarist, who asked to be referred to as Yon, said the band aimed to give LGBT people a way to escape daily discrimination and just have fun through music. “It’s our experiences and random things that we like which we put into our songs,” said Yon, who is bisexual. “The main purpose of the band is to have fun. We love to play music, we play music, the LGBT activism that comes with the band is just a reflection of who we are,” she added. Indie music fan Gary Tay, who was among the small crowd that showed up to watch the band’s performance, said he believed artists such as Shh…Diam! should be allowed to sing about what they believed in. “I wish that one day in Malaysia in the near future, we can talk about these kinds of issues very openly,” Tay said.
|
malaysia;lgbt;sexuality
|
jp0009383
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/23
|
Government draws up disaster reduction measures after summer floods across western Japan
|
The government has drawn up a planned outline of disaster reduction measures in response to several large natural disasters this year, including steps to prevent airports from being inundated. The draft outline includes the results of emergency inspections of crucial infrastructure that were conducted after the disasters, including landslides and earthquakes. Measures to be taken include protecting emergency power sources at airports from flooding, and work to make levees higher along rivers considered particularly at risk from overflowing. These measures should be implemented mainly over the next three years, according to the draft, which was presented at a closed-door meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s research panel on measures to boost resilience to natural disasters. The government and the ruling party are considering allocating a total of ¥3 trillion to ¥4 trillion from state funds for the disaster reduction measures. Of the sum, more than ¥1 trillion will likely be secured under a planned second supplementary budget for fiscal 2018. Potential financial resources include surplus budget funds and fresh construction bonds. The outline sets out a requirement for local governments to create hazard maps indicating where there is a risk of landslides, after torrential rains caused landslides and flooding at many locations across the west of the nation in July. There are also measures to prevent large-scale blackouts, similar to the one that happened across Hokkaido after a powerful earthquake hit in early September. The government conducted inspections of airports nationwide after buildings and a runway at Kansai International Airport in Osaka became flooded in September due to a powerful typhoon, damaging power equipment and causing a blackout. Measures will be taken against flooding, as the inspections found that some airports have installed their emergency power sources underground. The emergency inspections covered 132 areas governed by 12 government agencies. The government is expected to release the official version of the inspection results and disaster reduction measures as soon as the end of November.
|
flooding;earthquakes;disasters;airports;landslides;kansai airport
|
jp0009384
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/23
|
The little blind fish that can mend a broken heart
|
I have a new favorite animal, and it’s a fish. Not just any old fish, this one lives deep underground in caves in Mexico, and not only is it blind, it has lost its eyes altogether. The Mexican tetra is a small and boring-looking animal, but appearances are deceptive. This fish is famous among evolutionary biologists, physiologists and sleep scientists for its hidden talents. The Mexican tetra comes in two forms, a “normal” form that lives in rivers and streams, and a blind form that lives in caves. Charles Darwin wrote about blind cave fish in “Origin of Species”: “By the time that an animal had reached, after numberless generations, the deepest recesses, disuse will on this view have more or less perfectly obliterated its eyes, and natural selection will often have affected other changes, such as an increase in the length of antennae or palpi, as compensation for blindness.” In other words, after many years of living in darkness, the fish starts to lose the ability to see. There is no point going to the bother of growing eyes if they are never needed, so the cave fish use the energy they would have put into making eyes into growing and reproducing. Darwin guessed that animals losing their vision in this way would compensate in other ways, and this is what has happened with the blind cave fish. The animals are able to sense tiny vibrations in water and fluctuations in water pressure, and use this information to get around. Blind cave fish are also of great interest to scientists trying to figure out how humans can better cope with diabetes. It turns out the fish carry a gene that induces an insatiable appetite. It makes evolutionary sense because the fish live in caves and often have to endure times of food scarcity. When there is food present it means the animals can gorge and stock up on supplies. It’s one of the reasons why the fish don’t just go blind but entirely lose their eyes. Food resources are in such short supply that there is a big advantage in not having to grow eyes. They eat pretty much anything — algae, and dead and rotten plants and animals. In people, when this kind of voracious appetite takes hold, we can get high blood sugar levels and develop diabetes. Blind cave fish, however, are resistant to insulin, the hormone that turns blood sugar into energy. They do develop high levels of blood sugar, but not the problems of diabetes that usually go with it. If we can figure out how they do it, it might be able to help the tens of millions of people — 30 million in the United States alone — that suffer from diabetes. Now Yoshiyuki Yamamoto, a developmental biologist at University College London, U.K., and colleagues have studied the Mexican tetra and discovered another remarkable feature. The fish living at the surface — the ones that have not lost their eyes — are able to regenerate their hearts after an injury. Humans have only limited capacity to regenerate damaged tissue. Our livers are able to regenerate, for example, but if anything else gets worn out or damaged, we just have to live with it. It’s one of the reasons we get slower and less fit as we get older. Naturally, discovering the secrets of regeneration is a hot area of research. It turns out that the surface fish have the ability to regenerate damaged hearts but the cave fish do not. Some other species of cave fish in different regions have retained the ability to regenerate, so it means ecological and geological differences among the caves may influence the evolutionary loss of regeneration. Yamamoto and colleagues cross-bred animals from the surface with those from caves to find out what happens with intermediate forms. The hybrid fish showed different levels of regeneration, indicating that the ability to regenerate heart tissue is heritable, and they narrowed the ability down to a gene called lrrc10. “We have identified three regions in the DNA that contain genes that make the difference between regeneration or scarring after heart injury,” says Yamamoto. The next step is to find out which genes are key to heart regeneration. If we can understand how to trigger regeneration, and especially in vital organs such as the heart or brain, it could open the door to a whole new kind of medicine. “If the genetic mechanisms are the same between the cave fish and humans, it might be possible to switch it back on again for helping patients with wounded hearts,” says Yamamoto. You can imagine — eventually — being able to replace and repair damaged tissue in the body, and so extend human lives for many years.
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medicine;evolution;genetics;charles darwin;mexican tetra;yoshiyuki yamamoto
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jp0009385
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/23
|
Under new visas, Japan will require firms to fund foreign workers' return home when they can't pay themselves
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The government plans to require companies hiring foreign nationals with planned new work visas to shoulder costs for their return home if the individuals cannot pay their own way, officials said. The move comes in response to concerns that the introduction of the new work visas will boost the number of illegal foreign residents in Japan and worsen the country’s security situation. Revisions to the immigration control law are now under deliberation in the Diet with the goal of introducing the new visas in April next year. The move is meant to open the country to more foreign workers to alleviate labor shortages. The government estimates that up to 345,000 foreign workers will come to Japan under the new system over five years. Under the system, companies hiring foreign workers with the new visas will be required to conclude contracts with them to guarantee the same or higher levels of pay compared with their Japanese counterparts, among other details. The government plans to issue an ordinance that will encourage such companies to set aside a certain amount of money to pay for the cost of sending foreign workers back home after the expiration of their contracts if they are unable to pay for the journey themselves. The number of illegal foreign residents in the country stood at 69,346 as of July 1. To address security concerns, the government also plans to exclude countries which refuse to take back their own citizens deported from Japan from the list of nations eligible for the new visas. The government plans to enact the immigration law revisions during the current Diet session, which is set to end on Dec. 10.
|
immigration;expats;foreign workers
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jp0009386
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/15
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Dollar weaker around ¥113.50 in late Tokyo trades
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The dollar stayed on a weak note around ¥113.50 in Tokyo trading late Thursday, as investors took a wait-and-see stance amid a dearth of fresh trading incentives. At 5 p.m. the dollar stood at ¥113.52-53, down from ¥113.89-89 at the same time on Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1338-1338, up from $1.1292-1293, and at ¥128.70-70, up from ¥128.62-62. In foreign trading the previous day the dollar fell to levels near ¥113.30, hurt by a decline in U.S. stocks and lower U.S. long-term interest rates. The greenback rose above ¥113.60 in early Tokyo trading, helped by short-term yen selling to cash in gains, traders said. The dollar moved on a firm note in midmorning trading on the back of dollar buying by Japanese importers. But the greenback dropped to around ¥113.50 later in the morning and traded around the level in the afternoon. The dollar’s topside was capped by a decline in the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei stock average, an official at a major Japanese bank said. An official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm suggested that uncertainty over U.S. policies after the Nov. 6 midterm elections also prompted dollar selling. In the elections the Democratic Party won back a majority in the House of Representatives, while the Republican Party maintained its control of the Senate.
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exchange rates;foreign exchange;forex;currencies
|
jp0009387
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Tokyo stocks turn down on Wall Street slump
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Stocks turned lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday, hurt by an overnight drop in U.S. equities and the yen’s strengthening against the dollar. The 225-issue Nikkei average dropped 42.86 points, or 0.20 percent, to end at 21,803.62. On Wednesday, the key market gauge had risen 35.96 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 2.29 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,638.97, after gaining 2.81 points the previous day. Selling outpaced buying from the outset of Thursday’s trading, with financial issues leading the way down, as investor sentiment was dampened by Wall Street’s slump the previous day and a stronger yen against the dollar, brokers said. The Nikkei briefly lost over 200 points in early trading. After the initial selling ran its course the Nikkei and Topix resisted falling further, supported by buying on dips and bargain hunting, brokers said. Weak U.S. stock prices sapped investors’ buying appetite, said Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost over 1,100 points in the four sessions through Wednesday. Explaining the Tokyo market’s sluggishness, Otsuka also pointed to major Japanese companies’ “not so impressive” earnings forecasts for the year to March 2019. An official at a Japanese asset management firm said, “Investors are unlikely to chase higher ground without positive trading factors regarding U.S.-China trade friction.” Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,111 to 911 in the TSE’s first section, while 89 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.500 billion shares from 1.432 billion shares Wednesday. Financial issues met with selling after their U.S. peers fared poorly overnight. They included megabank groups Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc., insurer Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. and brokerage giant Nomura Holdings Inc. Skylark Holdings Co. dropped 1.49 percent after the restaurant chain revised down its consolidated earnings projection for the year to December 2018 on Wednesday. Other major losers included mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group Corp. and drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. By contrast, Japan Post Holdings Co. rose 0.73 percent a day after announcing an upward revision in its consolidated earnings forecast for the year to March 2019. Also higher were cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. and power firm Tokyo Electric Power Company Holding Inc. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average ended unchanged at 21,820.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
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jp0009388
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Rock, investment, paper: Goldman Sachs to buy stake in startup making paper from limestone
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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is buying a stake in TBM Co., a startup that has become known for its technology that turns limestone into paper. The two parties confirmed the deal on Thursday. TBM, which makes business cards, posters, catalogs and stickers from limestone, is seeking to raise a total of ¥3.1 billion ($27 million). Goldman Sachs is seeking to make investments in 10 to 15 Japanese startups through 2019, people with knowledge of the matter said. The investment is part of a renewed push by Goldman Sachs to seek out and back potential Japanese unicorns that can compete globally with their technology while being environmentally responsible, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is not yet public. TBM’s Limex paper is made without water. By comparison, it takes 100 tons of water to make a ton of regular paper. That also required 20 trees, while the TBM process uses less than a ton of limestone together with 200 kilograms of polyolefin. Representatives from Goldman Sachs visited TBM more than three years ago as a potential investment target because their technology is unique and the firm can be bigger than a unicorn, they said. Nobuyoshi Yamasaki, TBM’s chief executive officer, said in an interview last year that he’s aiming for an initial public offering by 2020. The company was founded in 2011. Prior to the global financial crisis in 2008, Goldman Sachs had poured ¥550 billion into Japanese companies, including a lender, an electronics company and an amusement-park operator. It then scaled back investments in the decade that followed.
|
startups;investments;goldman sachs;entrepreneurs;paper;nobuyoshi yamasaki;tbm;limex;limestone
|
jp0009389
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of domestic violence
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LOS ANGELES - Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents adult film star Stormy Daniels in her legal battles with U.S. President Donald Trump, was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday on suspicion of domestic violence, a police spokesman said. Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Jeff Lee said no further details were immediately available, but he said Avenatti was released on bail after he was formally booked in the case. “It will be presented to the district attorney’s office just like any other case,” Lee said. “They’ll take a look at it and see if there’s enough evidence to proceed.” The celebrity news website TMZ, which broke the news of Avenatti’s arrest, reported that it stemmed from a physical confrontation between him and a woman at an apartment building Tuesday night in the Century City district of Los Angeles. Avenatti, who has indicated that he might run for president in 2020 as a Democrat, denied wrongdoing in a statement issued through his law firm and in a statement to reporters outside the LAPD West Los Angeles police station following his release. “I have never struck a woman. I never will strike a woman. I’ve been an advocate for women’s rights my entire career,” he said, adding that he would never “disrespect” his two daughters “by touching a woman inappropriately or striking a woman.” “I look forward to a full investigation at which point I am confident I will be fully exonerated,” he added, without taking any questions. In the statement from his law office, he said, “I have never been physically abusive in my life, nor was I last night. Any accusations to the contrary are fabricated and meant to do harm to my reputation.” Avenatti came to national prominence as the lawyer for Daniels, a porn actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, who sued Trump for defamation after he denied her assertion that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. That lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge last month. Daniels has filed a separate lawsuit over a $130,000 hush-money agreement stemming from the alleged encounter. Avenatti’s clients have included Julie Swetnick, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of aggressive sexual behavior before his recent confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
|
domestic violence;los angeles;donald trump;stormy daniels;michael avenatti
|
jp0009390
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/15
|
U.S. lawmakers introduce bill hitting China for Uighur repression
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WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday seeking to punish China over its “human rights abuses” of the majority-Muslim Uighur population in the country’s west, a move that drew immediate anger from Beijing. Legislation introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives seeks to toughen U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to what the lawmakers say are gross violations of human rights in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The bill urges U.S. authorities to impose targeted sanctions on members of China’s government, the ruling Communist Party and state security apparatus, as well Xinjiang Party Secretary Chen Quanguo and other officials “credibly alleged to be responsible for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and elsewhere.” China’s Uighurs have faced unprecedented surveillance in recent years, and the United Nations has determined that up to 1 million Uighurs have been rounded up in detention camps. Washington must hold government and Communist Party officials “responsible for gross violations of human rights and possible crimes against humanity, including the internment in ‘political reeducation’ camps of as many as a million Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a chief sponsor, said in a statement. Fifteen senators in total, including Democrats Robert Menendez and Elizabeth Warren, are sponsoring the legislation. A companion bill was introduced in the House by congressman Chris Smith, an ardent critic of China’s human rights policies. Menendez described China’s treatment of Uighurs as “beyond abhorrent,” and urged Trump to formulate a “clear and consistent approach” to China. The measure would mandate a U.S. intelligence report on the regional security threat posed by China’s crackdown; a list of Chinese companies involved in building and operating the camps; and an FBI report on efforts to protect Americans from Chinese government harassment. It would also require a State Department report on the scale of the crackdown and beef up the department’s monitoring of the region, and urge a review of U.S. Commerce Department export controls. Beijing delivered a scathing response. “Where do U.S. lawmakers get this inexplicable sense of superiority from, and how can they make irresponsible remarks about the internal affairs of other countries?” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a briefing. “Unfortunately, they always choose to ignore their own domestic issues while over-enthusiastically interfering with other country’s domestic affairs with irresponsible remarks, which are based on incorrect information and strong ideological bias,” she added. The defense chiefs and top foreign affairs officials of the two countries met in Washington last week for a regular dialogue that had been pushed back amid months of spiraling tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
|
china;sanctions;uighurs;u.s. congress;donald trump;marco rubio
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jp0009391
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Vietnam-born rights advocate Bungo Okabe steps in to stifle abuse of technical trainees in Japan
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When it came to light in March that a Vietnamese man in Japan’s foreign trainee program was duped into performing radioactive decontamination work in areas devastated by the 2011 nuclear disaster, Bungo Okabe, 36, was the first to offer help in seeking justice. Okabe, a Vietnamese by birth who grew up in Japan, took the 24-year-old man to a shelter he runs for trainees in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, and helped him to receive unemployment insurance payments and find a new workplace to complete his three-year training program. The man, whose name was being withheld for privacy reasons, is one of many trainees Okabe has defended since he opened the shelter in January after hearing stories of abuse and struggles from Vietnamese trainees living in his neighborhood. “Without help they are left in limbo, as neither the government nor the organizations dispatching (trainees to Japanese firms) bother intervening to protect the rights of trainees facing problems at their workplaces,” Okabe told The Japan Times in a recent interview. “And with poor Japanese skills they keep their struggles to themselves, fearing they’ll be sent back home or that the abuse will escalate.” The Technical Intern Training Program is designed to help people from developing countries acquire skills at Japanese firms, but it has long been criticized as being a cover for importing cheap labor as the nation suffers from rapid shrinkage of its working population. As of June, 285,776 people were in Japan under the trainee program, according to labor ministry data. Among them Vietnamese accounted for 134,139, or about 47 percent. According to data from various ministries, 299 legal violations related to the technical trainee system were reported last year, such as underpayment and overtime work. “The only way to stop the abuse is to allow them to switch employers,” so that trainees can seek better working environments and to encourage employers to improve the situation,” Okabe said. But the current scheme does not allow trainees to change their jobs or employers with the exception of cases where abuse is detected by the Justice Ministry. For such people, Okabe’s help sometimes is the last resort to continue to remain and work in the country. The government submitted a draft revision to the immigration control law earlier this month in order to accept more foreign workers with “specified skills” in sectors suffering from severe labor shortages. But Okabe argues that revising the trainee scheme should be the priority when so many are suffering from human rights violations. Okabe, who fled Vietnam and came to Japan at age 8 on his family’s second attempt to defect, opened the shelter in a formerly vacant house in Koriyama in January. He renovated the two-story house using about ¥1 million raised through crowdfunding, and has since taken in 15 trainees who for various reasons couldn’t stay with their employers. He has offered them a place to sleep, food and other forms of support, including Japanese language tuition. Okabe, whose Vietnamese name is Pham Nhat Vuong, has traveled across the country to help trainees renew their visa statuses, negotiating with immigration bureaus and municipal governments so they don’t get deported while seeking compensation or possibilities to continue training in Japan. Currently three people are staying at the shelter and Okabe is also negotiating on behalf of trainees from across Japan for further work opportunities. “I’ve always wanted to help underprivileged people,” said Okabe, who closed down an eatery he ran in the city to dedicate himself to supporting trainees. One of the people Okabe has helped is Nguyen Ba Cong, 34, who came to Japan in 2015 under the foreign trainee scheme. Nguyen was supposed to do rebar work, but in fact he was assigned to do decontamination work in Namie in Fukushima for a year and half without being given sufficient information. After realizing he had been exposed to radiation working in the town — parts of which are still designated as “difficult to return” zones amid the nuclear disaster — Nguyen escaped the company where he had been assigned for training and came to the shelter. “I’ve been played,” Nguyen told The Japan Times, taking care to choose the appropriate words to explain his situation in Japanese. Okabe said Nguyen’s case, in which the employer violated the program’s regulations, is just the tip of the iceberg. “I’ve assisted many abused victims, including a woman who had to abort a pregnancy,” said Okabe, adding that the woman said she had been raped by her employer. The woman, who was 21 when the incident happened during her stay at a farm, had already returned to Vietnam without seeking justice in court as she did not want to cause trouble to her family, Okabe said. A 22-year-old man who introduced himself as Lam said he came to the Koriyama shelter after Okabe stopped his deportation — the man called Okabe from Kansai Airport after completing boarding procedures. He was given a ticket for a flight home by his employer six months after arriving in Japan because the firm faced financial difficulties. Lam may soon be allowed to work again, but procedures enabling trainees to switch firms last months and require cooperation by all sides involved, Okabe said. “Many trainees contact me when they’re ordered to go back by their employers out of the blue,” he said. A Justice Ministry official familiar with the scheme and exploitation problems agreed in a recent phone interview that the program needs improvement to protect the rights of trainees. He said, however, that switching jobs is not an option, as the government believes allowing this would be a step toward allowing economic immigrants. He also said the government believes trainees don’t need to change jobs as they are supposed to come to gain skills in one specific field and then return home. “What should be corrected is the employers’ notion that they’re allowed to treat trainees as cheap labor — it’s unacceptable,” the official said. The official said he was hopeful that the introduction of new visa statuses will help curb the violations resulting from that erroneous belief. “So far, foreigners have had to pretend they came to Japan to learn something (if their true motive is to earn money) and employers have been unable to openly accept unskilled workers,” he noted. “The new visa statuses will be more transparent and I believe this amendment should stop rogue employers from misusing the trainee system.”
|
fukushima;vietnam;immigration;foreign trainees;bungo okabe
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jp0009392
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Over 80% of Japanese positive about robotic nursing care
|
Over 80 percent of people in Japan hold positive views about receiving nursing care from robots, according to a survey by nursing care service provider Orix Living Corp. The result suggests that people feel a psychological burden from being taken care of by humans, Orix Living said. The online survey, conducted in September, covered 1,238 people aged 40 or above across the nation. The proportion of respondents who said they are ready to or want to receive nursing care from robots stood at 84.3 percent, hitting the highest level since a related question was introduced in 2011. Of the respondents who prefer not to use robotic nursing care, 46.9 percent — the largest group — said the reason for their choice was that they would prefer to be taken care of by humans. In the survey, most respondents said they see nursing-care robots as serving a supplementary role to alleviate burdens on care receivers and caregivers. The survey also found that 84.2 percent of men want to care for their wives, while 65.8 percent of women said they want to care for their husbands. According to the survey, 53.5 percent of men want to share a room with their wives in housing for the aged, while 41.6 percent of women said they would wish to share a room with their husband.
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robots;health care;nursing care
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jp0009393
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/15
|
Takamatsu High Court rejects calls from residents to halt Shikoku Electric's Ikata nuclear reactor
|
TAKAMATSU, KAGAWA PREF. - A high court Thursday rejected calls from local residents to suspend the operation of a nuclear reactor at Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s Ikata plant that was recently restarted. In upholding a lower court decision from July last year, the Takamatsu High Court said the No. 3 unit of the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture poses no danger, as it meets stricter safety standards introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. While the residents had claimed the new safety standards underestimate the risk of earthquakes and the reactor faces the threat of a nearby volcanic eruption, presiding Judge Ryuichi Kamiyama said the standards created by the Nuclear Regulation Authority “cannot be concluded to be unreasonable.” “We consider it an appropriate decision. We will ensure safe operation, keeping in mind that there is no end to improving safety,” Shikoku Electric said in a statement following the high court ruling. Last December, the Hiroshima High Court issued a provisional injunction ordering the utility to suspend the operation of the reactor, citing the risk of an eruption at a volcano some 130 km away. It was the first such ban by a high court since nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 complex triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. But the same Hiroshima court revoked the decision in September, saying worries over a volcanic eruption damaging the plant were “groundless.” The decision allowed the unit to reboot the Ikata reactor on Oct. 27, with commercial operation expected to begin Nov. 28. In July last year, the Matsuyama District Court turned down the residents’ plea to halt the Ikata unit, saying the reactor design was based on a reasonable earthquake projection, and it has been sufficiently proven that there is no risk of a volcano eruption damaging the plant during its operating time.
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courts;nuclear power plant;shikoku electric power co .;ikata
|
jp0009394
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Dollar firms to above ¥114.10 in Tokyo
|
The dollar topped ¥114.10 in Tokyo trading Monday, thanks to spillover effects of the U.S. currency’s firming against the euro. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥114.16-16, up from ¥113.84-85 at the same time Friday. The euro was at $1.1259-1263, down from $1.1336-1337, and at ¥128.55-55, down from ¥129.06-06. The dollar rose above ¥113.80 in early trading after moving around ¥113.70. The greenback crept up later in the morning despite the Nikkei 225 average’s weak start. It was buoyed around ¥114.00 by noon. “Risk-averse selling did not gain strength,” an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said. After moving narrowly, the dollar rose around ¥114.20 in late afternoon trading. Increasingly concerned about the Italian budget and Brexit issues, players “stepped up euro selling to buy dollars,” a Japanese bank official said. “The dollar has been bought back since the U.S. midterm elections,” a major life insurance firm official pointed out.
|
exchange rates;forex;currencies
|
jp0009395
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Nikkei logs a small rise amid thin trading
|
The Nikkei 225 average finished slightly higher in thin trading Monday, as participation by foreign investors was limited ahead of Veterans Day in the U.S. The Nikkei rose 19.63 points, or 0.09 percent, to end at 22,269.88. On Friday, the key market gauge lost 236.67 points. But the Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, ended 1.03 points, or 0.06 percent, lower at 1,671.95, after shedding 8.27 points the previous trading day. The market took a dive at the outset of trading, after U.S. shares finished last week with losses on rekindled concerns over the adverse economic effects of the trade dispute between the United States and China. Wall Street was pressured, among others, by China’s weakening manufacturing activities as shown by slowed growth in the producer price index for the fourth consecutive month in October. After the initial selling subsided, however, both the Nikkei and the Topix recouped their losses, led by buying in stock index futures, brokers said. In the afternoon, the market came almost to a standstill. Trading was thin due to a lack of incentives that were powerful enough to move the entire market. Only shares of some firms that released their earnings recently attracted transactions, an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. Non-Japanese players, particularly U.S. investors, largely took to the sidelines ahead of the holiday Monday, when the currency and bond markets will be closed, but stocks can be traded. For the time being, the Tokyo market will be limited to selective trading on announcements of earnings results as no major events are scheduled to come up this week, a brokerage firm official said. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,142 to 887 in the first section, while 83 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.231 billion shares, from 1.477 billion Friday. Low crude oil prices hurt oil names, including JXTG, Cosmo Energy and Showa Shell. Mitsui Kinzoku plunged 18.00 percent due to its profit warning for the business year through next March. Other major losers included technology firms Sony and Murata Manufacturing. Meanwhile, Mitsui Fudosan gained 3.46 percent after the real estate company announced a rosier consolidated earnings forecast for the same business year. Also higher were clothing retailer Fast Retailing and mobile phone carrier KDDI.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009397
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Supporters of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi gather in Istanbul
|
ISTANBUL - Around 200 people on Sunday gathered in Istanbul to honor the memory of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Supporters met to talk and watch videos of eulogies for the Washington Post contributor who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in the city on Oct. 2. Turan Kislakci, head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association (TAM), to which Khashoggi belonged, called for justice to be done “so that these barbaric tyrants can never do the same thing again. Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her participation in the Arab Spring uprisings, said the killing was reminiscent of crimes committed by the Islamic State group. Khashoggi was last seen entering the consulate on Oct. 2 to obtain documents for his forthcoming marriage. After repeated denials, Saudi Arabia finally admitted the 59-year-old had been murdered at the mission in a “rogue” operation. Turkish pro-government daily Sabah on Saturday reported Khashoggi’s killers poured the remains of the insider-turned-critic of Riyadh down the drain after dissolving him in acid. Samples taken from the consulate drains showed traces of acid, Sabah said without quoting sources for its story. Erdogan has accused the “highest levels” of the Saudi government of ordering the hit. Some officials have pointed the finger at the all-powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and some analysts say Ankara is keen to have the heir sidelined from the nexus of power in Riyadh.
|
murder;human rights;saudi arabia;istanbul;mohammed bin salman;jamal khashoggi
|
jp0009398
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Myanmar prepares for first Rohingya returnees but U.N. warns against rushing
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YANGON/COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH - Myanmar officials said on Sunday the country was ready to receive more than 2,000 Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh on Nov. 15, the first group from 5,000 people to be moved under a deal between the neighbors struck last month. But more than 20 individuals on a list of potential returnees submitted by Bangladesh have told Reuters they will refuse to go back to northern Rakhine state from where they fled. Bangladesh has said it will not force anyone to do so. The United Nations also says conditions are not yet safe for their return, in part because Myanmar Buddhists have been protesting against the repatriation. “It depends on the other country, whether this will actually happen or not,” Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s minister for social welfare and resettlement, told a news conference in the commercial capital of Yangon on Sunday, referring to Bangladesh. “But we must be ready from our side. We have done that.” Abul Kalam, Bangladesh relief and repatriation commissioner, said he was hopeful the process could begin on Thursday. “The return will be voluntary. Nobody will be forced to go back,” he told Reuters. The countries agreed on mid-November for the start of repatriating some of more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled a sweeping army crackdown in Myanmar last year. They say soldiers and local Buddhists massacred families, burned hundreds of villages, and carried out gang-rapes. U.N-mandated investigators have accused the army of “genocidal intent” and ethnic cleansing. Myanmar denies almost all of the allegations, saying security forces were battling terrorists. Attacks by Rohingya insurgents calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army preceded the crackdown. Myanmar does acknowledge the killing of 10 Rohingya by security forces in Inn Dinn village. Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced to seven years in prison earlier this year for allegedly breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act after reporting on the massacre. Reuters says the court’s ruling was wrong and lawyers for the two have appealed against their conviction. Win Myat Aye said preparations had been made for 2,251 people to be transported to two transit centers by boat on Thursday, while a second group of 2,095 could follow later by road. Once processed by the authorities, they would be sent to another center where they would be housed, fed, and asked to build homes through cash-for-work schemes. Returnees would only be allowed to travel within Maungdaw township, one of the three they fled, and only if they accepted National Verification Cards, an identity document most Rohingya reject because they say it brands them as foreigners. Many Rohingya, the majority of whom have been left stateless after decades of persecution, oppose going back without guarantees of citizenship and freedom of movement.
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myanmar;u.n .;refugees;bangladesh;genocide;rohingya;rakhine;ethnic cleansing
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jp0009399
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Labor activists in China go missing after suspected coordinated raids
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SHENZHEN, CHINA - At least 12 Chinese labor activists have gone missing in recent days, in what sources close to them believe was a coordinated effort by authorities to silence the vocal group, most of them university students or recent graduates. Authorities took away at least nine activists in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen late Friday, and three more activists were taken away Sunday in the city of Wuhan, the sources said. The Ministry of Public Security, which oversees police forces across the country, did not respond to a faxed request for comment. The detentions appear to be the latest action by the authorities against a small but growing movement driven by students and graduates of some top universities who have said they are motivated by the principles of Marxism. The ruling Communist Party, which espouses Marxism as one of its leading ideologies, opposes any form of activism or organization that has the potential to slip beyond its control. At least five graduates of Peking University, one of the country’s top universities, were among those picked up Friday, student activists said. Last month, Cornell University in the United States ceased cooperation in two exchange programs with Renmin University, another prominent institution in Beijing, after students there were punished for supporting labor rights. The young activists attracted attention from authorities in August when about 50 students from across China converged in the south to support factory workers at Jasic International, a welding machinery firm, seeking to form a union. Later that month, police in riot gear stormed an apartment in the city of Huizhou where the students were staying, detaining some of them. “I think the authorities have decided now is the right time to settle the score,” one student activist at a university in Beijing said. “The authorities want to shut down the Jasic Workers Support Group in one fell swoop. Why else would they suddenly conduct raids of such a large scale and arrest so many people at once?” the student added, speaking on condition of anonymity. On Friday, unidentified men grabbed Zhang Shengye, a recent Peking University graduate, on the university’s campus at around 10:30 p.m. and bundled him into a car, according to a witness and screenshots of posts, apparently written by students, on the university’s internal messaging board. The posts were later deleted. A video circulated on social media by a Peking University student who said he was at the scene and who described what happened to Zhang. “I heard one of them yell ‘that’s him, shove him into the car’, and then I saw three to five people grab a student and bundle him into a car,” the student says in the video. He said he and other students who were nearby were pushed to the ground and prevented from leaving until they deleted any photos or videos of the scene. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, which showed no pictures of Zhang’s suspected detention. A Peking University spokesman confirmed that someone had been detained but said the incident did not involve teachers or students. “Public security organs in accordance with law seized noncampus affiliated persons suspected of committing a crime,” the spokesman said. Zhang had been in southern China in August to protest against the treatment of the Jasic factory workers and had been involved in a wide range of social issues on campus. “We aren’t solely focused on one particular issue. We’re interested in improving society in all kinds of ways, whether it is improving the lives of factory workers, fighting for gender equality or advocating for environmental sustainability,” Zhang said Aug. 23 in a crowded apartment in a village that primarily houses migrant workers in Huizhou.
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china;rights;oppression;students
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jp0009400
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/11/12
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Ohitorisama: the Japanese art of going solo becomes growing consumer trend
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Every so often, 33-year-old Masaki Kitakoga slips into a tiny booth with a desk and a chair and belts out karaoke tunes for 90 minutes — completely on his own. Kitakoga is part of a growing trend in Japan favoring solo activities that is now so widespread it has its own name: ohitorisama , or “on your own.” Analysts say that Japan’s demographic makeup — more than one third of households contain just one person — makes it perfect for the solo market, with many also craving “me time” in a fast-paced, interconnected and workaholic society. Karaoke, in many ways the archetypal social activity, is a case in point. Six years ago, the Koshidaka karaoke chain realized that some 30 percent of its customers in certain locations came on their own, so it set up “1Kara” — tiny booths for solo singers. Now the firm runs a network of eight specialty karaoke parlors that each sees “tens of thousands” of crooners flock to its solo booths, according to Daiki Yamatani, a spokesman for the chain. “It’s a truly liberating experience,” said Kitakoga. “I like to sing. But beyond that, this lets me shake off stress.” As demand for such services grows, the stigma of doing activities alone has decreased, added Kitakoga, who also sings karaoke occasionally with friends. Many lone karaoke singers say they like singing just the songs they want to, without bowing to peer pressure for sing-along classics that everyone else knows. Signs of ohitorisama are everywhere in Japan, from cinemas offering seats with partitions to theme parks that let singles jump the line at certain rides. Grocery stores sell condiments and vegetables for single diners while travel agents design itineraries aimed at the solo voyager. The “super solo society” has become a buzzword among social scientists and marketing gurus. “Businesses are offering various goods and services to meet the trend of people enjoying solo activities,” said Motoko Matsushita, senior consultant with Nomura Research Institute. “The depth and range of such services reflect the expanding nature of the consumer trend,” she said. The growing phenomenon is also helping to liberate individuals from feeling like they have to conform to peer pressure, added Matsushita. Surveys show Japanese consumers — especially younger ones — rate quality time alone above hours spent with family and friends. Official data show the ratio of households with parents and children is gradually shrinking as fewer adults form relationships. In 1980 in Japan, only one in 50 men had never been married by the age of 50 and one in 22 women. That ratio is now 1 in 4 and 1 in 7, respectively. The demographic shift comes as Japan also grapples with a rapidly graying population, with nearly 28 percent of Japanese people over the age of 65. And the pace of modern life, with its ubiquitous social media, is also pushing this trend, experts say, as fatigued people seek relief from round-the-clock contact. “Our data show sociable individuals tend to … seek solo activities,” said Matsushita, a married mother-of-two, who says she too is partial to a spot of solo karaoke. Restaurants are also cashing in. At the Ichiran ramen chain, it is possible to have a meal with barely any human interaction whatsoever. Customers order from vending machines and then sit in a partitioned booth to slurp down their noodles, unlike the experience at many ramen joints, where orders are shouted by teams of chefs behind greasy counters. “We were doing this even before the solo activities trend started. This ‘personal space’ concept has been well received in foreign markets too,” said Satomi Nozaki, spokeswoman at the popular chain, which also has outlets overseas. Karaoke fan Kitakoga also enjoys solo travel, taking himself off alone to a remote island in southern Japan last year. “Sure, it would have been fun to travel with friends too. But I knew what I wanted to do there and it was fantastic because I was able to do everything I wanted to do at the pace I wanted to do it,” he said.
|
relationships;marriage;ohitorisama
|
jp0009401
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Entrepreneur generates electricity solely from used cooking oil collected throughout Tokyo
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For Yumi Someya, Tokyo is an untapped oil field, full of potential to generate electricity. The precious fuel, however, doesn’t exist underground. It’s a resource sitting in the kitchens of millions of Japanese homes — cooking oil. Someya’s ultimate goal is to collect every last drop of used cooking oil, turn it into fuel and distribute the electricity generated from it to the households and businesses that provided it in the first place — a perfect cycle of energy. “I want to tell consumers that there is an environment-friendly way to generate electricity that does not rely on nuclear power plants at all,” said Someya, 50. Someya runs two organizations — U’s Corp., which turns used cooking oil into fuel, and Tokyo Yu Denryoku, which distributes electricity from two power plants that utilize the recycled fuel. U’s collects around 60 tons of oil per month from 3,000 restaurants and 500 collection sites at pharmacies, gyms and other places throughout Tokyo and the surrounding area. Someya has been in the business of recycling cooking oil for the past 27 years, but she became even more determined after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, causing three core meltdowns that contaminated the Tohoku region and depriving it of power. Someya and her employees delivered food and supplies sent from Taiwan to Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. Each of the company’s cars bore a logo that said, “Fueled by used tempura oil.” “People who saw them kept talking enthusiastically, saying Japan needs such renewable energy,” she said. “Even the local people who went through the worst and faced severe losses tried to encourage me to continue on with it.” Someya first rose to fame in 2009 when she was listed as one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment for her efforts to turn cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. In the nine years since, Someya pioneered a way to turn cooking oil into fuel without changing it into biodiesel first. She also launched an electricity distribution company that provides power generated solely from used cooking oil in the same areas served by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., better known as Tepco. “My oil-recycling company has evolved into an electricity distribution company,” Someya said. The passion for recycling used oil runs in the family. Her grandfather started a resale business in a small factory in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward in 1949, when Japan was trying to rebuild from the devastation of World War II. Her father eventually became the president of the company — Someya Shoten. Fast-forward to the late 1980s, when Someya, then 18 and fed up with the competitive academic life in Tokyo, left home with a backpack and began traveling around Asia. Her travels led her to a near encounter with a deadly landslide along the border of Nepal and China that local people claimed was triggered by deforestation. “I could have been killed if I had passed that section of road just five minutes earlier,” she said. “I was overwhelmed by the fact that human activities could cause such an environmental tragedy.” She returned to Tokyo determined to start a business as a social entrepreneur, only to be shot down by everyone she talked to. It didn’t help that it was the late 1980s, when Japan was in the midst of the bubble economy and consumerism was rampant. “Everyone talked to me as though I was an idiot because it was believed that environmental businesses would not benefit the Japanese economy,” said Someya. Fed up, Someya retreated to Hong Kong, working at a travel agency to support backpackers like herself. However, during a later visit to her father’s oil recycling shop, she came to realize that “the solution to my quest was where I was born.” Upon turning 23, Someya joined her father’s oil-recycling company, which two years later succeeded in turning used cooking oil into biodiesel. Marketed as Vegetable Biodiesel Fuel, Someya Shoten was the first in the world to commercialize such a fuel, which does not produce sulfur oxides and reduces black smoke emissions to about half that produced by conventional diesel. Despite the success, Someya started her own company in 1997 with a focus on being environment-friendly after clashing with her father over business strategy. Just a few employees from her father’s company joined her. However, for many of those who have long worked in the business as truck drivers, it was difficult to understand Someya’s mindset since she urged them to be not only drivers but salespeople. They thought the whole idea was a big hassle, so they left the company one by one. It was also hard to motivate people to save their used oil for the company’s weekly collection. Unlike cans and bottles, Someya’s company charged restaurants and companies where collection sites were located ¥10,000 per year as a collection fee. “For cans and glass bottles, people get paid for collecting and recycling them. But for the used oil, my company was charging clients. They did not really see the benefit,” said Someya. After enduring the ups and downs, Someya’s company now operates two power plants that generate 100 percent of their electricity from used cooking oil. Her latest mission is to create a society in Sumida Ward where fuel is recycled to generate electricity. Since her company provides electricity to people and businesses who provide used oil, she aims to have 20,000 ward residents participate in the program. “Once I succeed in building a model at the ward level, it will be possible to apply it to any town, even in the countryside,” said Someya, adding that such a system would avoid having all profits just go to major utilities. “‘Think globally and act locally’ as well as ‘produce and consume locally’ are my mottos,” Someya said. “And I’m still not giving up on becoming a used-oil magnate.”
|
environment;renewable energy;yumi someya
|
jp0009402
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/12
|
South Korean lawyers representing wartime laborers rebuffed by Nippon Steel in Tokyo
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Lawyers representing four South Koreans, recently awarded damages by the country’s top court for wartime labor, were rebuffed Monday when they visited a Japanese steel maker in Tokyo to demand it pay the compensation. After a request to hold a meeting was rejected by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., Kim Se-un, one of the lawyers, told reporters that they will “start procedures to seize” the assets of the Japanese company’s affiliates in South Korea as a way to secure damages. The lawyers and supporters of the plaintiffs had planned to hand over a document calling on Nippon Steel to comply with the final ruling, which was issued Oct. 30. The South Korean top court ordered the company to pay a total of 400 million won ($350,000) to the four victims who were forced to work during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. The lawyers were greeted by a security guard at reception, who read out a message stating that the company believes the ruling “goes against” the Japanese government’s position that the issue of compensation was settled under a 1965 bilateral accord. The lawyers gave up on submitting the document and left the building after making another request for a meeting. “We are disappointed that the company made the security guard, who was not even an employee, read out the statement and turned us away at the door,” Im Jae-song said. He said the assets that the plaintiffs plan to seize will include stocks of Nippon Steel’s related companies. “Three of the four plaintiffs have already died. We will continue … to call on the company to comply with the ruling as a company in a country ruled by law,” Im added. The Japanese government has called on Nippon Steel not to comply with the South Korean ruling. The company has not yet clarified its own position. Naoyoshi Yamamoto, secretary-general of a Japanese group supporting the former laborers in the lawsuit, who accompanied the South Korean lawyers, said, “The plaintiffs’ lives were destroyed by the forced labor. I want the company to face the fact, and offer an apology.” The newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party carried an editorial Sunday supporting the South Korean court ruling. The editorial in the Rodong Sinmum lambasted objections to the ruling by Japanese government officials as “barefaced impudence.” It is possible that North Korea will in the future push its own demands for compensation for Japanese colonial rule by referring to the same ruling. The newspaper criticized by name Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has called the Seoul ruling “unbelievable” and indicated that Tokyo could take the case to the International Court of Justice.
|
nippon steel & sumitomo metal corp .;wartime labor;south korea-japan relations
|
jp0009403
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/12
|
Despite depopulation, only 14.6% in Japan feel local communities should accept foreign workers: survey
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While more than half of Japanese feel that their communities are shrinking, only about 14 percent believe it is necessary for society to actively accept foreign workers and those wishing to settle in order to keep their regions going, a survey has found. The survey, which covered 2,000 people aged 18 or over nationwide, was conducted by Jiji Press in an interview format between Oct. 5-8 and received valid answers from 62.6 percent of participants. According to the survey, 83.5 percent said they enjoyed living in their communities. The combined share of respondents who feel that the population of their community is decreasing either “very much” or “somewhat” came to 56.4 percent. The proportion was high among elderly respondents, standing at 68.5 percent for people aged 70 or over and 65.8 percent for those in their 60s, and low among younger generations, at 38.8 percent for people aged 18-29 and 43.0 percent for those in their 30s. Asked about the measures needed to keep their communities viable, with multiple answers allowed, 71.8 percent — the largest group — called for financial assistance from local authorities to attract young couples raising families to live there. The second-largest group, or 27.9 percent, cited the need to create jobs in local areas through deregulation in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries, followed by 19.8 percent who pointed to the importance of companies introducing teleworking systems to enable employees to work in remote areas. Only 14.6 percent said that local communities should actively accept workers and settlers from abroad, according to the survey. The proportion showed little difference between respondents who support the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and those who do not support the administration, coming to 15.6 percent and 16.0 percent, respectively. A government-sponsored bill to revise the immigration control law has been submitted to the Diet. A major feature of the amendment is a plan to introduce new types of resident status, designed to accept more foreign workers in order to cover serious labor shortages in the nation.
|
survey;depopulation;foreign residents;regional areas
|
jp0009404
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/12
|
From Yukio Mishima with love: Former lighthouse keeper reminisces about correspondence with novelist
|
Michio Suzuki, 87, of Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, met renowned novelist Yukio Mishima (1925-70) in March 1953 when he was working at Kamishima Lighthouse in Toba, Mie Prefecture. Since then, they exchanged letters, nine of which Suzuki has kept for more than 50 years. “(The letters were) like love letters. He was such a kind person,” Suzuki said. Mishima visited Kamishima Island, located at the mouth of Ise Bay, twice — first in March 1953 and again during August and September of the same year — and published “Shiosai” (The Sound of Waves), one of his best-selling novels, the following year. The novel depicts a romance between a fisherman and an ama (female diver) set on a fictional island in Ise Bay. Kamishima is believed to have been the island that inspired Mishima to base his story on. He was awarded the first Shincho Prize for the book, and several films have been made since it was published. “He was pale-faced and I had the impression that he was an urban-style young man,” Suzuki said, recalling the time when he first met Mishima at the age of 21. “He called me with (the honorific suffix) san and behaved politely and sincerely.” Out of curiosity, Suzuki tagged along with Mishima with a camera as he explored the island. Suzuki said he doesn’t remember how they started exchanging letters. “Maybe I sent him photographs,” he said. The nine letters he kept are dated between March 20, 1953, soon after his first visit, and Nov. 19, 1965, five years before Mishima committed suicide. In the first letter, Mishima talked about Suzuki’s task of keeping records of ships that pass by the lighthouse and sending telegrams so that cargo owners at ports nearby can start preparing. He wrote: “I like Kamishima Lighthouse much more (than other lighthouses) because of the records of shipping movements, which is fascinating.” During his roughly one-week stay, Mishima repeatedly visited the lighthouse to watch Suzuki write in the log and send telegrams. “Maybe he liked that kind of solitary job,” Suzuki said. Mishima, apparently having taken to Suzuki, asked him if it was alright to make Suzuki appear in the novel he was working on. But, after hearing that the novel was a romance, Suzuki politely declined the offer. Then Mishima told him later that he wrote about a young lighthouse watchman based on Suzuki in a play “Fune no Aisatsu” (Greetings at the Boat). “I wanted to nurture that watch house, and you, with my poetic urge,” Mishima wrote in the letter. “Since (the play) was not a romance, I wasn’t embarrassed but was happy that he wrote about me,” Suzuki said. Suzuki sent letters with photographs when he got married and had a child. Their exchanges of letters continued until Mishima committed suicide. “He was a kind man who laughed wildly. I couldn’t associate him with suicide,” he said. The nine letters were put on public display in July, after they were confirmed by Hideaki Sato, head of Mishima Yukio Literary Museum in Yamanakako, Yamanashi Prefecture, as examples of Mishima’s unpublished letters. “The letters are written in a far too passionate way for those sent to a young man he met on an island,” Sato said. “Maybe he was trying to control his feelings toward Mr. Suzuki when he was writing them.” “Telegrams reporting on passing ships appear also in his last work ‘Tennin Gosui’ (The Decay of the Angel). He must have been thinking of Mr. Suzuki until his last years.”
|
yukio mishima;mie;lighthouse;kamishima;shiosai;michio suzuki
|
jp0009405
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/13
|
Dollar weaker around ¥114 in late Tokyo trading
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The dollar was weaker around ¥114 in Tokyo trading late Tuesday, after trimming early losses due to some easing of concerns over U.S.-China trade friction. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥114.06-06, down from ¥114.16-16 at the same time Monday. The euro was at $1.1237-1238, down from $1.1259-1263, and at ¥128.17-18, down from ¥128.55-55. The dollar moved around ¥113.80 in the early morning amid a risk-averse mood generated by a plunge in U.S. and European equities overnight. The U.S. currency dropped below ¥113.60 as fears for a global stock sell-off strengthened after the Nikkei 225 stock average briefly plunged 785 points following a weak start. Later in the morning, the dollar moved around ¥113.70, partly backed by dollar buying by Japanese importers. The dollar rose above ¥114 in the early afternoon following a media report from Hong Kong that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States ahead of the planned U.S.-China summit late this month. “The risk-averse mood receded due to rises in Shanghai stocks and U.S. long-term interest rates following the report on the Chinese vice premier’s U.S. visit,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. “The Nikkei’s resistance to a further drop supported the dollar against the yen,” a currency broker said. In late trading, the dollar gained further steam, aided by position-adjusting purchases. Tuesday was the deadline for Italy to submit a revised budget draft to the European Commission. “The dollar has no momentum to chase higher ground,” the currency broker said, noting investor caution over the Italy issue.
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exchange rates;forex;currencies
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jp0009406
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/13
|
Nikkei follows Wall Street deep into negative territory
|
The Nikkei 225 average took a plunge Tuesday, with investor sentiment battered by an overnight tumble in U.S. stocks. The Nikkei fell 459.36 points, or 2.06 percent, to end at 21,810.52 after losing nearly 800 points briefly in morning trading. On Monday, the key market gauge rose 19.63 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 33.50 points, or 2.00 percent, lower at 1,638.45. It dropped 1.03 points Monday. The TSE opened sharply lower after the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index sagged 2.78 percent Monday, as investor concerns about earnings at Apple Inc. spurred selling of the U.S. technology giant and industry competitors. Lower European equities also dampened sentiment in the Tokyo market, brokers said. In addition, investors were worried about a deterioration in the market’s supply-demand balance following the planned Dec. 19 listing on the TSE of SoftBank Corp., the mobile phone unit of major internet and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank Group, announced by the exchange Monday, brokers said. After the initial selling ran its course, stocks recouped some losses in the afternoon, helped by the yen’s weakening against the dollar following news that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the U.S. soon, brokers said. Liu’s reported visit, believed to be aimed at easing U.S.-China trade friction, alleviated investor worries, an official of a foreign-affiliated brokerage firm said. “Apple and SoftBank are the main factors” behind the Tokyo market’s plunge, an official of a bank-linked securities firm said. But the official suggested that individual investors hunted for bargains, supporting the market’s downside. “Stocks are expected to move unstably” until early next week, said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. Miura said he expects Tokyo stocks to rebound from late next week to the end of the month on hopes for a U.S.-China summit slated for the end of the month. Falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,846 to 230 in the first section, while 35 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.609 billion shares from 1.231 billion Monday. Apple-related issues met with selling. They included Murata Manufacturing, Kyocera and Alps Electric. Kajima lost 3.82 percent after an upper revision to its operating profit forecast for the year to March, released by the general contractor Tuesday, failed to beat market expectations, brokers said. By contrast, SoftBank Group and cosmetics maker Shiseido were higher.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009407
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/13
|
Amnesty International strips Aung San Suu Kyi of highest honor
|
LONDON - Amnesty International on Monday stripped Aung San Suu Kyi of its highest honor over the de facto Myanmar leader’s “indifference” to the atrocities committed by the country’s military against Rohingya Muslims. The London-based global human rights organization said it was revoking the Ambassador of Conscience Award it gave Suu Kyi in 2009 while she was still under house arrest. “Today, we are profoundly dismayed that you no longer represent a symbol of hope, courage, and the undying defense of human rights,” Amnesty International chief Kumi Naidoo said in a letter to Suu Kyi released by the group. “Amnesty International cannot justify your continued status as a recipient of the Ambassador of Conscience award and so with great sadness we are hereby withdrawing it from you.” The group said it informed Suu Kyi of the decision on Sunday. She has so far issued no public response. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party swept to power in 2015 in a landslide victory ending decades of military rule in the southeast Asian country of around 50 million. But her tenure has been marred by a failure to speak up for Rohingya Muslims who were driven out of the country by the army in what the United Nations has called an ethnic cleansing campaign. The 73-year-old was stripped of her honorary Canadian citizenship over her failure to speak up for the Rohingyas last month. She has also lost numerous smaller awards from individual universities and local and regional governments. More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled the Buddhist majority’s western Rakhine state in a military crackdown from August last year. Many are believed to have been either murdered, tortured or raped. Suu Kyi was globally hailed as a freedom fighter who stood up to her country’s feared military dictatorship while spending 15 years under house arrest. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
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myanmar;rights;aung san suu kyi;rohingya;ethnic cleansing
|
jp0009408
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/13
|
Myanmar's neighbors to call for 'accountability' in Rakhine crisis: draft statement
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SINGAPORE - Southeast Asian nations will call for those responsible for atrocities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state to be held “fully accountable,” according to a statement prepared for a regional summit, reflecting a stronger line being taken within the group. The draft of the chairman’s statement, which was reviewed by Reuters but may change before it is delivered by host Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the close of meetings of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the situation in Rakhine State was a “matter of concern.” The Singapore government did not immediately comment on the draft statement. A final statement could be issued after the ASEAN leaders meet late on Tuesday. Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment on the summit message. A U.N. report in August detailed mass killings and gang rapes with genocidal intent in a Myanmar military crackdown that began in 2017 and drove hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine into neighboring Bangladesh. It called for its commander-in-chief and five generals to be prosecuted under international law. Myanmar has denied most of the allegations in the report. Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who will be joining the summit in Singapore, has been widely criticized for her handling of the crisis. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, ASEAN’s seniormost leader, was scathing about the Nobel peace laureate on Tuesday when asked about the situation in Myanmar. “It would seem that Aung San Suu Kyi is trying to defend what is indefensible,” the 93-year-old told reporters in Singapore. “We are very disappointed, because someone who has been detained before knows the sufferings, and should not inflict it on others.” Amnesty International said on Tuesday it had withdrawn its most prestigious human rights prize from Suu Kyi, accusing her of perpetuating human rights abuses by not speaking out about violence against the Rohingya. “We called on the Independent Commission of Enquiry established by the Government of Myanmar to carry out an independent and impartial investigation of the allegations of human rights violations and related issues, and hold those responsible fully accountable,” said the ASEAN chairman’s draft statement. The Rohingya crisis is one of the biggest man-made disasters involving a member since ASEAN was founded in 1967, and it is one of the thorniest issues yet faced by a group that traditionally works by consensus and is reluctant to get involved in matters deemed internal to its members. In July, Myanmar established a commission of inquiry to probe allegations of human rights abuses in Rakhine, which includes two local and two international members from Japan and the Philippines. The draft statement repeated ASEAN’s previous calls on the importance of the repatriation of displaced persons to Myanmar, humanitarian relief and reconciliation among communities, but went further in calling for accountability for the alleged atrocities. The strengthening of rhetoric in the draft was flagged earlier this year by Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan who said his ASEAN peers had urged Myanmar to give the inquiry commission a full mandate to hold those responsible accountable. A source close to pre-summit discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Singapore was leaning towards a stronger stance because it is the most internationally engaged member of ASEAN and feels responsibility as summit host to protect its credibility. It was not clear if all members of the grouping would back the sternest statement to date from ASEAN on the Rakhine issue. ASEAN’s Muslim-majority members- Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei- tend to take the toughest line on the Rohingya question, while Myanmar has close regional allies in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Under military control in recent years, Thailand has also provided cover for Myanmar.
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myanmar;rights;asean;aung san suu kyi;rohingya;mahathir mohamad
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jp0009409
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/13
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'Massive confusion and fear': Rohingya flee Bangladesh camps fearing forcible return to Myanmar
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TEKNAF, BANGLADESH - Rohingya Muslims were fleeing Bangladeshi refugee camps to avoid being repatriated to Myanmar later this week, community leaders said Monday. Authorities plan to begin returning Rohingya refugees, who have fled what the UN has called ethnic cleansing, to the Buddhist majority country from Thursday. But the prospect has created panic in the camps, prompting some families who were due to be among the first to be repatriated to flee, according to community leaders. “The authorities repeatedly tried to motivate the ones on the returning refugee list to go back. But instead, they were intimidated and fled to other camps,” said Nur Islam, from Jamtoli refugee camp. More than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in a military crackdown from August last year, bringing with them stories of murders, rapes and torture. Some 2,260 Rohingya Muslims had been scheduled to leave the Bangladesh border post in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district in the first repatriations from Thursday under the voluntary scheme. But Nur Islam said the plan has created “massive confusion and fear” among the Rohingya and many were unwilling to return to Rakhine unless they were guaranteed citizenship and other rights. An AFP correspondent was able to speak to three families who said they were due to leave this week. “We are truly disturbed by the entire issue. As the day is coming closer, our tension is rising,” Mohammad Khaleque, a Rohingya refugee told AFP. He said he his family were fleeing their camp for another makeshift Rohingya settlement in Cox’s Bazar, in an effort to avoid being forcibly repatriated. “I don’t see a future for my family if we’re forcibly sent back home right now without confirming that we would get full Myanmar citizenship. That’s why I took my family out of the camp and to another one to live with my relatives. We don’t want to go back like this,” he said. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, which received a list from the Bangladesh government on Monday to assess whether the refugees wanted to go back to Myanmar voluntarily, said the start date of Nov. 15 was an “ambitious plan. UNHCR senior spokesman Chris Melzer said “logistical problems” needed to be solved first. “This is the matter of the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar. Although we still think that the conditions are not conducive now for the refugees to return in Myanmar,” he told AFP. The U.N. assessment may take at least two more days, according to both U.N. and Bangladesh officials, which may delay repatriation. Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam said the country was ready to start returning the refugees to two centers at the border. An AFP team visited both the centers. One appeared complete while the construction of the second was “over 80 percent” finished, according to builders. A Bangladeshi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that the Rohingya refugees were not “mentally ready” for returning. “They often say to us they would rather die here in the (Bangladeshi) camps than to go back and embrace the harrowing pain they have already experienced,” he said.
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myanmar;refugees;bangladesh;genocide;rohingya;unhcr;rakhine
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jp0009411
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/13
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Taiwan grandpa catches 'em all playing 'Pokemon Go' on 15 phones
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TAIPEI - Chen San-yuan turns heads as he cycles through a suburb of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. The reason why? Attached to the front of his bicycle are 15 mobile phones which Chen, 70, uses to simultaneously play the augmented-reality game “Pokemon Go.” The smartphone-based game requires players to “catch” animated characters that appear in real locations. Known as Pokemon Grandpa, videos of Chen and his fan-shaped phone setup cycling between “Pokestops” have gone viral on the internet and made him a minor celebrity in Tucheng district, where he lives. “I used one cellphone and then kept playing and playing,” Chen, dressed in a crisp, white long-sleeved shirt and pants, told Reuters Television on a recent outing. “After a month, it became three cellphones, six cellphones, nine cellphones, 12 and then 15,” he said, crediting his grandson with introducing him to “Pokemon Go” in 2016. Chen said his gear cost more than $4,800 and he spends about $300 a month on virtual currency to use in the game. Playing on multiple phones allows him to get to higher levels in the game more quickly and capture rarer creatures, he said. The pensioner said he sometimes plays all night thanks to the custom-made portable battery packs that recharge the phones. Chen’s fellow players are amazed at his energy. “He’s able to take care of fifteen cellphones at once,” said Shih Wun-sheng, 45. “From going out until returning home, Chen can remain energetic for six to seven hours, not feeling tired. That’s really impressive.” “Pokemon Go,” jointly developed by Nintendo Co. and Niantic Inc., has been the biggest hit so far among games using so-called augmented reality, where digital characters are superimposed on the real world.
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games;smartphones;taiwan;cellphones;offbeat;pokemon go
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jp0009412
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/13
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Emigration — not immigration — one of top Japanese concerns amid shrinking population: Pew poll
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As Japan grapples with the problem of an aging and shrinking population — and whether to allow in an influx of immigrants — a survey published Tuesday has revealed that the public is apparently more concerned about emigration, or how many people choose to leave Japan, than immigration. The public opinion poll, conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Center from May 24 to June 19 among 1,016 respondents in Japan, focused on views of immigration, the state of democracy and the nation’s economic outlook. With Japan’s population of 127 million expected to shrink to 88 million by 2065, many Japanese appear unsettled by the perceived balance between emigration and immigration, the survey has shown. It found that roughly 6 in 10 Japanese, 58 percent, said that people leaving their country for jobs in other nations is a problem. At the same time, an identical share believes the government should keep immigration at its current level. Just 23 percent think Japan should let in more immigrants, while 13 percent want fewer entrants from abroad. It also found that despite a reluctance to boost immigration numbers, this does not appear to reflect public animus toward immigrants. Rather, the poll noted, some 75 percent of those surveyed said they believe immigrants want to adopt Japanese customs and way of life, with 59 percent saying they think immigrants make the country stronger because of their work and talents. Majorities also said they do not fear that immigrants are responsible for an increased risk of terrorism or more crime. “These opinions reflect a near-complete reversal from attitudes on the same question in 2002,” the survey said. The results come as the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for legislation to allow migrants to begin filling vacancies from next April in sectors worst hit by the country’s dwindling population. This plan has attracted considerable attention from both proponents, who say it will help alleviate looming economic crises, and from opponents, who are concerned about pay and conditions for Japanese workers, as well as potential problems in their communities caused by foreign nationals with different cultural backgrounds.On the economic front, the survey said that while more Japanese feel better about the economy than at any point in nearly two decades, the overall mood in Japan remains wary, if not pessimistic, with few believing the next generation will fare better than them. Although positive views were up 34 percentage points since the early days of the global financial crisis in 2009, just 44 percent said the current economic situation in Japan is good, while 55 percent called conditions bad. Additionally, some 4 in 10 Japanese, 41 percent, think average people today are worse off financially than they were 20 years ago, the tail end of the country’s “lost decade.” A mere 26 percent said they are better off. At the same time, just 15 percent of those surveyed said children in the country today will grow up to be better off financially than their parents, while 76 percent expect they will be worse off. “That is among the lowest level of optimism about the next generation’s prospects among the 27 nations Pew Research Center surveyed in 2018,” the survey noted in a synopsis. It pointed, in part, to growing concerns about automation, with nearly 9 in 10 members of the public — some 89 percent — believing that in the next 50 years robots and computers will do much of the work currently done by humans. And they don’t foresee that work environment as necessarily positive. More than 8 in 10 — 83 percent — fear that such automation will lead to a worsening of inequality between rich and poor, while more than 7 in 10, some 74 percent, think ordinary people will have a hard time finding jobs. The poll also found that just 40 percent of the public is satisfied with the way democracy is working in Japan — down 10 percentage points since last year. More than half said they see politicians as corrupt, caring little about ordinary people, and believe elections ultimately do not change much. But the public also credits Japanese governance with producing a free, just and safe society, including 7 in 10 who believe most people live in safe neighborhoods.
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shinzo abe;immigration;elections;jobs;aging;foreign workers
|
jp0009413
|
[
"business",
"economy-business"
] |
2018/11/14
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Natural disasters add to growing economic headwinds as GDP contracts in third quarter
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Natural disasters this summer combined with global trade frictions were behind the economy’s sluggish third-quarter performance, making GDP fall at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent, government data showed Wednesday. Over the July to September period, torrential rains hit western Japan, shutting down factories and affecting supply chains. A massive earthquake also occurred in Hokkaido, which further weakened the economy. “We think that today’s result was influenced largely by the many natural disasters that occurred, temporarily pushing down personal consumption and exports,” said Toshimitsu Motegi, minister of economic and fiscal policy, at a news conference Wednesday in Tokyo. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, GDP shrank by 0.3 percent, the second contraction of the year. Third-quarter economic activity was dragged down across important sectors of the economy, including the once consistently reliable export sector, which fell sharply by 1.8 percent. Business investment, meanwhile, dipped by 0.2 percent on a quarterly basis, after showing strong positive growth of over 0.7 percent through the past four quarters. Yoko Takeda, chief economist at Mitsubishi Research Institute, agreed with the government that, at least for now, the hit to exports was mainly the result of natural disasters. “I believe the result is due to a slump in U.S. automobile sales and a temporary suspension of domestic production, which was caused by heavy rains in July, ” Takeda said. Motegi, in a nod to growing international concern that Washington’s increasingly aggressive trade position could damage international commerce, warned that “it is necessary to pay attention … to the influence of trade issues on the global economy.” Takeda also warned that trade disputes could eventually take a bite out of economic growth by early 2019, particularly as exports and business investment are sensitive to the uncertainties caused by tariff hikes. Wednesday’s release also showed that external conditions were not the only factor holding back the economy, with household consumption falling by 0.1 percent on a quarterly basis. Sluggish personal consumption is likely to remain a concern for the government as it prepares a slew of policies to encourage spending in preparation for a consumption tax hike scheduled for October 2019. Consumer spending is the largest contributor to growth, accounting for over 50 percent of economic activity. Marcel Thieliant, a senior Japan economist with Capital Economics, wrote in a research note that weak consumer spending was “rather puzzling” because households were finally seeing larger pay raises. Despite Wednesday’s gloomy economic data and the potential for trade disputes to weigh on long-term growth, Thieliant said he believes that “a rebound in Q4 (economic growth) seems likely.”
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weather;economy;gdp;earthquakes;rain;exports
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jp0009414
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Cyberattacks the biggest risk in doing business in Japan: World Economic Forum
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LONDON - Cyberattacks are the biggest risk in doing business in Japan, an annual survey report from the World Economic Forum has shown. “Failure of regional and global governance” and “misuse of technologies” are the second biggest risks in the country, followed by illicit trade and natural catastrophes, according to this year’s Regional Risks for Doing Business report. The top-ranked risk across the world is unemployment and underemployment, the WEF report said. “Failure of national governance” and an energy price shock are the second- and third-biggest risks, respectively. The top risk in China is natural catastrophes, followed by deflation and data fraud or theft, the report said. In the United States, cyberattacks are the biggest risk, followed by terrorist attacks and data fraud or theft. The survey was conducted on business executives across the globe between January and June, with some 12,000 responses received.
|
cyberattacks;wef
|
jp0009416
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Tokyo stocks end slightly higher on buybacks
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Stocks managed to finish higher after minor fluctuations on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, aided by repurchases of beaten-down issues following a sell-off the previous day. The 225-issue Nikkei average gained 35.96 points, or 0.16 percent, to end at 21,846.48, after tumbling 459.36 points on Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues ended up 2.81 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,641.26, It dropped 33.50 points the previous day. Buybacks and bargain-hunting took the upper hand in early trading, pushing up the Nikkei average by nearly 180 points at one point. But both indexes soon lost steam amid a dearth of fresh trading incentives and moved around the previous day’s closing levels for the rest of Wednesday’s trading. The market failed to maintain its initial momentum after China released weaker-than-expected October retail sales, said Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd. Investors are closely watching developments associated with the U.S.-China trade woes, a brokerage official said, adding that their immediate focus is on a possible summit between the two economic giants at the end of the month. Italy’s budget problem and last-ditch Brexit negotiations between Britain and the European Union are also attracting market attention. Despite the price indexes’ finish in positive territory, falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,292 to 756 in the TSE’s first section, while 63 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1,432 million shares from 1,609 million shares on Tuesday. Mitsubishi UFJ gained 1.47 percent after the bank group announced on Tuesday steady earnings growth in April-September, a rosier profit prospect for the business year to March 2019 and a share buyback plan. Other major winners included mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group, automakers Toyota and Subaru, and power utility Tepco. Otsuka Holdings plunged 5.19 percent following a revision in the drug manufacturer’s earnings forecast for the year to December. Low crude oil prices hurt oil names, among them JXTG, Idemitsu and Inpex. Also on the negative side were game maker Nintendo and technology giant Sony. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average climbed 60 points to end at 21,820.
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stocks;nikkei;topix
|
jp0009417
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Dollar easier below ¥114 in Tokyo trading
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The dollar moved in a tight range below ¥114 in Tokyo trading Wednesday, with players unable to find major trading incentives. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥113.89-89, down from ¥114.06-06 at the same time on Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1292-1293, up from $1.1237-1238, and at ¥128.62-62, up from ¥128.17-18. After hovering around ¥113.80, the dollar firmed above ¥113.90 on buying induced by a media report that the United States will withhold imposing new auto tariffs and by the 225-issue Nikkei average’s early gains. The dollar-yen pair was almost at a standstill in the afternoon. “The dollar’s top side was capped by uncertainties about Italy’s budget and the Brexit negotiations between London and Brussels,” said a bank-affiliated securities firm official. “But the greenback was underpinned by the Nikkei’s solid performance,” said an official at a foreign exchange margin trading service firm. Investors took to the sidelines ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data later in the day, another market source said.
|
yen;euro;dollar;forex
|
jp0009418
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Japanese housebuilding startup Homma seeks to give U.S. housing market a dose of innovation
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Not every Japanese entrepreneur manages to launch a startup in Silicon Valley, and odds are even lower if that person wants to take on the challenge of the U.S. housing market. But this is an adventure that Takeshi Homma has embarked on with his company, Homma Inc. “Efficiency and industrialization have been neglected in the U.S. homebuilding industry, I want to change that,” Homma, the CEO and founder of the company, said in a recent interview. Homma, a former Rakuten Inc. executive, said the U.S. housing market has yet to go through an innovation phase, so he plans to provide middle- to high-end houses that are built more efficiently and feature the know-how and quality products of Japanese housing firms. He also said that as the U.S. housing market is expected to grow in line with an increase in the American population, Homma’s venture will give those Japanese companies a chance enter a new market. Homma’s company is planning a project to build several prototype homes, called Homma One, in Benicia, California next summer. It also aims to eventually provide 100 homes built in the next several years, targeting U.S. millennials. “Looking at Tesla’s (electric vehicles) and Apple’s iPhones, Silicon Valley companies have brought innovation to something that has become a commodity. In that sense, the house has not changed in America,” said Homma. According to a report by McKinsey and Co. released in February 2017, the productivity of the U.S. manufacturing, retail and agriculture sectors has increased by more than 15 times compared to 1945, while the construction industry has “barely increased at all.” Some U.S. media reports have pointed out that the construction sector has been reluctant to streamline operations, since the low profit margins of the industry discourage homebuilders from investing in more efficient operations. Homma said it is still common for carpenters to build houses on-site from scratch, which is inefficient because wood may be cut in the wrong size, and progress is affected by weather. Being a U.S. resident himself, Homma is also unhappy with U.S. houses. “American homebuilders are mainly focused on getting cheap land, building houses there and then selling them as high as possible. They are not really particular about pursuing design and comfort,” said Homma, who has lived there for about 10 years. For instance, while American houses are spacious compared to those in Japan, they tend to lack built-in storage space. Thus, people need to buy a lot of furniture for that purpose, said Homma. Homma wants to solve this by incorporating off-site construction and Japanese-made products with high usability and quality design. Many Japanese firms have industrialized their manufacturing process for various items, such as with kitchens. The so-called system kitchen, a concept where a sink, storage and cooking stove are all built in one, is popular in Japan. Such a kitchen can be manufactured efficiently. Given that the U.S. housing market has plenty of room for innovation and its demand is expected to grow, Homma thought Japanese firms may have a chance. “When you look at Japanese housing demand, it will shrink. But there are excellent manufacturers producing housing products. I was wondering what would happen to them,” said Homma. Homma has partnered with major domestic players such as Panasonic Corp. and Lixil Co. Although Homma is seeking to bring a new wave to the housing scene, the U.S. homebuilding industry is pretty much dominated by domestic companies. The Builder Magazine’s top 100 builders ranking shows the top 10 firms are all U.S. builders. However, his business plan has drawn support from a number of investors, including internet tycoons such as Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani and Mercari Inc. CEO Shintaro Yamada. Homma has attracted about ¥1.2 billion ($10.5 million) in investment so far. Actor Masi Oka, who starred in the popular TV show “Heroes,” is also chipping in and joining Homma’s firm as an adviser. In the meantime, there are also emerging trends that U.S. companies, including startups, are adopting, such as more prefab or off-site manufacturing. In September, Amazon announced its first investment in Plant Prefab, a homebuilding startup, in an apparent aim to incorporate its Alexa-voice agent into homes more directly. The Plan Prefab’s website says that 90 percent of its homebuilding process is done in-factory, making it 50 percent faster to construct a house. Asked how his company would differentiate from rivals, Homma said while his startup will sell homes, it eventually plans to sell communities by concentrating its homes in the same areas. Selling homes as communities will create scale, reducing costs and also generating new business opportunities. Homma, for instance, said his company can provide services, including security and gardening, that can be shared by people in the community through a subscription business model. “The goal of existing homebuilders is to build and sell houses. Their business ends there. But when we sell houses, we want to make it a start of our relationship with customers,” said Homma.
|
housing;takeshi homma;homma inc .
|
jp0009419
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Hamas announces cease-fire with Israel after worst escalation in years
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GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip announced an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire with Israel on Tuesday after a severe escalation of violence threatened to descend into full-blown war. The groups, including Hamas, issued a joint statement saying they would abide by the ceasefire as long as Israel did the same. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the military had not commented on the announcement. Israel’s hard-line defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, issued a statement saying he did not support stopping the strikes. “Egypt’s efforts have been able to achieve a cease-fire between the resistance and the Zionist enemy,” the statement by the Gaza groups said. “The resistance will respect this declaration as long as the Zionist enemy respects it.” Kuwait and Bolivia meanwhile requested an urgent closed-door meeting later Tuesday of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the violence, diplomats said. The violent escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was the worst since a 2014 war. Seven Palestinians were killed in Gaza over the course of some 24 hours as Israeli strikes targeted militants and flattened buildings while sending fireballs and plumes of smoke into the sky. Sirens wailed in southern Israel and tens of thousands of residents had taken cover in shelters as around 460 rockets and mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip, wounding 27 people, including three severely. A Palestinian laborer from the occupied West Bank was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Schools were closed in the Gaza Strip and in southern Israel as both sides warned the other that it would respond forcefully to any further violence. Egypt has negotiated cease-fires following previous flare-ups, while U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov has also been seeking a long-term truce between the two sides in recent weeks. Mladenov had earlier called the escalation “extremely dangerous” and said on Twitter that “restraint must be shown by all. After an Israeli security Cabinet meeting that reportedly lasted some six hours on Tuesday, a statement was issued saying the ministers “instructed the (military) to continue its operations as necessary. Netanyahu had cut short a visit to Paris as tensions rose and arrived back home on Monday. The latest round of violence began on Sunday with a botched Israeli special forces operation inside the Gaza Strip that turned deadly and prompted Hamas to vow revenge. The clash that resulted from the blown covert operation killed seven Palestinian militants, including a local Hamas military commander, as well as an Israeli army officer. Palestinian militants responded with rocket and mortar fire, as well as an anti-tank missile that hit a bus that Hamas says was being used by Israeli soldiers. A soldier was severely wounded in the attack. Missile defenses intercepted more than 100 rockets from Gaza and most others fell in open areas, though some hit houses and other civilian structures. “Within two seconds (after air sirens) we heard a huge boom, we saw our curtains flying in the air, windows (broken), and only after a few minutes when we went out, we realized that the missile had hit the building next to us,” said Claude Bonfito, who lives near an block of flats hit by a rocket in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Israel hit back with major airstrikes, with targets including Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV station and internal security headquarters in Gaza City. The military said it struck some 160 targets in the Gaza Strip. “What happened was like an earthquake,” said Abu Ayman Lemzeni, who lives near the destroyed TV building. At least five of the dead in Gaza were claimed as members of various militant groups. Some 26 other people were wounded in the Palestinian territory, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The escalation came despite Netanyahu’s decision to allow Qatar to transfer millions of dollars in aid to the Gaza Strip for salaries as well as fuel to ease an electricity shortage. The agreements had led to calmer protests along the Gaza border after months of deadly unrest. Sunday’s special forces operation and resulting clash upset those efforts, leading to questions over the timing of the covert Israeli move. Israel said it was an intelligence-gathering operation and that those efforts must continue to defend the country. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and protests and clashes along the Gaza border since March 30 have repeatedly raised fears of a fourth. At least 234 Palestinians in Gaza have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority during protests and clashes. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period.
|
conflict;israel;u.n .;benjamin netanyahu;palestinians;hamas
|
jp0009420
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Indigenous Indonesians work to claim traditional lands to stave off threats from mining and palm oil plantations
|
GAJAH BERTALUT, INDONESIA - In a community hall, a group of men sit cross-legged on mats, poring over documents and maps marked with forests, farmland, a river and the village of Gajah Bertalut on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. They are gathered to work on their claim to legal rights and a collective title to 4,414 hectares (17 square miles) of land on which they have lived and farmed for years. Holding a sheaf of papers, Rakhmat Hidayat of the research organization World Resources Institute (WRI) explained: “This is proof that you have lived here and used the forest land, and that you have customary rights over it as indigenous people. Once you get the title, you will have more control over the land, and you need not worry about the land being taken for mining or palm oil plantations against your wishes.” Gajah Bertalut in Riau province is among the first villages to have its land mapped by WRI as part of the government’s drive to clarify land holdings using satellite technology and local records, with the help of community leaders and researchers. Indonesia aims to register all land holdings under its “One Map” initiative by 2025. Following a landmark 2013 ruling by the Constitutional Court to remove customary forests, or hutan adat , from state control and restore them to indigenous communities, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has vowed to return 12.7 million hectares of land. As of 2017, titles to 1.9 million hectares of forest land have been given, benefiting about 500,000 households, according to the ministry of environment and forestry. But progress has been slow because of conflicting claims, a paucity of records and a multiplicity of maps, according to WRI, which compiles competing claims on a single map and attempts to resolve conflicts by bringing everyone together for talks. “We have lived here a long time, and we have used the forest and cultivated the land with our traditional knowledge,” said a resident of Gajah Bertalut named Darman. “All around us, we have seen forest land taken for mining and for palm oil plantations that are not good for the environment or for the people. When our rights are recognized, we will preserve the forest and plan for the future.” Indigenous and local communities own more than half the world’s land under customary rights. Yet they only have secure legal rights to 10 percent, according to the advocacy group Rights and Resources Initiative. Governments maintain control over more than two-thirds of global forest area, much of which is claimed by local communities, RRI said in a recent report. In Indonesia, indigenous people are estimated to have ownership rights over 40 million hectares of customary forest and other land. The concept of “adat” (custom) has been in place since the Dutch colonial era, and referred to the rules that determined who used land and resources, and how. When the federal government took charge, it declared much of the forest land as state forest areas and decided who could use it. This undermined customary adat rights and dispossessed many communities of their land, activists say. Decentralization in 1999 led to the granting of land concessions to investors tapping the palm oil boom, further weakening indigenous rights and their claims over land. The 2013 ruling has “dramatically strengthened” indigenous peoples’ tenure rights, said Rukka Sombolinggi of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). But claims can only be recognized at the federal level, and not by local officials. This has led to an expensive and time-consuming process, made more challenging by the requirement of clear titles, she said. “The government’s insistence on ‘clean and clear’ titles places an unfair burden on indigenous people, many of whom have never had formal titles,” she said. AMAN, which is also a part of the “One Map” program, has submitted maps of indigenous land of about 9.65 million hectares to the government to be recognized, she said. In addition, passing a long-delayed law on indigenous people will speed up the return of land, she said. The draft law recognizes their customary and collective rights over land, as well as their right to self-governance. Indonesia is one of only a few Asian nations, including India and the Philippines, with legal frameworks recognizing communities as forest owners. But the process is beset by delays and attempts to dilute the laws, activists say. Villagers also need support to manage their resources better and diversify land use. In Gajah Bertalut, where families have tapped rubber trees and cultivated forest land for generations, WRI is teaching residents organic farming to supplement their fishing income and conserve the soil better. A group of young men and women are growing chili peppers, spinach and vegetables on about an acre (0.4 hectare) of common land with training from WRI, said Elin Purnamasari, 24. “It’s only a small plot now. But when we get the community rights, perhaps more people can join and we can cultivate on more land,” she said. “This can be our future.”
|
agriculture;indonesia;poverty;forests;ethnicity;tradition
|
jp0009421
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Pence tells Suu Kyi violence against Rohingya 'is without excuse'
|
SINGAPORE - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized Myanmar’s military over the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in a meeting with national leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday and said those responsible should be held accountable. “The violence and persecution by military and vigilantes that resulted in driving 700,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh is without excuse,” he told Suu Kyi in a brief meeting with the media before they went into private talks on the sidelines of a regional ASEAN summit in Singapore. “I am anxious to hear the progress that you are making of holding those accountable who are responsible for the violence that displaced so many hundreds of thousands and created such suffering, including the loss of life,” he added. He said Washington is also keen to hear about progress in making it possible for Rohingya to voluntarily return to the western Myanmar state of Rakhine from the vast refugees camps in southern Bangladesh where they now live. The United States has accused the military of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who are widely reviled in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. U.N.-mandated investigators have accused the military of unleashing a campaign of killings, rape and arson with “genocidal intent.” Myanmar says its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents in August last year. Suu Kyi, responding to Pence, said: “Of course people have different points of view, but the point is that you should exchange these views and try to understand each other better. In a way, we can say that we understand our country better than any other country does, and I’m sure you will say the same of yours, that you understand your country better than anybody else.” Amnesty International this week withdrew its most prestigious human rights prize from Suu Kyi, accusing her of perpetuating human rights abuses by not speaking out about violence against the Rohingya. Once hailed as a champion in the fight for democracy, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been stripped of a series of international honors over the Rohingya exodus. Pence also said Washington wants to see a free and democratic press in Myanmar, and the jailing of two journalists last year was “deeply troubling” for millions of Americans. “In America, we believe in our democratic institutions and ideals, including a free and independent press,” he said. He did not mention by name Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Yangon in December 2017. They were found guilty in September of breaching the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison. On Nov. 5, lawyers for the two Reuters reporters lodged an appeal against their conviction. At the time of their arrest in December, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers during an army crackdown in Rakhine state. Reuters published its investigation into the massacre on Feb. 8.
|
religion;myanmar;discrimination;asean;aung san suu kyi;rohingya;mike pence;ethnic cleansing
|
jp0009422
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/14
|
Keio researchers plan to treat spinal cord injuries with stem cells
|
Keio University is poised to conduct the world’s first treatment of patients who have sustained spinal cord injuries using induced pluripotent stem cells, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. If approved by the state, the private university plans to inject neural stem cells produced from iPS cells into four people aged 18 or older who were injured while playing sports or in traffic accidents, starting next year. For the planned treatment, a team of Keio researchers led by Hideyuki Okano, a professor in the School of Medicine, will first create neural stem cells from iPS cells in storage at Kyoto University and then freeze them for preservation, the sources said. When a patient is presented who has lost motor function or sensation due to damage to their spinal cord, the researchers will inject the neural stem cells to encourage nerve regeneration. Researchers will aim to perform the treatment within four weeks of the patient’s injury — the period when the therapy is expected to be effective. It is not currently targeted at chronic-stage patients, or those who have had damage to the spinal cord for six months or longer. But the research team will also try to develop a treatment that is effective for such patients, the sources said. Keio University gave a tentative endorsement for the treatment plan on Tuesday. On Friday, Kyoto University said it had conducted the world’s first transplant of nerve cells created from iPS cells to treat Parkinson’s disease. The institution is also expected to begin a blood transfusion test using platelets created from stem cells to treat patients with aplastic anemia. Among other applications of iPS cells for health treatments in Japan, the government-backed Riken institute conducted the world’s first transplant in 2014 of retina cells grown from stem cells to treat patients suffering from serious eye problems. Osaka University is planning to transplant a heart muscle cell sheet derived from iPS cells into the hearts of patients suffering from serious heart failure. Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka 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.
|
ips;kyoto university;parkinson 's disease;keio university;spinal cord
|
jp0009424
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/14
|
H&M to halt use of plastic bags at Japan stores and charge for paper bags
|
H&M Hennes & Mauritz Japan K.K., which operates 88 H&M casual clothing stores in the country, said Tuesday that it will abolish use of plastic shopping bags in December. The company plans to sell paper bags for ¥20 apiece instead, aiming to encourage customers to bring their own bags. CEO Lucas Seifert told a news conference in Tokyo that just switching from plastic to paper bags is not enough in terms of sustainability. The most important thing is to eliminate the consumption of shopping bags, he said, adding that the company has a goal of halving the amount of shopping bags used in 2019 compared with 2018 figures. The company plans to donate some of the profits from its sales of paper bags to World Wide Fund for Nature Japan. Moves to stop using plastic products such as straws are spreading globally to fight ocean pollution. H&M stores in Europe, the United States and elsewhere have been switching from plastic to paper bags in stages since September. A council within Japan’s government approved on Tuesday an environmental policy draft to cut disposable plastic waste by 25 percent by 2030, and boost the use of bioplastics made from plants. The government plans to officially adopt the strategy by next March and offer it as a pledge at the summit of the Group of 20 economies in Osaka next June. Japan produces the largest amount of plastic waste per capita after the United States, and has lagged behind other countries in curbing use of plastics such as disposable containers and shopping bags. Although the Environment Ministry aims to decrease plastic waste, the draft does not specify the benchmark year for the targeted percentage in waste reduction due to industry concerns about negative economic repercussions and feasibility. The draft approved by the Central Environment Council makes it mandatory for retail outlets to charge for shopping bags. The draft also aims to increase the use of bioplastics to around 2 million tons by 2030, and for all plastic waste to be “effectively utilized” by 2035. It also pledges to help developing countries reduce plastic waste by sharing Japan’s experience and technical knowledge.
|
pollution;plastic bags;h & m;sustainability
|
jp0009425
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/22
|
SoftBank to invest $2 billion in Coupang, S. Korea's largest online retailer
|
SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund will invest $2 billion in South Korea’s Coupang, giving the e-commerce giant funds to accelerate development of new shopping and delivery services. Founded in 2010, Coupang is South Korea’s largest online retailer and sells more than 120 million items from consumer electronics to food. The Seoul-based company says that half the nation’s population has downloaded its mobile app. The deal marks another enormous bet on e-commerce for SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who made a fortune backing Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. before it turned into China’s dominant provider. SoftBank put an initial $1 billion investment into Coupang in 2015, valuing it at $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The valuation in the current deal is $9 billion post-money, or after the additional capital is included, the people said. “Masa is a visionary leader. He’s always challenged us to think big,” said Bom Kim, founder and chief executive officer. “This round came from understanding that what we’ve built is now the foundation for immense impact on customers.” The investment is one of SoftBank’s biggest since the suspected assassination of a journalist by Saudi Arabian agents that sparked a global outcry. The brutal murder escalated scrutiny of SoftBank’s ties to Saudi Arabia, which contributed $45 billion to the nearly $100 billion Vision Fund. Son had been planning to raise the same amount every two to three years, but it’s unclear if he can achieve that goal without more money from Saudi Arabia. With the previous $1 billion investment from SoftBank, Coupang built its own fulfillment and last-mile delivery infrastructure, according to Lydia Jett, an investor at the Vision Fund focused on consumer internet and e-commerce. Earlier this year SoftBank had been in discussions with the company about raising a smaller slice of money ahead of a potential public offering in 2019. Yet as SoftBank observed Coupang’s accelerating growth, the firm decided that it would be best to give Coupang a larger cash infusion so it can grow its business before subjecting it to the public markets. “It will be a public company in the not too distant future, but just not 2019,” said Jett, who sits on Coupang’s board. “It’s going to give them runway to make investments in new categories.” The startup is a rare success story in a country where 10 family-run conglomerates control more than a quarter of all business assets. Its early push into e-commerce and fast delivery helped maintain its lead. The Rocket Delivery service promises to get goods to customers within 24 hours, while Coupang Fresh delivers produce to customers within hours of ordering. Firms that have invested in the company include BlackRock, Sequoia Capital and Wellington. Revenue has more than doubled in the last two years and is forecast to reach nearly $5 billion by year-end, according to the firm. Though it is focused on reaching Korean consumers, the company also has offices in Beijing, Los Angeles, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai and Silicon Valley.
|
softbank;retailers;vision fund;coupang
|
jp0009426
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Government panel paves way for Japan's working age limit to be raised to 70
|
The government wants to raise the working age limit from its current threshold of 65 to 70 as part of efforts to promote economic growth in the fast-graying country, a draft plan compiled by a government panel showed Thursday. The draft midterm report by the committee, which is responsible for coming up with the government’s growth strategy, also calls for big firms to disclose the percentage of different age groups among their employees — a move aimed at promoting mid-career employment among companies in an environment where many people are recruited freshly out of school. The plans will likely be decided at a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Monday to serve as a basis for an action plan to be created next summer. It marks the first step by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government toward revamping the social security system over a three-year period to better cover all generations, although it still needs cooperation from the business world before the plan can be realized. In the course of preparing to submit bills on the age limit in 2020, the government will also consider promoting different working styles — such as working shorter hours or working remotely from home — and facilitating employment of seniors by providing subsidies and setting up special councils of municipalities and firms. The government plans to maintain the principle of awarding public pensions from age 65, although it aims to give people a new option of postponing receive of the funds until they reach the age of 70. By law, one’s pension can be tapped at any time between 60 and 70. If a person chooses to start receiving his or her pension after their 65th birthday their monthly payments are raised, but the option is not widely adopted. Other measures covered by the plan included creating a new drivers’ license targeting the elderly who drive vehicles with special safety functions, as well as automatically sending nursery school applications to people with appropriately aged children rather than making them visit an office to apply for a place. According to a data released in September by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, over a fifth of Japan’s population is now aged 70 or over. The data shows that the 26.18 million people in that age group accounted for 20.7 percent of the population, crossing the 20 percent line for the first time.
|
retirement;aging;elderly;pensions
|
jp0009427
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Japan less attractive than 28 other countries for highly skilled foreign workers, survey shows
|
LONDON - Japan has less appeal for highly skilled foreign workers than other world economies, according to a Swiss survey. In the 2018 global survey by the International Institute for Management Development , a business school in Switzerland, Japan came 29th among 63 countries and regions — rising two places from the previous year’s survey. The institute’s IMD World Talent Ranking is determined after assessing the methods countries and regions use to attract and retain talented staff needed by their businesses in order to thrive. Points were distributed to each economy in 30 categories such as human development and investment, attractiveness to highly skilled foreign workers, and public expenditures on education. Japan’s overall ranking improved, albeit slightly, chiefly thanks to higher scores on the ready availability of skilled labor. But the country ranked close to the bottom, at 62nd, for the international experience of its senior corporate officials, at 60th for cost of living, and in 57th place for education expenditures relative to gross domestic product. Its ranking for firms’ eagerness to attract and retain talent dropped seven places, to ninth position. Switzerland topped the list overall, followed by Denmark and Norway. The United States came 12th, South Korea 33rd and mainland China 39th.
|
tokyo;ranking;surveys
|
jp0009428
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Dollar slightly above ¥113 in late Tokyo trades
|
The dollar was marginally firmer above ¥113 in Tokyo trading late Thursday, with its downside supported by moves to close positions ahead of the three-day weekend in Japan and Thursday’s market closure in the United States. At 5 p.m. the dollar stood at ¥113.01, slightly up from ¥112.85 at the same time on Wednesday. The euro was at $1.1400, up from $1.1387, and at ¥128.85, up from ¥128.55. In early trading, the dollar moved around ¥113, carrying over its strength from overseas trading overnight thanks to relatively strong U.S. equities, traders said. The greenback rose above ¥113.10 following a firm start of the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average in midmorning trading, but fell below ¥113 soon as the buying ran its course before the U.S. currency market closed for Thanksgiving Day. Later, the U.S. currency fluctuated narrowly around ¥113. In late trading, the dollar slipped below ¥113 briefly following a reported remark by Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda showing a cautious stance on additional monetary easing, before climbing to around the threshold as Chinese stocks cut earlier losses. Currency market players “closed their positions and did little else” during Thursday’s trading ahead of the U.S. market holiday on Thursday and a national holiday in Japan on Friday, an official at a Japanese bank said. An official at a major life insurance firm predicted that the dollar is also unlikely to show major movements in overseas trading later on Thursday.
|
exchange rates;foreign exchange;forex;currencies
|
jp0009429
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Tokyo stocks rebound on buying on dips
|
Stocks bounced back on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday, helped by purchases after recent falls. The 225-issue Nikkei average gained 139.01 points, or 0.65 percent, to end at 21,646.55. On Wednesday, the key market gauge fell 75.58 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 13.07 points, or 0.81 percent, at 1,628.96. It retreated 9.78 points the previous day. Although the market’s topside was capped by selling on a rally, both indices moved on the positive side for most of Thursday’s session. “A sense of relief spread” among investors as the S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index turned higher on Wednesday, said Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., noted that a wide range of issues attracted small-lot buying, apparently by individual investors. “Trading was thin” ahead of the three-day weekend in Japan and Thanksgiving Day in the United States on Thursday, Ota also said. The Tokyo market will be closed on Friday for a national holiday. Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co., attributed Thursday’s rally to purchases to cover short positions ahead of the long weekend. Rising issues far outnumbered falling ones 1,451 to 580 in the TSE’s first section, while 81 issues were unchanged. Volume decreased to 1.20 billion shares from 1.39 billion shares on Wednesday. Price comparison website operator Kakaku.com closed 5.80 percent higher after announcing a share buyback plan on Wednesday. Cosmetics maker Shiseido, discount store operator Don Quijote and other foreign tourist demand-oriented names were upbeat after the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday that the number of foreign visitors to Japan in October grew 1.8 percent from a year before to 2,640,600. Other major winners included drugmaker Astellas and supermarket and convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny. By contrast, Mitsubishi UFJ ended 1.43 percent lower after The New York Times reported Wednesday that U.S. authorities are investigating the megabank group over an alleged violation of anti-money laundering rules involving North Korea. Mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and clothing retailer Fast Retailing were also on the minus side. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average rose 180 points to end at 21,700.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009430
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Kim Jong Who? South Korea revamps how students study their northern neighbor
|
SEOUL - A year of warming relations between North and South Korea has raised the prospects of closer ties, if not some form of unification for the still-warring neighbors far in the future. But it might not be obvious in a typical South Korean classroom. “I really don’t know anything,” 17-year-old student Roh Ha-na said. “It’s like only twice a year that the school teaches about unification and national security, and about North Korean life … but I just let most of it go in one ear and out the other.” This year’s inter-Korean detente has highlighted what many observers see as a lack of knowledge among South Koreans about their northern neighbor, prompting government efforts to revamp the way South Koreans learn about North Korea and unification. Baek Jun-kee, the head of South Korea’s Institute for Unification Education, says current education methods have failed to show young South Koreans the importance of a nuanced understanding of North Korea, its people and leader Kim Jong Un. “If we don’t approach the issue in a rational manner or show how the issue affects (students’) personal lives in middle school or high school, it will be difficult to keep their attention,” Baek told Reuters in an interview. The education shortcomings are contributing to a shortage of North Korea experts across public and private institutions at a time when increased cultural and governmental exchanges between the two Koreas make them all the more important, analysts say. “Every regional government has rolled out plans for inter-Korean exchange, but they don’t have any experts, no knowledge, no networks,” said Hong Min, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “When the heads of South Korean conglomerates went along to the September Pyongyang summit, most of them didn’t have an in-house North Korea expert to brief the chief.” After facing criticism at a parliamentary hearing earlier this month over funding cuts to education programs, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told lawmakers creating a new curriculum on unification was “crucial and urgent.” Cut off from the North for 70 years and still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty, many South Koreans have come to see unification as an increasingly distant and unrealistic goal. Surveys show younger generations of South Koreans are particularly ignorant or apathetic about their northern neighbors, seeing them as a troublesome distraction from the more pressing concerns of work or school. Interviews with 17 high school students revealed most had never heard of the ‘parallel progress’ policy key to North Korean affairs this decade. Most didn’t know about the growth of private markets that has transformed many areas of North Korea’s economy. “I’ve never heard about these North Korean issues in school, aside from learning about the Korean War in history class,” said Moon So-in, a 17-year-old student at Sunil Girls’ High School. “My friends don’t seem very interested since we are so used to being a divided country.” Education in South Korea is focused on competing for college entrance, culminating in high-pressure nationwide exams in the last year of high school, on which students stake their futures. North Korea is “not on the test,” students and teachers said, and is therefore seen as a “waste of precious time,” said high school teacher Choi Ki-bok. Generally, North Korea is addressed in a single chapter once a year in 4th and 6th grade, briefly in middle school and once in high school, two teachers said. In higher education, meanwhile, five out of six North Korean studies departments at South Korean universities have been shut down or changed into other programs in recent years, in part because of a lack of applicants. In North Korea, the South appears to be discussed more often in schools. As well as propaganda, North Korean defectors say they were taught minute details about the South. “I was taught South Korean geography down to what minerals and grains are produced in each region, history that happened on South Korean soil,” said Park Na-ri, a North Korean defector educator who taught Korean and literature in Pyongyang and now teaches defector children in Seoul. “I was shocked to find South Koreans know much less about where anything in North Korea is,” she said, noting that ignorance can lead to a lack of empathy for North Koreans. Five South Korean educators interviewed by Reuters said teachers don’t feel equipped to navigate the thorny issue of North Korea, which in the words of one high school teacher is “an enemy, a long-lost brother, and a separate country sharing a border, depending on who you ask.” The Institute for Unification Education, which oversees all lower education on North Korea, says it is setting up the first-ever year-long training programs for teachers to learn how to teach North Korea. That will include a shift away from rote teaching on unification as a given to a more flexible approach focused more on the goal of peace and designed to spark discussions among students. This year, the 91-page “Unification Education Guidelines” was cut down to 48 pages and renamed “Unification and Peace Education, Directions and Viewpoints,” mirroring President Moon Jae-in’s argument that reaching peace with North Korea is a more pressing and realistic goal than full unification.
|
north korea;kim jong un;education;south korea;korean war
|
jp0009431
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Health ministry panel gives conditional OK to regenerative medicine for patients in Japan with spinal cord injuries
|
A health ministry panel has given a conditional green light to the commercialization of a regenerative medicine to treat those with spinal cord injuries. Given the decision Tuesday, the health minister is expected to allow the production and sale of the preparation made from human mesenchymal stem cells and related apparatus by the end of the year, people familiar with the matter said. In June this year, medical equipment-maker Nipro Corp. applied for approval of the commercialization of the preparation and related equipment the company jointly developed with professor Osamu Honmo at Sapporo Medical University. In the treatment, mesenchymal stem cells taken out of bone marrow fluid from patients with spinal cord injuries roughly within a month of them becoming injured will be cultured to make the preparation, which will then be injected back into the patients whose stem cells were used. The treatment, personally tailored for each patient, will be sold under the Stemirac brand. The cells are expected to restore damaged nerve cells and improve symptoms, such as paralysis of the arms and legs. The safety of the medicine was confirmed through a clinical trial. But because it stopped short of fully demonstrating its efficacy, the panel recommended that the minister make a formal decision on whether to approve the product after examining data collected from 90 patients who had received the medicine.
|
medicine;health;regenerative medicine;nipro;mhlw
|
jp0009432
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Japan immigration bureau's tweet over pro-refugee graffiti criticized for focus on vandalism
|
A Twitter post by the Tokyo immigration bureau that appears to chide people who vandalized public property with messages that criticize the country’s treatment of asylum-seekers has gone viral, with many criticizing the tweet’s focus on the graffiti rather than the broader issue over refugees. The Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau posted the tweet on Tuesday, along with photos of a sidewalk, a wall and a nearby pedestrian bridge in Tokyo’s Minato Ward that were vandalized with graffiti reading “free refugees” and “refugees welcome” in English using all capital letters. The bureau, which said the graffiti had been found Monday morning, commented: “Freedom of expression is important but this is public property. Isn’t it a bit much?” The post was hit with a barrage of criticism over its focus on graffiti rather than refugees. “If you are going to criticize graffiti, then don’t repeat human rights violation,” one comment read. As of Thursday afternoon, the bureau’s post had been retweeted more than 10,000 times and had attracted over 2,000 comments. Japanese immigration facilities have long been criticized inside and outside the country for their lengthy detention periods for foreign nationals who lack residency status and face deportation orders. They are not immediately repatriated if their home countries refuse to accept them or if they seek refugee status. More than a dozen people have died from illness or suicide at immigration facilities since 2007. Earlier this year at the Tokyo bureau, staff were found to have withheld treatment for a Turkish man for about one month, even though he had complained of pain after undergoing an appendectomy. In April, an Indian man died at a detention center in Ibaraki Prefecture in an apparent suicide. According to the East Japan Immigration Center, guards at the facility found the man, who was in his 30s, in a shower room with a towel wrapped around his neck. An official of the bureau said its tweet was not intended to “fight back” against what was written on the sidewalk. “We have an obligation to accept criticism over immigration control policies, but we tweeted in the hope of warning (about graffiti) because it will cause trouble to others who have nothing to do with the issue.” Koichi Kodama, a lawyer familiar with immigration detention issues, said: “Graffiti could be a crime. But there are some practices that the Tokyo immigration bureau should also reflect on. … I think the way it acted was childish.”
|
refugees;twitter;graffiti;tokyo immigration bureau
|
jp0009433
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Pop-up ninja booth gives tourists a virtual reality experience at Nagoya's Chubu airport
|
NAGOYA - Chubu Centrair International Airport in Aichi Prefecture has set up a booth inside its international arrivals lobby that will allow tourists to experience being a ninja through virtual reality. The booth, which opened Thursday and will be in operation until Dec. 14, is aimed at attracting tourists to two nearby cities famous for their ninja clans: Iga in Mie Prefecture and Koka in Shiga Prefecture. While wearing a headset, users are taken to a virtual-world setting and transformed into a ninja battling monsters with shuriken (throwing stars), one of the many weapons used by the black-clad fighters. Each game lasts about 5 minutes. It is available in Japanese, English and Chinese. After playing the game, players receive free admission coupons for the Ninja Museum of Igaryu in Iga and for the Koka Ninja Village in Koka. The airport has organized events featuring samurai and ninja in the past. The Chubu region is the birthplace of historical warlords such as Oda Nobunaga. “I hope that tourists will recognize this region as a place where they are able to have authentic ninja and samurai experiences. I also hope that will contribute to regional development,” Masato Kondo, the airport’s director, said Wednesday.
|
nagoya;tourists;virtual reality;ninja;chubu centrair international airport;iga;koka
|
jp0009434
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Supporters of foreign workers call for equal pay and permanent residence in Japan
|
Activists on Wednesday called for the creation of a permanent resident visa for blue-collar foreign workers and equal pay as their Japanese co-workers as the country aims to bring in more laborers from overseas. In a statement released at a gathering held at the Diet, the participants also called for the cancellation of the controversial government-sponsored job training program, under which many foreign trainees are believed to have been exploited. The Tokyo event was organized by the nonprofit organization Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan at a time when the government and ruling parties are pushing ahead to pass a bill that would greatly expand the number of foreign workers in the country. Deliberation over the bill started at the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives on Wednesday despite resistance from opposition parties, with the government hoping to see its passage during the ongoing parliamentary session through Dec. 10. The government had already been under fire for being slow to provide detailed data on the estimated number of foreign workers that would enter Japan under the new plan. And it further angered opposition parties after the Justice Ministry was found to have released faulty survey results on foreign trainees who quit their jobs, wrongfully stating that 87 percent of them left “in pursuit of better payment” when, in fact, 67 percent of the respondents said they had left due to “low wages.” The organization’s chairman, Ippei Torii, called for the government to engage in parliamentary debate based on the “facts.” Lawyer Shoichi Ibuski, who represents a group of attorneys that help foreign workers, noted that the envisioned immigration system includes a new visa status that does not allow foreign workers to bring their families with them and fails to provide sufficient day-to-day support. “They are real people, not just a workforce. The bill carries problems in various aspects,” Ibuski said before some 200 people at the gathering. A 38-year-old Chinese man shared his experience while working as a technical intern trainee at a farm in Tochigi Prefecture. “I did 150 hours of overwork a month, and it was equivalent to unpaid work. I doubt newcomers to Japan would really be protected,” he said. Japan introduced the training program for foreign nationals in 1993 with the aim of transferring skills to developing countries. But it has faced criticism at home and abroad as a cover for importing cheap labor. Japan has in principle only accepted highly skilled professionals in such fields as medicine and law. But in reality, foreign trainees and students have also been taken on. The country is in need of more foreign laborers due to its aging population and low birthrate.
|
foreign trainees;foreign workers;permanent residence;shoichi ibuski
|
jp0009435
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/22
|
Percentage of Japanese university students with dating experience falls to record low
|
The percentage of university students with dating experience stands at around 70 percent, the lowest level since surveys by a sex education body began more than 40 years ago. In the nationwide survey conducted in 2017 by the Japanese Association for Sex Education, 71.8 percent of male university students and 69.3 percent of female students said they had dated, while over 30 percent of both male and female students said they do not want to go out with anyone at present. The percentages of male and female students with dating experience had remained above 70 percent since the association started the survey in 1974. The previous lows of 73.4 percent for male students and 74.4 percent for female students were marked in 1974. Male and female university students who said they were sexually experienced stood at 47 percent and 36.7 percent, respectively. Many of the respondents who lacked sexual experience said they did not have a partner or felt they were too young. The eighth edition of the survey was conducted between June and December 2017, and covered about 4,194 university students, as well as 4,449 junior high school students and 4,282 high school students. The number of junior high school students with dating experience hit record highs of 27 percent for males and 29.2 percent for females. The survey showed the number of junior high school students with sexual experience was also on the rise. Among high school students, less than 20 percent said they had sexual experience. “The figures are falling in total, but at the same time the number of younger students who are becoming sexually experienced is increasing. We are seeing greater diversity,” the association said. Over 70 percent of high school and university students said they use social networking services, with around 10 percent of university students and female high school students saying they had met up with people of the opposite sex whom they had got to know online, according to the survey.
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sex;universities;survey;schools;dating
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jp0009436
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Grassroots protest against gasoline tax turns into biggest challenge yet for France's Emmanuel Macron
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PARIS - Emmanuel Macron swept aside France’s traditional parties to win the presidency. He tamed unions as he reformed the labor market and income tax, all without much mass protest. Now though, his presidency is being shaken by a grassroots movement with no real leadership. Organized through social media, the so-called yellow jackets have shut down key transport links at times over the past week and Saturday police used tear gas and water cannons to contain thousands of protesters — who lit fires and ripped up cobblestones — on the Champs-Elysees. Polls show they have the support of three-quarters of the French. While Macron has already succeeded in pushing through unpopular reforms his predecessors shied away from, the recent protests show the greater opposition he’s likely to face next year when he aims to overhaul the country’s retirement system. An increase in gasoline taxes triggered the demonstrations, named after the high-visibility safety vests drivers need to keep in their cars. But the complaints against Macron go much further. On Tuesday the government will announce an energy plan setting targets for reducing dependence on nuclear energy and fossil fuels. While the government won’t roll back the gasoline taxes, it plans incentives for buying cleaner cars and heating systems, has forgone a trucking tax, and will organize local debates to gauge public opinion, Energy Minister Francois de Rugy said Thursday. Those measures won’t be enough for the protesters who came to Paris on Saturday. “This movement has gone too far to be satisfied by re-touching a tax here or there,” said Jean-Yves, a 49-year-old from Picardy, in northern France. “Macron never listens anyway. All he wants to do is give to his rich friends and take from us.” Jean-Yves, who wouldn’t give his last name because he works for the local government, said he’ll be back for further protests. Other protesters interviewed between bursts of tear gas and the occasional police charge on Paris’ famed Champs-Elysees avenue agreed the protests were about much more than the gasoline tax: they are fed up with declining services, flat wages and pensions, and feel the price of everything else is going up. “Macron has to come meet people whose salaries don’t stretch to the end of the month,” said Xavier Jiret, a 48-year-old warehouse worker. Crowds that were prevented by police from nearing the president’s Elysee Palace on Saturday frequently broke into chants of “Macron resign!” The protests have shown the divide between Macron’s supporters who tend to live in thriving urban areas and don’t rely on their cars, and small towns where driving is a necessity. They’ve also cast a crude light on Macron’s novelty: coming from outside the mainstream parties was an advantage in his May 2017 election win, but it also means his movement has no historical ties to local communities. Macron will not face any national elections until 2022. But his approval rating has slid below 30 percent in most polls, and his LREM political movement is polling behind Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for next May’s European elections. Macron has repeatedly insisted he is not interested in polls and that his attempts to modernize the French economy will eventually pay off. “His whole presidency is based on steaming ahead with his reforms, but he’s facing growing anger on the issue of cost of living,” said Frederic Dabi, deputy director-general of pollster Ifop. ‘He’s in a difficult spot.’ Under Macron, unemployment has fallen a bit but remains at 9.1 percent, double that in next door Germany and Britain. Meanwhile, growth has slowed across Europe this year, including in France. The protests have been organized by local chapters via social media and began with a day of action last Saturday when 300,000 protesters threw up about 2,000 road blocks across the country. The protests continued throughout the week with highways and fuel depots being blocked, and police struggled to keep up with the wild cat actions. There were about 8,000 protesters in the city mid-afternoon, the Interior Ministry said, with a national turnout of about 81,000. An Odoxa poll released Thursday showed 77 percent of the French support the protests, and an Ipsos poll Wednesday put support at 70 percent. French governments are well practiced in dealing with union leaders who can put thousands of protesters on the street and unions anyway are divided and losing members these days. But Macron’s ministers have been caught off guard by the ad hoc nature of the “yellow vests.” While opposition parties have shown their support for the protests, the protesters themselves say they want nothing to do with them. “I hate politicians,”‘ said Jiret, the warehouse worker. “They are all the same.” Protesters mocked the government’s offer to provide more incentives to buy cleaner cars. “We can’t buy food at the end of the month but we’re going to buy an electric car?” said Valerie Pini, a 45-year-old secretary who lives in the Paris suburbs.
|
france;protests;emmanuel macron
|
jp0009437
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party suffers major defeat in local elections; Tsai Ying-wen resigns as party leader
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TAIPEI - Taiwan’s ruling party was handed a major defeat in local elections Saturday that were seen as a referendum on the administration of the island’s independence-leaning president amid growing economic and political pressure from China. Soon after the results came in, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the Democratic Progressive Party. She will remain as president and her resignation will have no direct effect on the business of government, although the results bode ill for her re-election chances in two years. Rival China said the results reflected a desire of Taiwanese for better relations with the mainland. Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said his government will continue to treat Taiwan as part of China and “resolutely oppose separatist elements advocating ‘Taiwan independence’ and their activities.” In another victory for China, voters rejected a proposal to change the name of its Olympic team to Taiwan from the current Chinese Taipei. They also approved a referendum opposing same-sex marriage in a setback to LGBT couples, though ballot initiatives in Taiwan are non-binding. The DPP lost the mayoral election to the Nationalist party in the southern port city of Kaohsiung, where it had held power for 20 years. The Nationalists also defeated the DPP in the central city of Taichung, home to much of Taiwan’s light industry, while Ko Wen-je, the independent mayor of Taipei, the capital, appeared on track to win a second term. At a brief news conference at DPP headquarters late Saturday, Tsai announced she was stepping down as DPP chair and said she had refused Premier William Lai’s resignation, saying she wanted him to continue her reform agenda. “Today, democracy taught us a lesson,” Tsai said. “We must study and accept the higher expectations of the people.” The elections for mayors and thousands of local posts were seen as a key test for Tsai’s 2-year-old administration, which has been under relentless attack from Beijing over her refusal to endorse its claim that Taiwan is a part of China. Tsai and the DPP won a landslide victory in 2016, but China swiftly responded by cutting all links with her government. Beijing has been ratcheting up pressure on the island it claims as its own territory by poaching its diplomatic partners and barring its representatives from international gatherings, while staging threatening military exercises and limiting the numbers of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan. The Nationalists, known also as the KMT, had campaigned on their pro-business image and more accommodating line toward Beijing. Since her election, Tsai has walked a fine line on relations with China, maintaining Taiwan’s de facto independent status that the vast majority of Taiwanese support, while avoiding calls from the more radical elements of her party for moves to declare formal separation from the mainland. Taiwanese officials had warned that Beijing was seeking to sway voters through the spread of disinformation online similar to how Russia was accused of interfering in U.S. elections. Although domestic concerns were in the foreground, China played a major factor in voter sentiment, analysts said. “I think part of the reason for the vote on Saturday was concern about relations between Taiwan and mainland China,” said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. “Their relations have slid backward.” Saturday’s results also throw Tsai’s political future into question. While the DPP still controls the national legislature, local politicians are crucial in mobilizing support among grass-roots supporters. “I’m afraid it will be a big challenge for her in 2020,” said Gratiana Jung, senior political researcher with the Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute think tank in Taipei. Economic growth, employment and pension reforms were among key issues in the elections, which drew high turnout from the island’s 19 million voters. Government employees who feel slighted by pension cuts that took effect in July probably mobilized against Tsai’s party, Jung said. Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Den-yih told reporters Saturday that his party would keep trying to avoid diplomatic friction with China and ensure smooth two-way trade. “We hope the two sides will soon go back to a peaceful and stable trend in relations,” he said. Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists rebased their government to Taiwan in 1949 amid the civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communists. They ruled under martial law until the late 1980s, when the native Taiwanese population began to take political office, mostly through the DPP. Voters on Saturday also cast ballots on 10 referendums, including one on whether to uphold a commitment to ban nuclear energy by 2025. The vote against changing the name used in international sporting events to Taiwan was seen as a test of support for independence. It was symbolic in nature, as the International Olympic Committee had ruled out a name change, which would be opposed by China. Though referendums are only advisory, the vote in favor of restricting marriage to male-female couples will likely put lawmakers in a difficult position. They face both a court order to make same-sex marriage legal by 2019 and elections in 2020.
|
taiwan;election;politics;kuomintang;tsai ing-wen;democratic progressive party
|
jp0009438
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Taiwan's progressive image takes hit after divisive polls
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TAIPEI - LGBT activists in Taiwan fear their newly won right to marriage equality is under threat, while the president is battling for her political future after a wide-ranging vote that saw the island swing toward conservatism. Rival referendums on same-sex unions saw “pro-family” groups defeat pro-gay campaigners in what Amnesty International called a “bitter blow and a step backward for human rights in Taiwan.” The referendums ran alongside local elections in which the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered a massive loss in city and county seats, prompting President Tsai Ing-wen to resign as party leader and sparking questions over whether she will be able to run for re-election in 2020. The Beijing-friendly main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) made gains in the face of China’s increasing pressure on the island, which it sees as part of its territory to be reunified. Tsai has promoted Taiwan as a beacon of democracy in the region since she took office, pitching it as a counterpoint to China’s authoritarianism. Rights activists worldwide also lauded Taiwan after its top court voted to legalize gay marriage last year, the first place in Asia to do so, with the change due to be implemented next year. But analysts said Saturday’s vote showed mainstream sentiment was still uncomfortable with such reforms. “Taiwan is a conservative society and not quite ready for the progressive label it’s been given in some quarters,” said Jonathan Sullivan, director of the China Policy Institute at Nottingham University. Pro-gay marriage campaigners say they fear the new laws will now be weakened as the government faces conservative opposition. “The Taiwanese government needs to step up and take all necessary measures to deliver equality and dignity for all, regardless of who people love,” said Amnesty, urging authorities not to use the referendum as an “excuse” to undermine rights. Observers said the DPP’s shock defeat in local polls was an indictment of policies they felt had not helped ordinary people. Although GDP is rising in Taiwan, voters say they are not seeing the benefits and many have been incensed by cuts to pensions and public holidays. Some traditional DPP supporters had said ahead of the elections that they would punish the party as they felt tensions with China were damaging their businesses. The DPP leans toward independence and Beijing has upped military and diplomatic pressure since Tsai took office, unilaterally cutting all official relations. Tsai and the DPP repeatedly accused China of a “fake news” campaign ahead of the vote, which Beijing denied, and authorities are probing Chinese influence through campaign funding of candidates. Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College London, framed the result as a protest vote. “This is not a wholehearted endorsement of anyone else — just a sign of how much like other countries Taiwan now is — divided, very frustrated and looking for chances to protest,” he told AFP. Observers agreed Tsai’s re-election prospects had been severely weakened although some said she still had a chance to run, in the absence of an obvious successor. Tsai had described the vote as a chance for Taiwan to stand up to China, while the KMT pitched it as a no-confidence test. Analysts said that Taiwan’s sense of separateness from China was ingrained, but that voters wanted a cross-strait relationship that did not damage the island economically, a balance that successive governments have found difficult to strike. “(The electorate) remain attached to Taiwan’s de facto independence and democracy,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor of political science at Hong Kong Baptist University. “They want to see their purchasing power increase and their government to show more competence.”
|
china;taiwan;elections;kuomintang;tsai ing-wen;democratic progressive party
|
jp0009439
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Singapore buzzes toward the future with plans to use drones for jobs from parcel delivery to security
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SINGAPORE - High-tech Singapore is planning to roll out a swarm of drones for tasks that include delivering parcels, inspecting buildings and providing security, but safety and privacy concerns mean the initiative may hit turbulence. Companies have already started testing the devices for commercial use, mainly in an area of over 200 hectares (500 acres) dotted with high-rise buildings and shopping malls, specially designated by the government for the trials. It is part of the affluent city’s drive to embrace technological innovation, as well as an effort to tackle a manpower shortage in a country of just 5.6 million, which relies on foreign migrant workers in many low-paying sectors. Commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles is already taking off around the world, in areas as diverse as crop-spraying and surveying for insurance claims, but Singapore’s push represents a particularly ambitious bet on the technology. Singapore’s Civil Aviation Authority has got behind the project, saying it recognizes the potential for drones “to transform mobility and logistics,” and is working with industry players as it seeks to shape regulations for the sector. During recent tests, a drone buzzed through the air, snapping pictures of a tower block’s facade, trials for a system that could see laborious human inspections of the city’s ubiquitous high-rises replaced by automated checks. “Today’s existing building inspection process is extremely slow, expensive, tedious, prone to accidents, fatigue and human error,” said Shawn Koo, chief technical officer of H3 Zoom, a unit of the firm H3 Dynamics, which is behind the tests. Such inspections are typically carried out by workers from South or Southeast Asia, who hang precariously outside buildings on platforms suspended by ropes. The new system will see high-resolution images taken by drones and analyzed to check for defects, with inspections taking a few days rather than a few weeks, as they do at the moment. H3 Zoom hopes to fully launch the inspections next year. Drones are also being tested as robotic guards by local firm ST Aerospace. At its command center, screens show a simulated security breach in a fence. A black drone is deployed, which chases an intruder while transmitting live images that direct security officers toward him to make an arrest. Tests have also been carried out for drone parcel delivery while a hospital operator plans to use the devices to transport blood samples and specimens between its hospitals and central laboratory. But transforming the futuristic vision into reality faces hurdles. The prospect of having a drone suddenly whizz by your apartment or office has sparked privacy concerns in the land-scarce city. Angry Singaporeans called for police to investigate after a video circulated on social media in September showing a recreational drone flying close to a residential building, while some private condos have banned the devices. Koo from H3 Zoom conceded that many people still have “misconceptions” about drones: “Some might view it as a spying vehicle, others might think drones are out there to do harm.” Flying recreational drones is popular in Singapore, although permits are required in certain circumstances. But commercial drones present more challenges when it comes to safety, as they often fly over longer distances well beyond the sight of their human “pilots.” This requires flight paths to be planned and the use of private communications channels, while takeoff and landing sites must be built. “The main challenge is to address the risks to people on the ground and the risks to airplanes flying in the air, and the risks of colliding with a building,” Teong Soo Soon, program director of the UAV business unit at ST Aerospace, said. Despite the ambitious plans, it will be some time before all the ideas currently being tested are rolled out. Simpler tasks like building inspections and security surveillance look set to be launched commercially next year. But for situations where drones need to fly safely across Singapore — such as to deliver parcels — it could take three to four years as regulations are put in place, Teong said. Industry players nevertheless see a bright future and are already getting inquiries from as far afield as South America about their technology. “A successful Singapore story will help us promote our (drone system) internationally,” said Teong.
|
singapore;drones;privacy
|
jp0009440
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Japan's Tanegashima Space Center marks 50th anniversary of its first rocket launch
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MINAMITANE, KAGOSHIMA PREF. - A ceremony was held Saturday to mark 50th anniversary of the first rocket launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. The ceremony commemorating the September 1968 event was held in the Kagoshima town of Minamitane, which hosts the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s space center. It was attended by JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa, astronaut Kimiya Yui and other agency officials, as well as local residents. “My dream is to travel from Tanegashima to space aboard a Japanese-made rocket,” Yui, 48, said in a speech. “I want to bring the people of Tanegashima who supported us, to let them have the chance to view the Earth from space.” Construction work for the space center started in 1966, well before the U.S. occupation of Okinawa ended and it was returned to Japan in 1972. Tanegashima was considered the most suitable location for the space center at that time because it was relatively close to the equator and there was no land east of the island. On Sept. 17, 1968, a 2.8-meter-long upper-air observation rocket lifted off from the facility, marking the first rocket launch from the center. This was followed in September 1975 by the launch of the Kiku-1 satellite on an N-1 rocket, which was achieved with technological support from the United States. Over the past 50 years, a total of 175 rockets have been launched from the space center, including the first H-2 rocket in 1994. Japan is developing the next-generation H-3 rocket series, aiming for the first launch in fiscal 2020. Engine combustion tests and other preparations are underway on the island.
|
rockets;kagoshima;tanegashima space center;japan aerospace exploration agency
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jp0009441
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/25
|
In referendum, the Taiwanese vote to retain ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures
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TAIPEI - Taiwanese voters approved a referendum to maintain a ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures, imposed after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, dealing a setback to the government of President Tsai Ing-wen and possibly damaging the island’s relations with Japan. The Central Election Commission website showed that a total of 7.79 million people approved the initiative against 2.23 million who were in opposition. The referendum result is legally binding and government agencies must take necessary action. The result dealt a significant blow to the Democratic Progressive Party government that proposed easing the ban after coming to power in May 2016, but backed away when the main opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) questioned the new government’s ability to ensure the safety of the imported products. Government officials responsible for the policy declined to comment on Sunday, only saying it was a matter for President Tsai to decide. Tsai announced her resignation as DPP leader on Saturday following her party’s disastrous defeat in key mayoral elections that day, races viewed as indicators of voter sentiment ahead of the next presidential and island-wide legislative elections in 2020. Some worry that the result of the referendum on Japanese food imports will have a negative impact on the island’s relations with Japan. Taiwan’s representative to Japan, Frank Hsieh, said the initiative was a KMT scheme aimed at undermining bilateral relations between Taiwan and Japan at a time when the two are seeking closer ties as a way of protecting themselves from an increasingly belligerent China. China is the only other country still restricting imports from Fukushima Prefecture and nearby Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi and Chiba prefectures. Farmers and fishermen in Fukushima Sunday called for further efforts to convince the public that their food is safe to eat. “All we can do is to work harder until people understand that our products are safe,” said Masao Koizumi, a rice farmer in Fukushima. The prefectural government of Fukushima has been conducting radiation checks on all rice produced in the prefecture. Since 2015, all shipments cleared the screening, with radioactive cesium levels below the 100-becquerel-per-kilogram limit set by the central government. “When people see the inspection readings, they will know that there is no threat of radioactive materials,” Koizumi said. Tetsu Nozaki, the head of an association representing fishery cooperatives in the prefecture, said, “We are disappointed, but we just need to make sure that we keep communicating the safety of our products.”
|
fukushima;fukushima no . 1;radiation;taiwan;elections
|
jp0009442
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/11/25
|
Japan to add hotel industry to foreign trainee program
|
The hotel industry will be listed as lying within the scope of the type two trainee status under the government’s technical intern training program for foreign nationals, officials have said. The program has three statuses — type one for first-year trainees, type two for those in the second to third year and type three for those in the fourth to fifth year. Trainees who completed the type two program will be allowed to shift without examination to a new visa category planned under a bill to revise the immigration control law, which the government aims to enact during the current Diet session ending Dec. 10. The type one category, one of the two visa categories planned under the bill, would be granted to foreign workers with designated skills, including blue-collar workers, and the other for those with higher skills. The government estimates that 345,000 foreign workers would be accepted over five years under the type one visa category, of whom 45 percent would be those shifting from the type two trainee status. However, the scope of the type two trainee status does not include the accommodation and restaurant sectors, though both are among the 14 sectors that would be designated for the type one visa category. The addition of the hotel industry would therefore make it easier for the sector to secure workers under the type one visa category. The government is considering adding the hotel industry because demand for acquiring related skills in Japan is believed to be high in developing countries where tourism is a key industry, Akihiko Kanai, vice commissioner at the Japan Tourism Agency, told a Diet panel Wednesday.
|
hotels;visas;foreign trainees;foreign workers;foreign labor law reform
|
jp0009443
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/10/03
|
On Tokyo trip, tennis star Roger Federer says he's focusing on future with new sponsor Uniqlo
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Roger Federer said on Tuesday in Tokyo that his decision to end a 20-year association with Nike and embark on a new chapter with Uniqlo was influenced by the Japanese clothing company’s commitment to stay with him long after his playing days are over. While no financial details have been announced, media reports have said the new deal would be worth about $30 million a year, compared with the $10 million a year agreement Federer had with Nike. The 37-year-old, who has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles — a men’s record — signalled the end of his association with Nike in July when he walked out onto Wimbledon’s Centre Court dressed in Uniqlo apparel. Federer said the belief shown in him by Uniqlo’s CEO Tadashi Yanai and Executive Creative Director John Jay had been key. “John Jay in New York, where I had an event there, said it very nicely: ‘One day I will retire from tennis but I will not retire from life,’ ” said Federer, who was presented as Uniqlo’s new global brand ambassador. “Life will go on and Uniqlo and Mr. Yanai believed in me very strongly as being very important to their brand, even though maybe my playing days are going to come to an end at some point.” By incorporating Federer in their LifeWear range, Uniqlo appear to see the Swiss as a brand off the court as much as on it. One of Federer’s goals after he retires is to develop the charity work started through his foundation, which aims to empower children in poverty through education, and he said Uniqlo shared that vision. “Some people cannot go to school, even though they want to, some people do go to school but do not get a quality education, and so this is where the Roger Federer Foundation has tried to make a difference in the region of Southern Africa,” he said. Federer’s switch to Uniqlo comes at a boom time for Japanese tennis after Naomi Osaka claimed the country’s first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open last month. Federer, a five-time winner at Flushing Meadows, praised the mental strength of the 20-year-old, who has also qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore. “I think winning Indian Wells helped her to believe that she could also win another big title,” he said, referring to her victory at the Californian tournament in March. “I think she is a champion in the sense that she doesn’t shy away from the big stage,” said Federer, who is planning an exhibition match in Japan next year. “Indian Wells is the second biggest tennis court we have in the world and the U.S. Open is the biggest one. “She succeeded in both of them and that shows a winner’s mentality.”
|
tennis;uniqlo;roger federer;tadashi yanai
|
jp0009444
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/10/03
|
Japanese government to suspend some Suruga Bank operations over improper loans
|
The government will order regional lender Suruga Bank to suspend some of its operations, possibly as soon as this week, as punishment for a series of improper share house loans, according to sources close to the matter. The Financial Services Agency will suspend the bank’s real estate financing operations for several months as a result of the findings by a third-party committee of lawyers released in September that management were involved in forgeries of loan screening documents, the sources said. Having conducted on-site inspections since spring, the agency has also found that the bank had serious flaws in corporate governance. The bank, based in Shizuoka Prefecture, will be allowed to continue its over-the-counter operations such as deposits and withdrawals. But the agency will request that the lender present a business improvement plan, the sources said. The loan scandal has led the bank’s founding family member, Mitsuyoshi Okano, to step down as chairman, while Akihiro Yoneyama quit as president to take responsibility in September. According to the report by the third-party committee, the improper loans were orchestrated by former senior management executive officer Haruo Aso, who pressured the screening department with orders to approve loans for people who had bought share houses for investment purposes. The bank fabricated documents, including bank balances, to smooth loan screenings for those seeking to invest in the share house sector. It also made false sales contracts with inflated purchase prices so it could extend loans in violation of an in-house rule that puts limits on loans at 90 percent of the purchase price, the report said. The scandal came to light because Smart Days, the operator of a women-only share house chain called Kabocha no Basha, or Pumpkin Carriage, in January ceased paying monthly rents it had guaranteed the owners of the properties due to low occupancy rates. Many owners who had bought the apartments with loans financed by Suruga Bank were then unable to pay back their borrowings. Smart Days went under in April. Suruga Bank said it had extended a total of ¥203.5 billion ($1.8 billion) in loans to 1,258 shared house owners as of the end of March.
|
fsa;suruga bank
|
jp0009445
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2018/10/03
|
U.N. expert voices fears for seven Rohingya India looks to expel to Myanmar
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GENEVA - A United Nations legal expert has voiced concern over India’s plan to deport on Wednesday seven Rohingya to Myanmar, where the army is accused of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority. The men have been held in prison in Assam state on charges of illegally entering India and are due to be sent back Wednesday, the U.N. special rapporteur on racism, Tendayi Achiume, said Tuesday. “Given the ethnic identity of the men, this is a flagrant denial of their right to protection and could amount to refoulement,” the law professor said in a statement. “The Indian government has an international legal obligation to fully acknowledge the institutionalized discrimination, persecution, hate and gross human rights violations these people have faced in their country of origin and provide them the necessary protection.” Achiume said New Delhi was obliged to refer Rohingya under its custody to the U.N. refugee agency to assess their protection needs. More than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya fled an offensive by Myanmar troops launched nearly a year ago in reprisal for attacks on border posts by Rohingya rebels who took up arms against the ill-treatment of the stateless minority. The United Nations has termed the repression “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide. Myanmar’s army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting its campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents. The U.N. expert said she was “appalled” at the amount of time the seven men from Kyauk Daw township in central Rakhine state had been detained. “Prolonged detention of this kind is prohibited,” Achiume said. “It could be considered arbitrary, and could even fall under the category of inhuman and degrading treatment.” The scheduled deportations follow an Indian government order last year to return Rohingya, but the Supreme Court is still considering a petition challenging the order on the grounds it was unconstitutional. The U.N. expert said nearly 200 Rohingya are known to be detained in India on charges of illegal entry. “We urge the government of India to abide by the international norm of non-refoulement and protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees including Rohingyas,” she said. While successive waves of Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh, small numbers have found their way to India and Nepal while a small community has also been established in Pakistan.
|
india;myanmar;u.n .;genocide;rohingya;ethnic cleansing;tendayi achiume
|
jp0009446
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/10/03
|
Airports act against rising seas and stronger storms as climate changes
|
SINGAPORE - Global airport operators, faced with rising sea levels and more powerful storms as the climate changes, are starting to invest in measures including higher runways, seawalls and better drainage systems to future-proof immovable assets. In early September, a seawall at Kansai International Airport, built on a reclaimed island near Osaka, was breached during Typhoon Jebi. The runway was flooded, and it took 17 days to fully restore airport operations, at a high cost to the region’s economy as well as the dozens of airlines that canceled flights. Major airports in Hong Kong, mainland China and North Carolina were also closed due to tropical storms last month. Such incidents highlight the disaster risks to investors and insurers exposed to a sector with an estimated $262 billion of projects under construction globally, according to Fitch Solutions. “There is a kind of one-way direction with regards to the frequency and severity of climate change-related events,” said Fitch Solutions Head of Infrastructure Richard Marshall. “If people aren’t taking that seriously, that is a risk.” Fifteen of the 50 most heavily trafficked airports globally are at an elevation of less than 30 feet (9.1 meters) above sea level, making them particularly vulnerable to a changing climate, including rising sea levels and higher storm surges. “You see it at individual airports that are already seeing sea rise and are already dealing with water on their runway,” Airports Council International (ACI) Director General Angela Gittens said, citing examples in island nations including Vanuatu and the Maldives. “But even in some of these mature economies they are having more storms, they are having to do more pumping. My old airport in Miami is in that scenario.” A draft copy of an ACI policy paper reviewed by Reuters and due to be released this week warns of the rising risks to facilities from climate change. It encourages member airports to conduct risk assessments, develop mitigation measures and take climate change into account in future master plans. The paper cites examples of forward-thinking airports that have taken climate change into account in planning, such as the $12 billion Istanbul Grand Airport on the Black Sea, set to become one of the world’s largest airports when it opens next month. Investor interest Debt investors in particular have high exposure to airports, most of which are owned by governments or pension funds. Ratings agency Moody’s alone has $174 billion of airport bonds under coverage. Earl Heffintrayer, the lead analyst covering U.S. airports at Moody’s, said the risk of climate change became apparent to investors after Superstorm Sandy closed major New York airports for days in 2012. Sandy led to the cancellation of nearly 17,000 flights, costing airlines $500 million in revenue and disrupting operations around the world, according to a 2017 presentation by Eurocontrol on climate change risk. Investors are increasingly asking about mitigation plans at low-lying airports like San Francisco and Boston as they look to invest in bonds with terms of up to 30 years, Heffintrayer said. San Francisco International Airport, built on reclaimed land that is slowly sinking, has completed a feasibility study on a $383 million project to make the airport more resilient to rising sea level along its 8 miles (12.9 km) of bay-front shoreline by 2025. “We are seeing a lot more thought going into protection against flood damage, catastrophe, making sure that the storm drains around the airport are fit for purpose,” said Gary Moran, head of Asia aviation at insurance broker Aon. “There definitely is a lot more thought going into potential further worsening in weather conditions further down the line.” Taking action Singapore’s Changi Airport, which has analyzed scenarios out to 2100, has resurfaced its runways to provide for better drainage and is building a new terminal at a higher 18 feet (5.5 meters) above sea level to protect against rising seas. Moran said such steps are prudent and will provide comfort to insurers. “If you were to look at Singapore, if something was to happen at Changi in terms of weather-related risk, Singapore would have a problem,” he said. “There isn’t really too much of an alternative.” Singapore expects sea levels to rise by 2.5 feet (76 cm) by 2100. Changi Airport declined to comment on the cost of the extra protection. ACI, Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s were unable to provide Reuters with an estimate of the global cost of climate change protection at airports. The protective action is often folded into larger refurbishment and expansion projects. In Australia, Brisbane Airport is located on reclaimed coastal land just 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level. It is constructing a new runway 1 meter higher than it otherwise would have done, with a higher seawall and better drainage systems as sea levels rise. Paul Coughlan, the director of Brisbane Airport’s new runway project, said the incremental cost of such moves is relatively low — for example the seawall cost around 5 million Australian dollars ($3.6 million) more than without taking into account sea level rises — and the potential benefits are big. “At the end of the day, whether you are a believer in climate change or a disbeliever, doing a design that accounts for elevated sea levels, more intense rainfall, flooding considerations, that is just prudent,” Coughlan said. “If you build it into your design philosophy from day one, you don’t pay that much of a premium and you have bought a lot of safeguards.”
|
climate;hurricanes;airports;typhoons;kansai international airport
|
jp0009448
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/10/03
|
Chinese star Fan Bingbing fined $129 million over tax evasion
|
BEIJING - China has ordered A-list movie star Fan Bingbing to pay about 884 million yuan ($129 million) in overdue taxes and fines, the Xinhua News Agency said on Wednesday, as a crackdown on tax evasion in the entertainment industry gathers momentum. The 37-year-old actor, whose June disappearance touched off wild speculation about her whereabouts, has appeared in the “X-Men” and “Iron Man” film franchises, attracting more than 62 million online followers in China. Xinhua said an investigation by Chinese tax authorities found Fan had split her contract to evade taxes of 7.3 million yuan ($1.1 million) over payments for her role in “Air Strike,” a film due to be released this year. Fan and companies she represented also evaded 248 million yuan ($36 million) in additional taxes, Xinhua said, but it gave no details regarding this figure. The tax bureau in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu delivered its judgment to Fan on Sunday, levying fines of more than 596 million yuan ($86.7 million) for tax evasion and assessing overdue taxes of more than 288 million yuan ($42 million), Xinhua said. In a letter posted on her official account on the Twitter-like platform Weibo, Fan said she fully accepted the authorities’ decision, would overcome “all difficulties” to pay the penalties, and step up supervision of her companies. “I’m ashamed of my behavior and I apologize here to everyone,” Fan wrote. “Every bit of my achievement is inseparable from the support of the state and the people. Without the good policies of the Communist Party and the state, without the love of the people, there is no Fan Bingbing.” Xinhua said that under Chinese law Fan, as a first-time offender, would face no criminal charges if she complied with the judgment and paid all the money by an undisclosed deadline. Fan or a representative could not immediately be reached for comment. Xinhua said police had put a “restriction” on Fan’s agent for attempting to conceal and destroy evidence during the investigations in June. Fan dropped off the radar that month, amid reports that she was involved in the investigation, a vanishing act that prompted reports she had been detained. On Wednesday, the South China Morning Post said Fan was released two weeks ago from “residential surveillance” at a “holiday resort” in Jiangsu used to investigate officials. She was transferred to Beijing for further investigation, the Post said, citing unnamed sources. Since June, China has been investigating tax evasion in its film and television industry, following reports that some of its most famous actors have been accused of signing so-called “yin-yang” contracts, one of which sets out the real terms, while a second, with a lower figure, is meant for tax officials. The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) said companies and individuals in the industry who voluntarily “rectify their behavior” and pay back taxes evaded prior to December 31 will be exempt from administrative punishment and fines, Xinhua said.
|
china;film;celebrities;taxes;corruption;fan bingbing
|
jp0009449
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/10/03
|
Japan space probe Hayabusa2 launches new robot onto Ryugu asteroid
|
A Japanese probe launched a new observation robot toward an asteroid on Wednesday as it pursues a mission to shed light on the origins of the solar system. The Hayabusa2 probe launched the French-German Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, or MASCOT, toward the Ryugu asteroid’s surface, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. “We can confirm that the MASCOT separated from the spacecraft as planned,” the agency said in a tweet on its official account. “I’m doing it! I’m descending to Ryugu! Can’t stop me now!” the lander’s official Twitter account @MASCOT2018 added. JAXA tweeted shortly after the landing began that it was in communication with MASCOT. But it was not clear when the agency would be able to confirm that the robot had landed safely on the asteroid, where it is expected to collect a wide range of data. “It is hugely significant to take data from the surface of an asteroid; we have high expectations for the scientific data,” Hayabusa2 mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa said at a briefing before the landing. The 10-kilogram (22-pound) box-shaped MASCOT is loaded with sensors. It can take images at multiple wavelengths, investigate minerals with a microscope, gauge surface temperatures and measure magnetic fields. MASCOT’s launch comes 10 days after the Hayabusa2 dropped a pair of Minerva-II micro-rovers on the Ryugu asteroid. That was the first time a moving, robotic observation device has successfully landed on an asteroid. The rovers will take advantage of Ryugu’s low gravity to jump around on the surface — traveling as far as 15 meters (49 feet) while airborne, and staying in the air for as long as 15 minutes — to survey the asteroid’s physical features with cameras and sensors. Unlike those machines, MASCOT will be largely immobile — it will “jump” just once on its mission, and it can turn on its sides. And while the rovers will spend several months on the asteroid, the MASCOT has a maximum battery life of just 16 hours. It is planned to transmit the data it collects to Hayabusa2 before running out of juice. Hayabusa2 is scheduled later this month to deploy an “impactor” that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a 2-kg copper object into it to blast a small crater on the surface. The probe will then hover over the artificial crater and collect samples using an extended arm. The samples of “fresh” materials, unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, could help answer some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth. Part of MASCOT’s mission is to collect data that will help determine where the crater should be created. Hayabusa2, about the size of a large fridge and equipped with solar panels, is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, Hayabusa — which is Japanese for falcon. That probe returned from a smaller, potato-shaped, asteroid in 2010 with dust samples despite various setbacks during an epic seven-year odyssey, and was hailed as a scientific triumph. The Hayabusa2 mission, which costs around ¥30 billion ($260 million), was launched in December 2014 and will return to Earth with its samples in 2020.
|
jaxa;asteroid;hayabusa;mascot;minerva;ryugu
|
jp0009450
|
[
"national",
"politics-diplomacy"
] |
2018/10/03
|
Abe's latest Cabinet reshuffle casts doubt on 'womenomics' policy
|
So much for “womenomics”? Tuesday’s reshuffle of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet reduced the number of female ministers to just one — the lowest number since the prime minister retook office in December 2012. Not that there were many women in his previous Cabinet, which had just two. But in a nation where female participation in politics remains doggedly low, the number of portfolios held by women is always a topic subject to heavy scrutiny — especially because Abe himself has declared boosting the profile of professional women to be one of his top policy priorities. In the latest overhaul, Abe has tapped Satsuki Katayama, a two-term Upper House lawmaker for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as minister in charge of regional revitalization and female empowerment. When asked about the dearth of female Cabinet members, Abe told a news conference on Tuesday that he admits “the percentage of women in my Cabinet is internationally low.” “But then again, the society where women are truly engaged has just started off here in Japan, so I’m sure we will see more female talent grow and enter the Cabinet going forward,” Abe said, adding he believes the industrious Katayama can do the work of “two or three.” Ever since his return to power, Abe has recruited at least two women for his Cabinet upon each reshuffle. His effort to do so culminated in September 2014 with the naming of five women, including former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi, under the much-hyped slogan of “realizing a society where women can shine.” Official records show that the last time the Cabinet had only one woman was October 2012, when ex-Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, head of what was then called the Democratic Party of Japan, overhauled his team for a third time. Yuki Senda, a sociology professor at Musashi University in Tokyo, said Tuesday’s reshuffle revealed the apparent superficiality of Abe’s commitment to put more women in leadership roles. “Numbers don’t mean everything, but one woman in the Cabinet is just too few,” Senda said. Observers say faction-to-faction competition seemed to heavily color Abe’s personnel decision this time around, with the leader assigning portfolios almost equally to those from four LDP factions that most loyally backed his successful candidacy in last month’s leadership election.Their support helped him earn up to three more years as the prime minister. “It looks to me that Abe had only conveniently used women to advertise his policy. When the situation got tougher like this time, with him having to pay extensive attention to the severe, male-to-male power struggle, it seems his commitment to the concept of gender equality slipped away easily,” the professor said. She also said Abe’s suggestion that Katayama alone is worth three recruits “verges on being a gaffe,” as it evokes the history of women being discriminated against under the logic they have to work “twice or three times harder than men to be recognized as their equals.” One of the outgoing female ministers, Seiko Noda, bemoaned Tuesday what she called the Abe government’s apparently dwindling interest in female empowerment. “I find it very worrying that the number of female ministers has decreased from three down to one in the last three reshuffles,” Noda, who held the post as internal affairs minister, told reporters. Noda herself knows all about the glass ceiling in Japan’s political area, having twice failed to amass enough intraparty support to even run in the LDP’s leadership election. In her pre-campaign speech at a Tokyo hotel in August, Noda recalled what she was told by her senior, male lawmaker upon her first election as a Diet member in 1993. “He warned me the world of Japanese politics is full of men — men who are so prejudiced that they wouldn’t treat us fairly, because they think women are fundamentally emotional creatures and prone to hysterics,” she recalled. Times have changed since then, and the situation isn’t perhaps as pessimistic as before. But Japan still lags other countries in its effort to facilitate female participation in politics. According to the latest data published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a Geneva-based organization fostering cooperation between national parliaments around the world, Japan ranked 161st out of 193 countries as of September 1 this year for its percentage of seats held by women in unicameral parliaments or the lower house in countries with multiple chambers. The data, reflecting the result of last October’s general election, showed women in the Lower House accounted for a mere 10.1 percent, compared with 39.6 percent in France, 30.7 percent in Germany, 19.6 percent in the U.S. and 17 percent in South Korea. In an encouraging sign of progress, the Diet enacted a bill in June urging each political party to make efforts to “equalize as much as possible” the number of male and female candidates it fields for national and local elections. The bill, however, has no legally binding power, and a failure to achieve this goal would entail no penalty.
|
shinzo abe;gender equality;cabinet reshuffle;womenomics
|
jp0009452
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/10/04
|
Tokyo stocks fall further on profit-taking
|
Stocks lost further ground on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday, weighed down by selling to lock in profits following the recent surge. The Nikkei 225 shed 135.34 points, or 0.56 percent, to end at 23,975.62, slipping below the 24,000 line for the first time in a week. On Wednesday, it sagged 159.66 points. The Topix closed down 1.54 points, or 0.09 percent, at 1,801.19, after falling 21.30 points the previous day. The Nikkei sank into negative territory in midmorning trading, after gaining over 130 points as soon as the market opened following Wall Street’s advance Wednesday. The key market yardstick remained in negative territory throughout the afternoon session. The broader Topix moved on the sunny side for most of Thursday’s session thanks to strong performances of financial issues, according to the sources. Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co., said that the market experienced “a speed correction.” The market was hit by futures-led selling following the recent rapid advance backed by futures-linked purchases, Ichikawa noted. “There is still a sense of overheating” in the market after Wednesday’s retreat, an official at a bank-affiliated securities firm pointed out. Ichikawa said the market’s downside “was supported by the yen’s drop” versus the dollar. Despite the falls of the key indexes, rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,236 to 800 in the TSE’s first section, while 74 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.590 billion shares from Wednesday’s 1.463 billion shares. Drug-maker Shionogi met with selling to cash in after recent gains. Restaurant chain operator Toridoll Holdings Corp. was downbeat, after announcing Wednesday that its sales in September went down 7.4 percent from a year before on a same-store basis. Clothing-retailer Fast Retailing Co. and cosmetics-maker Shiseido Co. were among other major losers. By contrast, financial names — including mega-bank groups Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc., and insurers Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc. and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. — were upbeat after a rise in long-term interest rates. Also on the plus side were automaker Toyota Motor Corp. and mobile phone-carrier SoftBank Group. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average dropped 220 points to 23,920.
|
stocks;tse;nikkei 225
|
jp0009453
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/10/04
|
City of Houston blocks plans to open 'robot brothels'
|
CHICAGO - The city of Houston on Wednesday blocked a Canadian businessman’s plans to open what local media dubbed a robot brothel, after an outcry from residents. The KinkySdollS shop in Toronto was set to expand to the Texas city with dolls that the company says have interactive artificial intelligence and robotic technologies. Customers would have been able to “rent before you buy” to try out the dolls before spending thousands of dollars to purchase one, but the plan caused a backlash from religious leaders, residents and politicians in Houston. “This is not the sort of business that I’d like to see in the city of Houston,” Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters after the city council voted to effectively ban any “robot brothels,” as local media have dubbed the business. Updating a 20-year-old law, the city’s leaders expanded the definition of what can be regulated as a sexually oriented “arcade.” The original law’s “focus was on human use, but now, so much is technology-driven,” Turner said. The change of law effectively bars customers from using sex dolls or robots inside any Houston business. “You can sell but you cannot use. You cannot engage in sexual activity with any inanimate object at the business,” Turner said. KinkySdollS has been operating in Toronto for about a year. “We are not a brothel,” the owner of the shop told the Toronto Sun in September. The newspaper said the man had asked to remain anonymous. “We are a shop, and we are here to sell dolls to move inventory,” he said.
|
sex;robots;toronto;prostitution;houston
|
jp0009454
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/10/04
|
U.S. warns of new hacking spree from group linked to Beijing after lull
|
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government on Wednesday warned that a hacking group widely known as cloudhopper, which Western cybersecurity firms have linked to the Chinese government, has launched attacks on technology service providers in a campaign to steal data from their clients. The Department of Homeland Security issued a technical alert for cloudhopper, which it said was engaged in cyberespionage and theft of intellectual property, after experts with two prominent U.S. cybersecurity companies warned earlier this week that Chinese hacking activity has surged amid the escalating trade war between Washington and Beijing. Chinese authorities have repeatedly denied claims by Western cybersecurity firms that it supports hacking. Homeland Security released the information to support U.S. companies in responding to attacks by the group, which is targeting information technology, energy, health care, communications and manufacturing firms. “These cyber threat actors are still active and we strongly encourage our partners in government and industry to work together to defend against this threat,” DHS official Christopher Krebs said in a statement. The reported increase in Chinese hacking follows what cybersecurity firms have described as a lull in such attacks prompted by a 2015 agreement between Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U.S. President Barrack Obama to curb cyber-enabled economic theft. “I can tell you now unfortunately the Chinese are back,” Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer of U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, said Tuesday at a security conference in Washington, D.C. “We’ve seen a huge pickup in activity over the past year and a half. Nowadays they are the most predominant threat actors we see threatening institutions all over this country and Western Europe,” he said. Analysts with FireEye, another U.S. cybersecurity firm, said that some of the Chinese hacking groups it tracks have become more active in recent months. Wednesday’s alert provided advice on how U.S. firms can prevent, identify and remediate attacks by cloudhopper, which is also known as Red Leaves and APT10. The hacking group has largely targeted firms known as managed service providers, which supply telecommunications, technology and other services to business around the globe. Managed service providers, or MSPs, are attractive targets because their networks provide routes for hackers to access sensitive systems of their many clients, said Ben Read, a senior intelligence manager with FireEye. “We’ve seen this group route malware through an MSP network to other targets,” Read said.
|
china;u.s .;hacking;cyberattack;homeland security;cloudhopper
|
jp0009456
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/10/04
|
Released from reformatory, Japanese 'idol' launches support group for neglected children
|
Parental neglect, bullying and juvenile delinquency — these are the things the 20-year-old idol who goes by the name Kanano Senritsu says she has gone through. But she seems to be transforming the pain of her past into strength, having launched a group to support children who are struggling the same way she did. “I want to save children who do not have anywhere to go,” said Senritsu, whose disclosure that she went to a juvenile reformatory is a rarity for a person in the entertainment business. She is a chika “ idol” whose main activity is performing live concerts, despite not belonging to a major agency, and she has over 30,000 followers on Twitter. Senritsu was born in Osaka Prefecture, but she moved to Tokyo after her parents divorced. When she was a second-grader in elementary school, her mother did not return home for a week. “I used all the money that was prepared, and in the end there was nothing to eat,” she recalled. Being a young girl, she grew worried that her mother might have actually died. She and her younger sister waited in hunger, drinking tap water. Her mother eventually returned and Senritsu found that she had just gone for a trip abroad with a man she was seeing. Her mother had brought back a souvenir to the children, but Senritsu said she “couldn’t even vent anger” against her mother. Due to neglect, Senritsu did not take baths and her hair was untidy. Her classmates called her “dirty,” and the bullying, which sometimes escalated into violence, continued through the third year of junior high school. She shoplifted and even went so far as to join the “JK” business, which offers dating services by joshi kōsei , or female high school students, to adult men. “I was obsessed with money because I had been hungry. I wanted to earn money and live independently,” she said. Senritsu was temporarily placed in a child consultation center for her protection and then sent to a family court before entering a girl’s training school for juvenile delinquents in the city of Komae in western Tokyo in January 2014, meaning she had quit high school. She initially took a defiant attitude toward the instructors at the facility, but eventually she engaged in self-reflection, as she was not allowed to use a smartphone and reading books was one of the few recreational activities allowed there. “When I did some soul-searching after reading a book, I was able to think ‘So that’s why I felt such and such’ and come to terms with those feelings.” She passed a high school equivalence test and was released from the reformatory in the summer of 2016. She then started her activities as a chika idol, drawing attention by winning one of the prizes in the Miss iD 2018 audition, an event hosted last November by major publisher Kodansha Ltd. that looks for unique girls to develop into idols. As her Twitter account followers have grown, Senritsu believes she can now have her voice heard and so set up the support group, named Bae, in the hope that its existence will assist children who need help. “This was what I wanted to do most,” she said. She decided to disclose her past because she thought it would build trust. The group is in its early stages, but Senritsu has a lot of plans, such as creating a canteen for children living in poverty or starting a delivery service for such households. She is also considering starting a mental support service provided by juveniles released from training schools to children who have suffered abuse. Senritsu said she aims to create a safety net so society will not miss signs from children that they need help. She also passed a university law exam this spring and is now busy responding to requests asking her to speak about her experiences to others. “Things can change if you take action,” she said.
|
bullying;idol;neglect;juvenile training school
|
jp0009457
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/10/04
|
False quake alarm gives Tokyoites a midnight scare
|
Brace yourself, a strong quake is coming. This dramatic emergency message sent to smartphones and loudspeakers caused a brief panic after midnight Wednesday in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures, with many taking to social media to express their confusion over whether or not to get ready for the worst. The Meteorological Agency warned of a strong quake off the east coast of Chiba Prefecture at 12:15, warning of possible severe jolts in the capital and Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama and Tochigi prefectures. The agency warned that a 6.7 magnitude quake could reach lower 5 on the Japanese intensity scale in Ibaraki, but even though a quake did occur, it was relatively weak and unnoticeable in some areas. “The advance warning system predicting quakes miscalculated the location of the epicenter and predicted a quake of a larger magnitude with more intense shaking,” an official with the agency said in explaining the cause of the erroneous alert. The agency eventually announced that a quake occurred east of Chiba at a depth of about 30 km and with a magnitude of 4.6. In some areas in southern Ibaraki and northeastern Chiba Prefecture, the jolts were recorded at level 4 or lower on the intensity scale. The tremor didn’t trigger tsunami, the agency said. According to the agency’s website, it sends out emergency warnings to areas expected to experience an intensity of 4 or stronger when a quake of lower 5 or greater is estimated to occur. The alert may have triggered deja vu in many residents. In January, the agency issued a false alert to residents of the Kanto region and parts of Fukushima Prefecture, warning of a strong quake that never came. In August 2016 the agency issued an erroneous alert for a level 7 quake, highest on the seismic intensity scale. “Well, such (errors) are quite rare but they do happen,” the agency official admitted. After the alert, Twitter blew up with reactions. “You woke us all for this? It’s not even shaking,” wrote Twitter user @B_SatyaKishore. Another user with the handle @Ayumi511010 suggested the outcome should be seen positively. “We shouldn’t complain that despite last night’s quake alert ‘nothing serious happened,’ but should be happy the quake wasn’t serious. False alarms are welcome. We can see it as a drill that will prepare us for a day when a big one strikes,” the user wrote. False quake alarm?
|
earthquakes;meteorological agency
|
jp0009458
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/10/04
|
Record 37,113 children suspected to have suffered abuse in Japan in first half of 2018
|
The police have referred a record-high 37,113 suspected victims of child abuse to child welfare authorities in the first half of this year, a report released Thursday showed. The preliminary figure marks an increase of 6,851 children age 17 or younger compared to the same period last year, according to the National Police Agency. The agency believes the figures do not necessarily indicate there is a general increase in abuse, but rather that people are reporting more suspected cases to authorities amid heightened public awareness. Police say the increased reporting has allowed early intervention in potentially dangerous situations. “I understand that abuse leaves a serious impact on a child’s mind and body,” Junzo Yamamoto, the new head of the National Public Safety Commission, told a news conference, adding he intends to instruct police to promote measures to help abused children across the country. The issue re-entered the spotlight in March after the death of 5-year-old Yua Funato in Tokyo. Police suspect she was beaten and neglected by her parents. The case sent shock waves throughout society when it was reported that Funato had recorded messages pleading for forgiveness in a notebook, all while her parents allegedly underfed her in order to keep the young girl “slim like a model.” The girl was also allegedly woken up at 4 a.m. every day to practice writing and to carry out other tasks. Following her death, the government compiled emergency measures to tackle child abuse, including a plan to employ an additional 2,000 child welfare staff nationwide by fiscal 2022, up from the 3,253 employed as of April last year. The latest report showed police also removed 2,127 children from their homes in the six months through June, deeming that their lives had been threatened, while forwarding 14,869 abuse reports to government child consultation centers that they could not immediately confirm, according to the report. Of the 37,113 minors affected, roughly 70 percent, or 26,415, were suspected of having been subject to psychological abuse, including 16,869 who had witnessed domestic violence. A total of 6,792 victims were suspected to have suffered physical abuse, 3,795 were believed to have been neglected, and 111 were thought to have been raped or forced into some other form of violent sexual activity, the report showed. The number of child pornography cases handled by police rose to a record 1,423 in the first half of the year, up 281. The number of cases involving possession of illegal materials increased, while cases where people were suspected of making explicit content involving children decreased.
|
crime;survey;sex crimes;minors;child abuse;npa
|
jp0009459
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/10/05
|
U.S. seeks deeper farm tariff cuts than in Japan-EU pact: Sonny Perdue
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WASHINGTON - The United States will push Japan to reduce tariffs on agricultural products beyond levels agreed to under a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue indicated Thursday. “We think frankly that we are a better ally of Japan than the European Union is and we would expect to have an equal or better deal than Japan gave the European Union regarding agriculture,” Perdue told journalists. The remark came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed last week to start negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement on goods based on the understanding that Washington will not demand deeper farm tariff cuts than levels in Japan’s trade pacts such as the Japan-EU FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-member regional FTA. “We’ve been a great protectionist of Japan and their country for many years and this is what President Trump is saying,” Perdue said. According to a joint statement issued after an Abe-Trump meeting on Sept. 26 in New York, the two governments agreed that in conducting trade negotiations, they will “respect” positions of the other party. “For Japan, with regard to agricultural, forestry and fishery products, outcomes related to market access as reflected in Japan’s previous economic partnership agreements constitute the maximum level,” the statement said. The Japanese government responded on Friday by saying it will act based on the agreement reached between Abe and Trump. “I refrain from making any comment on remarks from every single U.S. official,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo. Levels of trade liberalization under the Japan-EU FTA are similar to those under the TPP, from which Trump withdrew the United States last year. Japan has made larger concessions on wine, spaghetti and soft cheese with Europe in comparison to the TPP, whose members include Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Singapore. Under the Japan-EU pact, Japan will eliminate tariffs on 94 percent of all imports from the European Union, including 82 percent of agriculture and fishery products. Japan and the European Union — which signed the pact in July — aim to put the FTA into force by late March next year, when the U.K. is scheduled to leave the 28-member bloc. Sources also said Thursday that Washington and Tokyo are arranging an economic dialogue in mid-November in Japan involving Vice President Mike Pence and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso. The topic of the Pence-Aso meeting could turn to negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, which Toshimitsu Motegi, the economic and fiscal policy minister, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last month agreed to begin.
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u.s .;tpp;trade;fta;japan;donald trump;sonny perdue;japan-eu fta
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jp0009460
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/10/05
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Nikkei loses further ground, ending at 23,783
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Stocks lost further ground Friday, weighed down by continued selling to cash in gains following a recent rapid advance. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 191.90 points, or 0.8 percent, to end at 23,783.72 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On Thursday, it shed 135.34 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 8.54 points, or 0.47 percent, at 1,792.65, after retreating 1.54 points the previous day. Both market gauges fell for the third straight session. The Tokyo market came under selling pressure following Wall Street’s downturn on Thursday. “A speed correction continued” for stock prices following the recent surge, Chihiro Ota, general manager for investment research and investor services at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., said, noting the losses were “mild” thanks to a wave of buying on dips. An official of a midsize securities firm said, “Selling to square positions emerged ahead of a three-day weekend.” The Tokyo market will be closed on Monday for a national holiday. A wait-and-see mood prevailed prior to the announcement of U.S. jobs data for September later on Friday, Akira Tanoue, senior investment strategist at Nomura Securities Co., said. Tanoue said he believes the market’s downside was supported by purchases of exchange-traded funds by the Bank of Japan. Falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 1,506 to 536 in the TSE’s first section, while 68 issues were unchanged. Volume fell to 1.489 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.590 billion shares. High-tech issues, including semiconductor-related Tokyo Electron and Sumco as well as electronic parts supplier Murata Manufacturing, met with selling after their U.S. peers lost ground on Thursday. Oil companies JXTG, Inpex, Showa Shell and Idemitsu were also downbeat, reflecting lower crude oil prices. Other major losers included clothing retailer Fast Retailing and cosmetics maker Shiseido. By contrast, retailer FamilyMart Uny Holdings attracted purchases after revising up on Thursday its consolidated earnings projections for the half year that ended in August. Also on the plus side were drugmaker Shionogi and advertising agency Dentsu. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average dropped 100 points to 23,820.
|
stocks;nikkei;topix
|
jp0009461
|
[
"world",
"social-issues-world"
] |
2018/10/05
|
India deports seven Rohingya men to Myanmar despite U.N. protest
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NEW DELHI - India on Thursday deported seven Rohingya men to Myanmar despite U.N. warnings that they faced persecution in a country where the army is accused of genocide against the Muslim minority. The men, who had been in detention for immigration offenses since 2012, were handed over to Myanmar authorities at a border crossing in India’s northeast state of Manipur. “Seven Myanmarese nationals have been deported today. They were handed over to the authorities of Myanmar at Moreh border post,” said senior Assam police officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta. Photos showed the seven men seated in a bus bound for the border in the remote hilly state bordering Myanmar’s far northwest. The U.N. had voiced concern that returning the men ignored the danger they faced in Myanmar, where for decades the Rohingya have been targeted in violent pogroms by security forces. A U.N. special rapporteur had warned India risked breaking international laws on refoulement — the return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they could be harmed. Legal efforts to stymie their deportation failed when India’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition on their behalf and upheld their status as illegal immigrants. “Even the country of their origin has accepted them as its citizens,” a three-judge bench said. The Rohingya are despised by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which refuses to recognize them as citizens and falsely labels them “Bengali” illegal immigrants. They were concentrated in Rakhine state, the epicenter of a Myanmar army offensive that over the past year has driven 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh. Myanmar’s army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting its campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents. But a U.N. fact-finding mission said there was enough evidence to merit prosecution of several top Myanmar military commanders for crimes against humanity and genocide against Rohingya civilians. India’s decision “to deport seven Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar is cruel and could put lives at risk of persecution including torture and potential death,” said John Quinley III, a human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, a non-profit organization. New Delhi considers the Rohingya a security threat, pointing to intelligence which it says links the minority group to extremist organizations. The government had ordered last year that all Rohingya inside India — New Delhi puts the figure at 40,000 — be deported. The Supreme Court is considering a petition challenging the order as unconstitutional. The U.N. says there are 16,000 registered Rohingya in India.
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india;myanmar;u.n .;rohingya;rakhine;ethnic cleansing
|
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