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jp0009905
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Chinese A-list actress Fan Bingbing last seen in June amid culture crackdown
|
BEIJING/SHANGHAI - Fan Bingbing, an A-list Chinese movie star who has appeared in the “X-Men” and “Iron Man” film franchises, has more than 62 million followers online in China and fronted campaigns for Montblanc watches and De Beers diamonds, has disappeared. The star’s vanishing act — she dropped off the radar in June when reports started to swirl that she was involved in a probe into tax evasion in the film industry — has sparked wild speculation in China about her fate, including reports the actress had been detained. Reuters was unable to contact Fan and calls to her agent went unanswered. When asked about Fan, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry replied: “Do you think this is a question of diplomacy?” The Beijing Public Security Bureau declined to comment. The real-life drama has been playing out at a time when Beijing is tightening the reins on popular culture, looking to stamp out behavior seen as going against the ruling Communist Party’s ideological line and co-opting movie stars, pop bands and online celebrities to endorse socialist values. “It is written in our new movie promotion law that entertainers need to pursue both professional excellence and moral integrity,” said Si Ruo, a researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University. “In the unbridled growth of the industry in the past few years, we might have overlooked the need for positive energy, so the government’s intervention is reasonable.” Fan Bingbing is the most prominent example. The actress, 36, is China’s equivalent of Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence. She topped Forbes’ China celebrity rich list last year with earnings of 300 million yuan ($43.78 million). A Chinese TV anchor in May was widely reported to have posted tax-dodging pay agreements online known as “yin-yang” contracts — one setting out the real agreed payment terms and a second with a lower figure for the tax authorities — that appeared to implicate Fan. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that Fan’s studio denied she had ever signed separate contracts for a single job. China’s tax bureau said in June it was launching a tax evasion investigation into the film and television industry. But the culture clean-up is more widespread, snaring video games, online bloggers and rap artists. Critics say it threatens to stifle creativity in some sectors, and is hitting the bottom lines of firms such as tech and gaming giant Tencent. State-run media have begun using phrases such as “tainted artists,” with official bodies pledging to ban stars who behave badly, including drug taking, gambling or visiting prostitutes. An open letter earlier this month from members of the Beijing Trade Association for Performances said the body would “purify” the city’s entertainment and performance sector and guide artists towards “core socialist values.” “Celebrities are seen as a weapon in the Party’s ideological battle, which is fought across all sectors all the time,” said Jonathan Sullivan, Director of China Programmes at the University of Nottingham. China has long sought to control the creative arts, from censoring movies to literature. However, a boom in online media has prompted a new push to cleanse the arts world, as President Xi Jinping looks to tighten his grip over a huge and diverse cultural scene popular with China’s youth. That drive has created a dragnet that has swept over the creative arts, leaving few unaffected. Fangu, a grunge band from Beijing, which has toured across China, said it had hit an issue with its name, which translates literally as “anti-bone,” though means something closer to “rebellious spirit.” The band was forced to change its name this week ahead of a concert in Shanghai. “The relevant bodies do not allow the word ‘anti’ so we have to change the name temporarily,” said Qi Tian, an assistant to the band. Game-makers have had to tweak their offerings to add patriotic Chinese elements. Others have simply seen approvals withheld. Big media platforms have been rapped for not censoring their content enough and some have had to take sites offline. A report this month from a state university and circulated in official media, ranked Chinese stars in order of their social responsibility, including their moral conduct — underscoring an increasingly puritanical focus on good behavior. Fan came in last place with zero points. The ongoing shake-up is also hitting China’s burgeoning movie and entertainment industry hard. Share prices of related companies tanked after the government probe was announced and many are conducting self-checks on their tax situations. Claire Dong, partner and attorney at Beijing-based Tiantai law firm, said there has been a surge of consulting requests since Fan got into hot water. New policies are swiftly eroding the favorable tax treatment that actors and artists once enjoyed. “This is what the government needed to do,” Dong said. “The government needed to guide the actors to be more focused on acting, not money making.”
|
china;film;celebrities;taxes;rights;police
|
jp0009906
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Cancer cases projected to dip amid decline in smoking, stomach infections
|
An estimated 1,013,600 people in Japan will be diagnosed with cancer this year, down 400 from last year, the National Cancer Center said Saturday. The center said the estimated number of patients topped 1 million in 2016 amid the aging of the population and has remained high but not increased significantly. This year’s slight decrease is partly due to a decline in stomach cancer as helicobacter pylori infection rates fall among the younger generations and as fewer men smoke. For women, the cancer rate is increasing, but at a slower pace. The estimated number of new male patients is 574,800, and female patients were put at 438,700. The center estimates the number of patients with colon cancer at 152,100, stomach cancer at 128,700, lung caner at 125,100 and female breast cancer at 86,500. “It is necessary to lower smoking rates further,” said Fumihiko Wakao, director at the national institute’s Center for Cancer Control and Information Services. “We have to enhance the accuracy of medical examinations and participation rates.” The center also said the number of diagnoses came to 867,408 in 2014. The center used to release only an estimated nationwide number of patients, based on data from prefectures whose statistical methods were considered accurate. As the accuracy of such methods has improved nationwide, the center released the actual figure for the first time.
|
medicine;health;cancer;diseases
|
jp0009907
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Swine fever virus in Gifu found to be variant new to Japan
|
The type of swine fever virus recently detected at a pig farm in the city of Gifu had not been found before in Japan, the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization said. The variant, seen elsewhere in Asia and in Europe, was confirmed through genetic analysis, the institute said Friday, adding that it is highly likely it came from abroad. Also on Friday, the Gifu Prefectural Government said the carcass of a wild boar found about 8 km from the farm Thursday also tested positive for swine fever, which is also known as hog cholera. The infection was confirmed by a detailed examination at the institute and may be spreading through the boar population, the prefectural government said Saturday. The farm ministry urged all prefectures to carry out swine fever tests if any more dead boars turn up. The prefectural governments were also instructed to inspect all pig farms within 10 km of places where dead boars are found. Hog cholera is endemic in Asia but does not affect humans even if an infected animal is consumed. The disease, which only affects pigs and wild boars, has a fatality rate of nearly 100 percent. It is the first time since 1992 that a hog cholera infection has been confirmed in Japan. The government declared the virus eradicated in 2007.
|
food;health;animals;gifu prefecture;diseases
|
jp0009908
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/15
|
JAXA launch of ISS supply ship delayed again, this time by equipment flaw
|
TANEGASHIMA, KAGOSHIMA PREF. - A rocket launch to resupply the International Space Station was delayed again on Saturday by a “serious” equipment problem, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said. “We faced a rather serious issue,” Koki Nimura, senior chief engineer at MHI, which developed the rocket, told a news conference. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was scheduled to launch the H-IIB rocket with the Kounotori7 cargo ship from Tanegashima Space Center, Kagoshima Prefecture, early in the morning following a delay on Tuesday caused by bad weather. The decision follows a problem in the valve used to adjust pressure in a fuel tank. It may take more than a week to fix the flaw, JAXA said. The cargo ship will carry food and other necessities to the ISS. The delay will not immediately affect the space station, JAXA said.
|
iss;space;jaxa;astronomy
|
jp0009909
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Japan on brink of IWC pullout after losing vote on commercial whaling plan
|
FLORIANOPOLIS, BRAZIL - Japan’s determined bid to return to commercial whale hunting has been rejected by the International Whaling Commission in a tense vote that left the 72-year old organization at a crossroads. Masaaki Taniai, vice minister for fisheries, said he “regretted” the vote’s outcome Friday and threatened Tokyo’s withdrawal from the 89-member body if progress cannot be made toward a return to commercial whaling. “If scientific evidence and diversity is not respected, if commercial whaling is completely denied … Japan will be pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC,” he said. Joji Morishita, Japan’s IWC commissioner, declined to comment when asked if this was Japan’s last appearance at the IWC, an organization he has chaired for the past two years. His term ended Friday. Minutes after the meeting, he said that the differences with anti-whaling nations were “very clear” and that Japan will now plan its “next steps.” Anti-whaling nations led by Australia, the European Union and the United States defeated Japan’s “Way Forward” proposal in a 41-27 vote. Japan had sought consensus for its plan but had been forced to push the proposal to a vote “to demonstrate the resounding voices of support” for a return to sustainable whaling for profit, Taniai said. Pacific and Caribbean island nations as well as Nicaragua and several African countries, including Morocco, Kenya and Tanzania, voted with Japan, as did Laos and Cambodia. South Korea abstained. The body’s identity crisis was clear in a week of often robust exchanges between pro- and anti-whaling nations. Morishita said a decision lies ahead over whether whaling can be managed in the future by “a different organization or a combination of different organizations.” The large Japanese delegation sent to the event will “assess the result of this meeting very carefully back in Japan,” Morishita said. The IWC was set up in 1946 to conserve and manage the world’s whale and cetacean population. It introduced a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 after some species had been fished to near extinction. Tokyo currently observes the moratorium but exploits a loophole to kill hundreds of whales every year for “scientific purposes” as well as to sell the meat. A Japanese withdrawal would have far-reaching consequences for the organization, given support from a growing number of developing states in the IWC. They say the IWC’s mandate is both to conserve and manage — meaning to sustainably hunt — recovering whale stocks, but that the emphasis within the organization has leaned too far toward conservation, leaving pro-whaling nations without a voice. To add insult to injury from Japan’s point of view, the IWC adopted Brazil’s “Florianopolis Declaration,” which envisages whale protection in perpetuity. That agreement is nonbinding but anti-whaling states championed it as an important indicator of the IWC’s future direction. Taniai said the result of the vote on the Japanese proposal was a “denial of the possibility for governments with different views to coexist with mutual understanding and respect within the IWC.” Australian Commissioner Nick Gales rejected “the narrative of underlying dysfunction and intolerance” suggested by Japan. He urged Tokyo to remain in the organization “to continue to argue for its view and work constructively with all members.” Japan’s “Way Forward” included the establishment of a “Sustainable Whaling Committee” within the IWC, and a conference to amend the body’s voting rules, changing them from requiring a two-thirds majority to a simple majority. Anti-whaling NGOs cheered the result, but it seems clear from the weeklong meeting in Florianopolis that Japan’s impatience with its fellow members is growing. Kitty Block, head of the animal charity Humane Society International, said “the IWC’s moral compass” had led it to reject Japan’s proposal. “It’s clear from exchanges this week that those countries here fighting for the protection of whales are not prepared to have the IWC’s progressive conservation agenda held hostage to Japan’s unreasonable whaling demands.” Glenn Inwood, of Opes Oceani, a company that analyses developments in the use of ocean resources, says there is no longer much of an economic or political case for Japan remaining in the body. “Japan invests tens of millions of dollars each year into its whaling activities but gains very little from the IWC despite being its biggest benefactor,” said Inwood, a former spokesman for the Japanese delegation.
|
animals;endangered;whaling;iwc
|
jp0009910
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Does Kansai need three international airports?
|
Twenty-four years after Kansai airport’s opening, Typhoon Jebi roared through, flooding the main runway, parts of the main terminal building and dislodging a tanker in the adjacent bay that drifted into the facility’s connecting bridge. By the end of Tuesday, Sept. 4, leaders in the Kansai region finally understood that their international manufacturing and tourism sectors were reliant on an airport just a few meters above sea level, reachable mostly via a structurally vulnerable bridge. Over the next few days, they rushed to restore whatever domestic and international flights they could at undamaged Terminal 2 and Runway B, despite questions about whether economic concerns over a closed airport were taking priority over safety questions about the bridge. Kansai airport now aims to restore all passenger flights by Sept. 21. International and domestic flights are slowly returning, and about 30 percent of the total number of pre-typhoon flights are back in operation. But getting there from Osaka, Kyoto or Kobe takes longer than usual due to limited bus service and the fact that, as of last week, the trains were still not running. Many Kansai visitors thus switched to Nagoya’s Chubu airport (about an hour and a half by train from Kyoto Station) or booked international flights out of Narita and Haneda airports via Osaka’s Itami airport. Flights were leaving Kansai airport last week about half full. Despite Kansai airport’s quicker than expected recovery, efforts are underway to turn Kobe airport (over an hour from Kansai airport by bus and train, or a high-speed ferry across Osaka Bay) and Itami airport (30 minutes from Osaka Station) into “temporary” international airports and operate 35 round-trip international and domestic flights total. How long it might be until those airports are ready to accept international flights is unclear. There are the obvious preparations needed at both airports, including the installation of customs, quarantine and immigration facilities. Discussion is also needed with the airlines, especially the international airlines. Local news reports give the impression that Kansai’s leaders are worried mostly about Japanese airlines getting domestic and international slots at Itami and Kobe and not whether major international airlines could, and would, quickly agree to use either airport. Many international airlines at Kansai airport are East Asian low-cost carriers. If landing fees at Itami or Kobe are cheaper, would they return to Kansai airport and its higher landing fees? And as international cargo flights are rerouting elsewhere, how easily, and cheaply, can they return to Kansai? Especially if other airports offer, as they surely will, enticements for them to remain. And what about Kobe and Itami airports? One finds it difficult to believe they will happily relinquish the extra flights once Kansai airport is back to 100 percent operations. Especially Kobe airport, where Kobe officials feel somewhat left out of the tourism boom benefitting other parts of the Kansai region. It’s no secret many Kansai leaders have always wanted Kobe and Itami to be permanent international airports. If that happens, Kansai would be the only place in Japan with three international airports, a potential competitive advantage over all other regions, including Tokyo and its two international airports. With the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka next year, plus — so they hope — the 2025 World Expo, as well as plans for a casino resort aimed at foreign visitors, one can easily envision Kansai’s leaders in the smoke-filled backrooms of the Diet and the transport ministry arguing that the time is right for three permanent Kansai international airports, a form of regional revitalization that would assert benefits not only for Kansai in the short and medium term, but all of Japan in the long term. Possibly. But the transport ministry would be wise to first ensure three international airports are truly needed. Not only during the current tourist boom and for one-time international events, but in the future, when the population of the Kansai region is much older and smaller. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.
|
osaka;disasters;airports;kansai airport;typhoon jebi
|
jp0009911
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Japanese media face hostility in disaster coverage on social media
|
Typhoon Jebi caused all sorts of damage when the storm — the most powerful in 25 years to hit the country — tore through western Japan earlier this month. The typhoon wreaked havoc wherever it went, even damaging the roof of Kyoto Station, sending shards of glass raining down on people below . Many on Twitter expressed shock at the footage. However, among the responses were messages from media organizations. Japanese TV programs (and some international journalists) reached out to the user who uploaded the video, @CRAZY904kaz, asking to use the footage on television or get in touch via direct message. The response from other netizens ranged from condemnation of their desire for sensational imagery over people’s safety , amusing images and simple utterances of “ Dame ” (“Stop”). This reaction played out on all kinds of social media posts during Typhoon Jebi, and it happened again following the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in Hokkaido. It’s been a recurring occurrence in a year where the biggest stories in Japan have involved extreme weather, and it happens any time people post photos or videos from where a major story unfolds. It captures people creating memes based on the news, but it also reflects how a large number of Japanese netizens distrust traditional media. As social media sites such as Twitter have become the go-to destination for news in the digital age, they have also become destinations for journalists and media companies looking for sources. It’s also common in the United States, and can be a bit more macabre — a prominent example coming when media members tried to get information from students stuck at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida during the shooting in February. Embedding tweets or other content such as photos and videos into an online article is also slippery territory , but in Japan it generally doesn’t receive much criticism from netizens when, say, Buzzfeed (or, heck, The Japan Times ) posts stories built around social media posts. When traditional media come in, however, the situation changes. Let’s focus on the recent typhoon again, as it generated the most interaction online. Whenever someone posted a viral video — of, say, scaffolding falling off a building — a TV channel would wade in to try to connect with the user. Then other Twitter users would swoop in to lecture the station , telling the network to “ stop ” its approach or share a meme . As many on message boards pointed out in threads focused on the reaction , it doesn’t appear to matter if the original poster agreed with the request, third parties would just jump in and speak for them. At their most altruistic, users urged people — including reporters — not to go out in dangerous conditions, even if they did so in somewhat condescending ways . Or they shared a chart that apparently shows how much one should be paid for content that appears in media. Others highlighted the myriad rules that TV stations follow. Watching dozens of users make fun of whomever had to manage the news program’s Twitter account for the day feels like the sort of irreverent trolling that dominates many corners of social media. Yet it also leads to plenty of other griping about the media, ranging from people criticizing them for flying helicopters over areas in Hokkaido that had been hit by landslides to getting angry at the people and institutions the media tends to criticize in these situations. And then there’s images of Osaka Station being empty — save for camera people . It was a reminder of how many netizens approach the Japanese media with hostility, dubbing them “masu gomi” (a slang phrase that means “trash”). That term has been around long before the web became central to discourse, but it has since taken off digitally. Anytime a natural disaster happens, examples of the media acting badly appear, whether it’s a camera crew being shooed away from a school following this year’s Osaka earthquake to news reports happening on top of rubble in Fukushima Prefecture. The actions can turn political pretty quickly — masu gomi was basically “fake news” before U.S. President Donald Trump even opened his Twitter account — but it also tends to be deployed by both sides of the spectrum. Whether motivated by ideology or good old-fashioned trolling, expect to see this interaction between media and netizens play out again and again for the foreseeable future. However, if the whole thing makes you roll your eyes, you aren’t alone. Plenty of online observers see this back-and-forth and just find it annoying. They just want the news.
|
earthquakes;disasters;typhoons;japan pulse
|
jp0009913
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/09/15
|
Japanese athletes under fire after Asian Games scandal
|
When four members of Japan’s national basketball team were sent home from the Asian Games last month for patronizing prostitutes, the resulting scandal capped almost a year’s worth of bad publicity for sports in Japan. Over this time we’ve had allegations of “power harassment” raised against the Japan Wrestling Federation, the premeditated dangerous tackle by a member of the Nihon University American football team, accusations of misuse of funds by the Japan Amateur Boxing Federation, and charges of physical abuse and harassment in gymnastics. As media critic Minako Saito wrote in her Sept. 5 Tokyo Shimbun column, these stories are like something out of a comic book where good and evil are clearly delineated. Real life is never so Manichean, but the media play it out that way, and sometimes it’s difficult to get a sense of what’s really going on. In a Sept. 1 Tokyo Shimbun column about online media, Junichiro Nakagawa claimed that TV has led the charge against the miscreants in these scandals because they work in amateur sports, which “don’t have a deep relationship with television,” or, at least, not as deep as professional baseball does. TV reporters can cover the scandals any way they want without worrying about repercussions. It’s easy to make Japan Amateur Boxing Federation President Akira Yamane into a villain because of his gangster-like appearance and demeanor. Nakagawa repeatedly uses the term “ nōkin ,” an abbreviation of the phrase “ nō miso ga kinniku ,” which means “the brain is a muscle,” an insult commonly directed at people in sports, especially administrators who were once athletes themselves. The feeling is that they run things based on entrenched tradition without ever questioning that tradition, so when a scandal erupts they appear clueless. The basketball scandal is no different, though the focus on sex makes it more problematic for the mainstream media. The tabloid media has no problem at all, and while that gives them an advantage in terms of ethical guidelines — they aren’t expected to follow any — it also highlights their culpability in sustaining the attitudes that give rise to such scandals. The weekly Shincho’s coverage of the basketball story was typical. Describing the news conference with the four disgraced athletes after their return from Jakarta as a “public execution,” the magazine revealed its stance, which is that the matter was blown out of proportion by the mainstream press, who kept demanding the players apologize to the nation in humiliating fashion. These young men’s lives, and not just their careers, have been destroyed. “They were treated like the worst criminals,” said the writer, who proceeded to explain their crime from the standpoint of someone who might have done the same thing if he had been in their situation — although he would have been smarter about it. According to Shincho, the scandal was a confluence of three factors: too much beer after a preliminary victory in the tournament, a team rule obligating the players to wear their uniforms when there were out in public and the players’ naivete. When they left the drinking establishment after midnight, the players were approached by prostitutes and followed them to a hotel. An Asahi Shimbun photographer was hanging around and saw the initial exchange. The photographer even took pictures. Shincho reinforces its position with quotes from sources whose take on the scandal is not sports-related. A Japanese reporter who lives in Jakarta explains how the neighborhood where the players drank has become more amenable to prostitution in recent years. The editor of a magazine about the Asian sex trade compared Indonesian prostitutes to those from other countries (“more polite than Thais or Filipinos,” “more service for less money”). A sociologist lamented “society’s demand” that athletes be saintlier than “regular people.” And media maven Dave Spector commented about the ridiculousness of holding athletes to higher moral standards when “all they want to do is play sports.” Shincho questioned the Asahi Shimbun’s decision to report the players’ late night rendezvous, implying that the newspaper, acting out of a smug sense of journalistic professionalism, not only ruined these players’ lives but brought attention to this area of Jakarta and, at least temporarily, scared away business. The reporter added that South Korea was probably happy about the scandal. Shincho wasn’t alone. Twitter and other social media were filled with complaints about the Asahi Shimbun, whom some accused of purposely wrecking Japan’s basketball chances at the Asian Games, although most of these critics hate the media organization to begin with. The newspaper declined to comment on the record for Shincho, although if they had they could have pointed out that athletes participating in international competitions can be disqualified for buying prostitutes. As reporter Yuko Shimazawa asked in an Aug. 22 article in Business Insider Japan, Didn’t these four players know about the campaigns, supported by numerous world athletic bodies, to prevent trafficking at international sports events? Probably not, she assumed. The U.S. State Department issued a report in June in which Japan was ranked among the worst tier one countries in the world in terms of prostitution and trafficking and has no effective penalties in place. (Governments in tier one countries fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards.) This lack of accountability is an outcome of Japan’s poor comprehension of human rights, Shimazawa says. Bolstering this attitude are the twin beliefs that nothing can be done about men’s desire for sex and that male athletes need sex to relieve the tension generated by competition. The mainstream press crucifies players for revealing that Japanese athletes can’t transcend these impulses, while the tabloid press dismisses the scandal as merely a boys-will-be-boys thing. Both implicitly blame the prostitutes, because male athletes don’t know any better. That’s as good an illustration of “muscles for brains” as you’re going to get.
|
basketball;sports;nihon university;asian games;japan wrestling federation
|
jp0009914
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/09/15
|
The long struggle to become international
|
Sea-girt Japan and sea-girt Britain responded differently to the sea’s challenge. The sea that drew Britain outward hemmed Japan in. The Japanese, by and large, are an inward people. Exceptions only prove the rule. Two major ones, centuries apart, are priests and pirates. Eighth-century Japan was an infant civilization. Its prehistory had been long. Awakened at last, Japan drank eagerly from the source: China, then at its creative peak. Its capital, Chang’an, was to the East what Jerusalem was to the Christian West — the center of the world. The 800 kilometers of stormy sea separating Japan from China barred rather than opened the way. The Japanese were neither seafarers nor shipbuilders. But Buddhist priests and scholars needed texts; they needed instruction. The books to be studied, the masters to study under, were in China. Between 607 and 838 Japan dispatched 19 missions to China — in boats that were “a mere assembly of planks and poles,” as historical novelist Ryotaro Shiba (1923-96) put it. A third of those who set out never returned. Those who did — sometimes after 30 years of study and religious austerities — returned laden with books, knowledge and administrative skills. To them, Japan owes the main outlines of its early civilization. Abruptly in 838 the missions broke off. Japan had matured. It could now stand on its own, and was determined to. It became a “closed country” long before its more famous withdrawal in the 17th century. In between, we find Japan known abroad mainly for its pirates. “During the 15th century,” writes historian George Bailey Sansom (1883-1965), “the Japanese were known and feared as corsairs along all the shores of eastern Asia. … Thus when Europeans first entered the Pacific, the Japanese had already emerged from a seclusion which geography rather than temperament had imposed upon them.” But geography shapes temperament, at least to some degree, and the 220-year seclusion that ended with an incursion by the American navy in the 1850s was not generally felt as a prison, though it was one — leaving the country and entering it were capital offenses. Only toward the end, as the system broke down, did the cage seem confining. Otherwise, culture flourished, commerce thrived, and the “great peace” that characterized the Edo Period (1603-1868) was by any standards a remarkable achievement. A revolution — the Meiji Restoration of 1868 — brought a modernizing government to power, and slowly the prison walls came down. Emigration was legalized in 1885 and was in fact officially encouraged; Japan had too many mouths to feed. Hawaii was the first major destination. The sugar plantations there needed laborers. So did California fruit farms. A commonplace of world civilization at last penetrated Japan: migration. Migrants en masse competing with native laborers for wages are rarely popular. By 1900 there were some 100,000 Japanese in the U.S., 24,000 of them in California. Rising tensions came to be known on the American side as the “yellow peril.” Jingoists ranted; cooler heads prevailed. An informal binational Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1907 obliged Japan to voluntarily suspend emigration to the U.S. The U.S., in return, quashed a San Francisco school board plan to force Japanese and other Asian children into segregated schools. In 1903 a young Japanese writer named Kafu Nagai (Sokichi Nagai, 1879-1959) arrived in Seattle. He was neither farmer nor laborer. His father was a bureaucrat-turned-businessman, a Confucian scholar of the old school who intended his son to follow in his footsteps. Kafu wanted to write novels. America would knock that nonsense out of him, thought his father. It didn’t, and the novels and stories Kafu went on to write, over a long and distinguished career, remain literary landmarks to this day. “Amerika Monogatari” (“American Stories”) was published on his return to Japan in 1908. It was enthusiastically received. Here was America served raw — a young, feverish, enterprising, lusty country, a mirror image, in a sense, of Meiji Era (1868-1912) Japan, minus the anchor and fetters of an ancient past. Kafu roamed restlessly, studying English here, bank-clerking there, dabbling in Christianity, reading, writing, observing — always observing. Some of his stories feature Japanese migrants. The reader gets the idea: The “better life” aspired to is sometimes attained, but more often is not. Either way, the price is high. In one story, Kafu and a friend, cycling around Tacoma, Washington, pass an insane asylum. There are Japanese patients there, says the friend. Tell me about them, says Kafu. I’ll tell you about one of them, says the friend — and the story unfolds, of a farmer from Hiroshima Prefecture, seduced by tales of boundless riches across the ocean: “Three years’ hard work, 10 years’ wealth and happiness.” He and his wife make the crossing. Landing in Seattle, they are set upon by lodging touts, labor brokers, who knows who — thieving riffraff preying on helpless newcomers, demanding outrageous commissions. The woman gets a job in a laundry; the man is taken to a lumber camp deep in the mountains to join three Japanese loggers. The loggers are friendly and helpful. They know what the newcomer is going through. They’ve been through it themselves. “What? You left your wife alone in Seattle?” Greenhorn! Innocent! They’ll rape her, sell her into white slavery, you’ll never see her again. What to do? Bring her here, she’ll cook for all of us, and you can have your wife by your side where she belongs. No sooner said than done. All goes well for a time, until, late one rainy night, someone says, “I want to borrow your old woman for the night.” The husband laughs, thinking the man is joking. He is not. The others chime in. Aren’t they all brothers? One woman among four men — is only one man to enjoy her? The husband, having fallen into a faint, “regained consciousness,” the narrator tells Kafu, “but he had lost his mind and was never the same person again. So he ended up being taken to the insane asylum.”
|
japanese history;kafu nagai
|
jp0009915
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/12
|
Melbourne's Herald Sun reprints 'racist' cartoon of Serena Williams
|
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - An Australian newspaper republished a controversial cartoon of tennis star Serena Williams on its front-page Wednesday, dismissing as “politically correct” accusations that the drawing was racist and sexist. Melbourne’s Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight’s caricature of Williams throwing a tantrum at the U.S. Open was originally printed on Monday, attracting widespread condemnation from around the world. Under the front-page headline “WELCOME TO PC WORLD,” the newspaper wrote Wednesday that “if the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, our new politically correct life will be very dull indeed.” The cover included caricatures of other Australian and foreign political leaders drawn by Knight. The veteran cartoonist added Wednesday he had suspended his Twitter account to protect his family and friends. Prior to disabling his account, his tweet of the cartoon had attracted more than 22,000 comments, most of them critical. Knight’s caricature showed a butch and fat-lipped Williams jumping up and down on her broken racquet, having spat out a dummy. Osaka was portrayed as petite and feminine with jet blonde straight hair — in real life she has dark curly hair with blonde streaks and is taller than Williams. Knight labelled the outcry against his cartoon as a sign that the “world has just gone crazy.” “I drew this cartoon Sunday night after seeing the U.S. Open final, and seeing the world’s best tennis player have a tantrum and thought that was interesting,” he said in quotes published on the News Corp. Australia paper’s website Wednesday. “The cartoon about Serena is about her poor behavior on the day, not about race.” The caricature has also sparked renewed debate in Australia about racist and sexist discourse in the highly multicultural nation. Serena, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, smashed her racquet and called the umpire a “thief” and a “liar” while she was losing Saturday’s final to Haitian-Japanese Naomi Osaka. She was she given three code violations by Carlos Ramos, which cost her a point penalty and then a game penalty. Williams, who was fined $17,000 for the three code violations, said after the match male players were held to a lower standard for court conduct. “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and women’s equality,” Williams told a post-match news conference. That sparked a debate about whether she was treated more harshly than male tennis stars like John McEnroe, who was famous for his angry outbursts. Knight’s detractors included author JK Rowling, who said: “Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop.”
|
media;tennis;serena williams;censorship;rights;women;ethnicity;naomi osaka
|
jp0009916
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/12
|
South Korea students gain weight 'to dodge military service'
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SEOUL - Twelve inventive South Korean college students deliberately made themselves overweight to dodge mandatory military service, a branch of the armed forces in Seoul has said. The students — all classical music majors at the same university in the capital — took protein powder and drank a large amount of juice on the day of their physical examination, the Military Manpower Administration said Tuesday. “The classmates shared tips on how to gain weight on an online chat room,” it said, adding they drank an especially large amount of juice containing aloe vera pulp — considered to stay in the body longer than other food. Nearly every able-bodied South Korean man is required to enrol in the military by age 28, for a minimum of 21 months. Those deemed too overweight or underweight, or diagnosed with certain diseases or disabilities, are exempted and usually assigned to positions in places like courts or public libraries. The 12 wily students were judged too overweight for conscription and were ordered to work for government services instead. Two have already finished their public service, while four are currently doing it and six are waiting to be assigned to positions at state offices. The military said it had used “digital forensic technology” to uncover the ruse, suggesting it may have seen messages from the chat room used by the students. Officials have sent the case to prosecutors who will decide whether to charge the group. If the students are later found guilty, they will have to undergo the physical examination again — and may have to serve their time in the military after all, the army warned. Attempts to dodge conscription are not uncommon, with efforts including deliberately dislocating arms or shoulders. Celebrities are not exempted, although the government rewards Asian Games gold medals and Olympic medals of any color with an exemption. Tottenham Hotspur star footballer Son Heung-min recently avoided being called for military service by leading South Korea to a gold medal in the recent Asian Games in Jakarta.
|
military;south korea;offbeat
|
jp0009917
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/09/12
|
Organizers to start accepting applications from prospective Tokyo Games volunteers this month
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Organizers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics said Wednesday they will start accepting applications from prospective volunteers this month, with a goal of recruiting 110,000 people by the end of the year. The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is seeking 80,000 volunteers who are expected to provide services for spectators and support event operations at games-related facilities and the Olympic Village. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, meanwhile, plans to recruit 30,000 volunteers of its own who will mainly provide transport information for tourists and visitors at airports, major railways stations, sightseeing spots in Tokyo and at areas hosting the events. Applications will be accepted from Sept. 26 through early December, the organizers announced at a news conference at the Toranomon Hills complex, where the organizing committee has its office. “The volunteers will play a big role in the games’ success and we’re seeking people willing to support the athletes and spectators, and help liven up the events,” Tokyo 2020 Vice Director-General Yusuke Sakaue said. “We’ve held many events including those at universities, to lure potential volunteers and personally I feel that many people are interested (in volunteering),” he said of his hopes to recruit 80,000 volunteers by the end of this year. With an aim to embrace diversity at the games, the applications will be open to all people, including those with disabilities, regardless of their nationality, Sakaue said. Those who want to participate, however, must have been born on or before April 1, 2002 and need to possess either Japanese nationality or are residing in Japan legally. “We’re not demanding language abilities and a lack of foreign language skills won’t ruin applicants’ chances but such skills will be a plus,” Sakaue added, explaining that foreign residents of Japan will only need to have basic communication skills in Japanese. Akira Tanaka, senior director for games operations at the metropolitan government’s Tokyo 2020 preparations bureau, also stressed the role of the city’s volunteers in displaying Tokyo’s hospitality. “It will be a good opportunity for many people to visit Tokyo … and volunteers (providing support for visitors around the city) will share the responsibility to promote Tokyo’s charm,” he said. The city’s government hopes to recruit some of those who will be volunteering during next year’s Rugby World Cup as well as students at universities in the capital. Tokyo’s “city volunteers” are required to participate in the program for at least five days, while games volunteers will need to sacrifice at least 10 days in total. Applications for the city volunteering program will be accepted by email, fax and online at www.city-volunteer.metro.tokyo.jp/, while those who want to volunteer for the organizing committee can apply online at tokyo2020.org/jp/special/volunteer/ . The results will be announced around September 2019. A training program for volunteers will start the following month.
|
olympics;tokyo 2020;volunteers;tokyo metropolian government
|
jp0009918
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/09/12
|
Free pending retrial, Japanese boxer sentenced to death keeps up the good fight
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HAMAMATSU, SHIZUOKA PREF. - Shuffling down the street sporting shorts, a jacket and straw hat, 82-year-old Iwao Hakamada could be mistaken for any Japanese octogenarian going about his daily chores. But the former boxer has had anything but an ordinary life: He has been living under a death sentence for half a century, thought to be the longest-serving condemned man. The accused murderer finds himself in the extraordinary position of being sentenced to death but free awaiting a possible retrial. Supporters say nearly 50 years of detention, mostly in solitary confinement with the ever-present threat of execution looming over him, have taken a heavy toll on Hakamada’s mental health. He now walks the streets of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, for hours at a time, lost in his own world. When AFP joined him on a sweltering summer day, the former boxer said he was “fighting a bout every day.” “Once you think you can’t win, there is no path to victory,” he said. Though he was talking about boxing, there is a nod to his long battle for justice over his death sentence. Supporter Nobuhiro Terazawa says that “building his fantasy world” was Hakamada’s way of surviving the fear he could be executed at any moment, as well as his decadeslong confinement. “Unlike before, he can walk around freely, but mentally, inmates are kept in isolation suffering the anguish of never knowing when they are going to be put to death — sometimes for decades he still can’t escape from the fears of execution and false charges,” he said. Hakamada’s story began in 1966, when he was arrested on suspicion of robbing and murdering his boss, along with his wife and two teenage children, before burning their house. He initially denied the accusations but later confessed following what he subsequently claimed was a brutal police interrogation that included beatings. He tried to retract his confession but was sentenced to death in 1968, the verdict confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1980. Hakamada sought a retrial and in a rare about-face for the rigid Japanese justice system, the district court in the central city of Shizuoka granted this in 2014. That ruling said investigators could have planted evidence and ordered him freed, adding it was “unbearably unjust” to keep him detained. But the legal back-and-forth did not end there as the Tokyo High Court in June overturned the lower court’s ruling, sending the case back to the Supreme Court. Japan is the only major industrialized democracy other than the United States to carry out capital punishment, which still enjoys broad public support, although debate on the issue is rare. The government recently hanged 13 members of the Aum doomsday cult responsible for a fatal gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. For now, due to his advanced age, authorities have allowed him his freedom, but supporters fear he could be locked up again and potentially executed. Last month, the top prosecutor’s office wrote to the Supreme Court urging a prompt rejection of his appeal to “stop the situation in which the sentence is suspended unnecessarily.” But Hakamada’s sister, Hideko, 85, vows to travel the length and breadth of Japan to proclaim her brother’s innocence. A key piece of evidence used to convict him was a set of bloodstained clothes that emerged more than a year after the crime. Supporters say the clothes did not fit him and the bloodstains were too vivid, given the time elapsed. DNA tests found no link between Hakamada, the clothes and the blood, but the high court rejected the testing methods. Hideko tries to relax her brother, feeding him fresh fruit and vegetables he could not have in prison. “I let him live freely at his pace,” she said. However, she recalls her anger when the Supreme Court rejected her brother’s appeal in 1980. “Everyone looked like an enemy. All the people there, lawyers and supporters included, looked like enemies,” she said. “But Iwao was standing at the gates of hell. I had no choice but to keep going.”
|
capital punishment;death row;iwao hakamada
|
jp0009919
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/09/12
|
Cruel, secretive and politically popular: Japan's death penalty
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Years waiting on death row, inmates told their fate just hours before their execution and guards paid ¥20,000 to do an “unbearable” job — Japan’s capital punishment system is criticized as cruel and secretive, yet remains popular. Unusual for a major industrialized power, capital punishment in Japan enjoys broad public support, with few calls for its abolishment. Inmates are executed not by professionals but by ordinary prison staff who may have been guarding the condemned for months or even years, and who receive extra pay of ¥20,000 ($180) each. “It’s awful, the body bounces like a 70 kilogram object on a nylon rope,” said Toshio Sakamoto, who has witnessed hangings and described the process as “unbearable.” Blindfolded convicts, usually serial murderers, are led to a spot with their feet bound and hands cuffed. Then, a trap-door opens below. The mechanism is triggered by a button in an adjacent room, pressed simultaneously by several officers, although none is told which button is the “live one” that will cause the prisoner’s fall. The guards assigned to carry out the executions “remember the (inmates’) body temperatures, their breathing, their words. … But they must do most of the work,” Sakamoto said. And they received no counseling. They are expected to “digest” the execution themselves, he explained. “There is no worse job,” he said. “The cost of a human life is ¥100,000.” Japan is the only major industrialized democracy other than the United States to carry out capital punishment. The system was thrust into the international spotlight in July when the country hanged 13 Aum cultists, but the secretive methods have come under fire for being cruel for criminals, families and guards. Under law, the death sentence should be carried out six months after being confirmed by the top court. In reality, however, prisoners languish on death row for many years — Japan has a total of 110 awaiting execution. “Prisoners are typically only given a few hours’ notice before execution, but some may be given no warning at all,” said Amnesty International in a recent statement. “Inmates are kept in isolation suffering the anguish of never knowing when they are going to be put to death — sometimes for decades,” added the pressure group. Families are only informed after the execution, noted Amnesty. Munehiro Nishiguchi, a convicted murderer whose appeal against the death sentence is being heard in the Supreme Court, said the news of the Aum cult executions came as “an indescribable shock.” “I feel I’m such a pathetically weak person,” he wrote in a letter to Yo Nagatsuka, who filmed a documentary exploring public perceptions of capital punishment in Japan. “I have realized the real punishment or agony from the death sentence is the fear you feel until the day comes,” he also wrote. Former guard Sakamoto notes that a high reliance on confessions and a conviction rate of well over 90 percent allows room for coercion and false charges. The government cites broad public support as a reason to maintain capital punishment, but there is little public debate as the whole process is veiled in secrecy. The authorities have just once allowed a 30-minute media visit inside the glass-walled execution room in the Tokyo Detention House, arguably the best-kept among Japan’s seven facilities with gallows. A 2014 government survey of about 1,800 people showed 80 percent thought capital punishment was “unavoidable,” with only one in 10 in favor of abolishing it. But 38 percent thought it should be abolished if Japan introduces life imprisonment without parole — something the penal code does not currently allow. One 62-year-old businessman in Tokyo said it would be “insane” to think of scrapping capital punishment. And Mika Koike, a 29-year-old IT engineer, said, “Taking the victims and their families into consideration, I think there is no other clear, absolute way to punish the offenders.” Kotaro Yamakami, a 25-year-old politics student, said murderers should pay in kind. “There is a saying ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ I think it’s unavoidable that those who committed heinous crimes are executed,” he said. But he acknowledged there was an increasing number opposed to the death penalty and urged authorities to consider introducing life imprisonment with no parole. For now, there is no sign that Japan’s leaders are pondering any changes. On July 5, the eve of the executions of seven Aum Shinrikyo cultists, a smiling Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was photographed at a drinking party with fellow politicians, giving the thumbs-up for a collective snapshot with his justice minister, who had signed off on the hanging orders.
|
justice ministry;death row;toshio sakamoto
|
jp0009920
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/12
|
Japan's three-year cancer survival rate at 71%
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The three-year survival rate stood at 71.3 percent for people who were diagnosed with cancer in Japan in 2011, the National Cancer Center said in a survey report Wednesday. The survey covered some 300,000 patients at 268 designated hospitals for cancer treatment and other institutions across the country. The three-year survival rate stood as low as 15.1 percent for pancreatic cancer. The rates were also low for liver and lung cancer, at 53.6 percent and 49.4 percent, respectively. “More research needs to be done to improve the treatment” for such cancers, an official of the cancer center said. This was the first disclosure of three-year cancer survival rates by the cancer center. As five-year survival is widely used as a benchmark for determining a cure for cancer, the center has been releasing survival probabilities. Because it takes time to compile data on five-year survival rates, however, the center decided to disclose data on three-year survival in order to make more up-to-date information available for reviews of treatment plans. The three-year survival rate stood at 74.3 percent for stomach cancer, 78.1 percent for colorectal cancer, 95.2 percent for women’s breast cancer, 52 percent for esophageal cancer, 78.8 percent for cervical cancer, 85.5 percent for uterine cancer, 99 percent for prostate cancer and 73.5 percent for bladder cancer. The five-year survival rate for all types of cancer stood at 65.8 percent for people who were diagnosed with the disease in 2008-2009.
|
cancer;national cancer center;survivial rate
|
jp0009921
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/09/13
|
IWC vote backs aboriginal whale hunts — with new quotas
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SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL - The International Whaling Commission on Wednesday cast a rare strong vote in favor of whale hunting but strictly for small subsistence hunts undertaken by some communities, mostly in the Arctic. The vote confirmed a long-standing commitment to so-called aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) for nutritional and cultural reasons — an exception to the decades-old ban on commercial whaling. But some NGOs feared the vote could help ease the way for a return to full-scale commercial whaling, eagerly being pushed by Japan and other pro-whaling nations at a tense IWC meeting in Brazil. “What the consequences are for the return of commercial whaling is extremely concerning,” said Aimee Leslie of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Ryan Wulff, the U.S. commissioner to the IWC, said the deal “gives our native communities the much-needed flexibility to operate more safely in dangerous environmental conditions that vary from one year to the next.” The issue is highly sensitive because Japan — with the backing of Iceland, Norway and some other nations — is using many of the same cultural arguments to call for a return to commercial whaling. Both pro- and anti-whaling nations came together in a 68-7 vote to set a catch quota of hundreds of minke, fin, humpback and bowhead whales for the next six years for communities in Alaska, Russia, Greenland and Bequia in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Crawford Patkotak, of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, said he wanted to “thank God first of all,” for the vote result. “This means a lot to our people — we live in harsh conditions. This is a great day for us, the people of the north,” Patkotak said. Anti-whaling NGOs and states had raised fears that higher quotas would increase the chances of more widespread whale hunting. They objected to an original plan for automatic renewal of the quotas after six years, and a carry-over of unused quotas from year to year. The WWF said a compromise — under which the IWC scientific committee would oversee the renewal of quotas — did not provide a sufficient safeguard. “They basically gave a green light to auto-renewal without establishing how any concerns or questions will be addressed,” said Leslie. “The lines just keep getting more blurred between the different types of whaling and that is extremely concerning for the future of whales and how whaling will be managed.” Later this week, the IWC will take up Japan’s proposals to return to commercial whaling. “There is massive support for aboriginal subsistence whaling but that is not to say there would be anything like that support for commercial whaling. Far from it,” said one state representative close to the talks. Iceland, which continues to hunt whales in defiance of a 32-year moratorium, welcomed the green-light for aboriginal whale hunts, saying it was a shift in the IWC’s position. Nicolas Entrup of Swiss-based NGO OceanCare accused Iceland of trying to “instrumentalize indigenous people’s rights to go whaling” to gain momentum for wider acceptance of commercial whaling. Patkotak was one of several whaling captains from Alaska and Russia’s Chukotka peninsula to make presentations to the IWC meeting, bringing the cold chill of their real-life problems to the room. The skipper, who represents 150 whaling captains from 11 villages spread over a large swathe of the North Alaska coast, said the quotas were not to be taken lightly, particularly when the IWC had denied them in the past. “This is something we have struggled with for many years — to see this day where we are able to go about our lives in peace without the anxiety to provide for our people,” Patkotak said. The Hawaii-based Whaleman Foundation said both Alaska’s Makah community and Bequia “do not have a true subsistence need” and should not be given quotas to kill whales. The Caribbean island of Bequia has been given a quota to take four whales a year.
|
brazil;iceland;whaling;alaska;greenland;japan;iwc;commercial whaling;aboriginal whaling
|
jp0009922
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/09/13
|
Belongings of student who perished in A-bomb attack, donated to Hiroshima museum
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Yoko Moriwaki, who was 13 at the time of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, is known for the diary she kept until the day before the bombing. The diary is now a symbol of the weapon’s cruelty. Her brother, Koji Hosokawa, 90, an A-bomb survivor living in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward, donated her uniform, air-raid hood, and distorted lunch box to the Peace Memorial Museum. Hosokawa had long kept these mementos of his sister at home. Given his advancing age, he decided to ensure they would be kept safe and secure at the museum in the years to come. On Aug. 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Moriwaki was a student at First Hiroshima Prefectural Girls’ High School who was helping to dismantle buildings to create a firebreak in Dobashi (now part of Naka Ward), about 700 meters from the hypocenter. She was severely burned and died the same night. A total of 301 students and teachers from her school lost their lives in the attack. Moriwaki had made her school uniform by hand, using cloth from her mother’s kimono. Patches that bear her name and the words “Student Corps” were sewn onto the uniform. It is believed Moriwaki changed into her work clothes at the building demolition site, saving her uniform and air-raid hood from being burned in the attack. They were later found and passed on to her family by staff from the school. Hosokawa found Moriwaki’s warped lunch box near the building demolition site with her chopstick pouch lying nearby, serving as a clue. Hosokawa published the book “Yoko Moriwaki’s Diary” in 1996, which is still read today. The diary consists of entries made from the time she entered high school until Aug. 5. The final entry said: “Tomorrow I’ll help clean up at the building demolition site. I will work as hard as I can.” The diary, as well as the fountain pen used to write the entries, which Hosokawa kept, were introduced in a textbook for junior high school students. Four years ago, the diary was published in English in Australia, where it generated a strong response. When the atomic bomb exploded, Hosokawa was about 1.3 km from the hypocenter and managed to survive. He later served as a peace volunteer, guiding visitors through the Peace Memorial Museum and sharing his own A-bomb accounts. He has also dedicated himself to training the “memory keepers” who are inheriting the A-bomb survivors’ experiences and memories. Through his work, Hosokawa has learned about the belongings of the victims and how they silently convey the cruelty of the atomic bomb, the chagrin of the victims, and the grief and sorrow felt by their families. And this is what finally prompted him to part with his sister’s belongings and donate them to the museum. With the establishment of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons last year, visitors to Hiroshima from inside and outside of Japan are likely to increase. “For us, the belongings of the A-bomb victims are not merely objects; they embrace the spirits of both the A-bomb victims and the people who value and cherish them,” Hosokawa said. “I hope that my sister’s possessions will remain etched in the memories of every visitor when they are exhibited at the museum.”
|
hiroshima;atomic bombing;peace memorial museum;yoko moriwaki
|
jp0009923
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/09/14
|
High debt limits China's range of weapons in defending against Trump's tariff blitz
|
Ten years ago, China shielded itself from the global financial crisis with a wall of stimulus. Facing U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught, that feat of self-preservation looks much harder to repeat. The simple reason is that even if President Xi Jinping’s government were to conclude that the economy needed massive spending to keep growth on track, he is hamstrung by China’s huge debt. At over 260 percent of gross domestic product, total debt is more than four times what it was in 2008—and much of that is the legacy of stimulus past. The Xi administration’s two-year drive to tame credit growth has consumed political capital, which makes calibrating a response to a slowing economy amid trade tensions a delicate task for policymakers. “There’s a very strong lobby power in China that’s saying, ‘Domestic activity is weak, the tariff war is escalating, China should react more aggressively to prevent a slowdown,’ ” said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong. But if the government “stops the deleveraging procedure and reverses course, that would be the biggest policy mistake China could make.” The economy started strong in 2018, buoyed by robust global trade. Yet the unexpectedly sharp impact of the campaign to curb credit hit just around the time that higher U.S. tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports took effect and Trump raised the prospect of targeting an additional $200 billion in goods, sending Chinese stocks and the currency into a tailspin. GDP growth is expected to slow to 6.6 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2019. Those predictions don’t factor in Trump’s most recent threats to blanket all Chinese imports with duties, which would slice about 1.3 percentage point off those numbers, according to Morgan Stanley. The impact on employment also would be severe: In a worst-case scenario that envisages an across-the-board 25 percent tariff, China could lose 5.5 million jobs, according to Zhu’s calculations. To keep the economy insulated in a protracted trade war, China may need to sacrifice the progress it has made over the past two years in managing its debt. Beijing has tightened controls on local government finances and imposed restrictions on companies’ overseas investments, which together with other measures have dampened annual credit growth to about 10 percent, from above 12 percent two years ago. Regulators have also reined in the shadow banking sector, steering lending business back to mainstream banks, where it can be more closely monitored. These efforts would have had a more severe impact on economic growth had it not been for some targeted measures. The central bank has cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, freeing up money for lending, and added enticements for investors to extend loans to small businesses. Beijing is also pushing local governments to issue their annual quota of special bonds for infrastructure financing earlier than planned, with more than 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) due to come onto the market from August to October. Some types of big-ticket projects that had been nixed at the height of the belt-tightening campaign—such as new metro lines—may now get the green light. By contrast, real stimulus would involve cutting the central bank’s benchmark interest rate (an unwise move at a time when emerging-market currencies are under pressure), loosening curbs on the property sector, and increasing the size of the fiscal deficit. Steps of that magnitude aren’t likely yet, according to Robin Xing, Morgan Stanley’s Hong Kong-based chief China economist. That is because at the current level of debt, such measures could trigger a crisis by tipping the economy into a vicious cycle where runaway property prices cripple consumer spending. Residents of Beijing and other large cities are already cutting back on purchases in the face of double-digit rent increases. A U.S.-China blowout is not the most likely scenario analysts are contemplating, given renewed efforts by the Trump administration to negotiate a truce. The impact of U.S. tariffs already in place and those in the works could slice about 0.3 percentage point from China’s GDP growth next year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. JPMorgan Chase’s Zhu sees the government paring back its growth target next year to a range of 6 percent to 6.5 percent, vs. about 6.5 percent this year. That would be consistent with Beijing’s long-stated objective of not trying to maximize growth at any cost, but rather steering the $12 trillion economy, which has been slowing as it matures, on a glide path. For the moment, China is still on course to become a “high-income” nation—a World Bank designation for countries with gross national income per capita above about $12,000—within a decade and match the size of the U.S. economy not long after that. Unless those goals begin to look in doubt under the pressure of Trump’s trade war, leaders in Beijing are showing every sign of wanting to just wait it out.
|
china;debt;trade;tariffs
|
jp0009924
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/09/14
|
Foreign Minister Taro Kono tells World Economic Forum that Japan is ready to accept more workers from abroad
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HANOI - Japan is gearing up to accept more foreign workers as its population is on the brink of a steep decline, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Thursday. Kono told a World Economic Forum meeting in Hanoi that Japan gains “value added” by accepting foreign people, especially since its aging population and low birth rate mean the country is shrinking by half a million people a year. “We cannot sustain our society like that,” he said in response to a question during a panel discussion. “We are opening up our country. We are opening up our labor market to foreign countries. We are now trying to come up with a new work permit policy so I think everyone shall be welcome in Japan if they are willing to assimilate into Japanese society.” Japan has traditionally resisted accepting migrant workers, at times easing such restrictions but then re-imposing them during economic downturns. Many Japanese are uncomfortable with outsiders who might not speak their language or conform to expectations for how to behave. Still, there are millions of foreign people living in Japan, including those who work in technical training-related programs or labor-short industries such as restaurants, construction and elderly care. The country has gradually been loosening restrictions to enable families to hire domestic help. It also has short programs to bring in foreign nurses from Indonesia and other countries. But language requirements have made long-term employment in such jobs difficult. Kono cited sports stars including tennis sensation Naomi Osaka, the daughter of a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, as an example of the benefits of welcoming outsiders. Osaka, who was born in Japan but raised in the United States, is being lauded by Japanese following her U.S. Open win. “It’s good to have diversity. It’s good to have an open policy,” Kono said. Also at the meeting, Kono and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh urged the United States to rejoin a sprawling Pacific trade deal, almost two years after President Donald Trump’s withdrawal dealt a major blow to what would have been the world’s largest free trade pact. Trump pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal in one of his first post-election moves as part of his “America First” policy, declaring the 12-nation trade pact a “job killer.” The 11 remaining countries have gone ahead with the deal and it could go into effect by the end of this year, although in a significantly watered-down version without the U.S. They have kept a door open for Washington’s return, and have also not ruled out allowing other countries to join the deal. “We believe TPP is still the best option for (the) United States,” Kono said, speaking at a WEF meeting where concerns over trade protectionism have dominated discussions. “It will be very attractive for American industries, American farmers to join it.” Japan, the largest remaining economy in the TPP, led the charge to keep it alive. The newly rebranded deal, dubbed the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) and which forms a market of 500 million people, could go into effect by the end of 2018, Kono added. Minh echoed Kono’s appeal, calling the deal “a very high-standard agreement.” Vietnam stood to be the biggest winner from U.S. involvement before Trump’s withdrawal from the pact, which would have opened access to U.S. markets for its cheap manufactured goods — from shoes and shirts to mobile phones and computer processors. For smaller signatories like Vietnam, unfettered access to U.S. markets was a major draw. In its original iteration, the free trade bloc would have made up 38 percent of the global economy. Today, the remaining signatories comprise about 13.5 percent. The comments by Japan and Vietnam come after Trump said in April the U.S. could re-enter the agreement if it was a “better” deal. Leaders at this year’s regional WEF summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have railed against protectionism and called for breaking down trade barriers. Trade in the region has grown at breakneck pace in the past decade, transforming some of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries into fast-growing export economies. Earlier at the summit, which closed Thursday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo compared trade disputes to “infinity wars” — a reference to the latest Avengers movie — vowing to fight protectionism. “Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s have trade wars erupted with the intensity that they have today,” said the leader, who is seeking re-election next year. “But rest assured I and my fellow avengers stand ready to prevent Thanos from wiping out half the world population,” he said, referring to the film’s villain.
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world economic forum;tpp;foreign workers;taro kono
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jp0009925
|
[
"world",
"politics-diplomacy-world"
] |
2018/09/14
|
From 'birtherism' to 'deep state,' Puerto Rico death toll joins Trump's conspiracy theory list
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WASHINGTON - The Puerto Rico death toll. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. The 2016 presidential election vote. Hillary Clinton and her emails. President Donald Trump speaks and tweets often about conspiracies against him. That’s not to say they exist as he describes them. A look at some of those issues: ___ PUERTO RICO Trump on Thursday rejected the official hurricane death toll in Puerto Rico, tweeting without evidence that “3,000 people did not die.” “When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000,” Trump tweeted a year after the island was devastated. Twelve minutes after the first tweet, Trump falsely blamed Democrats: “This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!” Puerto Rico’s governor last month raised Maria’s official death toll from 64 to 2,975 after an independent study found that the number of people who succumbed in the sweltering aftermath had been severely undercounted. Previous reports from the Puerto Rican government said the number was closer to 1,400. Researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University determined about 3,000 have died. Those that were hardest hit by the hurricane were the elderly and impoverished. ___ RUSSIA PROBE Trump has railed that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling is a conspiracy carried out by the former FBI director “and his whole group of Angry Democrat Thugs.” Trump denies colluding in the meddling. Trump’s shorthand for discrediting Mueller is calling the probe a “Rigged Witch Hunt” by Mueller’s “17 Angry Democrats.” “You have no Republicans” among Mueller’s team, Trump said on “Fox & Friends” in June. Mueller is a Republican and some on his team owe their jobs largely to Republican presidents. Some have indeed given money to Democratic candidates over the years. But Mueller could not have barred them from serving on that basis because regulations prohibit the consideration of political affiliation for personnel actions involving career attorneys. ___ THE 2016 VOTE Trump has tried to blame his loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton on “millions” of illegal votes in her favor. The voting commission he convened to study the issue disbanded with no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump became president after he won the Electoral College vote by 304 to 227. But Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million more votes after racking up lopsided wins in big states such as New York and California, according to election data compiled by The Associated Press. __ HILLARY CLINTON Among Trump’s favorite foils is “Crooked Hillary” Clinton, his 2016 Democratic rival. This month, he sent a tweet that brought a number of his perceived enemies together: “Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!” Trump appeared to be citing a story by the right-leaning Daily Caller publication, which reported that a Chinese-owned company in Washington, D.C., area hacked Clinton’s email server. But FBI and Justice Department officials have said publicly that there was no evidence Clinton’s server was hacked by a foreign power. ___ BIRTHERISM Donald Trump was for years the primary propagator of the falsehood that Democrat Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president, was not born in the United States and was thus ineligible to hold the nation’s highest office. Obama was born in Hawaii. Then Trump lied about the original lie. In September 2016, he held a news conference at his Washington hotel to declare that he believed Obama had been born in the U.S. He falsely blamed Clinton for starting the rumor and credited himself for ending it. The public record over the past decade undermines Trump’s version. People in Clinton’s orbit did discuss Obama’s background during their bitter primary struggle in 2008. But it appears that when Clinton got wind of smears about Obama’s roots or religion, she either shut down that line of argument or ignored it. There is no evidence that Clinton herself has ever said Obama wasn’t born in America. ___ ‘DEEP STATE’ Trump didn’t invent the term, but “deep state” has been a favorite theory of conservative media outlets such as Breitbart. The idea is that deeply entrenched bureaucrats are working against him. Trump’s been happy to help spread the phrase and the notion. Again referencing Clinton’s emails, some of which were stored on a private server in her home while she was secretary of state, Trump tweeted Nov. 28: “Why aren’t our deep State authorities looking at this?” The Justice Department has closed the case. “There was not a prosecutable case there,” said then-FBI Director James Comey.
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hillary clinton;puerto rico;hurricanes;donald trump
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jp0009926
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/09/14
|
Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North Carolina
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WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA - Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina early Friday, pushing a life-threatening storm surge of floodwater miles inland and ripping apart buildings with screaming wind and pelting rain. More than 60 people had to be pulled from a collapsing motel at the height of the storm, and many more who defied evacuation orders were hoping to be rescued. Pieces of buildings ripped apart by the storm flew through the air. Most ominously, forecasters said the terrifying onslaught would last for hours and hours, because Florence was barely creeping along and still drawing energy from the ocean. Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane a few miles east of Wilmington, as the center of its eye moved onshore near Wrightsville Beach, the National Hurricane Center said. Coastal streets flowed with frothy ocean water and tens of thousands lost electricity. Forecasters said “catastrophic” freshwater flooding was expected along waterways far from the coast of the Carolinas. At 7 a.m., Florence was centered just 5 miles (10 kilometers) east of Wilmington, North Carolina. Its forward movement was 6 mph (9 kph). Hurricane-force winds extended 90 miles (150 kilometers) from its center, and tropical-storm-force winds up to 195 miles (315 kilometers). Winds bent trees toward the ground and raindrops flew sideways as Florence moved in for an extended stay, with enough of its killer winds swirling overseas to maintain its power. Forecasters said the onslaught could last for days, leaving a wide area under water from both heavy downpours and rising seas. The wind howled and sheets of rain splattered against windows of a hotel before dawn in Wilmington, where Sandie Orsa of Wilmington sat in a lobby lit by emergency lights after the power failed. “(It’s) very eerie, the wind howling, the rain blowing sideways, debris flying,” said Orsa, who lives nearby and fears splintering trees will pummel her house. The storm’s intensity held at about 90 mph (144 kph), and it appeared that the north side of the eye was the most dangerous place to be as Florence moved ashore. A weather station at a community college recorded a 100 mph wind gust, and forecasters tweeted that a 91 mph wind gust slammed into Wilmington’s airport, surpassing the power of Hurricane Fran two decades ago. The National Hurricane Center said a gauge in Emerald Isle, North Carolina, reported 6.3 feet (1.92 meters) of inundation. Emerald Isle is about 84 miles 135 kilometers) north of Wilmington. And about 46 miles farther up the waterfront, in New Bern, about 150 people were waiting to be rescued from floods on the Neuse River, WXII-TV reported. The city said two FEMA teams were working on swift-water rescues and more were on the way. The worst of the storm’s fury had yet to reach coastal South Carolina, where emergency managers said people could still leave flood-prone areas. “There is still time, but not a lot of time,” said Derrec Becker of the South Carolina Department of Emergency Management. More than 80,000 people in North Carolina already were without power as the storm began buffeting the coast, and more than 12,000 were in shelters. Another 400 people were in shelters in Virginia, where forecasts were less dire. North Carolina corrections officials said more than 3,000 people were relocated from adult prisons and juvenile centers in the path of Florence, and more than 300 county prisoners were transferred to state facilities. Officials said some 1.7 million people in the Carolinas and Virginia were warned to evacuate, but it’s unclear how many did. The homes of about 10 million were under watches or warnings for the hurricane or tropical storm conditions. Spanish moss waved in the trees as the winds picked up in Wilmington, and floating docks bounced atop swells at Morehead City. Ocean water flowed between homes and on to streets on the Outer Banks; waves crashed against wooden fishing piers. Coastal towns in the Carolinas were largely empty, and schools and businesses closed as far south as Georgia. Forecasters said conditions will continue to deteriorate as the storm makes its way slowly inland. Its surge could cover all but a sliver of the Carolina coast under as much as 11 feet (3.4 meters) of ocean water, and days of downpours could unload more than 3 feet (0.9 meters) of rain, touching off severe flooding. Once a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 mph (225 kph), the hurricane was downgraded to a Category 1 on Thursday night. Forecasters said that given the storm’s size and sluggish track, it could cause epic damage akin to what the Houston area saw during Hurricane Harvey just over a year ago, with floodwaters swamping homes and businesses and washing over industrial waste sites and hog-manure ponds. The hurricane was seen as a major test for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was heavily criticized as slow and unprepared for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year. Not everyone was taking Florence too seriously: About two dozen locals gathered Thursday night behind the boarded-up windows of The Barbary Coast bar as Florence blew into Wilmington. Others were at home hoping for the best. “This is our only home. We have two boats and all our worldly possessions,” said Susan Patchkofsky, who refused her family’s pleas to evacuate and stayed at Emerald Isle with her husband. “We have a safe basement and generator that comes on automatically. We chose to hunker down.”
|
weather;storms;hurricanes
|
jp0009927
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"offbeat-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/14
|
With few blazes to fight, firefighter at north Bangkok station spends time catching snakes in people's homes
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BANGKOK - A fire department in northern Bangkok has not been called out to put out a fire since June. But for trapping a slithery foe? There is a 24-hour hotline. “We have had several calls asking us to come and catch snakes,” said Suraphong Suepchai, a 46-year-old firefighter working in the Thai capital’s Lat Yao district. “But we have had no calls asking us to fight a fire,” he added. Snakes are a common sight in Bangkok, a bustling city built on what was once swampy land, and it is not unusual to see them slithering across public spaces like parks, canals and schools. But residents might also encounter them in their homes, especially if they have rats. The calls to Suraphong’s fire department increase during the rainy season after new hatchlings are born. If venomous snakes are caught during their calls, they are brought to the Bangkok Snake Farm near the center of the city. As for harmless snakes, Suraphong said he tries to explain to people that it’s good to have them around to keep a balanced ecosystem. “If we kill all the snakes and they disappear, rats will come and bring diseases,” he said, adding that these are brought to a nearby university park to be released. To assuage the fear of locals, the fire department conducts training sessions for anyone who wants to learn how to handle serpents that have temporarily invaded their homes. According to 2016 figures from the Health Ministry, more than 1,700 people in Thailand were bitten by snakes, although none died. During one of the sessions, residents armed with thick gloves attempted to subdue a harmless garden snake — or a hissing cobra — as it suddenly struck at them abruptly. “They’re not as dangerous as I thought,” said Kanoksak Preechakorn, 42. “Now that I know the catching techniques, we don’t need to kill them.” Wrangling pythons was not what Suraphong expected to be doing when he started working at the station, but he is thankful that fires rarely occur in his district. “Firefighting is a job in which sometimes we have to face reality when people lose their lives,” he said. “But when it comes to catching snakes, people are very grateful to us, and it’s fun.”
|
nature;animals;thailand;pests;bangkok;snakes
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jp0009928
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/09/14
|
Naomi Osaka is Japan's tennis darling, but could she eventually decide to play for the U.S.?
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Amid the excitement of Naomi Osaka winning the women’s title at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last weekend, some in Japan are wondering whether she will continue to compete for their country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The 20-year-old has dual nationality — Japanese and American — and under Japanese law will have to choose one by the time she turns 22 on Oct. 16 next year, although that regulation is rarely enforced. While the Justice Ministry officially has the right to warn dual nationals to choose one, it has never done so, and the Foreign Ministry has said it does not track dual nationals. “I’m so proud of her,” said Hiromi Shibata, a 32-year-old Tokyo resident and tennis fan. “It doesn’t really matter what flag she represents because that doesn’t change the fact that she has Japanese heritage, but deep down I’m hoping she will play for Japan at the next Olympics.” Osaka, whose world ranking rose 12 spots to No. 7 on Monday, made history on Sept. 8 in New York by becoming the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating decorated veteran Serena Williams in straight sets. Although Osaka was born in Japan, she moved to the United States with her family — including her Japanese mother and Haitian-American father — at age 3. She lacks confidence in her Japanese language ability as a result, and is often assisted by an interpreter during news conferences and other events here. She is among a growing number of prominent athletes representing Team Japan who have fathers from overseas. They include 23-year-old judoka and 2016 Rio Olympic champion Mashu Baker, whose father is American; sprinters Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, 19, who has a Ghanaian father, and Asuka Cambridge, 25, whose father is Jamaican; and 26-year-old javelin thrower Genki Dean, whose father is British. There are some for whom this raises a question over the athletes’ identities as Japanese. But many in the nation welcome their contribution to raising the country’s sporting presence in the world of sports. Kohei Kawashima, professor of sports sciences at Waseda University, emphasized the importance of embracing a “broader, multicultural” notion of what makes someone Japanese. As for the possibility that Osaka might choose to represent the United States in the future, Kawashima said, “I think it’s best for society to respect” any decision she makes. Osaka is said to have expressed her intention to represent Japan at the Tokyo Games. But Shukan Shincho, a Japanese weekly magazine, reported in the spring — after Osaka won her first WTA title in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California —that tennis officials here are worried people within U.S. tennis circles might try again to lure the young star, who has spent most of her life in the States, just as they did two years ago. Back then, the Shincho report indicated, people involved in U.S. tennis offered to “look after her in various aspects” but Osaka chose to continue to represent Japan. That apprehension may have been amplified now that she’s won the U.S. Open and taken the tennis world by storm. She was unfazed by facing her idol in the women’s final at Flushing Meadows, in front of a crowd that was overwhelmingly partial to the 36-year-old Williams — who lost her cool during the match and repeatedly confronted the umpire after she was given multiple code violations. Speaking mostly in English at a news conference in Yokohama on Thursday, hours after arriving from the United States, Osaka didn’t seem concerned despite the attention some have paid to her background. “I don’t really think too much about my identity or whatever,” she said when asked what she thinks of overseas media reporting about her Japanese roots. “For me, I’m just me. And I know that the way that I was brought up — I don’t know — people tell me I act kind of Japanese so I guess there’s that.” Tokyo will host the Summer Olympics for the second time from July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020, and the tennis competition will be held on hard courts — the same surface as the U.S. Open. Regardless of which national team Osaka represents, the new darling of women’s tennis, who studies Japanese by watching dramas and listening to music, knows what she will be aiming for in two years’ time. “I’m very excited and I know everyone’s very excited that the Olympics are going to be held in Tokyo,” she said. “I feel like it’s every athlete’s dream to play in the Olympics so I’m looking forward to that a lot, and I feel like if you play then of course you would want to go for gold so that would be my goal, too.”
|
tennis;2020 tokyo olympics;naomi osaka;nationality
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jp0009929
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/09/14
|
First case of unlicensed private lodging in Japan sent to prosecutors
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KYOTO - Police in Kyoto referred to prosecutors Friday four officials of a hotel management firm for allegedly running an unlicensed private accommodation service, making it the first case of its kind since a private lodging law came into force in June. The four are suspected of providing accommodation to a total of 15 tourists in Kyoto between June 14 and 23 without obtaining a permit from the local government, according to the police. The Kyoto city government had previously warned the company, Capital Incubator, over the unauthorized lodging operation, but the Kyoto-based firm did not follow the authority’s guidance. The four admitted to the allegation, telling police that it was too much work to renovate the property in order to comply with the law. The operator was recruiting guests via an online reservation site run by a major company. Last month, the Japan Tourism Agency said that about 3,000 of 25,000 lodging facilities on online reservation sites were suspected of operating without permits. The agency is strengthening its monitoring and urging the operators of reservation sites to immediately delete the details of unauthorized businesses. The new law was enacted with the intention of compensating for a shortage of hotel rooms due to the rapidly increasing number of foreign visitors to Japan. It allows private residences to be used as lodging facilities, a practice referred to as minpaku, while prohibiting site operators from listing unauthorized facilities on their websites. The new law also requires keeping a registry of guests, maintaining hygienic conditions and responding promptly to any complaints from neighbors, among other things. The maximum fine for operating an unauthorized private lodging, was raised in June to ¥1 million ($8,900) from ¥30,000, based on the revision of the existing law covering hotel businesses. The Kyoto City Government reported to the agency earlier this year that the U.S. online home-rental service Airbnb Inc. had continued to list unlicensed private lodgings even after the law was implemented. Concerned about potential violations, many municipalities in Japan have set their own restrictions. Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, for example, has banned the operation of private lodging businesses on weekdays. In 2017, a record 28.69 million foreign visitors came to Japan, and the figure is rising at a pace that puts the country on track to post an even higher number this year. In 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and Paralympic Games, the government is aiming to attract 40 million foreign visitors — up 40 percent from 2017 — and sees tourism as a pillar of the country’s growth strategy.
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tourists;tourism;hotels;inbound tourism;minpaku
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jp0009930
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Taiwan expels Texan running 3D-printed gun company who is accused of paying teen for sex
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TAIPEI/AUSTIN, TEXAS - A Texan running a 3D-printed gun company who had flown to Taiwan after being accused of paying an underage girl for sex was detained in Taipei on Friday and ordered to leave the island after his U.S. passport was annulled, officials said. Cody Wilson, 30, was taken to immigration authorities in the capital by officers from Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, according to officials. He was ordered to leave Taiwan because he no longer has a valid travel document, said Zhang Wen-xiu, a director of the international affairs and law enforcement division at Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency. Zhang said Wilson was being held by the agency and that its officials were in talks with U.S. representatives in Taiwan concerning his repatriation. The agency hoped to send Wilson back to the United States “as soon as possible,” Zhang said, and was in touch with Wilson’s lawyer. Wilson had agreed to the arrangement and had “expressed willingness to return to the U.S. soon,” he added. The United States’ de facto embassy in Taipei declined to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns. The U.S. Marshals Service, which would likely be responsible for taking Wilson back to the United States, said in a statement it was aware of Wilson’s arrest and was “fully engaged with our international partners on this matter.” Wilson, at the center of a U.S. legal battle over his plan to publish instructions for the manufacture of 3D printed plastic guns, flew into Taiwan legally, the National Immigration Agency said on Friday. Because his U.S. passport was later annulled, the agency said in a statement, he “no longer has the legal status to stay in Taiwan.” A lawyer for Wilson and representatives of the Austin Police Department were not immediately available for comment. Taiwan does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. Austin police have said Wilson flew to Taiwan earlier this month after a friend told him officers were investigating an allegation by a 16-year-old girl who said she was paid $500 to have sex with him at a hotel in the Texas capital. Police said investigators interviewed the girl and on Wednesday obtained a warrant for Wilson’s arrest, but he had flown to Taiwan by then. Police said Wilson travels often for business but they did not know why he went to Taiwan. Wilson is the founder of Defense Distributed, the focus of a legal and political battle over its placing on the internet blueprints for plastic guns that can be made with a 3D printer. The files could previously be downloaded for free, but a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction last month that blocked the posting of the blueprints online.
|
guns;u.s .;internet;taiwan;3-d;sex abuse;police
|
jp0009931
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Hitler runs for mayor despite threat from Lennin in Peruvian Andes
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LIMA - Hitler hopes to return to power in a small Peruvian town in the Andes, despite a threat from a detractor named Lennin. Campaign slogans reading, “Hitler returns” and “Hitler with the people” have appeared around the highland town of Yungar, where Hitler Alba is seeking a new term as mayor. “I’m the good Hitler,” Alba said on local broadcaster RPP. Stressing that he rejects what Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler stood for, Alba said he wants to oversee a fair and transparent government in Yungar, a farming town in Peru’s central Andes. But Alba’s campaign this year came under attack by Lennin Vladimir Rodriguez Valverde, a resident of a neighboring district who tried to block Alba’s inscription as a candidate. Electoral authorities rejected the request a week ago, allowing Hitler to appear on voting cards for the Oct. 7 elections. In Peru and elsewhere in Latin America, parents often choose foreign and exotic-sounding first names for their children despite negative associations abroad. Last year an Osama Vinladen was named to Peru’s national juvenile soccer team. Alba said his father was unaware of who Adolf Hitler was when he named him. After learning the history behind it, Alba said he considered changing his name but eventually accepted it.
|
history;elections;adolf hitler;peru;offbeat
|
jp0009932
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Japanese publisher says stories in Shincho 45 magazine expressed 'aberrant prejudice' against LGBT community
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The president of a publishing company has confirmed there were troublesome opinions expressed in articles that ran in a monthly magazine that supported a national lawmaker who called LGBT couples unproductive. Shinchosha Publishing Co. President Takanobu Sato said in a statement Friday that he found “expressions filled with aberrant prejudice and a lack of recognition in certain parts” of the articles in the October issue of Shincho 45 magazine. Sato pledged to pay due attention to discriminatory expressions but did not clarify which sections of the issue he was referring to. In an article in the magazine’s August issue, Mio Sugita of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party questioned the purpose of spending tax dollars on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples. Those couples “don’t have children. In other words, they are unproductive,” she wrote. One of the seven authors who contributed related articles to the October issue wrote that identifying as LGBT is not about sexual orientation but sexual preference. LGBT is “a sufficiently ridiculous concept for a traditional conservative like me,” the author wrote, drawing criticism.
|
media;ldp;rights;lgbt;sexuality;mio sugita
|
jp0009933
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Hayabusa2 probe releases two rovers over Ryugu asteroid
|
Japan’s space probe on Friday released a pair of exploring rovers toward an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system. The Hayabusa2 jettisoned the round, cookie tin-shaped robots toward the Ryugu asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. If the mission is successful, the rovers will conduct the world’s first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid’s surface. Taking advantage of the asteroid’s low gravity, they will jump around on the surface — soaring as high as 15 meters (49 feet) and staying aloft for as long as 15 minutes — to survey its physical features with cameras and sensors. So far so good, but JAXA must still wait for Hayabusa2 to send the rovers’ data to Earth in a day or two to determine whether the release of the probes succeeded, officials said. “We are very much hopeful. We don’t have confirmation yet, but we are very, very hopeful,” JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda told reporters. “I am looking forward to seeing pictures. I want to see images of space as seen from the surface of the asteroid,” he said. The cautious announcement came after a similar JAXA probe in 2005 released a rover that failed to reach its target asteroid. Next month, Hayabusa2 will deploy an “impactor” that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a 2-kg (4-lb.) copper object into the surface to blast a crater a few meters in diameter. From this crater, the probe will collect “fresh” materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation, hoping for answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth. The probe will also release a French-German landing vehicle named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (Mascot) for surface observation. The Hayabusa2, about the size of a large refridgerator and equipped with solar panels, is the successor to JAXA’s first asteroid explorer, the Hayabusa — Japanese for falcon. That probe, with help from NASA, returned from a smaller, potato-shaped asteroid in 2010 with dust samples — despite various setbacks during its epic seven-year odyssey — and was hailed a scientific triumph. The Hayabusa2 mission was launched in December 2014 and will return to Earth with its samples in 2020.
|
space;jaxa;asteroids;hayabusa2
|
jp0009934
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/22
|
JAXA confirms tiny robots from Hayabusa2 landed on asteroid
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A pair of tiny robots released by the Hayabusa2 space probe touched down Saturday on an asteroid 300 million km from Earth, JAXA said. The cylinder-shaped Minerva-II1 explorers will take photos and temperature readings on the asteroid Ryugu before the main probe lands, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. “Each of the rovers is operating normally and has started surveying Ryugu’s surface,” JAXA said in a statement. Measuring just 18 cm by 7 cm and weighing roughly 1 kg, the two explorers will travel across Ryugu’s surface by hopping because its gravity is so weak that rolling along the surface is too difficult. If they succeed, the explorers will have conducted the world’s first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid’s surface. “I am so proud that we have established a new method of space exploration for small celestial bodies,” said JAXA project manager Yuichi Tsuda. Hayabusa2 was launched in December 2014 to gain clues on the formation of the solar system and the origin of life. It is scheduled to stay on the asteroid for about a year and a half before returning to Earth in late 2020, JAXA said. Its predecessor, the Hayabusa, returned to Earth in June 2010 after a seven-year journey that took it to the asteroid Itokawa to conduct scientific observations. Hayabusa means peregrine falcon in Japanese. Next month, the Hayabusa2 will deploy an “impactor” that will explode above the asteroid and shoot a 2-kg copper object into its surface to create a crater a few meters in diameter. The probe will use the crater to collect “fresh” materials unexposed to millennia of wind and radiation in an attempt to glean answers to some fundamental questions about life and the universe, including whether elements from space helped give rise to life on Earth. The probe will also release a French-German landing vehicle named Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (Mascot) for surface observation.
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space;asteroid;hayabusa2;minerva
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jp0009935
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Blood transfusions with iPS cells OK'd by Japanese health ministry
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The government has given the green light to using blood transfusions including platelets created from artificially derived stem cells to treat patients with intractable diseases. A team from Kyoto University plans to begin a transfusion trial using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) that will be the fourth clinical test using iPS cells approved by the health ministry and the first to use blood components. Researchers are expecting iPS cells to become a new source for platelets, replacing transfusions of donated blood that tend to be deficient. They might also be used for transfusions for surgery or severe injuries on a regular basis, they say. “We will prepare for the tests steadily and take every step carefully,” Kyoto University professor Koji Eto said at a news conference in Tokyo after approval was granted. Under the plan, researchers will generate platelets from the iPS cells of an individual with aplastic anemia, a disease that diminishes red blood cells and platelets, and transfuse them to the individual three times, gradually increasing the number transfused to up to 100 billion in the final round. They aim to initiate the clinical trial in a year and spend another year to confirm its safety. Individuals with aplastic anemia are usually treated by transfusions of other people’s blood, but the individual in the trial cannot receive such treatment as his body rejects it, the researchers said. Leukemia, anemia and other patients who tend to have low platelet counts often get transfusions during operations. At present, blood donated from healthy people is used for transfusions. But since it is stored at room temperature, it may be contaminated by bacteria, which will ruin the platelets. Blood donations have also been leveling out, especially among the younger generation, raising concerns about shortages. Separately, the Kyoto researchers are trying to create platelets from the iPS cells of healthy people that will be stored at the university for transfusion to others. Among other clinical tests with iPS cells, the state-backed Riken institute conducted the world’s first transplant of retina cells grown from iPS cells to an individual with a serious disease in 2014. Osaka University, which is planning a clinical test for treating heart failure by using a heart muscle cell sheet created from iPS cells, and Kyoto University, which is planning to treat Parkinson’s disease with iPS cells, have also received government approval.
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medicine;ips;kyoto university;disease;koji eto;mhlw
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jp0009936
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Cafe to showcase robot waiters steered from afar by people with ALS, other debilitating diseases
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A temporary cafe that will use remotely controlled robots as waiters is set to open in Tokyo’s Akasaka district in November to show how machines can act as proxies for people with severe physical disabilities. The cafe, which will be open on weekdays between Nov. 26 and Dec. 7, will make use of robots controlled by people with diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a motor neuron disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The 1.2-meter robots, which weigh 20 kg, will transmit video and audio over the internet so they can be directed from home through tablet and personal computers. “I want to create a world in which people who can’t move their bodies can work too,” said Kentaro Yoshifuji, CEO of Ory Lab. Inc., which developed the OriHime-D robots to be used by the cafe. During their debut, a robot controlled by Nozomi Murata, who has auto-phagic vacuolar myopathy, a debilitating disease that weakens the muscles, invited a family to try some chocolate. Due to a stress-induced illness during childhood, Yoshifuji had difficulty communicating. In light of his social isolation, he started developing robots at Waseda University to help connect people, Ory Lab’s website says. Smaller OriHime robots 21.5 cm tall and weighing just 600 grams have been adopted by about 70 firms for telecommuting. They can also be used remotely in classrooms by students who cannot attend due to illness or other reasons. Ory Lab. aims to set up a permanent cafe featuring its robots and promote their adoption by firms in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. “Everyone should have the freedom to work in the way they like,” said Masatane Muto, an ALS patient organizing the project. “I want to send out the message toward 2020 that you can show hospitality even if you have disabilities,” Muto said.
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robots;cafe;disability
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jp0009937
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Social media falls in love with Naomi Osaka as tennis star sparks debate
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Naomi Osaka’s women’s singles final victory at the 2018 U.S. Open on Sept. 6 excited netizens in Japan, turning the young tennis superstar into one of the most popular figures online. Her trip to Japan last week only generated more buzz, with users being perpetually wowed by her and serious discussions about her identity sprouting up on social media. After a brief American media blitz and some viral “Ellen” content , Osaka flew to Tokyo to take part in the Toray Pan Pacific Open. In a sign of things to come, even her plane ride over the Pacific ended up being noteworthy. Japanese musician Yoshiki just happened to be on the same flight , making for an online interaction that charmed many. And that was just the start. Every upload to Osaka’s social media accounts prompted Japanese netizens to congratulate her on her recent success or applaud her itinerary in Tokyo. Watching sumo for the first time ? Shares and excitement on Twitter . Taking photos at a “purikura” booth ? Wade through the Instagram comments and you’ll find Japanese contributors lapping it up. Japanese internet users used the past week as an opportunity to really show their love of Osaka. Some people shared fan art of the young tennis star, including one popular pair of drawings done in the style of “Peanuts.” Others took the chance to dress up as her in cosplay . After she mentioned that she wanted to eat tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlets) and green tea ice cream, fans shared photos of said treats in her honor. One of the narratives to emerge in English-language media following the U.S. Open is that people in Japan saw Osaka win a major title and suddenly embraced her. This isn’t quite right. Osaka has been receiving attention in Japan for a few years now — TV segments devoted to her rising star aired back in 2016, for example. She also appeared in Japanese commercials well before any major wins. Her victory at the Indian Wells Masters this spring served as a warm up to what would follow, with Osaka’s win going to the top of trending in Japan and inspiring excited tweets . She has been in the spotlight long enough to inspire a groan-worthy comedian imitator . Osaka’s U.S. Open triumph fired her into the mainstream, however, and set off an ongoing bonanza around her (which, to be fair, is probably true about her in the United States, too). This is actually far more true of traditional media, especially TV, which has covered her trip to Japan breathlessly and, in the case of TV Asahi’s “Good! Morning,” tried to coin the term “ Naominomics .” That one isn’t sticking. Netizens and a handful of online publications, while celebratory, did raise a few eyebrows at the media hoopla. Osaka’s reference to tonkatsu and green tea ice cream kicked off promotions of such goods — still time to get some U.S. Open-themed ice cream — but Business Journal and online users jumped in to remind people that elite athletes don’t typically eat those items regularly. Another article speculated that Osaka’s clothing choices were inspired by the Korean pop group BTS, which she is a fan of. This charmed some users on 2chan (“She’s just like any other 20-year-old Japanese woman!”), while others thought it was a stretch to connect her style to K-pop. Netizens adopted a more protective stance following Osaka’s first news conference in Japan. Huffington Post Japan reporter Rio Hamada asked her about her identity, seeing as her mother is Japanese, her father Haitian and she grew up in the United States. It was an awkward moment , Osaka first wondering if that was even a question before answering, “I’m me.” The response only won her more praise , while netizens ridiculed Hamada’s question, even piling on via Twitter . While Hamada bungled it, the issue at the center of his inquiry actually has become a point of discussion online in Japan. Osaka’s background — which she stresses in media appearances, a reminder of the importance of all cultures involved — has prompted many to wonder what being Japanese is really about. Gendai ran a large article on the topic, while other posts looked at the social media response to her background . Osaka’s rise to the limelight gave proponents of Japan adopting dual citizenship a chance to raise their points , while other sites condemned the media and politicians ’ use of Osaka to push a “ra-ra-Japan” image forward. Most clearly, Osaka’s rise became a rallying cry for mixed-heritage citizens, as a way to point out the archaic way of “island spirit” and, in an online essay titled “ Goodbye, pure-blooded Japanese ,” allowed others to share their own experiences of coming from a mixed background in Japanese society. This discussion certainly isn’t limited to Japan — it also seems to be playing out in Haitian communities (complete with politicians using it for their own ends), while talk of her background garnered plenty in discourse in the United States, too. While Osaka’s victory has generated plenty of enthusiasm online, she has also helped Japanese netizens question a number of ideas that have long sat dormant.
|
tennis;naomi osaka;japan pulse
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jp0009938
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/09/22
|
The problem with padding employment records in Japan
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In August, it was reported that central government ministries and agencies, not to mention national legislative offices and local governments, have for years been fulfilling their legal responsibility to hire certain numbers of people with disabilities by fudging criteria for determining what qualifies as a disability . The media’s position on the matter has mainly been to point out that the public sector is getting away with murder while the private sector struggles in an honest fashion to reach similar quotas. The government is supposed to set an example for companies when it comes to social change, so its intentional neglect in doing so is doubly appalling. Coverage has focused on how government malfeasance is business as usual, thus dovetailing with the scandal surrounding Tokyo Medical University’s manipulation of test scores to limit the number of female applicants admitted to the school . These organizations did bad things in order to protect entrenched work cultures, but by presenting the issue within that framework, the media has failed to enlighten the public as to why it is beneficial to hire people with disabilities in the first place. All we hear about is how the system is “unfair.” In the case of the university, however, it is women who are treated badly, while in the case of employment padding, it’s the private sector that’s injured, not people with disabilities. Firms that fail to hire enough people with disabilities are fined up to ¥50,000 a year for each position they neglect to fill, while there are no penalties inflicted on public sector organizations that fall short of their quotas. In its Aug. 29 explanation of the law, the Asahi Shimbun said that the aim of the quotas is to “create a society where people with disabilities can live normally.” All laws that attempt to create a level playing field for people with disadvantages are similar in nature, but each group has specific circumstances that need to be tackled. Prominent activist Katsunori Fujii noted during a discussion of the matter on the web program Videonews.com that public infrastructure is more of an immediate concern for people with physical disabilities and one the authorities have yet to address meaningfully. In its own reporting, the weekly Bunshun made much of the notion that ministries did not explain their reasons for making public apologies for padding disabled rolls. All they did was pledge to follow the law in the future. In response to the scandal, Finance Minister Taro Aso told TV Asahi that the number of workers with disabilities is “ limited ,” so there will be heated competition for hiring them thanks to the quotas, as if that were an acceptable excuse. The Tokyo Shimbun implied that while companies are justified in decrying the government’s hypocrisy, the only reason they comply with the law is because they will be punished if they don’t, suggesting that their purposes are self-serving. The newspaper attempted to bolster this point by interviewing employers holding up their end at considerable cost. An office equipment company affiliate located in Hino, Tokyo, employs 12 people with certified mental disabilities who scan documents for digital files. They take a 10-minute break every hour during a six-hour work day because, as one 48-year-old man with depression explains, there are people who “can’t concentrate for long periods of time.” The company also allows them two days off a month to consult with physicians and they meet with a counselor employed by the company every day. Between 2009 and 2012, the company could not meet its quota and ended up paying ¥13 million in penalties. The company’s disability employment rate is now 2.47 percent, well above the 2.2 percent rate mandated for private companies. It has even received commendations from the labor ministry. A human resources representative explains the company’s efforts in practical terms: Not only did they implement these changes to avoid fines, but also in order to bid for public sector projects. The difficulty was finding work that people with disabilities could perform. On the other hand, the president of a company in Shizuoka Prefecture that processes hand towels for the restaurant industry and employs 24 people with developmental disabilities told the Tokyo Shimbun that he treats each of his employees “as an individual,” regardless of their abilities, adjusting work situations accordingly. He does this not to satisfy quotas, but to maintain a payroll of loyal workers. By looking at the scandal from the employers’ point of view, the press invariably misses much of the story. On Sept. 17, the Tokyo Shimbun reported on hearings held by opposition parties in the Diet to reform the disability hiring law. Since the purpose is to “promote an inclusive society,” people with disabilities were invited to explain their situations. Several representatives of groups with disabilities discussed the quotas, but the real problem, they say, is that the working environment of public employers is not suitable for people with disabilities. Strict adherence to hiring requirements would naturally correct this problem, which is what happened in the private sector, but existing law does not allow public entities to provide extra services — such as transportation assistance — to its employees. It’s the same old refrain. People with disabilities can’t hope for a level playing field in the public sector because government entities don’t want to change the way they do things. It’s easier to cheat and lie. As Fujii said during the Videonews discussion, “They simply don’t want to hire (people with disabilities),” but employing them not only provides opportunity to those workers, it also benefits society by changing work culture for the better, something the government says it wants to do but seems unable to accomplish. “By placing people with disabilities at the bureaucratic level, these employees can effect policy changes to their own advantage,” says Fujii, and, in turn, that improves the work situation for all employees. It’s not just about fairness.
|
employment;disability;tokyo medical university
|
jp0009939
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/09/22
|
Will Don Quijote tilt its lance at the Amazon giant?
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A somewhat cynical commentary attributed to the late American TV comedian Jackie Gleason goes, “Anybody who says money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop.” Shopping per se, however, is an essential daily activity for many, and no one was particularly happy when the owner of a major retail chain signaled its intention to bail out of the market — as U.S. giant Walmart did in July when it announced plans to divest itself of its Seiyu stores. For a number of reasons, Walmart’s “Everyday Low Price” business model adopted by Seiyu did not resonate with consumers in Japan. While drug stores have also been carving out a larger share of the retail trade — a few have even begun emulating convenience stores by setting up counters for customers to eat and drink — the biggest threat is clearly online shopping. In a survey of 520 consumers conducted by Nikkei Business (Sept. 5), 50.2 percent of respondents said they’ve increased their purchases via the internet, as opposed to 35.8 percent who had not changed. (Only 7.3 percent said they cut back on their online shopping.) Sales of apparel in particular have been significantly affected. So in terms of the “threat” of a foreign incursion, Walmart is now off the hook, which leaves the media to take aim at Amazon. “Until now, the strength of general supermarkets (of which Seiyu is one) was that they carried all kinds of products under one roof,” Norio Seki, editor of the Keizaikai business magazine, told Shukan Post (Sept. 14). “However, Amazon lets you use your smartphone to order up to 200 million items that can be delivered to your door. From 2010 to 2017, its sales grew threefold to about ¥1.33 trillion. In terms of sheer efficiency, it can’t be matched.” Taking a cue from Miguel de Cervantes, Shukan Post urged Don Quijote to “thrust its lance” into the “retailing trade’s huge windmill” — Amazon. It seems that Tokyo-based Don Quixote Holdings, a nationwide chain of 421 discount stores, might become Seiyu’s next owner. On Aug. 13, Koji Ohara, president of “Donki” (as Don Quijote is popularly called), made remarks to the effect that his 38-year-old company was looking into acquiring the chain. Donki posted total revenue of ¥941.5 billion in the fiscal year ending in June, an increase of 13.6 percent over the previous year. It currently operates 421 outlets and foresees expansion to 500 by 2020. “In this day and age, that rate of growth by a retail organization is astonishing,” an unnamed business reporter told the magazine. Don Quijote, however, has proved a difficult business model to emulate. Shukan Post refers to the company as an onikko (a badly behaved child). “When you browse at a Don Quijote shop, you get the sense that merchandise is heaped willy-nilly almost to the ceiling,” the aforementioned Seki remarked. “And instead of the symmetrical aisles in supermarkets, it’s like negotiating a maze, where you might unexpectedly encounter cheap goods — kind of like being on a treasure hunt. I guess that has the effect of extending the time customers spend in the stores.” Meanwhile, not all is rosy for Amazon or rival e-commerce firms such as Rakuten. In a 32-page special section, Toyo Keizai (Aug. 25) examined the worsening crisis in the transport business, particularly an acute shortage of drivers of delivery vehicles. According to Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare data, there were 2.71 jobs for every driver application in June. (A government survey in 2016 found that 83 percent of transport companies were overworking their drivers.) The employment crunch has led to higher driver salaries, with the resultant cost increases passed along in the form of higher delivery rates. The transport companies have been forced to redouble efforts to cut down on second (or third) visits due to missed deliveries. Over the past year, Amazon and Rakuten have cut back sharply on their reliance on Yamato Transport. The main beneficiary of this change has been Japan Post, which increased its share to 20.7 percent of the market, third after Yamato and Sagawa Express at 43.3 percent and 28.9 percent, respectively. To cope with the driver shortage, Amazon, Rakuten, Yodobashi Camera and other firms have been tying up with smaller regional transport companies in Hokkaido and elsewhere, and Rakuten is also said to be mulling setting up its own fleet of vehicles, as does Yodobashi, which operates some 300 vehicles driven by its own staff. Some consumers appear to prefer online shopping to stores because when visiting the latter they “tend to purchase things they don’t need.” This indeed seems to be one of the rationales behind Don Quijote, which crams its outlets with cheap and glitzy merchandise that appeals to impulse buyers. Nevertheless, Keizaikai’s Seki reserved praise for Donki’s business model. “One of Donki’s strengths is that it harnesses ‘people power,’ allowing outlets to set their own sales strategies,” he told Shukan Post. “In the future, for instance, if stores are able to devote more attention to specific customer needs, such as in neighborhoods with a large population of frail elderly customers, this may open up a “wind-hole.” Seki’s choice of words — “kazeana” (wind-hole ) — is double-edged: Literally, it means to physically penetrate an opponent’s body with a spear or arrow; but the expression may figuratively mean to breathe new life into the shopping experience. Interpretation of the article’s conclusion, like its pugnacious headline, is left to Shukan Post readers to decide.
|
e-commerce;amazon.com;don quijote;seiyu;walmart
|
jp0009940
|
[
"business",
"financial-markets"
] |
2018/09/25
|
Japan's Financial Services Agency criticizes hacked crypto-exchange over lack of details on $62 million theft
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Cryptocurrency firm Tech Bureau Corp. has failed to provide adequate details on how thieves hacked into its exchange to steal ¥7 billion ($62 million), or explained its delay in reporting the hack, the country’s financial regulator said on Tuesday. The Financial Services Agency issued a business improvement order to the Osaka-based firm ordering it to provide details how the theft occurred and how it would compensate clients. It was the third business improvement order served on the firm. Tech Bureau said last week its Zaif exchange was hacked and ¥7 billion worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were stolen. “We have not received enough explanation on what exactly happened. What they told us is an employee’s PC was hacked,” a senior official at the agency told reporters at a briefing. The official, who declined to be identified, warned that further action could be taken against the company if needed. Tech Bureau has said its exchange was hacked over a two-hour period on Sept. 14. It detected server problems on Sept. 17, confirmed the hack the following day, and notified authorities. One of the business orders served on Tech Bureau earlier this year had required the firm to rectify its computer system risk management. “It is extremely regrettable that such an incident happened when (Tech Bureau) was given two business improvement orders,” the FSA official said. Reached by phone, Tech Bureau officials said they would only answer media inquiry by email but a reply to a message seeking comment went unanswered. The country’s crypto-exchanges have been under close regulatory scrutiny after the theft of $530 million in digital coins at Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Inc. in January. Coincheck has since been acquired by Japanese online brokerage Monex Group Inc. Japan last year became the first country to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges, as it encourages technological innovation while ensuring consumer protection. Exchanges have to register with the FSA. The FSA said earlier this month that more than 160 entities have expressed interest in entering the cryptocurrency exchange business but it has not issued any approvals since December last year. The senior FSA official said the agency would not stop the screening process of new entrants in the wake of the Tech Bureau incident.
|
fsa;cryptocurrency;zaif
|
jp0009941
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/25
|
Marshall Islands marches toward zero greenhouse emissions by 2050
|
NEW YORK - The Marshall Islands, an atoll-nation vulnerable to sea level rise from climate change, announced steps on Monday toward an ambitious plan to cut its greenhouse emissions to zero by 2050. The Pacific country became the first small island nation to present such a strategy to the United Nations amid increasing interest from governments worldwide toward eliminating planet-warming emissions in a bid to curb man-made climate change. “If we can do it so can you,” Hilda Heine, Marshall Islands president, said at an event on the sidelines of the annual U.N. summit that featured a handful of heads of small island nations. The announcement came as more than 150 heads of state and government gathered on Monday for the annual United Nations General Assembly. Heine upped the pressure on world leaders to go beyond current pledges to reduce their heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions as agreed in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. “I challenge you all to develop your own vision to fully decarbonize by 2050,” she told an audience of climate policymakers and advocates brought together by U.S. nonprofit The Climate Group. Worldwide, nine other countries have so far unveiled long-term plans to completely eradicate carbon emissions at home, from Britain to France and the United States under the administration of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Since then, the United States has become the only country to announce its intention to withdraw from the Paris pact, following a decision by President Donald Trump last year. The Paris accord aims to limit the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), and ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with a sweeping goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century. Aseem Prakash, founding director of the University of Washington’s Center for Environmental Politics, said the Marshall Islands’ move spoke to a growing trend around carbon neutrality by cities, companies, and now countries. Cities, regions and companies, including Indian conglomerate Mahindra and the state of California, made similar carbon-zero commitments in the run-up and at a global climate summit held in San Francisco earlier this month. The announcement was charged with symbolism, said Prakash, with the Marshall Islands contributing less than 0.00001 percent of the global total of emissions. The Marshall Islands’ net-zero strategy, in addition to seeking to slow climate change in the transport, electricity and waste sector, stresses the need to invest into adapting to freak weather events linked to global warming, from hurricanes to floods, said Heine. At the event New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged $300 million over four years to help Pacific countries set up defenses to ward off the impact of climate change. “The challenge of climate change requires us to look beyond our domestic borders,” she said in a press release.
|
carbon;global warming;marshall islands;emissions;greenhouse gases;donald trump;paris climate accord
|
jp0009942
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/25
|
Te reo, New Zealand's Maori language, comes back from the brink
|
WELLINGTON - Beneath the carved timber roof of a traditional “marae” meeting house at Wellington High School, dozens of students watch entranced as a play performed entirely in the Maori language unfolds. Many only understand a smattering of the indigenous language, but pick up emotional cues from the performers. Some audience members are close to tears as the production in the New Zealand capital ends. It is a scene that actor Eds Eramiha says would have been difficult to imagine as recently as two decades ago, when te reo Maori was widely regarded as a dying language not worth teaching. “Attitudes have changed immensely,” he said. “When I was at school, te reo Maori wasn’t held in high value, it wasn’t spoken, it wasn’t as freely available as it is to our kids today.” Te reo was banned in schools for much of the 20th century which, combined with the urbanization of rural Maori, meant that by the 1980s, only 20 percent of indigenous New Zealanders were fluent in the language. That number was virtually unchanged by 2013, when census figures showed that just 21.3 percent of the Maori population could converse in te reo. An official report published in 2010 warned the language was on the verge of extinction. “Te reo Maori is approaching crisis point,” it said, with older native speakers “simply not being replaced” as they passed away. The contrast with New Zealand today is striking. The language is enjoying a surge in popularity among Kiwis — Maori or otherwise — embracing their South Pacific nation’s indigenous culture. Te reo courses are booked out at community colleges, while bands, poets and rappers perform using the language. Te reo words such as “kai” (food), “ka pai” (congratulations), “whanau” (family) and “mana” (prestige) have entered everyday usage. Even the way Kiwis define themselves has taken on a te reo tone, with an increasing number preferring to use “Aotearoa” rather than New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is a passionate champion of the language, saying one of her great regrets is not being able to converse fluently in it. “We have a guardianship role, a duty of care to te reo Maori,” she said this month. “It’s our job to nurture it because it’s about more than a language.” Ardern chose to give her daughter Neve a Maori middle name ‘Te Aroha’ (‘the love’) when she was born in June. Her government has set a target of having 1 million fluent te reo speakers by 2040. With the Maori comprising only about 15 percent of New Zealand’s 4.5 million population, that would mean many non-Maoris adopting the language. It is a prospect that excites Charles Royal, a Maori academic and storyteller at the national museum Te Papa (Our Place). “We’ve never had so many te reo speakers as we have now,” he said. “What te reo enables me to do is articulate who I am in a very particular way . . . as a New Zealander,” he added. “It’s the vehicle by which humanity first gained a voice in this part of the world.” Royal said the earlier rejection of te reo stemmed from a sense of inferiority and a mistaken belief that European history was more important than that of New Zealand. But he said Kiwis now feel more positive about their place in the world and the rising popularity of te reo is an expression of this confidence. As an actor, Eramiha observes that te reo “flies off my tongue a bit better (than English), the flow’s different.” Head teacher Angela Fieldes has noticed a similar phenomenon among toddlers exposed to te reo at the Wellington child care center she helps run. “They pick it up really, really quickly, so it just becomes part of their day,” she said after the children performed a “waiata” (song), reciting Maori colors, numbers and vowels. “They love the singing and I think a big part of learning te reo is that it’s so rich in the way you can use song.” Royal said there are still New Zealanders who maintain Maori culture is not valuable, but they are an aging minority. He said the fact that so many non-Maori, including “pakeha” (New Zealanders of European descent) want to learn te reo is “absolutely fantastic.” “It makes me feel proud to be Maori, it’s an act of generosity on both sides,” he said. Eramiha echoes the sentiment, saying the passion for the language has been evident as his Taki Rua theater troupe performs in te reo across the country. He expressed confidence in the language’s future, saying: “People from other cultures come up to me after our shows and say, ‘Can you teach me how to say ‘Hello?’ “ “It’s a treasure for us to be able to pass it on and a great gift to see other people wanting to learn it. It’s amazing.”
|
new zealand;maori;languages;wellington;native cultures
|
jp0009943
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/09/25
|
Singapore diplomat urges repeal of 'antiquated' gay sex law
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SINGAPORE - One of Singapore’s most influential diplomats called Tuesday for the repeal of a law criminalizing sex between men, saying it was time for the modern city-state to abandon the “antiquated” legislation. The Indian Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month to decriminalize homosexual sex has sparked fresh debate in Singapore, and a new legal challenge has been lodged against the city’s anti-gay sex law. Sex between men remains illegal in Singapore under “Section 377A” of the penal code, inherited from the British colonial era, although it is rarely enforced. Tommy Koh, a veteran diplomat and former ambassador to the United Nations and the U.S., wrote in a column for the pro-government newspaper The Straits Times that the statute should be abandoned. “Section 377A is an antiquated law, not supported by science, and should be repealed,” said Koh, an international law expert and ambassador at large in the foreign ministry. The 80-year-old said Singapore is one of a minority of countries that still outlaw sodomy because the law was inherited from the old British penal code. “For a country which embraces science and technology, it is surprising that, on this one aspect, the law has not been updated in light of the scientific evidence,” he said. Koh said the World Health Organization had removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, and while religious leaders consider sodomy a sin it should not be a crime. The last time a challenge was brought against the law was in 2014 but the city-state’s appeals court dismissed it, saying it was up to Parliament to repeal the law. Singaporean DJ Johnson Ong lodged a new challenge earlier this month. Lawyers for Ong, known as DJ Big Kid, said they will seek to show the ban runs counter to the constitution’s guarantee of personal liberty. While affluent Singapore boasts a modern and vibrant culture, official attitudes toward homosexuality remain conservative. But public support for gay rights has been growing, with thousands turning up in recent years for Singapore’s annual Pink Dot gay rights rally.
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human rights;singapore;lgbt;same sex relations
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jp0009945
|
[
"national",
"crime-legal"
] |
2018/09/25
|
Japan panel suggests relaxing rules for foreign lawyers in international arbitration
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A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday proposed easing regulations to allow foreign lawyers to participate in arbitration cases involving the Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies. The panel also suggested in a report that such disputes should be eligible for international arbitration in Japan as the decisions of Japanese subsidiaries are influenced by their foreign parent companies. As of April last year, there were 411 foreign lawyers registered with the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. They are currently able to provide legal services related to other countries’ laws and can represent parties in international arbitration proceedings as counsel, with the approval of the justice minister. The ministry aims to revise the law regarding foreign lawyers as soon as possible and is planning to include rules for foreign and Japanese lawyers to jointly establish law firms so people can receive legal consultations on a variety of issues. The ministry also wants to revise the law to allow foreign lawyers in the country to be involved in international arbitration proceedings being conducted overseas. Companies use international arbitration to settle commercial disputes as they can often reach a settlement more quickly than by seeking a resolution in court.
|
lawyers;international arbitration
|
jp0009946
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/08/03
|
Southern Europe issues heat alert; German drought yields WWII munitions on Elbe's banks
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ROME - Mediterranean countries issued severe weather warnings on Thursday, as a heatwave pushed temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in Europe and falling water levels exposed World War II munitions along the banks of a river in Germany. Italy issued red alerts — the highest of three warning levels — across the center and north, indicating widespread health risks in cities, including tourist magnets Rome, Florence and Venice. Heatwaves have become common in Italy, and between 2005 and 2016 some 23,880 people died in 23 Italian cities of heat-related problems, a report by the region of Lazio found. Forecasters expect Italy’s heatwave to break over the weekend with powerful thunderstorms across much of the country. Portugal said temperatures in the coming days could beat records and warned of a high risk of forest fires, fearful of a repeat of blazes that killed 114 people in 2017, a disaster that forced the interior minister to resign. Wildfires in Greece last month killed 91 people. In the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, police warned people not to touch the grenades, mines and other weapons that have emerged from the mud on the banks of the River Elbe since the heatwave caused a drastic reduction in the water level. In just a few weeks, police have found 24 pieces of World War II munitions — dumped at the end of the conflict by Russian, Western and German forces — near the water, compared with 12 in the whole of last year. Specialist technicians are working overtime to make them safe, in some cases defusing them on site.
|
wwii;italy;germany;drought;heatwave;southern europe;elbe
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jp0009947
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/03
|
Leading Chinese Buddhist monk accused of sexual misconduct
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BEIJING - One of China’s highest-ranking Buddhist monks is facing a government investigation after he was accused of demanding sexual favors from nuns. Longquan Monastery abbot Shi Xuecheng is accused of harassing and demanding sexual favors from numerous female nuns in a 95-page statement compiled by two fellow monks at the storied Beijing monastery. The statement including testimony from the alleged victims leaked this week on social media, prompting an outcry and unusual coverage by state media before it was censored. China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs said Thursday it would investigate the claims. Xuecheng and the monastery denied the accusations. Xuecheng heads the Buddhist Association of China and serves on a political advisory body to the central government. He has published numerous books and has a large social media following. Included in the statement were extensive details and screenshots of explicit text messages allegedly sent by Xuecheng, including claims to nuns that they could be “purified” through the physical contact and that sex was part of their study of religious doctrines.
|
china;religion;sex crimes
|
jp0009948
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/08/03
|
A day in the life of Kurdish asylum-seekers in Tokyo
|
Tokyo offers an almost limitless variety of awe-inspiring tours but one recent addition guided visitors on a truly unique journey — into the settlements of Kurdish asylum-seekers. Port B, a theater art performance organization, is offering a collaborative refugee tour experience, giving participants firsthand insights into the lifestyle and daily struggle of asylum-seekers and evacuees. The first of three planned tours focused on the Tokyo area’s Kurdish community and ran from July 13 to 15. Rather than simply visiting communities, participants plan their own tour of the city together with refugees — and then visit the asylum-seekers’ resettlement towns, as well as other locations of significance to the refugees or places where they feel a sense of connection. It’s part of an endeavor named the New Tokyo School Excursion Project that comprises the one-off tours with the aim of letting tourists observe the capital from the perspective of refugees and evacuees. Under the theme of “war,” the Kurdish tour started with a visit to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, where many of the Kurdish asylum-seekers with expired visas, most of them men, are detained. Both refugees and tour organizers served as guides, and participants listened to their narration through a wireless audio system while walking freely around the locations on the tour. On the second day, around 50 participants strolled through the city of Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, where more than 1,500 Kurds reside, and visited spots where many refugees gather. They made Kurdish dishes together with refugees in a cooking class, held at a community center where Kurdish wedding ceremonies often take place. Hidenobu Matsuzawa, the head of a Kurdish support association who joined the cooking session, said that this kind of event not only enhances mutual understanding between the mostly Japanese participants and asylum-seekers, but also improves relationships between Kurdish children and their parents. “Kurdish parents who speak little Japanese and face difficulties communicating with local citizens often struggle with maintaining their dignity and gaining respect from their children, many of whom grew up in Japan and speak Japanese,” Matsuzawa said. “However, kids start respecting their Kurdish culture and their parents more after they see them interact with Japanese people who praise their cooking skills.” After the cooking session the event’s director and founder Akira Takayama, who attended high school in Warabi, led the participants on another facet of the tour — a trip to the McDonald’s near the local train station where Kurds often gather. “It’s often said that ‘if you want to meet Kurds, come to the McDonald’s in Warabi,’ ” Takayama said over a microphone. Sitting in the shop with participants gathered around, he explained that McDonald’s — typically regarded as symbolic of cheap fast food — often serves as a sanctuary for refugees and homeless people, where they can nurse a ¥100 coffee in relative comfort. The tour also included a trip to the well-trodden Asakusa district, but participants did not enter its famous Sensoji Temple. Instead, they stopped by a construction site near the main avenue that leads to the temple — where Kurdish asylum-seeker Ali Ayyildiz recounted the times he discovered buried debris from World War II while working in the district. “I often find bricks and broken pieces of gravestones when I tear down 50- to 60-year-old houses in Asakusa,” Ayyildiz said. “And an old man who lives near the construction site where I previously worked told me that he had recovered human bones from the ground.” Ayyildiz, who was detained twice by immigration authorities for overstaying his visas and now lives on provisional release status, added that many Kurds face the same situation as him. They are making up for the labor shortage in Japan’s construction industry in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Games. Erika Kotabe, a 21-year-old tour participant, said: “I felt different (about Asakusa) when I was listening to Mr. Ali’s story at the construction site. I have been to Sensoji a few times, but the place seemed quite different when I observed it from his point of view.” The tour is not an entirely new concept. Welgee, a nonprofit organization that supports refugees, holds similar tours in which participants cook Kurdish food together with asylum-seekers and listen to their stories. However, rather than seeing it as a tour primarily to create opportunities for Japanese to understand the lives of refugees, the Port B group has developed the excursion as a theater project created around the idea of a “learning play,” a concept originally conceived by German dramatist and poet Bertolt Brecht. In such productions the audience becomes part of the play and actors often learn from the experience as well. Based on that notion, Port B treats the tour as a play and the participants, asylum-seekers and organizers are its ensemble cast. To help participants become fully immersed and allow them to actively engage in the process, three workshops were held before the tour. There, a few participants heard the stories of Kurdish asylum-seekers and discussed potential sightseeing plans. Even members of the media who observed the workshop were asked to participate in the tour’s development. Amy Loo, a 22-year-old Chinese-American who participated in both the workshops and the tour, said that socially-engaged performances are quite rare in Japan, let alone ones featuring asylum-seekers. “Performance-based learning is not something new in the U.S. and I believe it could be an effective way (for Japanese people) to learn history and politics, rather than receiving a one-way flow of information,” she said. “It could become a new style of education.” The project has received funding from the Kawamura Arts and Cultural Foundation, which supports “socially engaged art” activities that aim to drive change among existing rules and systems through proactive participation and communication within society. The group’s other upcoming tours will focus on Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and school children who evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture after the nuclear crisis triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
|
refugees;kurds;saitama;theater group
|
jp0009949
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/03
|
Kagoshima hospital reveals 15 cases of 'superbug' infections after logging eight deaths since 2016
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KAGOSHIMA - Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter and a similar bacteria have been found in 15 patients, eight of whom have died, at a hospital in Kagoshima Prefecture since 2016, the hospital disclosed Friday. Kagoshima University Hospital in the city of Kagoshima denied any link between the infections and four of the deaths, while admitting the infections could have affected the progression of illnesses in the other four. It said the environment of its intensive care unit could have caused the infections, and apologized to the patients’ families. “We will consider inspecting the hospital based on the medical care law,” health minister Katsunobu Kato said. MDR Acinetobacter can cause serious infections, particularly in one’s lungs and blood, and is hard to treat because it is resistant to most existing antimicrobial agents. It may be found on human skin and other places in humid environments. Sanitizing with alcohol is said to be effective against the pathogen. Of the 15 infected patients, MDR Acinetobacter was detected in five who had been hospitalized between April last year and this April. A bacteria with similar traits was found in the remaining 10, who were admitted from September 2016, the hospital said. According to the hospital, it stepped up cleaning around the infected and screened other patients but might have fallen short on its risk evaluation process. In-hospital infections of MDR Acinetobacter have often claimed the lives of those hospitalized for other illnesses. Between February 2009 and October 2010, 60 people at Teikyo University Hospital in Tokyo were infected with MDR Acinetobacter, and 35 of them died. Four people also died at Fukuoka University Hospital between October 2008 and January 2009 after being infected with the bacteria. In 2017, the World Health Organization listed Acinetobacter among the antibiotic-resistant pathogens that pose the “greatest threat to human health.” Placed within the top priority group, the bacteria poses a particular threat in hospitals and nursing homes and can cause severe and often deadly infections, WHO says. The group also says antimicrobial resistance in general spreads through the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials. To address resistance, the organization is calling for better prevention of infections and appropriate use of existing antibiotics in humans and animals. Japan is seeking to reduce its antibacterial use to two-thirds of its 2013 level by 2020. News of the Kagoshima infections comes as the journal Science Translational Medicine reported a study Wednesday on multidrug-resistant “superbugs” that are becoming increasingly resistant to alcohol-based hand sanitizers and disinfectants. In the study into what researchers described as a “new wave of superbugs” that can also cause dangerous infections in hospitals, the team found specific genetic changes over a 20-year period in vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) — and were able to track and show its growing resistance. Still, Paul Johnson, a professor of infectious diseases at Austin Health hospital in Australia who co-led the study, singled out alcohol-based disinfectants — which are central to hospital infection control — saying the findings should not prompt dramatic changes in their use.
|
infection;kagoshima;bacteria;hospitals
|
jp0009950
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/03
|
Driver's licenses in Japan to start showing expiration date using Western calendar
|
Japan’s driver’s licenses will start to indicate their expiration date using the Western calendar instead of the Japanese calendar, a draft of revised traffic law regulations showed Thursday. The draft, disclosed by the National Police Agency, will also change rules to allow ID photos to show the driver wearing a hijab. The changes reflect the increasing number of foreigners holding Japanese driver’s licenses, according to the agency. Other dates, including the license holder’s birth date, will continue to be shown using the Japanese calendar. The police agency aims to implement the changes next month after hearing public opinions. Licenses using the Western calendar year for expiration are likely to be issued from next March or later. Drivers are required in principle to remove hats when taking ID photos for a license. The planned changes will enable drivers to wear a hat or clothing for medical or religious reasons as long as their faces remain uncovered. The number of foreigners carrying Japanese driver’s licenses increased from 737,000 in 2012 to 868,000 last year, according to the agency.
|
national police agency;foreigners;drivers ' license
|
jp0009951
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/08/04
|
Asphalt melts and dogs don shoes as Europe wilts under heat waves
|
MADRID - Europe sweltered Saturday in intense heat with temperatures due to hit near-record highs of 46 degrees (115 F) in Portugal, while elsewhere high temperatures melted the asphalt or saw police dogs fitted with shoes. Here is a roundup: Portugal: Peak heat The heat wave was expected to reach its peak on Saturday, said Paula Leitao of the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), with the city of Setubal not far from Lisbon due to reach highs of 46 during the day. By way of comparison, this is not far off the 48 expected in California’s notoriously parched and scorching Death Valley, one of the hottest places on earth, according to U.S. forecaster AccuWeather. This comes a day after 16 weather stations in the country registered record temperatures including in Alcacer do Sal near Setubal, where the heat climbed to 45.9. Authorities in Lisbon have closed playgrounds and called on people to avoid picnics and outdoor activities. Refuges for homeless people have also opened earlier in the day to allow them to take shelter from the crushing heat. Spain: Three dead In southern Spain, the heat continued to pound down with the touristy city of Cordoba expected to reach 45. The heat has already claimed the lives of three people this week. A middle-aged man in Barcelona, whom media said appeared to be homeless, was found collapsed on a street Friday and taken to hospital where he later died of heatstroke, Catalonia’s civil protection agency said in a statement. Two other men — a road worker in his 40s and a 78-year-old pensioner tending to his vegetable garden — also died from heatstroke this week. Austria: Dogs fitted with shoes In Vienna, police dogs due to patrol a beach volleyball tournament were fitted with special little shoes. Police said that even if temperatures were not excruciatingly hot, reaching just 34 on Saturday, the dogs will have to spend hours walking on surfaces exposed to the sun that could easily go over 50 degrees, hence the shoes. Netherlands: asphalt melting In the Netherlands, authorities had closed certain sections of highways where the heat had melted the asphalt. The central city of Zwolle, meanwhile, had started cutting the branches of some 100 poplar trees. Dutch public television NOS explained that branches could break due to the heat and create danger for drivers or passers-by. France: Reactors close A total of four nuclear reactors in France have been closed due to the heat wave. French power company EDF said the measures were taken to avoid raising too high the temperature of rivers where nuclear plants draw water to cool down reactors and then pour it back in. Saturday was also the summer’s busiest day on the roads, as July holiday-makers returned home and those who vacation in August departed for their month of farniente. By late morning, 670 km (416 miles) of traffic jams had been reported, according to France’s traffic authorities, as the heat pounded down on the asphalt. Italy: Health warnings Italy too faced the summer’s busiest day on the roads for the same reason as France. Holiday-makers were expected to face adverse weather conditions wherever they went. In the north, the scorching heat beat down on cars while violent hailstorms were expected in the afternoon in the south. This week, the Legambiente association for the defense of the environment published a report on the negative effects of heat waves. It revealed that in Lazio, the region where Rome is located, heat waves had caused around 7,700 deaths since 2000. Sweden: Relief Following its hottest July in 250 years, rain showers gave Sweden cooling relief on Saturday across most of the country. The mercury fell to more typical summer temperatures of around 20 to 25 C, the Swedish Metereological and Hydrological Institute said.
|
europe;weather;heat wave
|
jp0009952
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/04
|
South Korean women hold mass protests in battle against spycam porn
|
SEOUL - Even a record heat wave wasn’t going to keep Claire Lee from joining tens of thousands of South Korean women at a mass protest against spycam pornography on Saturday as anger over the issue swells, prompting national soul-searching. Since May, the monthly demonstration in Seoul has shattered records to become the biggest-ever women’s protest in South Korea, where the global #MeToo movement has unleashed an unprecedented wave of female-led activism. The target of their fury: so-called molka (spycam) videos, which largely involve men secretly filming women in schools, offices, trains, toilets and changing rooms. They are so prevalent they make headlines on a daily basis. “Entering a public bathroom is such an unnerving experience these days,” Lee said. She always looks around the walls to see if there are any “suspicious holes.” “You never know if there’s a spycam lens hidden inside . . . filming you while you pee,” the 21-year-old student said. She sometimes stabs the holes with a pen to shatter any secret lenses, or stuffs tissues inside them. The number of spycam crimes reported to police surged from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 last year. The offenders have included school teachers, professors, doctors, church pastors, government officials, police officers and even a court judge. In some cases, the victims’ own boyfriends or relatives were responsible for the crimes, in a troubling reflection of South Korea’s deep-rooted patriarchal norms. Fed up with living in fear, women are fighting back. More than 55,000 attended last month’s protest in Seoul, according to its organizers; police put the attendance at around 20,000. “The pent-up anger among women has finally reached a boiling point,” said one of the protest organizers, who only identified herself as Ellin. Asia’s fourth-largest economy takes pride in its tech prowess, from ultra-fast internet to cutting-edge smartphones. But these advances have also given rise to an army of tech-savvy peeping Toms, with videos widely shared in internet chat rooms and on file-sharing sites, or used as ads for websites promoting prostitution. Although all manufacturers of smartphones sold in the South are required to ensure that their devices make a loud shutter noise when taking photos — a move designed to curb covert filming — many offenders use special apps that mute the sound or turn to high-tech spy cameras hidden inside eyeglasses, lighters, watches, car keys and even neckties. A 43-year-old man was arrested last month for secretly filming occupants of Seoul motels for four years, installing ultra-mini lenses inside TV speakers and other equipment after posing as a guest. A police raid uncovered more than 20,000 spycam videos at his home. In June a 34-year-old man was arrested for secretly filming women inside toilets and selling thousands of videos online for up to 100,000 won ($90) apiece. Justice is rarely served, campaigners say. Most offenders are fined or given suspended jail terms — except in the rare cases where the perpetrator is female and the victim male. A woman who secretly filmed a male model posing nude at a Seoul art college was arrested in May, days after she shared the image online. That was the spark for the unprecedented protests this summer. “The police have rarely responded when countless female victims asked for the immediate arrest of the offender,” said Seo Seung-hui, head of the nonprofit Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center. In this case, the suspect was paraded in front of TV cameras while police raided her home to search for evidence. In an uncharacteristically swift response, authorities even launched a probe targeting those who shamed the male model online. “The women saw how quickly . . . the police responded to this rare case in which the victim was a man. . . . Such unfair treatment fueled the recent wave of anger,” Seo said. Campaigners have called for harsher punishments for those who film, distribute and view such images. They have also urged tougher regulations to restrict the sale of high-tech spycam equipment. But in a sign of the ugly fight ahead of them, many of the protesters at a recent rally kept their faces covered and declined to be photographed due to worries over personal safety, with previous participants becoming the targets of relentless online bullying. Despite their fears, they refuse to back down. “Seeing so many women gather together to speak up was a deeply empowering experience,” Ellin said. “We have power. Together, we can make change happen.”
|
women;privacy;protests;south korea;sex crimes;pornography;discrimination
|
jp0009953
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/04
|
There's no easy way to escape from your smartphone
|
Two decades ago, it was still common to see articles in the media disparaging the lack of manners and self-absorbed behavior of mobile phone users. By around 2003, however, the phones had become so ubiquitous that the erstwhile complainers had most likely become phone addicts themselves. In a rare exception, the conservative Sankei Shimbun raised the topic of “enslavement to cellphones” in January 2007 as a serious social problem that had begun to disrupt proceedings in the Diet. Parliamentarians, it reported, could frequently be seen tweaking their phones. “From the speaker’s seat, you can see it going on. It’s shameful,” Kozo Watanabe, a senior DPJ legislator, was quoted as saying. “It seems we no longer have the sense of pride and responsibility that would serve as a good example to the people.” That was 11 years ago. How about now? Well, a headline in Shukan Post (Aug. 10) suggests that growing numbers of Diet members may be suffering from sumaho netchū-shō . Normally netchū-shō means heatstroke, but when preceded by “smartphone” it becomes a play on words, nuanced to mean “the disease of overenthusiasm for smartphones.” It seems that on the evening of July 5, while large areas of western Japan were being inundated with catastrophic rain, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a dozen or so members of his ruling party — a group named Akasaka Jimin-tei — gathered to attend a cozy drinking affair. We know this because Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura tweeted a photo of the prime minister and fellow LDP legislators, glasses raised in a hearty toast. (The photo was subsequently removed.) Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Nobuteru Ishihara also came under fire for allegedly frivolous social network posts during a national emergency. “Previously, social networking sites (SNS) were regarded as effective tools through which politicians could reach out to voters in real time,” Shukan Post said. “But it’s come to the point where they just amble around, smartphones in hand, while fishing for favorable responses. … There may be no stopping the spreading of netchū-shō.” Spa! (July 31), meanwhile, ran a six-page article titled “The actual conditions of ‘smartphone slaves.'” Its in-house survey of 300 male and female salaried workers aged between 30 and 49 years found that 61 percent spend three hours or more per day using their mobile devices, with 7 percent spending more than seven hours and 8 percent from five to seven hours. In extreme cases, accrued smartphone use reached 1,800 hours per year, which means that the equivalent of one-fifth of their waking time was spent with eyes glued to the small screen. As for their greatest complaints, survey subjects said they felt fatigued because work-related calls continued to arrive at night (152 responses); that they were requested to provide data no matter where they were or what they were doing (122); that they had to check on their work on days off (110); that they had to keep recharging their devices to prevent the battery from running down (98); and that they were invariably grabbing their smartphone to check on work-related issues from the moment they opened their eyes in the morning (77 responses). A 40-year-old “slave” named Seiji Maeda (a pseudonym) employed by an advertising agency gave the following breakdown of a typical day with his smartphone: 50 emails (from Gmail); 100 messages (via Line); 30 messages (via WeChat); and 20 messages (via Facebook). Attempting to categorize the types of slavery, Spa! came up with six varieties. First there’s “SNS monitoring addiction,” in which the users constantly crave “likes” and thumbs-up to their posts from friends and colleagues. Next is “customize addiction,” in which a user downloads all kinds of applications and devotes inordinate time to mastering them. “Matching addiction” refers to spending long hours in search of a dream partner of the opposite sex. “Social gamers” are so hooked they are known to lock themselves in a toilet stall at work so they can play “Monster Strike” and other popular games. And so on. Now consider this: When you find yourself with a moment to spare, do you use the time to pull out your smartphone? Do you sometimes imagine you’re receiving a call when that is not the case? Do you have difficulty recalling the names of friends or co-workers? Have you forgotten how to write kanji characters? Do you get disoriented on familiar streets? Is insomnia an increasing problem? Do you feel a general malaise, with headaches, vertigo and stiff shoulders and neck? Have you lost interest in things you used to enjoy? These are among 20 questions compiled by physician Ayumu Okumura, who heads the Okumura Memory Clinic in Gifu Prefecture. If you reply “yes” to many questions on this self-administered test, you may be suffering from “smartphone dementia.” The subheadline in Asahi Geino (Aug. 9) explains it as “Rubbish builds up in your brain.” It’s easy to understand why Asahi Geino likes Dr. Okumura: He recommends patients stop seeking thrills from smartphones and return to perusing tabloid weekly magazines — which, of course, not only offer titillating text but regularly run glossy color photos of partially or completely unclad young females — over the “virtual reality” that smartphones provide. Why? For one reason, the good doctor says, “the texture of paper and smell of ink are extremely important for human beings. That’s why people should buy Asahi Geino.” Now that is quite an endorsement! This newly enlightened writer certainly appreciates the therapeutic benefits he’s been accorded all these years by the weekly tabloids he reads.
|
smartphone;addiction
|
jp0009954
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/04
|
Japan's rigid koseki system keeps it all in the family
|
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mio Sugita is being criticized for comments she made about how LGBT individuals should not receive government “support” because, biologically speaking, they can’t have children and are thus “unproductive” as members of society. Although the media have covered her remarks and the backlash, they’ve avoided the elephant in the room — the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Sugita’s mentor, has no offspring himself. It’s nobody’s business why Abe and his wife are childless but, as political science professor Jiro Yamaguchi asked in a July 29 Tokyo Shimbun column , can Sugita say to Abe’s face that his administration should withhold support for childless citizens? Sugita’s LGBT stance is one component of her defense of the so-called traditional Japanese family, her main agenda as a public figure. In this capacity, her wildest assertion, made in a July 4, 2016, Sankei Shimbun column title “ Mio Sugita’s Nadeshiko Report ,” is that the Japanese day care system is part of a scheme by the Communist International to “brainwash” children and “destroy the Japanese family” by popularizing separate names for married couples and support for gender-free issues. The Communist International was a global movement to spread communism, and it officially ended under orders from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1943, but certain people feel it’s still active as a kind of lingering, insidious cabal. The Japanese family is codified in the family register (koseki), which effectively makes separate names illegal and identifies interrelational traits, such as legitimacy and succession, for all to see and for the rest of the individual’s life. In effect, it is really the koseki that brainwashes by establishing in Japanese people’s minds a rigid family structure . Some have tried to get around this system, but it has been conceived in such a way as to be inviolable. Documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda, who is based in New York, is currently suing the Japanese government for not allowing him and his Japanese wife to have separate names on their koseki . The couple were married in the U.S. some 20 years ago and kept their respective birth names. However, when they tried to register their marriage in Japan the relevant local government office refused to acknowledge the union because only one family name is allowed on a koseki document. An argument Soda could use is that foreign people who marry Japanese nationals can be incorporated into their Japanese partners’ koseki without either spouse having to change their name, so why can’t he and his wife do the same thing? The upshot is that if they had children, those children would be deemed illegitimate in Japan, even though they are legally married overseas. What people such as Sugita fail to recognize is that the koseki system exacerbates Japan’s current demographic crisis. It may not have as huge as an effect as economic insecurity does, but if people aren’t going to marry in Japan for whatever reason, they aren’t going to have children, because the stigma attached to illegitimacy is built into the koseki. The koseki’s most powerful effect is that it makes people believe that family is only defined by blood, which is why child adoption is so rare in Japan. In fact, the word “adoption” by itself describes bringing people into one’s koseki for the purpose of inheritance, so the vast majority of adoptees are adults. If you adopt a child, it’s called a “special adoption,” and the Justice Ministry is now reviewing the special adoption system to make it easier for couples to adopt older children . As it stands, only children up to the age of 6 can qualify for special adoptions. The legal advantage of special adoptions is that the child can be entered into the adoptive parents’ koseki as their own blood relation, rather than as an “adopted child,” which is how they are designated under normal adoptions. It’s bureaucratic sleight-of-hand. Only an expert can tell by looking at the koseki that the “specially adopted” child is not the parents’ biological issue. For that reason, couples who specially adopt a child overwhelmingly prefer infants so that the children themselves grow up thinking that their guardians are their biological parents, even though child welfare professionals insist they be told of their provenance. This system results in only about 500 special adoptions a year . The difficulties cut both ways. In a June 13 article, the Asahi Shimbun profiled a 22-year-old Kyushu woman who was taken in by a foster family at age 7 . Although she loved the couple, that love was attenuated by the knowledge that they weren’t her real parents, and she hid that fact from everyone. She understood the couple was receiving money to raise her, but, as she told the Asahi, she was “desperate” to be in their koseki. When her biological mother, who had refused to relinquish custody despite saying she was unable to raise her daughter, died when the girl was 14, she was free to be adopted. After turning 18, she told her foster parents, who were no longer legally responsible for her, that she would forego school and work full-time to pay them if only they’d put her in their koseki. She was too old to be a special adoptee, but she’d be in somebody’s family register — she wanted at least that much legitimacy, which is the whole point of the system. This mindset is at play in the local backlash to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning film, “Shoplifters,” which has been derided by some Japanese who say the director accepted state funds to glorify a group of criminals. But a fundamental element of their objection to the movie is that the members of the family depicted are not connected by marriage or blood. To someone like Sugita, conveying to the world that this is a “Japanese family” amounts to blasphemy.
|
family;mio sugita
|
jp0009955
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/04
|
There's nothing new about Japan's online backlash against tourists
|
The internet loves a clapback, so when writer Melissa Martin shared a few snappy responses from a monk named Daniel Kimura to less-than-positive reviews of a temple doubling as lodging on Mount Koya, Twitter embraced it. The tweet garnered more than 17,000 retweets and 38,000 likes, with many digitally swooning over the religious devotee’s comebacks at tourists complaining about impersonal staff and bland food (“yeah, it’s Japanese monastic cuisine, you uneducated f—”). It wasn’t just journalists and rapper Talib Kweli applauding the monk. Plenty of foreign residents in Japan also shared it . Anecdotally, nearly a dozen Tokyo-based people I follow retweeted it the morning it emerged. I imagine far more did, too, mostly because few topics excite this demographic more than complaining about tourists. This year has been a big one for “tourism pollution” in Japan as the number of folks coming to the nation keeps rising . Mount Koya’s influx of foreign visitors already had monks salty before one took to Booking.com. Tourists have vandalized bamboo in Kyoto and taken pictures of people without their consent . The start of 2018 saw a double whammy of perceived bad behavior, first with Logan Paul’s YouTube misadventures (he still hasn’t quite learned from them ) and that was followed by a fuss over a GoPro that was placed on a sushi conveyor belt . The way Japanese netizens and online publications approach the tourist boom, however, looks different than how Japan’s foreign residents and English-language media presents it. The discussion is more nuanced, with complaints balanced by concerns about how the country can better accommodate. This isn’t to say negativity is left out of the picture, it just gets doled out differently. Take the monk story. Despite going viral abroad, it drew scant attention among Japanese users online. Newsweek Japan wrote about it and several places aggregated the story (and at least one TV channel covered it ), but it didn’t go that far, with most prominent online outlets ignoring it. Even commentary on social media seemed slight, with those weighing in arguing that even if he had a point, the monk probably approached it the wrong way . Another monk noted he doesn’t represent the whole mountain (while still respecting his opinion). Foreign residents of Japan originally hailing from Western countries tend to view tourists in an especially negative light, with only weeaboos serving as a larger target for unified disdain (when the monk’s identity and the fact he grew up in the United States became clear, the story felt much more familiar). Japanese netizens have reacted negatively to stories that irk their non-Japanese counterparts — the Kyoto vandalism story earlier this year got plenty talking — but their relationship to inbound visitors is more complicated. Tourism, after all, is booming and bringing in money … and it doesn’t look like it will be stopping anytime soon. A lot of daily discussion online focuses on how to improve the Japan experience for tourists. A takoyaki (octopus dumpling) stand in Osaka Park has attracted huge sales because of foreign visitors, but after it was found out they evaded paying taxes , some online said that charging ¥600 for eight balls was a rip-off aimed at tourists . Another recent Newsweek piece focused on declining satisfaction with the country. The Olympics rest heavy on many netizens’ minds, with some wondering what happens when a country averse to tattoos sees many sporting them come in. Others simply celebrate translation services , or just wonder why certain spaces such as Oasis 21 in Nagoya attract so many overseas visitors . When those online do complain, it comes in subtler ways. When the China-based idol group SNH48 (not affiliated with AKB48 — long story ) put up ads in Akihabara, one Twitter user quipped “I thought this was already a city of foreigners?” Others complain about how the emphasis on “inbound” tourism ignores domestic travelers. Some of the criticism also takes a look at the bigger picture. Kankō kōgai (“tourism pollution”) has appeared a lot online this year, mostly in reference to Kyoto . A larger story that attracted attention came in spring, when Gendai published a piece about the city of Niseko turning into a place that didn’t resemble Japan. Still, when netizens talk — and moan — about tourism, they are still mostly talking about Chinese visitors to the country (which soon tips over into right-wing online spaces). However, this in and of itself isn’t new, nor is it limited to Japan — it’s just the perceived image of a tourist here. Take a viral clip of several non-Japanese dancing on a train , for example. Tourism isn’t really part of the discussion here. Instead, social media users are just questioning why people who don’t appear to be from around here are acting in a way they aren’t familiar with — something that has been happening for much longer than monks snapping back at backpackers.
|
tourism;japan pulse
|
jp0009956
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/08/04
|
Japan Times 1943: Respect for parents plays vital role in Japanese life
|
100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Aug. 13 1918 Hunger riots becoming grave national matter The food riots that began more than a week ago when 200 women of Mizubashi, a fishing village in Toyama Prefecture, met on the seashore to discuss their greivances, have assumed alarming proportions and events such as never occurred in the history of this country are reported from all the great cities of the south and west. In every case, the disturbances have taken the form of raids on the stores of rice dealers, in nearly all of which women have taken part. Great mass meetings of the people, such as Japan has never seen before, have taken place in Nagoya and Osaka. The whole amazing movement has spread like wildfire and the authorities are dumbfounded. From all that can be gathered, it seems that the leaders in the disturbances are factory hands, a class unknown in Japan until recent years. In Kyoto, the rioting was so violent that the police were forced to obtain assistance from the military. In Osaka, the troops are also holding themselves to readiness. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1943 Respect for parents plays vital role in life THE JAPAN TIMES “Japanese are great respecters for their parents for ‘kōdō’ or the way of filial piety which is one of their basic national traits occupying a place only second in importance to the spirit of absolute patriotism,” declares Takeo Akiyama in describing the high esteem paid to mothers by the men of the Imperial armed services. “How highly this trait is regarded among the people can be seen from the fact that a separate section is devoted to it in the Senjinkun, that noble code of behavior of the Japanese Fighting Forces. Among the various stern instructions on actual combat in the Senjinkun is to be found the following dictum: “The oneness of patriotism on the one hand and respect for parents on the other constitutes the spiritual core of our country, and a patriotic subject is always a sincere and dutiful respecter of his parents. Far away at the battlefronts, one should always remember the instructions of one’s parents and, constantly patrioitc to the Imperial throne, should exert his utmost to manifest the noblest traditions of his forefathers. “There can be no injustice or anything malicious among men who fight with the thoughts of their mothers and fathers constantly in their minds. “The mothers, and parents, at home too are not shirking their share, you may be sure, as they instruct their beloved sons about to leave for the front. “Among the belongings of a youthful Japanese airman who committed ‘jibaku’ or self-blasted together with his plane into an enemy warship recently to sink the sink by force of the ensuing explosion was found a letter from his mother instructing him to never to write home again until he was sure he had become a worthy warrior of Japan. “Fanaticism? There may be some who will call it fanaticism when a mother volunteers to offer her finger-joint to her sole son so that the latter may be operated on to remedy a dwarfed finger that was hindering him from qualifying for the air force. But let us not lose our sense of evaluation of what is good and noble in mankind even in the midst of warfare, for it is only by the preservation of this sense that mankind has progressed and will progress in the future.” 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Aug. 13, 1968 ‘Authentic’ Japanese foods proving popular American gourmands, once content with such delicacies and compliments as mandarin oranges and soy sauces, are developing a taste for a wider range of “authentic” Nipponese foods, a Japanese food industry representative says. And, to keep their palates happy, said the official, Tohru Morikawa, Japan has increased her exports of specialty foods to the U.S. by about 53 percent in the last five years, from $17,800,000 worth in 1963 to about $27,300,000 in 1967. In all, Morikawa said, the U.S. imports about $100 million worth of Japanese food each year, mostly staples, such as tuna, swordfish, and crabmeat. But things are changing, he says. “A number of years ago, when Japanese foods first found popularity in the United States, Americans used them mostly to liven up American dishes. So our soy sauces, mandarin oranges, and flavor intensifiers were most in demand,” the agonomist said. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, Aug. 6, 1993 Japanese-style baby food to go on sale Pigeon Corp., a major child care goods maker headquartered in Tokyo, will enter the baby food marker in September for the first time, the company has announced. While the other companies’ baby foods are usually made of Western-style cuisine, Pigeon will feature traditional Japanese fare, a spokesman said. The product line will be the first of its kind, the company claimed. The new products are all made of natural foods such as fish and vegetables completely free from chemicals and additives, it added. With the catchphrase, “Japanese food for babies,” the company will market 15 items — three kinds of rice, five types of entrees, six varieties of side dishes and one soup. All the products are divided into three groups on the basis of “terms” for breastfeeding: First, the early stage, starting at about the fifth month after birth; then the middle stage, beginning at around the seventh; and the final stage from the ninth month. Although in recent years the number of newborn babies in Japan has declined, the scale of the baby food market is expanding because more mothers are working today and demand more convenience to cope with their tight schedules, the company said.
|
japanese food;rice;riots;parents;baby food
|
jp0009957
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/05
|
Using their noodles: Fukui school's soba club hopes to roll to national title
|
Noodle club members from a high school in the city of Fukui are hurriedly honing their soba-making skills to prepare themselves for the national high school championship in Tokyo later this month. The noodle club, a rarity even in noodle-crazed Japan, was launched two years ago at Keishin High School and won third prize in individual competitions at last year’s championship. It’s aiming even higher this year, as it looks to land first place in both individual and team competitions. “Do you think this soba looks great or delicious? You won’t get a high score if you can’t make your soba look tasty,” says Eiichi Hoyama, 62, a soba master who supervises the club. Fukui Prefecture is known for Echizen oroshi, a style in which the buckwheat noodles are served cold with grated radish. Hoyama, who runs a nearby soba shop, has been promoting locally produced noodles using indigenous buckwheat varieties. Four years ago, he asked if he could give lessons at the high school’s culinary department. In fall 2014, students who attended Hoyama’s lessons created a soba group as part of the school’s cooking club and began a variety of activities, including soba-making shows at local events. The section was upgraded to an independent club in April 2016 and has 16 members. Akane Fujita, a 17-year-old third-year student who heads the club, said she joined shortly after it was officially launched, after being impressed by a noodle-making performance. When she first started, her noodles would break into short pieces when boiled because she couldn’t figure out the right water-to-flour ratio. The amount of water required to make good noodles changes daily as it depends on the temperature and humidity in the room. Experienced cooks can figure out the proper amount by how the noodles feel in their hands. “It is important to practice many times. Every time we make soba, we set different goals, focusing on different points,” Fujita said. The students can only practice two days per week because of budgetary reasons but recently received permission to make two batches each time instead of one. Keishin’s students have been vying for the national championship since 2015. The competition is organized by a noodle industry federation and sees teams from some 30 high schools across Japan take part. The highly ranked schools come mostly from major soba-producing regions, such as Hokkaido or northern Kanto. When Keishin took third in an individual competition last year, it was the first time a student from the Chubu region had done so. In team competitions, where the four members rotate in four-minute shifts to knead, cut and complete a batch of soba within 40 minutes, Keishin has never made it onto the podium. The noodles are judged by professional soba masters based on criteria including appearance and thinness. Close cooperation is important to create the perfect noodles. With two weeks to go until this year’s championship on Aug. 20, Keishin’s soba club is working to make the most of their practice sessions in their quest for noodle perfection.
|
soba;fukui;schools;keishin high school
|
jp0009958
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/05
|
Postpartum support for mothers in Japan defies government efforts to promote it
|
Postpartum support for mothers to cope with depression and other mental health maladies is still hard to come by despite government efforts in recent years to promote it, a survey shows. Funding and staff shortages are the major obstacles to making such support more widely available, the nationwide survey showed Saturday. It was conducted in January and February by the Mizuho Information & Research Institute for the health ministry. Only 26.2 percent of the 1,384 municipalities that responded offer postpartum support services, even though the central government has been offering subsidies since fiscal 2015 to finance half of the running cost, the survey showed. Among municipalities without such services, those planning to start them in the future were also low at 34.4 percent, with 28.6 percent saying they have no plans to introduce them due largely to funding and staff shortages. In postpartum support, midwives, nurses and other experts offer advice and help ease mothers’ anxieties by listening to their problems at homes, hospitals or other facilities. Postpartum depression is often associated with loneliness caused by having no one around to talk with about their mothers’ feelings and problems. It could develop into more serious health problems or cause parents to harm their child or themselves. The government compiled a guideline in 2017 outlining postpartum service methods and key issues to consider, but the municipalities polled said they wanted more financial and other support from the state. Some municipalities said such services are not fully known by people raising children. “There are municipalities which are reluctant to set up a budget (for postpartum support) due to uncertainties about cost effectiveness, but enhancing the child-rearing environment is helpful in addressing the issue of declining population. A long-term perspective is needed,” said Naomi Shiki, chief consultant at the Mizuho Information & Research Institute. Ways to tackle child abuse have been attracting attention since the shocking death of a 5-year-old girl in March who had begged her parents to stop mistreating her.
|
mothers;depression;parenthood;naomi shiki
|
jp0009959
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/08/02
|
Iran seen readying major exercise around vital Strait of Hormuz as tensions with U.S. simmer
|
WASHINGTON - The United States believes Iran is preparing to carry out a major exercise in the Gulf in the coming days, apparently moving up the timing of annual drills amid heightened tensions with Washington, U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Iran has been furious over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of an international nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Senior Iranian officials have warned the country would not easily yield to a renewed U.S. campaign to strangle Iran’s vital oil exports. The U.S. military’s Central Command confirmed that it has seen an increase in Iranian activity, including in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for oil shipments that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to block. “We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman,” said Navy Capt. Bill Urban, the chief spokesman at Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East. “We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways,” Urban added. Urban did not provide further information or comment on questions about the expected Iranian drills. But U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards appeared to prepare more than 100 vessels for exercises. Hundreds of ground forces could also be involved. They said the drills could begin within the next 48 hours, although the precise timing was unclear. Details of the Iranian preparations were first reported by CNN. U.S. officials said the timing of the drills appeared designed to send a message to Washington, which is intensifying its economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran but so far stopping short of using the U.S. military to more aggressively counter Iran and its proxies. Trump’s policies are already putting significant pressure on the Iranian economy, although U.S. intelligence suggests they may ultimately rally Iranians against the United States and strengthen Iran’s hard-line rulers, officials say. Iran’s currency plumbed new depths this week as Iranians brace for Aug. 7 when Washington is due to reimpose a first lot of economic sanctions following Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal. A number of protests have broken out in Iran since the beginning of the year over high prices, water shortage, power cuts and alleged corruption. On Tuesday, hundreds of people rallied in cities including Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz and Ahvaz in protest against high inflation caused in part by the weak rial.
|
u.s .;iran;iran nuclear deal;naval drills;strait of hormuz;donald trump;arabian guld
|
jp0009960
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/02
|
Deadly heat waves to threaten China's northern breadbasket due to climate change
|
PARIS - The North China Plain, home to nearly 400 million people, could become a life-threatening inferno during future heat waves if climate change continues apace, researchers have warned. Soaring temperatures combined with high humidity — made worse by the region’s dense irrigation network — means China’s breadbasket faces “the greatest risk to human life from rising temperatures of any location on Earth,” they said in a statement. Mega-cities Beijing and Tianjin both fall within the densely populated plain, along with other major urban areas. But it is tens of millions of farmers working outside that will be most at risk. Even if humanity manages to slow the pace of global warming, hot spells across the region could, by century’s end, exceed the human body’s ability to cope, the scientists reported this week in the journal Nature Communications. “This spot is going to be the hottest spot for deadly heat waves in the future, especially under climate change,” said lead author MIT professor Elfatih Eltahir, who has published similar assessments of the Persian Gulf region and South Asia. In China, heat waves have become both more intense and more frequent since 1970, especially in the last 15 years. Average temperatures have gone up 1.35 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1950, nearly double the average global increase. But the human body’s capacity to withstand extended bouts of heat also depends on how much moisture is in the air. Wet-bulb temperatures take humidity into account, providing a better measure of potential health impacts. For perspiration to occur, air at the skin surface must be moister than the ambient air. The larger the difference, the more quickly the body can cool. “But if the wet bulb temperature exceeds the human body’s skin temperature of 35 C, perspiration no longer works as a cooling mechanism,” explained Jeremy Pal, a professor at Seaver College of Science and Engineering in Los Angeles who has collaborated with Eltahir in the past but did not take part in the new study. “The body will quickly overheat, resulting in death.” Experts estimate that a healthy adult may not survive outdoors at wet-bulb 35 C for more than six hours. At 55 percent relative humidity, for example, it would take a searing air temperature of 44.4 C (112 F) to reach the 35 C wet bulb threshold. But at 85 percent humidity, an outdoor temperature of 37.8 C (100 F) is sufficient to surpass the limit of human tolerance. “When it is both very hot and humid outside, heat in the body cannot be expelled,” noted Camilo Mora, a professor at the University of Hawaii who developed a model last year to calculate deadly heat days under different climate change scenarios. “This creates a condition called ‘heat citotoxicity’ that is damaging to many organs. It’s like a sunburn, but inside the body.” Eltahir and Suchul Kang, a researcher at the Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling in Singapore, used climate models that best matched temperature records over the last three decades to forecast heat waves. They looked at two possible futures. One — often called the “business-as-usual” scenario — assumes that climate change will continue unabated, while the other allows that humanity can bend down the curve of greenhouse gas emissions enough to cap warming at about 3 C, compared to levels in the mid-19th century. Surprisingly, they found that the North China Plain’s irrigation system adds about half a degree Celsius to future warming, under either scenario. “Irrigation exacerbates the impact of climate change,” Eltahir said. Unless drastic measures are taken to limit the greenhouse gas emissions warming the globe, “the North China Plain is likely to experience deadly heat waves with wet bulb temperatures exceeding the threshold defining what Chinese farmers may tolerate,” he added. The 196-nation Paris Agreement calls for capping the rise in temperature at 2 C, and 1.5 C if possible.
|
china;agriculture;weather;climate change;drought;environment;heat waves
|
jp0009961
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/08/02
|
In-person and online bullying led to 2016 suicide of 13-year-old Aomori girl: report
|
AOMORI - The 2016 suicide of a 13-year-old girl in the city of Aomori was caused by bullying carried out in person and online, a panel looking into her death reported to the local government Thursday. The final report on Rima Kasai’s suicide was compiled by a new third-party panel, set up in December 2017 by the local board of education, after the original group ended its term without completing its work due to opposition from the bereaved family. Kasai’s family thought the draft report failed to address bullying and led them to question the panel’s independence from the school. Kasai, a student at city-run Namioka junior high school, killed herself by jumping in front of a train at a station in Aomori Prefecture on Aug. 25, 2016, leaving a note on her smartphone saying she “cannot stand being bullied.” The latest report said Kasai “became a target of bullying not just in person but also on social networking sites,” and she “came to believe she couldn’t escape.” Her schoolmates abused her with remarks such as “you are disgusting” and “why don’t you die,” from around June 2015, while spreading false rumors about her on the Line messaging app, the report said. It also said her school “did not take organized and specific measures” against the bullying. “We apologize for failing to protect (her) precious life,” Hifumi Narita, chairman of the local board of education said while handing the final report to the student’s family. The girl’s father, Go Kasai, 40, praised the latest report, saying he could “feel my daughter’s wish to eradicate bullying” in the document, which includes preventive measures. He also said the investigation had been conducted in an appropriate manner. The original panel said in its draft report that bullying could not be determined as the direct cause of her death and mentioned she suffered from juvenile depression, a finding that infuriated the girl’s family. The new panel’s report states Kasai fell into a state of depression due to bullying, dropping the reference to juvenile depression. It also describes some 20 cases of attacks against her, including abusive language online, and how her psychological suffering accumulated in the lead up to her death. Police made a rare intervention in such a case and referred several children involved in the bullying to a child counseling and consultation center in December last year. The case attracted additional public attention in October 2016 after the city canceled a local photography award for the winner’s artwork after finding out the subject was Kasai, who died 10 days after the photo was taken.
|
suicide;bullying;schools;aomori;students
|
jp0009962
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/02
|
LDP lawmaker Tom Tanigawa under fire for saying LGBT relationships are ‘like a hobby’
|
OSAKA - A junior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker is under fire for suggesting that same-sex relations are a kind of “hobby” and that legal measures to allow same-sex marriage are unnecessary. “It’s not that I don’t approve of diversity and it’s fine if women like women and men like men. But it’s not necessary to legalize same-sex marriage. It’s like a hobby,” LDP Lower House member Tom Tanigawa, 42, said on an internet television program on July 29. Tanigawa, a two-term member based in Osaka Prefecture, could not be reached for comment Thursday by The Japan Times. The Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday evening that, in a written reply to the paper earlier that day, Tanigawa said he did not intend to discriminate against the LGBT community, and that recognizing same-sex marriages under Article 24 of the Constitution was difficult. Article 24 says: “Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis.” Tanigawa’s remarks come just before a two-day meeting in Osaka, beginning Friday, of representatives from a nationwide group of over 200 local LGBT lawmakers that was formed last year. Taiga Ishikawa, a municipal assembly member from Tokyo’s Toshima Ward and a spokesman for the group, said Tanigawa’s comments invited misunderstanding and prejudice against the LGBT community and ran counter to the LDP’s own policy. “Tanigawa’s comments are not something we can tolerate, as this kind of prejudice will spread, making things worse. Despite the fact the LDP has a leaflet that says there are people who mistakenly call LGBT lifestyle a ‘hobby’, we have comments like Tanigawa’s,” Ishikawa said. The comments were made just days after fellow junior LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita was heavily criticized for calling Japan’s LGBT community “unproductive” in terms of childbirth and writing in the latest issue of the Shincho 45 magazine that tax money should not be used to support LGBT couples for this reason. Her comments immediately drew criticism from senior LDP officials, including former secretary-general Shigeru Ishiba, who is challenging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the party leadership. Thousands of people gathered outside LDP headquarters in Tokyo to protest Sugita’s remarks on July 27. On Wednesday, the party released a formal statement, saying that she was expressing her individual opinion but had been instructed to be careful. “It’s a fact her remarks showed a lack of understanding of the problem and failed to take into consideration the involved parties,” the LDP said on its website. Like Sugita, Tanigawa is part of a younger generation of politicians with conservative views. He has suggested that “traditional” families are marriages between men and women that produce children, thus preventing Japan from going to ruin. Tanigawa, a former actor whose real name is Tomohide, opposes Japan having a female emperor. He has also suggested that the Constitution be revised and indicated he is in favor of discussions about the possibility of the country arming itself with nuclear weapons.
|
ldp;lgbt;discrimination;conservatism;tomu tanigawa
|
jp0009963
|
[
"world",
"crime-legal-world"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Catholics 'sickened' by Pennsylvania sex abuse report and church's coverup but stand by their faith
|
YORK, PENNSYLVANIA - Many churchgoers said they were sickened and saddened by a grand jury report detailing widespread sexual abuse by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania but they would not let the Roman Catholic Church’s coverup dissuade them from their faith. Nearly 200 parishioners filled almost all the pews for Saturday’s Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in York, Pennsylvania, where six priests who at one time worked in that parish are accused in the report bit.ly/2vTa9oY of sexually abusing children. “I can’t talk about it without crying,” said Kathy Morris, a retired steelworker and a member of St. Patrick’s for over 15 years. “I’m going to Mass to try to find some peace.” “I’m disappointed that it happened but as far as the faith goes, I’ll never give my faith up,” said Anthony Giuffrida, 66, an usher and lifelong member at St. Patrick’s. “I was raised Roman Catholic and that’s what I’ll be till the day I die.” Few people attended the 9 a.m. service at St. Margaret Mary in Harrisburg where the report accuses the Rev. Richard Barry of abusing boys in the 1980s. The parking lot was nearly empty, and a busload of seniors from a retirement community were among the few who entered the church. Most attending the Mass declined comment or made brief statements without giving their names. “Our faith goes on,” one woman said. The grand jury report was the most comprehensive report on clergy abuse in American history, accusing hundreds of priests in six of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses of assaulting children for decades while the diocese covered it up, often sending priests to treatment centers and reassigning them to different parishes. The results of the grand jury’s two-year investigation were the latest revelation in a scandal that has shaken the Catholic Church since the Boston Globe in 2002 reported on decades of clergy abuse and the attempt by the diocese to cover it up. Allegations of clergy abuse in Europe, Australia and Chile have also emerged and prompted the resignation of several leaders within the Church, which has about 1.2 billion members worldwide. The Rev. Keith Carroll of St. Patrick’s Church said in his sermon Saturday that “What is contained in that report is sickening and saddening.” He said he was “struggling personally” with “anger, utter embarrassment and sadness.” Carroll implored his parish to not spurn the church because of the grand jury’s findings: “Only God himself can bring us out of this darkness.” Many churchgoers echoed Carroll’s hope that Catholics would not abandon their faith out of disgust with the church leadership’s past behavior. Over 3 million people, about a quarter of Pennsylvania’s population, are Catholic according to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. Over 100 people attended Sunday Mass at St. Columba Church in Bloomsburg, formerly the parish of the Rev. James Beeman whom the report accused of raping a 7-year-old girl while she was in the hospital. “I’m praying for our church community to hold onto our faith because that’s still the best thing we have,” said parishioner Mary Howe, 63, who has been a member at St. Columba since 1956. Victims and their advocates said they were grateful that the report outed so many abusive priests. The report cited 301 priests, some of whom have died. Only two of the priests are still subject to prosecution. “This is only the tip,” said Mary McHale, 46, who testified before the grand jury and said she was abused by the Rev. James Gaffney at her Catholic high school in Reading. “It just multiplied inside me over the years. The shame and the guilt and the low self-esteem, that never leaves you.” McHale supports her former classmate and state Rep. Mark Rozzi, who said he was raped by his parish priest and is pushing to change a law to give victims of child sex abuse more time to file claims against their abusers. State legislators expect to take up the bill in September, said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed.
|
u.s .;catholic church;sex abuse;pennsylvania;priests
|
jp0009964
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Beijing basks in bluest skies in a decade as campaign against smog pays off
|
BEIJING/SINGAPORE - Beijing residents have been breathing some of the cleanest air in a decade as they begin to reap the benefits of China’s anti-smog push. Of the seven lowest monthly pollution readings in the capital city since 2008, five have been recorded since the beginning of last summer, according to data gathered by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. That’s when Chinese officials ramped up enforcement of policies restricting coal burning in Beijing and surrounding areas. July pollution levels averaged 44 micrograms of airborne particles per cubic meter — the seventh lowest since recordings began in 2008. The improved air quality underscores how rapidly China is attacking the smog problem that in 2013 created Beijing’s “airpocalypse,” when the tiny particles peaked at 35 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit. Since President Xi Jinping made fighting air pollution one of the country’s main priorities, millions of northern businesses and families were forced to switch from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas for industrial power and home heating. “China has made a very clear pledge to ‘bring back the blue skies,’ ” said Sydney-based Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Hardly a week goes by when China doesn’t bring in a new regulation or policy to further this commitment.” The rest of the world is paying for Beijing’s cleaner air. China’s skyrocketing gas use has made it the world’s top importer of the fuel, and helped raise global liquefied natural gas prices last winter to the highest since 2014. Production cuts and capacity curbs to reduce pollution from steel mills have helped rebar futures rebound to the highest price since 2013. But there’s still a long way to go, and the cost to shift the country’s energy mix to cleaner fuels is rising. China is seeking to lower the amount of energy it gets from coal to 58 percent by 2020 from about 60 percent now, through substituting natural gas for home heating and industrial boilers and nuclear reactors for coal power plants, Jefferies Group LLC analyst Laban Yu said in a research note last month. Retaliatory tariffs prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump may also raise energy import costs. Chinese policymakers have now taken aim at U.S. LNG imports, including them on a list of goods that could be hit with a 25 percent duty, signaling Xi may be willing to suffer some pain to avoid backing down from Trump’s escalating trade dispute. China’s rapid industrialization and subsequent environmental degradation follows a path forged by western countries — Charles Dickens described the “smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle” in 19th century London. But its rapid cleanup could outpace previous efforts, according to Jiang Kejun, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute under China’s National Development & Reform Commission. “Our technology is better than that in old smoggy London, so it’s likely that China may go faster in curbing air pollution,” Jiang said.
|
beijing;smog;coal;natural gas;tariffs;donald trump;trade war
|
jp0009965
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/20
|
South Koreans enter North to reunite with kin split by war
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SEOUL - Dozens of elderly South Koreans crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea on Monday for heart-wrenching meetings with relatives most haven’t seen since they were separated by the turmoil of the Korean War. The weeklong event at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort comes as the rival Koreas boost reconciliation efforts amid a diplomatic push to resolve a standoff over North Korea’s drive for a nuclear weapons program that can reliably target the continental United States. The temporary reunions are highly emotional because most participants are elderly people eager to see their loved ones once more before they die. Most of their families were driven apart during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still in a technical state of war. Buses carrying about 90 elderly South Koreans and their family members were moving into the Diamond Mountain resort after crossing into North Korea. Earlier in the morning, the South Koreans, some in wheelchairs and aided by Red Cross workers, had left the buses briefly to enter the South Korean immigration office in the eastern border town of Goseong. They were to reunite with their long-lost North Korean relatives on Monday afternoon at the start of a three-day reunion. A separate round of reunions from Friday to Sunday will involve more than 300 other South Koreans, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. Past reunions have produced powerful images of elderly Koreans crying, embracing and caressing each other. Nearly 20,000 people have participated in 20 rounds of face-to-face reunions since 2000. Another 3,700 exchanged video messages with their North Korean relatives under a short-lived communication program from 2005 to 2007. No one has had a second chance to see their relatives. Many of the South Korean participants are war refugees born in North Korea who will be meeting their siblings or the infant children they left behind, many of them now into their 70s. Park Hong-seo, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran from the southern city of Daegu, said he always wondered whether he’d faced his older brother in battle. After graduating from a Seoul university, Park’s brother settled in the North Korean coastal town of Wonsan as a dentist in 1946. After the war broke out, Park was told by a co-worker that his brother refused to flee to the South because he had a family in the North and was a surgeon in the North Korean army. Park fought for the South as a student soldier and was among the allied troops who took over Wonsan in October 1950. The U.S.-led forces advanced farther north in the following weeks before being driven back by a mass of Chinese forces after Beijing intervened in the conflict. Park learned that his brother died in 1984. At Diamond Mountain, he will meet his North Korean nephew and niece, who are 74 and 69, respectively. “I want to ask them what his dying wish was and what he said about me,” Park said in a telephone interview last week. “I wonder whether there’s a chance he saw me when I was in Wonsan.” During the three years since the reunions were last held, the North tested three nuclear weapons and multiple missiles that demonstrated they potentially could strike the continental United States. North Korea has shifted to diplomacy in recent months. Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a son of North Korean war refugees, agreed to resume the reunions during the first of their two summits this year in April. South Korea sees the separated families as the largest humanitarian issue created by the war, which killed and injured millions and cemented the division of the Korean Peninsula into the North and South. The ministry estimates there are currently about 600,000 to 700,000 South Koreans with immediate or extended relatives in North Korea. But Seoul has failed to persuade Pyongyang to accept its long-standing call for more frequent reunions with more participants. The limited number of reunions cannot meet the demands of divided family members, who are now mostly in their 80s and 90s, South Korean officials say. More than 75,000 of the 132,000 South Koreans who have applied to participate in reunions have died, according to the Seoul ministry. Analysts say North Korea sees the reunions as an important bargaining chip and doesn’t want them expanded because they give its people better awareness of the outside world. While South Korea uses a computerized lottery to pick participants for the reunions, North Korea is believed to choose based on loyalty to its authoritarian leadership.
|
north korea;south korea;korean war
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jp0009966
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/08/20
|
As summer vacations end, grass-roots movements in Japan work on counseling suicidal students and truants
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As summer draws to an end, many begin to feel the post-holiday blues. But for some children, this time of year triggers a different level of anxiety: the terror of going back to school. The first day of September is the deadliest day for troubled young people in Japan, according to a 2015 white paper published by the Cabinet Office. The day when most elementary, middle and high school students return to class has caused a total of some 130 people under 18 to kill themselves over the past four decades up to 2015, the paper said — the most compared with all other days of the year. A separate report by the Japan Support Center for Suicide Countermeasures in early August found that the number of middle and high school students who committed suicide increased toward the end of August. With statistics indicating that the last few weeks of summer correlate with a rise in suicide among people under 18, a grass-roots movement called Futoko wa Fuko Janai (Truants Aren’t Unhappy People) held events nationwide Sunday to ease the pressure of going back to school. “What is most important is for young students to see the words ‘Truants aren’t unhappy people’ and understand that there is a place and there are people that will be accepting of truants,” said Yudai Hirota, 23, who hosted one such event in the western Tokyo suburb of Machida on Sunday. In recent years, public institutions such as the Kamakura City Library in Kanagawa Prefecture and Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo have used social media in the past to support those reluctant to return to school in September. A tweet from the library in 2015, for example, said, “If you would rather die than go to school from September, remember that the library is here for you to feel safe.” What such students need is “the support and understanding from the adults around them,” said Hirota, a former middle school truant who will start studying to become a social worker from October. “My parents didn’t force me into going to school and they didn’t say, ‘You have to go.’ Instead, they asked me gently why I stopped going to school, and it made me happy to think that they were trying to understand me,” said 16-year-old Mizuki Tada, who participated in a panel discussion at the Machida event. Tada used to skip classes during her middle school years but is currently in high school. “I think it’s important for truants to have someone who will be kind enough to listen to their concerns and worries,” she added.
|
suicides;education;summer holidays
|
jp0009967
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Misconceptions over contraceptive pills put Japanese women at risk of health issues related to menstruation
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Contraceptive pills have been used by countless women around the world to control menstrual cycles since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved them in 1960. But World Health Organization statistics show that only 1.1 percent of Japanese women aged between 15 and 49 used oral contraceptives in 2015 — far below the rates of 40 percent seen in France, 37 percent in Germany, and 16 percent in the United States. The low rate has been attributed to misconceptions about using such pills, including excessive worries over side effects and a long-standing belief among many Japanese women that controlling menstrual cycles via medication is unnatural and harmful. Gynecologists say that because of their reluctance to take such pills, many Japanese women suffer from severe problems related to menstruation that degrade their quality of life as well as their work performance. One problem that can be treated with contraceptive pills is endometriosis. The condition makes tissues that usually form only the lining of the uterus, or womb, spread to other organs inside the body, causing intense lower abdominal pain during menstruation or sexual intercourse. In severe cases, it can even result in infertility. While the mechanisms that cause endometriosis remain unclear, its symptoms have been found to be triggered by menstruation. According to a study by the Japan Enlightenment Committee In Endometriosis (JECIE), around 8 million women in the nation were estimated to have been suffering from dysmenorrhea — the medical term for severe menstrual pain — in 2014, up from some 7.83 million in 2004, and only 10 percent were being treated. More than 2.6 million Japanese women were estimated to have endometriosis in 2014. Mikio Momoeda, vice president of St. Luke’s International Hospital, said at a seminar in May that the main cause of the increase lies in the fact that women today menstruate around 10 times more than women in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), primarily due to changes in their lifestyles. According to Momoeda, women in the Meiji Era gave birth to an average of four to five children. With menstrual cycles interrupted before and after childbirth, they experienced a total of between 40 and 50 menstrual periods over the course of their lifetimes. In contrast, the majority of women in modern-day Japan go through pregnancy just once on average. Furthermore, they tend to have their first menstrual period earlier and undergo menopause later than women in the past, which means they can expect to have around 450 menstrual periods in their lifetimes. “People seldom realize that the risk of developing endometriosis is intertwined with the number of periods they have, and many are prone to misattribute the cause to environmental factors alone,” said Momoeda. He said women who suffer from severe menstrual pain have a high risk of developing endometriosis but that properly prescribed contraceptive pills would allow them to control and shorten menstrual periods, providing at least one way to prevent them from developing the symptoms. Yet many tend to think that feeling such pain is natural, and endure it every month while taking painkillers to manage the worst of the discomfort. According to a survey of 1,035 Japanese women aged between 20 and 39 conducted by pharmaceutical company Bayer AG in February, around 40 percent of those who responded said they were reluctant to take pills to control their menstrual cycles. The two major reasons they cited were potential side effects and a sense that menstruation is a natural process that should not be controlled by medication. The main side effects of contraceptive pills are related to the fact that they contain two hormones, estrogen and progestin, which have been known to increase the chance of developing blood clots. In the survey, 61.5 percent of the respondents said they took painkillers and tried to rest when they suffered severe pain, whereas only 7.5 percent said that they took oral contraceptives to ease menstrual pain. “Obtaining a prescription and taking contraceptive pills when early symptoms of dysmenorrhea first appear can help prevent women from developing several menstruation-related conditions that might cause infertility later in life,” Momoeda said. “Parents need to understand the realities about both menstruation and contraceptive pills, and must take their children to clinics as soon as they begin suffering pain during their menses.” Momoeda said that tackling misconceptions about oral contraceptives would also open up more choices for women who feel their capability to perform well at work fluctuates due to the often debilitating pain they experience during menstruation. In a survey of 2,000 Japanese full-time or part-time working women aged between 18 and 49, conducted by the nonprofit organization Health and Global Policy Institute in February, 45 percent reported that they felt their capacity to work dropped by 50 percent or more due to physical and mental discomfort related to menstruation. Only 6 percent said that their performance and productivity in the workplace were not affected by menstruation. “Getting rid of the misconceptions that exist around menstruation and oral contraceptive pills is crucial in order to secure Japanese women’s health and their lifestyles,” said Momoeda. “Doctors, media, and parents each have a role to play in disseminating accurate information about (contraceptive) pills and menstruation.”
|
pregnancy;women;menstruation;contraceptive pills
|
jp0009968
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Aichi man recalls abuse his family faced when branded spies before World War II
|
It was when Hisao Mesaki, now 85, returned to Japan from Saipan in early 1941 with his parents and siblings that an offhand remark to his new classmates aroused suspicion he was from a family of spies. They had been living in Saipan since the spring of 1940, with Mesaki’s father working in the shipping industry. But they were told by the Japanese government to return, as Tokyo was preparing for war with the United States and Britain in addition to the ongoing conflict with China. Pacific islands including Saipan were likely to become battlefields. When he entered a Tokyo elementary school as a second-grader, Mesaki was asked by his classmates why he returned to Japan. Without thinking too much about it, he repeated what he had heard from his parents: “We left because Japan is soon going to war with the United States and Britain.” Since most Japanese at the time did not think the nation would enter a new war, the rumor that the Mesaki family were spies spread quickly. His father, suspected of having information on enemy countries, was detained for about a month for allegedly violating the Maintenance of Public Order Law. Mesaki remembers his father being bedridden for about three weeks after he came home, possibly due to harsh and even violent interrogations. For roughly three months, officials of the Special Higher Police — a police force known as tokkō that investigated political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public order — kept watch over the family. But according to Mesaki, what was most intolerable was how people around him treated his family. Someone scribbled “spy’s house” on the wall of his home, and stones, feces, animal carcasses and even fire-lit straw were thrown inside. All of the family members, including his mother and younger brother, were verbally attacked, branded hikokumin (traitors) or told to die. At school, a teacher placed red tape on Mesaki’s mouth in the shape of an X mark. His mother, who became mentally unstable, brought a rope and asked the family to die together by hanging themselves. Soon after the Pacific War began in December 1941, the family moved to Nagoya. “Because of what I said casually, my family was on the verge of committing suicide,” Mesaki said. In Nagoya, neighbors accepted the family warmly, although some were aware of why they moved there. But Mesaki recalls that near the end of the war, when children including him were told to take part in a military drill, a serviceman supervising the drill said, “There is one person with a crooked mind” and hit Mesaki with a wooden stick. Mesaki, a resident of Nagoya’s Kita Ward who used to work for the Aichi Prefectural Government, said that even after the war ended, he always felt restless when he visited Tokyo for work or pleasure. Although he had long kept silent about his experience because of his regret for what he had said, Mesaki said that considering his age he had decided to speak up for the first time. “I only want young people to listen to my story and think about what should be done so that society will never again become abnormal like before and during the war,” Mesaki said.
|
wwii;nagoya;espionage;saipan
|
jp0009969
|
[
"national",
"history"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Official silver seal used by Tokugawa shogunate found in storehouse
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A silver seal used for diplomatic documents by the Tokugawa shogunate late in the Edo Period (1603-1868) has been found, the Tokugawa Memorial Foundation said Monday. The silver seal, or ginin , was used as the 1859 instrument of ratification for the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the United States. According to the foundation, the seal was contained in a box found at a Tokugawa shogunate storehouse in 2017. Measuring 9.2 cm square and 7.8 cm high, the 2.7-kg seal was used by Tokugawa Iemochi and Tokugawa Yoshinobu, who were the 14th and 15th shoguns, respectively. Yoshinobu was the last Tokugawa shogun. The shogunate ordered seal engraver Masuda Koen to make the item in 1857. It is engraved with the kanji for keibun ibu , meaning an ideal statesman who is skilled in both literary and military arts. The seal was used for documents to ratify treaties and credential letters, together with the shogun’s signature. Masashi Iwatate, a curator of the foundation, said that since documents stamped with the silver seal are mainly kept abroad, further research is now likely to take place. The seal will be displayed at an exhibition to be held at the Niigata Prefectural Museum of History in Nagaoka between Sept. 15 and 30.
|
tokugawa shogunate;u.s.-japan relations;edo period
|
jp0009970
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/20
|
Japan preparing to accept more caregivers from Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam
|
Japan plans to accept more caregivers from three Southeast Asian countries that have free trade agreements with Tokyo to help address the national labor shortage, sources familiar with the matter said. By easing some restrictions on caregivers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, the government will allow more of those with strong proficiency in Japanese to work in Japan starting next April, the sources said Sunday. Under current terms, Japan accepts up to 300 caregivers from each country per year. The government aims to treat those with high language proficiency separately from those groups. The number who want to be caregivers in Japan has been increasing. For fiscal 2018 ending next March, there were 298 from Indonesia, 282 from the Philippines and 193 from Vietnam — all record highs. As Japan grays it is expected to see a shortage of some 340,000 caregivers in 2025, when many baby boomers are expected to be 75 or older and in need of nursing care services, the sources said. The bilateral FTAs with Japan took effect in fiscal 2008 with Indonesia, in fiscal 2009 with the Philippines and in fiscal 2014 with Vietnam. Under the deals, about 4,300 people arrived to work in Japan. They are employed as caregivers for three years while studying for a national language examination that must be taken during the four-year period of stay. If they pass, they can continue to work here.
|
vietnam;indonesia;fta;elderly;caregivers;the philippines
|
jp0009971
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/08/18
|
Florida's famed weirdness creeping into political races
|
NEW YORK - Florida’s penchant for the weird and strange — often manifested in new forms of criminal behavior (think chasing people through a store with a live alligator) — is so prevalent it has created a cottage industry of chroniclers and followers. But, like a contagion that has escaped a hermetically sealed lab, the swamp fever of Florida weirdness appears to be spreading now to the politicians who represent the state’s nearly 21 million residents. Over the past week, a legislative candidate staged an elaborate scam to try to convince people she was a college graduate. Another candidate had to deny putting out a Facebook ad accusing an opponent of distributing tainted breast milk. And then there is the thing about sphincter bleaching (more on that later). Even for longtime followers of the Florida experience (guns, gators, greed) this is a bit confounding. “Florida politics has always been as weird as Florida in general, but this year has seen a Twilight Zone level of campaign screw-ups, oddball candidates, post-Republican Trumpers in all their lunatic glory, edge cases, easily debunked fraudsters and a cavalcade of stupid,” said Rick Wilson, a GOP consultant whose recently channeled his hostility toward the president into a best-selling book. “The political subspecies of ‘Florida man’ is in full glory.” Ah yes, Florida man. The now-revered meme and trope about bizarre incidents in the Sunshine State often spreads across the internet faster than a startled palmetto bug in the middle of the night. It does not, on most days, refer to those men and women who have sought public office. (Although the record must reflect some notable incidents over the years, including a fist fight in the Florida House of Representatives, a parking lot brawl instigated by insults hurled on the radio, and a county commissioner who fled the country amid a tangled tale involving drugs and a stolen car.) But consider these recent events: A city commission candidate on Florida’s east coast told The Daytona Beach News-Journal on Wednesday that his Facebook account had been hacked and that the hacker had put up an ad attacking his opponent for passing on genetically defective breast milk. Melissa Howard, a candidate for the Florida Legislature, dropped out of her race this past week after it was revealed that she had falsely claimed to have a college degree and posted a purported copy of her diploma online. Howard had previously posted a photo of herself with what looked like a Miami University diploma. But the Ohio university later sent reporters a statement saying she attended the school, but never graduated. The Miami Herald reported that the mayor of Hallandale Beach in south Florida on Monday accused a city commissioner of making a living from “sphincter bleaching” after she questioned whether he made a living at all. Mayor Keith London was appointed to his job earlier this year after the previous mayor was arrested and charged with accepting illegal Russian campaign donations. The Herald acknowledged it wasn’t clear what London meant. Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub’s mother does own a spa that sells skin-bleaching cream, but she told the paper she doesn’t work there. One veteran political observer in Florida isn’t convinced that Floridians are witnessing a new trend. Instead, Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist, contends the rise of social media has made it more likely that such incidents get attention. “I don’t think it’s any more or less crazy,” Schale said. “I think it’s more out there. … For democracy to be representative, the public space is going to have its share of people who are nuts.” OK, America, you have been warned.
|
elections;fraud;florida;stunts
|
jp0009972
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/18
|
Osaka leaders revel as casinos bid for attention
|
When the Diet passed a law governing the operation of integrated casino resorts last month, public celebrations were few. Media polls showed strong public opposition to casinos, with respondents citing worries about problem gamblers and more crime. But the champagne corks were popping in Osaka, where the smart money is on the city being one of only three locations where Japan’s first casino resorts will be built. With the legislative process over, international operators hoping to win an Osaka casino are stepping up local public relations efforts. Though several casino firms have expressed interest in Osaka, America’s MGM Resorts and Hong Kong-based Melco Resorts and Entertainment are the front-runners to win the rights to an integrated resort. Executives from both firms have upped their local presence recently, attending festivals like the Tenjin Matsuri last month, donating money to victims of the fatal earthquake in June and hiring Japanese staff connected to politically powerful corporations in the Osaka region. So far, there have been no headlines blaring “Osaka politicians wined and dined by casino representatives” or “Osaka bureaucrats received envelopes of cash from lobbyist tied to casino operator,” because Osaka has set rules that restrict official contact with casinos. But an already intense lobbying campaign is expected to heat up as Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui pushes to pick one as soon as possible. What will Osaka’s politicians, and their corporate allies, including contractors, hotels, and public relations firms, try to secure from casinos seeking to enter Osaka? Money and jobs, of course. First, this means assistance for municipal transportation infrastructure projects like trains and subways to get customers out to the casino, which is expected to be built on Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka Bay. Second, it means money for programs to treat gambling addiction. Third, it means assistance for whatever other pet projects Osaka’s politicians can squeeze out of the casino. Local leaders will also seek local hiring guarantees, and not just for blackjack dealers and floor managers. Before the Universal Studios Japan theme park opened in Osaka 2001, it faced pressure from corporate and political partners to offer “adviser” type jobs to various silver-haired men of dubious business ability who were owed favors by Osaka politicians or senior corporations. Thus, it’s a sure bet that before a final decision is made that the bidding casinos will be sounded out by local politicians and business partners about hiring, at excellent wages, their friends who are politically connected but largely incompetent good ol’ boys. Merely to provide advice, of course, on how the casino can best deal with politicians, bureaucrats and senior corporate leaders who just happen to be old college chums or former co-workers. Finally, to what extent can an international casino operator be involved with other aspects of an Osaka-based integrated resort? Should it concentrate on the card tables, roulette wheels and slot machines and let Osaka politicians and businesses deal with everything else related to the surrounding hotels, theaters, concert halls, restaurants and public spaces? Do local businesses have the smarts and savvy to make up for their lack of experience in the international casino hospitality industry? Or, is it better if the experienced casino operator be heavily involved in planning and managing other aspects of the resort to ensure it turns a profit? Such questions are being debated behind the scenes. Osaka’s politicians are obviously thrilled at being courted by the international casino industry. But the ultimate success or failure of an Osaka casino resort depends on whether local leaders are smart enough to follow the advice of experienced international experts in order to avoid turning an integrated resort into yet another failed public works project.
|
osaka;gambling;casinos
|
jp0009973
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/18
|
Debate over Fukushima statue takes on a life of its own online
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Few topics have proven to be more sensitive online than the present state of Fukushima Prefecture. Years after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster wreaked havoc in the region, the topic of radiation continues to spark intense debate from all corners. A statue that was unveiled in the prefecture last week has just added plenty of fuel to the fire. Contemporary artist Kenji Yanobe donated a statue titled “Sun Child” to the city of Fukushima at the beginning of July. The work of art depicts a child clad in something resembling a hazmat suit and holding a helmet. A radiation counter on the child’s chest reads “000.” The statue was inspired by the Fukushima nuclear crisis. It debuted in 2011 , traversing the country ( including Fukushima’s airport in 2012 ) and generally attracting a positive reception. Even while it was being assembled in its new home, people snapped photos of it and remarked how “ cool ” it looked. However, people’s views regarding the statue began to fragment after it was officially unveiled on Aug. 3 , with debate intensifying last week . Fukushima residents started to post negative comments about the statue after a local news organization published a short story on it . Some argued that it was too soon to erect an artwork along such lines in a city still recovering from a nuclear crisis, while others noted that it was scaring children . Yanobe had created the statue to celebrate a nuclear-free future, but it ultimately had the opposite effect and reminded people that this was still far from reality. After a few days, the issue started to get picked up by national and international news outlets. The questionable science behind the artwork was frequently brought up, with many arguing that natural radiation alone would prevent any counter from hitting zero, among other complaints. Many netizens were simply irked at the inclusion of the hazmat suit, arguing that such imagery was misleading . As serious as all of this sounds, let’s take a quick detour to talk about another aspect of the statue that captured the internet’s attention: its crotch . While plenty of discussion on message boards such as 2chan focused on the lasting impact it could have on the local economy or the general challenge of creating art that has been inspired by tragedy, many zeroed in on the tap extending from the front of its trousers. It carried over to Twitter, too, with one user wondering how effective the statue could ever be if schoolkids were distracted by the contents of its nether regions . Coupled with other jokes and references , it’s a good reminder that memes will always be created online, whether or not the issue is particularly sensitive. Some of the discussion online focused on the art itself. Yanobe’s “Sun Child” has to date been largely been celebrated by domestic art critics. Anti-nuclear pieces have been central to Yanobe’s work since the early 1990s — he even went to Chernobyl and documented the fallout from the nuclear disaster there . By placing his art in the heart of a place that was affected by a nuclear accident, Yanobe changed the way people viewed “Sun Child.” Once the mystery had been stripped from his work, ordinary folks introduced new interpretations , with some slamming the idea of someone hiding behind “artistic license” to dodge criticism. Fukushima Mayor Hiroshi Kohata claimed the artwork reflected an optimistic view of the future , but noted that art, unlike science, can sometimes be abstract . This latter point, though, has become a tricky matter at times when the majority of conversation online feels reactionary, and not just in Japan. Some of the opinions voiced about “Sun Child” centered on the challenge of creating political art that doesn’t offend (this is the closest to a real defense of the statue I’ve seen). Others said it might have looked better if Yanobe had actually spent more time in Fukushima, instead of simply “ making a cup of tea and leaving .” For his part, Yanobe apologized . Part of the reason the statue has attracted so much attention online is that Fukushima’s radioactive status remains contentious. A number of sites aim to dispel myths surrounding the perceived lack of radiation safety in Fukushima. Twitter user @nonbeekaeru takes the opposite approach, arguing that radiation is traveling around the world and could envelop the 2020 Olympics or poison K-pop stars . As an example, check out the new Netflix show “ Dark Tourist ,” which features an episode about Fukushima that paints the prefecture as a nuclear wasteland. Indeed, this is the real reason this statue has caused a stir online: It’s another reminder that what happened in Fukushima actually lingers over the whole country and continues to shape the way in which people see the prefecture. With social media, though, locals can counter such misinformation, whether or not they use art to do so or not.
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fukushima;radiation;kenji yanobe;japan pulse;sun child
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jp0009975
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/18
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Japan's bears are widely vilified and little understood
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On Aug. 6, the BBC aired a story about four Ussuri brown bears being successfully transported from a museum in Hokkaido to a wildlife park in England. In the story, a British organization called Wild Welfare said it had become “concerned” about the animals’ living situation at the Ainu Museum, where they had been kept in old, cramped cages for most of their lives, which one member said is “sadly reflective of the conditions that many captive bears in Japan are in.” The BBC treated the story as breaking news, but in Japan few news organizations covered it. Jiji Press , which reported the story from the United Kingdom, mentioned that Ussuri bears are “endangered,” and explained that the museum was incapable of caring properly for them. The Hokkaido Shimbun reported that foreign visitors to the facility had complained about the small enclosures for the bears, and that the museum decided to give them to the wildlife park because it has a “better environment.” The newspaper also mentioned that the museum was closed in March for long-term renovations, and NHK said the bears would not be part of the new exhibits. They also pointed out that Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, look on bears as a kind of deity. Of the top 10 search results for the word “bear” recently seen on the Hokkaido Shimbun website, nine are articles that present the animals in a more or less negative light. Bears are the largest land mammals in Japan and have been known to attack humans and pets, although experts insist they instinctively avoid people and only become aggressive when their cubs are threatened or they are cornered or attacked themselves. Bear attacks are always big news in Japan — even sightings of bears are worthy of national attention . In the past few weeks there have been several reports of bears possibly killing domestic animals in eastern Hokkaido. A dairy farmer in the coastal town of Rausu said one of his goats was missing, presumably dragged away by a bear. A fisherman in the same town told police he saw a bear “burying” his dead dog. A different bear entered a village in southern Hokkaido earlier this month and wouldn’t leave even when authorities “ shone floodlights on it .” Eventually, they used fireworks to scare it back into the woods. That bear was lucky. Usually, if one shows up in a populated area it is summarily killed. According to the Japan Bear and Forest Society , 3,779 bears were killed nationwide last year. In contrast, 108 persons were injured in bear attacks and two killed. A July 26 article in the Hokkaido Shimbun reported on an “emergency meeting” in Sapporo where various local governments discussed the sightings. Apparently, bear sightings have increased in and around Sapporo, although it’s possible that everyone is seeing the same bear. As one participant pointed out, a local ordinance in 1990 made it illegal to kill bears that were just coming out of hibernation, so since then it’s possible that bear numbers have increased. Or maybe these are juvenile bears who are trying to avoid adult bears. Or maybe they are attracted by human refuse, even if bear droppings found in the mountains indicate that there is enough food in the wild — bears almost never come to town when they have enough berries and acorns and salmon. In the end, no one could answer these questions definitively because no proper studies of bear activity had been carried out and no dedicated bear experts were present at the meeting. Nevertheless, a representative of the Hokkaido Research Organization recommended that the city “regularly exterminate” bears, while also suggesting that measures be carried out to “prevent bears from raiding garbage stations.” The point of the meeting was to collect information in order to come up with solutions to the perceived bear infestation problem and enlighten the public about it, but it may have had the opposite effect. Anyone who reads the article will come away thinking that bears are a menace, and, as a matter of fact, the media seem to have a stake in keeping it that way. The only good bear is a dead or captive one, and in the latter case the state of captivity doesn’t seem to matter, as the situation at the Ainu museum showed. The Japan Bear and Forest Society is dedicated to fighting these prejudices, starting with the fact that certain species of Japanese bears are on “vulnerable” or “endangered” lists, something the press rarely talks about. The group polices the media on these matters. Last month, they sent a letter to Fuji TV about its long-running variety show “Unbelievable,” which dramatizes and analyzes shockingly true tales. The Japan Bear and Forest Society read a preview of a segment to be aired on July 19 about a famous 2009 bear attack in Gifu Prefecture that left nine people injured. The group feared that the segment would “spread bias and misunderstanding” about bears and asked the producers to either cancel it or ensure that the content was balanced and complete. The segment was ominous in places, with newspaper accounts of bear attacks and footage of enraged, caged animals. And the reenactment of the incident itself was dramatic and violent — more like “Jaws” than an episode of “BBC Earth.” A clumsily rendered CGI bear is shown viciously attacking one tourist after another at a remote mountain lodge before being trapped and killed by hunters. Celebrities watching the drama in the studio made distressed, fearful noises throughout. To its credit, the segment did end with an expert theorizing about this particular bear’s unusual behavior, saying that its panic was caused by a unique cascade of factors. And the celebrities, in the end, expressed more sympathy for the bear than they did for its human victims, all of whom survived. The bear, as one of them said, acted according to its nature. The trouble is, so were the show’s producers.
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hokkaido;bears;bear attacks
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jp0009977
|
[
"business",
"corporate-business"
] |
2018/08/27
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Japanese and South Korean firms look to tap global hearing aid market
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SEOUL - Litalico Inc., a Japanese social enterprise, will use a South Korean startup’s technology to tap the global hearing aid market and provide hearing aids at a much more affordable price. Litalico has acquired an equity stake in Olive Union Inc., which has developed a wireless earphone — linked to a smartphone app — that functions as a hearing aid, and plans to launch it in South Korea and the United States next month as well as in Japan next year. The social enterprise did not disclose the value of the strategic investment, but Olive reportedly has raised 500 million won ($447,000) through the share sale, according to local media reports. The new hearing aid, which resembles an earbud, will carry a price tag ranging from 200,000 to 250,000 won ($179 to $224) per piece, about one-tenth the price of a conventional product, an Olive spokesman said. The number of people with hearing impairments is estimated at about 700 million globally, according to Litalico. In Europe’s major advanced economies and the United States, they account for around 10 percent of each country’s population, according to the 2015 Euro Trak, a survey by the European Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association. Last year, the South Korean firm raised more than $800,000 through Indiegogo, a crowdfunding site, to finance its business, Litalico said. In Japan, the self-reported hearing-impaired population is estimated at 14.3 million, or 11.3 percent of the total. Of those, 13.5 percent use a hearing aid, compared with usage rates of 42.4 percent in Britain and 30.2 percent in the United States, according to a similar collaborative survey by Japan’s hearing aid industry body and its European counterpart. Litalico, which was listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2017, offers job-hunting support and educational assistance for physically disabled or disadvantaged people. It has also invested in Whill Inc., a Yokohama-based company developing electronic wheelchairs.
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south korea;crowdfunding;hearing;litalico;olive union
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jp0009978
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/27
|
Myanmar court postpones verdict for Reuters journalists
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YANGON - A Myanmar court postponed its ruling Monday on whether two Reuters journalists violated a state secrets law while reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, delaying the decision for a week. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been detained in Myanmar’s infamous Insein prison since December in the case which has ignited a global outcry. The two journalists had been investigating the September 2017 killings of 10 Rohingya Muslims in conflict-scarred Rakhine state. They were invited to dinner with police in Yangon, handed some documents, and then arrested as they left the meeting, accused of possessing classified material on operations in the area. They were charged with violating the colonial-era state secrets act which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and the expected ruling had drawn a crowd of diplomats, media and well-wishers to the court in northern Yangon. But district judge Khin Maung Maung said in a brief hearing that the presiding judge was ill and that the verdict would be announced on September 3. Wa Lone told reporters as he left the courthouse that they were not afraid, whatever the decision. “We have the truth with us and we did not do anything wrong,” he said. The case has sparked fears of eroding press freedoms under civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose international reputation has been shattered over the treatment of the Rohingya. Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said the delay could be tied to global developments on Myanmar. A U.N. fact-finding mission on rights abuses in Myanmar is due to release a report Monday and the U.N. Security Council will discuss the Rohingya crisis Tuesday. “If the verdict is today and it’s negative for the defense, it may be seen as a negative approach to democracy,” he said. Reuters has robustly denied the charges. The defense said that the supposedly secret documents had already been published, and the prosecution case hit a hurdle when a police witness said his superior had ordered his men to entrap the pair. The journalists said after their arrest that they were hooded and deprived of sleep in initial interrogations, which included questions about their work on Rakhine. The news wire launched a worldwide advocacy campaign that included diplomats, celebrities and the legal assistance of prominent rights attorney Amal Clooney. But it was not enough to keep the court in the Buddhist-majority country from pursuing the charges. Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone were probing the massacre of 10 Rohingya men and boys in Rakhine state’s Inn Din village a week after the military launched a sweeping crackdown on members of the stateless Muslim minority. The United Nations and Washington have called the campaign “ethnic cleansing,” after some 700,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine to Bangladesh, bringing with them testimonies of rape, arson and killings in the northern part of the state. Myanmar rejects the charges but has admitted the killings investigated by Reuters took place and sentenced seven soldiers for the crime. Rights groups say security forces should be investigated for crimes against humanity in Rakhine but so far only a handful of targeted sanctions have hit figures in Myanmar’s armed forces.
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media;myanmar;rohingya;rakhine;ethnic cleansing;wa lone;kyaw soe oo
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jp0009979
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/27
|
University student cycles from Aichi to Miyagi to spread messages of hope from disaster victims
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Kenshi Yamamoto, a 20-year-old university student from Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, made a 1,746 kilometer round-trip bicycle journey earlier this month to Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, to challenge post-disaster media coverage that he believes focuses excessively on depressing news. Yamamoto visited the Tohoku region three times while in high school as a volunteer in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake disaster, in which Kesennuma was hit hard by tsunami. A second-year student at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, he returned on Aug. 15 — sporting a new suntan — to Toyohashi Park in the city of Toyohashi, which had been his point of departure on Aug. 1, with a notebook filled with messages of hope from disaster victims. Along with his luggage, he had placed a sign on the back of his bike with a message handwritten in Japanese: “Seven years on: Conveying the situation in disaster-hit regions.” As a volunteer he had seen the disaster-hit areas gradually being restored, but was concerned that media reports on the areas mostly focused on discouraging stories. “If people knew how their support has led to good results, all of them would think they did the right thing,” Yamamoto said, adding that he decided to go on the bike trip because of his experience cycling last year to Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit by strong earthquakes in 2016. The trip in Tohoku was no easy ride. Salt stains appeared on his skin as he traveled under the scorching sun. When passing through Fukushima Prefecture, he found that he could not access some roads near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which suffered fuel meltdowns following the quake-triggered tsunami. But he rode on, handing his notebook to those he met along the way and asking them to write down what they had newly achieved following the disaster. One wrote “We now laugh more.” Another said: “My daughter, who was 2 years old at the time, is now studying about the disaster in her social studies class.” Collecting messages one by one, he reached Kesennuma on Aug. 7. A man whose house was swept away by tsunami thanked Yamamoto for giving him the chance to express his gratitude, saying he didn’t know how to thank all the volunteers from all over the world who had helped him. As Yamamoto was leaving, disaster victims told him they were counting on him. Although he initially set out to collect messages to bring back to his own supporters, Yamamoto realized he was now tasked with giving the victims a wider voice. “I felt I had twice as much responsibility and that I should complete my task,” he said. During his journey, Yamamoto showed the messages to people with whom he struck up conversations during breaks or even while waiting for traffic lights to turn green. Some were surprised to hear about recent developments in the disaster-hit regions, such as the fact that a beach in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, opened to the public last month for the first time since the 2011 events. Yamamoto said he plans to convey the victims’ messages, along with what he saw and heard during the journey, via social media and lectures. “There are things you won’t know unless you go there,” he said. “I want people to learn what is happening now, realize that support is bearing fruit, and be motivated to give more support.”
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fukushima;tsunami;earthquakes;disasters;kesennuma;3.11
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jp0009981
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/08/11
|
U.N. approves Chile's Michelle Bachelet as new human rights chief
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UNITED NATIONS - Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s unanimous approval as the next U.N. human rights chief on Friday sparked a sharp exchange between the United States and several key opponents over rights abuses — a foretaste of some of the issues Bachelet will confront. With a bang of his gavel, General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak gave official approval by acclamation to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ selection of Bachelet. Diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member states burst into applause. “Deeply humbled and honored to announce my acceptance as the @UN’s new High Commissioner for Human Rights. I thank Secretary General @antonioguterres and the General Assembly for entrusting me this important task,” Bachelet tweeted shortly after the assembly’s approval. Guterres then touted Bachelet’s qualifications: the first female president of Chile, first head of the gender equality agency known as U.N. Women, “a survivor of brutality” by a Chilean dictator, and a physician who understands people’s thirst for health and economic and social rights. She has also “lived under the darkness of dictatorship,” he said. Bachelet’s father was imprisoned for treason for opposing the coup that ousted Marxist President Salvador Allende in September 1973. She and her mother were tortured in a secret prison for two weeks before they fled into exile. Her father, Gen. Alberto Bachelet, died of cardiac arrest following months of torture. Guterres told reporters Bachelet will take office “at a time of grave consequence for human rights.” “Hatred and inequality are on the rise,” he said. “Respect for international humanitarian and human rights law is on the decline. Space for civil society is shrinking. Press freedoms are under pressure.” But some of the pressures that Bachelet will face were immediately evident in several speeches following her approval by the General Assembly. U.S. Minister-Counselor Stefaine Amadeo, speaking on behalf of the U.N.’s host country, said “it is incumbent” on Bachelet to avoid what the United States called the failure of the U.N. human rights system. She singled out the Geneva-based Human Rights Council’s “consistent failure to address extreme human rights abuses in the Western hemisphere, in Venezuela and Cuba in particular.” She also cited U.N. failures “to adequately address major human rights crises” in Iran, North Korea and Congo. Mohammad Hassani Nejad, a counselor in Iran’s U.N. Mission, retorted that the biggest challenge for Bachelet “is to make it clear that human rights is not a means in the foreign policy toolbox of policies against who they dislike.” He said the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights should speak out “for all victims,” citing “migrant kids in cages, or the U.S.-made bombs that kill kids on a daily basis.” Cuba’s deputy U.N. ambassador Ana Silvia Rodriguez, echoed Nejad in speaking out against the polarization and politicization of human rights. She accused the U.S. of “flagrantly” violating human rights by imposing an economic and financial embargo on Cuba for decades, separating migrant parents and children and causing civilian deaths “by bombs and drone wars,” as well as by “brutality and police abuse, particularly against the African-American population.” Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada said his country will only believe the United States supports human rights when it stops separating Latin American children and parents, stops using drones and “claiming the use of torture as legitimate practice,” ends discrimination against the people of Puerto Rico, and “stops insulting entire nations” Moncada called U.S. threats to use military force against Venezuela “the expression of the most racist and cruel government in the recent history of this country.” “They have no moral right to talk about this topic (human rights) because this hatred has led them to be a threat to international peace and security,” he stressed. Amadeo, the American diplomat, then took the floor saying the United States “notes with disappointment the incorrect misconstructions, fabrications and false criticism of the delegations of Cuba and Venezuela.” Bachelet will replace Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, a Jordanian diplomat and member of the country’s royal family whose four-year term ends Aug. 31. Secretary-General Gutteres paid tribute to Zeid Friday “for his leadership, passion, courage and skill” as high commissioner. Zeid, who has faced criticism from many quarters for being too outspoken, told a farewell news conference last week that his office doesn’t “bring shame on governments, they shame themselves.” He stressed that “silence does not earn you any respect — none.” Zeid said he will give his successor the same advice that his predecessor, Navi Pillay, gave him: “Be fair and don’t discriminate against any country” and “just come out swinging.”
|
rights;u.n .;chile;michelle bachelet
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jp0009982
|
[
"world",
"offbeat-world"
] |
2018/08/11
|
'Suicidal' mechanic steals plane in Seattle, does stunts before crashing
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SEATAC, WASHINGTON - A “suicidal” airline employee stole an empty Horizon Air turboprop plane, took off from Sea-Tac International Airport and was chased by military jets before crashing into a small island in the Puget Sound on Friday night, officials said. Preliminary information suggests the crash occurred because the 29-year-old man was “doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills,” the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said. Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, said on Twitter the man was suicidal and there was no connection to terrorism. Video showed the Horizon Air Q400 doing large loops and other dangerous maneuvers as the sun set on the Puget Sound. There were no passengers aboard. Authorities initially said the man was a mechanic but Alaska Airlines later said he was believed to be a ground service agent employed by Horizon. Those employees direct aircraft for takeoff and gate approach and de-ice planes. Witnesses reported seeing the plane being chased by military aircraft before it crashed on Ketron Island, southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Troyer said F-15 aircraft scrambled out of Portland, Oregon, and were in the air “within a few minutes” and the pilots kept “people on the ground safe.” The sheriff’s department said they were working to conduct a background investigation on the Pierce County resident, whose name was not immediately released. The aircraft was stolen about 8 p.m. Alaska Airlines said it was in a “maintenance position” and not scheduled for a passenger flight. Horizon Air is part of Alaska Air Group and flies shorter routes throughout the U.S. West. The Q400 is a turboprop aircraft with 76 seats. Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said the man “did something foolish and may well have paid with his life.” The man could be heard on audio recordings telling air traffic controllers that he is “just a broken guy.” An air traffic controller called the man “Rich,” and tried to convince the man to land the airplane. “There is a runway just off to your right side in about a mile,” the controller says, referring to an airfield at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “Oh man. Those guys will rough me up if I try and land there,” the man responded, later adding “This is probably jail time for life, huh?” Later the man said: “I’ve got a lot of people that care about me. It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this. … Just a broken guy, got a few screws loose, I guess.” Flights out of Sea-Tac, the largest commercial airport in the Pacific Northwest, were temporarily grounded during the drama. The U.S. Coast Guard sent a 45-foot (14-meter) vessel to the crash scene after witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air, Petty Officer Ali Flockerzi said. Video showed fiery flames amidst trees on the island, which is sparsely populated and only accessible by ferry. Alaska Airlines said no structures on the ground were damaged. Royal King told The Seattle Times he was photographing a wedding when he saw the low-flying turboprop being chased by two F-15s. He said he didn’t see the crash but saw smoke. “It was unfathomable, it was something out of a movie,” he told the newspaper. “The smoke lingered. You could still hear the F-15s, which were flying low.” “Our hearts are with the family of the individual aboard, along with all of our Alaska Air and Horizon Air employees,” Horizon Air Chief Operating Officer Constance von Muehlen said in a video posted on Twitter. Spokesmen for the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration directed inquiries to local authorities. Gov. Jay Inslee thanked the Air National Guard from Washington and Oregon for scrambling jets and said in a statement “there are still a lot of unknowns surrounding tonight’s tragic incident.”
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suicide;airports;seattle;stunts
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jp0009983
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/11
|
U.N. says it has credible reports China is holding 1 million Uighurs in secret camps
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GENEVA - A United Nations human rights panel said Friday it has received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China are being held in what resembles a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy.” Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates that 2 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities have been forced into “political camps for indoctrination” in the western Xinjiang autonomous region. “We are deeply concerned at the many numerous and credible reports that we have received that in the name of combating religious extremism and maintaining social stability (China) has changed the Uighur autonomous region into something that resembles a massive internship camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of ‘no rights zone,’ ” she told the start of a two-day regular review of China’s record, including Hong Kong and Macau. China has said Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese majority. A Chinese delegation of some 50 officials made no comment on her remarks at the Geneva session, which is to continue Monday. The U.S. mission to the United Nations said on Twitter that it was “deeply troubled by reports of an ongoing crackdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in China.” “We call on China to end their counterproductive policies and free all of those who have been arbitrarily detained,” the U.S. mission said. The allegations came from multiple sources, including activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which said in a report last month that 21 percent of all arrests recorded in China in 2017 were in Xinjiang. Earlier, Yu Jianhua, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said it is working toward equality and solidarity among all ethnic groups. But McDougall said that members of the Uighur community and other Muslims are being treated as “enemies of the state” solely on the basis of their ethno-religious identity. More than 100 Uighur students who returned to China from countries including Egypt and Turkey have been detained, with some dying in custody, she said. Fatima-Binta Dah, a panel member, referred to “arbitrary and mass detention of almost 1 million Uighurs” and asked the Chinese delegation, “What is the level of religious freedom available now to Uighurs in China, what legal protection exists for them to practice their religion?” Panelists also raised reports of mistreatment of Tibetans in the autonomous region, including inadequate use of the Tibetan language in the classroom and at court proceedings. “The U.N. body maintained its integrity, the government got a very clear message,” Golok Jigme, a Tibetan monk and former prisoner living in exile, said at the meeting.
|
china;ethnicity;discrimination;uighurs;xinjiang
|
jp0009984
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/11
|
Former internment camp victims warn of rise in U.S. racial tensions
|
WASHINGTON - The Japanese-Americans forcibly incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II warn that the administration of President Donald Trump risks repeating this sad chapter in U.S. racial discrimination. On Friday, the United States marked the 30th year since the Civil Liberties Act was enacted to officially apologize for the internment of Japanese-Americans. Labeled as enemies, Japanese-Americans lost jobs and property simply because they were of Japanese ancestry. Their wish for preventing such discrimination from happening again rings hollow in U.S. society, where racial segregation is accelerating. In Seabrook, a New Jersey town with a population of some 46,000, many of the Japanese descendants are still alive, says Stanley Kaneshiki, 82, a third-generation Japanese-American. At the end of the war, a vegetable-processing plant in the town lost workers due to the draft and actively recruited those who were former internees. Some 2,300 Japanese-Americans moved to Seabrook, seeking new lives. The town also attracted many migrants from Europe and Latin America. They worked 12 hours a day and received hourly wages of 35 to 50 cents. Kaneshiki says that with shared bathrooms, the living environment was “not much different from the concentration camps.” “But we were no longer surrounded by barbed wire, and we could go anywhere we wanted to. That freedom is something irreplaceable,” he notes. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the law and apologized for having sent some 120,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast to such camps in rural areas without holding trials, admitting the practice had been a serious error. The government paid $20,000 in compensation to each living former internee. The memory of the event is gradually fading in U.S. society, however. Trump has banned the entry of people from some Islamic countries and has described African and Latin American nations as “shithole” countries in his quest to toughen regulations on immigration. Such an atmosphere is expanding into society, helping increase the number of hate crimes. Irene Kaneshiki, 78, also a third-generation Japanese-American, said: “(Trump’s Muslim ban) is pretty much the same as what the past administration did to Japanese-Americans. This is a country which is made of immigrants. Seabrook is a very good example of that.”
|
wwii;history;immigration;discrimination;japanese-americans
|
jp0009985
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/11
|
Social media takes a dim view of the daylight saving proposal for the 2020 Olympics
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People in Japan have been complaining about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics since Japan’s capital was awarded the games. Netizens have railed against everything from the apparent insensitivity of hosting the two-week competition while the Tohoku region continues to recover from the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake to the mascots that look like cartoons characters. With just under two years to go before the opening ceremony, the online gripes are only picking up. They are aided by the government’s decision to weigh solutions to the country’s hot summers that come across as verging on the ridiculous. Last week, the government said it would consider introducing daylight saving time ahead of the Olympics to mitigate the effects of the expected high temperatures. Early thinking would see clocks nationwide moved forward two hours. When this news broke last Monday morning, the Japanese phrase for daylight saving time, samā taimu (サマータイム, or “summer time”), almost instantly jumped to the top of Twitter’s trending list . The general consensus from netizens could best be summed up by the top comment on a matome site about the topic — “ stupid .” An immediate concern from those online was the sheer logistics of pulling this off. University professor Tetsutaro Uehara expressed surprise at the announcement, primarily because a decision would have to be made this year and then implemented starting in 2019 (“I hope it’s fake,” one person replied ). Twitter user @ginlime poked fun at the idea of such a radical change to the system for all of Japan when only Tokyo was getting the games, and wondered why the government didn’t just move the games to October. In the days that followed, an increasing number of people took to social media to express why they thought daylight saving time was a bad idea. The hashtag “ summer time hantai ” (“summer time opposition”) attracted myriad comments, with users bringing up slightly corny arguments such as children being unable to look up at the night sky to far more substantial arguments such as the negative impact it would have on people’s sleep schedules , health issues and the increased burden it would place on nurseries . And, naturally, some noted that people might even be forced to work longer hours than they already do . Online media outlets generally agreed with popular opinion. Yahoo Japan shared a list of 10 reasons why daylight saving time wouldn’t work . Beyond News also looked at the disadvantages of a time change while also highlighting opposition to the idea as recently as 2007. Buzzfeed, meanwhile, highlighted two very different sides of the argument, running a detailed history of the first time Japan tried out daylight saving time following World War II before posting a “ summer time playlist ” hosted on Spotify just 15 minutes later. Yet nobody lambasted daylight saving time more than social media users working in the IT industry. They argued that the government had no idea how computers worked, and said this would impact systems beyond just Japan . Others pointed out that daylight saving time is the hardest time of the year for IT workers in Europe and the United States. One of the most popular tweets came from user @integra, who declared that all of this daylight saving time discussion was in fact the act of an “ IT terrorist .” And that’s just scratching the surface . A majority of social media users expressed reservation about the government’s proposal. Yet step outside of the digital realm for a second and reaction appears a little different. An NHK poll found 51 percent of respondents were in favor of daylight saving time, while the Asahi Shimbun put that figure at 53 percent . Maybe it’s a case of the internet not reflecting reality in the outside world? Not quite. A Yahoo poll found 61 percent against the move, while plenty on Twitter pointed out that the NHK poll had asked if people approved of daylight saving time as a measure against the heat and, well, ignoring the other things it would impact. The introduction of daylight saving time might not even be an Olympic-only measure. The Hochi Shimbun said Wednesday the government might be eyeing this as a permanent change (although the report was based largely on hearsay). People reacted to the this news about as well as you’d expect , with some even claiming that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ran a trial of this in the Diet a few years back. Even if this debate doesn’t last beyond the games, expect to see plenty more opposition to the introduction of daylight saving time online over the next couple of years.
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2020 tokyo olympics;daylight saving time;japan pulse
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jp0009987
|
[
"national",
"media-national"
] |
2018/08/11
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Hoarding in Japan isn't as dark as NHK makes it out to be
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Thanks to Marie Kondo , everyone knows about the Japanese art of katazuke , or “tidying up.” Kondo’s books on organizing your things and deciding what items you should throw away have been translated into numerous languages and she’s been interviewed by myriad international media outlets. Katazuke has an evil twin called “hoarding,” an acknowledged psychological condition that describes how individuals cannot let go of possessions, no matter how inessential. The American reality show “ Hoarders ” has been a staple on American cable TV off-and-on for about a decade. Experts visit junk-filled homes and attempt to sort out their owners’ lives. In Japan, such TV shows are also very popular. Titles sometimes incorporate the word “ gomi-yashiki ,” meaning “garbage house.” On May 16, NHK ran a report on “garbage apartments” occupied by single people . In the cases cited, the individuals are faced with stressful situations that manifest as total neglect of their personal space. Their apartments fill up with junk to the point where they can’t even move around. Experts say this behavior is the product of loneliness and forced “individualism.” Without the balancing effect of social interaction, people can fall into patterns of apathy that lead to depression. However, hoarding is not always a sign of anxiety. Another word that pops up in relation to messy homes is “ danshari ,” a neologism coined by the woman who popularized the katazuke movement. Hideko Yamashita has been a consultant longer than Kondo has. The word danshari incorporates three Chinese characters taken from yoga teachings: “ dan ,” which means “to prohibit,” “ sha ,” which stands for “the disposal of unnecessary things,” and “ ri ,” which implies “leaving obsessions behind.” But if the word turns katazuke into a philosophy, Yamashita’s methods are practical to a fault. BS Asahi airs an occasional series dedicated to Yamashita’s ministrations called “ Uchi, Danshari Shimashita! ” People with hoarding or storage problems write to the producers and ask for Yamashita’s help. She shows up with a video crew and surveys the damage, explains to the subject how her methods can solve their problem and leaves, promising to come back in several weeks to see how well the person carried out her advice. The crew, however, hangs around. The most recent episode featured a 47-year-old woman who lives in a four-bedroom house in Chiba Prefecture with her husband and two children. The woman works a part-time job two days a week and says she doesn’t have time to sort through the clutter, and when she does she is overcome with indecision because she believes some of these things “might be useful someday.” Yamashita has heard it before, but unlike Kondo, who approaches the matter from the positive side — which things do you love? — Yamashita starts off by telling the woman she must figure out how much she should reduce to live comfortably: When in doubt, toss it out. Left to their own devices, the people on “Danshari” rarely get that concept initially and usually require intervention by Yamashita or the video crew to actually start putting things in garbage bags. In another segment, a 54-year-old woman who lives in the penthouse of a condo in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district she owns tries to cloak her indecision by transferring junk to her bathroom so that when Yamashita returns it looks as if she’d done something. The video crew rats her out. Unlike the NHK program, all “Danshari” segments have happy endings in that some semblance of normality is achieved, but it’s easy to imagine the situation backsliding. The majority of subjects are women whose live-in male relatives, be they husbands or fathers, tend to not get involved. Katazuke is an issue of housekeeping, which is still mostly a female concern. Another contributing aspect is the usual design of many Japanese houses, which often lack sufficient storage space. Closets are smaller. Anything that doesn’t fit ends up on the floor. A different program, TBS’ “ Jikka o Katazuke te Mimasen ka? ” (“Shall We Try to Tidy Up Your Family Home?”), offered a better idea of why such variety shows will not soon disappear. The focus is houses where people grew up and now want to put into order, meaning they don’t necessarily live there anymore but their parents still do. In all three cases shown, the parents are boomers, the first generation of Japanese to acquire stuff indiscriminately. Their children recognize the clutter and want them to set their affairs in order before they die. One of the cases focused on the man of the house. A woman requested help in cleaning up her father’s home in Saitama. The woman’s mother is an invalid, and her father takes good care of her but is averse to cleaning up after himself. The house is not just cluttered but old and filthy. A proud student leftist in his day, he doesn’t suffer from the usual neuroses associated with hoarders. He just has a higher tolerance for disorder. After his daughter forces him to clean up with the help of the production crew, refuse collectors haul away 2 tons of junk. The other two cases were more about specific circumstances than psychology. Former idol singer Tomomi Nishimura helped her parents clean up their house in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which didn’t look like a garbage house because they had lots of storage space, but they discarded 6 tons. Three sisters, two of whom fled their Kyoto home as soon as they could because of their mother’s hoarding, marched in and forced her to dump lots of things. The mother obviously suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder, but she also grew up in a well-to-do home and was never expected to clean house until she married. Say what you will about her uncooperative husband. Hoarding is not informed by a uniform set of personality traits and, as presented by commercial TV, it isn’t as dark as NHK makes it out to be. However, it’s important to remember that these people asked to be on TV in the first place. There may have been an impulse at work other than seeking help.
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anxiety;hoarding
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jp0009988
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/08/29
|
Historic Tokyo house to become gathering place for executives and entrepreneurs
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A 91-year-old historic residence in Tokyo will turn into a business hub starting next month with a goal of helping company executives and entrepreneurs cultivate new ideas and communicate freely, operators of the facility announced Wednesday. The Spanish-style house located near Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward is expected to be mainly used for meetings among executives and those tasked with creating new business ideas, according to the three firms — Tokyu Corp., Takenaka Corp. and Toho-Leo Co. — that are jointly working on the project. The facility, named Kudan House, has 850 square meters of floor space and boasts a number of classic rooms with vintage furniture. It also has a terrace, a Japanese-style tatami-floored room and a cozy space for tea ceremony. The three-story residence with a basement was built in 1927 and lived in by Mankichi Yamaguchi, a wealthy businessman from Niigata Prefecture. The top architects of the day, including Tachu Naito, who was known for designing quake-resistant structures, were involved with the construction. It is recognized as a tangible cultural property by the government. Yamaguchi’s family members are hoping the project will tap the historic house’s value while also allowing it to be preserved. “This place has a different atmosphere, much like a salon, compared to rental meeting rooms in ordinary buildings or those at hotels,” said Jun Kumahara, who heads the brand communication team at Toho-Leo, an Osaka-based firm that provides environment-related technologies to houses and buildings. Taking advantage of this historic, classic and quiet atmosphere in the middle of bustling Tokyo, people may be inspired to come up with fresh ideas more often, Kumahara added. The operators said they have not come up with a clear plan to monetize the venture and they haven’t decided if they should charge members monthly or hourly.
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buildings;entrepreneurs;tokyu corp .;takenaka corp .;toho-leo co .
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jp0009989
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/29
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Given the right to larger families, Chinese may hold off
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BEIJING - China’s moves to combat an aging population by relaxing decades-old curbs on family size have hit an unexpected snag: Many parents are no longer interested in having more babies. The government has indicated it will scrap its policy which limits the number of children per family through tough fines — and sometimes through forced abortions and sterilizations. The world’s most populous country introduced its one-child policy in 1979 and last tweaked it in early 2016, raising the limit to two children as the nation scrambled to rejuvenate a graying population of some 1.4 billion. But the pent-up demand for more children has ebbed, experts say. Couples have increasingly delayed having even one child as they devote more time to other goals, such as building their careers. The skyrocketing cost of raising children in booming China has also given many prospective parents pause. “Lots of people want to have a second child, but the biggest problem is the financial burden,” said a mother in the northeastern city of Dalian, who wants a second and even third child but remains hesitant to bear the financial and career costs. The proposed policy change was included in a new civil code being discussed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress this week. The code is set to be completed in 2020. “Canceling the family planning policy would mean that the right to decide how many children to have rests with couples and families,” said Liu Hongyan of the China Population and Development Research Centre, a think tank under the National Health and Family Planning Commission. This is “a manifestation of human rights in the field of reproductive health.” Population trends The official Xinhua News Agency said regulations on family size were omitted from the draft law due to “changes in the country’s demographic situation.” China’s working-age population fell by 5.5 million last year, maintaining a downward trend that began in 2012, according to the statistics bureau. Economists fear the nation will get old before it gets rich, leaving it trapped as a middle-income country burdened with too few workers to support an aging populace. By 2050, the World Bank forecasts the proportion of the population aged over 60 will jump from 15 percent in 2015 to 36.5 percent, with a median age of 49.6. To lesson the pain, Beijing wants its “high-quality” citizens to build larger families, experts say. There is “heavy propaganda aimed at urban educated Han women” urging them to “marry early and have children early,” said Leta Hong Fincher, author of “Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China,” referring to the majority Han community. From the government’s perspective, Qiu Chunjuan and Xu Jinhua, who are raising two children in Shanghai, would be ideal candidates for a larger family. But the parents are not considering it. “With the education environment in Shanghai, the economic environment, having two is just right,” said the father, Xu. “We’re saturated now,” he said. His wife Qiu said that with the cost of private school and additional classes, the pressure was already “quite big.” Hu Yanhua, a 38-year-old mother in Shanghai, said she had her hands full with just one six-year-old boy. “I need to work and I have limited energy, so I probably won’t consider it,” she said. Second child boom? When Beijing lifted restrictions and allowed all couples a second child, officials were expecting a flood of new births. They received a trickle, enough to steady the falling birth count, with 17.23 million births in 2017 — but well below an official forecast of over 20 million for the year. Surveys have shown many one-child families harbor little desire for more children. The white-collar mother in Dalian, who asked not to be named, worried she would fall behind in the workplace if she took time off to have a second child. “I don’t want to give up my job and the feeling of self-worth it brings,” she said.
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china;children;family planning
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jp0009990
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/29
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U.S. Rohingya report 'consistent' with U.N. findings of genocide by Myanmar regime: Nikki Haley
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UNITED NATIONS - Findings of a U.S. State Department investigation into Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis are “consistent” with those of a report by U.N. investigators released this week that called for Myanmar’s commander-in-chief and other generals be tried for genocide, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday. Addressing the U.N. Security Council, Nikki Haley said “the world can no longer avoid the difficult truth of what happened.” She did not use the term “genocide” and the State Department has said it had not yet concluded whether it shared the determination of “genocidal intent” that Monday’s U.N. report attached to the attacks on Rohingya Muslims. However, Haley said that of the more than 1,000 randomly selected Rohingya Muslims surveyed in the State Department’s own report, “fully one fifth” witnessed more than 100 victims being killed or injured. She said 82 percent had seen a killing, more than half had witnessed sexual violence and 45 percent had witnessed a rape. “The report identifies one group as the perpetrator of the overwhelming majority of these crimes: the Burmese military and security forces,” Haley said, referring to the U.S. report. She said the Security Council must hold those responsible for the violence to account and added, “The whole world is watching what we do next and if we will act.” Haley’s comments provided the first details of the State Department report compiled from 1,024 interviews at refugee camps in Bangladesh and completed in late April. It remained unclear when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo planned to issue the full U.S. report, which could have legal implications of committing Washington to stronger punitive measures against Myanmar, particularly if Washington concluded there was genocide. The findings were originally due to be announced ahead of Monday’s U.N. report but have been held up by internal deliberations. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said “genocidal intent” was “a very specific legal designation.” “It is not one that is easily made,” she told a regular news briefing on Tuesday. Critics have accused Washington of an overly cautious response to the Rohingya crisis, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that the U.N. findings could increase pressure for tougher U.S. action. The release of Monday’s U.N. report marked the first explicit U.N. call for Myanmar officials to face genocide charges over their campaign against the Rohingya. It said the military carried out mass killings and gang rapes with “genocidal intent” and the commander-in-chief and five generals should be prosecuted. Washington, which had previously imposed sanctions on only one regional general over the crisis, targeted four more military and police commanders and two army units this month, but Commander-in-Chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing was again spared. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. meeting that the U.N. report deserved serious consideration and that accountability was essential for genuine reconciliation between ethnic groups in Myanmar. Also without using the word genocide, Guterres said the report by the independent U.N. experts found “‘patterns of gross human rights violations and abuses’ committed by the security forces, which it said ‘undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law.’ ” He said international cooperation would be “critical” to ensuring accountability. Guterres said the U.N. Security Council needed to continue to press for the release of journalists arrested for reporting on the Rohingya crisis, a reference to two Reuters reporters on trial in Myanmar. Haley said the United States expected to see the two, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, acquitted of all charges. Also on Tuesday, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who Washington has championed as a voice of democratic change, could not be blamed for atrocities as she did not have the powers necessary to stop military actions. Haley made no mention of Suu Kyi, who the U.N. investigators said had failed to use her “moral authority” to protect civilians. Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled the crackdown in Myanmar and most are living in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Guterres said an international humanitarian appeal for the refugees remained significantly underfunded at 33 percent and more must be done to alleviate the threats to life from the current and impending monsoons. He said it was clear conditions did not yet exist for the safe return of the Rohingya and called on Security Council members to join him in urging Myanmar to cooperate to ensure access to U.N. agencies and partners. “There can be no excuse for delaying the search for dignified solutions that will allow people to return to their areas of origin in safety and dignity, in line with international standards and human rights,” Guterres said.
|
u.s .;myanmar;u.n .;genocide;rohingya;nikki haley
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jp0009991
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/29
|
Cases of Rubella infection in Japan on the rise
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The number of rubella patients reported by the country’s medical institutions from Jan. 1 to Aug. 19 totaled 184, nearly double the 93 for the whole of last year, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday. Patients in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures — Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa — accounted for about 70 percent of the cumulative total. The NIID is urging people to get vaccinated against the viral infectious disease. Symptoms of Rubella include fever and rashes that appear after an incubation period of two to three weeks. In some cases, however, no clear symptoms occur, according to the institute. If a pregnant woman is infected, there is a risk of her baby being born with such disorders as hearing impairment, heart problems and cataracts. The number of patients started to increase in late July, with August experiencing the greatest surge. In the week to Aug. 19 alone, the number of patients came to 43. The number of patients since the beginning of this year stood at 62 in Chiba, 47 in Tokyo, 11 in Saitama and nine in Kanagawa. Of all patients, 93 percent were adults, mainly men in their 30s and 40s. The number of people who have been vaccinated against rubella is believed to be relatively small in those age groups. Two doses of vaccine can increase the preventive effect, while pregnant women cannot get the vaccine. “It is important for pre-pregnant women and people around pregnant women to be vaccinated,” the institute said.
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pregnancy;rubella;vaccines
|
jp0009992
|
[
"asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Florida university becomes latest to cut ties with China's Confucius Institute
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BEIJING - The University of North Florida will close a campus branch of a Chinese-run cultural institute, the latest U.S. college to do so amid criticism from U.S. legislators that China uses the institute to influence American higher education. The Jacksonville-based university said on Tuesday it had determined after “careful consideration” that the Confucius Institute, which opened a branch there in 2014 to promote language and culture, did not meet the university’s mission. “After reviewing the classes, activities and events sponsored over the past four years and comparing them with the mission and goals of the university, it was determined that they weren’t aligned,” the university said in a statement. It did not elaborate on the reasons for ending the partnership, but said the institute would be closed in February, fulfilling a legal obligations to provide six months’ notice for ending the contract. The Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ministry has in the past said the institute is aimed at increasing mutual understanding, and it has urged anyone suspicious of its programs to abandon their “outmoded ideas.” Florida Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the university’s decision. Rubio has been among U.S. lawmakers warning that the Confucius Institute was an effort by China to expand its political influence abroad and had contributed to censorship on U.S. campuses. “I welcome the decision of @UofNorthFlorida to close its Confucius Institute. There is growing & well-founded concern about these Chinese Communist Party-funded Institutes. I continue to urge other FL universities to follow suit,” Rubio said on Twitter. Rubio and other lawmakers have pursued legislation that would require universities to disclose major gifts from foreign sources, at a time when U.S. politicians, including President Donald Trump, but also many Democrats, have been pushing a harder line in dealing with China. U.S.-China relations have suffered in recent months, with the two countries locked in an increasingly bitter trade dispute. Several other universities in Florida still host the Confucius Institute, among more than 100 such centers around the United States. Other major U.S. colleges, including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago, have cut ties with the institute after professors complained its programs were Chinese propaganda wrapped in culture and language education.
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china;universities;florida
|
jp0009993
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Women's trial over Kim Jong Nam killing heads to defense phase
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SHAH ALAM, MALAYSIA - Two Southeast Asian women on trial for the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother were told to begin their defense Thursday, extending the trial for several more months. Indonesia’s Siti Aisyah and Vietnam’s Doan Thi Huong are accused of smearing VX nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face in an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13, 2017. High Court Judge Azmi Ariffin said he was not persuaded by the defense’s argument that the women thought they were taking part in a prank for a hidden-camera show. He said enough evidence had been presented so far in the six-month trial to infer the women and four North Korean suspects had engaged in a “well-planned conspiracy” to kill Kim “systemically.” With the prosecution laying out enough evidence of the women’s guilt for the case against them to proceed, “I therefore call upon them to enter their defense,” the judge said after reading his ruling for more than two hours. Indonesian Ambassador Rusdi Kirana told reporters outside court that he was shocked by the ruling but his government will abide by it. The judge could have acquitted the women. Aisyah, 25, and Huong, 29, appeared to be calm and told the judge they would testify under oath in their defense. They are the only suspects in custody and face the death penalty if convicted. The four North Korean suspects fled the country the same morning Kim was killed. The defense teams have argued that the women are simply scapegoats, with the authorities unable to catch the real killers, the North Koreans, and therefore desperate to secure some kind of conviction in the case. The pair, who face death by hanging if found guilty, claim they fell victim to an elaborate plot hatched by North Korean agents and believed they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show when they attacked Kim with a chemical classified as a weapon of mass destruction. According to the case presented so far, the four men, known to Aisyah and Huong by code names, recruited and trained the two women to accost strangers in a fashion like that used on the day they attacked Kim. That day the men provided the women with the banned chemical weapon that they smeared on his face. Airport security footage shown in court captured the moment of the attack, and prosecutors also said the camera images linked the women to the four male suspects. Shortly after Kim arrived at the airport, Huong was seen approaching him, clasping her hands on his face from behind and then fleeing. Another blurred figure was also seen running away from Kim and a police investigator testified that it was Aisyah. Kim died within two hours of the attack. The four men — Ri Ji Hyon, Ri Jae Nam, Hong Song Hac and O Jong Gil — fled Malaysia within hours of the incident and are believed to have returned to North Korea. The men have been charged with having “common intention” with the women to murder Kim and are now on an Interpol wanted list. Expert witnesses testified that traces of VX were found on the clothing of both women. Video recordings played in court showed them meeting two of the fugitives at the airport before the attack. Defense lawyers have said the prosecution failed to show the two women had any intention to kill — key to establishing they are guilty of murder. Aisyah’s lawyer, Gooi Soon Seng, has called the evidence against his client “flimsy and circumstantial” because it relied only on security footage and the traces of VX on her. Huong’s lawyer, Hisyam Teh, has said his client’s conduct after the incident was that of an innocent person. But the judge said their intention to kill can be inferred from the targeting of Kim’s eyes, where the nerve agent would penetrate faster. He said that evidence pointed to a “simultaneous act” by the women. The judge also said their hurrying to separate bathrooms also established their intention to cause Kim’s death. “I have no slightest doubt that their desperate act of rushing to the toilets is to solely decontaminate the poison on their hands,” Azmi said. He said they seemed worried and tense before washing their hands, but relaxed afterward. “The onus is on the accused to explain their conduct,” he added. Azmi said he “cannot rule out that this could be a political assassination,” but found no concrete evidence of one. The defense has argued the real culprits are the four North Korean suspects and have pointed to an embassy employee who helped arrange their travel as evidence of embassy involvement. Malaysian officials have never officially accused North Korea and have made it clear they don’t want the trial politicized. Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son in the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding, had been living abroad for years after falling out of favor. It is thought he could have been seen as a threat to Kim Jong Un’s rule. Prior to his killing, Kim Jong Nam had voiced fears over his safety. It has been reported that there were earlier unsuccessful attempts on his life in Macau, where he had been living in self-imposed exile. The women’s families had been hopeful they would be acquitted. Huong’s father, Doan Van Thanh, said he could not sleep the previous night, anxious to hear the ruling. He said, “I had thought she would be innocent.” He added: “I don’t know what to do next. I just hope they will announce her innocent so that she can return home.” Aisyah’s father, Asria, said in an interview from the family’s village on Indonesia’s Java island: “She knows nothing, she was fooled. The case (against her) was made up.” Her mother, Benah, added: “This is unfair. I wanted her to be released today but if the court refuses what can I do? I can only pray for the final verdict.”
|
malaysia;murder;north korea;vietnam;courts;indonesia;kim jong un;kim jong nam;doan thi huong;siti aisyah
|
jp0009994
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Timeline: Seeking justice for Kim Jong Nam
|
KUALA LUMPUR - Two women charged with assassinating the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader were ordered to enter their defense in their long-running trial Thursday, marking the next chapter in a story that has gripped the world. A Malaysian judge has ruled there is enough evidence to support a murder charge against Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam. The women are accused of smearing a deadly nerve agent on Kim Jong Nam’s face as he waited for a flight at Kuala Lumpur airport. Here is a timeline of key events since the killing: The hit A portly North Korean man, later identified as Kim Jong Nam, dies after being attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13, 2017. Seoul points the finger at its northern neighbor and says it was a political hit aimed at weeding out potential rivals to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Malaysian detectives track down two migrant women — one Vietnamese and one Indonesian — who they say are seen on CCTV carrying out the attack. The two women, who are eventually charged with murder, say they had been paid to carry out what they thought was a prank for a reality TV show. An autopsy reveals Kim died from exposure to the VX nerve agent, an artificial chemical so deadly it is banned under an international treaty and classified by the U.N. as a weapon of mass destruction. The fallout Kuala Lumpur arrests North Korean citizen Ri Jong Chol in connection with the murder. Over the following days investigators say diplomats and airline employees from the isolated regime are also wanted for questioning. All are holed up at the North Korean embassy or have already left the country. North Korea pours scorn on what it calls “absurd” claims that VX was used, saying South Korea and the U.S. are mounting a smear campaign against it. Pyongyang insists the dead man was called Kim Chol and demands his body be returned. Investigators refuse to release the corpse. Malaysia cancels a visa-free travel deal with North Korea and deports North Korea’s ambassador. Pyongyang hits back, expelling Malaysia’s envoy. Tensions escalate after North Korea bans all Malaysians from leaving Pyongyang. Malaysia retaliates and the international community calls for calm amid allegations of detaining “hostages.” The detente In early March 2017, Ri Jong Chol is released from custody and deported from Malaysia. Frustrated Malaysian police say they believed he was involved in the plot but lacked evidence to prove it. At the end of the month, Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Najib Razak announces an agreement has been reached to return the body to North Korea. Nine Malaysians stuck in Pyongyang will be free to travel and North Koreans in Kuala Lumpur will be allowed to go home. In October, the two women go on trial over the murder. They maintain their innocence. Four men formally accused on a charge sheet of plotting with the women to murder Kim Jong Nam are identified by a police officer as North Koreans who fled Malaysia immediately after the assassination. The women’s lawyers insist they are the real masterminds.
|
malaysia;murder;north korea;vietnam;courts;indonesia;kim jong un;kim jong nam;doan thi huong;siti aisyah
|
jp0009995
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Malaysia court poised to deliver key ruling in Kim Jong Nam murder trial
|
KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian judge will Thursday deliver a key ruling in the trial of two women accused of the assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader, with their families optimistic they will be cleared. The court will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to support a murder charge against Siti Aisyah from Indonesia and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam, who allegedly killed Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur airport. If there is, the trial will continue with the court hearing the women’s defense. But if not, the judge could acquit the women or amend the charge to something less serious than murder, which carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia. Their families insist they did not carry out the Cold War-style hit that shocked the world, and were hopeful they would be acquitted. Huong “could never be a killer as she had always been a charming, hard-working girl,” Doan Van Thanh, the Vietnamese suspect’s father, told AFP. The women are accused of killing Kim Jong Nam — the estranged relative of the North’s leader Kim Jong Un — by smearing toxic nerve agent VX on his face in February last year as he waited to board a flight to Macau. The pair claim they fell victim to an elaborate murder plot hatched by North Korean agents, and believed they were taking part in a prank for a reality TV show when they attacked Kim with a chemical classified as a weapon of mass destruction. But describing the murder as something out of a James Bond movie, state prosecutors have argued the pair were well-trained assassins who knew exactly what they were doing. The trial at the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur, heard that four North Koreans recruited the pair and were the masterminds, providing them with the poison on the day of the murder before flying out of the country. The women’s defense teams have argued the pair are simply scapegoats, with the authorities unable to catch the real killers, the North Koreans, and therefore desperate to secure some kind of conviction in the case. The lawyers are confident the pair will be acquitted of murder, insisting that prosecutors have not shown they intended to kill Kim, who was heir apparent to the North Korean leadership before he fell from grace and went on to live in exile. If one or both of the women are cleared, they will not necessarily walk free immediately however. Prosecutors could seek to appeal the ruling, and the authorities could still hold them over alleged visa violations.
|
malaysia;north korea;kim jong un;assassination;kim jong nam;doan thi huong;vx;siti aisyah
|
jp0009996
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Bucking superstition, Japanese woman tunnels way to top of civil-engineering world
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For civil engineer Reiko Abe, 55, being competent at her job was never enough. Her sex and the superstitions surrounding it caused her to be turned away from job interviews and construction sites in Japan. After clawing her way to the top of the male-dominated tunnel engineering industry, however, she is now president of Oriental Consultants India Pvt. Ltd., the Indian branch of a Japanese construction consultancy. Abe was no different from any other engineer. The only thing that set her apart was that she had to fight her way to international success by battling the patriarchal and conservative society that runs Japan. “I was told ‘You can’t do it’ all the time, so that’s what made me go out and prove to them that I could. If things had gone smoothly, without any trouble, I would just have been a normal engineer. I had no choice but to break through the walls that stood in front of me,” Abe said in an interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo. The odds were stacked against Abe well before she started. Take her choice to become a tunnel engineer. She didn’t necessarily have an exceptional passion for tunnels — she just entered the profession because female engineers didn’t have much of a choice in the 1980s. At the time, it was standard for juniors at Yamaguchi University, where Abe earned her bachelor’s degree, to ask a professor to mentor them during their final year and help them find a job. But Abe was turned away by most. They knew that, as a woman, Abe would have trouble finding a job after graduation unless she became a civil servant, which she had no intention of becoming. “I wanted to work at a general construction contractor so much. I wanted to create things,” Abe explained. In the end, the only professor who agreed to take her under his wing was a tunnel specialist, and that was how she began molding her career as a tunnel engineer. “I didn’t have the luxury of choosing whether I wanted to build bridges or dams,” Abe said. As expected, Abe was “turned away at the doors of all the companies” she applied to, leaving her with no choice but to further her education in tunnel engineering, resulting in a master’s degree. Even then, she didn’t fare much better with her job hunt — most companies didn’t even bother inviting her for an interview. She only managed to get one interview — near the end of the application process — because her professor put in a good word for her with a former student who happened to be the president of a construction company. At last, she landed a job. But working as a female engineer in the 1990s was just the start of a struggle to gain equal footing with her male peers. Although work was smooth sailing for the first few years of her career, her sex eventually became a hindrance because of a Japanese superstition that prevented her from entering the construction sites. According to the superstition, the god of a mountain is a jealous woman who will cause accidents if a woman enters the construction site of a tunnel. “I’d heard about the oral tradition, maybe when I was in my second year of graduate school . . . but I didn’t take it seriously then,” Abe said. “I didn’t think such a tradition would actually affect me. I only found out that I wouldn’t be allowed to enter tunnels once I started working.” Co-workers had no qualms about her working on open cut tunnel projects, where a trench is dug first in natural daylight and then covered later, forming an actual tunnel. But they wouldn’t allow her to enter places that were being dug completely underground because of superstition. “If natural light could enter the construction site, it didn’t matter so much whether you were a man or a woman . . . so in a way the belief was a bit far-fetched,” Abe said. “I ended up becoming an engineer who couldn’t even enter tunnels,” she recalled. As the years went on, Abe began to feel she was getting left behind as her male peers gained more hands-on experience while she was relegated to her desk. As an engineer, not getting on-site experience was a critical issue. That’s when she felt there was no other choice but to do something to set herself apart. So she applied for a scholarship from the company to study in Norway to gain an international edge over her peers and get experience in a less discriminatory environment. The gamble paid off. After graduating from the Norwegian university, she went global by getting involved in tunnel projects from Ukraine and Taiwan to Indonesia and India. And she shows no sign of slowing down. Abe is hoping a plan to build bullet trains in India will take off. But given a career spanning some 30 years, she also feels she is in position to pass on her knowledge. “Now I’ve come to a point where it’s not about me working for myself, but rather about me passing on my experiences to the younger generations. So I’d like to put a lot more effort into teaching.” And what does she want to pass on? “That you can do anything if you put your heart into it,” she said. “I’ve overcome so many obstacles in my life, but that’s why I am here. So I’m actually very grateful that I was born a woman. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have come this far.”
|
india;gender;women;discrimination;construction;reiko abe;oriental consultants india
|
jp0009997
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Yokohama kin to receive fallen soldier's second wartime Hinomaru after receiving first flag in 2016
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LOS ANGELES - Relatives of fallen soldier Masamoto Abe will soon receive a second wartime Hinomaru, which were typically signed by friends and family and carried into battle by Japanese troops during the war. The flag has been mailed from Astoria, Oregon, to Abe’s kin in Yokohama. In April, Ralph Wood, 85, contacted Obon Society — a nonprofit organization that, over the past 9 years, has returned more than 200 flags to Japanese families who lost soldiers in the war — on behalf of the Gold Bar, Washington, post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to determine whether “the mysterious flag” on the club’s wall was authentic. When Obon Society received the paperwork, they recognized the name on the flag and quickly confirmed with their Japanese scholars that the flag belonged to the same Masamoto Abe of Kanagawa Prefecture whose flag they returned in 2016. Wood, who served in the U.S. Marines during the Korean War, said he is pleased the flag is going back to its place of origin and into the “hands of the people who knew and respected the man who carried it into battle.” Next week Abe’s nephew, Hisashi Abe, 81, will again receive one of his uncle’s flags in the mail. Two years ago this month, he received the first of his uncle’s flags through the cooperation of Obon Society and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Masamoto Abe went to war with two Hinomaru flags, which were recovered from his body in New Guinea. A U.S. Army veteran took one of the flags, signed by co-workers at Nippon Carbon Co., to Portland, Oregon. For decades, the second flag, which features signatures from Abe’s family and neighbors, resided in Washington state. “What are the chances of that happening?” wrote Keiko and Rex Ziak, co-founders of Obon Society. “Most families will never receive any items from their missing relative; this family will receive two!”
|
wwii;hinomaru;flag;masamoto abe
|
jp0009998
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Mother of toddler found safe in western Japan 'overcome with emotion'
|
YAMAGUCHI - The mother of a 2-year-old boy who was found safe three days after he went missing on an island in Yamaguchi Prefecture expressed her relief and joy at being reunited with her son. “I didn’t think I would be able to meet him alive,” Mio Fujimoto, 37, told reporters Wednesday after her son Yoshiki was rescued by a search volunteer. He was found on a mountain about 560 meters from his great-grandfather’s house, where he had been visiting for the summer. For the past three days, Fujimoto had been clinging to hope that her son could be found safe. On Wednesday morning, Yoshiki’s grandfather rushed to let the family know that the boy had been spotted. As Yoshiki was brought down from the mountain, the mother was overwhelmed with emotion and could only call out her son’s name. “It had been three days and I had pretty much lost hope, so when he opened his eyes and looked at me, I was overcome with emotion,” Fujimoto said at the hospital where the boy was later taken. “I was so scared, though Yoshiki must have been even more scared.” Of the 78-year-old volunteer who found her son barefoot sitting near a stream on the mountain, Fujimoto said, “He had promised me that he would bring back my son alive. It’s amazing that he really found him.” Yoshiki ate a banana and some jelly, and drank apple juice after he was rescued, Fujimoto said. He was found with no notable injuries, but was hospitalized as he showed symptoms of dehydration. Yoshiki turned 2 while he was missing, as his birthday was on Monday. “It turned out to be an unexpected kind of birthday,” his mother said. The family plans to belatedly celebrate Yoshiki’s birthday with an ice cream cake, one of his favorite foods, she added.
|
yamaguchi;missing;toddler
|
jp0009999
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/16
|
Bugs struggle amid Japan's record summer heat
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People aren’t the only ones affected by heat waves. High temperatures recorded over an extended period this summer have apparently caused insects, such as mosquitoes and beetles, to meet an untimely demise across the country. “I think there are fewer mosquitoes around because of the intense heat,” said Takeo Yamauchi, curator at the Hyogo Prefecture-run Museum of Nature and Human Activities. “Mosquito larvae live in water, especially in small puddles, but if the heat continues and it doesn’t rain for a long time, the puddles dry up and the larvae there all die,” he explained. “There have also been research reports that the activities of mosquitoes slow down when the temperature rises to about 35 degrees or higher.” According to the Meteorological Agency, its 927 weather monitoring locations across the nation marked daily highs of 35 degrees or more a total of 3,127 times in July compared to 812 in 2017. That’s likely had an effect on mosquitoes and why many people might have noticed fewer of them around this year. Yamauchi, who is also an associate professor researching arthropods at the University of Hyogo’s School of Human Science and Environment, said the prolonged heat and lack of rainfall probably affect other insects’ longevity, too, such as beetles, noting that the conditions cause many to die while they are still pupae or larvae. Yoshimi Okamoto, manager of Kabutomushi Dome (Beetle Dome) in the Hyogo Prefecture town of Ichikawa, said: “It’s extremely hot this year and it hasn’t rained in this area, so the ground has dried up. Beetles live in places such as moist soil and underneath leaves, but since the netted area has become all arid, they have nowhere to escape to.” The venue, where children can come in contact with hundreds of Japanese horned beetles inside a 1,020-square meter netted area of forest, closed for the season Thursday, about a week earlier than usual, as many of the beetles were unable to survive the heat. Okamoto said about 3,000 beetles have died since the facility opened for the season on June 23, although the longevity of the facility’s bugs are shortened because children who visit are free to touch them. Katsuhiko Morigami of Kuwachan House, which supplies beetles to the facility, said his company tried to procure the creatures from other parts of the country but they were not available. “We’ve never had a situation like this,” he said. “Normally, if we let the beetles go (inside the netted area) in the morning, we can collect them again in the afternoon, but that didn’t happen this year. They’d all die by the afternoon because of the heat.” But not everyone is convinced that insects can be significantly affected by high temperatures. “It’s probably just an impression or imagination,” Shigehiko Shiyake, curator of the Laboratory of Entomology at the Osaka Museum of Natural History, said of recent news reports that fewer mosquitoes are around this summer due to the heat. “It is true that insects don’t like hot weather. They don’t like the cold either. They’re just like people as we’re all living things on this planet,” he said. “But we can’t say anything for sure unless we gather the necessary data. We can’t be sure that this is something peculiar to this year because it’s essentially hot every summer.” Some facilities showcasing bugs made sure their star attractions were not affected by the natural elements. At Minoo Park Insect Museum in Osaka Prefecture, temperatures are carefully controlled so that the butterflies, beetles and other critters there are safe, according to Hiroshi Nakamine, head of the facility. “We don’t have insects dying here and there at our park,” he said.
|
heat wave;insects;mosquitoes;beetles
|
jp0010000
|
[
"business"
] |
2018/08/28
|
Japan to promote use of empty buildings as satellite offices
|
The land ministry aims to support efforts to utilize the country’s empty buildings as satellite offices or shared workspaces, according to informed sources. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry hopes to have related costs included in its budget request for fiscal 2019, which starts in April next year, the sources said. It expects to provide financial backing for the intangible aspects of such efforts, such as helping with costs related to public relations and the payment of fees for consultations with interior designers about renovation work. Expenses for actual renovation work will not be eligible for ministry assistance. The initiative is intended not only to promote the utilization of vacant properties but also to support efforts to enhance productivity and introduce diversified work styles. The ministry hopes to implement related measures by expanding the scope of a model project it launched in fiscal 2017 for promoting the use of vacant houses. It will solicit space utilization proposals from collaborative bodies set up by real estate agencies and municipalities, and then decide which ones to support. The ministry also aims to support the organization of consultations for owners of empty buildings.
|
housing;budget;buildings
|
jp0010002
|
[
"world"
] |
2018/08/28
|
Millionaires jumping ship yet another symptom of Brazil's woes
|
BRASILIA - Two thousand Brazilian millionaires left the country in 2017, according to the New World Wealth, a global market research group based in Johannesburg. For the third year in a row, Latin America’s largest economy featured in the top ten of countries ranked by the outflow of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) — those with assets equal or above $1 million — with over 1,000 millionaires leaving the city of Sao Paulo alone. Their destinations of choice are Portugal, the U.S. and Spain, according to the report. The Global Wealth Migration Review, sponsored by the Mauritius-based AfrAsia Bank, tracks wealth migration trends over the past 10 years. The report argues that wealth figures provide a better gauge of the financial health of an economy than GDP figures. “If a country is losing a large number of HNWIs to migration, it is probably due to serious problems in that country (i.e. crime, lack of business opportunities, religious tensions etc.),” it states. Over the past few years, Brazil suffered its worst recession on record. Its recovery has been anemic, and high levels of violent crime continue to rise. For 2017, Brazil ranked seventh in the world in terms of millionaire emigration, behind China, which lost 10,000 millionaires, followed by India, Turkey, the U.K., France and Russia. Venezuela, with almost one-seventh the population of Brazil, lost 1,000 millionaires in the last year. Figures from Brazil’s tax offices show that 21,701 Brazilians left the country last year, up from 20,571 in 2016 and 14,637 in 2015. On Monday economists consulted by Brazil’s central bank cut their latest forecasts for growth this year once again, to 1.47 percent from 1.49 percent a week earlier.
|
brazil;economy;gdp;recession;migration;finances
|
jp0010004
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/28
|
Get ready for the robot invasion — of our classrooms
|
The idea of using robots in classrooms to teach our children is unsettling to many people. Fumihide Tanaka of the University of Tsukuba’s Department of Intelligent Interaction Technologies, however, uses a technique that cleverly allays fears of robot superiority. He uses robots in the role of novices in the classroom. “Our solutions do not replace humans but help humans to feel, think and act,” he says. Rather than the conventional roles of the robots as the teachers or caretakers of children, in Tanaka’s method, this is reversed. The robots are the slow learners and they are taken care of by children. These are a class of robot known as care-receiving robots (CRR). “Our vision is to unlock, actualize, and empower human abilities with the help of these technologies,” Tanaka says. For much of his work, Tanaka uses the Nao robot from SoftBank Robotics, a small humanoid robot at 58 centimeters tall. When the robot joined Japanese children age 3 to 6 learning English, it deliberately made mistakes that could be corrected by the children. Tests showed this method engaged children far better than using tablet software or some other form of technology. Children, more than adults, take very readily to interacting with robots. In another test, children with poor handwriting worked with a humanoid robot who had even worse trouble writing. Through teaching the robot how to write, the children were forced to confront their own handwriting, and they made efforts to improve it. There are all sorts of fascinating things going on here. Not only were the children learning to self-reflect and consider their own handwriting, the interaction made them interpret the internal state of the robot. It increased each child’s empathy. I love that the things many people fear are completely lacking in empathy — like robots — can be a force for improving it in us. The care-receiving method is considered ethically safer and more acceptable to a wider range of societies, says Tanaka. Not surprisingly, studies have found that human teachers are wary of allowing robots into their classrooms. Teachers tend not to trust them, and insist on full control over robots in the classroom. They also prefer the robots to act as “buddies” to children, rather than as an actual teacher. These findings fit with Tanaka’s approach. Tanaka has just published a wide-ranging review of the benefits of robot tutors in the classroom (see the journal Science Robotics, DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aat). Using robots can help augment teaching when there is growing demand for personalized curriculums even as school budgets are being cut and classrooms are getting bigger Tanaka’s review shows that the physical presence of a robot increased learning efficiency in comparison to other technologies. It was more effective than just using an interactive whiteboard or an educational app on a tablet, since its presence added the skill of social interaction to the class. In some simple teaching tasks, robots were also found to be as good as humans in improving the child’s ability. Small robots such as Nao are encouraged for younger children, while older kids can deal with larger machines such as Pepper (120 centimeters tall), also made by SoftBank Robotics. Pepper can personalize its interaction by remembering students’ names, and by mimicking human behavior. It can tilt its head to indicate that it is listening when a child is speaking, make gestures and utter empathic comments and noises. I’ve seen children and adults interacting with Pepper and Nao. It’s almost impossible not to be charmed by the robots. People talk to them with a smile on their face; there is a sense of wonder in the interaction. With human teachers, however, the feelings may be different if they fear for their jobs. Robots are accepted more in classrooms in South Korea and Japan than in Western countries. In the West, privacy, concerns about unemployment (jobs being lost to robots) and technical deficiencies are cited as reasons to resist the advance of robots into schools. However, as Tanaka’s work is showing, robots are not replacing teachers, but helping them get the best out of children.
|
robot;university of tsukuba;pepper;nao;fumihide tanaka
|
jp0010005
|
[
"national"
] |
2018/08/28
|
Over 50 percent of people in Japan have considered living with or near their parents
|
Over 50 percent of people in Japan have considered living with or close to their parents — nearly double the share of parents who have had similar thoughts regarding their children — a private-sector survey has revealed. According to the survey, which was focused on matters related to inheritance of parents’ homes and was conducted by Asahi Kasei Homes Corp., 51.1 percent of children had examined the possibility of living with their parents or in houses adjacent to their parents. For parents, the share of those who have thought about living with their children and their families or having them reside nearby stood at only 28.7 percent. Many others, however, expressed a willingness to consider such arrangements if asked to do so by their children. The survey also found that 71.2 percent of parents want to talk about the future of their homes with their children and that 63.2 percent of children hope to discuss what to do with their parents’ homes with their parents, as well as with brothers and sisters. The results indicate that the issues of home inheritance, sale and remodeling attract a high degree of interest from both generations. But actually discussing such matters may not be easy, as is suggested by another survey that found the proportion of parents who had discussed the future of their homes with their children was fairly low, at 42.5 percent. The Asahi Kasei Homes survey, conducted primarily in urban areas for three days from July 24, covered 600 parents in their 50s to 70s and 1,600 children in their 30s to 60s with families of their own. Asahi Kasei said it carried out the survey against a backdrop of vacant homes becoming a key housing policy challenge in the country as the population declines and jobs concentrate in big cities. It cited an 2013 internal affairs ministry report showing the number of such homes had risen 1.8-fold to 8.2 million in 20 years.
|
housing;surveys
|
jp0010006
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/17
|
China to prosecute suspects at scandal-hit vaccine maker, confiscate illegal income
|
BEIJING - Chinese authorities will prosecute all suspects in a safety scandal at vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology and confiscate its illegal earnings, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday. The company was accused in July of falsifying data for a rabies vaccine and manufacturing an ineffective vaccine for babies, sparking a safety scandal that has stoked widespread public anger. While there were no known reports of people being harmed by the vaccines, regulators ordered Changsheng to halt their production and recall the rabies vaccine. Changsheng apologized in a regulatory filing. CCTV reported on Thursday that the cabinet said police had concluded an investigation into Changsheng. More than 40 government officials, including seven at the provincial level, had been held accountable for the scandal, according to a report from the official China Daily on Friday. A number of senior provincial officials had been removed from their posts, according to a report from Xinhua news agency on Thursday. Guo Hongzhi, a senior official at the Jilin branch of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), and Bai Xugui, a senior member of the Jilin branch of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, were removed from their posts, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. Bai oversaw drug supervision as deputy mayor of Jilin between 2016 and 2018. Zeng Xiangdong and Yan Haijiang, both deputy directors at the Jilin branch of the CFDA, were also removed from their posts, according to Xinhua. Four Changchun city CFDA officials were also removed, Xinhua said, among a number of others. Changsheng Biotechnology did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. CCTV said a separate meeting of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee chaired by President Xi Jinping on Thursday had found the scandal revealed serious “dereliction of duties” and exposed loopholes in the regulatory system. The broadcaster said several government officials had been punished over the scandal. Changsheng is based in Changchun city in the northeastern province of Jilin. It is China’s second-largest producer of rabies and chickenpox vaccines, the company said in its 2017 annual report. Xinhua said on Wednesday the company had made nearly 500,000 sub-standard vaccines for children, roughly double an earlier estimate by authorities.
|
china;medicine;disease;scandals;vaccines
|
jp0010007
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"social-issues-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/17
|
No children? Pay a tax, Chinese academics suggest
|
BEIJING - Two Chinese academics have proposed a controversial idea to encourage childbirth as their country faces an aging population: Make people with no or fewer than two children pay into a “maternity fund.” The suggestion sparked a furious social media debate in a country whose population has faced drastic family planning policies under the Communist Party, which enforced a one-child policy for decades. The world’s most populous country is now seeking to rejuvenate its greying population as concerns mount that an aging and shrinking workforce could slow down its economy, while gender imbalances could lead to social problems. Beijing loosened the rules in 2016, allowing people to have two children, but childbirths have not increased as much as forecast and there has been speculation the government will further ease restrictions. The two academics made their suggestion in Tuesday’s edition of the state-run Xinhua Daily, saying those below the age of 40 and with fewer than two children should contribute annually to a fund that would offset childbirth costs for others. “When the family has a second child or more, they can apply for relief from the fund as compensation for the income loss the woman and her family sustains during the maternity period,” wrote Nanjing University economics professors Liu Zhibiao and Zhang Ye. Among several other suggestions, including an expansion of childcare options, the authors proposed that those with fewer than two children could withdraw their money at retirement. The suggestion sparked outrage and mockery on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform. One user quipped: “If the government wants to encourage childbirth, why not make artificial inseminations to make us have quintuplets, or authorize polygamy?” State broadcaster CCTV has also hit back in a scathing online commentary calling the suggestion “unfounded, unreasonable, and inconsistent.” “It is contrary to common sense and exposes the lack of professionalism of researchers.” China is also slowly emerging from the shadow of the one-child policy, introduced in the late 1970s to cap population growth. Those with multiple children were heavily fined, and some women were forced to undergo abortions. But couples have been in no rush to grow their families since the policy was loosened, with 17.9 million babies born in 2016, just 1.3 million more than in the previous year and half of what was expected, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Births in 2017 even slipped to 17.23 million, well below the official forecast of over 20 million.
|
china;pregnancy;children;depopulation
|
jp0010008
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"crime-legal-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/17
|
Chinese police detain man for asking why can't Taiwan be called a country
|
BEIJING - Police in China have detained a man who asked on social media what law prevented anyone calling self-ruled Taiwan a country, questioning a fundamental principle of China’s sovereignty. Taiwan is China’s most sensitive diplomatic and political issue. Beijing views the democratic island as merely a wayward province and it has stepped up a campaign against the island as it tries to assert Chinese sovereignty. Police in the northeastern city of Maanshan said an 18-year-old unemployed man, identified by the family name Yang, had used his Weibo social media account to post questions on a police Weibo including: “What law says you can’t call Taiwan a country?” The young man also referenced Japan, saying that Prime Shinzo Abe was his “real father,” the police said in a statement, adding that what he wrote was against the law and “profaned the people’s feelings.” Yang, who police said had previously been warned for making “bad comments” online, had confessed to his crimes and had been detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” they said. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists. Beijing has begun ordering foreign companies to label Taiwan as part of China on their websites and is excluding Taiwan from as many international forums as it can.
|
china;censorship;taiwan;social media
|
jp0010009
|
[
"national",
"social-issues"
] |
2018/08/17
|
Municipalities try new ways to help Japan's recluses find their place in society
|
Municipalities across Japan are reaching out to the social recluses known as hikikomori to help them find their place in society without focusing solely on getting them back into the workforce. Japan has some 540,000 people aged 15 to 39 who, aside from taking care of small chores, cut themselves off from the outside world for six months or longer at a time, according to a 2016 government estimate. These prolonged withdrawals are causing concern because their parents are getting old and becoming increasingly unable to support them both physically and financially. While the central government previously attempted to help by holding vocational training programs in the early 2000s, the effort only targeted those under 40 years old. Thus some who were unable to meet the program’s requirements, especially the middle-aged, fell through the cracks. Sapporo is changing its approach by helping the city’s socially withdrawn people take small steps forward, rather than forcing them to make a huge leap. “It’s raining outside, but how is the weather inside your heart?” a counselor asked a group of about a dozen people in their 30s to 50s at a monthly hikikomori gathering in central Sapporo in July called the yoridokoro (bastion). The monthly sessions were launched in June by the nonprofit organization Letter Post Friend Consultation Network. The Sapporo Municipal Government organizes it with the aim of helping isolated people get a foothold in daily life. The staff for the sessions mostly comprise people who suffered from hikikomori-like tendencies themselves and who can thus empathize with the participants, according to the NPO. A woman in her 30s who took part in the session said she joined because she wanted to be “able to talk to people, even just a little bit.” She said she has struggled to socialize since her third year in high school and considered herself “incapable of working” once she graduated university and entered the job market. In the 16 years since, she has spent most of her days engrossed in her computer and comic books. When her father retired, she realized how much she needed to change. This led her to consult with city officials about her options. At the gathering, she played card games and talked with others. By the time she left, her internal “weather forecast” had improved from “rainy” to “cloudy.” Over the year through March, the Sapporo Municipal Government received some 1,000 inquiries from families with hikikomori members. Roughly 30 percent of the inquiries involved people 40 and older. Junya Sugawara, a Sapporo official in charge of providing assistance, said the rare tie-up with the NPO was necessary to draw out the city’s many shut-ins. “These people are very wary of administrative authorities, thinking they will be forced to do something if they reach out,” he said. Japan faces what the welfare community refers to as the “80/50 issue,” in which these isolated people reach their 50s as their parents enter their 80s, a time when they are more likely to fall ill or need nursing care. This confluence of factors can put the whole family under financial strain. By bringing social workers with psychiatric backgrounds to the gathering, the city hopes to be able to provide attendees with the support they need, Sugawara said. Efforts to address the issue are also underway in Hyogo, Kumamoto and Shizuoka prefectures. Networks have also been established between the agencies involved. Also, the welfare ministry began subsidizing municipal efforts to create gathering places for hikikomori sessions beginning this fiscal year. “The government’s (past) job assistance program did not necessarily meet the needs of these people, and the age limit . . . prolonged their reclusion,” said Atsushi Tanaka, the head of Letter Post Friend Consultation Network. “What is important is the process in which they build strength at a place they belong to and try to take the first step forward on their own,” he said.
|
local government;hikikomori
|
jp0010010
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/17
|
New research in Japan shows anti-melanoma drug may be effective against Parkinson's disease
|
A team of Japanese universities has found that an existing drug for malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer, may be effective against Parkinson’s disease. The drug, dabrafenib, curbs nerve cell death, said the team of researchers from Kobe University, Osaka University and the University of Tokyo. An article on the team’s discovery will be posted on the online version of the British journal Human Molecular Genetics. In Parkinson’s disease, the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells in the brain leads to symptoms including shaking limbs and gait problems. “Currently, dopamine injection is the main treatment for the disease. Its combination with dabrafenib is expected to be effective in slowing the progress of the disease,” said University of Tokyo professor Tatsushi Toda, who led the research team. The team deduced the drug’s new effect through database analysis, and confirmed it through experiments with mice and cultured cells. It aims to find an effective method to administer dabrafenib and an appropriate dosage amount.
|
medicine;drugs;university of tokyo;parkinson 's disease;osaka university;kobe university;dabrafenib
|
jp0010011
|
[
"national",
"science-health"
] |
2018/08/17
|
Japanese government panel begins discussions on reducing plastic waste
|
A government panel began discussions Friday on setting a strategy to sharply cut plastic waste amid rising international concern over the marine pollution it causes. Japan, which produces the largest amount of plastic waste per capita after the United States, has lagged behind other countries in taking steps to combat ocean pollution by reining in the use of plastics such as disposable containers and shopping bags. The subcommittee of the Central Environment Council aims to draw up a draft strategy including numerical goals by the end of this year. “In order to lead the world in tackling the plastic waste issue, I expect the panel to compile an effective strategy,” Environment Minister Masaharu Nakagawa said at the meeting. A panel member pointed out that Japan has been slow to introduce measures such as banning the sale and use of plastic shopping bags. Another member said it would be important to offer Japan’s advanced technology to other countries dealing with the problem. The subcommittee is chaired by Shinichi Sakai, a professor at Kyoto University, and includes stakeholders such as the Japan Plastics Industry Federation. From the next meeting, the panel will study how to efficiently recover and recycle disposable plastic items, promote bioplastics that are derived from biomass sources and easily decomposable in nature, and help developing countries tackle the issue. Plastic items that are dumped in the ocean are broken down by waves and ultraviolet rays to become microplastics. Microbeads widely used for cosmetics and toothpaste also constitute such waste. Microplastics are difficult to collect once they enter the water, and tend to absorb harmful chemicals and accumulate inside fish, birds and other animals as they make their way up the food chain. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated that the annual inflow of plastic waste into the oceans in 2010 stood at 4 million to 12 million tons, greatly affecting the marine ecosystem and environment, as well as damaging fishing and tourism industries. In June during a summit in Canada, five members of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the European Union endorsed the Ocean Plastic Charter with the aim of making all plastic products reusable, recyclable and recoverable by 2030. Along with the U.S., Japan refused to sign it, citing “lack of preparedness.” Later in June, the Diet passed a bill calling on businesses such as toothpaste makers to stop using microplastics in their products and make efforts to reduce use of plastic pieces measuring up to 5 millimeters. But the legislation lacks penalties for those that do not comply. Apart from the national policy, some domestic companies have started to take proactive, voluntary measures. Japanese family restaurant operator Skylark Holdings Co. Ltd. announced Friday a plan to eliminate single-use plastic straws from its stores in and outside of the country by 2020. The Japan Cosmetic Industry Association urged its members in 2016 to restrict use of microplastics, while Oriental Land Co., operator of the Tokyo Disney Resort, began using shopping bags made of bioplastic derived from sugarcane ethanol in 2015.
|
pollution;oceans;environment
|
jp0010013
|
[
"asia-pacific",
"science-health-asia-pacific"
] |
2018/08/10
|
New Zealand bans single-use plastic bags
|
WELLINGTON - New Zealand became the latest country Friday to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a “meaningful step” toward reducing pollution. New Zealand uses “hundreds of millions” of single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life, Ardern said. “We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start,” she said. “We’re phasing-out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand’s clean, green reputation.” Ardern said her coalition government, which includes the Green Party, was facing up to environmental challenges and “just like climate change, we’re taking meaningful steps to reduce plastics pollution so we don’t pass this problem to future generations.” Single-use plastic bags are among the most common items found in coastal litter in New Zealand and the environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the decision to outlaw them. “This could be a major leap forward in turning the tide on ocean plastic pollution and an important first step in protecting marine life such as sea turtles and whales, from the growing plastic waste epidemic,” Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Emily Hunter said. A United Nations report in June said up to 5 trillion grocery bags are used globally each year, which is nearly 10 million plastic bags per minute. “If tied together, all these plastic bags could be wrapped around the world seven times every hour” and like most plastic garbage barely any is recycled, said Erik Solheim, head of U.N. Environment. The U.N. said more than 60 countries had introduced bans and levies on single-use plastic items like bags. But better waste management, financial incentives to change consumers’ buying habits and research into alternative materials were needed to make any real change, it added.
|
pollution;new zealand;recycling;environment;plastic;plastic waste
|
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