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jp0010812

2016/10/31

The bright side, and dark, of Japan's university beauty contests

On Oct. 4, Keio University in Tokyo announced that a student group responsible for organizing its annual beauty pageant had been ordered to disband for conducting “dangerous acts,” including forcing minors to drink. The announcement was soon followed by news that male members of the group, called the Keio Advertisement Society, gang-raped a female student, although the elite private school later said it was unable to confirm the allegation. The disbanding of the group caused the Miss Keio Contest, known as one of the most flamboyant university beauty pageants in the country, to be called off this year — and likely for years to come. What’s all the fuss about university beauty pageants? The Japan Times takes a closer look at how the tradition developed in Japan. What do campus beauty contests mean to students? For the students, a beauty pageant is a way to show the world what they are capable of, said Kyohei Matsumoto, 22, of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Matsumoto heads a group of Aoyama Gakuin students who are organizing the annual Miss Aoyama contest, which it says is Japan’s oldest university beauty pageant. The first Miss Aoyama contest was organized in 1977, Matsumoto said. “The good thing about the contest is that everything is organized by students from scratch, from where to hold the event to what to do at the contest and how to promote it,” Matsumoto said. For female nominees, being named a candidate is a huge plus for those who dream of working as TV broadcasters because they become campus celebrities. Winning is considered a significant stepping stone to entering such a highly coveted career. Several TV announcers have taken this route: 1996 runner-up Miss Aoyama Christel Takigawa became a freelance anchorwoman, and 1999 Miss Keio Minako Nakano and 2011 Miss Sophia University Reina Uchida have become news announcers at Fuji TV. What about the universities? Matsumoto believes the schools view beauty contests as publicity tools that can be used to attract more prospective students. About 200 universities hold them. When are the contests held and what are the criteria? Although procedures vary from place to place, beauty contests are often billed as the main event of a university’s autumn festival. About three to 10 nominees are selected, with the winner decided by both online and physical voting at the contest site. They are also usually open to the public, meaning nonstudents can vote as well. Candidates are judged by appearance, personality, skills, stage performances and social media presence. Some universities hold a male pageant in conjunction with the female one. Others hold contests for men who dress like women, and vice versa. One school, Tokyo Institute of Technology, where nearly 90 percent of the undergraduates are male, holds an annual Mr. Beauty contest to recognize the most beautiful cross-dresser. Why do the pageants have such a high profile? University beauty pageants have become increasingly important to big business. For some companies, university beauty pageants are considered as an effective way to promote products to students, who have become a difficult demographic to reach because they watch less TV, said Masaya Hasegawa of You Can Pass Co., an advertising agency specializing in marketing to students. Companies, especially cosmetics makers, apparel companies and waxing salons, sign up to sponsor pageants at major universities. They provide products to the nominees for free while asking them to spread positive messages about them on social media in return. For instance, one of this year’s candidates for the Miss Aoyama contest has about 10,000 followers on Twitter. “Young people know that TV celebrities are out of their reach. … They know that beautiful celebrities are not using the shampoo they are advertising,” Hasegawa said. But if that same product is promoted by a student, the message becomes more appealing, he said. Other firms offer eye-popping prizes to the nominees just to create a buzz online, Hasegawa said. For example, some of the companies that sponsored the Miss Aoyama contest in 2015 gave away trips to Hawaii or parcels of land to the finalists. Another offered to give a nominee a job. While praising commercial support, Matsumoto of Aoyama Gakuin pointed to the risk of the pageants being hijacked. “I’m concerned the event will become too commercialized,” Matsumoto said. “The event would be no longer ours if we only did things just to make companies happy. That is not what we are hoping for.” Does everyone support the contests? No. Like other beauty pageants, critics say they’re sexist. In 2011, a plan to launch a beauty pageant at International Christian University in western Tokyo was scrapped after drawing the ire of students, alumni and others opposed to the idea. “We stand against beauty pageants because they have a history of reinforcing a unitary concept of ‘women’s beauty,’ which is highly racialized, somatically normative, and classed, as well as a history of functioning as a tool for sexual objectification of women,” a group opposed to the event said in a statement written in English. Some universities, like Meiji University in Tokyo, organize the contests like a fashion show instead of a beauty contest. Others, like elite Waseda University, don’t allow students to hold official beauty contests in its name.

university;keio university;beauty pageant

jp0010815

2016/10/08

Seeking remedies for maladies new, old and absurd

The Sept. 29 cover of Shukan Bunshun was adorned with an illustration of legendary New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, portrayed by Makoto Wada in a pinstripe uniform and with bat in hand. Ruth’s amazing batting records were attributed in part to his remarkably good eyesight. There’s a slight irony here because the same issue of Shukan Bunshun carries a three-page article warning readers to beware the ravages of sumaho rōgan — presbyopia (longsightedness typically associated with aging) brought on by prolonged squinting at the tiny screen of a smartphone. The eyes depend on ciliary muscles to adjust the focus on objects according to their distance from the viewer. When the ciliary muscles lose their flexibility, their ability to change the lens thickness results in the condition Japanese call rōgan (literally, “old eyes”). “Before, it was rare for people in their 20s and 30s to seek treatment for eye fatigue, but recently their numbers have been soaring,” Misaki Ishikoka, a Tokyo ophthalmologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating the problem, tells the magazine. “We have to consider that it may be related to the growing use of smartphones.” Actually, three factors may contribute to deteriorated vision: distance, reduced frequency of blinks and “blue light.” Holding the phone too close — 20 or 30 centimeters from the face — will strain the eye muscles. Reduced frequency of blinks will dry the eyes and cause irritation — smartphone users blink as few as six times per minute, about half that of someone reading a book. The third factor is so-called blue light, high-energy light in the visible spectrum — emitted by displays, and which can damage the retina. An existing condition of presbyopia may also be aggravated by smartphone use, leading to other physical problems such as stiff shoulders or headaches. Phone users may just keep popping aspirin for the pain, not realizing their smartphone may be the cause. Meanwhile, a report in Shukan Asahi (Oct. 7) probes the growing problem of constipation among primary school children, who may complain of such discomforts as feeling pain during evacuation due to hard or unusually large stools. When Japan Toilet Labo conducted an internet survey of 4,833 primary schoolchildren and their parents, it found that 20.2 percent of the children complained of constipation, with 7.6 percent saying they evacuate less than once every three days. Only 32 percent of parents were aware that their children had such problems. The solution clearly lies in education. In Shukan Asahi, Atsushi Kato, director of Japan Toilet Labo, advises parents to clean toilets together with their children and offer praise when they complete a bowel movement. “Cleaning the toilet together is a ideal time to teach them about the importance of evacuation,” said Kato. “We want them to talk about toilets and poop. Asking kids to describe their bowel movements will give a parent important clues concerning their child’s diet, exercise and sleep.” In a survey conducted last March, Kato’s organization learned that nearly half of all primary school students try to avoid defecating at school. Almost 68 percent of boys eschewed the school toilets, compared with fewer than 30 percent of girls. One reason for the boys’ higher number may be related to bullying or harassment in restrooms. As one remedy, more primary schools have been modernizing lavatory stalls to accord more privacy to users. Measles may not normally be regarded as a sexually transmitted disease, but Shukan Jitsuwa (Oct. 6) speculates that visitors to the Tobita red-light district in Osaka’s Nishinari Ward may find themselves with an embarrassing case of the virus. This claim is based on an outbreak of measles that flared up in mid-August, infecting over 30 workers at Kansai International Airport. The health authorities scrambled, and some 900 people received vaccinations. The airport is less than an hour by train to Osaka’s Airin district, a congested area close to Tobita that is populated by many day laborers and elderly people, and which recently has been attracting backpackers and other low-budget travelers with its cheap lodgings. Shukan Jitsuwa worries that infected travelers might carry the contagion. “Some may see measles as a minor annoyance, but lots of elderly are residing here,” said a person who performs volunteer work in Airin. “An outbreak could be a disaster. And if it breaks out in Airin, it will definitely spread to Tobita as well.” A medical journalist tells the magazine that this could be a serious concern: “When people who haven’t contracted measles as children grow to adulthood their resistance becomes lower. In the event of a mass outbreak, measles can cause potentially fatal inflammation of the brain, or pneumonia, among the elderly or infirm. So it can’t be taken lightly.” Bad eyesight, constipation and measles weren’t the only health-related stories appearing in the weeklies, which also tackled premature dementia, syphilis, damaged tooth enamel and the financial collapse of the medical industry in Japan. For people worried they may be developing premature dementia, Shukan Shincho (Sep. 8) offers a checklist of 12 items. They include taking much longer to perform a familiar task; disregarding one’s personal appearance; and difficulty operating the TV remote control. Sunday Mainichi (Sep. 11) notes that the old scourge of syphilis is becoming a problem again, with 764 reported cases among women last year — a sixfold increase from 2010. The cause of the rise is not fully understood, but the disease has also been spreading rapidly in mainland China. Shukan Gendai (Sep. 24-Oct. 1) warned that people past age 60 should stop brushing their teeth with commercial preparations, as it wears down tooth enamel. The article cited Akira Mori’s latest book published by Kodansha in August — titled “Ha wa Migaite wa Ikenai” (“Don’t Brush Your Teeth”) — which suggests that brushing can raise the risk of becoming bedridden and may aggravate the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The book’s advice? Run the tip of your tongue over your teeth instead. Finally, Aera (Oct. 3) devotes 16 pages to the medical profession, including a prediction that the current health system’s finances will go bust — possibly in as soon as five years. Physicians, heal thy system.

disease;akira mori

jp0010817

2016/10/01

There's nothing weird about 'sexless' Japan

Japan has somehow earned a reputation as a “sexless” country — a place where men and women have lost their libidos. The reasons given are various but mainly have to do with increased introversion and general loss of sociability among young people. This theme is catnip to editors at overseas newspapers, where stories about “weird Japan” — regardless of their veracity — are always good for a laugh because they’re strange and harmless. Within Japan, this sexless reputation is an embarrassment, especially to older men who like to think of themselves as having been actively virile in their youths. The theme was revisited anew last week when the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research released the results of its latest study , conducted every five years, on the state of intersexual affairs, especially as it pertains to the very real issue of sinking birthrates. The statistics that attracted the most scrutiny in the press were those related to single people aged 18-34, which revealed that young folks just aren’t getting it on, as everyone feared. The results of the survey, which was conducted in June of last year, say that 69 percent of male respondents and 59 percent of women respondents do not have an opposite-sex kōsai aite , a term that translates directly as “interaction partner.” And of these respondents in total, 30 percent say they have no “hope” for such a relationship. Moreover, 42 percent of both sexes remain virgins. In its coverage of the study on Sept. 15, Sankei Shimbun related these numbers with cold fatalism, and didn’t state any of the reasons for the national whoopee withdrawal until the end of the article when it claimed that the main culprit was “financial security.” The Mainichi Shimbun covered the same report but in addition to sexual lassitude it also focused on feelings about having children from both singles and married people, which is the real purpose of the study. The number of children people expect to have in the future is less than it was the last time the study was done in 2010. More to the point, the number of children that people “want” to have is also smaller, which reveals more about the reason why young Japanese don’t aggressively seek sexual partners: lack of money. Based on these two newspapers’ reports, the study has different meanings depending on which statistics the editors focus on. Obviously, Sankei thinks the sexless angle is more interesting if not more relevant, while Mainichi takes the longer view as it relates to the falling birthrate. In both cases, the results are presented sensationally, an aspect of reporting that writer and critic Maki Fukasawa finds disingenuous. Fukasawa is the person who coined the phrase “ sōshoku danshi ” (“ herbivore males “) 10 years ago. The media enthusiastically adopted the phrase to describe what they saw as an increasing trend among certain young men who, supposedly, weren’t interested in sex. But that meaning was not what Fukasawa had in mind when she came up with the term. To her, herbivorous men were just as interested in sex as any Japanese males. They just weren’t aggressive about it. From her standpoint as a woman, the description was indicative of a welcome change from previous generations of men who only looked upon women in terms of sexual availability and desirability. Now, Fukasawa is saying that the media is also misconstruing the meaning of the government study, perhaps on purpose. During a recent discussion on Bunka Hoso’s “ Golden Radio ” talk show, she pointed out that the survey summary is 56 pages long but reporters only read the one-page press release, which boils everything down to statistics. From there, each reporter picked the numbers he found the most useful and built his article around them. The first problem Fukasawa has with the coverage is the term “kōsai aite.” It’s obvious reporters and respondents think it means sexual intercourse, which could cause confusion with regard to the types of “aite” listed for investigation: “fiancee,” “lover” and “friend.” The first two types are normally considered sexual partners, but for men at least the meaning of “female friend” has changed over time. Thirty years ago when the survey was conducted for the first time, 24 percent of male respondents said they had “kōsai” with “female friends,” while now the number is only 6 percent. This is one of the findings that perplexed Sankei. Fukasawa thinks that young men in 1987, even if they weren’t sleeping with female acquaintances, checked the box for “friend” because they tended to think of all relationships with women as being potentially sexual. Today’s young men don’t, and so didn’t check that box. Fukasawa tried to explain this discrepancy to reporters after the last study in 2010 and was told her interpretation “was boring.” “This time, no one (in the media) called and asked for my opinion,” she said on the “Bunka Hoso” program, much to the amusement of her female interlocutors in the studio. “They think I’m wrong because I say they’re wrong.” She concedes that questions about partners are open to interpretation, but she’s baffled about the way the questions about sexual experience were reported. The media expressed shock that 42 percent of young men and 44 percent of young women are virgins, an increase from 2010 but pretty much the same percentages reported in the 1987 survey. In other words, sexual impulses haven’t changed all that much in 30 years, but sexual attitudes have — and she thinks that’s a good thing. The real value of the study is in showing the effect of the economy. The numbers of young people dating or getting married increased steadily until 2000, at which point they leveled off. Since the recession of 2008, the numbers have been dropping. When people feel secure, they’re more likely to seek romantic commitments. It’s not rocket science, but, as those reporters told Fukasawa, it’s not news either.

sexless;maki fukasawa

jp0010818

2016/10/01

Tokyo Bay steamer hits rocks; Tokyo slums may be cleared; Tokyo sets up bins for 'embarrassing trash'; Kaifu won't seek re-election

100 YEARS AGO Sunday, Oct. 22, 1916 Tokyo Bay steamer hits rocks near Sasage The Tsu-un Maru of the Tokyo Bay Steamship Co. grounded near Sasage, Chiba, early yesterday morning. The steamer, which runs between Tokyo and Tateyama, left Reiganjima at 10 o’clock on Friday evening for Tateyama, and as she was preceeding off Sasage, Chiba Prefecture, on Saturday morning, she suddenly ran on the rocks. The fishermen of Sasage noticed the distress signals, and went to the rescue of the 46 passengers and the crew, all of whom were saved. Early Saturday morning a dense fog set in, and the captain mistaking the course ran the ship on the rocks. Capt. T. Deguchi, 62 years old, has run steamers across Tokyo Bay for the past 30 years, and this is reported to be his first accident. When the steamer struck, some of the passengers lost their tempers and accused the captain of falling asleep while on duty. Deguchi was so chagrined that he attempted to throw himself overboard. 75 YEARS AGO Thursday, Oct. 9, 1941 Shiobashi, Hamazono slums may be cleared The slum quarters of Shiobashi and Hamazono in Fukagawa Ward will soon be cleared if Tokyo’s plan for removing the inhabitants turns out satisfactory. It was just after the great earthquake of 1923 that these quarters came into being. Many daily laborers hit by the quake came one after another to find shelters there. The result is that now the two districts are inhabited by about 230 households holding some 1,200 people. The lure of the spots for these people has been that since they are newly reclaimed land possessed by the city, they expected they could live there without paying any rent. So they have lived up to the present without paying rent. The city authorities could not very well squeeze rent out of them. Recently, however, the need for the reclaimed land became more keen to the city than ever. The land must be recovered from the poor inhabitants at any cost, the city thought. With the object of removing the people, the city has just completed preparations to furnish a certain vacant lot Edagawa-cho in the same ward. The lot now has a number of empty houses so that the removed people may live there with low rent. To encourage them, the city will make it possible for the new arrivals to live without paying rates for gas and electric light. The only question still remaining, Domei News Agency fears, is whether the new move of the city will come to work as it expects. The slum quarter people may or may not be encouraged by the new conditions, which, however better, necessarily involves some payment for their house rents of which their old sites are completely free. 50 YEARS AGO Sunday, Oct. 09, 1966 Tokyo sets up bins for ’embarrassing trash’ The Metropolitan Police Department has set up some 44 white trash boxes at various points throughout the city. This is news enough, it might be commented. However, these boxes are of a particular kind of trash — namely, obscene literature. The project is being carried out by the MPD’s Juvenile Section, in cooperation with the Tokyo Mothers Association. It is one phase of a “Three Don’ts” campaign: “Don’t let it be read,” “Don’t let it be seen” and “Don’t let it be sold.” Added to each of the imperatives the qualifying words “to juveniles” are understood. The receptacles have been placed in what are considered to be strategic points, that is railway stations. They provide a convenience for those who are embarrassed by the possession of trashy magazines or books while on their way home. Unfortunately, though, many of the readers of such filth are likely to be the unembarrassable types. Others would be embarrassed to be seen depositing anything into such a container. Expectations for the results of this project, as measured by the volume of obscene material collected, should not be placed high. Yet if it does nothing more than to encourage a sense of embarrassment over possessing obscene literature it will have been worth the effort. That is what society has lost and needs to regain. To embarrass the merchants of the stuff, though, is a goal to work toward. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday Oct. 5, 1991 Kaifu decides not to seek re-election Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu decided Friday not to seek re-election as president of the Liberal Democratic Party when it became clear that the faction that installed him two months ago will not support him. Kaifu reported his abrupt decision to senior leaders of the LDP, including former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita and former Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru. Kanemaru is the powerful co-leader of the Takeshita faction, which controlled the government through Kaifu. The prime minister is expected to formally announce at a press conference set for 3 p.m. today his decision to step down Oct. 30 at the end of his current term. Political observers’ attention is now focused on whether the 106-strong Takeshita faction will field its own candidate for the next LDP president or whether it will throw its support to one of the three presidential hopefuls who lead their own factions: Kiichi Miyazawa, former deputy prime minister; Michio Watanabe, former chairman of the LDP Policy Affairs Research Council; and Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, former foreign minister. The three leaders are also expected to make announcements today of their bids for the LDP presidency.

pornography;toshiki kaifu;shiobashi;hamazono;obscene literature

jp0010819

2016/10/06

Head-turning camera puts new spin on Tokyo tourist sites

Talk about revolutionary. Ricoh’s Theta S camera shoots 360 degrees and turns out head-spinning spherical images when paired with an image-processing app. The camera, which has two lenses, can be hand-held or triggered by remote control. It turns well-known Tokyo tourist sites into scenes of fantasy, producing images that might come straight from “Alice in Wonderland.” The busy Shibuya scramble crossing, where up to 3,000 people surge across the intersection every time the light turns green, becomes a small, densely populated planet with buildings sticking out like trees. The nearby statue of Hachiko, the district’s most famous dog, can be made to watch over the crowds, waiting loyally for its owner to come back, as legend has it the dog did in the 1930s. An image of Sensoji Temple’s Kaminarimon gate in the Asakusa district makes the giant red lantern pop out. Taking the same, rabbit-hole-like approach, downtown Shinjuku gets its neon-lit buildings squashed together. In short, the camera’s images make a walk in the park or a stroll on the streets more intriguing, and you can easily share the fun with friends and family on social media. A pinch and a click on Theta’s app allows users to edit the photos and post them online. The Kaminarimon gate at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa district gets a new twist in this Sept. 17 image. | YOSHIAKI MIURA The neon-lit buildings of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward get ringed by pedestrians in this head-spinning Sept. 25 image. | YOSHIAKI MIURA The bronze statue of the dog Hachiko in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo pops out from the crowd in this Sept. 25 image. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa district of Tokyo is transformed into a miniature planet in this image taken on Sept. 17. | YOSHIAKI MIURA An image taken inside the Kaminarimon gate at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo, gives it a new perspective on Sept. 17. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Japan Times staff photographer Yoshiaki Miura experiments with Ricoh’s Theta S 360 degree camera in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park on Sept. 25. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Shibuya Shibuya Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

shinjuku;shibuya;technology;camera;ricoh;asakusa;theta

jp0010820

2016/10/24

Airbnb scores tourism-promotion deal with city in Iwate

Airbnb Inc., a popular U.S. online marketplace and home-stay network, and Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, have agreed to join hands on promoting tourism in the city, the company’s first deal with a Japanese municipality. The city in Japan’s tsunami-ravaged northeast is scheduled to host matches for the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and aims to host more tourists with the help of the globally famous network. The move last week came as the government makes efforts to stimulate tourism by drafting rules for the burgeoning minpaku industry, which involves paid accommodation using private houses or apartments. Airbnb and Kamaishi are expected to work together to bolster public relations activities for tourists and increase the number of households and individuals willing to host foreign guests. The U.S. firm, whose services are available in 191 countries, has expressed a desire to cooperate with more government entities in Japan. Kamaishi Mayor Takenori Noda said at a press conference with Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia in Tokyo that the city would face difficulty providing accommodations for the rugby event without Airbnb’s backing. Gebbia said the firm will be able to support Kamaishi, noting it has helped cities that hosted Olympic events handle more visitors than initially planned. Airbnb profits by charging percentage service fees from both guests and hosts for every accommodation booked through its site.

great east japan earthquake;iwate;kamaishi;airbnb

jp0010822

2016/10/23

Osaka bids to rekindle magic of 1970 Expo but taxpayers doubt lofty plan's claims

OSAKA - Like millions of others who attended Osaka’s 1970 World Exposition, Kazuhiko Masuda, who was just 10 years old at the time, can still vividly recall it today. “I remember standing in line for a very long time to see a moon rock brought back by the Apollo astronauts,” the now 56-year-old Osaka-based architect said. “The Expo was all about the future, and everyone felt excited at what it might bring.” But although the city of Osaka hopes to rekindle the magic of 1970 by hosting another World Expo in 2025, lightning — as the saying goes — never strikes the same place twice. “1970 was long ago and Japan is a much different nation now,” Masuda said. “I’m not sure another Osaka Expo could be as successful, and I’m worried it will end up losing money.” Despite concerns that another Expo could add to the region’s economic woes, Osaka leaders are adamant on bidding for the 2025 event. With the central government offering to support their effort late last month, Osaka politicians and senior business leaders are gearing up to gain local and national backing. The winning bid will be awarded by the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) next year, with Osaka’s top rival likely to be Paris, which is reportedly preparing its own bid. Many older Osakans still fondly remember the phenomenal success of the 1970 Expo, which drew over 64 million people at a time when Japan was enjoying unbridled economic growth. Since then, city and prefectural officials have attempted, with little success, to replicate the impact of the 1970 Expo by embarking on large public works projects and holding international events — policies that noted business consultant Kenichi Ohmae once blasted as “festival economics.” The concept for 2025, though, is very different from 1970. Late last month, the Osaka Prefectural Government released a detailed proposal for hosting the Expo. Based on the theme “Our Health, Our Future,” the plan aims to appeal to those who were kids when they visited the original Osaka Expo but focus on health care and related issues they’ll face as retirees in 2025. As Japan and other developed countries grapple with graying populations and declining birthrates, maintaining the fitness and quality of life of seniors will be a major issue in 2025, the plan noted. “Turning to the situation in Japan, by 2025, all members of the baby-boomer generation will be at least 75 years old, and more than 30 percent of the total population will be over the age of 65, with women’s life expectancy likely to be over 90,” it said. An Osaka Expo would therefore focus on advances in the health industry, including robots for elderly care, as well as technologies to enable self-diagnosis of medical conditions. “The World Expo has been a festival that offers a glimpse of novelties worldwide,” the plan said. “But we want to make it ‘a new Expo’ where people worldwide would debate, find a solution and change their behavior, which would change society.” The plan says the Expo would be held on the man-made island of Yumeshima in the city’s port district, which also happens to be a favored candidate spot for hosting Japan’s first integrated resort — a casino with convention facilities, hotels, shopping and other amenities. The hope is that by 2025, the Diet will have legalized casinos, with the nation’s first one up and running to greet Expo visitors. Hosting the Expo, the Kansai business community believes, would be an excellent chance to introduce tourists to the complex. “The hosting of the Expo has to be part of an overall plan to develop the area, a plan that includes the creation of an integrated resort facility,” Shosuke Mori, chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation, said earlier this month. The Expo would begin in March or April 2025 and last roughly six months. The prefecture wants to hold it over the rainy season and the blistering hot summer in the hope, it says, of attracting as many foreign tourists as possible. But no one in Osaka expects anywhere near the number of visitors that came to the 1970 Expo. The prefecture predicts 30 million people will visit, of which nearly 18.4 million are expected to come from Osaka and the surrounding prefectures of Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, and Shiga. Another 3.2 million people are expected to come from the Kanto region and yet another 7 million from other parts of the country. The last expo in Japan, the 2005 Expo in Nagoya, drew 22 million visitors. Officials also hope the event will lure some 1.4 million people from overseas. Last week, they said talks were underway to run the Expo 24/7. As to how much it would cost — and what the payoff would be — construction is estimated at between ¥120 billion and ¥130 billion, with operating costs at ¥74 billion. In figures that have sparked controversy, the prefecture claims the Expo could generate economic effects of ¥2.3 trillion directly and another ¥4.1 trillion indirectly for the entire country. But with estimates for the troubled Tokyo 2020 Olympics rising well beyond the originally announced figures, the prefecture faces growing concern among taxpayers like Masuda that the bill will be much higher than anticipated. To address these concerns, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui made it clear late last month that he expects central government backing for the Expo if Osaka wins, and private enterprises outside the Kansai region to shoulder part of the costs. “This is a bid for a Japan Expo that the central government has stuck its hand up for,” Matsui said. “We will also want not only the Kansai business community but also businesses around the country to help cover the costs.” Thus, as is possible with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, businesses and taxpayers outside Kansai may get stuck with part of the Osaka Expo bill if the rosy predictions about its future economic benefits turn out to be empty promises.

osaka;ichiro matsui;2025 world expo;1970 world expo

jp0010823

2016/10/15

Space exploration and human evolution

Can we become a multiplanetary species? There have been several spectacular announcements along these lines recently. Both SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have unveiled ambitious plans and tested rockets. Now aerospace multinational Boeing has ramped up its plans to get to Mars. What we’re doing is more than just becoming multiplanetary, however — we are intervening in human evolution. In short, we are accelerating our own speciation. Some might look at what we’re doing to the Earth and suggest that the human “infection” shouldn’t be allowed to spread in the cosmos. Others, and it’s the majority view, held by people such as the physicist Stephen Hawking, say it’s the only way to ensure the long-term survival of our species. Whichever view you subscribe to, there is a new space race in operation. Musk and Bezos are developing rockets — the Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin, respectively — to transport people to Mars. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg announced that he wants his company to be the first to get to the red planet. He has a contract with NASA to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station, as has Musk. But Muilenburg is very serious about Mars. “I’m convinced that the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding on a Boeing rocket,” he said in Chicago last week. Boeing has the advantage of collaboration with NASA. Boeing’s rocket is called the Space Launch System that, incidentally, is powered by RS-25 engines, a model that was used on space shuttles, and has since been refitted and re-tested. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is also an impressive beast. It is due to make its first test flight later this year, and when it does it will be the biggest operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. Its design is impressive; it’s big enough to carry more than 54 tons of payload into orbit. That, SpaceX says, is equivalent to an entire 737 jet loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel. SpaceX also has plans for their Interplanetary Transport System — a commercial passenger rocket big enough for 100 people. Musk’s timeline is ambitious to say the least — he wants to launch the first people to Mars in 2024. Officially, NASA and Boeing are looking at a crewed flight to Mars in the 2030s. I’ve mentioned some of the details of the rockets to emphasize that these projects are really happening. No doubt Musk’s dates will get pushed back as revisions delay launches. However, if he can secure the additional investment, he will probably be able to get to Mars at some stage. At that point, we will be able to describe ourselves as a multiplanetary species. However, what we’ve not been considering is that we’re hastening the evolution of our own species. If we manage to get to Mars, we won’t just be multiplanetary — we will be on the way to splitting our species in two. That’s because humans evolved on Earth and are just not up to space travel. We’ll need to engineer people to to help them adapt better. Our most obvious weakness is our ability to handle radiation. Radiation mutates our DNA and makes us prone to cancer. It’s enough of a problem on Earth but in space, even on a relatively short six-month trip to Mars, travelers would be exposed to large doses of cosmic radiation, certainly more than the current NASA limits for astronauts on the ISS. Maybe, people say, we would be able to reach Mars but then die there of cancer. Takekazu Kunieda at the University of Tokyo has a possible solution, although it may also be some years off. He works on tardigrades, microscopic animals with eight legs that are resistant to massive doses of radiation. Kunieda and colleagues last month published a paper in the journal Nature Communications showing that tardigrades have a “damage suppressor” protein, or Dsup for short, that shields their DNA from radiation damage. Kunieda thinks it may be possible in the future to engineer space-traveling humans with the Dsup protein, thereby gaining tardigrade-level protection. He also identified other genes in the tardigrade genome that help protect the animals from DNA damage. Now, as soon as you start engineering people with special genes, you are creating a barrier to breeding with unmodified people. Not necessarily a genetic barrier, not at first. Someone with just a few tweaked genes would still be able to breed with an unmodified human, but they probably wouldn’t want to, because their offspring would not be guaranteed to get the desired genes. In any case, space pioneers will only have themselves to breed with, so the choice will be restricted. And so far I’ve just mentioned one trait: tardigrade-radiation protection. However, space travelers will ultimately need a whole suite of adjustments. The most immediate will be changes to muscles and bones to cope with living on a planet with lower gravity that Earth. The immune system will work differently in space, diets will be less diverse so microbiomes will be different and so on. Indeed, there are a number of “improvements” we could make. The point is that we should remember that we’re talking about making a new human species. I don’t actually have a problem with that. It seems sensible and necessary if we are to give ourselves the best shot of surviving what will be extraordinarily tough new lives. The first people to live on Mars will live every day in conditions that make surviving an Antarctic winter look simple. I hope we eventually become a multiplanetary species. It’s important, however, to remember that we will also be on the way to creating a new, space-faring species. Homo sapiens martianius, perhaps?

space;boeing;amazon;mars;spacex

jp0010824

2016/10/15

Fukui poised to benefit from decision to scrap Monju

Big money pull a million strings Big money hold the prize Big money weave a mighty web Big money draw the flies — Rush, “The Big Money” Last month’s announcement that the Monju experimental fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, would likely be decommissioned was an acknowledgement of what had been obvious for decades. Namely, that Monju was too fraught with technical and political problems to have ever stood a chance of success. For Kansai, the decision brought a feeling of relief among those concerned about a plutonium-producing plant in their backyard, but a feeling of “now what?” among everyone else. No political leader in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara or Kobe either wistfully eulogized or passionately protested the recommendation that Monju, which has cost more than ¥1 trillion, be scrapped. In Fukui, however, it was a different story. For more than four decades, Fukui’s leaders have finessed the art of extracting (extorting?) as much money from Tokyo as possible in exchange for cooperation in continuing not only Monju but also 13 commercial nuclear reactors, a concentration of nuclear power plants said to be the densest in the world. Massive amounts of tax money were funneled into the prefecture by the Liberal Democratic Party for all sorts of uses. Some were noble (construction of modern train stations, schools, hospitals and social welfare facilities). Some were corrupt (propaganda museums that played down the risks of nuclear power, all expense-paid “study” tours to Europe’s nuclear reactor towns for local residents that included sightseeing trips to Paris). Nobody really knows how much money, directly and indirectly, went to Fukui and Tsuruga over the decades for “bearing the burden of Monju.” Unofficial guesses put the figure in the billions of yen. But what has residents in Kansai, and elsewhere, concerned is how much it will cost them, in the form of future government payoffs to Fukui, to be rid of Monju. The prefecture certainly has friends in high places looking out for its interests. Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, a favorite of Shinzo Abe, represents Fukui’s 1st district. That’s the one without nuclear power plants, but she’s very close to those in Fukui who support them. Then there’s Tsuyoshi Takagi, who served as reconstruction minister. He’s from Tsuruga and represents Fukui’s 2nd district in the Lower House, an area that hosts those 13 commercial nuclear reactors. In short, Fukui has powerful allies who will work hard to ensure all manner of new funding flows to the prefecture and to Tsuruga over the coming decades. Making matters better for Fukui but worse for taxpayers elsewhere, three commercial reactors will be decommissioned over the next few decades. You can be sure Fukui politicians from the governor on down are drawing up a long wish-list of pork barrel projects they will demand the central government, as well operator Kansai Electric Power Co., fork out in exchange for consenting to each reactor’s decommissioning plans — plans that might include disposing high-level radioactive waste generated by decommissioning in Fukui, over the objections of residents. In short, decommissioning means big money for Fukui in the years ahead in the form of subsidies, jobs and service-industry income. And not just at Monju, where the basic cost was recently estimated at ¥540 billion. With predictions it might cost ¥8 trillion to scrap the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and perhaps a dozen commercial reactors probably heading for the scrap heap in the next decade, Japan has entered the “age of nuclear power decommissioning.” There’s big money involved that will draw a swarm of flies, especially in towns and prefectures hosting the power plants. Taxpayers elsewhere, therefore, will need to be especially vigilant and handy with the flyswatters and insect repellent.

fukushima;energy;nuclear power;liberal democratic party;monju;fukui

jp0010825

2016/10/15

Is the end near for Earth's biggest fish market?

Naotaro Endo’s documentary “ Tsukiji Wonderland ” opened in Tokyo — in Tsukiji, in fact — two weeks ago. Under normal circumstances, such an accomplished and beautiful film would be evaluated on its aesthetic and edifying merits, but the timing of the release makes such judgments problematic. “Tsukiji Wonderland” is about the greatness of the titular wholesale seafood market, the largest in the world, which handles 1,700 tons of fish a day, representing ¥1.6 billion in transactions. The market is a well-oiled machine because of the professionalism and expertise of the people who work there, not to mention the exacting demands of their highly motivated clientele. All the aspects that make it a unique commercial enterprise and worthy of anthropological study are described in the film. But in the end, none of it means anything because Tsukiji is destined to close very soon, and that fact isn’t mentioned until the last line of dialogue in this 110-minute movie. As a topical film, it’s immediately irrelevant. And if “Tsukiji Wonderland” were really a requiem, which is how the movie is being marketed, it would have to address the forces that conspired to relocate the market to Toyosu, where it will be cut off almost completely from its main customer base — the Tokyo restaurants in Shinbashi, Ginza and Nihonbashi. Though Endo includes a number of foreign experts in the film to praise Tsukiji’s methodology, the business is extremely local, or at least it is with regard to what counts as the film’s main theme: The close interaction and feeling of trust between sellers and customers. A good portion of the running time is taken up by interviews with restaurateurs who harp on the fact that they would not be as successful as they are if it weren’t for Tsukiji market. That success, as Endo points out several times, is based on proximity — these chefs can easily walk or ride a scooter to Tsukiji. Toyosu is not so far as the crow flies but, since it is located in one of the lesser developed landfill tracts on the Tokyo waterfront, it isn’t convenient. Despite some interesting historical revelations and explications about Tsukiji’s working environment, the movie is just another tribute to Japanese food culture. As such it reflects how the media ignored the Tsukiji-Toyosu problem until the new Tokyo governor, Yuriko Koike, decided to postpone indefinitely the scheduled move in November because of problems with the structure in Toyosu and lingering worries about contaminated soil. The Asahi Shimbun finally put the controversy in a proper, coherent context with a four-part series earlier this month and, given the market’s situation right now, the series could have been the basis for a more illuminating documentary. For many years, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been trying to develop the Tokyo waterfront through force of will. In the mid-’90s they tried to hold a World City Expo there, but the governor at the time, Yukio Aoshima, cancelled it, saying it was a waste of money. All those casinos that resort owners and city officials want to build would be on the waterfront, but the central government has yet to legalize gambling. The Tokyo Olympics was conceived and promoted not so much as an “international sports fair,” but as a way to bring more infrastructure and construction to the waterfront . However, the centerpiece new National Stadium is going to be built where the old one was, in the heart of the city. While Tokyo Gas, the company that previously owned the land where the new seafood market is being built, wanted to sell it after closing down a processing plant, it legally couldn’t until it cleaned up all the chemicals the plant had left behind. That would have cost a lot of money, which Tokyo Gas didn’t want to pay, so Tokyo bought it from them at a steep discount. For years now the city government has been unable to find a use for the land. A new highway link slated for the area around Tsukiji provided an excuse to move the facility, but some experts, according to Asahi, say the highway doesn’t require the market to move. In any case, Toyosu was chosen as the new location, and while there is some argument over just how contaminated the site is, we’re talking about a place where food is sold, and one thing’s for certain: The highly disciplined palates of the kind of people who patronize Tsukiji are not going to stand for even the slightest taint of benzene, even if it is far below allowable government levels. With the added hassle of a more difficult commute, it seems more and more unlikely that they will continue to patronize the market after it moves to Toyosu. Sixty-one of Tsukiji’s 670 wholesalers have already done something about this problem. They plan to not move to Toyosu but rather to a new Tsukiji fish market built by Chuo Ward not far from the present one. It will include all the functions Tsukiji is famous for, including auctions, only on a much smaller scale. More significantly, it has better access to transportation than Toyosu does. As the president of the market told Asahi, the purpose is to “maintain the Tsukiji brand as the best seafood market in the world,” and he made it clear that by definition you can’t do that if you’re in Toyosu. This is all being reported, but, as Endo’s movie illustrates — albeit indirectly — that attention is coming way too late. Where was the media when Tsukiji’s move was finalized by the metropolitan government? The decision was always treated as a foregone conclusion because that’s how the press interacts with the bureaucracy. Newspapers and TV stations now cover Tsukiji every day in tones of sadness and longing, with the result being that when the market recently held its annual fair, attendance was four times bigger than usual. As Joni Mitchell once sang, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Tsujiki isn’t moving. It’s being killed off.

tsukiji;yuriko koike;naotaro endo

jp0010830

2016/10/22

Rape allegation casts harsh light on university club

Bright and vivacious young women are in great demand as TV announcers. For many in Japan, the stepping stone to a career in broadcast news has been the annual Miss Keio contest, held during the autumn festival at the nation’s most prestigious private university: Keio, in Tokyo’s Minato Ward. But earlier this month, the pageant’s organizer, the 92-year-old Keio Advertisement Society, posted the following announcement on its website: “This year’s Miss Keio contest activities … have been cancelled as a result of punitive measures by the university, due to the occurrence of an unfortunate incident that betrayed everyone’s expectations. As a group, we have reflected deeply upon this. … We extend our apologies to the six finalists. We are truly sorry.” On Oct. 4, Keio University ordered the Advertisement Society to disband, following revelations of its members’ alleged involvement in the gang rape of a female student in early September. The victim’s indignant mother spoke with a reporter from Shukan Shincho (Oct. 20) about the ordeal: “The next day around 8 p.m. my daughter was taken to a hospital by ambulance. She looked devastated, and I didn’t hear what had happened until I’d paid the hospital charges. I couldn’t believe what she told me.” Not only was the girl’s mother infuriated at learning of the alleged rape, she also felt betrayed by the university’s apparent attempt to subsequently play down the incident. “My daughter belongs to several circles and hadn’t been very active in the Advertisement Society,” the mother continued. “Around the end of August, one of the members asked her to go to their beach retreat in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, to help clean up the house. Because she hadn’t been involved with the circle up to that point, I suspect (the attack) had been their original intention all along.” The victim, whose name was not reported, told Shukan Shincho she arrived at the beach house around 6 p.m. on Sept. 2. It was only then that she realized she was the sole female present. “We finished supper around 7:30,” the victim was quoted as saying. “Then one of them said, ‘Let’s go upstairs for a drink.’ It was my first time to go to this kind of retreat, and I went along, thinking this was the custom.” Upstairs, the students sat around a low table in the narrow, six-mat tatami room, and she was served a shot glass filled with tequila. “It was really strong and I didn’t want to drink it,” she relates. “Around 8:30 I was asked to go downstairs and bring them a deck of cards. When I returned and saw the expressions on their faces, I sensed they were up to something.” A sixth member of the circle arrived and had a drink, but went back downstairs and went to sleep, leaving her upstairs with five members. Then the “drinking game” began. When she resisted, she was physically forced to down the drink. She was woozy, but still conscious, when she saw two of the members begin to undress in front of her, according to Shukan Shincho. Yukan Fuji (Oct. 20) asked Hisashi Sonoda, professor at the Konan University Graduate School of Law in Kobe, what might be in store for the alleged offenders. “I can only comment based on what I’ve seen in the media, but according to the criminal code, this would appear to be a case of gang rape, compounded as a sexual assault against a person who is intoxicated, asleep or otherwise unable to consent or resist,” said Sonoda. The current law was revised in reaction to the rapes of between three and 12 women (the actual number was never determined) in 2003 by members of a now-defunct group at Waseda University that organized music events at nightclubs, where they would choose their victims. The revised law provides for penalties more severe than ordinary rape, and offenders risk a prison term of between four to 20 years. Any possibility of an out-of-court settlement now appears moot. Shukan Jitsuwa (Nov. 3) reported that on Oct. 16 the young woman filed a formal complaint with the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, setting the stage for criminal prosecution. If the case goes to trial, one of the most damning pieces of evidence is likely to be video images that the students recorded using a cellphone camera. The images reportedly show club members humiliating and sexually abusing their unconscious victim. In May a student at the University of Tokyo made headlines following his arrest on charges of public indecency, when he doled out similarly sadistic abuse on a 21-year-old co-ed. What is it with these elite students, wonders Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 20), that brings out such bestial behavior? Psychiatrist and author Joji Suzuki tells the tabloid that many such young men grow up feeling privileged, with the mistaken attitude that they can get away with almost anything. “Young men who were constantly badgered to study by their mothers when they were children have the potential of getting carried away,” explained Suzuki. “They sublimate their anger and resentment against their mothers by taking it out on other women.” An alumnus of Keio’s Advertising Society told Sunday Mainichi (Oct. 30), “As much as I loved belonging to that group, I won’t stand for that kind of coercive drinking. So I agree with the decision to shut it down; it’s what we should expect from Keio University. And disbanding the group won’t be the end of it. I’m really angry that the university still hasn’t issued a public statement on the matter.”

rape;kanagawa prefecture;beauty contest;keio university;hayama;keio advertisement society

jp0010831

2016/07/03

Entrepreneur on mission to make it easier to study abroad

Foreign students looking to study in Japan would probably want to ask a million questions before taking the plunge. Which schools and universities offer classes in English? What kind of scholarship programs are there? How does one find housing? Are part-time jobs available? But given the language barrier and school websites that are less than helpful, many find the answers elusive. Enter Shota Morikawa, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who is carving out a niche for himself in the education industry, where website technology remains fairly low-tech. Last September, Morikawa launched ST Booking , a one-stop website offering information to foreign students who want to study in Japan. Morikawa wants schools to use his site as a marketing platform to recruit students, just like prospective home owners use Suumo.jp , a popular real estate search engine. ST Booking provides information on language schools, universities, housing and job opportunities in Japan — everything you’d want to know. “Access to information on educational programs in Japan is still limited,” Morikawa said in an interview. “This industry has not changed over the past five decades. There are no young people working in this business, so the whole system is outdated and doesn’t suit the current needs.” Given the problems caused by Japan’s shrinking population, Morikawa believes his website can help Japanese schools recruit in a more effective and efficient way than the traditional promotional events they hold at home and abroad. He said many schools with attractive programs, including English-based curricula and scholarships, simply aren’t doing a good job attracting students — Japanese or otherwise — in the internet age. “The information on schools’ websites is either in Japanese only or hard to find, which discourages prospective students from seeking the answers,” he said. “That’s a huge loss for schools because many of them are struggling to attract foreign students.” His website has since become a platform for Japanese schools and overseas agents eater to network, he said. A Hyogo Prefecture native, Morikawa himself studied in the United States for a year as an exchange student at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. The only reason he chose Lewis and Clark was because his school, Waseda University, had an exchange program with it. He didn’t even bother looking at other universities. “Later I realized I could have chosen from other possibilities that I had no idea about,” Morikawa said. It was this realization that access to information is crucial to young foreign students that led to him to start ST Booking. At first, however, the idea was just one of about 50 other business ideas he was mulling. Born into a family of entrepreneurs, Morikawa always thought he would start his own business by the time he was 30, just like his parents did. So his plan was to enter a company first, study how to start a business, then establish his own. But after returning from Portland, quitting Waseda and working at consultancies and venture firms, he witnessed countless young entrepreneurs his age launching startups, going bankrupt and starting over. That kindled his entrepreneur spirit. So he headed to Silicon Valley, home to world’s largest high-tech corporations and thousands of startups, to start a music streaming startup, only to close it within a year. He then focused on an industry where technology had not yet made a splash — education. With his international background — born in Hawaii with dual nationality — and a passion for computer programming, it didn’t take long for him figure out that a website catering to exchange students would be a perfect fit. Especially with the Japanese government eager to double the number of foreign students to 300,000 by 2020. To differentiate his website from his rivals, including Ryugaku Journal or Education First, Morikawa decided to focus on services for Southeast Asia. “There’s no service targeted at Southeast Asian students … this is an area where we can achieve a competitive edge,” he said. “The number of Vietnamese students is growing rapidly and the number of Southeast Asians coming to study in Japan will continue to rise.” So far, ST Booking, which offers services in English, Chinese and Vietnamese, has offices in Tokyo, Vietnam and Taiwan, with a fourth expected to open in Thailand. The company has already established a network connecting 60 Japanese universities, language schools and vocational schools in Japan with 1,100 agents in Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan. “This is our strength — our agents are based not only in Japan, but also in those countries” it targets, Morikawa said. The firm, launched with venture capital of $200,000 (¥24,000,000), makes money by charging schools commissions for students recruited via ST Booking and from promotional fees for advertising their academic programs to contractors in Asia. “We want people to associate studying abroad with ST Booking — this is our goal for this year,” he said. “The government wants to boost the number of incoming students to 300,000 by 2020, but I want to boost it to a million.” That seems ambitious for a startup still testing the waters. So far, Morikawa’s firm has received dozens of inquiries and four students have completed the application process. But the long road ahead won’t discourage him from taking up the challenge. “There’s no point in doing anything if you can’t reach number one,” said Morikawa. “My parents never criticized me even when I stopped attending classes and quit university,” he said. “They would rather say ‘If there’s something you want to do, just do it.’ ” Key events in Morikawa’s life April 2010 — Enters Waseda University. September 2012 — July 2013 – Becomes exchange student at Portland’s Lewis and Clark College. June 2013 — September 2014 – Works at East Ventures, a venture capital firm in Tokyo. October 2014 — Moves to Silicon Valley where he works at a local leading venture capital firm Scrum Ventures and launches his own music streaming aggregator startup. September 2015 — Establishes ST Booking.

education;st booking;shota morikawa

jp0010832

2016/07/04

Thailand sets up security centers ahead of referendum on new constitution

BANGKOK - Thailand’s military government has set up security centers around the country ahead of an August referendum on a new constitution, a spokesman for the government said on Monday. The centers are the latest measure rolled out by the government as Thailand prepares to vote on a new constitution that critics fear will entrench the military’s influence. The draft of Thailand’s 20th constitution is to replace one scrapped after a 2014 coup by generals who promised stability in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. The Aug. 7 referendum will be the first real rest of the junta’s popularity since it took power. A “Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order” has been set up in every one of Thailand’s 76 provinces, said Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesman for the Thai prime minister’s office, in order to ensure “no cheating, no lobbying and no persuading people to vote one way or another.” Provincial governors will be responsible for assembling teams to join the center including police, troops and civilian volunteers. “We need to ensure peace during the referendum so that people can decide how our country will move forward,” Sansern said. Last month junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and opposition supporters of ousted populist premier Thaksin Shinawatra both contacted the United Nations after an upsurge in political tension, just a day after police shut down an electoral monitoring center Thailand sets up security centers ahead of referendum of the “red shirt” anti-government movement. The red shirts say the centers are needed to prevent fraud. Thanawut Wichaidit, a spokesman for the red shirt movement, accused the government of double standards. “We weren’t able to set up our monitoring centers so why should the military government be allowed to set up their centers?” Thanawut said. “The military government is blindfolding the electorate and leading their hand to vote in the manner they want.” Under the proposed charter, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers for a five-year transitional period.

thailand;insurgencies

jp0010833

2016/07/04

Deal reached on U.S. base worker status in Japan

The Japanese and U.S. governments have agreed to narrow the extent to which American citizens can be granted preferential treatment under the bilateral pact that governs jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel and base workers, according to a draft agreement obtained Monday. The move comes amid heightened calls by Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military bases in Japan, to revise the 1960 pact following the recent arrest of a U.S. civilian base worker in connection with the slaying of a local woman. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Lt. Gen. John Dolan, commander of the U.S. military in Japan, are expected to announce the deal at a news conference Tuesday, a Japanese government source said. Many people in Okinawa, which hosts about 75 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan in terms of land area, feel the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is one-sided and overly protective of Americans. Under the review, the Japanese and U.S. governments have agreed to split the “civilian component” into four categories, as Okinawa and other local authorities hosting U.S. bases have said the scope of civilian workers covered by the current agreement is unclear. Currently, the agreement merely defines the component as “civilian persons of United States nationality who are in the employ of, serving with, or accompanying the United States armed forces in Japan.” Under the agreement, U.S. authorities in principle have the primary right of jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel or their “civilian component” if offenses are deemed to have been committed while on duty. In such cases, Japanese prosecutors cannot indict them. According to the draft, the four new categories are: civilians paid by the U.S. government to work for the U.S. military in Japan; civilians working on ships and aircraft operated by the military; civilians working for the U.S. government and staying in Japan for official purposes related to the military; and technical advisers and consultants staying in Japan at the invitation of the military. Making clear the categories will effectively lead to narrowing the range of civilians subject to preferential treatment, the government source said. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to highlight his administration’s efforts to address Okinawa’s concerns ahead of the pivotal Upper House election on July 10. Japanese and U.S. foreign and defense officials have been negotiating the bilateral pact since Nakatani and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter agreed June 4 in Singapore to clarify the scope of American citizens subject to it. Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, an American who worked in a civilian capacity at the U.S. Air Force’s Kadena Air Base, was arrested May 19 for allegedly abandoning the body of Rina Shimabukuro in April. Last Thursday, Shinzato was indicted for raping and murdering the 20-year-old woman. Although SOFA in its current state did not cause a problem for Japanese authorities investigating this case, as they were able to arrest and indict the suspect, the incident reignited Okinawan demands to revise the bilateral agreement.

military;u.s. bases;sofa;u.s.-japan relations

jp0010834

2016/07/04

Modern needs, crowds outgrow historic Harajuku Station

For more than 90 years, the European-style Harajuku Station building has been part of the Tokyo urban landscape — bearing witness to the Great Tokyo Air Raid during World War II, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the district’s rise as a mecca of Japanese youth culture. Despite calls to retain the historic Shibuya Ward landmark, cherished by visitors and locals alike, East Japan Railway Co. announced last month it will build a new station building in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the extra visitors expected ahead of the event. JR East said it will build the new station adjacent to the current building with no plans yet on what it will do with the existing station structure. Following are questions and answers about Harajuku Station: What’s the history behind the station? The original Harajuku Station opened in 1906 about 500 meters north of the current location, according to the Railway Museum in Saitama Prefecture. The current structure, built in 1924, a year after the Great Kanto Earthquake, is believed to be the oldest wooden station building in Tokyo. It was designed by Kaoru Hasegawa, an engineer for Japanese Government Railways, a now-defunct government agency. Harajuku Station has been ranked among the top 100 stations in the Kanto region for its design. During WWII, the station survived damage from the Tokyo air raids of May 1945. Even though 77 percent of Shibuya Ward burned down, the firebombs that broke through the roof of Harajuku Station miraculously were duds. The station complex also has a platform specially built for the Imperial family. Constructed in 1925 and located a few hundred meters north of the regular platform, the nondescript structure gets little notice by people on passing trains. It was reportedly constructed to draw little attention when it was used by Emperor Taisho, who was ill at the time. The Imperial family has not used the special platform since 2001, according to JR East. The station is located next to Meiji Shrine, one of the biggest shrines in Japan, and has long handled heavy visitor traffic to the site. On the first three days of the New Year, Meiji Shrine sees some 3 million visitors, and it has an extra platform directly connected to the shrine to handle the crowds. The extra platform is only used between Dec. 31 and Jan. 4. What will the new station look like? An image provided by JR East shows a modern double-story, glazed-wall structure, with an entrance slightly west of the current building and closer to the shrine. The new building will be more spacious to handle larger crowds, JR East said. On an average day, about 70,000 people use the station, about 10 percent of the traffic at nearby JR Shinjuku Station. The current extra platform will be rebuilt for daily use by Yamanote Line trains bound for Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. Why was Harajuku Station not rebuilt earlier? JR East has long considered refurbishing the small, easily crowded station, but doing so posed problems because the structure straddles several live tracks. But there also seems to be another reason, which is to keep the current station building, according to some past news articles. A May 2, 1988, article in the Yomiuri Shimbun said a total redevelopment had been considered several times but to no avail, with the Japanese National Railways (the successor to Japanese Government Railways), ultimately ceding to the wishes of local residents who resisted the plans. How do locals feel about the new design? An official of Shibuya Ward said it had received calls from people wanting the current station building to be preserved. The official said the ward will ask JR East to do this. Most of several local residents interviewed by The Japan Times shared this view. “I don’t want it to change. I hope it will still be there,” said Akie Hirai, 45, who has lived in Shibuya Ward for more than 20 years. The historic building is a familiar sight to her, she said. Hirai also said she hopes the new building will be simple and easy to navigate, as opposed to other stations, such as JR Shibuya Station, which has become a labyrinth amid redevelopment in recent years. A man in his 60s who grew up in the Harajuku district and wished to remain anonymous, however, didn’t feel that the current station building needed to be preserved just for nostalgic reasons. Despite having many memories of the station, the man said Harajuku would be better served by a redeveloped station that can handle more visitors.

wwii;jr east;meiji jingu;harajuku station

jp0010835

2016/07/05

Japan, U.S. agree to narrow definition of 'civilian component' protected by SOFA

The Japanese and U.S. governments officially agreed Tuesday to limit the extent to which U.S. military workers are protected under the Status of Forces Agreement, which gives the U.S. jurisdiction over American civilian workers who commit crimes while on duty. The change in the implementation of SOFA was announced amid mounting protests among the people of Okinawa against the U.S. military presence in the prefecture, sparked most recently by the rape and murder of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro, allegedly by Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a 32-year-old civilian employee at Kadena Air Base and a former U.S. Marine. “Today’s agreement is a further indication of the commitment of the U.S. government,” Ambassador Caroline Kennedy said when she announced the agreement at the start of a meeting with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Lt. Gen. John Dolan. Since the murder case began in May, Tokyo and Washington have been working to revise the implementation of SOFA, while many people in Okinawa have been demanding a total revision of the 1960 agreement, which has never been revised. Tuesday’s agreement centers on narrowing the definition of “civilian component,” which under SOFA is defined as “civilian persons of United States nationality who are in the employ of, serving with, or accompanying the United States armed forces in Japan.” As with U.S. service members, the U.S. has jurisdiction over civilian workers who commit crimes while on duty, but many Okinawans feel the classification is overly broad and vague. Under Tuesday’s change, the civilian component will be narrowed to four categories: civilians paid or funded by the U.S. government to work for the U.S. military in Japan; civilians working on vessels and aircraft operated by the U.S. military; civilians working for the U.S. government and staying in Japan solely for official purposes in connection with the U.S. military; and technical advisers and consultant saying in Japan at the official invitation of and solely for the U.S. military. For consultants and advisers, the two governments said they will ensure that those who are working for firms contracted by the U.S. military have the high degree of skill and knowledge necessary for the mission of the U.S. military. The governments will negotiate to define what exactly that means in the coming months, and work to ink a legally binding mutual understanding. Tuesday’s agreement also excludes those who have permanent residency status in Japan from the civilian component. Japanese officials said that someone like Shinzato, who was working at a cable television and internet-related business at Kadena Air Base, would not be considered a civilian component under the new, more stringent framework. Tokyo is championing the envisioned introduction of the four categories as a step forward, but it is unclear how narrowing the definition of the civilian component under SOFA will prevent crimes committed by base workers in the future, or pacify the rage of Okinawa residents. Nakatani said base workers not protected by SOFA will be tried under the Japanese system, and a Defense Ministry official said Japanese police “will not need to enter the base,” provided the U.S. military hands over suspects. If a suspect were to flee into the base facilities, however, initially preventing the Japanese police from accessing evidence left on-base, it could delay the investigation, he said. It is also unclear how Japan can keep tabs on the number of people classed as civilian components, or information about them. Nakatani said after the meeting that as of the end of March there were about 7,000 civilian workers, of which 2,000 were contractors. But Japanese officials admitted the information had not been updated for three years, until the Shimabukuro case. Government officials also said it is too early to say how the new agreement, once implemented, will effect the number of personnel who could be tried under the Japanese legal system if they were to commit a crime. A defense official said it is possible the number will go up if the U.S. military hires more technical advisers and consultants to cope with more sophisticated weapons systems.

okinawa;u.s. bases;sofa;u.s.-japan relations

jp0010836

2016/07/05

Okinawa takes wait-and-see attitude on changes to Japan-U.S. SOFA

OSAKA - Tuesday’s announcement by Tokyo and Washington that an agreement has been reached that more narrowly defines those classified as civilians employed by the U.S. military in Japan was greeted with caution by top Okinawan officials, who are taking a wait-and-see attitude. But the new definitions covering civilian contractors and technical experts and the legal protections they enjoy under the bilateral Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which now separates them into four basic categories, are unlikely to quell calls for more fundamental revisions to the pact itself. Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga told reporters Tuesday afternoon in Naha that as details were still lacking, the prefecture will be watching carefully to see how bilateral discussions to further refine those details progress over the following months. Others, however, said the new agreement is not enough. “The definitions of civilian workers remains too vague, and I think the agreement is insufficient,” said Satoshi Taira, an Onaga supporter and a leader of an Okinawa group opposed to the construction of the Henoko base to replace the Futenma facility. The four categories now defined as being part of the American military’s “civilian component” under SOFA are civilians paid by the U.S. government to work for the U.S. military in Japan (on land); civilians who work on ships or with aircraft that are operated by the military; civilians working for the U.S. government and staying in Japan on official business related to the military, and technical advisers and consultants who are in Japan at the invitation of the military. The U.S. has primary jurisdiction over such civilians, as it does with military personnel and their dependents, if an alleged offense occurs while they are on duty. The issue of jurisdiction has long been a source of tension and controversy in Okinawa. That is because police investigating alleged crimes by those covered under SOFA cannot enter military bases without permission to investigate. And more importantly, if the U.S. determines an offense has occurred while on duty, the alleged perpetrator cannot be indicted by Japanese prosecutors. The U.S. is supposed to give “sympathetic consideration” to Japanese requests to turn over those protected by SOFA who are alleged to have committed an offense, but legally it does not have to honor those requests. Tetsuo Kotani, a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, said Tuesday’s agreement is about the best that could have been expected. “The agreement is important in narrowing and clarifying the subject of SOFA. It was not clear whether the suspect in the recent murder case was subject to SOFA, although the case itself was a huge tragedy,” Kotani said. “To meet Okinawa’s anger and frustration, the agreement was the most Tokyo and Washington could do given the fact any revision of SOFA is unrealistic.” In a Kyodo News poll taken in Okinawa at the end of May, 71 percent of the respondents favored revisions to SOFA. The survey was taken soon after American contract worker Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a former U.S. Marine who works at Kadena Air Base, was arrested and then indicted on charges of raping and murdering 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. But there is a difference between revision, or reinterpretation, of the language of SOFA and fundamental revisions to the agreement itself. Changes to the arrangement have become a hot-button issue in the Upper House election. Liberal Democratic Party member Aiko Shimajiri, seeking re-election in Okinawa, has called for revision of SOFA. Her opponent, Yoichi Iha, is also campaigning for a fundamental overhaul, which would require formal renegotiation of the agreement and, most likely, changes to Japanese law. Hiromori Maedomari, a professor at Okinawa International University and an expert on SOFA, said Tuesday’s deal is meaningless. “There’s no way for the Japanese government to check to determine if the civilian workers are really qualified for the jobs they were hired for,” he said. “They don’t even know how many civilian workers are currently in Japan today. It was a political ploy, conducted on the eve of the Upper House election.” The most recent statistics available from the Okinawa Prefectural Government show that in June 2011 there were 1,994 civilian contract workers in Okinawa covered by SOFA. Of that number, 1,139 were employed by the navy; 437 by the air force; 326 by the army and 92 by the marines. At that time, there were just under 26,000 American military personnel in Okinawa, with just under 20,000 dependents.

military;u.s. bases;u.s. japan;sofa;crimes

jp0010837

2016/07/05

Tokyo's Jinbocho a must-visit for lovers of antiquarian books

Jinbocho, in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, is one of the world’s biggest centers for browsing used books, with around 160 stores selling volumes that range from the musty and dusty to antiquarian. Book lovers spend hours among shelves filled with the nostalgic smell of old books, while coffee shops in the back alleys offer further escape from the hustle and bustle of central Tokyo. Bookstores started concentrating in Jinbocho in the 1880s to cater to law students and researchers attending the law schools that were set up in the neighborhood in the early Meiji Era (1868-1912). Today one can find all kinds of books, priced from ¥100 to more than ¥1 million. Visitors might try first Hon to Machi no Annaijo (Information Center for Books and Town), which is in the center of Jinbocho on Yasukuni-dori avenue. Staff can advise which shops specialize in particular subjects. Non-Japanese visitors are welcome, as the center uses translation apps for the English, Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai languages. Because some bookstores sell foreign language books, shop owners say it is possible to find valuable antiquarian books in Jinbocho that may not exist in their countries of origin. Yasukuni-dori is lined with shops selling used books in Tokyo’s Jinbocho district. | SATOKO KAWASAKI A shopper browses art books at a store selling used volumes in Tokyo’s Jinbocho neighborhood. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Old maps, ukiyo-e woodblock prints and books from the Edo Period are among valuable antiquarian items offered at the Oya bookstore in Tokyo’s Jinbocho district. | SATOKO KAWASAKI People browse used volumes at one of some 160 bookstores in Jinbocho in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward. | SATOKO KAWASAKI

books;jinbocho;at a glance

jp0010838

2016/07/02

Porn industry takes first step toward recognizing it has a problem

Japan’s multibillion-dollar pornography industry suffered a shock last month after police arrested three men connected with one of the country’s top talent agencies, in a rare crackdown on illegal practices in the business. Investigative sources said the trio were arrested on suspicion of dispatching a woman in her 20s to work with a video producer over two consecutive days in late 2013 during which she was coerced into engaging in a sex act. Those who cover crime in Japan know this problem isn’t new — it has just been a while since the police did anything about it. On June 11, police arrested Marks Japan President Takashi Kozasu, 50, and two others on suspicion of labor law violations. The three men were charged with breaking laws that regulate labor dispatch companies, which forbid agencies from sending workers into harmful work against public morals. Police sources said they launched the investigation after the woman consulted with them in December 2015. According to media reports, the suspects played a part in forcing the woman in her 20s into appearing in adult films by threatening to punish her financially. They also threatened to demand money from the woman’s parents as a penalty for “contract violations,” if necessary. She reportedly signed a contract with the company as a model in 2009, but appeared in more than 100 adult films after Oct. 1, 2013, until she was able to cancel the contract in 2014. In a report published March 3, Tokyo-based advocacy group Human Rights Now warned of a rise in the number of cases in which young fashion hopefuls are coerced into obscene or pornographic videos after responding to offers from agents purporting to offer above-board assignments. In many cases, the group said, young women sign contracts with agencies without knowing they will later be pressured to have sex on camera. Shihoko Fujiwara, a representative from Lighthouse: Center for Human Trafficking Victims, says the organization had received more than 100 complaints regarding forced participation in adult films in the past 18 months. “Victims are talked into signing things like a fashion modeling contract, or they are told they are going to be acting in a film,” Fujiwara says. “When they turn up on set, however, they are given a porn script and informed that it is a porn shoot. They beg to quit or to go home but the producers or studios threaten to charge them with millions of yen in penalties for ‘contract violations.’ They are used and disposed of like products, with long-lasting consequences on their schooling, careers and marriages.” Ten percent of these complaints were from young men, Fujiwara says. Those involved in the adult industry were at first evasive after the June arrests. Mariko Kawana, a former adult video actress who has made more than 400 X-rated films over her career, told Diamond Magazine Online on June 10 that she had never experienced coercion. In the same interview, however, Kawana noted that her first introduction to the industry came from a man who tried to blackmail her into working as an adult video actress. He invited her to an audition and then threatened to tell her parents she was acting in adult videos as soon as she turned up for the interview. Kawana was then approached on the street by a scout who was working with a large production company, in which she registered as an actress and learned she could refuse any role. The president of the production company called her male friend and halted the blackmail attempt. Kawana ultimately ended up appearing in adult videos, but on her own terms. The coercion of actresses in the adult film industry isn’t entirely new. In February 2009, police in Tokyo arrested the CEO of talent agency Pinki Net Productions on suspicion of child pornography law violations. The agency had used a 16-year-old girl in an adult movie that was sold on DVD. Industry observers at the time had warned that the case may just be the tip of the iceberg — and so it seems. In response to the most recent allegations, the Intellectual Property Promotion Association (IPPA), which represents Japan’s adult film industry, issued a formal apology on June 22. In a statement, the IPPA said it “deeply regrets that we failed to take the initiative (to deal with the problem). We are very sorry.” The IPPA pledged to work with NPOs to address issues such as coercion and human rights violations, and to improve working conditions as quickly as possible. Fujiwara welcomes the apology, but warns that the IPPA oversees just 80 percent of the agencies involved in the adult film industry. Plenty of other firms operate independently without oversight, she says. Acknowledging a problem exists is always the first step toward solving it. Let’s hope the agencies take the next step soon in order to protect those working in the industry, preferably sooner than later.

pornography;marks japan;human rights now

jp0010839

2016/07/02

Karuizawa murder; Tokyo subways vital; Beatles live at the Budokan; 'Satanic Verses' translator slain

100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, July 18, 1916 Canadians murdered in Karuizawa burglary The Rev. W. A. F. Campbell and Mrs. Campbell, of Toronto, Canada, a young couple who have been attached to the Canadian Methodist Mission in Tokyo for the last two years, were brutally murdered early this morning at their summer cottage, No. 563 Karuizawa. The assassin was a Japanese burglar who entered the house through a second story window. Just what happened between his entrance and the time the woman servant was aroused by the screams of her mistress will never be known. The murderer escaped, and is still at large. A representative of “Kokusai” interviewed the servant this morning. She said that about 2:30 a.m. she was aroused by the noise of screaming and a struggle in the room occupied by Mr. Campbell and his wife. She lighted a lamp, and ran to the room where she found the murderer. Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Campbell were then dead. The terrified woman aroused the neighbors but nothing could be done except to call the police. It was dark and even the description of the assassin was vague. The knife, she says, was about 6 inches long. The authorities have sent word to the residents that the occurrence should give no special cause for uneasiness. It is urged, however, that ordinary precautions be taken against burglars and sneak thieves as unguarded open windows or doors, or the exposure of sums of money or of valuables are temptations, and that even the cowardly sneak thief will turn and use a knife when he is cornered. The ordinary burglar will not resort to violence. They also say that for many years Karuizawa has been noted for its freedom from crime of all kinds and particularly from burglars. 75 YEARS AGO Sunday, July 20, 1941 Subways of Tokyo regarded as vital The program of the transportation facilities in Tokyo that is to be executed by the new organized Tokyo Rapid Transit Operating Syndicate, and the importance of underground lines in the city’s transportation system are explained by the Railways Ministry in the recent issue of Shoho, published by the Board of Information. The population of Tokyo in 1940 was about 6.8 million, increasing some 900,000 in the past five years. At this rate of increase the population is estimated to reach 10 million in a little more than 10 years, and then the traffic will be increased two to three times. The transportation facilities naturally have to be expanded to two to three times the present capacity. Then it must be studied as to what kind of transportation facilities will be most suitable for the future. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, July 1, 1966 Beatles make Tokyo debut in the Budokan The Beatles’ debut in Tokyo on Thursday before an audience of about 10,000, was a howling, screaming success! It could have been more than that but Tokyo’s finest had things quite well organized, thank you. Just before the Beatles were announced on the stage of the Nippon Budokan in Kudan, Tokyo, by MC E.H. Eric, rows of gray-clad white-called policemen moved down into the aisles and sat down. The kiddies could scream and wave their hankies, many with tears streaming down their faces, and swoon, practically, when one of their bushy-haired heroes (not really bushy, mind you, but then neither are they “mop-haired”) looked in their direction, waved, did a little dance, smiled (oh, bliss!) or even shrugged. It was all over in 30 minutes flat. Kids were crying, sobbing on each others’ shoulders, 15 minutes after the performance. They just couldn’t believe it was all over. At the press conference, Paul McCartney, a take-charge guy everywhere with the Beatles, said, “We’re not good musicians … just adequate.” I wish someone would drop that adequacy on me. McCartney did much of on-stage emceeing, too. In fact, the only time the whole half-hour the crowd quieted down enough to hear an image-orthicon TV camera drop to the floor was when Paul sang “Yesterday.” There was also “Ringo,” “Nowhere Man,” “A Girl,” “I Feel Fine,” “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” and “Paperback Writer,” their No. 1 tune on the charts at this moment. Three big screams for the Beatles! 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, July 13, 1991 Japanese translator of ‘Satanic Verses’ slain The Japanese translator of British author Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was found stabbed to death Friday morning on the campus of Tsukuba University in Ibaraki Prefecture, police said. Hitoshi Igarashi, 44, was an associate professor of comparative culture at the university, located outside Tokyo. His books include “The Islamic Renaissance” and “Medicine and Wisdom of the East.” A janitor found Igarashi lying in a pool of blood near a seventh floor elevator, with deep slash wounds to the neck, face and hand, police said. Rushdie, of Indian descent, was condemned to death by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late Iranian Islamic leader, shortly after the book appeared several years ago. He has been in hiding since that time. Khomeini and other Muslim leaders said the novel blasphemed the religion and should be punished by death. Igarashi used this translation of Rushdie’s novel in his classes, sources said. One of Igarashi’s colleagues said Igarashi once joked he might be in danger after publishing his translation.

the beatles;budokan;karuizawa;salman rushdie;satanic verses

jp0010840

2016/07/27

Despite obvious signs, care home killer slipped through the cracks

Satoshi Uematsu exhibited disturbing behavior before Tuesday’s massacre at a care home, delivering an ominous euthanasia letter to House of Representatives Speaker Tadamori Oshima and telling co-workers and the police he intended to kill disabled people, prompting his forced hospitalization. But despite obvious signs the suspect posed a risk to those in his charge, 19 people at the Tsukui Yamayuri En facility were murdered and 26 were injured, leaving the public and authorities wondering whether more could have been done to stop him. “I hope the world will become more peaceful,” Twitter user @tenka333 — thought to be Uematsu — tweeted at 2:50 a.m. Tuesday, around the time he was stalking the halls of the care home, slashing the necks of residents as they slept. A photograph of a someone resembling Uematsu in a black suit, white shirt and tie accompanied the tweet. In February, Uematsu tried to hand-deliver a letter to Oshima at his official residence in Tokyo. “I am able to kill a total of 470 people with disabilities,” a copy of the letter, obtained by Kyodo News, read. “My goal is to create a world where euthanasia is allowed for people with multiple disabilities — in cases where it is extremely difficult for them to live at home and be socially active — with the consent of their guardians.” He identified two care facilities, including the one attacked Tuesday, as his targets. The hand-written letter included his name, address and phone number. Uematsu said that he was aware his idea was outrageous, but after working with the patients’ exhausted parents and unenthusiastic care staffers, he said he hoped to “contribute to Japanese society and the world.” The letter also went into detail on how he would do it, saying he would attack at night when fewer workers were on duty, bound them with zip ties, slaughter the 260 patients and then turn himself in. The events of Tuesday differed in only one respect: He only attacked one facility. “A revolution is needed now. It is about time to take this indispensable yet difficult step for the sake of all mankind,” he wrote. “It will be a huge step forward for Japan.” He then spelled out how he hoped to be treated after his arrest: up to two years of detention and then acquittal after being judged mentally incompetent. He would then demand  a new identity, plastic surgery and ¥500 million to fund a new life, the letter said. A Lower House official received the letter on Feb. 14 and reported it to police the same day. The Tokyo police in turn informed their counterparts in Kanagawa Prefecture, where Uematsu lives. The Kanagawa police warned Uematsu’s father, who lives in Tokyo, to keep a close eye on him. Reacting to the events this week, a police officer at Kojimachi Police Station, near Oshima’s official residence, said: “We did all we could.” A few days later on Feb. 18, Uematsu made similar remarks to his co-workers at Tsukui Yamayuri En. This caused alarm because he had never said such things or caused any kind of trouble before, they said this week. “It seems he started thinking that way all of a sudden and I have no clue why,” the manager said. Uematsu quit the next day. The police, meanwhile, reported the case to the Sagamihara Municipal Government, which decided to commit Uematsu to a mental hospital out of concern he could harm others. At the hospital, he tested positive for marijuana and was diagnosed with marijuana-induced psychosis and paranoid disorder. But he was not diagnosed as an addict and was released on March 2. He appeared to regret what he had done and expressed remorse. A city official quoted him as saying, “There was something wrong with me.” According to the Narcotics Control Law, doctors are obliged to report drug addicts to the governor. If Uematsu had been diagnosed as one, the Kanagawa Prefectural Government could have prolonged his stay for further treatment. Two days after his release, police found that Uematsu was staying with his parents and requested that they be kept informed about his behavior. The Sagamihara Municipal Government also had planned to check on him but could not due to lack of staff.

violence;murder;sagamihara;satoshi uematsu

jp0010841

2016/07/11

Focus on economy, failure of opposition clears way for Abe's LDP in national elections

Since last year, media outlets have given much coverage to citizens’ groups opposing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial security legislation. Liberal intellectuals, too, have roundly criticized Abe and warn that his tenure could transform into an authoritarian regime. But Abe’s ruling coalition has weathered these storms to emerge the victor in all four of the latest national elections over the past four years, most recently in Sunday’s Upper House election, and many are asking why. Experts are blaming a dearth of alternative policy proposals from opposition parties on economic and welfare issues, which always top the priority list for general voters. In particular, they say that the Democratic Party, the largest opposition force, has failed to present itself as a reliable alternative with concrete economic and welfare policy proposals. “The ruling parties have prevailed in setting the agenda. They have put economic issues on the front burner, as opposed to constitutional issues,” said Yoshiaki Kobayashi, a professor of political science at Keio University. Abe has been rightly regarded as an ardent advocate of revising the pacifist Constitution. But during election campaigns he has rarely discussed this goal, or security issues, focusing instead on the economic and welfare issues that surveys suggest are the main concern of voters. In a June 24-26 poll by NHK, the issue of social security took center stage, with 29 percent of 2,044 respondents saying it was the most important issue when casting their ballot. This was followed by economic policies at 26 percent and issues involving the consumption tax at 12 percent. Only 11 percent of respondents cited constitutional issues. Abe has not specifically explained how he will achieve his key economic goals, which include a pledge to push up the nation’s gross domestic product to ¥600 trillion. But in place of proposing viable policy alternatives of their own, the opposition parties have instead chosen simply to criticize the side effects of Abe’s economic policies, Kobayashi said. “The opposition parties should have proposed economic and welfare policies that are backed with specific financial resources. But they haven’t,” he said. Meanwhile, many opposition lawmakers have criticized the LDP’s moves toward revising the Constitution, in particular Article 9, and asked voters not to give them two-thirds of the 242 Upper House seats. But such a plea is “difficult to understand” for voters, who do not regard such strategies as a realistic political agenda, said Jun Iio, a professor of political science at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. In 2012, the LDP publicized its own draft constitution, in which most articles of the current charter, including the war-renouncing Article 9, were changed. But coalition partner Komeito has yet to agree to any of the LDP’s proposals. Instead, many Komeito members are calling for the creation of a new article to guarantee citizens’ right to a healthy environment. “Nothing has been agreed between the LDP and Komeito over constitutional revision yet. Even if pro-revision forces win two-thirds of the Upper House, it’s not clear yet if it will actually lead to initiation of a national referendum of constitutional revision,” Iio said. Before taking power in 2009, the DP, when it was still the Democratic Party of Japan, had advocated some key economic polices to appeal to voters. They included a public pension reform plan, drastic cuts to “unnecessary” government spending and increasing budget allocations for child-raising households. But the party has abandoned its own pension reform plan after learning it is likely to immediately increase the financial burdens on everyone. After taking power in 2009, DPJ Cabinet members did not drastically cut “unnecessary budgets,” as it had previously pledged, except for those of public works. On the contrary, some even tried to expand the budgets of their own ministries. “The DP has yet to seriously reflect on the failures it made while it was in power. They haven’t made clear what actually went wrong,” Kobayashi said. So people’s distrust of the DP will not go away. They really doubt if the DP is capable of managing a government.”

ldp;opposition;2016 upper house election;dp

jp0010842

2016/07/16

Hitting the mark at the Miraikan's ninja exhibition

By Jon Ginsburg Thanks in large part to some teenage turtles and video game culture, ninja are no long hidden in the shadows and known worldwide. The nimble masters of stealth and subterfuge are also experiencing a bit of a comeback in their homeland. The ninja came into the spotlight at the Group of Seven summit , which was held in Mie Prefecture in May. Iga, a city in Mie that also happens to be “the hometown of ninja,” pounced on the promotional opportunity and had the troupe Iga-Ninja Group Ashura showcase ninja skills and explain their tools and techniques for the summit’s visitors. Also in 2016, Aichi Prefecture advertised that it would be hiring ninja to promote tourism, as well as its historic Nagoya Castle. No doubt inspired by the upcoming tourism bonanza, culminating with the 2020 Olympics, this campaign will feature ninja performing acrobatic stunts, using their signature shuriken throwing stars and, of course, posing for pictures with tourists. For the next three months, Tokyo residents and tourists alike can get the full ninja experience at Odaiba’s Miraikan, the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. On July 2, their latest special exhibition — “The Ninja: Who Were They?” — opened to the public. On the media preview day, I had a chance to experience it firsthand. Before venturing into the show’s interactive areas, I perused the historical displays and ninja-related artifacts near the entrance. These ranged from different types of shuriken (there are a variety of kinds, believe it or not) to other weapons and tools of the trade, including grapples, iron claws and fire arrows, to name just a few. The exhibition also contains installations that provide insight into the ninja ways of life and explain survival strategies, such as methods of concealment and secret codes. What sets this exhibition apart is its interactive component. Visitors — be they children or adults — can test their skills to determine whether or not they have what it takes to be a ninja. The first exercise I tried consisted of jumping over boxes representing sunflowers. Naturally, no self-respecting ninja would leave bent flowers in his wake. While it sounds easy, it’s not merely a matter of jumping high. You have to use your head. My confidence soared after this first task. I thought I was well on my way to becoming a ninja . . . until I reached the dreaded tiptoe challenge. Participants must silently tiptoe across a wooden floor without triggering sensors that set off alarms. This challenge was easily the most frustrating. My advice to future challengers is to stay on your toes, and don’t let your heels hit the floor. I took another beating at the shuriken target wall. Since throwing accuracy is one of my athletic strengths, I assumed that I would excel at this challenge. Unfortunately, my overconfidence proved to be my downfall. Maybe it was my one-out-of-five hit rate, or maybe it was seeing children half my size hitting the targets more often, but I definitely came up small during this task. If, as I did, you discover that you lack the right stuff to become a ninja, there are two photo opportunities that might make you feel better. You can attach your head to an animated figure’s body, via the old face-in-photo-wall trick, or visit a light display that shows your digital ninja silhouette. Strike a pose, and the silhouette may even grow or multiply. “The Ninja: Who Were They?” is an ideal exhibition for those seeking a more interactive museum experience. The history of these Japanese espionage experts is fascinating, but what’s not to love about a show that tests your mad ninja skills? See City Guide article on “The Ninja: Who Were They?” for details.

museums;ninja;miraikan;japan pulse

jp0010843

2016/07/16

Regional votes reveal cracks in political landscape

The overwhelming victory of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition in the July 10 Upper House election overshadowed regional results that suggest growing numbers of voters in certain parts of Japan aren’t as dedicated to the LDP as it first appears. It’s true that, with 146 of the 242 Upper House seats, the coalition is in firm control. But when looking at who won what, and where, the picture becomes more complicated. There were 73 single-district seats up for grabs. The ruling coalition roughly split the country, taking about 26 seats in districts west and northwest of Aichi Prefecture and the remainder to its east. But the Democratic Party did far better in eastern, and northern, Japan than in the west. Only five of the Democratic Party’s 21 single seat winners won west of Nagoya. The Democrats did particularly well in the traditional LDP strongholds of the Tohoku region and Hokkaido for a couple of reasons. In Tohoku, there is a growing sense that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP and Komeito reflect the values of wealthy urbanites, not those in a rural region who are struggling to rebuild from the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and subsequent meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The second reason is one the Tokyo-based media failed to fully appreciate: the depth of unease over the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. For too long, Japan’s national media have avoided serious questions about whether the agreement is really good for Japan as a whole, or good only for major Japanese corporations that will benefit from it — especially those that spend huge amounts of money on advertising in those same national media. Regional media in Tohoku and Hokkaido, however, have spent years analyzing the pros and cons of the TPP, leading to knowledgeable questions and concerns among local voters that the candidates were forced to address in ways they don’t have to when being questioned by some Tokyo-based TV pundit. The election results indicated a lot of these voters had doubts about the way the LDP and Komeito have handled the TPP. And western Japan? With only five seats won by the Democrats, and none by the Japan Communist Party, it’s clear that, west of Nagoya, the LDP and Komeito still have the power to stave off the opposition (Okinawa excepted). Rural areas — including most of Kyushu, all of Shikoku and the ultraconservative Hokuriku region — all went for an LDP candidate. But even Osaka and neighboring Hyogo Prefecture saw LDP, Komeito and Osaka Ishin no Kai (which resembles the LDP in most ways) candidates winning all of the single seats. In Kyoto, where Osaka Ishin has never been popular, one LDP and one Democratic Party member won. Lots of explanations have been offered as to why opposition parties fared poorly in western Japan: lack of local organization, an image of catering more to city-dwelling intellectuals, or too tied to trade unions that are strong in the central and eastern parts of the country but weak in the west. Those perceptions are true or at least plausible. But a quick glance at the current Abe Cabinet reveals that, with the exception of Justice Minister Mitsuhide Iwaki, who lost his Fukushima seat in the election, and Olympics Minister Toshiaki Endo, who is from Yamagata Prefecture, none are from Tohoku or Hokkaido. On the other hand, 11 ministers, including Abe himself, represent areas west of Nagoya or in the Hokuriku region. Thus the presence of so many senior ministers from those parts of the country also played an important role in determining the LDP’s fate in other districts, especially those where its candidates were not as nationally visible, or as close to the centers of power in Tokyo, as their western Japan counterparts.

osaka;liberal democratic party;elections;upper house;komeito

jp0010844

2016/07/16

Rethinking the age-old question of youth

Japan used to follow a wonderful practice to mark old age: Everyone who reached their 100th birthday received a silver sake cup called a sakazuki . It’s certainly better than the tradition in Britain, where centenarians simply get a letter from the queen. The sakazuki gift was a nice idea when it was introduced in 1963. Back then, there was a certain rarity to it, as there were only 153 centenarians in the entire country. However, life expectancy has been increasing rapidly and Japanese in particular have started living longer. So many centenarians celebrated their 100th birthday in 2014 that an astonishing 29,350 sakazuki were sent out. It was getting out of hand. In 2015, the custom was cancelled. It’s just not unusual to reach 100 anymore. We hear a lot about Japan’s graying society, mostly centered around concerns about how the country is going to cope with so many elderly people. Already 1 in 4 Japanese is aged 65 or older, and the number of elderly people is increasing. However, here’s a fact that cuts through the usual concerns: A child born in Japan today has more than a 50 percent chance of living to be 107. One hundred and seven! We might be dimly aware that we will have to work for longer than our parents, but most of the implications of the extraordinary increase in human lifespan have yet to be addressed. Lifespan has been increasing by three months a year since 1840. We need to start thinking about what to do about it — not just how to care for the elderly, but on a personal level. We need to start making plans for our own long lives. This is the subject of a new book by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, a pair of British academics at the London Business School. In “The 100-year Life” they consider the ways in which we should change our outlook on life to adjust for the fact that we are living for so much longer. There’s a well-known cognitive experiment that has people describe what they wish they’d known when they were younger. Gratton and Scott turn this cognitive experiment around. Instead of examining what you would say to your younger self, ask yourself what your older self might say to you. What advice might your 80- or 100-year-old self give you now? The idea is to bring home the importance of the revolution in lifespans we are all experiencing. We won’t be able to retire at 60 or 65 like our parents did. We’re going to live longer, so will need to save more money into our pensions before we stop working, probably (hopefully!) around 80. The younger generation will live even longer. Currently we think of life as having three main stages: education, work and retirement. However, we need to think of life as having multiple stages, perhaps with different periods of education to stay relevant and engaged with society as we get older. Gratton and Scott argue that rather than thinking of people being older for longer, we need to think about being younger for longer. They call this “juvenescence,” or the state of being youthful or staying young. It’s important to reframe our thinking in this way. Some of the problems our society faces today are that older people may be isolated, lonely and unfulfilled. By planning and altering the choices we make and the paths we follow as we age, we can help ensure that when we get older we are in a better place mentally and physically. Another serious concern, highlighted by the Nippon Institute for Research Advancement, is that as the population gets older, voters vote for policies skewed to their needs. Some 47 percent of voters in the country’s Upper House election in 2010 were 60 or older. The needs of elderly people are, of course, vital but the needs of the young shouldn’t be neglected. The National Institute for Research Advancement has warned that the bias toward older people will place a heavier burden on younger people. All this research is good. We are recognizing the problems, even if we don’t yet have solutions. We are also learning more about the genetics of longevity. An obvious way to investigate this is to study centenarians, so gerontologists — scientists who study aging — go to places where there is an above-average lifespan, such as the island of Sardinia in Italy, and Okinawa in Japan. A study published in the Journals of Gerontology: Series A found the Okinawan genome to be strongly linked to extreme longevity. In one study of 348 Okinawan centenarians born between 1874 and 1902, and 969 of their siblings, researchers were able to determine that there was a stronger genetic component to their old age than has been found in Caucasian centenarians. In centenarians in general, scientists have conducted what are called genome-wide association studies. This is a statistical test that determines which genes are linked to longevity in a person. Genome-wide association studies show that centenarians tend to lack genes linked to a number of diseases, in comparison with the general population. The spirit of juvenescence is probably best represented by an old saying in Okinawa, which is the poorest prefecture but the one with the longest-lived people. “At 70, you are still a child,” so the saying goes. “At 80, a young man or woman. If, at 90, someone from heaven invites you over, tell them to go away and come back when you’re 100.” Maybe the saying needs updating: “If, at 100, someone from heaven comes for you, tell them to go away and come back when you’re 110.” And bring a sakazuki bowl.

aging;demographics

jp0010848

2016/07/19

Plastic debris in oceans a growing hazard as toxins climb the food chain

Plastic is part of the fabric of everyday life, from bags to bottles to synthetic clothing. In 2014, global production amounted to 311 million tons, up from 225 million tons in 2004, according to manufacturers group Plastics Europe. Plastic waste now litters the Earth, with much of it ending up in the oceans in the form of tiny fragments, or microplastics. Moreover, they absorb toxic chemicals and are being ingested by marine animals and climbing the food chain. Experts warn that the environmental and health impact of microplastics is huge. Microplastics were highlighted as one of the key challenges at the Group of Seven environmental ministers’ meeting in the city of Toyama in May. What are microplastics? Microplastics are defined as plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter. Plastics are processed as recyclable waste, but large quantities are mismanaged and released into the environment. According to Hideshige Takada, a professor at the laboratory of organic geochemistry at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and a foremost researcher in the field, 90 percent of microplastics come from plastics that we use in daily life that fall through the recycling system, such as plastic waste that blows out of trash bins and washes into rivers or fetches up on beaches. When exposed to ultraviolet rays in strong sunlight, plastics decay and break into small pieces. When they become tiny particles, they are easily carried offshore and accumulate in the oceans. Microplastics also originate in facial scrubs and other cosmetic products that use small particles of polyethylene known as microbeads. Measuring a few micrometers in diameter, microbeads have been widely used in the industry, but the Japan Cosmetic Industry Association in March issued a notice urging its 1,100 members to stop using them immediately. Synthetic clothes also shed microfibers, which are flushed from washing machines into waste water, and into streams, rivers and oceans. What types of plastics are in the ocean? There are four types, according to Takada. Polyethylene, which is used to make soft plastic products, such as lids for containers and bottle caps; polypropylene, which can be used in making hardware, rugs and bottles; PET for clear plastic drink bottles; and the polystyrene used in Styrofoam containers. How bad is it near Japan? The Environment Ministry says the amount of microplastics in the seas around Japan were last year 27 times the global average. China and Southeast Asia are among the world’s worst plastic polluters, as reported in a 2015 paper by Jenna R. Jambeck published in the journal Science. The paper estimated 4.8-12.7 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010. Some of the plastic waste was believed carried on the oceanic Black Current and washed up on Japanese beaches. But that alone cannot explain the heaps of plastic waste in Tokyo Bay, Takada said, adding that large amounts of plastic consumed in Japan has reached its rivers and the ocean. What are the hazards? For decades, plastic debris has been known to injure seabirds and other marine animals, by clogging up or otherwise damaging their digestive organs. But in recent years, plastic and microplastic chemical hazards have emerged as a major issue. Many plastic products contain toxic additives to increase their durability, such as nonylphenol, an endocrine disruptor that can cause breast cancer or endometriosis. Microplastics also absorb pollutants from the ocean. Among the chemicals that stick to them are carcinogenic and highly toxic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), industrial chemicals that were widely used in electric appliances until the 1970s, and PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), which are used as flame retardants and affect thyroid function. “Such chemicals are hard to dissolve in water but are soluble to oil and fat,” Takada said. “Plastic is made from petroleum, which means it’s a form of solid oil.” Plastic resin pellets, the industrial feedstock of plastic products and a type of microplastic, have a high affinity for pollutants because they dissolve easily in oil. Concentrations of PCBs, for example, are 1 million times higher in pellets than those in surrounding seawater, Takada has written. Chemicals in microplastics have also been found to accumulate in seabirds, he said. Is there evidence of an impact on health? Not yet, in wildlife. A 2013 experiment by U.S. researchers found that medaka killifish fed microplastics for two months showed signs of stress in livers and developed liver tumors. But the concentration of microplastics used in that experiment was more than 10 times higher than in the environment, Takada said. The level of pollutants accumulated in the human body, therefore, is not yet high enough to pose a health risk. But if the volume of marine plastic debris continues to swell, the amount of chemicals we consume through food could eventually threaten our health, he added. What can we do? The first step is reducing our reliance on plastics by turning down plastic bags at retailers and reducing our consumption of one-use-only plastic water bottles. The 3R campaign — reduce, reuse and recycle — should also be stepped up, Takada said. The professor noted that retailers should also do away with excessive packaging and give consumers the option of biodegradable plastic containers or bags, even at a cost. Takada, in cooperation with other organizations, is now trying to develop cellulose nanofiber, a biomass material, as an alternative to plastics. But biodegradable plastics are not a cure-all, because what is biodegradable on land is often not in the ocean, where there is less bacterial action. A 2015 report by the United Nations Environment Programme, titled “Biodegradable plastics and marine litter,” warned against using biodegradables as a “technical fix that removes responsibility from the individual.” “Some evidence, albeit limited, suggests that public perceptions about whether an item is biodegradable can influence littering behavior; i.e. if a bag is marked as biodegradable it is more likely to be discarded inappropriately,” the report concluded. “On the balance of the available evidence, biodegradable plastics will not play a significant role in reducing marine litter.” Takada is asking people to mail him samples of plastic resin pellets. His team will analyze the pellets sent in from any beach from the world and send back data on the pollutants they contain, such as PCBs. For more information, visit www.pelletwatch.org .

ocean;environment;microplastic;plastic waste

jp0010849

2016/07/26

Care facility staffers express concern over security following Kanagawa stabbing

As Japan grappled with shock Tuesday following a mass murder carried out by a lone intruder at a care facility for disabled people, employees at similar facilities expressed concerns about their security as the industry is plagued by a shortage of workers. “I did not expect something like this to happen,” the director of a care facility in Tokyo said. “We don’t have a special security guard, and our staff at night is usually shorthanded. They were usually busy handling a heavy workload at night.” At around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Kanagawa Prefectural Police officers arrested Satoshi Uematsu, 26, after he turned himself in and said he committed the stabbing rampage at the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) care facility in Sagamihara. Uematsu was reportedly a former employee at the facility, so he would be intimately aware of its layout and security procedures. At least 19 people were killed and a further 25 were wounded, including 20 who were still listed in serious condition as of Tuesday afternoon. “If he broke into the building by breaking a window, I believe it was impossible to stop the incident,” the director of the Tokyo care facility said. Tsukui Yamayuri En was set up by the Kanagawa Prefectural Government and is operated by the social welfare organization Kanagawa Kyodokai. It had 149 residents between the ages of 19 to 75 as of the end of June, according to Kanagawa officials. Many of the residents had mental and physical disabilities and were in need of constant care. Some also had visual and acoustic impairments. The facility is regarded as a core of the local community’s social welfare program and actively cares for people with relatively heavy disabilities who cannot be accepted by other care facilities. The facility is located in a greenery-rich area near Lake Sagami and has 21 buildings, including eight two-story dormitories, spread out over about a 30,000-sq.-meter plot of land. It has a total of 220 care givers, including part-time workers. When the incident occurred at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, there were eight care givers and one security guard on duty. The main gate of the facility and doors of each dormitory are usually locked at night, so the intruder must have climbed over a gate and broke into buildings to gain access, according to a prefecture official. According to police, Uematsu apparently smashed windows to break into one of the buildings. Security at the facility was relatively strong as it had a security guard at night, a former director of Kanagawa Kyodokai said. But each room inside the dormitories are usually unlocked, so intruders could easily reach residents if they had any intention of assaulting them, the director said. “If the perpetrator knew the facility well, I believe it was difficult to maintain security,” a staffer of another care facility said. A group of families with members with disabilities furiously denounced the perpetrator of Tuesday’s attack. “It was outrageous to harm people who are in need of support just for living,” said Masahiro Tanaka, 55, a board member of a Shiga Prefecture-based organization. “The only thing I can do is to pray for the victims.” According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, there are about 2,600 resident care facilities for people with disabilities in Japan, with about 130,000 residents. There are no laws to stipulate the security of such facilities.

murder;disability;kanagawa;sagamihara;stabbings;mass murder;satoshi uematsu

jp0010850

2016/07/26

Kanagawa attacker's motive: seeking spotlight or rage killings?

Following the murder of 19 people at a care facility by a former staff member, experts are trying to determine the motivation behind the attack. In the leading hypothesis so far, the killer had anger management problems coupled with ill feelings toward people with disabilities. Satoshi Uematsu, 26, was arrested on Tuesday following the attack that also left another 25 people injured at the facility in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he once worked. “He may have problems coping with anger. Most people are able to control themselves, knowing they could face arrest or hurt others, even though they are upset, so they act more rationally,” said Kenji Omata, a criminal psychology professor at Surugadai University. “There may be something that happened to him recently” that triggered his murder spree, he said. For example, it is being reported that Uematsu visited the official residence of Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima in February, with a letter proposing lawmakers enact legislation that allows for the mercy killing of people with disabilities. “Since his letter was rejected, he may have carried out the murders to place himself (and his cause) in the spotlight.” He added, however, that he had choices other than to kill and he appeared to be acting rationally when he was shown on TV being transported by the police after the murders. “It’s reported that he had recently dyed his hair, and left his job in February. The change in his social status could have caused him to feel anger and frustration,” Oshima said, saying further examination of his relationships, particularly with his family members, is needed to fully make a determination as to why he acted out in the way he did. While mass murder is not completely unheard of in Japan, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) comparing per capita deaths by country due to assault in 2012, the latest available year, ranked Japan as one of the four lowest, with a rate of 0.3 percent per 100,000, along with Iceland, Britain and Denmark. The rate had fallen from 0.4 percent in 2009. The latest statistics from the National Police Agency also show the number of reported cases of violent crime that includes killing has gradually decreased over the past several years, with 7,625 cases in 2010 and dropping to 6,453 in 2014. However, most mass killings are often committed by loners who have difficulty socializing with others. In one such case in September 2015, in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, a 30 year-old Peruvian man named Vayron Jonathan Nakada Ludena was arrested after entering three houses and stabbing six people to death. Co-workers at the deli food factory where he had been employed said he preferred to keep to himself and rarely interacted with others, even during breaks. In June 2008, Tomohiro Kato, 25, was arrested for killing of seven people and injuring 10 more in an incident where he drove a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians in Tokyo’s popular electronics district Akihabara before jumping out and slashing and stabbing people. Kato was a temporary worker at a car repair factory in Shizuoka Prefecture. He was a constant visitor to online bulletin board where he posted numerous messages. During his trial, prosecutors said he had a strong sense of being ignored by society and the bulletin board provided his only escape.

murder;stabbing;sagamihara;satoshi uematsu

jp0010851

2016/07/26

Sagamihara killings reveal shortcomings in law to control knives

Tuesday’s stabbing rampage in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, has highlighted the difficulty of reigning in crimes involving knives, despite a recent revision to the Firearm and Sword Control Law. Knives have often been the weapon of choice in single-perpetrator mass murders in Japan, where gun ownership is strictly prohibited. In 2009, the government revised the law to effectively ban the possession of daggers and other doubled-edged knives with blades 5.5 cm or longer, in the wake of the indiscriminate stabbing of pedestrians the previous year in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. In that incident, 25-year-old Tomohiro Kato rammed a truck into a street crowd, running people over and then going on a stabbing rampage, killing a total of seven. Before the 2009 revision, the law banned swords, knives and spears with blades 15 cm or longer. In the Akihabara attack, Kato used a 13-cm dagger. Violators of the revised law face up to a three-year prison term and maximum ¥500,000 fine. It is not yet known what kind of knives Satoshi Uematsu, the alleged perpetrator of the Sagamihara stabbings, used when he attacked residents at Tsukui Yamayuri En, a care facility for people with mental and physical disabilities, in the early hours of Tuesday. Uematsu is reported to have been in possession of three knives, including a Japanese-style kitchen knife, when he turned himself in to local police shortly after the rampage.

murder;disability;kanagawa;sagamihara;stabbings;knives;satoshi uematsu

jp0010852

2016/07/26

Man kills at least 15 in knife attack at Kanagawa care facility

A knife-wielding man went on a rampage early Tuesday at a care facility for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, killing at least 19 people and wounding 25 others, 20 of them seriously, in one of the worst mass killings in modern Japanese history. The Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Satoshi Uematsu, 26, after he drove to Tsukui Police Station and turned himself in at around 3 a.m. Tuesday, about 15 minutes after staff at the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) facility had called police. Police quoted him as saying, “I did it.” “It’s better that the disabled disappear,” the police further quoted him as saying. Uematsu was also quoted by the police as saying, “There is no question I stabbed people who could not communicate well.” The police said Uematsu, a former employee of the facility and a resident of Sagamihara, showed up at the station with three bloodstained knives in a bag. The police initially arrested Uematsu, who is currently unemployed, on suspicion of attempted murder and unlawful entry. They were seeking to determine the motive for the attack, though it emerged Uematsu had been committed to a mental hospital after he made threats to kill people with disabilities earlier this year. Authorities said those killed comprised 10 women and nine men aged between 19 and 70. Uematsu is believed to have broken into the facility at around 2:30 a.m. by smashing a first-floor window, investigative sources said. A hammer was found nearby. They said he may have tied up some residents and staff as he went on the rampage. Eight staff members and one security guard were on duty at the time. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government will do its utmost to get to the bottom of the incident, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described the stabbing rampage as “highly distressing.” Earlier in the day, Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa offered “sincere condolences and an apology” to the victims and their families. The Kanagawa Prefectural Government, which administers the care facility, will do whatever it can to support the families and come up with measures to prevent a recurrence, Kuroiwa said. A Kanagawa prefectural official said Uematsu worked at the facility from December 2012 to February this year. On Feb. 14 and 15, he took a handwritten letter to the official residence of the speaker of the Lower House, in which he suggested he was planning to kill people at Tsukui Yamayuri En at night when the facility had fewer staff on site, according to the police. “I dream of a world where the disabled can die in peace,” Uematsu wrote in the letter. “I will carry out the plan without hurting the staffers, and I will turn myself in after I kill the disabled.” The letter also said he felt “sorry” for people with disabilities, many of whom were bound to wheelchairs for life. He further wrote that many of them had no contact with their family members. Uematsu had also been questioned by police on Feb. 19 for telling workers at the facility a day earlier that he would “kill the disabled,” according to Sagamihara officials. Uematsu was hospitalized after that until March on the grounds that he was a danger to others. At the same time, he quit his job. Traces of marijuana were detected in his urine when he was tested at the hospital, police said. While his neighbors described him as a courteous and helpful man, he also been accused of breaking the law. Police referred a case against him to prosecutors last December on suspicion of assault in a quarrel with a pedestrian in front of JR Hachioji Station, according to a Metropolitan Police Department official. According to its website, the residential care facility for people primarily with intellectual disabilities was set up by the prefectural government and run by a social welfare corporation. It has about 30,000 sq. meters of total area and can accommodate up to 160 people. As of the end of April, it had 149 residents between the ages of 19 and 75, with 40 of them believed to be over 60. All of the residents are classified between levels 4 and 6 in terms of the care they require, with 115 classified at level 6, the highest on the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry-designated scale. The facility is located about 50 km from central Tokyo near private residences and an elementary school. After news about the stabbing rampage spread, families of the residents as well as neighbors flocked to the scene to get information about the residents’ condition, saying they had received no information from the facility. “I called the facility and they said my son was hurt. But I can’t get in there and I have no idea what’s going on,” said a man in his 80s whose son, in his 50s, was living at the facility. Hospitals in the vicinity rushed to treat the injured, some of whom were covered in blood and moaning in pain. Kitasato University Hospital in Sagamihara, which admitted 13 of the injured, said that eight had suffered serious neck injuries. Tokyo Medical University Hachioji Medical Center said all four of the injured it admitted were unconscious and covered in blood. “We are conducting emergency operations and blood transfusions. We want to save them,” said Takao Arai, head of the center. “I have an impression that the perpetrator was deliberately targeting necks. I suspect he had strong intentions to kill.” The early morning attack was one of the worst single-perpetrator mass murders in postwar Japan. In 2001, a man entered an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, stabbed eight children to death and wounded 15 other people. In 2008, a man rammed a truck into a street crowd in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, running people over and then going on a stabbing spree. The indiscriminate attack killed seven and injured 10. In 2010, a man set an adult video-viewing shop on fire in the Nanba district in the city of Osaka, killing 16.

murder;disability;kanagawa;sagamihara;stabbings;mass murder;satoshi uematsu

jp0010853

2016/07/07

Support rate for ruling LDP up 2.6 points to 33.5%: poll

The support rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party stood at 33.5 percent, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous poll conducted immediately after official campaigning kicked off last month for the July 10 House of Councilors election, a survey showed Wednesday. Meanwhile, the main opposition Democratic Party was supported by 10.4 percent in the latest poll taken from Sunday to Tuesday, little changed from the preceding survey. According to the nationwide telephone survey, the LDP’s coalition partner Komeito was supported by 5 percent, followed by the Japanese Communist Party at 4 percent, Initiatives from Osaka at 3.3 percent and the Social Democratic Party at 0.9 percent. Those who did not support a particular party stood at 32.8 percent, down 6.9 points from the previous survey. Among them, 14.5 percent said they would vote for the LDP in the proportional representation section, 8.9 percent named the Democratic Party and 4.2 percent backed the JCP. Each voter can cast two ballots — one for a constituency and the other for a proportional representation block. Among 18- and 19-year-old respondents, who became eligible to vote under the recently revised Public Offices Election Law, 66.3 percent said they are very or somewhat interested in the upcoming election, up 21.2 points from the survey last month. Across all age groups, 72.2 percent expressed interest in the election, up 4.6 points from the previous poll. Of the 53,324 people surveyed, responses were received from 43,271.

shinzo abe;ldp;constitution;diet;upper house election;komeito;japan

jp0010855

2016/07/09

Party leaders make final Upper House election push

Leaders of the major political parties denounced each other’s policies on the economy and the Constitution on Saturday as they wound down their campaigns for the House of Councilors election. While the opposition parties focused on blocking Abe’s lifelong ambition to amend the pacifist Constitution, his ruling bloc has downplayed talk of constitutional reform to avoid worrying voters and kept its focus on Abenomics, his struggling economic policy, despite the unclear outlook for the global economy. Addressing a rally in Tokyo’s Sugamo district Saturday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to bring prosperity to Japan. “Abenomics has by no means failed,” he claimed. Sunday’s election puts half of the 242 seats in the Diet’s upper chamber in contention, with the other half having been elected in 2013. A total of 389 candidates are running for the 121 seats up for grabs through a mix of constituencies and proportional representation. Together, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and the smaller Komeito aim to win at least half of the contested seats. Abe pressed the flesh in Sugamo after filming a video for Facebook earlier Saturday titled “Final Appeal.” “We must firmly protect this country called Japan, and rebuild the economy,” Abe said. Meanwhile, Democratic Party President Katsuya Okada, leader of the main opposition force, pledged in the capital’s Tsukiji area Saturday to “fight in the Diet, reflecting everyone’s voice.” “The prime minister uses the sheer power of numbers to steamroll (opponents) without proper debate,” Okada said. “We cannot let the LDP achieve any further victory,” he said. The Democratic Party has looked past its policy differences with the Japanese Communist Party and smaller opposition parties to back united candidates in all 32 of the contested single-seat electoral districts. The election has the potential to install enough pro-reform lawmakers from the ruling bloc and smaller parties in the Upper House to provide the two-thirds majority required to propose a national referendum on altering the Constitution. Okada warned Saturday that such a powerful majority would mean the country “will no longer be a normal democracy in which we debate (issues) in the Diet and build a consensus.” Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi slammed the opposition’s united approach at a rally in Kobe, saying the country cannot afford to entrust politics to the Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party. “I can’t see them taking any responsibility after the Upper House election is over,” Yamaguchi said. Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii, Initiatives from Osaka leader Ichiro Matsui, Social Democratic Party leader Tadatomo Yoshida, People’s Life Party co-leader Ichiro Ozawa and Nihon no Kokoro wo Taisetsu ni suru To (Party for Japanese Kokoro) leader Kyoko Nakayama each extolled their parties’ values and promises in separate speeches Saturday. The Upper House race is the first national election in which 18- and 19-year-olds are able to vote, following an amendment to the electoral law that reduced the minimum age to 18 from 20. Another amendment has seen constituency boundaries redrawn to address a wide disparity in the relative weight of votes between electoral districts, which led the Supreme Court to label the last Upper House election as being “in a state of unconstitutionality.”

shinzo abe;natsuo yamaguchi;katsuya okada;2016 upper house election

jp0010856

2016/07/31

English bar blocks cellphone signals, tries to get patrons talking again

LONDON - A new English cocktail bar offers something truly old-fashioned on its menu: the chance to talk to real people instead of staring down your cellphone. The Gin Tub in Brighton has won rave reviews in its first week of business by installing a cell signal blocker and placing throwback rotary phones at its tables. They can be used to dial patrons at neighboring tables or the bar for another round. The Gin Tub is reckoned to be the only British pub blocking cell phones by using a Fara-day shield built into its ceiling, an exception in Britain’s 2006 Wireless Telegraphy Act that otherwise outlaws the use of signal blockers. Proprietor Steve Tyler said, “Mobile phones have killed pubs. When you go out socially, you don’t need social media.”

england;cellphone;bar;signal

jp0010857

2016/07/31

Sky diver becomes first person to jump and land safely without wearing a parachute

LOS ANGELES - Luke Aikins, a 42-year-old sky diver with more than 18,000 jumps to his credit, made history Saturday when he became the first person to leap without a parachute and land in a net instead. He jumped out of the plane at 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), and after a two-minute free-fall, Aikins landed dead center in the 100-by-100-foot (30-by-30-meter) net at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley. As cheers erupted, Aikins quickly climbed out, walked over and hugged his wife, Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their 4-year-old son, Logan, and other family members. “I’m almost levitating, it’s incredible,” the jubilant sky diver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms. “This thing just happened! I can’t even get the words out of my mouth,” he added as he thanked the dozens of crew members who spent two years helping him prepare for the jump, including those who assembled the fishing trawler-like net and made sure it really worked. The stunt, broadcast live on the Fox network for the TV special “Stride Gum Presents Heaven Sent,” nearly didn’t come off as planned when Aikins revealed just before climbing into his plane that the Screen Actors Guild had ordered him to wear a parachute to ensure his safety. Producers for the show were not immediately available to elaborate on the restriction. He said he considered pulling out at that point because having the parachute canister on his back would make his landing in the net far more dangerous. If he had to wear it he said he wouldn’t bother to pull the ripcord anyway. “I’m going all the way to the net, no question about it,” he said from the plane. “I’ll just have to deal with the consequences when I land of wearing the parachute on my back and what it’s going to do to my body.” A few minutes before the jump one of the show’s hosts said the requirement had been lifted. Aikins left the plane without the chute. He jumped with three other sky divers, each wearing parachutes. One had a camera, another trailed smoke so people on the ground could follow his descent and the third took an oxygen canister he handed off after they got to an altitude where it was no longer needed. Then the others opened their parachutes and left him on his own. Aikins admitted before the jump he was nervous and his mother said she was one family member who wouldn’t watch. When his friend Chris Talley came up with the idea two years ago, Aikins acknowledged he turned it down cold. “I kind of laugh and I say: ‘OK, that’s great. I’ll help you find somebody to do it,’ ” he said while training for the jump. A couple of weeks after Talley made his proposal Aikins called back and said he would do it. He’d been the backup jumper in 2012 when Felix Baumgartner became the first sky diver to break the speed of sound during a jump from 24 miles (36 km) above Earth. The 42-year-old daredevil made his first tandem jump when he was 12, following with his first solo leap four years later. He’s been racking them up at several hundred a year ever since. His father and grandfather were sky divers, and his wife has made 2,000 jumps. His family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Washington. Aikins is also a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association and is certified to teach both students and skydiving instructors. His business, Para Tactics, provides skydiving training to U.S. Navy SEALs and other members of elite fighting forces.

california;records

jp0010858

2016/07/31

Tokyo NPO founder shows foreign residents how to survive disasters

No one can truly be prepared for a calamity like the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, even for Japanese who have gone through disaster drills regularly since childhood to learn how to react. But for non-Japanese residents who don’t speak the language, the experience could be horrifying, not being able to understand news or instructions provided at evacuation centers that may prove critical to survival. And that was exactly what Motoko Kimura, 37, witnessed during the unprecedented quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in March 2011, where damage in the Tokyo metropolitan area was minor compared with hard-hit Tohoku but fear was sky high. “Even foreigners who used Japanese on a daily basis were in fear, as they had no idea where to get information and trouble understanding what was reported on TV as the sirens blared outside,” Kimura recalled. This prompted Kimura, then a Japanese-language teacher on maternity leave, to get together with friends to launch a disaster-preparedness workshop in English for foreign residents in May 2011, offering practical tips on how to react when the next big quake strikes. What was originally intended to be a one-time event spread via word of mouth, prompting Kimura to found WaNavi Japan, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization aimed at providing practical tips to foreign residents, soon after. The workshops it offers today provide tips on everything from using hospitals and the health care system to food safety, but disaster-preparedness is the most popular program. “As long as you live in Japan, you can’t avoid the risk of an earthquake,” said Kimura, who also serves as a visiting lecturer on emergency preparedness and Japanese culture at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. “But by gaining knowledge, by knowing tips such as ways to react in times of a major earthquake, you can gain a sense of security. “I want people to be prepared before the next big quake hits Japan,” she said. Earthquakes are a fact of life in Japan, where thousands of small tremors hit every year. Since it is crucial to be prepared for natural disasters, children are taught how to act when a big earthquake hits through disaster drills held regularly at schools, kindergartens and day care facilities. But it is a different story for non-Japanese. According to a metro government survey from October to November in 2011, about 40 percent of non-Japanese residents said they had never experienced an earthquake before coming to Japan. Many also had no knowledge whatsoever of disaster-preparedness, Kimura said. “Basic knowledge of disaster-preparedness is hammered into our heads from childhood. But many non-Japanese don’t have that and some don’t know what to do when an earthquake hits,” Kimura said. Lacking the knowledge and language skills, some foreigners, especially those with children, became depressed during the triple calamity, feeling helpless and unable to protect their loved ones, Kimura said. Hoping to alleviate their anxiety, WaNavi’s workshop teaches participants not only how to respond when an earthquake hits, but also crucial Japanese phrases and kanji needed to understand emergency instructions. Non-Japanese often find it difficult to understand kanji, but the workshop utilizes pictographs to make them fun and easy to memorize. “At the end of the workshop, we let them listen to actual past NHK news reports or municipal emergency announcements. And they can understand what’s being said. They also started to recognize the kanji for words such as hinan (evacuation),” she said. “Through that experience, they become confident about living in Japan as long as they know those key points. “I was really happy when one of the participants told me because she now knew how to prepare for a disaster she no longer felt uneasy,” she said. Spending her childhood in Napier, New Zealand, where she was the only Japanese at her school, Kimura has long sought coexistence with people of other cultures. After graduating from Keio University in 2001, Kimura joined the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, where she worked on yen-loan projects to aid developing countries. During her years at JBIC, she met refugees from Sri Lanka, realizing for the first time how closed Japanese society was toward foreigners. That experience led her to turn her eyes to foreigners living in Japan, and mull ways to contribute to supporting people in need. Kimura started working as an intern at Japan Association Refugees, a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization. After helping with the group’s Japanese classes and seeing the refugees’ faces light up, Kimura knew it was her calling. “I’ve realized how learning the language of the country you live in, and starting to understand things surrounding you, like what a sign says, can plant a seed of confidence in a person. It made a lot of sense to me to provide support and care for the refugees through language learning opportunities,” Kimura said. After being certified to teach Japanese, Kimura taught at a shelter for refugees in Kanagawa Prefecture and at Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, until taking maternity leave before the 2011 calamity. Now, as the head of WaNavi, Kimura hopes to create more opportunities for Japanese and foreigners to interact and share each other’s cultures. In one such effort, the group organized events to celebrate days like Hina Matsuri (Girls’ Day) in March and Tanabata (Star Festival) in July, where both Japanese and international families gathered to share their cultures. “I want to create similar opportunities where both Japanese and foreigners can interact and learn from each other,” Kimura said. Key events in Motoko Kimura’s life March 2001 — Graduates from Keio University. 2001 to 2004 — Employed by Japan Bank for International Cooperation. 2005 — Moves to the Philippines to accompany husband. 2006-2007 — Becomes an intern at Japan Association for Refugees. 2008-2011 — Teaches Japanese at Sendagaya Japanese Institute and a refugee shelter in Kanagawa Prefecture. May 2011 — Establishes WaNavi Japan.

3/11;disaster;foreigners;motoko kimura;wanavi japan

jp0010859

2016/07/01

Man arrested in fatal stabbing of woman in Hamamatsu

SHIZUOKA - A 42-year-old man in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, was arrested early Friday morning for allegedly stabbing a woman to death on a street, police said. Kenichi Matsuzaka turned himself in shortly after the stabbing, which took place in Hamamatsu at around 10:20 p.m. A passer-by witnessed the attack and reported it to the police. Investigators are trying to identify the victim, who appeared to be in her 40s. She had been stabbed more than 10 times in the breast and neck, leading the police to believe the suspect had clear intent to kill. The woman was pronounced dead at a hospital. The male witness who reported the crime told investigators he heard a woman cry out in a loud voice. When he rushed toward her, he saw her covered in blood. When Matsuzaka turned up at the police station, he also had bloodstains on him, police said. The stabbing took place some 300 meters southeast of Saginomiya Station on the Enshu Railway in western Shizuoka. The area is dotted with rice paddies and residences.

stabbing;hamamatsu;kenichi matsuzaka

jp0010860

2016/07/06

Sunday's election likely to result in majority needed for constitutional revision: poll

Sunday’s election may put Japan in a position to rewrite its Constitution, as lawmakers who support revising the contentious document are likely to win the required two-thirds majority in the Upper House, a Kyodo News survey has found. Released Tuesday, the survey showed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner Komeito are likely to win at least 74 of the 121 seats up for grabs in the election, surpassing Abe’s stated target of 61, a majority of the contested seats. With the addition of Osaka Ishin no Kai and independents thought likely to support constitutional revision, the bloc will likely comprise at least two-thirds of seats after the election. Constitutional amendments also require a two-thirds majority in the 475-seat Lower House, which the LDP and Komeito already have. On its own, the LDP could win at least 60 seats. By combining at least 57 of the contested seats with the noncontested seats it already holds, the LDP is gearing up to achieve a simple majority in the Upper House for the first time in 27 years, according to the survey. But the election outcome is far from certain, as more than 40 percent of respondents said they are undecided on either their constituency or proportional representation votes. Under Article 96 of the Constitution, revisions to the Constitution can be proposed by two-thirds of the members of each chamber of the Diet and must be approved by a majority of voters in a referendum. In the Upper House, at least 162 of the 242 lawmakers must approve it before putting the issue to a national referendum. The survey found Komeito is likely to gain ground with 14 seats, while Osaka Ishin no Kai is likely to win six seats. The four pro-constitutional change parties — the LDP, Komeito, Osaka Ishin no Kai and the Nihon no Kokoro o Taisetsu ni suru To (Party for Japanese Kokoro) — together hold 84 noncontested seats. If the four parties win 78 of the contested seats, they will reach the two-thirds majority. About 43,000 eligible voters responded in the three-day telephone survey. Two ballots will be cast each for constituencies that will account for 73 of the 121 contested seats, and for 48 seats through the proportional representation system. As for those against amending the Constitution, the opposition Democratic Party appears weak and is likely to win between 25 and 30 seats, below its 43 contested seats. The Social Democratic Party is likely to win just one of the contested seats, down from the two it currently has. The People’s Life Party and Nihon no Kokoro face an uphill battle. The Japanese Communist Party, meanwhile, is likely to gain ground by securing nine seats, up from three of the contested seats it already holds. The opposition camp is not faring well in the 32 single-seat constituencies, pitting an LDP candidate against a rival backed by four opposition parties, namely the DP, JCP, SDP and People’s Life Party. The LDP has the lead in around 20 of the constituencies as well as in constituencies where three to six seats are up for grabs. In the proportional representation system, the LDP could secure at least 20 seats and the DP at least 10.

shinzo abe;ldp;constitution;diet;upper house election;komeito;japan

jp0010861

2016/07/24

Kyoto pushes to retrieve share of Imperial action to honor deep cultural roots

KYOTO - When a young Emperor Meiji moved to Edo from Kyoto in 1868, many of Kyoto’s noble families were strongly opposed to his leaving what had been Japan’s capital and home to the Imperial family since 794. Those who traced their aristocratic lineage back to ancient times convinced themselves the Emperor was merely “visiting” Edo, and would one day return to his true home. The Emperor himself reportedly said he would return to Kyoto someday. But his departure also drained Kyoto of wealthy merchants, skilled craftsmen and artists, and intellectuals, all of whom followed him to Edo, now present-day Tokyo. Within a few decades, Kyoto was considered a stagnant backwater by a Japan that was racing to catch up with the West. But Kyoto never really gave up hoping that at least some members of the Imperial family would one day “come home.” Now, nearly a century and a half after the Meiji Restoration, during which the capital became Tokyo, Kyoto, a major international tourism mecca, is once again pressing its case for relocating part of the Imperial family there under the guise of a project local officials dub the “twin capitals” system, part of a larger vision for 2040 that top city and prefectural officials, as well as leading members of Kyoto’s business community, are supporting. The 2040 vision, revealed three years ago, includes the usual large-scale, bureaucratically managed construction and real estate projects with lofty names and vague goals that bureaucrats, politicians and their financial supporters in the construction and real estate sectors always love. It also emphasizes municipal support for the development of renewable-energy technology to generate electricity locally and make Kyoto nuclear-free by 2040. But another key goal is to further emphasize Kyoto’s role as an internationally recognized city of Japanese culture. One of the ways Kyoto wants to do this is through its “twin capitals” concept, in which Kyoto would become Japan’s official historical cultural capital and Tokyo would be remain its political and economic capital. That would mean moving members of the Imperial family to Kyoto. “As Kyoto has become the center of Japanese culture, Kyoto is the most appropriate city for Imperial family members to live in,” Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said in 2013. Other Kyoto officials insist that the reasons for the move are not only historical or cultural but also practical. “The twin capitals concept was born of the desire to have members of the Imperial family live not only in Tokyo, but also in Kyoto for the safety, security and prosperity of the Imperial household in the midst of a Japan that is dangerously over-concentrated in Tokyo,” Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada said in the report. Yuichi Ishizawa, a prefectural official involved with the project, said while efforts have continued since 2013 to achieve the twin capitals goal, none of the basic questions has been answered, including which members of the Imperial family might be persuaded to move and, most importantly, what their roles in Kyoto would be. Since 2013, an advisory panel consisting of Kyoto-based academics and others has met to discuss issues related to the twin capitals concept. The panel has suggested the royals might participate in Kyoto’s traditional cultural events, including festivals, as well as international conferences, and meet with foreign VIPs visiting the region. It’s also been proposed that their transfers to Kyoto be conducted gradually, starting with facilities that allow long-term stays of a week or month to be made for certain events before settling them in Kyoto permanently. What Kyoto wishes, however, would require approval from both the Diet and the Imperial Household Agency. Last July, Kenta Izumi, a Lower House member from Kyoto, raised the twin capitals concept in the Diet and called for more royal ceremonies to be conducted in Kyoto, although he did not specifically call for any member of the Imperial family to move there. In his reply, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga merely said the government was aware Kyoto was pursing the twin capitals concept but did not dismiss it out of hand. Behind the scenes, Kyoto politicians and business leaders continue to quietly lobby the central government on the issue. Recent reports that Emperor Akihito may abdicate in a few years may also affect the debate in coming months, although how, exactly, is unclear. Given Kyoto’s long history as the home of the Imperial family and Japan’s historical and cultural traditions, its political leaders are unlikely to abandon their quest to have some of the royals “return,” regardless of what the prime minister or the Diet of the moment might decide to do.

kyoto;emperor;relocation;imperial family

jp0010862

2016/07/24

Osaka Ishin no Kai seeks less-provincial name as identity crisis festers

OSAKA - Bowing to long-standing criticism that it must change its name in order to win over more voters, Osaka Ishin no Kai will select a new party name next month. For an organization based in Japan’s traditional business capital, Osaka Ishin officials showed a remarkable lack of marketing savvy, salesmanship and consumer knowledge when it created the national party last year and attempted to sell it to skeptical voters outside the region by rendering Osaka in hiragana instead of kanji. This was intended to differentiate it from the local political group, which has the same name but spells Osaka in kanji. This version of Osaka Ishin, they insisted, was not a place but a new brand name signifying a political philosophy that emphasized more regional autonomy, more efficient local government and a more prosperous local economy. As the Upper House election made clear, almost nobody outside Osaka bought that message. The party won only three single-seat districts, two of which were in Osaka. The other was in neighboring Hyogo, which is filled with former Osaka residents who commute there daily. In the end, Osaka Ishin remained fixed in the minds of voters elsewhere as a group of Osaka-based politicians promoting an Osaka-focused agenda in the Diet. The party’s new name will be formally decided in late August and various suggestions are being discussed. While some Osaka Ishin members worry that removing Osaka from the name will turn it into just another small party voters will ignore, others hope the new moniker will offer a new start and appeal to a broader range of people who might otherwise turn their noses up at the thought of casting a ballot for something named after “Osaka.” Osaka Ishin leaders have rejected various combinations of words and phrases that sound pretentious, pompous or strange when translated into English. The favored candidate is Nippon Ishin no Kai, or Japan Restoration Party. But that’s the just same name Osaka Ishin no Kai used before splitting last year with its Tokyo-centered faction. Osaka Ishin officials thus face the unenviable task of convincing voters that a new (but actually old) brand name represents a fresh new party that is still Osaka-based but still aspires to go nationwide.

osaka;2016 upper house election;party name

jp0010864

2016/07/15

Lucky bug eluded eternal entombment in 50-million-year-old amber

WASHINGTON - A chunk of amber found along the Baltic Sea in Russia provides evidence roughly 50 million years old of an extremely fortunate bug. An Oregon State University scientist on Thursday described a remarkable piece of amber — fossilized tree sap — containing a mushroom, a strand of mammalian hair and the recently shed exoskeleton of an insect that got away from the oozing sticky stuff in the nick of time, escaping eternal entombment. The tiny bug looks similar to insects alive today known as walking sticks, whose stick-like appearance provides camouflage that helps keep them safe from hungry birds and other predators. The amber memorialized a little scene that unfolded in an ancient subtropical forest of evergreen trees roughly 15 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct and mammals began to assume their new position as Earth’s dominant land animals. “The mushroom was growing at the base of a tree,” Oregon State entomologist and amber expert George Poinar said. “The insect was exploring the mushroom and getting ready to feed on it. A rodent came along, bit off the stem of the mushroom at the same time some resin from the tree was flowing down toward the mushroom.” “The resin caught the feet of the insect that was probably ready to molt and decided that this was a good time to leave its skin and flee. So now we have the rodent hair and the skin of the insect together with the prize mushroom in amber,” he added. “Gourmet chefs should not get too excited about this find since the mushroom is way to small for an omelet.” Numerous creatures have been found entombed in amber including insects, lizards, amphibians, mammals and birds, as well as plants including flowers. They are sometimes beautifully preserved and offer unique insight into ancient animals and plants. “Finding insects and plants together creates a minievent and shows interactions of the past that we couldn’t determine by finding them separately,” Poinar said. The insect was the type that would have shed its exoskeleton over and over before becoming an adult and likely lived just a couple of months. It is clear that the exoskeleton trapped in the amber had been recently shed because it contains fine strands that would not longer be present if it had molted a significant amount of time before being overtaken by the sap. The research was published in the journal Fungal Biology.

nature;animals;paleontology

jp0010865

2016/07/13

Tokyo to send top Foreign Ministry bureaucrat to Beijing on Monday

The Japanese government plans to send the Foreign Ministry’s top bureaucrat to Beijing from next Monday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, in an effort to improve bilateral ties despite China’s rising assertiveness at sea, sources said Tuesday. During the stay through Wednesday, Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama is set to meet Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and other senior officials of the Chinese government, the sources said. Sugiyama hopes to lay the groundwork for a resumption of dialogue between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, possibly on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit to be held in Hangzhou, China, in September, they said. It will be Sugiyama’s first visit to China since assuming his post in June. As vice foreign minister, Sugiyama’s predecessor, Akitaka Saiki, last visited the country in July 2013. Sugiyama and Zhang are expected to discuss the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Tuesday that said China has no historic rights to resources in the South China Sea based on its “nine-dash line” claim. The ruling sided with the Philippines, which brought the case. Japan said the ruling is “legally binding” and that all parties should comply with the decision, while China immediately rejected the verdict. Sugiyama’s visit will come as Tokyo has expressed concern about intensifying Chinese military activity, including naval operations, in areas near the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The isles are also claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

china;senkakus;south china sea;foreign ministry;japan;shinsuke sugiyama

jp0010866

2016/07/14

Skydiver to leap from 25,000 feet without a parachute

LONDON - American skydiver Luke Aikins will leap out of a plane at 25,000 feet (7,6000 meters) without a parachute and attempt to land safely in the California desert in a live television broadcast titled “Heaven Sent.” The married 42-year-old third-generation skydiver, who has made about 18,000 jumps in his 25-year career, will leap on July 30 and land on his back on a device that organizers would only describe as a “slide.” “I’m going to do something that’s definitely out there and most people in the world will think is crazy,” Aikins said on Monday. Aikins, who claims it will be a world record for jumping without a parachute, previously worked with Felix Baumgartner on the Austrian daredevil’s 2012 record sky dive, which started 24 miles (38 km) above earth.

records;stunts

jp0010867

2016/07/14

SDP leader Yoshida to resign over Upper House election defeat

Social Democratic Party leader Tadatomo Yoshida said Thursday he will step down as head of the small opposition party to take the blame for its poor showing in Sunday’s Upper House election. “I’m keenly aware of the responsibility (for the election showing) as the party leader,” 60-year-old Yoshida said at an executive board meeting. The board agreed to select a new leader before holding a conference of representatives of nationwide branches in early September. The party had aimed to secure two seats — one for Yoshida and the other for former party leader Mizuho Fukushima — in the House of Councilors election but only Fukushima was able to retain her seat. Party members also confirmed at the meeting they are in the final stage of negotiations with the People’s Life Party, another small opposition party, to form a joint parliamentary group in both the Lower and Upper houses, starting from the next extraordinary Diet session. The session is scheduled to be convened Aug. 1 to elect the Upper House president and vice president. Yoshida, who was elected as an Upper House member for the first time in 2010, succeeded Fukushima as party leader in 2013 and was re-elected to the post by default last December.

sdp;mizuho fukushima;2016 upper house election;tadatomo yoshida

jp0010869

2016/09/03

One year on, gang splinter is tough to explain

More than a year has passed since the country’s largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, split into two. More than a dozen gangs defected from the Yamaguchi-gumi on Aug. 27, 2015, to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, headed by Kunio Inoue, as a rival syndicate and, even now, the reasons for the breakup remain unclear. Although the first few months of what police have called a “turf war” remained relatively calm, the violence has escalated in more recent times. Both syndicates have been accused of throwing molotov cocktails into their rival’s offices and at least one senior figure has been gunned down in an assassination-style hit. The two gangs have been trying to negotiate a truce for months. As the anniversary drew closer, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi launched what appears to be a PR offensive, with 49-year-old Yoshinori Oda acting as its spokesman. Oda has been featured in a variety of magazines and books, presenting the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi’s version of events. The Yamaguchi-gumi has remained relatively tight-lipped about both the split and the truce negotiations. The most recent issue of the Yamaguchi-gumi Shinpo, the organization’s newspaper, doesn’t mention the tensions but does devote space to the group’s charitable activities after the April 16 earthquakes in Kumamoto. A number of books and magazine articles on the reasons for the friction have been published but one of the most plausible explainations comes from a boss who reportedly retired from the Yamaguchi-gumi in 2013, writing under the alias “Kenji Sakurai.” In a 2015 book titled “The Collapse of the Kingdom,” Sakurai argues that the Yamaguchi-gumi was destined to break up long before its current leader, Shinobu Tsukasa, came to power in 2005. The impetus, he says, can be put down to an increasing willingness to ignore time-honored yakuza codes. Sakurai says that the Yamaguchi-gumi split in 1984 after the death of Kazuo Taoka over who would become leader of the group. One of the contenders, Hiroshi Yamamoto, broke away from the group, taking almost half its members to form the Ichiwa-kai. The Ichiwa-kai eventually lost the bitter all-out war, and Yoshinori Watanabe took over as leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi in 1989. Sakurai, however, believes that Watanabe was merely a puppet for Masaru Takumi, head of the Takumi-gumi. Takumi placed profit before honor and Sakurai effectively accuses him of doing anything for money. This, Sakurai says, includes selling methamphetamine the syndicate had purchased from Aum Shinrikyo in order to make a huge profit — something Taoka would never have approved of. Sakurai alleges that Takumi even had Hideo Murai, a senior member of the cult, killed on April 23, 1995, by a Yamaguchi-gumi member in order to cover up the ties. He claims Takumi eventually grew tired of having to work behind the scenes and decided that Watanabe needed to go. Sakurai claims Takumi first ordered a hit on Watanabe’s right-hand man and best friend, Taro Nakano, but the assassination attempt failed. Nakano eventually figured out what was going on and assassinated Takumi in 1997. In Sakurai’s eyes, Watanabe should have rewarded Nakano. Instead, Nakano was expelled. Sakurai goes on to describe a series of betrayals and failures by Watanabe before claiming that Tsukasa then forced him to retire in 2005. In doing so, he says, Tsukasa planted the seeds of his own downfall. Sakurai repeatedly claims the Yamaguchi-gumi troubles exist because members no longer follow ninkyodo , or “the yakuza code of ethics.” Senior members then kept demanding higher membership dues, which accelerated the split, he says. “Who could afford to pay the dues that the Yamaguchi-gumi top brass demanded? Only gangsters making money from fraud, drugs, loan sharks, thieves and robbers,” he says in a telephone interview. “Dealing drugs, common theft and so on were all things that used to be grounds for expulsion. These days, the only ground for expulsion is failing to paying dues.” Sakurai believes the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi broke away from the Yamaguchi-gumi in an attempt to restore Taoka’s code of honor. Shortly after the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi was founded, however, police raided its headquarters and arrested several members for running scams that targeted the elderly. The rival syndicates both try to claim the moral high ground for the breakup and each side has its own side to the story. In order to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, however, it’s probably better to be rooting for the police in this turf war.

yamaguchi-gumi;yakuza;organized crime;kazuo taoka;kobe yamaguchi-gumi;yoshinori watanabe;shinobu tsukasa

jp0010870

2016/09/03

Residents want park where 47 ronin buried; man passes bar exam after 17 failures; birth rate drops due to superstition; USS Independence arrives

100 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 29, 1916 Residents want park where 47 ‘ronin’ buried Residents in Shiba are negotiating with the city authorities for the establishment of a park around Sengakuji, where the remains of the 47 ronin (masterless samurai) are buried. It is reported that the city is willing to support the plan, but the priest of the temple has not yet agreed to sell the temple and compound to the city. Sengakuji is one of the most famous spots in Tokyo, and thousands of people from the country as well as foreign lands visit the temple, but the temple itself and the century-old tombs of the 47 ronin have begun to suffer from the effects of rain and wind, and the scanty revenue of the temple is not sufficient to keep the temple and tombs in proper repair. It is the intention of the residents to establish a large park, with the temple in the center. The leading men in Shiba believe that if the temple is left in its present condition, it will be ruined in a few years, and immediate repairs are necessary to preserve the temple and tombs against the ravages of time. 75 YEARS AGO Thursday, Sept. 25, 1941 Man passes bar exams after multiple failures Among the persons who passed the 1941 bar examinations as announced by the Justice Ministry on Sunday was Hideo Watanabe, 44-year-old guard of the Fuji Film Co., Kyobashi Ward. Lawyer Watanabe won the crown after 17 consecutive failures. His hair turned gray, deep lines appeared in his forehead and his eyesight weakened greatly because of constant reading of difficult law books during the past 18 years since 1923 when he first sat in the bar examinations here. But nothing could stop him. “I have to pass the examinations. Yes, I must,” he said to himself when he came up to Tokyo from his hometown in Chiba Prefecture early this year. He knew that he could never become a lawyer if he should fail the examinations this year, for this was the last year he could take examinations under the Special Lawyer’s Qualifications Examination System that was instituted in Japan in 1923 in order to give chances to those who have no regular schooling like Mr. Watanabe. He did not intend to become a lawyer at first, however. In 1915, Mr. Watanabe entered the Army Preparatory School at Nagoya, but had to leave the school on account of a protracted illness several months before his graduation. He turned to helping his father run a sardine cannery in Hanomachi his hometown. The ambition to become a learned man, which never died out in him even after his departure from the Army Preparatory School, burned up again when his father Kinzaemon, who was once an unlicensed lawyer in the first years of the Meiji Era, advised him to take special qualifying examinations for lawyer in 1923. Firmly resolved to pass the examinations by all means, he again came up to Tokyo from Chiba Prefecture early this year and while working as guard in the Fuji Film Co., studied law books 24 hours a day. “I refrained from drinking and smoking. I quit playing go and Japanese chess steel myself for the examinations. I am happy that I have achieved my purpose at last.” 50 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 16, 1966 Birth rate plummets due to superstition The birth rate in Japan went down by as much as 27 percent this year because of the superstition that girls born this year are “undesirable.” This was revealed by a survey completed recently by the Health and Welfare Ministry on the birth rate for the first six months of this year. The year 1966 in Japan is a year of hinoeuma , according to the sexagenary cycle. Hinoe means “the elder brother of fire” ( hinoto is the younger version) and uma is the horse in the zodiacal cycle. About 200 years ago, the popular belief developed that a woman born in this year is of a “fiery character” and that she “devours her husband.” When a hinoeuma year came around last — in 1906 — a drop in birth rate was noted. But this year, it is likely to far surpass 1906’s. In 1906, altogether 1,394,295 births were reported, which meant a drop of 58,475 from the preceding year. During the first six months of 1966, altogether 658,456 births were registered, as compared with 955,974 of the same period of last year. This means a decrease 247,518 or by 27 percent compared with the same period last year. It is estimated that the total births in 1966 may be fewer than last year by from 500,000 to 600,000. One question may be whether the hinoeuma superstition will be found still very much alive when the hinoeuma year comes around next time in the year 2026. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, Sept. 12, 1991 USS Independence arrives in Yokosuka The USS Independence arrived at Yokosuka, its new homeport, Wednesday morning. The aircraft carrier will replace the USS Midway, which will shortly be decommissioned. Citizens’ groups opposed to the deployment of the Independence staged rallies and protests from boats in the harbor. The 80,643-ton ship commissioned in 1959 and is able to carry more aircraft than the Midway. The 67,000-ton Midway left Yokosuka in early August after 18 years of service in Japan. The Independence, which now becomes the only U.S. carrier based outside of the United States, participated in the Vietnam War and was deployed to the Persian Gulf during the gulf crisis. Because the carrier, like the Midway, is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the question of whether it is actually so armed has already been raised.

birth rate;law;uss independence;sengakuji;bar exams;hinoeuma

jp0010872

2016/09/05

English heads for elementary school in 2020 but hurdles abound

The Japanese school system’s English-teaching regimen will undergo a major revamp in the near future as the government tries to nurture more worldly talent in an age of globalization. The biggest transformation is expected in public elementary schools, where English will be taught as a formal subject for the first time, in conjunction with designated textbooks and formal grades. The change is scheduled to take place in 2020, after a two-year transition period. Will the revision raise Japan’s ability to communicate in English? Here are some questions and answers on the issue. What are the main changes? In 2020, English will become a mandatory subject for fifth- and sixth-graders, instead of a “foreign language activity” class where children are only expected to experiment with English by speaking and listening. This will double the annual number of English classroom hours to 70 from the current 35, and see reading and writing taught for the first time, according to a draft guideline released in August. Along with that change, the foreign language activity classes will become mandatory for third- and fourth-graders instead. Why is the government making English a formal subject? The decision was made because the current system failed to achieve the government’s target of making students fluent enough to debate or negotiate in English. Given the rapid globalization of the economy, the education ministry faced the need to upgrade the nation’s English skills. But discussions on the issue through the 1990s found many people opposed to teaching English in elementary school because they thought it would confuse children who hadn’t even learned their mother tongue yet. In 2002, the ministry introduced English classes in elementary school not as a formal subject, but as an option. In 2011, this had been turned into the foreign language activity class, with the main focus on giving fifth- and sixth-graders a chance to get familiar with English in a more casual environment, such as by singing or playing games. Despite these efforts, Japan is among Asia’s worst performers on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). According to the Education Testing Service, which administers the exam, out of 30 Asian countries with TOEFL examinees in 2015, Japan ranked fifth from the bottom, ahead of Afghanistan, Cambodia, Tajikistan and Laos. South Korea, where English became a mandatory subject in elementary school in 1997, ranked 10th. China, which followed suit in 2001, ranked 17th. As for speaking ability, Japan was at the bottom of the list. Will the change improve Japan’s English proficiency? Observers say that the quality of current language classes varies among schools, and that more children end up going to so-called cram schools to fill the gap. The formal introduction of English classes is expected to narrow the gap because they will all use the same textbooks. The government also hopes the change will make it easier to pursue higher-level classes in junior high school. Many parents are behind the change. According to a nationwide poll by education company Benesse Holdings Inc. last year on 1,565 parents of fifth- and sixth-graders, about 60 percent were dissatisfied with the foreign language activity classes. Roughly the same percentage said they were not even aware of what was being taught in them. Are there hurdles to making the new system work? Yes. There is a lack of skilled English teachers, observers say. Under the current system, most municipalities hire native English speakers or highly competent Japanese to support their elementary school staff, with some of the assistants playing leading roles. But when English becomes a formal subject in 2020, it is apparently the main teacher who will be running the classes. According to an education ministry survey in fiscal 2015, only 4.9 percent of elementary school teachers were licensed to teach English. Many didn’t even learn how to teach the subject because it wasn’t necessary to acquire their teaching licenses. The government started providing special training in fiscal 2014 to develop about 1,000 expert English teachers by fiscal 2018 who can train fellow teachers. But observers say that number is far from sufficient, considering that about 144,000 English teachers are expected to be needed by 2020. Haruo Erikawa, a professor of English at Wakayama University, said if the government is serious about beefing up elementary school English, it should use its budget to conduct thorough teacher training and secure a sufficient number. He also expressed concern that more training will only make things tougher for Japan’s already overwhelmed teachers. “In English education, the hardest part is teaching children who don’t have much knowledge of the language,” he said. “Without sufficient training, we can’t expect teachers to offer high-quality English education.”

children;english;elementary schools

jp0010874

2016/09/18

Freezing of Tsukiji relocation plan draws cheers, jeers

Hiroyasu Ito, chairman of the Tsukiji Market Association, has been “extremely shocked” twice in the past two weeks by the latest twist in the world-famous fish market’s relocation plan. The chairman of major fish wholesaler Chuo Gyorui Co. had seen subsidiary Hohsui Corp. invest ¥7 billion in preparations for the move from Tokyo’s Chuo Ward to the Toyosu district about 2 km south. But on Aug. 31, new Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, elected July 31, suddenly announced that the Nov. 7 relocation would be suspended over soil pollution concerns at the Toyosu site. The second shock came on Sept. 10, when Koike revealed that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government did not place a layer of clean soil under the five main structures at Toyosu as promised, reviving public concerns about soil pollution at the Toyosu site. According to Ito, the fish dealers in his association have invested “tens of billions of yen” in the Toyosu relocation plan. “The construction of the buildings has already been finished. I’ve been so shocked,” Ito told reporters Tuesday at Tsukiji. “The metropolitan government doesn’t have the right attitude toward safety and public concerns. It should confirm that (the Toyosu site) is safe as quickly as possible.” Over the past 20 years, the fish wholesalers at the venerable 81-year-old Tsukiji market have been deeply split by the relocation plan. The flaws revealed by Koike will further deepen that divide and maybe even result in the project’s termination. At a news conference on Sept. 10, Gov. Koike didn’t rule out the option of killing the ¥588.4 billion project and instead refloated the idea of renovating Tsukiji — an idea that was eventually abandoned by the metro government over cost and timeline concerns. “I’ll wait for an objective judgment (on the safety issues). Then I want to choose the wisest way to spend” the taxpayers’ money, Koike said. The metro government came up with a controversial soil replacement plan under Shintaro Ishihara, who was governor from 1999 to 2012, to win over Tsukuji employees and customers who felt uneasy about the Toyosu site, which was known to be heavily contaminated with chemicals from a gas plant that stood there from 1956 to 1988. But Koike revealed last month that the 4.5-meter layer of clean soil that was supposed to blanket the entire Toyosu site was missing under its five main buildings, which occupy 13.4 hectares of the 40-hectare property. This means that about a third of the site has not been insulated by clean soil as set out in the metro government’s relocation plan. Metro bureaucrats say groundwater and air surveys show that the density of the toxic chemicals in Toyosu is below their safety limits, and experts say the current levels don’t pose any danger to human health. According to the plan, the top 2 meters of soil were supposed to be removed, decontaminated and returned to the compound to be topped by another 2 meters of clean soil. But this only occurred in areas other than where the five structures now stand. Koike’s disclosure has generated more doubts about the metro government’s construction work and upset the major fish dealers who decided to back the relocation project. As for the fish dealers, suspension or termination of the relocation project will cause huge financial losses. Hohsui has already begun chilling its newly built 23,000-ton storage warehouse in Toyosu to a frigid 60 degrees below zero. The cooling process cannot be halted because raising the temperature would severely damage the facility, a company official claimed. Wholesale merchants in Tsukiji are already calling on the metro government to compensate them for any damage caused by suspension of the relocation project. In the meantime, many small and intermediate fish wholesalers have welcomed Koike’s decision and a new investigation into Toyosu’s contamination problem. Intermediate businesses buy seafood from wholesalers for sale to retailers and restaurants. About 570 intermediate wholesale businesses now have shops at Tsukiji. “The problem is toxic gas. I don’t want to sell fish and work at such a place,” said Yukio Kato of Koei, an intermediate tuna wholesaler at Tsukiji. Benzene, one of the chemicals left in the soil and groundwater at Toyosu, transitions to a gas easily. “Unless every problem is solved, I won’t feel comfortable moving to Toyosu,” he said. Many Tsukiji fish dealers interviewed by The Japan Times said the facilities prepared for them at Toyosu lack features critical to handling fish. For example, the drain outlets in the floor are too small, even though fish merchants regularly use large amounts of water to wash away scales and small pieces of meat. Many also complain the shop spaces allocated to them are smaller than those at Tsukiji. The smallest shop compartment is 1.5 meters wide. Some tuna wholesalers have lamented they cannot even cut the huge fish in their own shop. Citing sanitary reasons, the metro government decided to separate the shop compartments with walls and shutters. This automatically narrowed the amount of space available for each shop. “People who don’t know anything about a fish market designed the Toyosu site. We were never consulted,” said Tai Yamaguchi of Tsukiji-based fish merchant Hitoku Shoten. Echoing many other Tsukiji workers, Yamaguchi said the staff of Hitoku Shoten have been allowed to visit the company’s new shop compartment in Toyosu only two to three times so far. To visit the site, a fish dealer needs to obtain written permission from the metro government. Only a few people are allowed to visit at one time because of the ongoing construction work. “We don’t have much information about Toyosu yet. We are still unable to get a clear image of how we will work there,” said Eiji Ikuine, president of the Tsukiji-based intermediate fish wholesaler Eikoh-Suisan. “We even don’t know where our customers can park their cars at Toyosu. If the market opens in November, we would just see chaos,” he said, welcoming Koike’s decision to freeze the relocation plan.

contamination;yuriko koike;tsukiji fish market;toyosu

jp0010875

2016/09/18

Tokyo's safety claims for Toyosu fish market cleanup getting harder to sell

On Sept. 10, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike revealed that the people in charge of the soil remediation work for the Toyosu market, the relocation site for the famed Tsukiji fish market in Chuo Ward, ignored the recommendations of outside safety experts. The discovery has reignited public concern about the environmental safety of the man-made area 2 km south of Tsukiji, adjacent to Tokyo Bay. Will the soil pose a health risk to the market’s produce, workers and consumers? Let’s take a closer look. What problems have emerged at the new site? The soil at the Toyosu site, which was formerly a Tokyo Gas Co. production plant, was contaminated with toxic chemicals including benzene and cyanogen. Under the relocation plan, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was to remove and decontaminate the top two meters of soil at the Toyosu site and return it to the compound. That was then supposed to be topped off with a 2.5-meter layer of fresh, clean soil before construction began. But on Sept. 10, Koike revealed this 4.5-meter layer of soil was missing from under the five main structures at the new market. So instead of sitting on a foundation of clean soil, the five structures were built on hollow concrete utility rooms filled with pipes and electrical cables. These undisclosed structures occupy about a third of the 40-hectare Toyosu site, which was built on reclaimed land. The revelation has shattered the credibility of Tsukiji relocation plan, which has been dogged by environmental concerns from the very beginning. What kind of health risks will the missing layer of soil pose? Experts are not sure, but some warn that, over time, toxic gas or chemicals might seep to the surface or accumulate in the buildings’ hollow foundations, posing health risks to those working there. The rooms’ vulnerability to contamination may already be evident in the form of large pools of tainted water found in the utility rooms of three of the five facilities, which are destined for use by seafood, vegetable and fruit wholesalers. The pools were discovered by assemblymen from the Japanese Communist Party. Testing has found the pools in two of the five facilities to be tainted with arsenic and chromium at density levels around 10 to 35 percent of the legal limit. The metropolitan government said the groundwater might have seeped in through their sides during the heavy rains in August. Akio Hata, former president of the Japan Association on Environmental Studies, said the presence of a substance like chromium proves groundwater can come to the surface and speculated that any clean soil provided to protect the site has been re-contaminated, raising the chance that the density levels of the toxins will rise in the future. He also raised issues with the site’s underground water control system, which is supposed to monitor water levels at the site and pump any excess into the sewage system, and its susceptibility to powerful earthquakes. The metro government, meanwhile, said the pump system is still running in test mode and that all the water on the floors will be drained once it enters full operation. Hata also said that, since chromium and arsenic don’t evaporate, the chemicals will likely remain underground, waiting to be freed by an event large enough to cause liquefaction, as happened at Toyosu during the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Kazuko Mizunoya, an architect who was hired to observe the decontamination work as an outside expert, said in an email that the metro government should have dug deeper at Toyosu when collecting soil samples. She said the revetment work carried out by the contractors wasn’t sufficient to stabilize the ground in the area, pointing out that parts of the Toyosu site liquefied during the March 2011 quake, bringing sand and stones to the surface. Do the toxic substances found at Toyosu pose a health threat right now? Probably not. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said recent groundwater and air surveys at the site have shown the density of the chemicals, including benzene, to be within legal limits. Minoru Yoneda, a professor at Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering’s Division of Integrated Biosciences, believes the Toyosu market’s current condition doesn’t pose any health threat. He said the safety limit for benzene is based on the consumption of 2 liters of groundwater every day, which is impossible at the Toyosu site. While traces of benzene are still in Toyosu’s air, its density level is within the safety limit, according to metropolitan government data. Has the Tokyo Metropolitan Government violated any public safety regulations? Metro officials say no. Koji Yoshida, one of the officials in charge of the Tsukiji relocation project, said “all has been done to ensure safety” under measures required by law. In 2008, an environmental advisory panel recommended that the Toyosu site be blanketed by a 4.5-meter layer of soil. The metro government apparently ignored this advice and assumed the walls of the secret concrete utility rooms would be sufficient to shield the market buildings instead. Yoshida said there were no legal requirements for further measures to be taken as long as the groundwater at Toyosu is not to be used. Although not required to do so, Tokyo has sampled groundwater at the Toyosu site nine times since November 2014 to reassure the public, Yoshida said. The results of the last sampling test in November will be released in January. Why was the environment panel’s advice ignored and who made the decision? This is not clear yet. According to the daily Mainichi Shimbun, a senior official in the metro government said the hollow utility spaces were built to let power shovels or other heavy equipment be brought in to handle any new soil contamination problems. Quoting a former metro official, the newspaper said the change in the Toyosu construction plan was kept secret because the planners feared that revealing it to the public would fan unfounded fears of pollution.

tokyo;health;contamination;yuriko koike;tsukiji fish market;toyosu

jp0010876

2016/09/29

Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Heavy may integrate nuclear fuel units

Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. are considering integrating their nuclear fuel businesses, sources said Thursday. The tie-up could come in the spring. Their nuclear businesses have been in the doldrums since the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which led to most plants being kicked into shutdown. Integrating the fuel units would reduce costs and is seen as bolstering their respective financial standings. The units that would be merged are Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd., in which Toshiba holds a majority stake through U.S. subsidiary Westinghouse Electric, the Japanese unit of Global Nuclear Fuel, a joint venture of Hitachi, Toshiba and General Electric, and Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co., an affiliate of Mitsubishi Heavy. The three companies are studying a range of options, including placing the nuclear fuel business units under a new holding company, the sources said. Toshiba and Mitsubishi Heavy separately said while various options are under consideration, no decision has been made yet. The government introduced tougher safety standards in the wake of the Fukushima crisis, and most nuclear reactors have remained idle since then. The only ones currently on line — after they passed the new safety checks — are the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai plant and the No. 3 reactor at the Ikata plant, which is operated by Shikoku Electric Power Co. Still, Japan’s nuclear industry is not alone in experiencing difficulties. Nuclear plant construction has slowed globally, shrinking profits at companies like French nuclear energy giant Areva. Although the government maintains that Japan needs nuclear power, it is likely to be forced to look at what can be done to keep the sector afloat at a time when it is burning through cash.

fukushima no . 1;toshiba;hitachi;nuclear fuel;mhi;westinghouse

jp0010877

2016/09/16

Fiat Chrysler recalls 1.9 million cars over deadly defect that keeps air bags from deploying

WASHINGTON - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Thursday it is recalling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide for an air bag defect linked to three deaths and five injuries. It is the latest in a series of large-scale air bag recalls, as the auto industry grapples with a widening array of problems from potentially unstable inflators to bad software. The Fiat Chrysler recall involves nondeployment of air bags and seat-belt pretensioners in some crashes. It affects 1.4 million U.S. vehicles sold between 2010 and 2014, including the Chrysler Sebring, 200, Dodge Caliber, Avenger, Jeep Patriot and Compass SUVs. “There is a hypersensitivity now in the industry to vehicle safety,” said Scott Upham, of Valient Market Research. Automakers continue to tweak air bag software, he said, noting that there is “a fine line between telling the bag when to deploy or not” in some situations. Last week, General Motors Co said it would recall nearly 4.3 million vehicles worldwide due to a software defect that can prevent air bags from deploying, a flaw already linked to one death and three injuries. That defect is similar but not identical to the Fiat Chrysler issue. Fiat Chrysler said the problem occurred when vehicles equipped with a particular control module and specific front impact sensor wiring are involved in certain collisions. GM said in its recall that the module that controls air bag deployment has a software defect that may prevent frontal air bags from deploying in certain “rare circumstances.” Fiat Chrysler said it no longer uses the occupant restraint controllers or wire routing design. The notice did not say when it will begin recall repairs, which spokesman Eric Mayne said the automaker is “finalizing.” Automakers and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been grappling with numerous recall issues. In February, Continental Automotive Systems said it supplied potentially defective air bag control units to 5 million vehicles built over a five-year period. It said the units may fail and air bags may not deploy in a crash or may inadvertently deploy without warning. In August, NHTSA said it was upgrading and expanding a probe of more than 8 million air bag inflators made by ARC Automotive Inc. after a driver was killed in Canada when an inflator ruptured in a Hyundai Motor Co vehicle. In May, NHTSA said automakers will recall another 35 million to 40 million Takata Corp. air bag inflators that could rupture and send deadly metal fragments flying. More than 100 million inflators worldwide have been deemed defective and are linked to at least 14 deaths and 100 injuries. In July 2015, NHTSA fined Fiat Chrysler $105 million for mishandling nearly two dozen recall campaigns covering 11 million vehicles. In December, NHTSA separately fined the automaker $70 million for failing to report vehicle crash deaths and injuries since 2003.

u.s .;recall;takata;air bags;nhtsa;fiat chrysler

jp0010878

2016/09/16

French, U.S. lightning bolts deemed to be world's longest

NEW YORK - Researchers have identified lightning bolts in Oklahoma and France as the longest on record and warn that their discovery could alter traditional thinking of when it is safe to go outside after a storm passes. A 2007 storm in Oklahoma produced a lightning bolt nearly 200 miles (320 km) long. A 2012 storm in southern France produced a single flash that lasted 7.74 seconds. Both events were added Wednesday to a list of weather extremes kept by the World Meteorological Organization. “We should be more aware of lightning if we can have lightning that can travel 200 miles,” said Randy Cerveny, the WMO’s spokesman on weather and climate extremes. “If thunder roars, go indoors.” Timothy Lang, a researcher at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said the record Oklahoma lightning bolt streaked from Tulsa, near the Arkansas border, to near the Oklahoma Panhandle. The bolt started at an altitude of 6 miles (9.6 km) and reached the ground in a number of places, he said. A researcher in Colorado saw the streak, and Lang said its length could change thinking about safety after a storm. “The lightning can start tens or hundreds of miles away and then come back to where you are,” Lang said. “You have to be careful of where the lightning is coming to ground, even though the storm is past.” Meteorologists generally suggest a “30-30” rule when storms are near. Start counting when you see a lightning bolt. If you reach 30 seconds before hearing the thunder, it is generally safe to continue outdoor activities. If thunder is heard in under 30 seconds, stop outdoor activities and wait 30 minutes before resuming. “These kinds of rules need to be looked at. It’s going to depend on the kind of thunderstorm,” Lang said. “You really need to know where it (lightning) is occurring. There could be a lower risk — the lower the flash rate — but it’s not ‘no-risk.’ “ Cerveny said not all storms will have lightning as extreme as the Oklahoma and French storms. The Oklahoma storm was in a particularly large complex of bad weather that occurred very early on June 20, 2007. Lightning sensors on the ground tracked the bolt’s path. “Most lightning will strike within the 30-30 rule,” he said. “The 30-30 rule is one that we still want to stress and make sure people are aware of … but it does demonstrate that lightning can hit far from where the storm actually is.” The Oklahoma flash lasted a bit more than five seconds, while the French bolt doubled back on itself, extending its life to 7.74 seconds, said Cerveny, a professor of geographic sciences at Arizona State University. The aerospace industry has an interest in lightning because it can endanger people on airplanes in flight, while meteorologists can use spikes in lightning to judge a storm’s severity, Lang said. “Oklahoma is a good place to study storms like this.”

nature;weather;storms;records

jp0010879

2016/09/17

Did Japan fudge the truth about whaling?

If you’ve been following the tragic farce that is Japan’s official stance on whaling, you’ll know that the arguments made by the country’s Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) to try and justify the hunting of whales have been soundly rejected. Japan maintains it needs to kill whales as part of a scientific research program to learn more about whale populations and determine if larger-scale commercial whaling is sustainable. Few people really believe this and even the International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that Japan’s whaling program was not scientific. Since 2005, the judges said, some 3,600 minke whales have been killed, and just two research papers have been published. Many supporters of whaling don’t even claim that the program is useful for gathering scientific data. Those who support whaling often cite tradition and culture as reasons for continuing to hunt whales. In fact, whaling doesn’t have a significant history in Japan. It was conducted on a very small scale until after World War II, and then only on a larger scale for 20 years or so. So I was interested to see a paper published last week suggesting that Japan had falsified its whaling data for whale catches in the Southern Hemisphere. Researchers behind the paper claim Japan all but lied to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) about the whales it was catching. I spoke to Phillip Clapham, leader of the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, about what he had uncovered. Clapham and his colleague, Yulia Ivashchenko, compared the length data of whales captured by the Soviet whaling fleet in the 1960s and ’70s with that reported by Japan to the IWC. They found a large mismatch, with the whales caught by Japanese vessels reportedly much longer than the whales recorded by the Soviet boats. The researchers concluded that the difference in length data could only be explained if the Japanese fishing boats had exaggerated the lengths of their catches so that it looked like they were catching legal-sized animals. “It indicates cheating on a large scale,” Clapham says. Clapham and Ivashchenko’s study is published in the Royal Society Open Science journal. Why would Japanese whaling vessels misreport their catches? “Presumably because they wanted to kill as many whales as possible, including undersized animals — those under the IWC’s minimum legal length, which was instituted to protect females,” Clapham says. “That required them to fake the lengths of many of the whales in the catch.” Clapham knows more than most about the truth behind Japan’s whaling program. Last year, he published a study suggesting that Japan operated a large-scale, illegal whaling program in the North Pacific in the 1960s. Then, as now, whaling was conducted by ships dedicated to harpooning and catching the animals, operating in tandem with a factory ship, where the whales were butchered. How on earth could Japanese whalers get away with such behavior? The answer is simple: No entity existed to check the validity of the catches until 1972, when the International Observer Scheme was introduced. Yet even when this system was introduced, Japanese vessels allegedly continued to falsify data beyond 1972. How? “This system had an independent inspector on board — one of a different nationality than the factory ship, so, in theory, it ruled out cheating,” Clapham says. “But we know from Soviet biologists that it didn’t entirely. Inspectors couldn’t be on the processing deck 24 hours a day and they were sometimes intentionally distracted with ‘celebrations’ by officers who took them to drink in their cabin when something illegal was about to come aboard.” Japanese whaling has changed — to an extent. As mentioned earlier, the International Court of Justice decided that Japan’s whaling program was not scientific in 2014, but it did not ban research whaling altogether. The IWC allows whaling by indigenous people, and this provision is applied to Greenland and Alaska. It also theoretically allows whaling for research purposes, which is how Japan tries to justify its activities. Since Japan’s (privately run) Institute for Cetacean Research sets its own quotas for the number of whales its boats can catch, there aren’t rules to break like there were in the 1960s and ’70s. Well, that’s not quite true. It’s not permitted to catch lactating females and calves, although Clapham says there’s good photographic evidence that this does happen. Incidentally, in March this year, the Fisheries Agency reported that Japan’s Antarctic whaling fleet caught 230 female minke whales, 90 percent of which were pregnant. The ban on commercial whaling has allowed whale numbers to rebound after dropping to dangerously low levels. Whale numbers have also been increasing in the Arctic as a result of sea-ice loss. These factors will increase the number of calls for the ban on commercial whaling to be lifted. That would cause no end of problems, Clapham says. “The whaling nations today maintain that the system of inspection proposed should commercial whaling resume is adequate, yet it’s clear from genetic analysis of what’s being sold in the Japanese market that there’s stuff there that you can’t account for through the whaling we know about,” Clapham says. Japan and the other whaling countries have refused to accept a truly independent, third-party system that monitors every step, from the catch to the market. Polls indicate that most people in Japan don’t care one way or another about whaling. Perhaps the public would feel more strongly if they knew more about what happened in the 1960s and ’70s. Many people were misled back then, because Japanese whalers are believed to have fudged the data on the length of whales they were catching. I hope this realization will help shift the mood in Japan from indifference to disgust.

whaling;international whaling commission;international court of justice;institute for cetacean research

jp0010881

2016/09/17

Renho and the 'pure blood' mythos

Despite the best efforts of certain individuals on Twitter , lawmaker Renho became the head of the Democratic Party last Thursday. Of course, those loosely linked online individuals that are sometimes referred to as netto uyo (internet right-wingers) don’t really care about the DP, but they were undoubtedly thrilled that the issue they raised with regard to Renho’s nationality became the most important one in the campaign — at least as far as the media was concerned. For that they can thank the Sankei Shimbun and its affiliates, particularly tabloid Yukan Fuji , which lead the anti-Renho chorus on a daily basis. The choir master was former bureaucrat Kazuro Yawata, who posted an essay on the blog platform Agora , later reprinted in Fuji, claiming that Renho — whose father is Taiwanese and whose mother is Japanese — never renounced her Taiwanese nationality and thus holds dual citizenship. A Sankei reporter who attended the DP presidential candidate press conference asked Renho about this discrepancy and all hell broke loose. Trying to prevent the clamor from intensifying, Renho hot-footed it to Taiwan’s representative office in Tokyo to confirm the renunciation of her Taiwanese nationality. She was under the impression her father had already done that when she obtained Japanese citizenship in 1985, when she was 17. On Tuesday she found out she still “retained” Taiwanese nationality. She is now in the process of renouncing it, but in any case her enemies were able to claim that Yawata’s “suspicions” had been verified. But what was behind these suspicions, other than mistrust of anyone with mixed parentage? As Jiji Press pointed out in a Sept. 7 article, the Japanese government has not had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since recognizing China in the 1970s, so, theoretically, people in Japan with Taiwanese nationality are nationals of China, and China does not allow its citizens to hold dual citizenship, meaning if Renho has Japanese nationality — and she does, since she has a koseki (family register)—there’s no way she could also be a Chinese national. But then last week, the Ministry of Justice clarified that Taiwanese in Japan are not subject to Chinese law. In any case, Yawata and Sankei continually made references to Renho’s supposed connections to China. It’s not as if the government has voiced concern about Renho’s nationality. As journalist Misuzu Kosugi points out in the online magazine Litera , while Japan does not recognize dual citizenship, it also doesn’t expressly outlaw it. Article 16 of the revised 1985 Nationality Law states that people with dual citizenship due to birth have to choose one nationality by the time they turn 22, and if they choose to be Japanese then they have to “make an effort” to renounce their other nationality. Article 15 of the law says the Justice Ministry will dispatch “warnings” to people who do not renounce their other nationality, but, as many media have reported, the ministry has never once sent out such a warning. The government itself estimates there are 680,000 Japanese with dual nationality. Professor Atsushi Kondo explains in the Asahi Shimbun that Japan cannot make a Japanese national renounce their other nationality because it has no control over the way other countries administer the matter. China automatically revokes the citizenship of Chinese who take other nationalities, but many countries don’t have a mechanism for voluntarily renouncing theirs. Most of the complaints against Renho have been about her inconsistency in explaining her status, but the fundamental issue for Sankei is blood. Before the Nationality Law was revised, Japan determined nationality through paternity: You were the citizen of whichever country your father was the citizen of. Now you can choose. People who accuse Renho of ambivalence toward her Japanese status still think in those terms. Yawata says only her father could renounce her Taiwanese nationality, but it’s not that simple. Law professor Yasuhiko Okuda recently explained on TBS radio that Taiwan prohibits a citizen from renouncing their nationality until they are 20. In other words, the matter was out of Renho’s, and her father’s, hands. It’s no coincidence that Renho’s detractors are the same people who are against allowing a female emperor. “Pure blood” ideology is at the root of Yawata’s philosophy — the “scoop” about Renho’s dual nationality was merely a delivery device. The law means nothing to them because their faith is invested in an occult mythos about the unbroken Imperial line. Kosugi insists these beliefs amount to “racism,” since they limit the rights of some people born and raised in Japan due to genetics. Asahi reported on July 6, 2014 — well before the Renho controversy — that the pure blood faction wants to kick out permanent Korean residents as well as anyone with dual citizenship by making all Japanese sign a loyalty oath. They are not just rightists, said the paper, they are “anachronisms.” Yawata says Renho can’t be trusted because she doesn’t use her Japanese married name and gave her children names that “sound Chinese.” These value judgments should mean nothing in a democracy. Zakzak , another Sankei organ, adds to the din by saying that Japanese people do not like the idea of someone with dual citizenship “rising to the top.” What about best-selling Japanese-American singer Hikaru Utada and all those bicultural athletes at the Rio Olympics? For that matter, what about former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who was allowed to settle here and escape prosecution in his native country by asserting his Japanese nationality? The roar of negativity just gets bigger, even though it has no legal or even logical justification. Though Sankei hates the DP as much as it loves so-called pure-blood Japanese, the DP doesn’t want to risk bad blood with anyone who feels likewise and, except for the previous DP president, Katsuya Okada , has been reticent on the issue. Even Renho reacted in a defensive manner. No wonder Sankei and its ilk are so loud: There’s no one shouting back.

citizenship;nationality;renho

jp0010885

2016/09/19

New MRJ hiccups revive manufacturing industry's jitters

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet is back in the spotlight after flights to the United States were canceled last month because of problems with the air-conditioning system. The MRJ has been delayed four times so far. With hopes for a manufacturing revival resting on Japan’s first domestically made plane since 1974, what are its prospects for success? Here are some questions and answers about the quest to produce the MRJ. How did the MRJ project begin? It all started in 2002, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry proposed the idea of making a small, environmentally friendly passenger plane. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries decided to take on the project. Japan is no stranger to making fighter jets, but this essentially represented the first domestic attempt to produce a commercial plane since the YS-11, a turboprop made by Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corp. that was halted in 1974. Nihon Aircraft was a consortium comprising MHI, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Fuji Heavy Industries. Since then, Japanese companies have been making parts in conjunction with major plane makers such as Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE. MHI and KHI, for example, are both so-called tier 1 suppliers for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, providing the primary wings and forward fuselages, respectively. The tier 1 contractors are positioned directly under the plane makers themselves in the supply chain framework. Why does Mitsubishi Heavy want to make jets? Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., a Nagoya-based affiliate of MHI that is overseeing the MRJ project, says it fears that being a simple parts maker could see it get trapped in price wars with more competitive rivals from China or elsewhere. MHI is thus trying to avoid the same fate that befell its counterparts in the TV, computer and electronics sectors. “We want to take things one step further, to become a real jet maker,” said Yuji Sawamura, a spokesman for Mitsubishi Aircraft. Akinobu Okuda, a research director who monitors the aviation industry for Mitsubishi Research Institute, concurred, emphasizing that the company needs a larger goal. “A tier 1 business is about making products whose specifications are designed by jet makers, such as Boeing and Airbus. … Even if tier 1 suppliers make good products, jet makers might demand they make them better and cheaper,” which will shrink their profits, he said. According to Okuda, being a plane maker will give the firm the freedom to decide from the get-go what to make, and control of the overall supply chain, Okuda said. But a jet makers’ business does not end at making planes. It must also provide continuous maintenance and support to the airlines that use them. Okuda said adding those businesses will help diversify MHI’s revenue sources. Japanese manufacturers should adopt business models like these that can rake in long-term profits rather than settle for being suppliers, he said. According to Sawamura, if all goes well, the MRJ endeavor could bring about a positive shift in the Japanese manufacturing industry and its way of thinking. About 70 percent of the MRJ’s parts are made by overseas firms, since there are just a handful of aviation-related parts makers in Japan. But if MHI establishes itself as a jet maker, Japan can strengthen the aviation manufacturing sector, potentially creating more business opportunities for small and midsize firms. Such a shift would be reminiscent of Japan’s thriving auto industry, which continues to support a web of smaller parts makers. The bounty could be enormous: Jets require more than a million parts, or over 30 times more than cars, which only contain about 30,000. Can the MRJ survive the competition? The market for regional jets, generally defined as planes with 50 to 100 seats, like the MRJ, is dominated by two firms — Brazil’s Embraer SA and Canada’s Bombardier Inc. — but Okuda believes the MRJ can break their stranglehold on the market. “It’s a good time to enter the market … because Bombardier is shifting its focus to larger jets,” he said. According to Japan Aircraft Development Corp., a Tokyo-based firm researching passenger jet development, planes in the 120-169 seat class are projected to enjoy the strongest demand between 2016 and 2035, with demand for regional jets expected to grow to around 3,600 planes. Okuda said it won’t be easy for Bombardier to expand market share for planes bigger than 100 seats while competing against Boeing and Airbus. He also said Bombardier has been in dire financial straits and may not be able to develop new, competitive regional jets, creating a potential opening for the MRJ. What are the MRJ’s selling points? Mitsubishi Aircraft says the MRJ is 20 percent more fuel efficient than existing regional jets as it uses a cutting-edge engine made by U.S.-based Pratt & Whitney. Since fuel is a huge cost for airlines, fuel-efficient planes are immensely appealing. Sawamura at Mitsubishi Aircraft also said that while the jet may be small, its seats are as wide as those in midsize planes and its cabin is spacious, with a high ceiling. Will the two flight cancellations to the U.S. affect the company’s business plan? Commercial delivery of the MRJ has been delayed four times so far. The two aborted flights at Nagoya Airport were caused when a sensor indicated there was a problem with the air conditioning system. Sawamura, however, said that a check found nothing wrong and that the MRJ will soon be ready to go to the U.S. to conduct test flights. Okuda said the air conditioning trouble is unlikely to significantly affect long-term plans. The test flights in the U.S. are needed for the plane to be certified by the Japanese transport ministry. How is the MRJ doing from a business perspective? In term of sticking to the initial schedule, it hasn’t been a smooth ride. Mitsubishi Aircraft originally expected deliveries to start in 2013, but now the first delivery is set for 2018. So far, Mitsubishi Aircraft has received 427 orders for the MRJ from clients including All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and U.S.-based Skywest. While refusing to disclose the break-even point for the jet, the firm has said its goal for now is to sell 1,000. In the aviation industry, a model is considered a hit if sales reach 1,000. More than ¥30 billion has reportedly been poured into the MRJ’s development, but Mitsubishi Aircraft declined to confirm that number and said it would recover the costs in the long run.

aviation;mitsubishi heavy industries;mrj

jp0010887

2016/09/07

Todai's traditions reflected in Hongo neighborhood

Hongo, an area in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, is synonymous with Japan’s top academic institution, the University of Tokyo. Also known as Todai, the university, established in 1877 as the first national university in Japan, is not just a top institution but its green campus is open to the public on most days, providing a precious oasis to nearby residents and workers in the middle of the capital. With the establishment of the university, Hongo has flourished with eateries, stores and residential buildings catering to students and faculty. It is also a place where many writers have lived, including literary giants Soseki Natsume, Ichiyo Higuchi and Takuboku Ishikawa. During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), Hongo had many boardinghouses for university students, boasting some 120 at one point. Among them is Homeikan, which still stands near the main gate of the university. Built more than 100 years ago, Homeikan has transformed itself from a boardinghouse into a posh ryokan inn. The inn’s traditional wooden exterior and warm, nostalgic atmosphere — a rare sight in the heart of Tokyo — is popular with both Japanese tourists and those from overseas. Along the Kikuzaka slope near the subway Hongo 3-Chome Station, other wooden structures remain, although most disappeared during the war or due to aging. Higuchi, a great novelist whose portrait is printed on ¥5,000 bills, lived in a house along the Kikuzaka. The house is gone, but a well said to be used by Higuchi can still be found in a quiet corner amid residences, giving a glimpse into the time when she lived. The well, administered by Bunkyo Ward, can also still be used to draw water today. Strolling around Hongo, the area is likely to bring back memories of a time almost forgotten. Yasuda Auditorium stands tall on the University of Tokyo grounds in Bunkyo Ward. The campus is open to the public on most days. | SATOKO KAWASAKI A mother and child play by a pond at the University of Tokyo. The green campus in Bunkyo Ward offers the public a chance to enjoy nature. | SATOKO KAWASAKI The interior of the Homeikan inn serves up a nostalgic atmosphere. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Homeikan, a ‘ryokan’ inn located near the main gate of the University of Tokyo, is one of the few remaining wooden structures from the Meiji Era in the Hongo area in Bunkyo Ward. | SATOKO KAWASAKI A well in a residential area along the Kikuzaka slope was said to be used by novelist Ichiyo Higuchi during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). | SATOKO KAWASAKI

university of tokyo;at a glance;hongo

jp0010888

2016/09/07

Renho nationality accusations spur debate on dual citizenship

Renho, one of the three candidates vying for the top slot in the Sept. 15 Democratic Party leadership election, has repeatedly denied speculation that she may be violating the Nationality Law by having de facto dual citizenship. The high-profile lawmaker from the main opposition DP has a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother. On Wednesday, she denied the nationality allegations, telling Jiji Press and other media outlets that she had renounced her Taiwanese citizenship when she obtained Japanese nationality in 1985 at the age of 17. But what are the legalities surrounding dual citizenship in Japan? Is having dual citizenship illegal in Japan? The Nationality Law states that a Japanese national who also holds foreign citizenship is obliged to choose one before turning 22 or risk losing Japanese citizenship. The Justice Ministry says holding dual citizenship may cause international conflict caused by a collision of diplomatic protection rights between two countries. It also says allowing dual citizenship causes identity confusion in multiple nations. How can a person obtain multiple citizenship? Japan upholds the jus sanguinis principle, meaning that Japanese citizenship is attributed by blood, as opposed to the jus soli principle upheld by such countries as the United States, where citizenship is decided by location of birth. In many cases, children who are born to a Japanese national and a non-Japanese citizen acquire multiple citizenship at birth. Children who were born to Japanese parents in jus soli countries may also acquire dual citizenship. In that case, parents must declare their desire to retain Japanese citizenship for their children within three months of birth or face it being revoked. Children for whom Japanese citizenship is revoked can retrieve it before they turn 20 if living in Japan. A Japanese citizen who marries a foreign national may also acquire dual citizenship. He or she must choose one nationality within two years after marriage to avoid dual citizenship if they are 20 or older. If foreign citizens are naturalized in Japan, they are required to renounce their current nationality, except when there is a compelling reason not to. What must be done to avoid dual citizenship? If people with dual nationalities choose Japanese citizenship, they must either file a document to prove renunciation of foreign nationality or, if unable to do so, declare their desire to retain Japanese citizenship to municipalities or Japanese diplomatic offices overseas. The Nationality Law states that a person who has dual citizenship could be notified by the justice minister if the person doesn’t select a nationality two years after a second citizenship is acquired, or when they reached 22 years of age. If no action is made within one month after receiving the notice, the person may lose their Japanese citizenship. However, no one has ever been notified nor lost Japanese nationality for having dual citizenship since the Nationality Law came into effect in 1985, Justice Ministry official Hiroyuki Ishii said. “Because losing Japanese citizenship may have an enormous impact to an individual’s life, we must be extremely careful about exercising it,” Ishii said, adding that the law does not have any penalties for having dual citizenship.

citizenship;nationality;renho

jp0010889

2016/09/09

SoftBank rolls out Giga Monster data plan against MVNO rivals

In an apparent bid to prevent customers from jumping ship to budget mobile phone services, SoftBank Corp. said Thursday it will cut monthly rates for its smartphone data plans. A new plan dubbed the “Giga Monster” will offer 20 GB a month for ¥6,000 and 30 GB for ¥8,000 starting Sept. 13, down from ¥16,000 and ¥22,500, respectively. Mobile phone users are consuming increasingly large amounts of data-rich content such as videos, so “SoftBank is looking to provide plans where customers won’t have to worry about their data usage,” it said in a statement. SoftBank had been widely recommending the 5 GB plan, saying that 93 percent of its smartphone subscribers use 5 GB or less a month. But complaints that the plan falls short have been increasing. SoftBank’s move is also likely to increase competition with rivals Docomo and KDDI. SoftBank said the new plans were made possible by new technology that allows it maintain faster and steadier internet connections, which isn’t something its competitors can emulate quickly. The cheaper rates come at a time of relative calm in the mobile phone arena, a pause prompted by a request from the communications ministry to stop using major cash-back incentives to lure customers. Still, SoftBank’s move may also signal that it’s feeling the pinch of customers switching to low-cost smartphone service operators known as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Subscribers to MVNOs surged to 5.39 million at the end of March, up 65.5 percent from a year ago, and their numbers are only expected grow, according to MM Research Institute. On Monday, messaging app Line jumped into the MVNO market to stir up the competition with cut-rate offerings.

smartphones;docomo;softbank;kddi

jp0010891

2016/09/24

The ascendancy of a Japanese maestro

In the past few months, the media has been pleasantly surprised at the sudden ascendancy of some noteworthy Japanese women, mainly in the realm of politics. Since pianist Hiroko Nakamura passed away in July, the media has been filled with obituaries that paid tribute to her own powerful position in Japan’s classical music scene some 50 years ago. Internationally, Seiji Ozawa is a more well-known musician, but his effect on Japan’s embrace of Western music is slight compared to Nakamura’s — which isn’t to say she was a superior artist. She was an excellent technician who didn’t make a big impression as a performer abroad, but her ability to communicate what was appealing about so-called serious music at a time when Japanese society was going through huge changes was fortuitous. She deserves credit for sparking the classical music boom that swept Japan in the 1970s and ’80s. Nakamura was born in 1944 to a well-to-do family and attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music, which also produced Ozawa. Even as a child she wanted to be a professional pianist, and she didn’t require a lot of encouragement or direction. She won the Japan Music Competition in 1959, and the following year embarked on a world tour with the NHK Symphony Orchestra. In an interview on NHK’s tribute to Nakamura, conductor Yuzo Toyama said she was the first Asian solo musician European audiences had ever seen perform European music, adding that they were “shocked” that a Japanese artist could possess the proper sensibility to tackle the Western canon. In 1963, Nakamura enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where her teacher made her start from zero. Her style was florid and showy, and she had to relearn how to “attack the keys.” Later she admitted that the experience shook her to the core. She had been spoiled as a teenager by constant praise, and while at first she felt as if she were being condescended to as a Japanese — a native of a country that lost World War II — inevitably she buckled down and altered her style. This reeducation meant her playing became more accepted internationally. Harold Schonberg, music critic for the New York Times, praised her playing in his first-ever review of an Asian artist. In 1965, Nakamura came fourth at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. She should have returned to Japan triumphantly, but instead was met with veiled resentment. She wasn’t the first: Ozawa had succeeded abroad and initially wasn’t taken seriously as a conductor in his native land due to envy over that success. Japan’s classical music world was dominated by men who didn’t trust students who went abroad, since — as in Nakamura’s case — it often meant rejecting Japanese methods of music pedagogy. Ozawa fled back to Europe and the U.S., but Nakamura stayed to become a concert pianist in Japan, a decision that was doubly difficult since she was a woman. However, it was her gender, combined with a proud temperament that was a natural product of her privileged upbringing, which provided her with the means to stand out in a field of inherently interchangeable pianists. Her dominance of that field was also a function of postwar socioeconomics. In 1992, my partner and I interviewed Nakamura for a local magazine, and one of our themes was the inordinately large number of female classical musicians in Japan, both as students and professionals. At the time in America and, especially, Europe, classical music was still a man’s game. “Boys are not usually encouraged to become professional musicians,” she said, speaking about the situation in Japan. “You have to sacrifice your everyday life, starting when you’re 3 or 4 years old.” Middle-class parents, anxious about their male offsprings’ prospects, would rather they enter into competition for the best jobs at the earliest age, which meant getting on an educational track that leads to the best schools. And as she pointed out, even for boys from rich families who dream of a music career, “there’s no guarantee you’re going to be the next Horowitz.” This explained why boys weren’t becoming musicians, but not why so many girls were, and she was uncharacteristically modest when she theorized that most didn’t enter music school with the idea of becoming professionals. In truth many did, and they were inspired by Nakamura, who was not only talented but openly ambitious, a trait Japanese women at the time were discouraged from displaying. Her first coup as a professional was economic. She became Sony Records’ first “exclusive” artist in 1968, at a time when classical record sales were monopolized by foreign artists. Sony gave her a platform from which to spread the classical gospel to average people just as their incomes were increasing to a level where they could enjoy a wider range of leisure activities. Previously only the elite attended concerts, but she made a point of not only playing for everyone, but proselytizing in a way that didn’t patronize. However, she did it without abandoning her patrician airs. Nakamura was the consummate ojosan (well-bred young lady), happily ostentatious in her appetites. She married an award-winning novelist , lived in a luxurious apartment with a view of Tokyo Tower, and surrounded herself with people of high social standing, many of whom were not Japanese. She never made as big a splash internationally as her contemporary Mitsuko Uchida did, because she wasn’t as good a pianist, but given her prerogatives as a professional, this didn’t bother her. Being a big fish in a small pond suited her ego and her capabilities, and she was rewarded handsomely for it. In our interview she was candid about the classical music world, wryly critical of its embedded prejudices while expressing no reservations about her own. Later, after cooler retrospection, she asked to have some comments cut, afraid they might offend certain parties. We relented but then wondered what she was worried about. She was Hiroko Nakamura; if she couldn’t be an iconoclast, who could?

seiji ozawa;hiroko nakamura

jp0010894

2016/09/12

Abe wants to raise construction site productivity with drones, AI

The government unveiled has unveiled a campaign to raise productivity at construction sites by 20 percent by 2025 through the use of drones and artificial intelligence. At an inaugural meeting of officials and private-sector experts tasked with formulating new growth strategy policies, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Monday to wipe out the image of construction work as dangerous, dirty and demanding, and “drastically” change the work environment. The government envisions using drones to carry out surveying at public works sites such as tunnels, bridges and dams. The use of artificial intelligence is aimed at dramatically reducing the time required to carry out land surveys. The government plans to discuss topics to be included in its new growth strategy until around January and compile the strategy around the middle of next year. “We will shed light on impediments to employing the remarkable technological innovations of recent years in people’s lives and society, and push forward with reforms,” Abe said at the meeting. With Japan’s population shrinking and graying, proposals to employ artificial intelligence are likely to involve replacing construction machinery with machines that can be operated automatically so work can be carried out with a small number of skilled workers. The plan may involve rolling out tax breaks and financial support to aid regional public works projects and small and medium-size construction firms in adopting information and communication technologies. At a separate meeting Monday, Abe vowed to make Japan the world leader in business innovation and make public services more convenient by streamlining bureaucratic procedures using so-called information and communications technology. A growth strategy is one of the three “arrows” of the Abenomics economic policy package that Abe has pushed since regaining power at the end of 2012 with the aim of pulling Japan out of a decades-long deflationary trend, the other two being monetary easing and massive fiscal spending.

drones;growth strategy;construction industry;ai

jp0010895

2016/09/25

New website to help track Diet members' money trails

OSAKA - Traditionally, one succeeded in Japan as a politician by ensuring strength in just three areas: money, connections and popularity. Money, in the form of campaign funds that were returned to supporters via all manner of public works’ projects, was — and remains — the most important. But journalists, scholars and interested members of the public hoping to follow the money trail to its sources have been confronted with daunting amounts of time-consuming paperwork. Under the Political Funds Control Law, all Diet members must report their sources of income. But the amount of time needed to track down who gave what to whom has been seen as a considerable obstacle. In an effort to simplify the process of tracing the funds, an Osaka-based nonprofit organization recently announced that it will create an online group dedicated to letting any member of the public follow the money. Starting Oct. 21, the group, which calls itself Japan Center For Money and Politics Foundation in English, will post online the reports of about 2,200 political organizations donating to politicians in both chambers of the Diet. There will also be online explanations of the law regarding political funds, as well as plans to offer training sessions on the most efficient ways of using the site. Visitors to the site will be able to easily look up politicians such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and see the names of political groups that support them. They can then check to see how much each group has donated over the years, and then download a report in PDF form. While a group’s name alone can often point to the politicians they support, some are so vaguely worded that it is nearly impossible for the uninitiated to connect a group to a specific lawmaker. The new website is designed to make such a search easier. While it is unlikely to solve the old problem of money politics, the site will be one more tool for those working to determine who is behind the cash. The website, in Japanese only, will launch Oct. 21 at openpolitics.or.jp

election;politicians;political funds

jp0010896

2016/09/25

Kansai uses subsidies to fill empty homes, but persuading aging population to pull up stakes remains a challenge

NARA - For the casual visitor to one of Japan’s crowded megacities — and even some natives who rarely see the rest of the country — it’s easy to assume housing demand is high nationwide. But with over 8.2 million homes nationwide now vacant due to an aging population, declining birthrate and mass migration of younger workers to megacities, some rural regions, and even some cities, are struggling to deal with the abandoned homes, called akiya , which are not only eyesores but also fire hazards. In the six major prefectures of the traditional Kansai region, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Shiga and Wakayama, the problem is not as acute as it is elsewhere. But prefectures like Hyogo, and even cities like Kyoto and Nara, are increasingly adopting measures to reduce the number of vacant homes, including via subsidies for owners. A 2013 survey by the central government showed 18.1 percent of Wakayama Prefecture homes, including apartments and condominiums, were officially considered empty — the highest percentage among Kansai’s six prefectures. In Osaka Prefecture, 14.8 percent of homes were empty, while the figure for Nara Prefecture stood at 13.8 percent. This was followed by Kyoto at 13.3 percent, Hyogo at 13 percent and Shiga at 12.9 percent. By contrast, 11.1 percent of homes in Tokyo were empty in 2013 and the national average of the 47 prefectures was 13.5 percent. Hyogo has been particularly busy in working to fill their abandoned homes. Those who remodel empty houses there for living, businesses or community exchange purposes, including educational exchanges, and agree to use them for at least 10 years are eligible for subsidies. These funds can cover anywhere from one-third to one-half the costs of a basic renovation, depending on the purpose of the remodeling. For residential or business purposes, this would mean up to an estimated ¥3 million in subsidies. For community exchange purposes, the funds could amount to as much as ¥1 million. The money can’t always be used as the owner wishes, but is intended for specific remodeling work such as installing modern toilets and for weatherproofing. Other conditions include guarantees that owners will follow laws and regulations. If, for example, they open a restaurant or a store selling local produce, a strict adherence to the agricultural law is required. Following the Hotel Business Law to a tee is another requirement for potential owners after the nationwide emergence of illegal minpaku facilities, where guests, especially from abroad, stay in a residence either because they couldn’t find or didn’t want to stay in a licensed hotel or inn. In the city of Kyoto, surging tourist numbers combined with a hotel shortage have kick-started the minpaku business, legal and illegal. This has been partially due to an ample supply of empty houses and apartments in some wards that lets the area meet the growing demand for short-term stays. In the city’s Higashiyama Ward, an area that includes popular tourist destinations like Yasaka Shrine, the traditional Gion district and Kiyomizu Temple, 22.5 percent of apartments and homes were officially listed as akiya in 2013, the highest percentage in the prefecture. While Kyoto has long had various forms of assistance for those looking to relocate to traditional machiya townhouses, problems associated with tourists staying in officially empty homes and apartment buildings is causing headaches. And while the city has begun to take countermeasures, the problem shows no sign of abating anytime soon. “At present, of 118 apartment realtors that are members of our organization, about half manage homes and apartments that are only for residential purposes,” said Chiaki Tanigaki, who represents a Kyoto-based nonprofit organization formed to promote better management of housing facilities in the Kyoto and Shiga areas. “Recently, a number of them have been used as private lodging facilities for visitors, especially those facilities located near famous shrines and temples that draw a lot of tourists. Many of the owners, be they foreigners or Japanese, don’t actually reside in the apartments, and advertise them as minpaku on the Internet,” Tanigaki said. Elsewhere in the region, local governments, mindful of Kyoto’s minpaku experience, are looking at Hyogo’s akiya policy and beginning to offer detailed proposals to fill the empty homes and spur community development. Under a new plan announced at the end of last month, the city of Nara will provide financial assistance of up to ¥4 million to those who wish to remodel empty homes and facilities for the purpose of aiding community redevelopment. The money is not to be used for individuals seeking their own homes. Instead, Nara is offering the subsidies in hopes of creating more lodging facilities, restaurants or shops that sell locally produced food, as well as sports facilities, art galleries and hands-on learning centers, especially those centering on children’s activities. “A city survey last year showed there were 2,722 empty houses, not including deserted apartments,” said Hitomi Hirata, an official with the city’s brand promotion section. “We’re now in the process of accepting applications from those applying for the funding, and will make a decision on who gets how much by November.” As a study last year by Nomura Research Institute predicted that the number of empty homes and apartment buildings nationwide would skyrocket to 21.5 million by 2033 from the 8.2 million in 2013, competition to fill the sites is likely to be fierce both in Kansai and elsewhere. Perhaps more daunting may be the challenge of persuading a shrinking and aging population to pull up roots and move from the cities they’ve lived and worked their entire lives into the growing number of abandoned homes. For those with sufficient capital who are willing to relocate, this could well prove to be a buyer’s market. However, whether increased financial assistance and other measures will be enough to lure sufficient numbers of people out of the megacities and spark local economic revitalization is another question altogether.

tourism;kansai;vacant houses;minpaku

jp0010897

2016/08/02

Yasukuni Shrine glows in its traditional mid-summer show

It’s like a midsummer night’s dream. In mid-July, Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo was lit up in orange by 30,000 lanterns lining the approach to the annual Mitama Matsuri festival, creating a nostalgic atmosphere. The festival’s location, often a point of diplomatic contention with neighboring countries because it honors Class-A World War II war criminals along with the nation’s war dead, is a focal point of prayer for the peaceful repose of the lost souls. But for many visitors, it’s an attractive tourism spot that offers a glimpse of Japan’s traditional festivals with Awa odori and Bon odori dance performances and parades of men carrying mikoshi portable shrines. The event’s crescendo happens when visitors, some wearing yukata casual kimono, and the Bon odori performers dance together in the heat of a summer night. One of the biggest summer festivals in Tokyo, and held since 1947, the four-day event attracts about 300,000 visitors from home and abroad every year. The festival takes place during Tokyo’s traditional Bon period in July. Tourists can be seen taking selfies amid the orange lanterns and vividly colored streamers that hang down from above. The food and drink stands that once dotted the shrine’s approach have been banned during the event from last year, as many young people, some inebriated, caused a bit of a ruckus. Women in yukata casual kimono take a selfie with their smartphone at the Mitama Matsuri festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on July 16. | YOSHIAKI MIUIRA Children and adults perform the Awa odori dance at the Mitama Matsuri festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on July 16. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A couple kiss among rows of orange lanterns at the Mitama Matsuri festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on July 16. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Men carry a mikoshi portable shrine as they parade during the Mitama Matsuri at Yasukuni Shrine in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on July 16. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Japanese calligraphy on a lantern at Yasukuni Shrine during the Mitama Matsuri reads ‘Rest in peace, my loved one, watch over me, my loved one.’ | YOSHIAKI MIURA Tourists from home and abroad dance with Bon odori performers during the Mitama Matsuri festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on July 16. | YOSHIAKI MIURA

yasukuni shrine;festival;mitama matsuri

jp0010898

2016/08/20

The gene that may benefit sumo giants

Samoa, with its string of beautiful islands and coral atolls in the South Pacific, is attracting more than just tourists these days. Scientists are heading there, too. The nation holds the uneviable position of being No. 1 in the world for obesity. Among Samoan men, 80 percent are either overweight or obese, and that figure reaches 91 percent for Samoan women. They are the fattest people in the world, and they are proving revealing subjects for genetics studies. I learned about obesity in Samoa after seeing a recent report on a genetic analysis of more than 5,000 people on the islands. The study, led by Ryan Minster of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uncovered a gene variant that boosts obesity risk by 30-40 percent. It’s worth stressing that this isn’t an “obesity gene.” With complex traits such as this (intelligence is another one), there isn’t likely to be a single gene that determines whether you do or do not have the trait. And, of course, environmental factors such as diet and exercise play a big part. To date, however, no other gene has been found to be so influential in obesity as this particular gene. It goes by the instantly forgettable name of CREBRF. My first thought was to question what the gene does. My second was about famous former sumo wrestlers Musashimaru and Konishiki. Musashimaru, who reached the top rank of yokozuna (grand champion) in 1999, was born in Samoa, while Konishiki, who made ozeki (the second-highest rank) in 1987, was born in Hawaii of Samoan descent. They are big men and, at their peak weights, were colossal. Musashimaru reached 235 kilograms, while Konishiki is the heaviest sumo wrestler in history, weighing 287 kilograms. What do their genes look like? The way men put on weight when they are professional sumo wrestlers is very different to how sedentary people get fat on a diet of junk food (we’ll come back to this), but I can’t help thinking about their genetics and, indeed, about the genetics of the sumo population in general. After all, most sumo wrestlers have a body mass index of 40 or above, which is the category where “morbidly obese” begins. And since there’s only one weight class in sumo, there is an incentive to put on as much weight as possible. People with genes that aid in tremendous weight gain would be at an advantage. Back to the CREBRF gene. Minster’s team made cells in the lab that carried the CREBRF variant. By measuring how the cells grew, the team found that the gene variant enabled the cells to store more fat. In effect, the cells became thrifty. They preferred to hoard fat than to release it. Around 25 percent of Samoans carry the gene, Minster says. You can see how having the gene would have been useful in the past. Around 3,500 years ago, people from Australia and the South Pacific started settling the more isolated islands in the region. There is evidence of human settlement dating back to about 3,000 years ago on Samoa. To survive the voyages across the open ocean, and to endure and thrive when they arrived on the islands, the people needed to be thrifty and to conserve energy wherever possible. Any gene that aids this goal will be selected. The problem now, of course, is that the environment and their way of life has changed radically. Levels of physical exertion are lower than they were even a few decades ago. Fast food is easily available, and, by some measures, 40 percent of children are overweight — even by the time they are 15 months old. In this new environment, you can see how a gene that is intent on hoarding as much fat as possible can contribute to obesity. That’s why I expect many professional sumo wrestlers have the CREBRF gene variant. I read a piece in the Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science arguing that obesity is a professional requirement for sumo wrestlers. Surprisingly, sumo wrestlers have the largest fat-free mass of all professional athletes. This means that ignoring the fat, they have large body masses. The fat they put on is different to how the rest of us get fat. Sumo wrestlers lay down subcutaneous fat that doesn’t inhibit muscle development and which can be more easily accessed for energy use. The rest of us tend to put on visceral fat in the abdomen, around the organs, and this is much less healthy. Sumo wrestlers also eat differently from the rest of us. They consume large amounts of food in two sittings per day, unlike the rest of us who typically have three meals a day. (I once heard that sumo wrestlers have their intestines massaged so they can fit in more food — does anyone know if this is true?) And the food they eat — the famous chanko nabe hot pot — is highly nutritious (not to mention tasty). A sumo wrestler eats about 5,000 calories per day, compared to around 2,200 for the average Japanese. Interestingly, although obesity is a strong risk factor leading to diabetes, Minster’s team found that people with CREBRF had lower rates of diabetes. If the variant is common in sumo wrestlers, as I suspect it is, this is good news for their health when they retire.

genetics;weight;sumo

jp0010899

2016/08/20

With deft political move, Japan's Emperor seeks to cement the role he created

It has been more than a month since NHK reported that Emperor Akihito had expressed a desire to step down from the Imperial throne before he died, and during that time the Emperor himself has addressed the matter in a prerecorded message to the nation. There has also been a great deal of discussion about the constitutionality of “abdication,” how the government will respond and whether or not the Emperor has any human rights . Something that hasn’t been discussed much is the original report. NHK first aired the story on its 7 p.m. news show on July 13. Every other media outlet was caught completely off guard and scrambled to confirm it. According to an article in the Aug. 5 issue of Shukan Post , the press club of the Imperial Household Agency “was in total chaos,” with reporters running around, cellphones glued to their ears. The NHK bulletin, delivered in the passive voice, stated that the Emperor had “indicated his will” to step down “in a few years” so that Crown Prince Naruhito could ascend the throne “before (the present Emperor) dies,” and that this desire had been accepted by the rest of the Imperial family. “Did anyone know where NHK got its information?” the reporters kept asking one another. The Asahi Shimbun was the first to file the agency’s official disavowal of the story, several hours after NHK reported it. In the meantime, NHK ran it unchanged on its 9 p.m. news show and again at 11. Now reporters were running around with a different question: Would the Imperial Household Agency lodge an official protest with NHK and post it on its home page, as it did in 2013 after the Shukan Shincho magazine published a similar story about abdication? No protest was made, which means the NHK story was probably true. The Emperor’s subsequent prerecorded video effectively corroborated it after the fact. But who contacted NHK? Shukan Post talked to a “major newspaper source” who says he learned that only a handful of people at the public broadcaster were privy to the leak, including the reporter in charge of Imperial affairs, and that NHK’s political desk was informed just before the news was aired. The source believes it came from “a high-ranking official in the agency,” due to the fact that NHK is not the type of news outlet that would make such a report behind the agency’s back. So the real mystery is why the report was made in such a roundabout way. Yuichi Nishimura , a young constitutional scholar at Hokkaido University, told the Asahi that whoever leaked the news wanted to appear to be bypassing the Cabinet, which has authority over the Imperial Household Agency. At the time it seemed as if the government was just as surprised as the media was when the report aired. The government, which currently represents the desires of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party, is working to revise the Constitution, and one of the things they want to change is the status of the Emperor from a “symbol” ( shōchō ) of the state to its “sovereign head” ( genshu ), which is what he was before Japan lost World War II. Toshiya Sakiyama, a reporter who covers the Imperial household, speculated on TBS radio that the Cabinet probably knew about the Emperor’s “intentions” before the leak and did nothing to stop it, but he “can’t confirm” that supposition. In any case, if the Cabinet didn’t know about it, then it was remiss in its responsibilities, because while the Emperor’s duties are stipulated in the Constitution, those he actually performs are carried out at “the discretion of the Cabinet.” The distinction is important because the Emperor has taken his role as a symbol to heart. This is a point that has been made by overseas experts but not so much by the Japanese media. Emperor Hirohito never quite grasped what being a symbol entailed, but his son developed his own interpretation of what it means and endeavored to make the most of that role, which has involved tasks not mentioned in the Constitution. Emperor Akihito invented his job. His visit last week to Nippon Budokan Hall to express remorse for World War II is not something he’s required to do, and thus he can only do it with the permission of the Cabinet. The same goes for all those trips he and Empress Michiko have made to former battle sites to pray for those who perished in the war, not to mention visiting disaster areas to commiserate with evacuees. These “duties” ( kōmu ) are, legally speaking, not duties at all. Real kōmu are restricted to religious rituals, rubber-stamping documents and meeting foreign dignitaries. These newer tasks are simply things the Emperor wants to do, and now that he’s established a precedent in the minds of the people, he insists that his heirs continue this work, which is why he wants to step down. In order for that work to proceed smoothly, it shouldn’t be slowed down or interrupted by his own failing health and inevitable death. The Crown Prince should take over. It’s not a question of succession; it’s about productivity. The problem for the government goes beyond changing the law to allow for abdication. As Nishimura points out, this “role” the Emperor has assumed negates that of “sovereign head of state.” Though the nuance may be lost on the general population, the majority appreciates the Emperor’s interpretation of his status, which might make it difficult to change that part of the Constitution. This possibility explains the leak to NHK. Sakiyama says he received information that the announcement of the Emperor’s intention to step down was originally going to be made on the Emperor’s birthday in December, and while no one in the media has said so explicitly, the feeling is that it was moved up because of the LDP’s victory in the Upper House election in July. Before the government starts fiddling with the national charter, the Emperor wants the people involved and thus has injected his “will” into the matter. Such a scheme is clearly political and outside the Emperor’s job description, but when you create an occupation for yourself, you get to say how it’s carried out.

constitution;emperor akihito;nhk;imperial family;abdication

jp0010900

2016/08/20

An awakening gives birth to modern medicine

Illness we share with our ancestors. Diagnosis and remedies set us and them apart. Imagine yourself a Kyoto noble 1,000-odd years ago. You’re feeling unwell. “One of two things,” you muse to yourself, “either my yin-yang balance is upset, or …” The second possibility makes you shudder: “Am I possessed by an evil spirit?” Yin and yang were the elemental components of the universe: dark, moist, female yin; bright, dry, male yang. A yin-yang imbalance caused natural disasters and political upheaval in the world, disease in the body. A physician could deal with the latter. He was a sage, a learned man — learned, however, not in what we today call science but in ancient Chinese literary classics that defined health as it defined morality — a matter of being in tune with the forces of the universe. With acupuncture, moxibustion and herbal medicines he labored to restore the ailing body to its rightful universal alignment. How effective was he? The centuries and centuries it took for doubts to creep in may testify to the slowness of human intellectual progress — or it may constitute a partial rebuttal to modern medical practitioners who dismiss ancient wisdom as rubbish. When the physician failed, he made way, more or less graciously, for the exorcist. The 11th-century novel “The Tale of Genji” shows us an exorcist at work. Genji’s wife, Murasaki, is dying, possessed by the vengeful spirit of one of Genji’s past loves. At last the exorcist’s prayers prove too much for it. Subdued, the spirit cries, “You have plagued me mercilessly during all these months with your prayers and spells … and so at last I have manifested myself.” The medium, a young girl, shrieks and curses — but she’ll get over it and be fine. And Murasaki recovers, though a relapse not long afterward proves fatal. Seven hundred years later, exorcism was alive and well in the bustling new capital Edo (present-day Tokyo). A persistent blot on the Buddhist respect for life that somehow survived centuries of civil war is the casual ease with which parents aborted or murdered unwanted children. The first Europeans to visit Japan — 16th-century Christian missionaries — were shocked by it. The current euphemisms were kaesu and modosu — “sending back.” Children under 7, it was held, had yet to acquire a soul. You can justify anything, it seems, with a little philosophy and religion. A popular exorcist of the early 18th century was a monk named Yuten, whose clientele ranged the social spectrum from the merest commoners all the way up to the mother of the shogun. Historian Beatrice Bodart-Bailey explains: “In his most famous cases young women are haunted by the women and children their fathers had murdered or caused to be aborted, crimes that went unacknowledged (and) unpunished. The women fall ill and are deemed possessed on reaching the age where they might well experience the same cruelties their fathers had inflicted upon other women. … The priest Yuten was exceptional in going beyond the religious conventions of his times, recognizing the trauma caused to women by the violence inflicted on their bodies and their children. … The person deemed possessed returns to normal health once the crime is acknowledged and atoned for” through ritual and prayer. To heal the human body you have to know the human body. That seems a truism, and yet, in Japan as in the West, it had to be fought for; its acceptance marks the birth of modern medicine. Dissections of criminals and rebels occurred fitfully in ancient China. The primitive anatomical charts that resulted were brought to Japan in the 14th century by a monk-physician named Kajiwara Shozen. But it was an ugly business, with grim theological overtones. Buddhism in Japan, like Christianity in the West, saw in it a violation of life’s sacredness. Texts, venerable and revered, were the preferred sources of knowledge — Confucian in Japan, ancient Greek and Roman in Europe. Blood and guts were for the lowly, not for scholars. In Japan, the lowly who handled the blood and guts were the eta , the despised outcasts of old Japan. They did society’s filthiest work. They were butchers, tanners, executioners — and dissectionists. Medical students had to see some viscera, after all. They watched while, for their benefit, the eta cut open the bodies of executed criminals. In 1771, a budding physician named Sugita Gempaku happened upon a Western book on anatomy in Nagasaki, a Dutch translation of a German text written in 1731. “I couldn’t read a word, of course,” Sugita later wrote, “but the drawings of the viscera, bones and muscles were quite unlike anything I had seen before, and I realized that they must have been drawn from life.” This itself was a major leap forward. Later Sugita attended a dissection. The dissectionist was a 90-year-old eta who had been doing this sort of thing all his life. He “would point to a certain part he had exposed,” Sugita wrote, “and inform the spectators that it was the lungs or that another organ was the kidneys.” “Since of course,” he comments sarcastically, “the name of the organ was not written on it, the spectator would have to content himself with whatever the eta told him.” Sugita at that point did something simple and marvelous. He compared the exposed viscera to the diagrams in his newly procured book — and discovered “that everything was exactly as depicted.” Classical Chinese medicine had received a blow from which it never recovered. An amazing man, Sugita. Not knowing a word of Dutch, he and his friends made up their minds to translate the book into Japanese. It took years, but they did it. A generation later a disciple assessed the achievement: “For long years we have been imitating (China), senselessly delighting in their ways without thinking of anything else. This has led to our excessive stupidity … and to a limitation to the knowledge we have gained with our eyes and ears.”

medicine;disease;illness;exorcism

jp0010901

2016/08/20

The content of culture: In Osaka, who should pay?

A report released by a Kansai business group earlier this month notes the amounts for the art and culture budgets of Osaka prefecture and Osaka city are well below national averages on a per person level, and has a lot of tongues wagging about Osaka being run by a bunch of philistines. That’s nothing new among local cynics who guffaw when Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui puts ice cubes in his red wine (to freshen up that old Chateau Margaux). But it at least shows that influential Osakans are worried about being perceived as rubes even though one can usually, and with corporate and government official statements virtually always, replace the word “important” with “money-making schemes” and not risk being seriously misunderstood. One of the more nontraditional ways in which culture is important to local governments around Japan is the promotion of what is known as contents tourism. Trying to define what constitutes contents tourism can be a bit tricky, but it often evolves from a desire to visit somewhere based on a pop culture image and includes things such as traveling to the location of a popular film or television series, or perhaps visiting the old haunts of a now famous singer Last month at Hokkaido University, a British Association of Japanese Studies meeting discussed contents tourism in Japan. One of the messages was that organic, local and individual efforts toward providing tourists with good experiences based on their images of a certain place are often preferable to the heavily top-down administrative efforts of “local cultural promotion” that so many bureaucratic types, especially in Osaka, have long advocated. Another presentation looked at issues local governments face when confronted with the arrival of massive cruise ships, filled with 4,000 foreign tourists who need to go through immigration and customs and who may only have a limited time onshore to shop and sightsee. Given the central government’s basic policy toward cruise ships is to welcome all who come, this can sometimes put a strain on smaller port cities that have limited manpower, and can impact the overall tourism experience. Though the meeting did not address the issue, the policy also raises security questions at a time when too many officials (and media) seem to think terrorists would only enter Japan through a half dozen major international airports. For Osaka, though, contents tourism and the various possibilities it presents are things that don’t seem to be all that prominent in the minds of local political leaders. There is an attitude of “if contents tourism is important, let private firms pay for the facilities and promotional efforts because it’s a waste of government money otherwise.” The possibility that properly done contents tourism activities can be important for the local tax base seems to have escaped them. To be sure, local government funding for traditional Japanese culture (in Osaka, that would be bunraku, kabuki and manzai comedy) as well as long-established forms of Western culture (local symphony orchestras, ballet troupes and art museums featuring international exhibitions) is critical. It’s to the credit of Osaka’s more enlightened residents that they were able to ensure Matsui and his allies didn’t entirely eliminate the arts and culture budget altogether. But in the battle over the future funding of culture, Osaka’s corporate and government leaders need to be more creative and flexible. Especially when it comes to thinking about funding a long-term contents tourism strategy that promotes a form of culture they may know little about. As a merchant town, Osaka’s leaders too often assume that if culture is made to become profitable it can also become important. They have it backward. If it’s considered important, culture can become profitable — and in ways corporate and government philistines have never dreamed of.

osaka;tourism

jp0010902

2016/08/27

Single mothers courted to plug Japan's local labor gaps

Owing to various social, cultural and legal factors, single-parent households, in particular those headed by women, remain one of the poorest demographics in Japan. In recent years, the domestic media has been paying more attention to single mothers in light of the government’s pledge to make women “shine,” especially in the workplace. The labor ministry is set to release the latest results of its five-year survey of families, but in 2011, the last time they released results, there were 1.238 million single mothers in Japan whose average income was ¥2.23 million, and that includes government benefits and child support if the woman happens to be divorced. That amount represents about half the median income in Japan. What’s important to remember is that more than 80 percent of these women are employed, but the average income for single mothers is just ¥1.8 million a year. According to a Cabinet survey, 51 percent of single-mother households fall below the poverty line. The problem appears to be obvious: These women have to raise families and make a living all by themselves, and some employers are not sympathetic to their special circumstances. However, with regional areas losing population and certain employment sectors seeing huge deficits in personnel, some groups are trying to attract single mothers with offers that take their special circumstances into consideration. A recent article in the Tokyo edition of the Asahi Shimbun described a “social welfare corporation” in Machida, western Tokyo, that is specifically looking for single mothers as caregivers at the corporation’s nursing homes. The corporation, Gashoen, receives money from government programs to help run their facilities but has a problem with high turnover. Gashoen recently completed construction of a two-story, 200-square-meter employee dormitory where single-parent families can live. The dorm is in the style of a “share house,” with a common kitchen and living-dining area and isolated 20-sq.-meter bedrooms for the employees and their children. The dormitory is located three minutes on foot from the nursing home where the women would work. An elementary school is nearby as well as child day care centers. Up to five single-mother families can live in the dormitory. Rent is fixed at ¥45,000 a month, including utilities. Gashoen’s president told the Asahi that single mothers usually don’t like caregiving jobs because shifts tend to be irregular and they can’t take time off when a child-related emergency happens. Consequently, shifts at Gashoen’s nursing homes are fixed. Also, the nursing homes have play areas where employees can bring their children while they work if they have no other place to leave them and, in the case of an emergency, Gashoen staffers are dispatched to assist with employees’ children. They are also on hand to take care of kids right after an employee’s shift in order to allow single-mothers some time to themselves. “We’ve created an environment where single mothers can live independently,” the president said. “We want to provide them with an alternative to just receiving welfare.” Some local governments in rural areas are also soliciting single-parent households. In line with the central government’s scheme to “revitalize” regional towns and cities, local governments need to attract people from places like Tokyo. Single-parent households are especially appealing since they automatically come with children. Officials of Hamada, Shimane Prefecture, for instance, provide subsidies to single-parent families who profess a willingness to settle down in their city. The main condition is that the family comes from outside the prefecture. On top of that, children must be high school age or younger. Single mothers are offered work at nursing care facilities in the city, and will receive training, meaning that women with no experience are welcome. During the training period, the applicant receives a stipend of ¥150,000 a month. The city also will pay half her rent up to a maximum of ¥20,000 a month, as well as a “preparation allowance” that covers incidental expenses such as moving fees and deposits for housing. Niigata has a similar program that is prefecture-wide. For single-parent families who pledge to move to Niigata, the prefecture will provide up to ¥150,000 in moving expenses, education subsidies of up to ¥30,000 a month for children of high school age and even government-backed loans for children of college age. The single parent, in fact, is not required to start paying back the loan until her income rises above ¥3 million a year. If the single parent takes a job in a caregiving facility, she will also be eligible for other grants. Ueda, Nagano Prefecture, is supporting single-parent migration for a different reason. Ueda is famous for its Kakeyu hot spring, but due to a serious lack of manpower, various businesses cannot stay solvent. Some inns have gone out of business. Last week, Mainichi Shimbun profiled a local restaurant owner, Chizuko Iketa, who has been traveling to Tokyo to solicit single mothers to move to Kakeyu and settle down with their children. Using their own revitalization funds from the government, Iketa and her group, called Bambiyu, have so far paid for four single mothers to come to Ueda and reside there temporarily “to see what it’s like.” If they do like it, they will get jobs at local businesses. Kakeyu’s main appeal to these women is its “culture of mutual support.” Neighbors watch one another’s children, share food and information, and organically cultivate a community-based support system. “We cannot provide a lot in the way of money,” Iketa told the Mainichi, “but we think single mothers can raise their children here much more easily than in a big city.” They have limited their solicitations to single mothers with children of elementary school age or younger, since another reason for inviting single-mother families is to bring more young people to town who have a chance of staying there permanently. Bambiyu works to match recruits with employers, which range from tourist industry businesses to care providers, and looks for rental properties that accept single-parent families. With a level playing field and proper consideration given to the special needs of their families, single mothers should be able to make enough of a living to support themselves and their children, but as it stands many have to work multiple jobs just to get by. The aforementioned schemes are, of course, designed to be beneficial to employers, though Gashoen has won several business awards for its single-mother employment program. The point is to make it work for everyone.

poverty;jobs;depopulation;parenthood

jp0010903

2016/08/11

Taiwan police take aim at Pokemon gamers driven to distraction

Taipei - The launch of the “Pokemon Go” game in Taiwan has sparked a sharp rise in traffic violations by commuters using their smartphones to play while driving. Authorities have issued 1,210 tickets for smartphone use in traffic between last Saturday, when the game was released in Taiwan, and Monday. More than 1,100 of the tickets were dished out to scooter riders. “The whole country is using their smartphones like crazy playing this internet game,” said Yen San-lung, head of law enforcement in the traffic division of Taipei’s police department. Police have warned gamers against playing in traffic, issuing fines of 3,000 New Taiwan dollars ($95) for car drivers, while scooter riders face a NTD 1,000 ($32) ticket, according to media reports. “When driving, it’s easy to be distracted when using your mobile phone and this causes accidents. So the police will enhance efforts to fine drivers who use their mobile phones,” Yen said. Game players use mobile devices to search for virtual Pokemon characters that appear to pop up at places where people are known to gather, including offices, restaurants and museums. Authorities in Taiwan have urged gamers to resist the urge to play in certain locations, most notably Taiwan’s presidential palace and the National Palace Museum. At the Taipei Zoo, many visitors could be seen using their phones instead of looking at the animals. Many of the enclosures house virtual Pokemon characters along with real creatures. Chen Ting-ju said her boyfriend kept playing during their visit to the zoo. “I’m very dissatisfied because from the moment we entered he started to take out his phone and play. Play, play, play nonstop,” Chen said.

taiwan;pokemon;pokemon go;gamers

jp0010904

2016/08/29

Terror financing laws limited by burden of proof

Last month it was revealed that a Bangladeshi former associate professor at Kyoto’s Ritsumeikan University was wanted by police for his suspected involvement in the Dhaka terrorist attack that killed 20 people in a cafe, including seven Japanese. Mohammad Saifullah Ozaki had been teaching business administration but disappeared from Japan sometime last year. He was finally fired in March. Police in both countries are investigating whether Ozaki sent money to groups with suspected Islamic State links. While there is growing attention in Japan on physically preventing terrorist attacks, especially ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, this case shows how funding from Japan to suspected terrorists abroad is also a problem. Japan has laws to halt terrorism funding, but are they sufficient? What are the main laws used to block fund transfers to terrorist organizations abroad? In November 2014, Japan passed three bills to crack down on terrorism funding and money laundering. Two of the three amended the Terrorism Financing Act, established in 2002, and the law on the Prevention of the Transfer of Criminal Proceeds. The third is designed to freeze terrorist assets by criminalizing the provision of direct or indirect financing to terrorists, including goods and real estate. It also allows the government to freeze assets quickly and requires both the financial and nonfinancial sectors to practice better due diligence on customers by forcing them to adopt better security processes and procedures. The laws were enacted in response to international criticism that Japan drags its feet on terrorist financing. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington D.C., the Financial Action Task Force was set up under the OECD to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. In its June 2014 report, it expressed concern about Japan’s “continued failure to remedy the numerous and serious deficiencies” in tackling the issue. Curbing all forms of such financing continues to be a big issue when the world’s financial and central bank chiefs meet. Koji Kanazawa, a lawyer with Tokyo-based Chuo Sogo Law Office P.C. who is licensed to practice in Japan and New York, said the new laws are important as they criminalize all assets, not just money. Financing that provides land, buildings, goods, and services to those who intend to commit terrorist acts is now illegal. How are the laws applied? The original 2002 terrorism financing law was intended to punish the funding of offenses constituting “public intimidation,” or those committed with the intent to make a threat to the public, the State or a local public entity, or a foreign government, municipality or any other organization established on the ground of an international agreement. Specific examples cited by the act include the murder or injury of people via lethal weapons, capturing or abducting them, or taking them hostage. It also outlaws attacks on airplanes, ships, roads, parks, trains and bus stations, as well as infrastructure including natural gas and nuclear power facilities. The new laws are applied to parties identified by the United Nations Security Council as connected to terrorist groups. At present, Japan has frozen the financial assets of 394 individuals and 80 organizations the U.N. has found linked to the Taliban, al-Qaida and ISIL (also known as the Islamic State group or Daesh). The assets of another seven individuals and 18 groups linked to other terrorists and terrorist groups have also been frozen, the Foreign Ministry said. What are laws’ weaknesses? First and foremost is the difficulty of confirming that money sent from an account in Japan actually ended up in the hands of an individual or organization on a terrorist watch list. The sophistication of international financing for terrorist networks is such that distinguishing between transfers to a legitimate account (say, for a relative, charity or family business) is extremely difficult. This is so even with the best of cooperation and the investigative resources needed from authorities in Japan and overseas. Kanazawa also said the laws require that those providing the financing had intended to facilitate terrorist acts. This could be difficult to prove in court if there is no evidence that said financing relates directly to terrorist attacks. But he noted that the second of the two amendments to the 2002 law, the one that cracks down on transferring criminal proceeds, takes effect in October. This will require Japanese banks and financial institutions to increase their scrutiny of customers.

terrorism;financing;laws

jp0010905

2016/08/16

'Pokemon Go'-like app allows living to plan missives from beyond the grave

Now that the explosive popularity of “Pokemon Go” has brought augmented reality technology within the reach of ordinary people, a tombstone company in Chiba Prefecture is taking it beyond the grave. By allowing people to “catch” pre-recorded video messages from the departed in cemeteries, the firm hopes to create an effect similar to snagging Pokemon characters, but with a more personal touch. Yoshiyuki Katori, president of Ryoshin Sekizai in Katori, Chiba, said the firm’s new app, named “Spot message,” realizes his longtime dream of preserving memories of the deceased for the living. “My uncle, who ran a paint store, died eight years ago after he fell from a tall structure at work,” said Katori, 33. “His death was so sudden, and it shattered the lives of his family. I also respected him a lot, so I would often visit his grave, consulting with him in my mind whenever I had issues concerning my business. I wondered how comforting it would be if he could talk to me at his grave, with messages like ‘How are you doing?’ and ‘Hang in there.’ ” Katori then came up with the idea of using augmented reality to plant video messages from the dead at their resting places and other locations dear to them. The concept mixes virtual images with real-life landscapes captured by the camera of a smartphone or tablet. The web-based service targets people who want to prepare videos and photos to be shown to their families and close friends after they die, Katori said. But the service can also be used for other purposes: A husband could, for example, leave a surprise message at the spot where he proposed, to be picked up by his wife on their anniversary. Or, people could prepare congratulatory messages for friends who are climbing mountains, to be retrieved at the summit, he said. Anyone can use the service for free by downloading the app, registering with the firm and submitting up to 10 messages. Paying members can store larger amounts of data on the firm’s cloud servers and can keep up to 30 messages and share them with up to 200 people for a monthly fee. The timing of the app’s launch — just one month after the release of Pokemon Go — is purely coincidental, Katori said, but he is sure that now is the prime time to market the service. More than 100 people downloaded the “Spot message” app in just one day since the Android version’s launch on Monday, he said. A version for iPhone will be available in early September.

funeral;augmented reality;pokemon go

jp0010906

2016/08/26

Nebraska man in boxer shorts jumps fence, crashes pickup into plane

MILWAUKEE - A man was arrested after he stripped down to his boxer shorts, scaled a fence and rammed a pickup truck into a Southwest Airlines plane parked at Eppley Airfield on Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska, police said. Two crew members suffered minor injuries on the Southwest flight, bound for Denver, as passengers were boarding at 9:30 p.m. when the man drove the truck into the plane’s nose gear, said Omaha Airport Authority Chief of Police Tim Connahan. One of the 18 passengers on board was also injured in the incident, the airline said in a statement. The unidentified man was taken into custody and there was no suggestion the incident was an act of extremism, Connahan said. He said airport security personnel had noticed a man “acting in a bizarre manner” near the perimeter of the airport. The man then stripped down to his boxer shorts, climbed over a fence and ran onto an airport runway as officers gave chase. The man then jumped into a parked truck, which had its engine running, and drove it into the nose gear of the plane. He was then apprehended by police, Connahan said.

u.s .;airlines;psychology

jp0010907

2016/08/21

WWII veteran, 93, finishes run across America

ST., SIMON'S ISLAND GEORGIA - After two years and 10 months, 93-year-old Ernie Andrus has made it across America. The World War II veteran dipped his toes in the Atlantic Ocean Saturday morning, ending a cross-country run that started in San Diego. Local media reported that Andrus was surrounded by hundreds of people including family members and friends who have joined him at different parts along his journey. He started his trek Oct. 7, 2013 on the sands of San Diego, weaving his way over the months and years through the southern United States until he reached St. Simon’s Island in Georgia on Saturday morning. “Oh, it’s great,” Andrus told The Brunswick News after the run was over. “I’m glad to have finished and met the goal. But I wish it wasn’t over.” People traveled from as far away as Arizona and New York to be there at the end of his journey. A marching band welcomed him, and the crowds shouted his name. “All these people, it’s so wonderful,” he said. “This is great, this is the biggest crowd I have had, ever.” John and Michelle Crosby met Andrus when he ran through Madisonville, Louisiana, last year and went on to accompany him on 15 legs of his journey, including his trek through Mobile, Alabama, in February. Along the way they have helped him with police escorts. But this was the first time they had seen him since Mobile. Mobile City Councilman John Williams met Andrus when he ran into the district Williams represents. “It didn’t take long after his arrival to know we had a special person in our city,” Williams told AL.com . Andrus turned 93 on Friday. He was running to raise money to return a WWII-era ship in Indiana to Normandy, France, for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing. He was a medic on a similar ship during the war. Now that this epic run is finished, Andrus has already planned a new adventure. He’s going to drive his motor home to Alaska where his stepdaughter lives and drive the Alaska Highway.

wwii;u.s .;history;elderly

jp0010908

2016/08/21

Osaka urged to spend more on arts ahead of Olympic extravaganza

OSAKA - A call by an influential Kansai business group for the Osaka prefectural and municipal governments to increase their budgets for art and culture has sparked debate between the governor and business circles over how to best do that. Earlier this month, the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives issued a formal appeal for both local governments to put more money into artistic and cultural events and activities, saying that, compared with what other governments are spending, the current amount is quite low. “The private sector will do what it can. But we want Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka to increase their budgets,” said Tomohisa Sakai, head of the association’s art and culture committee, at a news conference announcing the appeal. In fiscal 2014, the prefectural art and culture budget was ¥703 million, according to the association. That works out to about ¥79 per resident in a prefecture with a population of about 8.84 million people. By contrast, Tokyo’s 13.5 million residents were paying ¥1,127 each for the capital’s art and culture budget. In Kansai, adjacent Kyoto Prefecture, with a population of 2.6 million, had an art and culture budget that worked out to ¥254 per resident. And Nara, with a population of about 1.36 million, had an art and prefecture budget that amounted to ¥708 per person. The nationwide average for all 47 prefectures was about ¥600. A comparison of municipal art and culture budgets in 20 major cities shows that residents of Osaka, with a population of 2.7 million, were paying about ¥814 each for the art and culture budget. Only Okayama, with a population of 720,000, was spending less (¥562) on the arts. The average among the 20 cities was ¥2,179 per person. Sakai acknowledged that a major problem for all local governments in funding arts and culture was that artists, musicians and those involved with cultural events, as well as the audiences supporting them, often end up moving to Tokyo after getting locally established. “But Osaka should at least increase per-capita spending to the national average,” Sakai said. Osaka Prefecture’s low expenditure is largely a reflection of the low number of concert halls and facilities it owns. Toyama Prefecture (population 1 million), where per capita spending is officially ¥5,382, or the city of Sapporo (population 1.9 million), where the budget works out to ¥9,042 per resident, spend much of their “arts budgets” on things like building new facilities or maintaining ones they already have. In Osaka Prefecture, private firms are far more invested in theaters, concert halls and art galleries. This is by design. Since 2008, when Toru Hashimoto and his allies in Osaka Ishin no Kai, including current Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, came to power, many artistic and cultural projects and organizations long funded by taxpayers were shut down, eliminated, forced to merge, or told they had to find other sources of private funding because neither the prefecture nor the city could afford to continue subsidizing them. In their appeal this month, the Kansai association called upon the private sector to make better use of its cultural facilities, but at the same time asked the prefecture and the city to build new facilities as needed. The central government, through the Cabinet Office and the Cultural Affairs Agency, has already launched plans for promoting cultural programs throughout the country following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As Osaka hopes to host the 2025 World Expo and there are still senior corporate leaders and politicians who want to host a Summer Olympics, the appeal from the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives is as much about ensuring Tokyo’s support and possible funding for major future international events in Osaka as it is about increasing the number of noh or kabuki performances, or community art festivals and music concerts. “The 2020 Olympics are an excellent opportunity to broadcast Osaka to the world and to establish a ‘cultural creation city’ for the mid-21st century,” the appeal read. Gov. Matsui, however, was defensive in his reaction to the appeal. “You can’t just simply compare the spending in different prefectures on the arts because if you look at other prefectures, you see that they’re spending a lot of money on managing and maintaining facilities that they own. If you eliminate the funds used by other prefectures just for these expenses, the amount of money Osaka Prefecture spends per resident on arts and culture isn’t that low by comparison,” Matsui said. “The association’s recommendations were based on figures that come from data compiled by the Cultural Affairs Agency. But each prefecture has different costs for managing and maintaining its art and cultural facilities. I have to wonder if (the agency’s calculation) isn’t a negative campaign against Osaka culture and Osaka itself,” he added. Over the coming months, however, senior business leaders are expected to continue to pressure Matsui to increase next year’s art and culture budget. But at the same time, Sakai said there were more practical things the prefecture and city could do to expand local arts and culture, including making it easier for people to register to use parks and public spaces for cultural events. Given Matsui’s reluctance to spend lots of money on arts and culture, and his interest in cutting bureaucratic red tape, this suggestion appears to be more likely to be accepted sooner than later.

osaka;budget;business;arts;ichiro matsui;culture

jp0010909

2016/08/21

Osaka Ishin tactics strike chord with Koike but will LDP stand idly by?

OSAKA - Is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government about to adopt Osaka’s approach to local government reform, leading to an Osaka-centric political party expanding its influence to the nation’s capital? The very thought might make proud Tokyoites shudder (and proud Osakans smirk or shake their heads in wonder). But comments by Tokyo’s new governor, Yuriko Koike, herself from the Kansai region, and senior Osaka Ishin no Kai officials over the past few weeks have created intense speculation that cooperation between her and Osaka Ishin is a real possibility. Koike’s promises of reform and cost-cutting, and her confrontation with Tokyo assembly members backed by the Liberal Democratic Party, which refused to support her candidacy, echo the situation in Osaka in 2008, when then-Gov. Toru Hashimoto challenged the establishment, took control and forced through numerous cost-cutting measures and bureaucratic reforms that were staunchly opposed by the local chapter of the LDP. Hashimoto’s efforts led his allies among reform-minded LDP members to quit and form their own local political party, which eventually won a plurality, but not a majority, of seats in the Osaka prefectural and municipal assemblies. Hashimoto and his friends then formed the national party now known as Osaka Ishin no Kai. On July 31, following Koike’s victory, Osaka Ishin Secretary-General Nobuyuki Baba told the media that if Koike is really serious about undertaking major reforms in Tokyo’s government, his party would be interested in cooperating with her in next year’s assembly election if she needs friendly candidates. A few days later, Koike said that the reform policies of Osaka Ishin mirrored her own ideas for Tokyo, and that she hoped to learn from the various reforms the prefecture and the city of Osaka enacted under Hashimoto, who served as governor and then mayor. Koike has already reached out to friends of Osaka Ishin. During last month’s race for Tokyo governor, she received the support of Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura, who heads Genzei Nippon, a Nagoya-based political group that favors low taxes. Kawamura has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Osaka Ishin’s leadership over the years, but is generally seen as a political ally and an ideological soulmate. In addition, the Tokyo governor has already appointed to her administration someone who is close to Hashimoto and Ishin. Keio University professor Shinichi Ueyama, an expert on government reform, was called “Hashimoto’s brain” for his various ideas how to cut costs and trim the bureaucracy. For Osaka Ishin, a possible political tie-up with Koike, especially if it leads to forming her own political party that fields candidates in next year’s assembly election, offers great risks and great rewards. Following the Upper House election last month, Osaka Ishin increased its seat total to 12. But it has failed to make much headway outside Osaka, partially due to its name, which is expected be changed to Nippon Ishin no Kai on Tuesday. On the other hand, the risk for Osaka Ishin is that it ends up backing Koike, only to see her efforts go down in defeat at the hands of a furious LDP and create problems between senior LDP figures and the party. Osaka Ishin co-founder and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, who has especially good relations with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, has been more cautious in his statements about Koike. “It’s easy to talk about reform, but once you begin, you find all sorts of opposition. We are extremely interested in how such opposition is handled, and we’ll be watching carefully,” Matsui said earlier this month when asked about how he viewed Koike’s victory.

tokyo;yuriko koike

jp0010910

2016/08/09

With TICAD, Japan pursues African growth and export markets

Global powers China, the United States and the European Union are fiercely competing to expand their market share in Africa — the world’s last major economic frontier. Japan has long been a big supporter of African nations and in 1993 launched the Tokyo International Conference on African Development. More than 20 years after its inception, this year’s TICAD, the sixth, will be held in Africa for the first time, on Aug. 27 and 28. We look at what TICAD this year means for Japan and nations in Africa: Why did Japan start TICAD? During the Cold War, Africa was strategically important for global powers. But the collapse of the Soviet Union marked a strategic shift to Eastern Europe, which became geopolitically crucial in terms of global security. At the same time, the United States and Europe became more reluctant to give financial assistance to African nations due to their economic malaise. That is where Japan came in. The government set up TICAD in 1993 in an effort to bring the global focus back to Africa and help Africans fight challenges, including poverty, disease and conflict, and provide economic planning in cooperation with international organizations, particularly the United Nations. The forum was started with a spirit of African ownership and partnership, meaning African states should decide what they need and pursue their goals through partnership with the international community. Why is this year’s meeting significant? TICAD was initially intended to be held every five years, allowing stakeholders to assess goals set at the previous meeting. The past five conferences were held in Tokyo and Yokohama. At the last conference, held in Yokohama in 2013, African participants said the five-year interval was too long, given the continent’s accelerated development and economic growth. Instead, they proposed that it be held every three years. They also said it was time to host the conference in Africa, with meetings held alternately in Japan and on the continent. African delegates picked Nairobi for this year’s TICAD. This African initiative and leadership signified a turning point. The nations now hope to get more private-sector investment than just government-led official development assistance, given that the collective African economy, with its abundant natural resources, has been booming. Africa’s young and surging population, which is projected to double to 2 billion by 2050, also means the continent represents a big global market. What does TICAD mean for the Japanese side? Holding TICAD in Nairobi is a win-win for Japan and African nations. More than 100 Japanese businesses and their CEOs are scheduled to attend the Nairobi event, which will give them a firsthand look at the potential of African businesses and help countries there seek investment. At the same time, the conference will provide leverage for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will attend TICAD, in seeking support from African nations for Tokyo’s bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. What will be the focus of this year’s TICAD? TICAD will look to adopt the Nairobi Declaration, laying out goals to be achieved by the next TICAD in 2019. Given TICAD’s shift to more private-sector investment, one goal will be the industrialization of economies in Africa by expanding the role of the private sector. Creating sustainable economic structures that do not solely depend on natural resources or official development assistance (ODA) is crucial for Africa, where nations have suffered after recent falls in commodity prices. Other pressing issues include health and prevention against pandemics such as Ebola and Zika. Japan has offered $184 million in assistance to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The fight against terrorism has also become increasingly important for nations in West Africa, where Boko Haram, the regional affiliate of Islamic State, and al-Qaida ally al-Shabaab in Somalia has accelerated attacks. The declaration is likely to include measures to educate and empower poverty-stricken youths to prevent them from being lured to extremist groups and terrorism. Will there be any new pledges by Tokyo? Most likely. At the last TICAD, the Japanese government offered up to ¥3.2 trillion in assistance over five years with an emphasis on infrastructure and human resources. Some 70 percent has already been provided. Tokyo will probably deliver a new pledge depending on progress. It will also agree a program for the next three years. Is Japan the only country with a program like TICAD? No. China, the United States, Turkey, India and South Korea, as well as the European Union, have held similar international conferences in recent years. China’s increasing influence in Africa is significant. Since the 1990s, China has been pursuing the continent’s natural resources. But Beijing’s ODA approach has faced international criticism as being unethical. The aid meant Chinese workers were brought in to work on ODA projects instead of providing employment for Africans. And in cases where local workers were hired, they faced harsh labor conditions and low wages. Local industries also suffered as cheap Chinese goods flooded the region and forced them out of business. Partly to fend off such criticism, China launched the triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, which also focuses on assistance including pandemic prevention and student exchange programs. Another focus of FOCAC is debt forgiveness. Does Japan have an advantage in the hunt for economic windfalls in Africa? Japan became Africa’s largest ODA provider in 1989 and maintained its No. 1 position until 2000, every year except for 1990. While Japanese ODA receded after the burst of the bubble economy and during the following two stagnant decades, China rolled out a massive ODA campaign in which Africa has been a beneficiary. Last year Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion in assistance for the continent. China’s infrastructure projects are often criticized for being low-quality. That is why Japan emphasizes its ability to provide high-quality infrastructure. Japan also says it will train people and offer quality maintenance for infrastructure projects such as roads. Additionally, it excels in pandemic prevention. Tokyo officials, though, say Japanese companies need to speed up their decision-making to win business opportunities against other global players.

africa;official development assistance;ticad;nairobi

jp0010911

2016/08/31

Typhoon Lionrock leaves 11 dead, three missing in flooded North Japan

MORIOKA, IWATE PREF. - Eleven people were dead and three were missing Wednesday after Typhoon Lionrock blitzed northern Japan, causing blackouts, property damage and fatal widespread flooding that caught some municipalities by surprise. The typhoon, the 10th of the season and the first to hit Tohoku’s Pacific coastline, made landfall Tuesday in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture. By the time it reached Aomori at 8 p.m., it was racing northward at 60 kph with a barometric pressure of 972 hectopascals, maximum sustained winds of 108 kph and 162-kph gusts. Flooding appeared to be the main cause of the fatalities. According to the police, nine bodies were found near a one-story nursing home facility in the town of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, with the body of a man recovered near the rain-swollen Omoto River, which overflowed its banks. Despite the torrential rain, it has been learned that the Iwaizumi Municipal Government failed to issue a flood warning for the Omoto River, which rose from 3.2 meters at 6 p.m. to overflow its 4.9-meter banks by 7 p.m., and eventually reached 6.6 meters. Broadcaster NHK showed a rescue helicopter landing on the nursing facility’s roof as tree trunks and mud lay piled up around the building. The bodies found close to the nursing home are believed to be its residents, who were all over 70 years old. Authorities, however, had better luck at another care facility adjacent to the stricken one after airlifting some 70 to 80 people to safety, a local social welfare council said. Three more residents in Iwaizumi were rescued by the Self-Defense Forces after getting stranded in the central part of town, though a body was found lying among storm debris in the nearby city of Kuji, local police said. Lionrock’s strong winds and heavy rains prompted evacuation advisories for around 410,000 people due to fears of landslides and high waves. In Hokkaido, three people remain missing after falling into rivers in the towns of Taiki, Shimizu and Shintoku. One, office worker Yohei Suzuki, 28, disappeared after his car fell into a river in Taiki. Two passengers managed to escape and reach safety, local police said. In Minamifurano, Hokkaido, around 350 people were left stranded in downtown after the area was inundated following the collapse of a levee on the Sorachi River. A levee on the Satsunai River in Obihiro also collapsed. As of Tuesday, a total of 10 people in the four prefectures of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Akita were reported injured. According to the Meteorological Agency, rainfall in Iwate and Hokkaido reached record levels because of the storm, with Iwaizumi logging 203.5 mm — the usual amount for the month of August — in just one day. More than 100 domestic flights and over 50 shinkansen services were canceled Tuesday before the typhoon blew its way into the Sea of Japan the same evening. The typhoon forced many manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp., to suspend operations at factories in the region, which is still recovering from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, to protect their workers.

iwate prefecture;lionrock

jp0010912

2016/08/31

LDP weighs leader's term limits as Abe angles to stay in power

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to kick off discussions as soon as next month over whether to revise internal rules to allow Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to run for a third term in the next LDP presidential race to be held by September 2018. Given the LDP’s solid majority in the Diet, the winner of the race is all but certain to be elected by the legislature as the prime minister as well. But why have party executives started pushing the idea of extending Abe’s term? What are the procedures for revising the rules and are they likely to be amended? Following are questions and answers on revising the LDP rules to extend Abe’s term: Why has revising the rules become a hot topic? On Aug. 3, Abe appointed veteran lawmaker Toshihiro Nikai as LDP secretary-general, the party’s No. 2 position. The move prompted speculation that Abe is seeking a third term as Nikai has openly argued that party rules should be revised to allow Abe to continue on as president. Currently, LDP rules ban a party president from running for a third two-year term. This means Abe, who is now serving his second term as LDP president, cannot run in the next LDP presidential race, which must be held no later than September 2018. During a news conference on Aug. 3, Nikai said the party should soon start discussions on whether Abe can seek a third term after revising party rules. Nikai said the LDP will make a decision on this by the end of the year. Abe has two more years before his term ends. Why hold discussions now? Observers believe the hawkish nationalist wants to serve a third term so he can accomplish his long-held goal of revising the postwar Constitution. As a result of the Upper House election in July, parties willing to revise the Constitution occupy more than two-thirds of both the lower and upper chambers of the Diet for the first time ever. Backing by two-thirds of the lawmakers in both houses is a prerequisite for the Diet to initiate a national referendum on a constitutional revision. But those parties, including the LDP and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, are split over which articles of the Constitution should be revised first. Political insiders say it would probably take more than two years for the Diet to form any consensus and then arrange a referendum to revise any article of the Constitution. Komeito has opposed revising the war-renouncing Article 9, while it is willing to add an article to guarantee the people’s right to a better living environment. Meanwhile, polls have shown a majority of voters have consistently opposed any revision to Article 9, the most contentious provision in the Constitution. Publicly, Abe has said he is not considering running for a third term. But close aides have long privately believed that the rules should be revised. Many conservatives believe the chance of a constitutional revision would become slim if Abe is no longer LDP president. What are the procedures for revising the party rules? The party rules can be revised at a party convention attended by LDP Diet members and four representatives from each of the 47 LDP prefectural chapters. Each member has one ballot, and support of half of those in attendance is required to revise a party rule. Party conventions are usually held in the spring, but can be convened any time if such a demand is issued at a general meeting of LDP lawmakers, or more than a third of the prefectural branches. The general meeting of the LDP Diet members, meanwhile, can also replace a party convention in dealing with “particularly urgent” issues, according to party rules. How likely will the party rules be revised? No one is sure, but Abe has few political rivals powerful enough to challenge him after the LDP won a landslide victory in the July Upper House election, boosting his chances of remaining at the LDP helm. However, veteran LDP members, including Shigeru Ishiba, who are considered potential rivals to Abe, have recently urged caution about revising the party rules to allow Abe to stay in power. Whether they can garner support from other LDP members will likely be a key factor in the party power game. On a radio program Sunday, Ishiba, a former minister in charge of the revitalization of rural areas, said he “doesn’t understand why it’s a top priority issue” for the LDP to revise the party rules in what was seen as a dig at Abe’s bid for a third term as LDP president. Ishiba, who heads a small intraparty faction, refused to join Abe’s new Cabinet formed on Aug. 3 and is now seen as a potential rival. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who is regarded as another potential successor to Abe, has also said it is “still too early” to discuss revising the rules, since Abe was only re-elected LDP president last September. Has any LDP president succeeded in extending their run as president by revising party rules? Yes. In 1986, a meeting of LDP lawmakers was convened to revise the rules to extend the presidential term of then LDP President and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. The revision followed the LDP’s landslide victory in dual national elections earlier the same year under Nakasone as the LDP president and prime minister. Then a provision was added to the rules so that an LDP president could extend a term by one year if more than two-thirds of the party’s Diet members supported it. This article was dropped in 2002.

shinzo abe;q & a;ldp president;party rules

jp0010913

2016/08/08

Cambodia PM says potbelly is hurting his golf swing

PHNOM PENH - Prime Minister Hun Sen says his growing potbelly is getting in the way of his golf swing. Hun Sen, who is known for his casual comments, went off track while addressing a Facebook comment on his health. He said someone had reposted on Facebook a two-year-old video clip, purporting to show he had suffered a stroke. “If you need to broadcast the news of the prime minister’s health, you better say that the prime minister is worrying about his belly that is now getting big,” Hun Sen said Monday in the southern Kandal province. “Don’t say that the prime minister suffered a stroke. Better say that the prime minister is worrying his weight is increasing and at the same time the belly also getting big, which makes it difficult for my swing while playing golf.” Hun Sen, 64, went on to say that he has put on 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) in recent days, attributing it to a lot of time spent sleeping in the car while touring the country as part of his program to tour all 25 provinces in the country to meet people. Addressing the unidentified man who posted about Hun Sen’s alleged stroke, the prime minister said: “I wish to advice you that you better take care of your health, take care of your parents’ and grandparents’ health. You need not take care of Hun Sen’s health.” Hun Sen is a self-styled strongman and one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers, with more than 30 years as Cambodian leader. He often likes to talk about himself and his achievements.

cambodia;hun sen;offbeat

jp0010914

2016/08/08

Chronology of events in Emperor Akihito's life

Dec. 23, 1933 — Born as the eldest son of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako, posthumously called Emperor Showa and Empress Kojun. September 1939 — World War II begins. Aug. 15, 1945 — Emperor Hirohito tells the nation over the radio that Japan has surrendered. Nov. 10, 1952 — Becomes crown prince. April 10, 1959 — Marries Michiko Shoda to become the first crown prince, and later the first emperor, to marry a commoner. Feb. 23, 1960 — His first son, later to become Crown Prince Naruhito, is born. Nov. 30, 1965 — His second son, later to be known as Prince Akishino, is born. April 18, 1969 — His only daughter, later to be known as Princess Sayako, is born. Jan. 7, 1989 — He ascends the throne following the death of his father. Oct. 23-28, 1992 — He visits China for the first time as emperor. April 23-26, 1993 — He visits Okinawa for the first time as emperor. July-August 1995 — He visits memorial sites in Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Okinawa and Tokyo on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Jan. 18, 2003 — He undergoes surgery to remove cancerous prostate gland. June 27-28, 2005 — He visits Saipan to honor the souls of war victims on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Nov. 24, 2005 — A government panel of experts on Imperial succession crafts a final report that proposes allowing females and their descendants to ascend the throne. Feb. 18, 2012 — He undergoes heart bypass surgery. April 8-9, 2015 — He visits Palau to pay tribute to the war dead on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Jan. 26-30, 2016 — He visits the Philippines to promote friendship and pay respects to the war dead. Aug. 8, 2016 — He releases a video message on his role.

emperor akihito;chronology

jp0010915

2016/08/08

Text of Emperor Akihito's unprecedented video message

This is the official translation of Emperor Akihito’s video message broadcast Monday. A major milestone year marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II has passed, and in two years we will be welcoming the 30th year of Heisei. As I am now more than 80 years old and there are times when I feel various constraints such as in my physical fitness, in the last few years I have started to reflect on my years as the Emperor, and contemplate on my role and my duties as the Emperor in the days to come. As we are in the midst of a rapidly aging society, I would like to talk to you today about what would be a desirable role of the Emperor in a time when the Emperor, too, becomes advanced in age. While, being in the position of the Emperor, I must refrain from making any specific comments on the existing Imperial system, I would like to tell you what I, as an individual, have been thinking about. Ever since my accession to the throne, I have carried out the acts of the Emperor in matters of state, and at the same time I have spent my days searching for and contemplating on what is the desirable role of the Emperor, who is designated to be the symbol of the State by the Constitution of Japan. As one who has inherited a long tradition, I have always felt a deep sense of responsibility to protect this tradition. At the same time, in a nation and in a world which are constantly changing, I have continued to think to this day about how the Japanese Imperial Family can put its traditions to good use in the present age and be an active and inherent part of society, responding to the expectations of the people. It was some years ago, after my two surgeries that I began to feel a decline in my fitness level because of my advancing age, and I started to think about the pending future, how I should conduct myself should it become difficult for me to carry out my heavy duties in the way I have been doing, and what would be best for the country, for the people, and also for the Imperial Family members who will follow after me. I am already 80 years old, and fortunately I am now in good health. However, when I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the State with my whole being as I have done until now. I ascended to the throne approximately 28 years ago, and during these years, I have spent my days together with the people of Japan, sharing much of the joys as well as the sorrows that have happened in our country. I have considered that the first and foremost duty of the Emperor is to pray for peace and happiness of all the people. At the same time, I also believe that in some cases it is essential to stand by the people, listen to their voices, and be close to them in their thoughts. In order to carry out the duties of the Emperor as the symbol of the State and as a symbol of the unity of the people, the Emperor needs to seek from the people their understanding on the role of the symbol of the State. I think that likewise, there is need for the Emperor to have a deep awareness of his own role as the Emperor, deep understanding of the people, and willingness to nurture within himself the awareness of being with the people. In this regard, I have felt that my travels to various places throughout Japan, in particular, to remote places and islands, are important acts of the Emperor as the symbol of the State and I have carried them out in that spirit. In my travels throughout the country, which I have made together with the Empress, including the time when I was Crown Prince, I was made aware that wherever I went there were thousands of citizens who love their local community and with quiet dedication continue to support their community. With this awareness I was able to carry out the most important duties of the Emperor, to always think of the people and pray for the people, with deep respect and love for the people. That, I feel, has been a great blessing. In coping with the aging of the Emperor, I think it is not possible to continue reducing perpetually the Emperor’s acts in matters of state and his duties as the symbol of the State. A Regency may be established to act in the place of the Emperor when the Emperor cannot fulfill his duties for reasons such as he is not yet of age or he is seriously ill. Even in such cases, however, it does not change the fact that the Emperor continues to be the Emperor till the end of his life, even though he is unable to fully carry out his duties as the Emperor. When the Emperor has ill health and his condition becomes serious, I am concerned that, as we have seen in the past, society comes to a standstill and people’s lives are impacted in various ways. The practice in the Imperial Family has been that the death of the Emperor called for events of heavy mourning, continuing every day for two months, followed by funeral events which continue for one year. These various events occur simultaneously with events related to the new era, placing a very heavy strain on those involved in the events, in particular, the family left behind. It occurs to me from time to time to wonder whether it is possible to prevent such a situation. As I said in the beginning, under the Constitution, the Emperor does not have powers related to government. Even under such circumstances, it is my hope that by thoroughly reflecting on our country’s long history of emperors, the Imperial Family can continue to be with the people at all times and can work together with the people to build the future of our country, and that the duties of the Emperor as the symbol of the State can continue steadily without a break. With this earnest wish, I have decided to make my thoughts known. I sincerely hope for your understanding.

emperor;abdication;full text

jp0010916

2016/08/08

Emperor Akihito: A life in the service of healing and peace

The 82-year-old Emperor Akihito has worked tirelessly to encourage the nation through multiple disasters and made numerous trips to former battlegrounds at home and abroad to mourn the war dead, despite the health issues that have come with advanced age. Upon the death of his 87-year-old father, Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa, on Jan. 7, 1989, he ascended the throne at the age of 55. He was the first to do so as the “symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” a new status given to the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy in the post-World War II Constitution, which came into effect in 1947. Throughout his reign, which has spanned nearly three decades, and despite his age, the Emperor has continued to carry out his official duties, traveling throughout the country and overseas , with his wife, Empress Michiko, 81. The Emperor had surgery in 2003 to remove prostate cancer and underwent coronary-artery bypass surgery in 2012. He has performed exercises on a regular basis to fight osteoporosis, which is attributed to his cancer treatment. Since 2009, the Imperial Household Agency has announced measures aimed at reducing the Emperor’s workload in view of his age, saying in May it would decrease his meetings with heads of administrative agencies at the Imperial Palace. He performed around such 270 official duties last year, according to officials. The Emperor himself said in a news conference before his birthday in 2010 that he was “not planning on making any more major reductions” to his workload. He has made official visits to 27 countries, 50 overall including his travels when he was the crown prince. He has visited all 47 prefectures as Emperor to attend events such as the National Sports Festival as well as to offer encouragement to victims in disaster-struck areas, including the Tohoku region in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. When abroad, the Emperor has placed particular importance on paying tribute to those who were killed in World War II, which Japan fought in the name of his father. His most recent trip abroad was in late January to the Philippines, where around 1.1 million Filipinos and about 518,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians died during the war. Over their five-day stay, the Imperial Couple visited memorial sites in and outside Manila to pay respects to those who died in the country during the war that ended with Japan’s surrender in 1945. In April last year, the Emperor and Empress visited the Pacific island nation of Palau to pay tribute to people who perished in World War II. Around 16,000 Japanese soldiers died in Palau fighting U.S. forces during the last year of the war, along with nearly 2,000 U.S. troops. The trip, which came in the year of the 70th anniversary of the war’s end and a decade after the Imperial Couple traveled to the Pacific island of Saipan, another former battleground, was reflective of the Emperor’s strong desire for peace. During the 2005 trip to Saipan in the Mariana Islands for the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, the Imperial Couple paid their respects to those who died in the intense Battle of Saipan that took place from June to July 1944. The Emperor has made explicit the need for Japan to reflect on its aggression in other parts of Asia before and during World War II. “I think it is most important for us to take this opportunity to study and learn from the history of this war, starting with the Manchurian Incident of 1931, as we consider the future direction of our country,” he said to the public at the beginning of 2015. From time to time, the Emperor has publicly expressed regret over Japan’s military aggression and colonization of neighboring countries before and during World War II, and communicated his hope for peace through numerous visits to areas torn by war and disaster both at home and overseas. When he made an official visit to China in 1992, three years after his enthronement, along with the Empress, he said at an evening banquet, “In a certain period of time, our country imposed a great deal of hardship on Chinese citizens and I feel deep sorrow.” In 1995, a year that marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, the Imperial Couple visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were devastated by atomic bombs dropped by the United States in 1945, as well as Okinawa Prefecture, where some of the most intense fighting of the war occurred during the Battle of Okinawa. The Emperor was born on Dec. 23, 1933, the eldest son of Emperor Showa and Empress Nagako, who is posthumously called Empress Kojun. As a boy, he took refuge outside Tokyo during World War II, including in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, and was 11 years old when the war ended. He later recalled feeling shocked at the sight of the capital, which was rendered barren by U.S. air raids. At Gakushuin University, he majored in political science and economics. He later switched his student status to that of an auditor after traveling to Europe and the United States for an extended period of time. In addition to a formal education, the Emperor learned diplomatic values as well as the role of a symbolic emperor in tutoring sessions with former Keio University President Shinzo Koizumi and English-language tutor Elizabeth Vining. As crown prince, he visited European countries and the United States in 1953, and attended the coronation of British Queen Elizabeth II in place of his father. In April 1959, he married Michiko Shoda, the eldest daughter of former Nisshin Seifun President Hidesaburo Shoda, two years after she graduated from the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo. In marrying the daughter of a businessman, the first commoner ever to marry an heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne, the Emperor nurtured the image of a new Imperial family to which the public, still recovering from the war, could better relate. The Imperial Couple have three children — Crown Prince Naruhito, Prince Akishino and Princess Sayako, who became Sayako Kuroda when she married a commoner in 2005 and left the Imperial family. Their four grandchildren are Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, and the three children of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko — Princess Mako, Princess Kako and Prince Hisahito. The Emperor is also an ichthyologist, specializing in the taxonomy of gobioid fish.

emperor akihito;imperial family;abdication

jp0010918

2016/08/01

'Pokemon Go' a hit 20 years after franchise debuts

“Pokemon Go,” the GPS-crossover game for smartphones, has been an instant hit all over the world, particularly in Japan. The explosive popularity also means there are numerous Pokemon beginners. But what exactly is Pokemon? Why has the game proven so popular? And how does the revolutionary system work? Following are basic questions and answers about “Pokemon Go” and the world of Pokemon: What is Pokemon? Pokemon is an abbreviated form of the original Japanese game title “Pocket Monsters.” It started in 1996 as a video game for Nintendo Co.’s hand-held machine Game Boy, featuring 151 virtual monsters that a player can catch, train and exchange with other players. The most popular and well-known Pokemon is probably Pikachu, a yellow rodent monster with two bright red circles on its cheeks. The Pokemon series later expanded into numerous products and businesses, ranging from TV animation series, movies, trading card games and countless character goods. According to Pokemon Co., a Tokyo-based Nintendo affiliate better known as the Pokemon Co., more than 280 million video game software units have been sold worldwide and animated TV shows had been aired in 95 countries and regions as of the end of May. More than ¥4.8 trillion worth of Pokemon products have been sold over the last 20 years, according to the Pokemon Co. Why was the original Pokemon series such a worldwide hit? What was particularly new about the original game was that it allowed a player to exchange monsters with other players via a cable connecting two Game Boy machines. It worked as a communication tool for children, helping the game to become an explosive hit first in Japan and later in the United States and elsewhere. Players can also train and “evolve” their pet monsters into rare and more powerful ones, adding complexity and fun to the monster-training game. The cutesy designs of the virtual monsters, a key characteristic of Japanese pop culture, are another reason for Pokemon’s popularity. Satoshi Tajiri, the main creator of the original Pokemon game, said in a July 2000 interview that he was surprised to see the alternative monster designs that American staff had proposed for the U.S. market. For example, the proposed U.S.-version of Pikachu looked like a tiger cat with big breasts, Tajiri recalled. “I was told (the original designs) were ‘too cute’ ” for American people, Tajiri said in the interview published on a Nintendo website. “That may have been interesting to enjoy a cultural difference, but I didn’t want to try my luck on it. . . . If the design of Pikachu had been changed at that time, the whole situation wouldn’t be like the one today,” Tajiri said. Why has “Pokemon Go” become such a big hit 20 years after Pokemon’s debut? Experts say it is because the concept of the latest game is very new and absorbing. “Pokemon Go” uses augmented reality (AR) technology, which links a fictional game world to 3-D street maps based on Google’s detailed worldwide map data. Players are encouraged to walk outside in the real world to find cute monsters and “Pokestops” — locations where players can pick up useful tools for the game — on the 3-D street map. When a player tries to catch a monster, the smartphone screen switches to show the target character with a real-time video image of the actual world in the background. Players can feel as if the game and the real world are integrated. This is a new, refreshing diversion from conventional video games, which were usually played only indoors. The “Pokestops” also feature actual photos of numerous places, such as landmark structures, public art installations, historical markers and monuments. This enables players to learn about their community, which is another attraction of “Pokemon Go.” “Pokemon Go” is now available in 39 countries, including the U.S., most of Europe and Japan. Is this helping Nintendo’s profits? The success of “Pokemon Go” is expected to be a boon for Nintendo, although at present the company is not raking in huge profits. The revolutionary game system was developed and is being operated by Niantic Inc., which was originally an in-house startup for the Google group. The San Francisco-based firm was spun off from Google in 2015. According to Nintendo, the Pokemon Co. “is going to receive a licensing fee as well as compensation for collaboration in the development and operation of the application.” Meanwhile, Nintendo owns 32 percent of the Pokemon Co. Given the limited ratio of its ownership, the impact on financial results for the Nintendo group will be accordingly “limited,” the statement on July 22 said. Nintendo at the same time said it will not revise its financial forecasts for fiscal 2016, which ends next March. This immediately triggered a fall in its share price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nintendo has suffered from lackluster sales of its flagship video game console Wii U and reported last Wednesday a net loss of ¥24.5 billion for the April-June quarter. Nintendo now plans to launch its next-generation game machine, code-named NX, in March. Speculation is rife that the game console will feature a detachable part that can be separately used as a mobile game player. However, whether it will be linked to “Pokemon Go” remains unknown. There are many “Pokestops,” including little-known landmarks, in “Pokemon Go.” How did Niantic manage to prepare data on so many locations? “Pokemon Go” is based on a game system originally developed for Ingress, another popular AR game for smartphones that uses Google’s 3-D street map. Ingress, officially launched by Niantic in 2013, is now played in 200 countries and the app has been downloaded more than 13 million times. Numerous Ingress players have voluntarily taken photos and offered explanations of local landmarks and submitted them to Niantic to register as “Portals.” Those locations, if approved by Niantic, are used by players to create a “Control Field” to earn points in the game. Most of those photos and texts of local landmarks are also used in “Pokemon Go,” thus vast amounts of data were available for “Pokestops” at the time of the game’s launch.

nintendo co .;pikachu;pokemon go;niantic inc .

jp0010919

2016/08/06

Victims of Sagamihara massacre at disabled facility are forever nameless

The murder of 19 residents of a facility for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, last month instantly became headline news all over the world. The main reasons for the attention were the number of dead and the country where it took place — Japan is famous for its relatively low level of violent crime. One aspect of the reaction contrasted greatly with that in Japan: Some people overseas described the murders as a “ hate crime ,” a term used only by a few local media and not by any Japanese public official. The suspect, Satoshi Uematsu, has said his purpose was to eliminate disabled people from the world, and while he characterized his actions as a form of “mercy killing,” we tend to think of a hate crime as being carried out against someone because of who that person is, rather than what that person has done. More to the point, the residents were not randomly chosen, as were previous victims of mass murders in Japan. They were targeted because they had disabilities. So even if the suspect didn’t “hate” the people he targeted in the way we normally use the word, his animus toward people with disabilities was real and deadly, and it’s only natural to try and figure out how he developed that feeling. It seems obvious the suspect suffers from some sort of pathology — he was institutionalized for a short period earlier this year — and several media have played up his use of drugs. He also worked at the facility he attacked, and, according to friends and associates, not to mention his private writings, advocated for eugenics, the practice of selective breeding in order to filter out “undesirable” genetic traits. One purpose of eugenics is to erase people with disabilities from society. Thus there has been some controversy over the Kanagawa Prefectural Police’s decision to not disclose the names of the victims. Usually, the police always name murder victims, but, according to the Mainichi Shimbun , this time they decided not to since “the families feel that they don’t want the names released.” There is only one way to interpret this one-off policy: Families of the victims don’t want the public to know that their loved ones have disabilities. On the surface, the move comes across as a means of protecting privacy, though it can also be seen as a way of keeping people with disabilities out of the public eye. The Sankei Shimbun reported that at least 10 disabled support groups signed a letter addressed to the Kanagawa police, objecting to its decision. One person with disabilities told the newspaper that she believed a friend of hers might have been a victim but couldn’t find out since names were not provided. Shingo Mori was one of the 26 who survived the attack, and was close to death for several days with injuries to his chest and neck. Mori’s parents have allowed several media to publish photos of Shingo and their names in an attempt to make the public see that the victims had lives and were loved. Shingo’s mother, Etsuko, told the Asahi Shimbun that her son had been living in the Sagamihara facility for 20 years — he is now 51 — and during that time she and her husband “never told anyone about him,” even relatives. The tragedy “changed our minds.” Several other families revealed their names and those of their children on a recent NHK Special , but they seem to be exceptions to the rule. An official of a “group home” for people with disabilities told the Asahi that most families want to hide their disabled children, even if those children — many of whom are adults — agree to having their names printed in newsletters and such. “Sometimes parents (of people with disabilities) are discriminated against,” the official said. “So I want to respect their privacy.” This situation clearly reinforces the unspoken assumption that people with disabilities are marginal or, to people like Uematsu, useless members of society. Hiroko Miyake, who lives in a facility in Yokohama for people with developmental disabilities, told the Asahi that the victims were “people like me — they had goals and knew pleasure. I want the public to know about those aspects of their lives.” Anti-poverty activist Karin Amamiya made this point in an essay for Tokyo Shimbun , calling out the “double standard” the media uses when reporting this sort of crime. She was bothered by the phrase “precious lives lost,” which all outlets included in their reports, because under normal circumstances the lives of people with disabilities are treated as being less than precious. She recalls her cousin, who had a learning disability, falling ill with an infection, but after her aunt summoned an ambulance the paramedics couldn’t find a hospital that would accept her because they thought they would be “unable to explain her condition to her.” Eventually, a hospital did accept her but it was too late. She died. The belief that people with disabilities are not fully human is reinforced by people such as former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who in 1999, after visiting a facility for people with developmental disabilities, wondered out loud if such people possessed “personalities,” presaging Uematsu’s thesis; or Finance Minister Taro Aso, who has suggested that unproductive citizens may be better off dead . “In our society,” wrote Amamiya, “these ‘precious lives’ are measured against their ‘cost'” and found to be wanting in the balance. Courts, when ruling on an injury or death lawsuit, determine damages in terms of “work lost.” Takaaki Hattori, a professor of media studies, told the Sankei that the decision to disclose names is the job of the press, not the authorities. By not revealing the victims’ identities, the police are effectively denying that they ever existed. Yoshiro Ishihara, a Japanese prisoner of war in Siberia after World War II, once wrote that the most terrifying thing about genocide is the facelessness of the individual victims. Uematsu, who admired Hitler, took this premise for granted when he wrote about his abominable project. If a person’s death has no special meaning, then their life didn’t either.

kanagawa;sagamihara;satoshi uematsu

jp0010920

2016/08/06

Sitting on reform of the criminal justice system only exacerbates the problem

One of my favorite Japanese sayings is “ Zen wa isoge ,” or “Make haste to do what is right.” Such a philosophy is particularly true insofar as crime prevention is concerned — if you move too slowly, or not at all, terrible things can happen. This was certainly the case in the deadly knife attack at a care facility for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on July 26. The attack on the Tsukui Yamayuri En care home left 19 dead and 26 injured. Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old former employee of the facility, allegedly sliced the residents’ necks as they slept, stabbing some in the chest or slashing their throats, according to investigative sources. A slew of warning signs has led some to question whether authorities should have done more to prevent the attack. On Feb. 14, Uematsu tried to hand-deliver a three-page letter to Lower House Speaker Tadamori Oshima at his official residence in Tokyo. “I am able to kill 470 disabled people,” he stated in his letter, which went on to detail how he would do it, saying he would attack at night when fewer workers were on duty, bind them with zip ties, slaughter residents and then turn himself in. A few days later, Uematsu made similar remarks to his co-workers at Tsukui Yamayuri En. He quit the next day. The police, meanwhile, reported the case to the Sagamihara Municipal Government, which decided to commit Uematsu to a psychiatric hospital out of concern he could harm others. At the hospital, Uematsu tested positive for marijuana and was diagnosed with marijuana-induced psychosis and paranoid disorder. However, he was not diagnosed as an addict and was released on March 2. On July 26, Uematsu did, more or less, what he had threatened to do earlier in the year. It’s tempting to play the blame game and yet the authorities may have done all that they possibly could have under existing legislation. Uematsu had committed no crime. Two days after his release, police found that Uematsu was staying with his parents and requested that they be kept informed about his behavior. The care facility, meanwhile, followed police advice and installed 16 security cameras. On the night of the attack, police officers arrived on the scene promptly after the first 110 phone call. Could more have been done? Quite possibly, but in order to prevent a foreseeable crime from being carried out, it’s essential to have the correct legal framework in place before a crime can be committed. And even if this is the case, the law needs to be enforced. The country’s stalking legislation is a striking example of how slow law enforcement can be when authorities haven’t been given a mandate to act before a crime is committed. On May 21, the police in Tokyo arrested Tomohiro Iwasaki on charges of assault and attempted murder after the 27-year-old attacked idol pop singer Mayu Tomita at a live house where she was performing. Tomita was stabbed 20 times by her stalker, despite her frequent consultations with the authorities prior to the assault. The manager of the club where she performed wrote a blistering account of the police’s failure to address the problem in the June issue of Shukan Gendai. The manager noted that Tomita had even asked the police to guard the venue on the day of the attack, but had been rebuffed. In addition, it was later discovered that the assailant had made similar threats to a woman three years ago, but the Manseibashi Police Station had failed to follow up on the case or record his name in its database. When Tomita consulted the police, she was brushed aside because Iwasaki had been repeatedly hostile to her on Twitter, a social network site that is not covered by existing anti-stalking legislation. Komeito and the Liberal Democratic Party set up a working team to suggest revisions to the law that would be submitted to the Diet this autumn. “Even if it’s just one day early, we want to make the expanded laws a reality as soon as possible,” Komeito Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue said May 27. The proposed new anti-stalking laws would make repeated unwanted contact via Twitter and other social network services a criterion for stalking and would simplify the procedures so that a stalker could be handed a cease and desist order quickly. Violating such an order could result in an arrest. More severe punishments are being considered as well. In my humble opinion, this is how it should have been handled from the beginning. However, the country’s lawmakers and law enforcers appear to have a terrible habit of twiddling their thumbs instead of making essential legal reforms. Sadly, the consequences of such delay are sometimes deadly. Let’s hope both politicians and law enforcement agencies know their Japanese proverbs and make haste to do what is right.

sagamihara;satoshi uematsu;tsukui yamayuri en

jp0010921

2016/08/06

'Rikisha' disappearing; 'Storm day' forecast to be calm; ¥100 bills to be replaced by coins; 1991 white paper predicts sustainable growth

100 YEARS AGO Friday, Aug. 11, 1916 ‘Rikisha’ disappearing from Tokyo’s streets With the introduction of electric railways and automobiles, the number of rikisha in Tokyo has greatly decreased, and with the decrease of its number the romantic feature of rikisha has entirely disappeared. The rikisha of today is nothing but a matter-of-fact means of conveyance, and it does not figure in the romance of the city. Where are those fast-fotted young runners? It was a joy to see them race through the streets, trying to beat the other runners. The recognized fast runners were respected and admired by all rikisha men, and the wealthy families boasted of the fastness of their rikisha men. But those fast runners, tall and strong, are never more to be seen. The two-passenger rikisha has entirely disappeared from the city. They used to figure in all elopements and double-suicides. Among a certain class of people, the two-passenger rikisha was the means of the happy pleasure. It was somewhat awkward in appearance, but two passengers were able to enjoy conversations while on the rikisha. The veteran rikisha men who knew every corner and nook of the city, who could talk on the traditions and haunted houses, are no more to be found. Those who love the romantic tales of traditions and gossips, no longer enjoyed conversing with such veteran rikisha men, who were full of information of interest. Passing by a shrine or temple, they could give the whole history and tell many interesting stories about them. They used to know the houses of prominent persons in Tokyo, and knowing every short cut and byway of the city, they took passengers through streets they never had seen before. But such rikisha men have entirely disappeared. 75 YEARS AGO Saturday, Aug. 30, 1941 ‘Storm day’ likely to be calm, weatherman says The 210th day of the year (Sept. 1) traditionally known as the “storm day” among farmers will turn out to be a calm day, the Tokyo Metrological Observatory assured the press Friday. “The typhoon, which was a frequent visitor this season, seems to be regaining its breath, resting after so many excursions overland,” said a spokesman of the Observatory. “And the prevailing cool breezes, which at first might be taken to mean the advent of autumn, is a freakish prank of the weather.” In other words, the spokesman explained, autumn has not yet arrived. “The high pressure area lingering over the Okhotsk Sea,” continued the spokesman, “is the cause of the recent cool breeze. Dark skies will continue for four or five days. But it is assuring to know that the peculiar atmospheric conditions that we have been experiencing are now things of the past. So the 210th day of the year, as all evidence shows, is certain to be a calm day.” 50 YEARS AGO Saturday, Aug. 27, 1966 ¥100 bills slated to be replaced by coins Paper money representing ¥100 will be replaced by coins as of next January, Finance Minister Takeo Fukuda announced at a Cabinet meeting on Friday. The Finance Ministry has been steadily replacing paper money of small denominations with coins since 1957 and planned to eventually make the ratio of coins to paper money 7-3. The program has not been moving according to schedule, however, and today coins account for less than 30 per cent of the total amount of ¥100 and money of lesser denominations in circulation. To make matters worse, coins are heavily concentrated in Tokyo and Osaka. In the meantime, the widespread adoption of automatic vending machines and shortage of labor in the smaller enterprises raised strong demands for total replacement of paper money of small denominations with coins. At the time of the turnover, the present silver ¥100 silver coins and nickel ¥50 coins will be replaced by coins made of alloys of nickel and copper. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Aug. 10, 1991 White paper predicts sustainable growth No immediate constraints seem likely on the economy’s long-lasting expansion and there are good prospects of the nation making greater contributions to the world economy, the Economic Planning Agency said Friday. Sounding an optimistic note about the outlook for the domestic economy, the agency’s annual white paper on the economy stressed the importance of Japan playing a positive role in supporting and promoting the free trade system. “Japan should take leadership in the maintenance and development of international common property, namely various kinds of institutions of frameworks (such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and the International Monetary Fund,” the fiscal 1991 paper says. Titled “Conditions for Long-Run Expansion and Japan’s International Role,” the document says the economy is shifting into a sustainable phase of moderate expansion. The recent economic slowdown will not immediately lead to a recession, it stresses. Turning to the stock market, the paper says fluctuations in stock prices, which may have been caused by the so-called “bubble economy” phenomenon of asset inflation, seemed to have some effect on consumer spending and corporate capital outlays. Because wild fluctuations in land prices provide in the end to have little influence on the economy, and as the leveling off of land prices seems to have positive effects on the economy as a whole, the paper says comprehensive measures should be taken to correct the level of land prices, which have been far above the theoretical “real” value. The asset price bubble in Japan burst in 1991, leading to a period of economic malaise until 2001 economists call the “lost decade.”

money;typhoons;rikisha;lost decade

jp0010922

2016/08/23

'Land of Rape and Honey' no more as Canadian town drops slogan

TORONTO - The western Canadian town of Tisdale is no longer the “Land of Rape and Honey,” it said Monday, as it dropped a slogan that has been a source of complaints. The slogan referred to rapeseed, also known as canola, a major product of Tisdale and the surrounding region along with honey. But over the years many who misinterpreted the meaning have complained, said Sean Wallace, the town’s economic development director. Tisdale, a town of 3,500 in the province of Saskatchewan, had used the old slogan since 1958. It said in a news release its new one will be “Opportunity Grows Here.” Mayor Al Jellicoe said the town grows a large variety of crops, is a hub for rail and highways and has low land prices and a modern infrastructure. Tisdale also said it was rolling out a new website for the town. As of Monday afternoon, the old website with the “Land of Rape and Honey” slogan was still posted online, however.

canada;offbeat

jp0010923

2016/08/23

U.S. Sea Shepherd settles case but Australian branch defiant

U.S.-based activist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has reached a court-mediated settlement in which it is permanently prevented from “physically attacking” Japanese whaling vessels and crew, Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research said Tuesday. Despite the settlement, Sea Shepherd Australia said later Tuesday that the development will not affect its activities in the Southern Ocean as it was reached over a case fought in a U.S. court. “Sea Shepherd Australia remains committed to upholding the Australia Federal Court ruling banning the slaughter of whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary,” said Jeff Hansen, managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia, in a statement. “We are not concerned about the U.S. court settlement as it does not have any effect on Australian law,” the statement said. Under the U.S. settlement, Sea Shepherd and those acting in concert with it are “permanently enjoined from physically attacking the research vessels and crew and from navigating in a manner that is likely to endanger their safe navigation,” the government-affiliated whaling organization said. Sea Shepherd, Paul Watson — the Canadian environmental activist and founder of the group — and their parties will also be banned from approaching Japanese whaling research vessels at distances “any closer than 500 yards (about 450 meters) on the open sea,” according to the statement. The settlement concludes a case brought to a U.S. federal court by the Japanese organization in 2011 seeking an injunction against Sea Shepherd’s efforts to obstruct what Japan calls research whaling. In December 2012, an appeals court also issued an injunction, but Sea Shepherd continued to obstruct Japan’s whaling fleets. The group agreed last year to pay $2.55 million in damages to the Institute of Cetacean Research and Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd., the provider of vessels and crew for the whaling activities, over its continued obstruction of Japanese whaling vessels. Under the latest agreement, the Japanese organizations will pay back part of the damages to Sea Shepherd as settlement money, but the U.S. group is prohibited from using the money to fund acts of sabotage. Sea Shepherd was established in 1977, funded by donations from celebrities and other individuals. The group, based in Washington state, is known for its radical methods of protecting whales and other marine life, such as attacking whaling vessels and pointing laser beams at their crews. Japan has placed Watson, who stepped down as head of Sea Shepherd in 2013, on an international wanted list through Interpol. While Japan halted commercial whaling in line with an international moratorium, it has hunted whales since 1987 for what it calls scientific research purposes. Environmentalists have condemned the activity as a cover for commercial whaling. Last December, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and European countries jointly protested Japan’s decision to resume its research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean this season.

sea shepherd;whaling

jp0010924

2016/08/15

If Japan slow to ban ivory trade, online shops even slower

Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewelry, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals. Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing in about 950 tons annually in 1983 and 1984. But as the African elephant population plunged, international trade was banned in 1990, leaving room only for domestic trade. Despite the international trade ban, however, illegal trade continues and poaching is rampant, leaving African elephants on the red list of vulnerable species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to a report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), roughly 100,000 elephants were killed in the three years from 2010, prompting the United States and China to close down their domestic ivory markets. As the next CITES conference in September nears, pressure is mounting for Japan to close down its market as well. When did ivory start coming to Japan? Lawyer Masayuki Sakamoto, an executive director at the Japan Tiger and Elephant Fund, said it is believed ivory started being brought to Japan in the Genroku Era (1688-1704) during the Tokugawa shogunate. “Japan was in isolation, so imports were few. Ivory was a luxury item used only by people in the upper class, including the wives of feudal lords, and geisha, who had ivory combs and ornamental hairpins,” said Sakamoto. Japan’s ivory trade rapidly grew during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) as the nation ended its isolation and started interacting actively with other countries, he said. “World fairs and expos were held in major cities such as Paris, and Japanese ivory crafts caught the attention of visitors,” said Sakamoto. By then, ivory had become a major material for sculpting, replacing wood. “The sculpture industry had suddenly turned white,” renowned sculptor Kotaro Takamura, who avoids using ivory, said. Japan soon became an exporter of ivory works, and artisans grew rapidly nationwide, mostly in Tokyo and Osaka. The industry saw its heyday in the rapid economic growth of the 1970s, when ivory seals became extremely popular. While wood, stone, buffalo horns, cattle horns and crystal had been used for seals, ivory became more popular because it was cheaper and not subject to a commodity tax, Sakamoto said. As time went on, ivory seals also became known as good luck items, increasing their popularity. But after the international ban kicked in, the domestic ivory market shrank from about ¥20 billion in 1989 to ¥2 billion in 2014, according to an April report compiled by Traffic, a research arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature. How can one purchase ivory products in Japan now? Online sites such as Yahoo Auction and Rakuten are the biggest platforms. A large segment of the ivory trade is on Yahoo Auction. Thirty-two environmental groups, including the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency, have demanded that Yahoo Japan and SoftBank, which both run auction websites, ban sales of ivory products, claiming that some goods are unregistered and that their trade is illegal. As of Friday, more than 1.4 million people had signed an online petition titled “Yahoo — stop your deadly ivory trade!” via the Avaaz website. “The ivory trade is pushing elephants to the edge of extinction, and Yahoo is making a killing from trinket sales in Japan. Several big brands like Google and Amazon are refusing to sell ivory,” it explained. How can illegal trade be prevented, and are there loopholes that need closing? Applicants who register to sell products only need to provide a photograph of the items, an explanation of how they were obtained, and verification from a third party, such as a family member. The Traffic report, however, is demanding stricter government regulations, including the tagging of all legal ivory products, both whole tusks and pieces, so they can be identified and traced. At present, tagging isn’t required when ivory is cut into pieces. The report also calls for ivory sellers to be government-licensed and their names publicized, instead of the current registration system. Sakamoto agrees, saying the government should oblige retailers to submit official documents for registration, including customs certificates. “An ivory trader told me there are cases in which fake ivory is registered. This is inevitable since even experts can’t tell what’s real just by looking at a picture,” he said. What measures are other countries taking to save the elephants? Last September, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to close down their respective domestic legal ivory markets. In the U.S., ivory trade has been banned almost entirely since July 6. Federal law prohibits the import or export, or trade from one state to another, of any ivory aside from that used in authentic antique goods or instruments. Many states are also considering instituting their own bans. “The U.S. decided that maintaining a legal market for ivory would become a cloak of invisibility for illegal trade. CITES member countries including Japan tried to ban illegal ivory by strictly controlling the market, but the result was a total failure,” Sakamoto said. China, too, is expected to announce the schedule for closing its ivory market in late 2016 or early 2017. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Environment Ministry are debating how to respond to the international trend ahead of the CITES forum from Sept. 24 to Oct. 5 in Johannesburg. The ministries declined comment. Yahoo Japan, Rakuten and DeNA Co. as well as the national association of seal makers are also involved in the discussion and expected to reach a conclusion in late August. Tokyo has been reluctant to ban domestic trade, saying it can’t ban the sale of products legally obtained before the 1990 international ban. “With approximately 30,000 elephants killed annually, most of the African countries are hoping for a total ban on ivory trade. Under such circumstances, it’s becoming an international trend to ban ivory trade, with the U.S., China and Hong Kong making decisions to close their markets,” Sakamoto said. “As one of the largest ivory markets in the world, Japan should go along with the other countries,” he said.

trade;endangered species;ivory;elephant

jp0010925

2016/08/12

Morioka embraces new young talent to keep geisha tradition alive

MORIOKA, IWATE PREF. - Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture, is striving to preserve and revitalize the time-honored tradition of geisha entertainers for which the city was once famous. From the late 19th century through much of the 20th century, Morioka was a hub for outstanding geigi — synonymous with geisha — drawing political and business heavyweights to the area’s high-end traditional Japanese restaurants, known as ryotei , where the geigi performed. At the peak of their popularity, there were more than 90 geigi at dozens of ryotei in the region, but as the tradition faded and expense accounts were trimmed, the number of geigi declined and many ryotei were pushed out of business. In 2010, there were only five professional geigi left in Morioka, all aged 60 or older, to entertain guests and host performances of song and dance. Alarmed by prospects of the geigi tradition dying out, the city and businesses started working on measures to keep the geigi culture alive. They set up a support group at a local chamber of commerce and industry to nurture talent in classical Japanese song and dance as well as lute playing. As a result of a recruitment drive by the group last summer and the offer of financial and other support, two new faces — Manatsu Shiratsuki, 24, and Kanako Sugishita, 20 — joined Morioka’s handful of geigi as apprentices and were unveiled at a stage performance in the city in early June. “Geigi is the culture of the entire town,” said Kenichiro Murai, an 86-year-old adviser of the Morioka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the sponsor of the performance event for the two debutants. “I hope they will maintain and pass on the tradition.” The two new apprentices followed in the footsteps of two other women who made professional debuts as Tomiyu and Tomochiyo in the fall of 2012, the first additions to the ranks of Morioka geigi in 19 years. Neither Shiratsuki nor Sugishita had previous experience in traditional choreographed dance and when their practice sessions started last September, the pair were frequently scolded and their dance steps corrected. They also had to learn how to serve guests by waiting on tables at Komaryu, a 60-year-old ryotei in Morioka. Sugishita, who had just turned 20, the legal drinking age in Japan, had never served liquor before. When spoken to by a much older client, she said she did not know what to talk about. “You can’t concentrate on conversing with guests unless poise and manners become a part of you,” said Masaaki Iwadate, who runs Komaryu. “First you have to learn conventions and customs.” Before stepping into the geigi world, Shiratsuki was a student at a national university. Like other students, she was struggling to find a job after graduation. One day she saw an ad at a department store for apprentice geigi that reminded her of her childhood dream of becoming a geisha. After thinking it over, she decided to apply. Sugishita, meanwhile, said she had always wanted to become a singer but had not had any success after graduating from high school. When she saw an ad for geigi while working part time, she decided to apply immediately. While both were lucky enough to be selected as apprentices, they will likely face challenges. Unlike in Kyoto, the capital of the geisha world, where jobs at upscale restaurants are often assigned by agencies, geigi in Morioka are essentially self-employed. Even after they finish their apprenticeship, geigi are on their own when it comes to developing and maintaining clientele. Senior geigi in Morioka welcome the newcomers and are ready to help. “We are really thankful to have young people take on the tradition,” said the pair’s dance teacher who goes by the stage name Yoko. What counts as a geigi is “an aspiration to be a great dancer and keenness to offer hospitality,” she said. Tomiyu, who is much closer in age to the debutants than some of her older colleagues, said: “It’s the responsibility of younger generations to inherit traditional entertainment in Morioka, although it might be tough sometimes. I’d like to work together with the two apprentices.” Shiratsuki and Sugishita assumed the stage names of Kikumaru and Marika after their debut performance. Marika said, “I hope to be better equipped than anyone else to communicate what Morioka has to offer.” Concurring with her, Kikumaru said, “There are things we can only do in this world. I will aim to be a geigi worthy of the name.”

geisha;iwate prefecture;morioka

jp0010926

2016/08/12

In safety push, Nissan turns camera on hot car interiors

In a parked, unmanned car, the cap on a plastic soda bottle pops off and the cola fizzes out. A plastic toy puppy sags and topples over. A chocolate bar and gummy candies melt into slime. These eerie images of what happens in a parked car under the scorching sun, shot by Nissan Motor Co., is part of the automaker’s “No more #CarHeatStroke” campaign, started Aug. 4. The 70-second clip, uploaded on Nissan’s official YouTube channel , has gone viral, viewed more than 330,000 times so far. “If the weather outside is 35 degrees Celsius, it means the temperature inside a parked car is over 70 degrees,” the automaker states on the video. “Leaving kids or dogs in this condition, even for a short period, means their lives are in danger.” Nissan’s message cannot be overemphasized. The mercury has risen to dangerous levels in many parts of the country in recent weeks, with often fatal consequences. In July, 18,671 people were taken to hospitals by ambulance for heat-related illnesses and 29 died. From Aug. 1 to Aug. 7, the ambulance tally rose to 6,588 people, the highest weekly total so far this year, the internal affairs ministry said. A total of 141 were in such a serious state they were advised to spend at least three weeks in the hospital, it said. Despite repeated warnings about the hazards of heat, some parents still leave their children unattended in cars, leading to easily preventable deaths. On July 29, a 2-year-old died in Tochigi Prefecture after his father left him in a car in a parking lot. The father, in his 30s, was reportedly supposed to drop his son off at day care on his way to work, but forgot about him and drove instead to his office, where he left the baby in the company parking lot for hours strapped in a child seat. A 2013 report by the Japan Automobile Federation said in-car temperatures can pose health risks as soon as 15 minutes after the air conditioning is turned off. And placing sun shades under the windshields or leaving the windows partially open don’t help much because interior temperatures often top 40 to 50 degrees, JAF’s experiments showed. Nissan’s video, shot by a remote-controlled camera, shows various objects melting or deforming over the course of 1½ hours as the temperature rose from 27 to nearly 60. “The paranormal-like happenings inside the car are all real,” the automaker said. “No CG was applied during editing.” Nissan is seeking to prevent further tragedies not just via the video, but also through alert messages on its car navigation systems. The message is shown when external temperatures reach 30 degrees or higher.

children;cars;temperature;heatstroke

jp0010928

2016/08/13

Cuban rolls record 90-meter cigar ahead of Castro's 90th birthday

HAVANA - A Cuban cigar-maker broke his own record on Friday by rolling the world’s longest cigar, dedicating the 90-meter (295-foot) smoke to Fidel Castro ahead of the retired leader’s 90th birthday. Castro, who took power in Cuba’s 1959 revolution and ruled for nearly half a century, was often seen puffing on a long, thin lancero model until he quit in 1985. “I want to dedicate this to a beloved Comandante Fidel Castro,” said Jose Castelar Cairo, better known as “Cueto,” who has won the world record five times before. Cuba was awash with tributes to Castro ahead of his birthday on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, 90 people donated blood at a small school in Artemisa province in his honor. Cueto eclipsed his previous record of around 82 meters (270 feet) with his new masterpiece, which took 10 days to roll with the help of several assistants in an old Spanish colonial fort overlooking Havana Bay. Cigars have been Cuba’s signature product ever since Christopher Columbus saw natives smoking rolled-up tobacco leaves when he first sailed to the island in 1492. For Cueto, a 72-year-old who learned cigar rolling when he was 5 years old, it is a matter of national pride for Cuba to keep the record. “The best tobacco in the world is Cuban, so I think Cuba should keep the record for the biggest cigar,” he said, noting it was a challenging task. The length of the cigar was verified by a British Embassy official, who said the information would be sent in a letter to Guinness World Records requesting confirmation of the record.

cuba;fidel castro;records;offbeat;anniversaries

jp0010929

2016/08/14

Rural Japan rail tours push scenic, luxurious journeys into the unknown

When planning a trip to Japan, tourists are most likely to pack destinations like Mount Fuji, Kyoto and Akihabara all into the space of a few days. But for those who have been there and done that, railways are offering a fresh alternative — a laid-back ride on a sightseeing train through the countryside, exploring the unexplored while accompanied by the pleasures of sake and local cuisine. As tourist numbers continue to swell, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka — the most popular destinations — are suffering from a shortage of accommodations while areas outside these bustling cities are jealous for being left out of the action. The government is thus thinking of ways to lure more visitors to the countryside to support rural areas, and the nation’s vast railway network is naturally playing a role in the initiative. Seibu Railway Co. just launched a “restaurant train” between Tokyo and the city of Chichibu in mountainous Saitama Prefecture. Tickets for the 52 Seats of Happiness train, its first sightseeing train, have been selling like hotcakes since it debuted in April. A ticket for the brunch course costs ¥10,000 per person, with dinner going for ¥15,000. During the three-hour ride — longer than the 80-minute ride on the commuter train — passengers are served a course meal as the four-car train, with galley and dining tables, leaves the hustle and bustle of Tokyo for the rural greenery of Seibu’s home prefecture. Architect Kengo Kuma, designer of the National Stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, developed the train’s exterior, which was inspired by Chichibu’s landscape over the four seasons. He also designed the interior by using traditional crafts honed in areas where the train runs. “Amid today’s sightseeing boom, people are starting to look for a new, unprecedented experience in their journey,” said Norio Kawasaki, a Seibu Railway official in charge of the sightseeing train. Seibu hopes the trains, which are especially popular with seniors, will generate more revenue both for the company and the economy of Chichibu, known for its pink shibazakura (moss phlox) carpeting Hitsujiyama Park in spring, and white-water rafting on the Arakawa River, Kawasaki said. “We want people to recognize Chichibu as one of the major sightseeing destinations in the Kanto region after Hakone (in Kanagawa Prefecture) and Nikko (in Tochigi Prefecture),” he said. Seibu’s next goal is to convey that to foreign tourists, especially the Taiwanese who tend to be repeat visitors in search of rural destinations. In July, the carrier invited Taiwanese media and travel agencies to experience the restaurant train. “It will surely get the attention of people in Taiwan,” Shirley Chen of Taiwan-based airline TransAsia Airways Corp. said after the ride. “It was like an oriental world coming out of a TV drama.” Other railways are also cashing in on the trend.Although similar trains have existed, East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) increased the number of sightseeing services after the March 2011 mega-earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku, said Gyo Taguchi, a JR East marketing manager. “Our rail lines there were heavily damaged in the 2011 disasters,” he said. “To help with the reconstruction of Tohoku, we came up with the idea of running sightseeing trains to boost the region’s value as a tourism destination.” Since the JR East trains don’t depart from Tokyo, however, people have to get to the northeast to ride them. Even so, tickets for these trains are selling so well there’s even a waiting list. Other areas covered by the trains include the Joshinetsu region and the coastline along the Sea of Japan. JR East’s Genbi shinkansen, touted as the world’s fastest museum, is one of its latest bullet trains dedicated to sightseeing. As its name — short for gendai bijutsu (contemporary art) — suggests, passengers can admire artwork in the carriages while traveling between Niigata and Echigo Yuzawa stations. The exterior, inspired by the Nagaoka fireworks festival in Niigata Prefecture, is the work of famed photographer Mika Ninagawa. With these trains, JR East aims to draw not only enthusiastic travelers in search of hidden attractions, but also casual sightseers interested in lesser-known regions, Taguchi said. “There are many underrated spots that have breathtaking scenery. Our role is to offer information so people can discover that hidden beauty,” he said. What is getting even more popular is a luxurious sleeper train in Kyushu that is combined with a local tour. Kyushu Railway Co.’s Seven Stars cruise train has drawn heavy attention since its debut in October 2013. The train’s itinerary took it on a loop around the island, but it was forced to change course earlier this year after the earthquakes in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures. Despite the change, it remains one of JR Kyushu’s most profitable services, with prices ranging from ¥250,000 to ¥1.4 million for a three-night trip. JR East meanwhile plans to launch the first-class Train Suite Shiki-Shima (Island of Four Seasons) next May. The train, which departs from Ueno Station in Tokyo, is part of a package tour offering top-notch cuisine made with local ingredients, stays at Japanese-style hotels, and tours of places known for traditional craftsmanship as it winds its way through eastern Japan. Despite the lofty price tag — ¥950,000 per passenger for a three-night package tour featuring a two-person suite — the high demand only allowed 1 in 76 people to acquire the premium tickets for its debut run in May. Although the sightseeing train has become popular with Japanese tourists, the existence of these trains — and the allure of the regions they travel to — are not yet known to most foreigners, Taguchi said. “Many travelers today want to discover new, undiscovered spots. I hope our train can be a good opportunity for them to step outside the box,” he said. To ensure sightseeing trains don’t become another passing fad, carriers must continue to offer fresh experiences by varying the menus and destinations, said Junichi Sugiyama, a journalist versed in the train industry.

trains;jr east;jr kyushu;seibu railway

jp0010930

2016/08/22

Cup Noodles slurping strong, 45 years on

Hungry? Just grab a cup of instant noodles and pour hot water into it. After waiting three minutes, the ramen is ready to eat. This September marks the 45th anniversary of Cup Noodles, the “magic” instant food that has had a dramatic impact on food culture. Since its debut in 1971, more than 40 billion packages of the popular instant ramen had been sold as of May, according to Cup Noodles manufacturer Nissin Food Products Co. The product is now sold in more than 80 countries, with sales outside Japan occupying roughly 70 percent of the total in 2015 in terms of volume. Here are some factoids about Cup Noodles, the world’s favorite Japan-made instant food: Who invented Cup Noodles? Taiwan-born inventor Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin, came up with the idea of creating easy-to-cook ramen when he saw starving people lined up in front of Osaka’s black market noodle stalls in after the war. Ando, then 48, came up with chicken-flavored, deep-fried noodles that could be quickly rehydrated in a bowl, naming the product Chikin Ramen, the world’s first instant noodles, in 1958. Later during a demonstration in the United States to promote the product, Ando was surprised to see buyers at local supermarkets break the noodles up, put them in paper cups, add hot water and eat them with a fork. This experience made him realize the need to shed past concepts of how to eat noodles. After years of trial and error, the first Cup Noodles debuted in 1971 with the familiar soy sauce-based flavor and red and gold package. The logo was designed by a Takeshi Otaka, who also created a logo for the Osaka Expo in 1970. In Japan, the name is written in the singular, as opposed to the plural form more prevalent overseas. How popular is the product? Today, instant ramen has become so popular that some people regard it as the national food of Japan. According to a survey in 2000 by Fuji Research Institute Corp. (now known as Mizuho Information and Research Institute Inc.), instant ramen topped the list of Japan’s best inventions of the 20th century, outranking karaoke, stereo headphones, CDs, video games, Pokemon and sushi. In September 2011, Nissin built the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama’s Minatomirai waterfront district to display a wall comprising more than 3,000 packages of instant noodles, including foreign brands. The museum conveys the history of instant noodles and of Ando, who died in 2007 at the age of 96. It also has a section where visitors can create Cup Noodles variations of their own by choosing the flavors and ingredients. What drives its popularity? When the original Cup Noodles debuted in September 1971, many people doubted it would take off because it was priced at ¥100 — or about four times more than packaged instant noodles. Also, some worried the product would lead people to adopt the “bad habit” of eating while standing up. Given its low popularity with retailers, Nissin started distributing the product to such institutions as the police and the Self-Defense Forces. It even invented a vending machine that automatically heated them. In November 1971, Nissin started selling the product on the street in front of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district on Sundays, when its main street is closed to vehicular traffic. The place was attracting public attention because the nation’s first McDonald’s had opened inside it four months earlier. Perhaps what boosted awareness of Cup Noodles the most was the February 1972 Asama-Sanso hostage incident perpetrated by the Japanese United Red Army, an armed revolutionary group, at a mountain lodge in Nagano Prefecture. During the over 10 hours of live broadcasting of the crisis, which was watched by 89.7 percent of TV viewers at peak time, TV cameras repeatedly showed riot squad members slurping Cup Noodles near the lodge in the freezing cold. The instant ramen also became famous for its unique but sometimes controversial TV commercials. One commercial released in 2005 featured a boy holding a rifle on a beach. At the end, it showed the smiling boy and a girl eating Cup Noodles together with a message asking: “There are more than 300,000 child soldiers around the world. What can we do for them?” The commercial was withdrawn later after viewers complained about its strong political message. Are Cup Noodles healthy? Nissin has been working to shed the product’s unhealthy image. In 2009, Nissin marketed a low-calorie version of Cup Noodles to lure dieters, reducing it to 198 kilocalories — about 60 percent of the original — by using fiber-rich noodles and air-drying technology to dehydrate them without deep-frying. In January, it released a veggie-rich, pork-flavored version and sold it at farmer’s produce stands in western Tokyo alongside their vegetables, claiming farmers deemed the new version to be “almost a vegetable.”

instant noodles;cup noodles;nissin food products co .

jp0010931

2016/08/25

Nigerian faces charges for naming his dog after president

ONITSHA, NIGERIA - A Nigerian is being charged for provoking people and “breach of peace” by naming his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari and painting the name on the pet, police said on Wednesday. “The man bought a dog, named it Buhari, wrote ‘Buhari’ on both sides of the dog and paraded it” in front of people from the north, said Abimbola Oyeyemi, police spokesman in the southern Ogun state, where the man lives. He was arrested after a citizen reported him to police but was released by a court on bail until his trial starts, the spokesman said, without naming the man. “His action is provocative and capable of breaching the peace, as you know the volatility of Nigeria now,” said Oyeyemi. Nigeria is in the middle of its worst economic crisis in decades as a slump in oil prices boosts unemployment. Tensions sometimes erupt between northerners, who are Muslims, and people from the predominantly Christian south. Buhari is a Muslim from the north.

animals;boko haram;nigeria;pets;muhammadu buhari

jp0010932

2016/01/03

The perfect match: U.S. woman to give boyfriend a kidney

MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - A New Hampshire man found his perfect match in more ways than one when he first met his girlfriend on a golf course last summer. Forty-nine-year-old Jack Simard of Manchester is slated for his second kidney transplant around Valentine’s Day and the donor is his girlfriend, Michelle LaBranche. WMUR-TV reports that the two avid golfers met at Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown and fell in love. When LaBranche found out Simard was seeking a kidney donor, she tested to see if she was eligible without telling him. Doctors were surprised that her kidneys turned out to be compatible. Simard’s first kidney transplant was 19 years ago. His sister was the donor. LaBranche says Simard is her future, and she wants to help him have a healthy life.

u.s .;health;transplants

jp0010933

2016/01/03

Two-year twins: Babies born Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 in San Diego

SAN DIEGO - Twins in San Diego are getting some attention because, though born just minutes apart, one has a birthday in 2015 and one in 2016. Jaelyn Valenica was born New Year’s Eve at 11:59 p.m. Her twin brother, Luis Valencia Jr., arrived at 12:01 a.m. on New Year’s Day. KGTV-TV reports that the babies were due at the end of January, but doctors at San Diego Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center called the mother in because one was in a breech position. The father, Luis Valencia, called it a New Year’s blessing to have two healthy children.

children;parenthood;san diego

jp0010934

2016/01/04

Apple hikes iPhone prices in Germany over music, pornography levy

BERLIN - Apple has raised the prices for handheld devices in Germany following a deal between the tech industry and content producers that will benefit musicians, actors and pornographic filmmakers. The California-based company confirmed in a statement Sunday to The Associated Press that the price increase affecting iPhones and iPads is linked to the new copyright levy. Apple, Samsung and others agreed last month to pay from 5 euros to 7 euros ($5.50-$7.70) for each smartphone or tablet imported to Germany. The money will be distributed among creative professionals, including a group representing “creators, producers and acting artists of erotic and pornographic films.” The agreement is based on a 1965 German law that allows consumers to make private copies of sound, images or texts in return for a small levy on the device.

germany;apple;pornography;intellectual property

jp0010935

2016/01/05

Japan's public baths hope foreign tourists will help keep the taps running

Japan’s public baths, known as sento , represent an institution with hundreds of years of history. They provided an important public service in the days before homes had their own hot-water bathtubs. The entrance of the Inariyu sento in Tokyo’s Kita Ward is designed like that of a temple. It was a common architectural style for sento in Tokyo. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Sento can range in style from simple hot springs piped into a large tub to modern facilities resembling theme parks and offering a range of therapies. In the Edo Period (1603-1868), sento were so popular that every town had on. They were important centers of the community. Sento are on the decline both because homes now have fully fledged bathrooms and because retiring operators find it hard to find successors to take on their businesses. There are now around 630 establishments in Tokyo, down from 2,700 in 1968, a peak year for sento. One of the baths at the Inariyu sento in Tokyo’s Kita Ward bubbles away for customers to soak in. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Faced with this trend, the Tokyo Sento Association is trying to tap demand from non-Japanese residents and tourists. A sign in English at a sento helps non-Japanese customers, in a bid to draw more custom. | SATOKO KAWASAKI It has installed explanatory signs at each facility showing non-Japanese speakers how to use a sento in five languages. It also plans to create an app for people to search for sento in English.

tokyo;public baths;sento

jp0010936

2016/01/02

Looking for a bit of light in the fight against crime

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re trapped in Harold Ramis’ 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” except that you’re an investigative journalist, not a weatherman, and the nemesis that keeps popping up isn’t a rodent but a crime syndicate boss? Maybe it’s just me. On Dec. 9, the U.S. Treasury Department put Tadamasa Goto, former head of the Goto-gumi — an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the country’s largest yakuza syndicate — on its list of individuals and organizations that are subject to financial sanctions. The last individual to receive the same treatment was Kodo-kai chief Teruaki Takeuchi, who was targeted in April. Little more than four months later, a Kobe-based affiliate split from the Yamaguchi-gumi, triggering fears of a turf war between the rival factions. The new group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, is headed by Kunio Inoue, but the U.S. appears to be targeting Goto instead of him. But why now? Hadn’t Goto retired from the syndicate in 2008 and become a Buddhist priest? Apparently not. According to the Treasury Department, Goto began working for the Inagawa-kai syndicate before switching sides and becoming a key player in the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate. He is believed to have set up a network of front companies for the syndicate before he was expelled in 2008. Nevertheless, the Treasury Department still considers Goto to be an influential criminal figure who is now living in Cambodia laundering money. Goto is arguably one of the most notorious crime bosses that has ever operated in Japan. In 1992, director Juzo Itami portrayed yakuza members as common thugs in “Minbo no Onna,” or “Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion,” telling reporters in interviews that he “wanted to show the public that you can fight gangsters and win.” Angered by the yakuza’s portrayal in the film, members of the Goto-gumi syndicate attacked Itami outside his home six days after the movie opened. The director was beaten and had his face slashed. In his 2010 autobiography, “Habakarinagara,” Goto denies any involvement in the attack. However, he says, Itami “deserved it — he made the yakuza look stupid.” Goto was eventually diagnosed with liver cancer but struck a deal with the FBI in 2001: He would trade information on his yakuza associates in exchange for a visa to the United States. He’d already arranged to receive a liver transplant at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. Goto received his new liver but coughed up little useful information. I broke the transplant scandal in 2008 in The Washington Post and worked with the Los Angeles Times on a few follow-up stories. The Yamaguchi-gumi expelled Goto in 2008 after he was accused of attempting to overthrow the leadership of the syndicate with 10 other members, writes Katsumi Kimura in “Goodbye Yamaguchi-gumi.” The Nishi Nihon newspaper on Sept. 7 went further, arguing that the failed coup was behind this year’s split. The newspaper suggested that Inoue had originally backed the coup, while others have claimed that Goto bankrolled the rebel faction this year. Goto and Inoue certainly appear to be close allies. These allegations are arguably sufficient grounds for the U.S. to slap financial sanctions on Goto and, subsequently, send a warning to the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi as well. In his biography, Goto called my writing “unpleasant.” I suppose it was also an “unpleasant” experience for real-estate agent Kazuo Nozaki to be stabbed to death in April 2006. Then again, Nozaki was embroiled in a legal dispute with a Goto-gumi front company over the property rights to a building in Tokyo. The Metropolitan Police Department has managed to convict several members of the Goto-gumi syndicate for the murder but criminal charges have never been filed against Goto himself. In August 2012, Nozaki’s family sued Goto for the real-estate agent’s wrongful death, arguing that Goto was liable as an employer of the killers. According to Chunichi Shimbun, the case was settled out of court with a payment of $1.4 million to the family of the victim. Goto, meanwhile, expressed his condolences. As I’ve written before, it appears that crime does indeed pay in Japan — it may just cost you a bit more to stay out of jail. Another new year has begun but it feels like little has changed. The yakuza still operate in the open. Goto is back in business and, by all accounts, doing well as an esteemed guest of the Cambodian government. I’m struggling to make a living, although I’m no longer under police protection. You could say I’m not feeling particularly lucky. So, this year, I’m going to go Meiji Shrine and write out a simple votive tablet: “May my readers, friends and loved ones all be blessed, live well and prosper. May my enemies and 99 percent of yakuza gangsters repent their evil ways and if not, go to jail.” Otherwise, it’s going to be another dark year in the land of the rising sun.

yamaguchi-gumi;yakuza;tadamasa goto;kodo-kai;kobe yamaguchi-gumi;goto-gumi

jp0010937

2016/01/02

Okuma escapes assassination attempt; League to instill Bushido spirit in lawmakers; World's largest 'new town' planned; Allies bomb Iraq

| THE JAPAN TIMES 100 YEARS AGO Friday, Jan. 14, 1916 Count Okuma survives assassination attempt Count Okuma, prime minister of Japan, had a sensational experience Wednesday night, when the veteran statesman narrowly escaped being the victim of a diabolical outrage. The count had attended a state banquet given by His Majesty the Emperor at the Imperial Palace in honor of H.I.H. the Grand Duke George Mikhailovich, and left the palace about 11 o’clock. The prime minister entered his motor car and started in the direction of his private residence at Waseda, the other occupants of the car being the Chief of Police Umai and the premier’s assistant, Mr. Kumatsu. Passing along one of the dark streets near Waseda University the driver of the car saw a man in the darkness make motions as if in the act of throwing something in the direction of the automobile and immediately put on top speed. The next moment the front of the car was hit hard by a missile, which made a heavy dent. Fortunately, however, the bomb did not explode. A second bomb, which missed the car, exploded on the road without causing any significant damage. No arrests have been made. The premier did not appear to have been shaken by the thrilling experience, and he made light of the affair, referring to his experience of 32 years ago when, as the result of a bomb outrage outside the Foreign Office, he lost his leg. The unexploded bomb was taken to the military arsenal and is currently being examined. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Jan. 24, 1941 League seeks to instill Bushido spirit in Diet Exemplification of the spirit of Bushido, with an emphasis on martial arts and feats of physical skill, is noted in the present session of the Diet, in which 27 members, all experts in their respective fields, pledged themselves yesterday to bringing about more discipline, better manners and the upholding of righteous causes. This new organization, with members in both houses, was named the Martial Arts League of Diet Members. Among the promoters of the league were Mr. Yasutaro Fujiu, sixth grade in jujitsu; Shosuke Yoshiuye, fourth grade in Japanese fencing; and Sai-ichiro Dohke, fourth grade in jujitsu. In a written pledge, the new members stated: “We hereby pledge ourselves to help introduce Diet sessions fitted to the needs of the times. It shall be our duty to bring more discipline among ourselves and also among other members of the Diet to make sure that all members use careful speech and show well-regulated behavior and, thus, achieve that chivalrous Bushido spirit, which is the basis of our martial arts.” 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, Jan. 6, 1966 Plans for ‘new town’ in Tama announced The world’s largest “new town,” accommodating 300,000 people, will be built in eight years on the Tama hills in Tokyo’s western suburbs, with construction work beginning this year. The builder, the government-financed Japan Housing Corp., says the housing project spanning cities and towns of Hachioji, Machida, Tama and Inagi, will spread over an area of 3,200 hectares. At present, the British new town of Basildon in Essex in London’s suburbs is the world’s largest, with a population of 106,000 and an area of 3,100 hectares. Plans call for the construction of three new universities in the town, and a high-speed railway system that will connect the town with downtown Tokyo in half an hour. Cost for the housing project, which will accommodate 80,000 households is expected to cost ¥200 billion. A plot three times as large as Tokyo’s Ueno Park will be reserved for a park of 290 hectares in the area. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, Jan. 18, 1991 Kaifu pledges support as Allies bomb Iraq Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu on Thursday condemned Iraq’s failure to leave Kuwait and pledged the “maximum support possible” for the newly commenced U.S.-led military action against the nation. Kaifu issued the statement in the morning following emergency Security Council and Cabinet sessions held shortly after air attacks were launched on targets in Iraq and Kuwait on Thursday. Later Japan was expected to announce new financial aid for the forces, and to dispatch medical teams and aircraft to help evacuate refugees and Japanese nationals. Details were to be decided quickly by a government-wide task force created Thursday and headed by the prime minister. According to government sources, Japan is considering an additional $4 billion to help defray the allies’ military costs. Kaifu said the government will consider, if necessary, sending Self-Defense Force planes to help airlift refugees and Japanese citizens from the gulf. “Japan pledges its first support to the use of force by the countries concerned carried out in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 as the last resort to terminate the invasion and restore peace.” The resolution set the Tuesday deadline for Iraq to get out of Kuwait. Kaifu brushed aside criticism from some opposition parties that Japan’s financial support for the multinational force violates the Constitution. Japan will never participate directly in the use of force and financial contributions are constitutional, the prime minister stressed. In this feature, which appears on the first Sunday of each month, we delve into The Japan Times’ 118-year archive to present a selection of stories from the past. This month’s edition was collated with the assistance of Midori Nishida. The Japan Times’ entire archive is now available to purchase in digital format. For more details, see jtimes.jp/de .

iraq;tama;count okuma