（第3種郵便物認可）

Thursday, July 31, 2014

3Edition S

NationCoastal life shows what society has lostContinued from Page 1

I could not understand why. However, in myjourney through Asia, the answer was obIn this area of the Paciﬁc, there are a large vious. These people know they cannot surnumber of islands. Some of them were vive if they do not help each other. They
connected in ancient times and known as know how dangerous the sea is.
In 2005, Yukie—my then ﬁancee, now mySundaland. Despite the omnipotent Internet,wife—and I created aI could not get much information about
shopfor outdoor
them. The aim of my travel was to trace theI want toactivities onroute by which mankind came to Japan.
find how toIshigakijima island inI started my kayak journey from northern
Okinawa Prefecture.
Australia with a Japanese buddy in 2002.
coordinate
We organized smallEvery year, I visited Asian countries. I
group sea kayaking
paddled to Indonesia’s Papua Province
civilizationand skin diving tours.
(formerly known as Irian Jaya) with anand natureIndonesian friend. In 2007, I successfully
We were poor, but
completed one of the toughest routes in thehappy.
in betterworld—the Bashi Channel between theNow I have a 4northern Philippines and southern Taiwan.
year-old son. Thoughways.
Nobody had traveled by kayak along theI was once enthuchannel before. The waves and the current
siastic about imare diicult to negotiate because they are proving my own ability, I have come to thinkaected by the Kuroshio current and condi- more about the importance of creating ations in the South China Sea and Paciﬁc better society for younger generations sinceOcean. While paddling along the 100- my son’s birth. In 2011, I joined a project
kilometer channel, I wasn’t able to sleep a named “Umihenro” (sea pilgrimage), led bywink for more than 24 hours. If I had taken a then Kochi University Prof. Kosaku
rest, my kayak could have dried o course. Yamaoka, to develop a better understanding
No ship was supporting me. Aer complet- of people’s lives along the seacoast and coning this challenge by myself, I believed I sider what present-day society has lost as wewould be able to go everywhere by sea kayak. seek a more convenient life.
Through the Umihenro trips aroundI still had about 2,000 kilometers to go.
In ﬁshing villages in Japan and other Asian Shikoku, I became more interested in buildcountries, ﬁshermen gave other people free ing a good relationship between nature andﬁsh. They could have made money if they people. I believe such a relationship is needed
had sold the ﬁsh instead. When I saw ﬁsher- more in urban areas than in remote areas. I
men do this on Hachijojima for the ﬁrst time, also realized the great diversity of Japan’snature. For thesereasons, we moved
in January fromOkinawa Prefecture
to Zushi, Kanagawa
Satoru Yahata is a marine adventurer and an organizer ofPrefecture, my wife’s
Okinawa-based outdoor tour shops “Churanesia.” Yahata was born
hometown. Now wein Tokyo in 1974. He graduated from Senshu University. He was thecome and go
world’s first to kayak solo, and without the use of an engine acrossbetween Zushi andsome channels, including the Bashi Channel between the PhilOkinawa Prefectureippines and Taiwan in 2007 and the route between Yonagunijima infor my work.
Okinawa and Taiwan in 2006.
For the latest
phase of the Umi-Interviewee’s profile

Eishi Miyasaka/The Yomiuri Shimbun

Satoru Yahata talks in front of his sea kayak in the garden of his house in
Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

henro, we conducted a 16-day
kayak trip along theSanriku coast in
Miyagi Prefecture inMay. We visited 12
small ﬁshing villages
that were aected bythe March 11, 2011,
Great East JapanEarthquake. Localﬁshermen weren’twary of us because
we approached theirvillages from the sea
by kayaks. AerCourtesy of Yosuke Kashiwakura
they realized how
serious we were to- Satoru Yahata kayaks off Iriomotejima island, Okinawa Prefecture, inward the sea, we January 2011.
quickly became
good friends. In one village, we helped gather nature to prepare for possible disasters in theoysters from ﬂoating ras. In another, we en- future. I’m developing my ideas to provide
joyed fresh sea squirts the ﬁshermen gave us. real experiences in nature for children and to
They were kind to others even though they help develop professionals who are able towere aected by the disaster. One ﬁsherman rescue others during calamities. I want totold us they used to conduct evacuation drills kick o these projects in Kanagawa.
even before the earthquake. Many ﬁshermen
While working as a guide, I met manysurvived the tsunami even though their “Okinawa lovers” from Tokyo. They visited
houses were swept away. Some ﬁshermen Okinawa because they did not like the envirtold us the sea had been cleaned up since the onment there. It is sad. If you love yourtsunami and that marine species had been in- nearby nature, you can understand it in othercreasing.
areas well. This year I went kayaking with mySince the earthquake, the Tohoku people’s friends in Tokyo. We saw Tokyo Skytree
mutual aid has been called “kizuna” (bond). from our kayaks and went to the Odaiba disBut I think their relationship is not expressed trict. We also enjoyed seeing full-bloomby this word. They are placed in an envir- cherry blossoms while kayaking in Meonment that encourages them to cooperate gurogawa river. When we know more aboutand communicate with each other to survive.
the greatness of Tokyo’s waterfront, we canI’m 39. In the ﬁshing villages overseas, make a proper decision on how to preserve
people in their 40s and 50s had already the environment around us. Now I want toreached a certain stage of their lives. They ﬁnd how to coordinate civilization andconvey their knowledge to young people. It’s nature in better ways.
my turn now.
Interviewer: Fumiko Endo, The Japan
I want to recommend urban residents inparticular to get more real experience in News staff writer

Fraud against elderly rampant

Kanazawa Shinkansen hub
boasts rich local ﬂavor
Nagano and Kanazawa stations nextspring.
The Shinkansen line platforms andKANAZAWA— The Hokuriku
Shinkansen Line waiting rooms and plat- waiting rooms are adorned with traforms at JR Kanazawa Station are dec- ditional cras of the region such as gold
orated in dramatic fashion, using local foil, Kutani pottery and Wajima lacquer
motifs and traditional handicras. The ware. More than 20,000 pieces of goldnew facilities, which will accommodate foil, each 11 centimeters square, decShinkansen operations set to start in the orate 60 posts on the platform and part
spring, were opened to the press on of the waiting rooms to bring out theM o n d a y . A n e w s e c t i o n o f t h e charm of the historic city of Kanazawa.
Posts on the platforms are wrapped with
Shinkansen line will open between
f o u r 7 5 by-110-centi- metergold panels. Thepanels are treatedwith a special coating to resist dirt andpeeling. Two platform waitingrooms are decorated with gold
foil sandwiched inlaminated glass.
Kaga Yuzen printed silk decorates a passage wall.
Kaga Yuzen
The Yomiuri Shimbun

Yomiuri Shimbun photos

JR Kanazawa Station’s Hokuriku Shinkansen platform where posts are decorated with gold foils

printed silk tapestries depicting sceneryfrom Kanazawa’s Kenrokuen garden
and other patterns are mounted on thewalls behind laminated glass, along apassage on the mezzanine ﬂoor
between the ticket gates and platforms.
The waiting rooms also display about

Blood type ‘plays no role’ in personality
The Yomiuri Shimbun

A belief widely held in Japan thatblood type is linked to personality
has no scientiﬁc basis, according to a
recent statistical analysis conduced
by a Kyushu University lecturer.
Kengo Nawata, who specializes insocial psychology, analyzed survey
results encompassing more than
10,000 people from Japan and theUnited States to draw the conclusion.
Many Japanese people believe thatcharacter is determined by blood
type—for example, that “people withblood type A are serious” or “type B
people are selﬁsh.” Observers pointout that such a belief has lead to“blood type harassment,” in whichpeople face discrimination in jobhunting, personnel issues and otherspheres on the basis of blood type.
These ﬁndings are likely to raises
questions about the popular belief.
The results of the Nawata’s research were carried in the Japanese
Psychological Association’s “TheJapanese Journal of Psychology”
published on June 25.

Linking blood type to personality
is rarely practiced outside Japan.
However, the idea spread in thecountry through books related andTV programs starting in the 1970s,according to Nawata.
Nawata used data from economic
surveys conducted in Japan and theUnited States in 2004 and 2005 forthe analysis.
He focused on the respondent
blood type information from the survey along with their various likes anddislikes, and he researched whether
blood type was relevant to the answers given.
There were 68 question prompts intotal, such as “wanting to save thefun for later” and “one should notgamble.” Only three of these
prompts, including “worrying about
the future for children,” had diering
responses for dierent respondent
blood types, according to Nawata’s
analysis. Even those three questions
showed only minor association withblood type. Thus, Nawata concluded
in his research that blood type has norelevance in personality.

this particular case, the woman, wholives alone, said she did not remember
whether she had made a contract topurchase the product.
There were 930,000 requests for consultations brought to consumer centersin ﬁscal 2013, a signiﬁcant decrease
from the 1,910,000 cases in ﬁscal 2004.
However, the situation shows that elderly people with dementia or who arementally impaired are major targets offraudsters in recent years.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Determining personality
through blood type
1970s

Books link blood types
to personality

1980s

Determining personality
by blood type spreads

2000s

Many TV programs
cover topic“Blood type harassment” becomes prob~ present lem, including bloodtype discrimination
during job interviews
Based on sources provided by Kengo
NawataIt is not rare for blood type to be
asked during job interviews and onother occasions, and some have expressed concern that ideas about thepersonalities of speciﬁc blood types
might be considered negatively.
The Health, Labor and Welfare
Ministry instructed some companies
not to ask people their blood type,
explaining that “blood type has nolink at all to work skills or work
aptitude.”200 cra pieces including Kutani pottery and Wajima and Yamanaka lacquerware.
Shigekazu Uchida, section chief ofthe Ishikawa prefectural government’s
Shinkansen transport oice said: “Wewant visitors to feel the richness of our
traditional cra works.”

The number of elderly people seeking consultations with consumer centers aer falling victim to fraud exceeded 10,000 cases last ﬁscal year, almost double the number 10 years ago,according to the National ConsumerAairs Center of Japan.
The center registered 10,742 requests
for consultation last year, up from5,745 cases in ﬁscal 2004.
From ﬁscal 2009,t h e r e h a s b e e n a Consultations at local consumer centersmarked increase ofConsultations for elderly
fraud victims among
12,0002either mentally handi(cases)
people 70 years old or (million
capped or suffering from10,000older suering from cases)
dementia (right scale)1.5
dementia or oth8,000
erwise mentally impaired, according to6,000
1the center.
4,000
One case involved a
Total consultations
0.5
wo ma n i n her 70s
2,000(left scale)
who purchased 20
00bottles of a so-called
2004 ’06’08’10’12 ’13
health drink for a
total of ¥600,000. In Based on National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan data

WEATHERoccasionally TODAY S FORECAST

6 a.m.- noon- 6 p.m.noon 6 p.m. midnight

laterTokyo
SapporoSendai
Niigata
NagoyaOsakaHiroshima
Takamatsu
FukuokaKagoshima
NahaYesterday s
Temperature

Possibility of Rain (%) Temperature
6 a.m.- noon- 6 p.m.noon 6 p.m. midnight

101010102001010205060

Weather forecast for 9 a.m. today

20
1030
2030
2030
30
30
5060

20
1030
30
30
1030
30
30
50
60

low high

2521
22242527
2627272828

33
3130
33
33
35
34353331
31

lowhigh

25.0
19.4
19.8
23.4
25.0
26.0
25.6
26.4
26.7
28.0
28.7

31.8
31.2
29.0
33.7
34.2
36.0
35.4
34.1
37.0
34.7
31.5

TODAY S FORECAST
BangkokBeijingHong KongHonolulu
LondonLos Angeles
ManilaMoscow
New Delhi
New York
Paris
Rio de Janeiro
RomeSeoul
SydneyTemperature
lowhigh

24202723131725
1626
1812161322
103230
3427
2422
27
3135
26
26
22273021

TOMORROW SFORECAST

Temperature
lowhigh

26
2224
24
26
26
27
26
26
26
27

32
30
3132
33
33
33
34
35
31
32

TOMORROW S Temperature
low high
FORECAST
24
32
21
31
26
33
2327
1321
172225
27
1732
26
34
1926
1626
1725162823311015