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jp0000266

2014/07/14

Plane's swastika banner spurs criticism around NYC

NEW YORK - A banner aiming to change people’s minds about what swastikas stand for has stirred outrage after it flew over beaches in New York City and on Long Island. Some beachgoers were appalled and officials fielded complaints after a plane toted the banner Saturday. The banner featured swastikas, a peace sign, a Star of David and a “pro-swastika” message. It was arranged by the International Raelian Movement. The group tries annually to remind people that before Adolf Hitler’s rise, the swastika was an ancient symbol of well-being to Hindus and Buddhists, among others. The Raelians — who believe human beings were created by extraterrestrials — have faced controversy over similar swastika banners in summers past. Some beachgoers say there’s just no way to rehabilitate a symbol that provokes such strong feelings.

airlines;history;transport;nazis

jp0000267

2014/07/14

Store sold inedible gourd seedlings as being safe to eat

OSAKA - Decorative calabash gourd seedlings sold at stores nationwide were mislabeled “for edible use,” Royal Home Center Co., run by the Daiwa House Industry Co., said. The mistake came to light after someone in Nara Prefecture was hospitalized after coming down with symptoms of food poisoning, apparently after consuming calabash or bottle gourd grown from the seedlings earlier this month. Company representatives apologized Sunday for “causing so much trouble and inconvenience,” and warned customers not to eat the calabash gourds. Some varieties of calabash are edible, but the three types of seedlings sold by Royal Home Center were not. Customers who purchased any of the three types — clustering gourds, large-sized gourds and “tsurukubi,” or long-necked gourds — can get a refund. The young plants, labeled as “fun to grow and delicious to eat,” were sold at 30 stores in 11 prefectures: Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Saitama, Aichi, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hyogo, Okayama and Hiroshima, between April and June in both 2013 and 2014. The company said 3,072 seedlings were sold. Royal Home Center said the gourds were sold with the same labels the producer — Green Plaza Yamacho — had put on the packages when shipping the seedlings. The company decided to recall the remaining products after receiving a complaint from a consumer who had purchased mislabeled seedlings from a local distributor and grew the gourds. According to the complaint reported July 7, the purchaser’s friend — a woman in her 40s from Nara Prefecture — developed symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting after consuming the fruit. Royal Home Center said the company will take steps to improve procedures for verifying labels and was considering further measures to prevent any reoccurrences. For more information about refunds, call Royal Home Center’s customer center at 0120-256-186. For details on the products offered by Green Plaza Yamacho, consumers can contact the producer at 0743-75-3003.

osaka;mislabeling;gourds;royal home center

jp0000268

2014/07/22

China food scandal drags in other chains, spreads to McDonald's Japan

SHANGHAI - A toxic food scandal in China is spreading fast, dragging in U.S. coffee chain Starbucks, Burger King Worldwide Inc. and others, as well as products of McDonald’s Corp. as far away as Japan. McDonald’s and KFC’s parent Yum Brands Inc. apologized to Chinese customers Monday after it emerged that Shanghai Husi Food Co. Ltd., a unit of U.S.-based OSI Group LLC, had supplied expired meat to the two chains. In Tokyo, McDonald’s Holdings Japan said Tuesday it gets 20 percent of the chicken it uses for Chicken McNuggets from Shanghai Husi but stopped selling nuggets made with meat purchased from the Chinese firm on Monday. McDonald’s Japan apologized to its customers and said it has switched to another chicken meat supplier. The firm said it has stopped importing chicken meat from Shanghai Husi and said if the reports are true, it is “completely unacceptable.” A spokesman said McDonald’s Japan has been using meat supplied by Shanghai Husi since 2002, but no major problems have occurred so far regarding complaints from customers. On Tuesday, Starbucks in China said some of its stores previously sold products containing chicken originally sourced from Shanghai Husi, a firm that was shut down Sunday by local regulators after a TV report showed staff using expired meat and picking up meat from the floor to add to the mix. Heidi Barker, a U.S. spokeswoman for McDonald’s, said in an email that McNuggets were the only product affected in Japan. Yoshinoya-parent Hop Hing Group Holdings Ltd., convenience store FamilyMart Co. Ltd. and Chinese chain Wallace urged diners not to worry and said they did not currently use any products from Shanghai Husi. Fast-food chain Burger King and Dicos, China’s third-ranked diner owned by Ting Hsin International, said they would remove Shanghai Husi food products from their outlets. Pizza chain Papa John’s International Inc. said on its Weibo blog that it had taken down all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi and cut ties with the supplier. Food safety is one of the top issues for Chinese consumers after a scandal in 2008 where dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to the deaths of six infants and made many thousands sick. Other food scandals have hit the meat and dairy industries in recent years, and many Chinese look to foreign brands as offering higher safety standards. Starbucks said on its Chinese microblog site that it had no direct business relationship with Shanghai Husi, but that some of its chicken acquired from another supplier had originally come from Husi for its Chicken Apple Sauce Panini products. This had been sold in 13 different provinces and major cities. Starbucks added that all the products had already been removed from the shelves. The scare has stirred local consumers and become one of the most discussed topics online by the country’s influential “netizens,” with some users writing and spreading long lists of firms thought to be tarnished. The incident highlights the difficulty in ensuring quality and safety along the supply chain in China. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. came under the spotlight this year after a supplier’s donkey meat product was found to contain fox meat. It also came under fire for selling expired duck meat in 2011. Burger King said in a Weibo statement posted late Monday that it had taken off its shelves all meat products supplied by Shanghai Husi Food and had launched an investigation. Dicos said it pulled all ham products supplied by Shanghai Husi, and would stop serving its ham sandwich product for breakfast. “We will continue to carry out a probe into Shanghai Husi Food and its related firms, to understand whether or not it followed national regulations,” Dicos said in a statement. IKEA said on Weibo that Shanghai Husi had previously been a supplier, but had not provided the firm with products since September last year. Domino’s Pizza Inc. and Doctor’s Associates Inc.’s Subway brand, which were named in online reports as being supplied meat from Shanghai Husi, said their outlets in China did not use meat products from the firm.

china;food;mcdonald 's;scandals;burger king;family mart;shanghai husi food

jp0000269

2014/07/25

Ruling hinged on assistance law revamp: summary

The following is a rough translation of the text of Supreme Court’s July 18 ruling that found permanent residents ineligible for welfare payments. [FACTS DETERMINED BY THE FUKUOKA HIGH COURT] The old Public Assistance Law (abolished in 1950) stated, in Article 1: “This law is aimed at protecting the lives of people in need equally, without discrimination or preferential treatment, thereby enhancing social welfare.” Article 1 of the current (1950) Public Assistance Law states: “The purpose of this Act is for the State to guarantee a minimum standard of living as well as to promote self-support for all citizens who are living in poverty by providing necessary public assistance according to the level of poverty, based on the principles prescribed in Article 25 of the Constitution of Japan.” Article 2 of the law states: “All citizens (kokumin) may receive public assistance under this Act (hereinafter referred to as “public assistance”) in a nondiscriminatory and equal manner as long as they satisfy the requirements prescribed by this Act.” A 1954 welfare ministry notice to prefectural governments stipulates that, for the time being, foreigners in poverty should be given the same level of assistance as Japanese citizens. The notice further says public assistance applications from foreigners should be processed in the same ways as those from Japanese are, except that when foreigners are given assistance, the (municipal) agencies in charge must report the cases to their prefectural governor and confirm through the governor that the individuals in question are not already eligible to receive such assistance from agencies in the foreigners’ places of origin. In 1990, the welfare ministry released new guidelines, limiting eligibility for foreigners based on its 1954 notice to those with permanent residential status. In 1981, when the Cabinet decided that Japan would join the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees as well as the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereinafter referred to as “Refugee Convention”), the issue of whether to revise the nationality clause (limiting legal protection to Japanese nationals) in domestic laws such as the Public Assistance Law, National Pension Law and the Child Rearing Allowance Law, arose, as Article 23 of the convention stipulated that: “The Contracting States shall accord to refugees lawfully staying in their territory the same treatment with respect to public relief and assistance as is accorded to their nationals.” With the 1981 enactment of legislation mandating revisions (in Japan, to accommodate the convention’s requirements), various laws, such as the National Pension Law and the Child Rearing Allowance Law, were revised to abolish the nationality clause, but no such revisions were made to the Public Assistance Law. In a joint screening committee set up by the legal affairs, foreign affairs and social and labor committees of the Lower House, a government representative in May 1981 said Japan would not be barred from joining the Refugee Convention for not abolishing the nationality clause in the Public Assistance Law, because ever since the public assistance system was created, foreigners had been treated in the same way as nationals. JUDGEMENT OF THE FUKUOKA HIGH COURT] By joining the Refugee Convention, and from related Diet deliberations, the legislative and administrative arms of the government can be construed as having approved that the nation shoulders a degree of legal responsibility to provide public assistance and therefore accord to a certain group of foreigners the same level of public assistance as is accorded to their nationals. Therefore the status of a certain group of foreigners to receive the aforementioned treatment has been legally established. [JUDGMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT] The old Public Assistance Law did not distinguish, in its application, between “nationals” and others, whereas the current law, in articles 1 and 2, stipulates that it is “citizens” who are eligible. The “citizens” referred to by the law can be interpreted to mean Japanese nationals and exclude foreigners. Since the current law’s enactment, no legal revision has been made to expand eligible persons to include a certain group of foreigners, and no other legal legislation exists to enable the application of the provisions for assistance accorded under the law to a certain group of foreigners. Therefore, there is no ground for the Public Assistance Law to be applied to foreigners. The (1954 welfare ministry) notice is one issued by an administrative body. Even if public assistance has been in reality accorded to a certain group of foreigners as an administrative measure, this cannot be interpreted as meaning that the Public Assistance Law now applies to foreigners in the absence of legislative measures, such as revisions to its articles 1 and 2. It is also clear from the wording of the notice that it is premised on the understanding that the Public Assistance Law does not apply to foreigners, and hence foreigners who are living in poverty should be given necessary protection as an administrative measure for the time being. Therefore, it is through an administrative measure (rather than a legislative measure) that foreigners have, to date, effectively been made eligible for public assistance. Neither the Public Assistance Law as it currently stands nor any other law can be construed as conferring on foreigners eligibility for assistance.

welfare;discrimination;supreme court;public assistance law;permanent residents

jp0000270

2014/07/25

A closer look at the Supreme Court's welfare benefits ruling

Opinions are divided over how the Supreme Court ruling last week declaring permanent foreign residents of Japan ineligible for welfare payments will affect the foreign communities in Japan. In Japan, welfare benefits comprise public assistance for financially needy people, including monthly stipends for living expenses and housing, as well as free medical and nursery services. Lawyers and foreign rights advocates see the top court’s ruling as a sign that municipalities will grow more hostile to foreigners, while central and local government officials stress the ruling will by no means change the way they scrutinize foreign applicants. Let’s take a look at the facts and some of potential repercussions from the verdict. What was the ruling about? An 82-year-old ethnic Chinese woman in Oita Prefecture who was born and raised in Japan sued the city of Oita in 2009 as she was denied welfare benefits on the grounds that she had some savings. She filed another application later that was accepted and has been claiming welfare benefits since 2011. Her claims aside, the trial was pivotal in that it forced the courts to finally clarify whether foreigners are entitled to welfare benefits — something the judiciary has never had to consider. Last Friday, the Supreme Court clearly ruled for the first time that they are not because foreigners are not considered Japanese citizens, overturning the Fukuoka High Court’s 2011 decision. How did foreigners first start to receive benefits in Japan? The 1950 Public Assistance Law stipulates that the state should take measures to protect every financially struggling “citizen” of Japan from poverty and ensure a minimal standard living. Four years later, the welfare ministry issued a nationwide notice to municipalities explaining that the law does not cover foreign residents due to its allusion to nationality. But poverty-stricken foreigners, it said, should nonetheless be given any assistance deemed necessary by the municipalities. Since then, municipalities have customarily interpreted this to mean that they can decide whether to dole out the benefits at their own discretion. As a result, foreign residents here have received welfare benefits for years — at the mercy of local governments. In 1990, the ministry narrowed the scope of foreigners subject to benefits to those with permanent residency or long-term visas. What about other social security programs? Japan used to exclude foreigners from almost all social security programs, including child-rearing allowances and the national pension system. Laws for all of these programs stipulated its recipients be “Japanese nationals,” until Japan joined a series of U.N.-designated international treaties, such as the International Covenants on Human Rights in 1979, and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1982. By joining these accords, Japan became treaty-bound to treat foreigners on an equal footing with its own people and pressured into ditching the nationality clauses previously included in these programs. What happened to the benefits? Unlike many other programs, the original 1950 law for welfare benefits has received no tweaks and continues to discriminate against foreigners by stating that legitimate recipients must be Japanese citizens. Upon signing up for the 1982 refugee treaty, the government at the time insisted there was no need to rid the law of the nationality clause, arguing municipalities were already treating foreign applicants in the same way as Japanese in accordance with its 1954 notice. So how will the ruling affect foreign communities here? When contacted by The Japan Times, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said no major policy review is in the works on how to handle claims by foreigners seeking welfare benefits. “We understand the ruling merely endorsed our policy of all these years,” said ministry official Hiroki Morishita. “Foreign residents have never been eligible for the benefits. This will continue to be the case and nothing will change.” Likewise, local governments in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, Kawasaki and Minokamo in Gifu — all of which have large foreign communities than elsewhere in Japan — said they are not considering subjecting foreign applicants to stricter scrutiny. But Hisao Seto, lead defense lawyer for the 82-year-old Chinese woman, is not convinced. He says the government might feel tempted to target foreigners if they pressed with the need to trim budgets amid ever-swelling welfare expenditures. Seto said he considers the Supreme Court ruling a virtual “warning” to foreigners in Japan. “What it’s trying to say,” he said, “is that as a foreigner you shouldn’t consider working or living in Japan because if you were ever to get injured or sick, chances are you will be denied the welfare payments you need, depending on the mood of local officials you deal with,” he said. What part of the foreign community will be hit hardest? Topping the list is probably the Koreans who were forcibly brought to Japan before and during World War II after the 1910 annexation of the Korean Peninsula. Some still live without pensions, because by the time Japan removed the nationality clause from its pension system in 1982, they had turned 35 or older, making it impossible to complete the 25 years of pension premiums payments required to before the age of 60, when individuals were then eligible to tap their pension payments. “For those people welfare benefits have been the last social safety net they could count on, without having to depend financially on their kids to survive,” said Hiroshi Tanaka, professor emeritus of sociology at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. Eriko Suzuki, an associate professor of Kokushikan University in Tokyo who specializes in foreign labor issues, points out that migrant “nikkei” workers from Brazil and so-called Indochina refugees from countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia also need the benefits. Consigned to taking low-paid, dangerous or menial jobs, many of them are often injured and find themselves at great risk of becoming unemployed, she said. “Accepting foreigners as a labor force and then abandoning them once they’ve become useless will clearly look very bad for Japan in the international community,” Suzuki said.

welfare;discrimination;foreigners;supreme court;public assistance law;nationality clause

jp0000271

2014/09/03

Dethroned Myanmar beauty queen blasts pageant organizers

YANGON - A dethroned 16-year-old beauty queen from Myanmar said Tuesday she won’t return her bejeweled $100,000 crown until pageant organizers apologize for calling her a liar and a thief. May Myat Noe — the country’s first winner of an international beauty contest — lashed back at her accusers at a tightly packed news conference. She said representatives of the Miss Asia Pacific World pageant lied about her age — saying she was 18 instead of 16 — and tried to pressure her into getting plastic surgery “from head to toe.” Noe denied having breast implants as claimed by David Kim, director of media for the South Korean-based pageant. He said the surgery was provided free of charge to help boost the teen into superstardom. Kim said Noe was stripped of her title last week because she was dishonest and unappreciative, and that she ran off with her tiara after learning of the decision. Noe said she boarded a plane for Myanmar before getting word. She said she did not intend to steal the crown, but also wasn’t going to give it back without a “sorry,” not just to her, but also to Myanmar. “I’m not even proud of this crown,” she said after opening a blue box and placing the tiara on the table in front of her. “I don’t want a crown from an organization with such a bad reputation.” The pageant says the Swarovski tiara is worth more than $100,000. Noe’s mother, who accompanied her on the trip to South Korea, cried when asked about the experience. The Miss Asia Pacific World pageant, now in its fourth year, is no stranger to controversy. In 2011, Wales representative Amy Willerton and several other contestants alleged that the contest had been fixed after a woman representing Venezuela was apparently named runner-up of the talent round before competing. The argument with organizers — captured on video and uploaded to YouTube under the title “Confessions of a Beauty Queen” — was widely circulated in the pageant community. Some of the contestants also accused officials of asking the women for sex in return for higher placement in the contest, and charged that the police called into investigate the allegations were bribed. Those allegations were denied by Kim. “It is not true that the girls were sleeping with the organizers or the director,” he said. “The police already announced that these were just rumors. We checked everything, the CCTV in the hotel, everything. It was just rumors.” Myanmar, which only recently emerged from a half century of military rule and self-imposed isolation, started sending contestants to international pageants again in 2012. Noe’s win was widely covered in local media.

myanmar;women;scandals;theft;contests

jp0000272

2014/09/03

Fukushima workers sue Tepco over unpaid hazard wages, reliance on contractors

IWAKI, FUKUSHIMA PREF. - A group of Fukushima workers on Wednesday sued Tokyo Electric Power Co. for unpaid wages in a potentially precedent-setting legal challenge to the utility and its reliance on contractors to shut down a nuclear plant destroyed by the industry’s worst accident since Chernobyl. The lawsuit, filed by two current and two former workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, claims that Tepco and its contractors failed to ensure workers are paid promised hazard allowances, a court filing showed. The workers say Tepco, allowed subcontractors to skim funds allocated for wages to bolster their own profits on the decommissioning project at the expense of workers. The lawsuit seeks the equivalent of roughly ¥62 million in unpaid wages from Tepco and related contractors. It marks the first time that the utility has been sued for the labor practices of the construction companies it employs. The lawsuit also asks that the 6,000 workers partaking in the nuclear clean-up project either be made effectively government employees, be put on the Tepco payroll directly or be fairly paid. Tsuguo Hirota, 68, the lawyer coordinating the lawsuit, said he expects two additional workers will join the action immediately and that more could follow. Japanese law allows for additional plaintiffs with related claims to join an existing lawsuit. “A year ago, Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe told the world that Fukushima was under control,” Hirota said in an interview. “But that’s not the case. Workers are not getting promised hazard pay and skilled workers are leaving. It’s becoming a place for amateurs only, and that has to worry anyone who lives near the plant.” Tepco had no immediate comment. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday morning by Hirota, the four plaintiffs and a group of supporters at a branch of Fukushima court in Iwaki, about 60 km south of the wrecked nuclear plant.

tokyo electric power co .;fukushima nuclear power plant;unpaid wages

jp0000273

2014/09/20

The feral felines of Cat Heaven Island

Cat heaven is a place on Earth — and it’s just 20 minutes by ferry from Fukuoka. To go there, catch a boat from Shingu Port in Fukuoka to Ainoshima Island. It is a small island, some 1¼ sq. km in size, inhabited by around 500 people, most of whom make their living by fishing. You will immediately notice the cats. There are hundreds of them, roaming freely. Almost all are feral, wild-living and battle-hardened. For cat lovers, the place is becoming a tourist attraction. The photographer known as Fubirai has spent several years documenting the cats of the island on his blog , and in 2012 his photos went viral on Buzzfeed. A steady trickle of feline enthusiasts are now making the crossing from Fukuoka — the residents of Ainoshima might soon supplement their income catering to the cat-watchers. Akihiro Yamane has also spent time on the island — seven years. Now a curator at Kitakyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History, Yamane was for many years a leading cat scientist, first at Kyushu University, and then at the Laboratory for Wildlife Conservation at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba — where I met him. Ainoshima has gained the nickname Cat Heaven Island, but while it may be a great place for scientists — and it has taught us a surprising amount about so familiar an animal — it is not perhaps the ideal place for cats. Feral cats are tough, and have tough lives. They live for just three to five years, compared with around 15 years for the average house cat. Yamane studied the cats in a six-hectare area on the south tip of the island, where there were six garbage patches. The cats arrange themselves in groups, based around ownership and control of the garbage patches. There is a strict hierarchy. “Male cats fight rivals to secure priority access to females in estrous (on heat),” Yamane says. “That ensures the males are more successful in mating and reproducing.” By trapping and tagging all the cats, Yamane found that the bigger and heavier a male in a group, the more access to females he secured. Big males also risked incursions into enemy territory — they visited other garbage heaps in attempts to mate with other females. “But these males were beaten there by smaller males of the other group, just like away supporters in a football game.” Very few “away team” copulations were observed. However, Yamane also took DNA samples of cats and kittens. The analysis showed that despite seeing few copulations between intruding males and females, there were actually far more kittens fathered from outside the group than expected. Females have more control over who fathers their kittens than you might think from the male-dominated structure of their society. Yamane says he often saw females dash away from their dominant males while the males were snoozing. “In many trials, females failed to escape, because males noticed the movement, but some attempts were successful,” he says. The reason for this, Yamane suspects, is to reduce the effects of inbreeding. When he started the study, Yamane says he had no special affection for cats. If anything, he had negative feelings about them, because some birds he kept when he was a child had been killed by cats. But he started to change his mind. He saw how different the life of a feral cat is to that of a house cat. Female cats had to compete to get enough food to feed their kittens. Life was tough and many kittens died through starvation, disease and even infanticide, as seen in lions. Male cats had to endure dangerous and damaging fights to get the chance to mate. “I found myself respecting them,” Yamane says. “After a while I grew to love them.” Yamane also observed many instances of male-on-male homosexual behavior. Often this would occur when a fertile female ran away from a courting male; sometimes the male would bite and mount a nearby immature male cat. It is hard to read this as “frustrated” actions on the part of the male — although Yamane says it is not yet fully understood. Yamane has just written a book drawing together his research on cats. “Neko no Himitsu” (“Secrets of the Cat”) was published this weekend by Bunshun Shinsho. Yamane says the book describes the life of both feral and household cats, from birth to death. One of the issues he considers is how to control the spread of feral cats. “Feral cats kill and eat endangered endemic wildlife,” he says, “and may even contribute to extinction.” There are some reports in Japan of feral cats reducing the population of wild birds, and they are suspected of spreading disease to the endemic wildcat, the Iriomote yamaneko . Japan deals with the issue by euthanizing kittens. In 2012 in Japan, some 120,000 cats were euthanized. In some European countries, the problem is tackled by trapping and neutering cats, and then releasing them, but while some local governments have recommended this in Japan, it hasn’t caught on. For Yamane the issue encapsulates other societal problems in Japan. In the olden days, he says — in the Edo Period (1603-1867) and Showa Era (1926-89) — people did not have enough surplus food to feed stray cats. Now they do, and they feed feral cats. We can’t go back to the olden days, but it is easy to stop feeding cats, he says. “A problem is that aged people living alone tend to constantly feed feral cats, because they have little contact with other people and feel lonely,” Yamane says. One of the consequences of a society where older people are lonely is that cats are overfed and reproduce at high rates, and their kittens have to be euthanized. For my part, I love cats, because despite the millenniums of domestic life, they retain impressive predatory characteristics. They are only a whisker away from being wild animals. Yamane feels the same. In his book, he outlines the characteristics of cats that we find so attractive: beauty, adaptability, a capricious nature, a sense of mystery, independence. Each of them, he says, are byproducts of evolution, the force of natural selection that created an efficient killer.

cats;ainoshima;cat heaven island

jp0000274

2014/09/20

Can simplicity survive contact with complexity?

“In the past this spacious Hokkaido was our ancestors’ world of freedom. Living with ease and pleasure in the manner of innocent babes in the embrace of beautiful, vast nature, they were truly beloved children of nature. Oh, what happy people they must have been!” “They have no history, their traditions are scarcely worthy of the name, they claim descent from a dog, their houses and persons swarm with vermin, they are sunk in the grossest ignorance …” “It is a great insult for the people of our prefecture (Okinawa) to be singled out for inclusion with Taiwanese tribesmen and (Hokkaido) Ainu. … We are being portrayed as an inferior race.” Hokkaido and Okinawa, poles apart climatically, have in common the sort of past that begs the question: Can human simplicity survive contact with human complexity? Both territories having failed to do so, and being now part of Japan in consequence, the answer seems clear. Maybe it is. Let’s explore it anyway. Related questions come to mind: Can weak nations coexist with strong ones? Does strength confer rights to which weakness must (and, therefore, should) yield? Is savagery a viable, even preferable alternative to civilization? If so, “savagery,” with its pejorative connotations, hardly seems the right word. What then? “Innocence?” Were Hokkaido and Okinawa “innocent” before Japan got its hands on them? Would they have been better off had Japan never encroached on them? If so, was Japan’s encroachment a crime? A sad truism: nations commit acts in the name of honor, glory and prosperity that, committed by individuals, would be judged criminal, if not monstrous. But nations are not individuals. Does that absolve them? Let’s consider Okinawa first, if only because Okinawa to this day harbors grievances whose modern manifestations have ancient roots. In 1591, Japan’s supreme warlord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, having united most of his fractious country under his personal rule and feeling unabashedly omnipotent, wrote to the Ryukyu court as follows: “Throughout our nation of more than 60 provinces, I have pacified all people and governed with mercy and affection. … Consequently it is my desire to spread my administrations to other regions. … Henceforth, even if a land be thousands of miles distant, I shall … build with foreign lands the spirit of the four seas as one family.” Ryukyu, Okinawa’s original name, means “circle of jewels,” an apt description of a sprawling and lovely archipelago of 160-odd large and small islands, 48 of them inhabited. Agriculture came late — not before the 10th century. Local potentates ruled locally until the 15th century when one, stronger than the others, forced unification on recalcitrant former peers, somewhat staining a claim to moral superiority. Yet early in the 20th century the folklorist Kunio Yanagita (1875-1962) professed to see in Okinawa the pristine and divine purity that Japan proper had thrown away in its hell-bent drive to modernization. Traders the Ryukyuans were, their seaborne commerce mainly with China but extending all over East and South Asia. Hideyoshi, boundlessly bumptious, conceived a desire to conquer China. Why? Why not? A letter he wrote in1591 reads, “My country is secure. Nonetheless, it is my intention to govern China,” a feat “as easily done as pointing to the palm of my hand.” From the Ryukyus he demanded troops and provisions. Not daring to refuse outright, the Ryukyu king extended grudging and minimal cooperation — trade with China was his kingdom’s lifeline, after all — no doubt rejoicing when the expedition came to grief. It mattered little in the end. Ryukyu was doomed. It was too prosperous and too feeble to be left alone by a Japan whose newfound unity and burgeoning strength demanded an outlet. In 1609 came the almost effortless invasion — the end (in fact though not in name until 1879) of Ryukyu’s independent existence. Ironically, 30 years after the invasion, Japan, feeling threatened by Western powers, turned deeply inward, not emerging from its shell until the mid-1850s, when those same Western powers, led by the United States, treated Japan much as Japan had treated Okinawa. So that’s power politics. When has it ever been different? Well, take Hokkaido for instance. How could Yanagita have missed it? Here if anywhere primitive simplicity, noble savagery, natural goodness (is there is such a thing?) had a chance. If the ancient Ryukyuans were slow or reluctant to develop agriculture, Hokkaido’s Ainu were much more so, preserving a prehistoric hunting and gathering economy until well into the 19th century. Yukie Chiri, the early 20th-century Ainu writer quoted above (she died of heart disease at 19) was born too late to taste the primordial happiness she wrote about, but the oral tales on which she based herself (she is remembered as the first to have preserved them in writing) are too beautiful and too transparently joyful to be disregarded as evidence of the possibility that civilization may be more corrupting than beneficial — Isabella Bird notwithstanding. Bird is a fine observer, but she wouldn’t have known the tales, and her feelings in any case were mixed; she could not deny that there was something very fine about the Ainu after all. “They are uncivilizable and altogether irreclaimable savages,” Bird writes, “yet they are attractive and in some ways fascinating, and I hope I shall never forget the music of their low, sweet voices … and the wonderful sweetness of their smile.” Is this paradise lost? Were the Ainu “innocent babes,” as Chiri thought, or vermin-ridden savages, as they appeared to Bird? “Inferior race,” said the Ryukyu Shimpo — yet who today doesn’t see something admirable in their loving symbiosis with nature, their lack of greed, their ability to live in peace with one another? Hopeless, doomed. In the 16th century rumors swirled of gold to be found in the far north, and Japanese prospectors poured in. The rest, as they say, is history.

okinawa;hokkaido

jp0000275

2014/09/20

Importance of China trade not lost on Kansai leaders

Judging by the frequent overheated rhetoric coming out of parts of the Japanese media, you’d think Japan and China were heading toward war. Of course, none of those now beating the drums for war will ever be drafted to fight. They are confident that, whatever happens, they’re part of the privileged class that will still be alive, and prospering, when the shooting is over. This is not to imply the warmongers are correct. However, given the rise in alarmist rhetoric of late, it’s clearer than ever that relations with China are far too important to be left to the likes of the Foreign and Defense ministries, let alone politicians or the media. For historical and cultural reasons, this is something Osaka understands. Anyone who deals with official Osaka will notice that the kind of crude, intense hatred toward China one finds in other parts of the country is often muted, or lacking entirely. Indeed, it’s more likely that opinions in Kansai on China and the Chinese people are more nuanced and subtle. Given China’s economic importance to the Kansai region as a whole, this is not surprising. It’s the destination of nearly a quarter of Kansai’s exports, and the source of nearly a third of its imports. One-third of Kansai International Airport’s 900-plus international flights this past summer went to China, whereas a mere 5 percent headed to the United States and Europe. Rule No. 1 in business is that you do not antagonize your best customers. Politically, local leaders have always had an “Asia first” policy, and you don’t get elected without the support of the China-centric, or at least Asia-centric, business community. Both the Kansai Economic Federation and the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives regularly send trade missions to all corners of China. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto have made numerous trips to China and hosted senior leaders at home. New Komeito, which is quite strong in Osaka, has long pushed for good relations with China. Liberal Democratic Party politicians and their supporters in the region are often silent or accent the positive aspects of China. There is not, it seems, much political advantage in being seen as rabidly anti-China. What this means is that, despite the media rhetoric, Kansai leaders remain committed to better relations through trade, negotiation and compromise. They usually avoid provocative political statements and actions, instead engaging in behind-the-scenes discussions among Japanese and Chinese business partners who can then pressure their political leaders to tone things down. Yes, Hashimoto may at times make insensitive remarks about historical issues. But, compared with the more extreme members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet, Hashimoto’s record shows he is not instinctively anti-China. Given that many of his supporters are upper-middle-class Japanese in their 30s and 40s who are frustrated with the old men who run the nation and look upon the success of young Chinese entrepreneurs with envy, this is hardly surprising. Is this “Osaka method” of China diplomacy doomed to failure, a victim of its own naivety, an amateur production of merchants who think that because they sell products to China they can run the Japan-China relationship better than the professional diplomats? Perhaps, but one needs to start somewhere. Many hope the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing this November will include a summit between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. APEC is a forum ostensibly about trade, the perfect pretext for a businesslike tete-a-tete between the two leaders that can be built upon by those in Osaka and elsewhere who would rather talk about the benefits of trade and investment than the possibility of conflict. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.

china;toru hashimoto;trade;kansai;ichiro matsui

jp0000276

2014/09/29

Arab ambassadors say Japan's media covers region poorly

Members of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Tokyo said Monday they plan to help Japanese media give a more accurate picture of the region, with a special focus on life in the Arab world and on Arab nations’ exchanges with Japan. Japanese coverage of the region tends to focus negatively on recent political turmoil with insufficient analysis of the background leading up to it, said four of the council’s members during a visit to The Japan Times in Tokyo. They were Algerian Ambassador Sid Ali Ketrandji, Bahraini Ambassador Khalil Hassan, Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdul-Rahman Al-Otaibi and Ambassador Waleed A. Siam, representative of the Permanent General Mission of Palestine. They said long-standing friendly relations between Japan and Arabian countries give hope for increased collaboration with Japanese media, and they spoke of plans for a media seminar in March.

ambassadors;arab

jp0000277

2014/09/28

SDP's Takako Doi, first female leader of major political party in Japan, dies at 85

Takako Doi, a former House of Representatives speaker and onetime head of the Social Democratic Party, died of pneumonia on Sept. 20, the SDP said Sunday. She was 85. Doi, who served as a Lower House member for 12 terms from 1969 to 2005, led the predecessor of the SDP from 1986 to 1991 as the first female leader of a major Japanese political party. She again took the helm of the party in 1996, when it renamed itself, and continued in the post until 2003. A constitutional scholar, Doi was regarded as one of the highest-profile female pioneers in the male-dominated field of Japanese politics. In the July 1989 House of Councilors election, she played a key role in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party losing its majority in the chamber, as her tough, straight-talking manner appealed to voters, especially women. In that vote, Doi spearheaded a campaign opposing the introduction of the unpopular consumption tax that year, at a rate of 3 percent. “The mountain has moved,” she said after the election, a phrase that would be widely circulated among the public and symbolize the emerging power of women in politics and the weakening of the LDP. “Ms. Doi has passed away. . . . (She) persuaded me to run (for a Diet seat) in 1998, and I decided to run to defend the Constitution,” Mizuho Fukushima, an Upper House member and former SDP chief herself, tweeted Sunday. “It’s really shocking, as if my mother in politics has died.” Doi graduated from Doshisha University’s Graduate School of Law and was the first woman to become speaker of the powerful House of Representatives, a position she served in from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, she again became head of her party, but resigned in 2003 to take responsibility for the its trouncing in that year’s general election. After failing to win a seat in the 2005 Lower House election, Doi retired from politics. The SDP, once the country’s most powerful opposition party, was a driving force behind social democratic and pacifist movements, but its fortunes have waned in recent years and it is now a minor opposition party with just a handful of Diet lawmakers.

sdp;diet;obituary;takako doi

jp0000279

2014/09/26

Chilean officials say man died while handling bomb

SANTIAGO - A man handling a bomb died when the device exploded in downtown Santiago on Thursday, officials said, adding to a string of blasts in Chile’s capital. Prosecutor Claudio Orellana said the unknown young man “had been manipulating a homemade explosive artefact, and in those circumstance, it blew up on him” at about 1 a.m. Witnesses posted online photos of the man in flames before he was taken to an emergency clinic where he died. Doctors at the clinic said the man was gravely injured as well as burned. He was not identified, but was believed to be about 30 years old. Officials say anarchist cells have planted some 200 bombs around Santiago over the past decade, and 30 so far this year. The only other fatality was also a man believed to be planting an explosive. President Michelle Bachelet, who was visiting the United Nations, described the bombings as “terrorist acts, but isolated.” The explosion comes two days after three alleged anarchists appeared in court and were ordered held on suspicion of planting at least four bombs, including one that injured 14 people at a shopping area near a subway stop this month. Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said that the design of new bomb appears to differ with that used in the subway blast.

chile;bomb;terrorist;michelle bachelet;fatality;anarchist

jp0000280

2014/09/21

Mihama viewed as test case for Japan's aging nuclear reactors

In recognition of Japan’s rapidly aging nuclear plants, Kansai Electric Power Co. has begun discussing the possibility of decommissioning the Mihama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, now more than 40 years old, in Fukui Prefecture. While Kepco officials insist no decision has been made, scrapping them instead of applying for a two-decade extension could set a precedent for other prefectures where older plants that went online in the 1970s and early 1980s, like the ill-fated Fukushima No. 1 plant, now face more stringent safety regulations, posing huge expenditures for any utility interested in keeping them. The two Mihama reactors in question went into service in 1970 and 1972 and generate a combined 840,000 kw, a small amount compared with modern atomic units, which can generate over 1 million kw each. Japan’s maximum operating life span for a reactor stands at 40 years. After that, utilities can apply for a one-time, 20-year extension or commence a decommissioning process that can take up to three decades. It’s a tough choice, one that effects not only consumers, but also the municipalities hosting the plants and the utilities running them. Keeping reactors online beyond 40 years is expected to become extremely expensive. In addition to the basic costs of meeting the new safety standards that took effect last year, the places hosting them are sure to place additional demands on utilities and the central government — demands that will require further funding and negotiations that will further delay reactivation. In the case of the Mihama reactors, though, even if a 20-year extension were granted, it’s unclear whether the cost of running them would be recouped by the time the reactors reach the age of 60. If not, that means more red ink on Kepco’s bottom line, and pressure on the government to pass off the losses to the end users in the Kansai region. Time is running out to make a decision. Accordng to the government, any utilities wishing to continue running reactors past the 40-year threshold as of July 2016 will have to undergo an extra inspection, for which applications must be submitted by July 2015. Utilities that apply will have to calculate the financial and political costs over the next two decades. If they end up receiving state approval for an extension, they have to hope that the electricity from the reactors will generate enough revenue to cover all of the additional costs, both projected and unforeseen, without significantly denting their bottom line. Otherwise, they will have to start the dismantling process. Yet decommissioning also involves big money. Utilities estimate that scrapping a single reactor will cost at least ¥50 billion, assuming that all goes as planned. By 2016, all three of Kepco’s Mihama reactors, as well as two of its four reactors at the Takahama plant, also in Fukui Prefecture, will be over 40 years old. This means Kepco must choose whether to dismantle or try to extend the lives of five of its 11 operating reactors. On top of that, its No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Oi power station in Fukui will reach the 37-year mark in 2016, requiring another decision in the next couple of years. For its part, the government has said it will provide some form of financial support to the utilities if reactors become subject to decommissioning or fail safety inspections and remain shut down. “The utilities will decide whether to decommission individual reactors, but the government will support a smooth decommissioning process along with the restart of reactors whose safety has been guaranteed,” new economy, trade and industry minister Yuko Obuchi said earlier this month. Whatever decision Kepco arrives at, it will have a huge impact on Fukui Prefecture, where all 11 of the utility’s reactors are situated. Since the mid-1970s, Fukui has received around ¥400 billion in nuclear power-related subsidies from the central government. Of this, about ¥190 billion has gone directly to towns such as Mihama that rely on the money to build roads, bridges, dams and sewage systems as well as community centers and other social welfare facilities. Officials visiting the host municipalities for regular inspections by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the industry’s new watchdog, as well as utility personnel, help fill local hotels, inns and restaurants, and support a variety of local service industries. Concerned about what a future without nuclear subsidies might mean, Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa met with Obuchi on Sept. 9, just days after she was appointed industry minister, and asked her for additional funding for a variety of infrastructure projects, as well as a guarantee that atomic-related funding would ensure that reactors are completely decommissioned and removed. “It’s up to the central government to explain how it will take responsibility for securing a storage facility for the spent fuel from decommissioned reactors, for building a disposal facility for their radioactive waste, for ensuring the physical safety of the area hosting the reactor, and for dealing with the industrial and economic effects of decommissioning,” Nishikawa said. While Fukui is concerned, others in Kansai who have long worried about the reactors, especially their age, greeted the news of possible decommissioning with relief. Aileen Mioko Smith of Kyoto-based Green Action, an anti-nuclear group, said tearing down the reactors would set a good precedent but added that it is critical to include local participation in the process. “Local communities should be given the opportunity to enter the decommissioning business rather than again become subcontractors to huge conglomerates,” she said, referring to the general contractors that built the plants.

kepco;nuclear energy;mihama

jp0000281

2014/09/21

Politicians discuss plan B in nuclear power push: underground reactors

For more than four decades, the Kansai region has relied on Fukui Prefecture’s nuclear power plants, including 11 operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco), to keep the region powered up. But now that a growing number of plants are nearing or have reached the end of their 40-year life cycle, the question is: What’s next? While most of the discussion is focused on whether to continue running or decommission them, there is an interesting — to be polite — school of thought among certain politicians that says they should be replaced with underground reactors. Don’t laugh (or cry). The idea has intrigued some very influential people, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He, along with several other prominent politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), formed a Diet group in May 2011 to study the issues involved. One of the most ardent backers is LDP Lower House member Taku Yamamoto. He represents Fukui Prefecture’s second district, where several towns host nuclear power plants. His wife, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi, has also participated in the Diet group on underground reactors. “The accident at Fukushima No. 1 wouldn’t have occurred if the plant had been underground,” Yamamoto told a press conference in June 2011. “Even if we suppose it had occurred, the damage would have been minimal. Natural energy is ideal, but we can’t guarantee sufficient electricity generation with it using today’s technologies,” he continued. “In order to maintain Japan’s international competitiveness, underground nuclear reactors are necessary.” Aside from the obvious questions — such as “Are these people crazy?” and “Who are the contractors specializing in underground construction that are funding them?” — lies the question of whether the idea is even remotely realistic. Technologically, the answer seems to be yes. In an interview with The Associated Press in April, William Magwood, new head of the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, an intergovernmental entity organized under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, suggested using small underground reactors to produce fractional amounts of electricity at a much cheaper cost. In the United States, the Energy Department has spent $450 million trying to convince U.S. firms to develop small underground reactors, and the idea even has the support of people like Microsoft founder Bill Gates. But concerns about funding, regulation and fears of nuclear proliferation have all slowed the effort. All of these issues, and more, apply to Japan, and the conventional wisdom might be that the idea is far too bizarre to be taken seriously. But given the interest in the Diet, the fact that many important people in Fukui and Kepco want to keep nuclear-related subsidies flowing, and given that other prefectures with aging plants are also worried about the future, underground nuclear power plants might just become one of those crazy ideas that find enough influential backing to become reality. What could possibly go wrong?

kepco;nuclear energy;kansai electric;sanae takaichi;internal affairs ministry;underground reactor;taku yamamoto

jp0000282

2014/09/01

Three Chiba cities will store radioactive waste if state fails to build final disposal site, NHK says

Three cities in Chiba Prefecture that were heavily contaminated with radioactive materials as a result of the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant will build facilities to store incinerated radioactive waste in their own municipalities if the central government fails to find a final waste disposal site, NHK reported Monday. The Chiba Prefectural Government is now temporarily in charge of “designated waste” — incinerated ash and other kinds of waste that contain more than 8,000 becquerels of radioactive materials per 1 kg — produced by the cities of Kashiwa, Matsudo and Nagareyama in northwestern Chiba. The three cities have produced a total of 526 tons of such waste, according to NHK. While the central government is supposed to build final disposal facilities for designated nuclear waste, the prefectural government is also asking the three cities to bring the waste back to their own municipalities and dispose of it on their own, if the central government fails to build a disposal facility by next March, the broadcaster reported. The three cities have agreed to the prefectural government’s request. The city of Kashiwa plans to submit a ¥410 million budget request to the municipal assembly this month in order to build a waste storage plant and transport the waste there, NHK said.

fukushima no . 1;chiba;matsudo;radioactive waste;kashiwa;nagareyama

jp0000284

2014/09/06

Japan guns now bear on Kiaochou; German Army enters Poland; Olympic Village opens; agency seeks funds to compile Emperor's annals

100 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 13, 1914 Japanese guns now bear on Kiaochou The officers and men of the warships, engaged in the naval blockade of Tsingtao have suffered great hardships struggling with the heaviest of seas since Sept. 8. To make matters worse, there is no natural shelter for the ships near the zone of the blockade, so that they have to be kept at a fixed point and held steadily to windward to avoid being caught by the strong gales from either side. The destroyers are engaged in their blockade duty amid intense difficulties, seeming to an untrained eye to be almost at the mercy of the angry waters. It is all the more satisfactory, therefore, to record that not one of the vessels has suffered any damage to speak of. The seas have been swept of mines to within 10,000 meters of Kiaochou (Jiaozhou) Bay, so that the bay is within range of the Japanese guns, the Tokyo Mainichi reports. The Siege of Tsingtao, in which Japan and Britain attacked the German-leased territory of Kiaochou Bay, marked Japan’s entry into World War I. The Japanese and British forces prevailed on Nov. 7, 1914. 75 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939 German Army enters Poland, controls air The General Headquarters of the German Army at 5:45 p.m. today announced that German troops from East Prussia had advanced deep into Poland, while the Reich air force is in complete mastery of the air. The advance of German troops in Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia is proceeding according to all expectations, the communique said. Troops entering Poland through Silesia are advancing near Czestochowa, approximately 20 miles (32 km) from the border, while German units are nearing Nake, on the Nteze River, 80 miles inside the frontier. Heavy fighting is going on near Graudenz, while forces advancing from East Prussia are fighting far into Polish territory, the communique stated. Meanwhile the German air force has bombed and destroyed numerous airports. With normal transportation at a standstill and the streets empty of people, complete darkness reigned over Berlin tonight as protection against surprise foreign bombings. Officials of the German Air Raids Precautions, while issuing instructions in the event of bombings, announced that all those who failed to obey instructions would be arrested. The Ministerial Council for Defense tonight issued its first decree prohibiting the population from listening to foreign news broadcasts under penalty of hard labor. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Sept. 16, 1964 Olympic Village opens ahead of 1964 Games The main Olympic Village in Yoyogi and four branch villages opened Tuesday morning. About 1,300 Japanese and foreign Olympic officials, athletes and interpreters were present at the official opening of the main village. The Olympic fanfare was sounded under the flags of the 98 nations taking part in the games, which will commence next month. Speeches were given by Daigoro Yasukawa, secretary-general of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee; Ichiro Kono, state minister in charge of Olympic affairs and others. Seven helicopters loaded with photographers droned overhead during the ceremony, often drowning out the speakers. Among those attending the ceremony were 51 foreign Olympic delegates, who were the first to enter the 66-hectare main village. Eventually, some 8,000 foreign and Japanese Olympic athletes and officials will live there for the games. The main village, which had been occupied by the U.S. Forces in Japan as one of their housing areas (Washington Heights) for 17 years until last December, is only a stone’s throw from the Olympic Indoor Stadium and about 2 km from the main stadium in Yoyogi. The village will remain open until Nov. 5. After the opening ceremony, participants had an “Olympic lunch” at the village’s Fuji Dining Hall to get a taste of what Olympic athletes will eat during the games. At noon, the Olympic Milk and Ice Cream Bar was formally opened at the village. The first Olympic Milk and Ice Cream Bar was established at Squaw Valley during the 1960 winter Olympic Games. Simultaneously with the Olympic Village opening, the Metropolitan Police Department opened its special Olympic security headquarters within the MPD office Thursday morning. During the 52-day period the village is open, the MPD will mobilize an average of 5,000 policemen for security and traffic control for the Olympics. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 1, 1989 Agency seeks funds to compile Imperial annals The Imperial Household Agency will request nearly ¥47 million in fiscal 1990 to start compiling the official biographical record for Emperor Hirohito (known posthumously as Emperor Showa). Officials said the official biographical record will take 16 years and will be completed in 2005. The record will consist of 18 volumes and will cover all 87 years of his life. Emperor Showa reigned for 62 years until January 1989. Ten officials of the Compiling Division of the agency’s Archives and Mausolea Department will interview people who were close to Emperor Showa and use various documents in the possession of the agency to write the record. Compilation work for the official record of Emperor Meiji, who reigned 45 years from 1867 to 1912, started in 1915 and ended in 1933. The 13-volume record was published in 1967. The first eight years in the project will be spent gathering former chamberlains’ diaries, court physicians’ medical records and the records of Emperor Showa’s travels. The next five will be dedicated to writing the record and the following three years to editing and revisions. After two extensions, the annals were completed this year and are due for disclosure in September.

poland;germany;world war ii;emperor hirohito;imperial family;tokyo olympics;world war i;tsingtao

jp0000285

2014/09/24

Obama: No nation gets 'free pass' on climate change

UNITED NATIONS - In a forceful appeal for international cooperation on limiting carbon pollution, President Barack Obama warned starkly on Tuesday that the globe’s climate is changing faster than efforts to address it. “Nobody gets a pass,” he declared. “We have to raise our collective ambition.” Speaking at a United Nations summit, Obama said the United States is doing its part and that it will meet its goal to cut carbon pollution 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. He also announced modest new U.S. commitments to address climate change overseas. The summit aims to galvanize support for a global climate treaty to be finalized next year. But Obama’s strongest comments came as he sought to unify the international conclave behind actions to reduce global warming. “The alarm bells keep ringing, our citizens keep marching,” he said. “We can’t pretend we can’t hear them. We need to answer the call. We need to cut carbon emission in our countries to prevent worse effects, adapt and work together as global community to tackle this global threat before it is too late.” He said the U.S. and China as the largest polluters have a responsibility to lead. But, Obama added, “No nation can meet this global threat alone.” More than 120 world leaders gathered on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to organize support for a global climate treaty to be finalized next year in Paris. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the summit’s host, asked representatives of nations to come to New York with specific pledges in hand to mitigate climate change, as a way to show they’re serious about ambitious emissions reductions in the treaty. Obama’s goals at the summit: to convince other nations that the U.S. is doing its part to curb greenhouse gases, and make the case that other major polluters should step up, too. “It’s very clear to the international community that the president is extending considerable political capital at home in order to implement his climate plan, and that’s true,” said Nigel Purvis, a U.S. climate negotiator in the administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. “The hope is that when we take action, others will do so as well.” Some of the tools the U.S. will offer developing nations were developed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey and are intended to help communities use data modeling, forecasting and science to anticipate the effects of climate change and make decisions about the best way to deal with it. Secretary of State John Kerry also announced that the U.S. would contribute $15 million to a World Bank program designed to stimulate funding for projects that reduce methane pollution. But the commitments were modest compared to what some had hoped the U.S. would put forth to show its commitment. By midmorning, other nations attending the summit had pledged at least $5 billion to help the world become more sustainable. And the development organization Oxfam argued that the U.S. Agency for International Development already incorporates climate change resiliency in its programs. The one-day climate summit isn’t formally part of the ongoing negotiations toward the climate treaty, which leaders hope will be more muscular than a lackluster agreement reached in Copenhagen in 2009. The idea is that by involving heads of state early, rather than leaving it to negotiators until the very end, prospects will improve for reaching a strong deal. In another attempt to increase political pressure on leaders to take action, tens of thousands of activists, including prominent actors and former Vice President Al Gore, demonstrated in New York on Sunday.

pollution;climate;barack obama;u.n .;emissions;environment

jp0000286

2014/09/22

Banker nabbed looking up girl's skirt with mirror in store

TSU, MIE PREF. - A banker was arrested Sunday for allegedly looking up the skirt of a female high school student at a bookstore in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, police said. Hisashi Zenke, a 47-year-old employee of Mizuho Bank, is suspected of using a hand mirror to look inside the girl’s skirt from behind while she was browsing at around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police said. A guard at the bookstore noticed the man’s suspicious act and reported to police. Zenke was caught red-handed, they said.

police;mizuho bank;peeping tom

jp0000287

2014/08/03

Tokyo's storied Nihonbashi raises profile to promote historical role

The Nihonbashi district prospered as Japan’s financial and trade center after shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu moved the capital to Edo, the old name for Tokyo, in the early 17th century. Its geographical advantage contributed to fast-track development. Nihonbashi was the starting point of five major roads at the time, which linked the new capital to outlying regions beyond the Kanto plain, allowing the district to thrive as businesses built footholds in the area. Now that more than 400 years have passed, Nihonbashi is trying to maintain its relevance by making efforts to transform the old merchant center into a place where tourists can learn about Japanese culture and traditions. Coredo Muromachi, a shopping complex that opened this spring near Mitsukoshimae subway station, showcases outlets of long-established stores that market local delicacies and other merchandise from around the nation. The complex has foreign staff on standby to assist foreign tourists. On July 19, two of the guides, Alia Carter, a 26-year-old American, and Spaniard Paloma Free, 28, helped foreign tourists while dressed in traditional kimono. Carter is working after finishing her JET program, and Free is attending Japanese school. Three other foreigners are part of the team. Two of the visitors that day were Terrie Wright Chrones, a 62-year-old food writer, and English teacher Charles Robert Hixon III, 61, both from the United States. Both are fans of Japanese cuisine. After a 90-minute tour of the complex, each said the guides’ detailed explanations helped them better understand Japanese culture and get a feel for “omotenashi,” Japan’s brand of customer hospitality. The English tours of Coredo Muromachi start at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays, cost ¥1,000 and last about 90 minutes. Souvenirs are included. For more information, call 03-3242-0010 or email guide@nihonbashi-info.jp.

tourism;foreign tourists;japanese culture;nihonbashi;coredo muromachi

jp0000290

2014/08/02

Emperor, councilors weigh war declaration; simplified Japanese created for foreigners; Russian musicians defect; foreigners' office hears thousands of problems

100 YEARS AGO Sunday, Aug. 16 1914 Emperor, councilors weigh war declaration The Emperor of Japan, his councilors and his Ministers met yesterday in the Grand Council Chamber of the Palace to consider the most momentous question such august councils are ever called upon to decide. For the third time in the history of Japan, the discussion turned upon whether Japan should declare herself in a state of war or whether further effort should be made to find some honorable way to avoid it. For the last week, Dame Rumor has had the stage to herself. In official circles something more than what is commonly called a discreet silence has been maintained. The newspapers have openly stated that “on good authority it is said that Japan is going to declare war upon Germany,” but no confirmation or denial of those statements has been forthcoming. The grand council went into session at four o’clock, with the Emperor himself presiding. It adjourned around six o’clock. The faces of those who came and went were grave, but beyond this there was no indication that Japan is on the eve of a declaration of war. Japan officially entered World War I on Aug. 23, when it declared war on Germany, citing its commitments to Britain as set out in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Aug. 4, 1939 Simplified Japanese created for foreigners A system of basic Japanese, employing 1,776 words, was recently evolved by linguistic experts at the National Language Society, enabling foreigners to learn the tongue with more ease. Almost anything can be expressed by the new system, though complicated matters have to be put in a roundabout way because of the limited vocabulary. Yoshimi Ishiguro, an Esperantist who is on the Basic Japanese Committee of the National Language Society, rewrote Kan Kikuchi’s famous play “Father Returns” using just 1,700 words. Dictionaries and other books are being edited under the new system by the linguistic society. Mr. Ishiguro considers it more advisable to send abroad books written in basic Japanese than translations in English or other European languages. Because the system is easy to learn for foreigners, books in basic will serve to popularize Japanese abroad as well as to acquaint the foreigners with things Japanese more directly than through translations. The Basic Japanese Committee was organized in March last year with the assistance of the Education Ministry. The 1,776 words were selected after a careful survey of words used in magazine, newspaper articles and books. The committee held discussions to select most representative words from groups of synonyms. 50 YEARS AGO Sunday, Aug. 16, 1964 Russians defect, seek help at U.S. Embassy Two Soviet musicians, missing since Friday, defected Saturday and asked the U.S. Embassy for help in seeking asylum. The two Russians, members of the Bolshoi Variety Troupe now touring Japan, were reported inside the U.S. Embassy, but an embassy spokesman would neither confirm nor deny this. Nathaniel Thayer, embassy press attache, said in a statement late Saturday night: “Two Soviet citizens, Igor Berucshtis and Boris Midney, have informed the officers of the American Embassy they do not wish to return to the Soviet Union and desire to seek refuge elsewhere.” Soviet Embassy officials went to the U.S. Embassy at about 8:30 p.m., Kyodo News Service reported, but neither embassy would comment on any conference that took place. This was the second defection involving a Soviet citizen in Japan since the end of World War II. In 1954, Yuri Rastvorov, considered the chief spy at the Soviet Embassy, sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy and was taken out of Japan secretly, which caused an uproar here. The U.S. later offered apologies. The two men were reported missing early Saturday morning by the Cultural Exchange Association, the private organization sponsoring the Bolshoi Variety’s tour here, to the Takanawa Police Station. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department identified the two men as Igor Berecshtis, 31, contrabassist, and Boris Midney, 28, drummer. There was no known reason for the defection. The men were granted asylum and issued travel documents with which they left Japan, bound for Europe, on Aug. 16, 1964. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1989 Foreigners’ office hears thousands of problems The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s foreign residents’ advisory center received a total of 2,173 inquiries in the year since it was set up in July 1988. By the end of June, foreigners from 56 countries had come to the center with their problems. Among the foreigners who sought advice from the center by telephone, mail or visit, 537 were Americans, 172 were Chinese and 95 were Canadians. The center also handled the inquiries of 148 Japanese who had problems with foreign residents. Common inquiries brought to the center concerned immigration regulations, job contracts, driver’s licenses, the tax system, housing regulations, Japanese-language schools, and marriage and divorce, according to a spokesman for the center. Sachiko Yamamoto, an English-language advisor, said language-school teachers are prone to encounter problems involving job contracts because “many of them make contracts carelessly and assert many rights once a problem occurs.” “They should accept the Japanese way of giving in and not asserting their rights all the time. Otherwise, it makes the matter worse,” she said.

tax;immigration;russia;japanese language;marriage;defections;divorce;world war i

jp0000291

2014/08/29

How much do you know about dengue fever?

The health ministry has confirmed the first domestic dengue fever case in Japan in nearly 70 years. A Saitama Prefecture teen girl was found Wednesday to have contracted the virus through a mosquito in Japan, followed by news that two more people — a man and a woman in Tokyo — have also been infected. More than 200 dengue cases are reported in Japan each year, but those are of patients who contracted dengue virus abroad. The World Health Organization estimates the number of infections across the globe to be 50 million to 100 million per year. While the news has led to widespread fears that a pandemic outbreak might have arrived, experts are quick to deny such a scenario, while offering some advice on what measures people can take to minimize their exposure. Following are some basic questions and answers regarding the infectious disease and measures that can be taken to prevent infection. What is dengue fever and what causes it? Dengue fever is a tropical viral disease, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever or break-bone fever, which is caused by dengue virus. It is said that dengue fever can be caused by any of the four closely related types of dengue virus: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. So far, it is not clear which of the four types that the three latest patients in Japan contracted, though the three probably came down with the same virus type, according to Koichi Morita, professor of virology at the Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. While its origin remains unclear, the disease was named “dengue” as early as in 1801, according to Scitable, an online science education portal run by the Nature Publishing Group. The word dengue is Spanish for “affectation,” “careful,” or “fastidious,” and was probably used to describe the cautious, stiff movements of patients suffering from the muscle, bone and joint pains, Scitable said. How is the virus transmitted? Dengue viruses are carried and transmitted to humans by several species of female mosquitoes. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical climates, is deemed the primary vector of dengue. It can be transmitted by Aedes albopictus, also called the Asian tiger mosquito, which is prevalent in Japan. Although the viruses cannot be transmitted directly from humans, transmission is possible through the bite of an infected mosquito. What are the symptoms? The main symptoms observed in patients diagnosed with dengue fever are high fever, joint and muscle pain and rash. They can be accompanied by headache, weakness, nausea, vomiting and bleeding. The incubation period ranges from two or three days to two weeks, but in most cases symptoms develop within a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Because the symptoms are often confused with those caused by influenza or other viral infections, milder symptoms in patients can go unnoticed, Morita said. A 46-year-old woman from Tokyo, who was diagnosed with dengue fever about 20 years ago upon returning from a trip to Thailand, said it is vital for people who travel abroad not to neglect symptoms and, upon their return, to undergo quarantine checks at the airport in Japan if they are feeling sick. Because she waited until she came back to Japan to see a doctor, she said she suffered from severe symptoms and needed to receive a blood transfusion. She said she now regrets not visiting a doctor in Thailand while she was there. What treatments exist? Currently no vaccines or effective drugs exist, and most patients are only given drugs to lower their fever. Morita said, however, the recovery from infection by one of the virus’ serotypes provides lifelong immunity against that particular serotype. If patients are left unattended, they could later develop more severe symptoms, such as internal bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage. What are the measures to prevent from infection? Given the significant increase in dengue infections worldwide plus the number of imported cases, Morita emphasized the importance of defending against dengue-carrying mosquitoes on an individual basis. Because transmission is likely in all areas of the country, it is important to protect one’s skin with long-sleeved shirts and full length pants, or by using insect repellent.

dengue fever;world health organization;dengue virus;infectious diseases

jp0000292

2014/08/16

What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live. At school we learn that clouds aren’t solid: They are just made of water vapor. And when the amount of water in a cloud reaches a certain point, it becomes too heavy to stay suspended in the air, and falls down: It rains. The process, we are told, is a physical one. Condensation, cooling, saturation, precipitation. How thrilling, then, to learn that the world is a more complicated place. To a whole range of organisms, clouds are places to live. To microbes, clouds are not just landscapes: They are ecosystems. Even more than that, precipitation — the act of rain and snow falling out of the sky — seems to be biological. Rain, you could say, is bacteria’s way of getting out of the sky. Kim Prather at the University of California, San Diego, studies these aerial ecosystems. She and her team fly in special research planes over the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States. You may have seen biologists chasing butterflies and dragonflies with insect nets; what Prather is doing is the equivalent in a cloud. Her team takes samples of clouds and analyzes the content. “We’re seeing lots of biological components such as bacteria and molecules associated with microbial life,” she says. It’s not the first time microbes have been found to be present in the atmosphere. A few years ago I interviewed Brent Christner of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He had collected fresh snow from diverse locations in the United States, France and Antarctica, and in all samples he found evidence that bacteria were not only present, but that they had been influential in actually causing the snow to fall in the first place. How on Earth can that be? Rain falls when something “seeds” the development of ice crystals in a cloud. Tiny particles cause ice to form and grow, and eventually it will fall. If it warms up enough as it falls, it will be rain. Sometimes ice crystals themselves are the catalyst for growth, and sometimes ice grows around tiny particles of dust. Prather’s group is directly sampling from the clouds over the Pacific to find out more details. Last week she presented her work at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. Her starting point is the understanding that the atmosphere is chock-full of dust and other particles, and that bacteria, algae and fungi live there too. Understanding the exact chemical makeup of the dust and the biological molecules on it helps understand and predict how rain and snow fall from clouds. How, when and how much — crucial information for farmers, and for us all. “The standard belief is the more ice you have in a cloud, the more likely you will get precipitation out of it,” Prather says. “Our goal is to catch the first stages of ice forming and find out what exactly the chemical constituents are that the ice is forming on.” What they have found is that the ice crystals have biological markers. They have proteins that can’t be derived from dust particles in the air, but that are signatures of bacterial life in the atmosphere. “We’ve learned that not all of the particles in the air at high altitudes have the same influence on clouds. We’re starting to think that these differences contribute to how rain gets distributed,” says Prather. Most of the dust that Prather’s team detects in clouds and precipitation originates in deserts in Asia. It gets swept westward by the jet stream, where it mixes with other airborne particles, including smoke and spray from the sea. Prather says that each of these types of particles — collectively known as aerosols — has its own, distinctive impact on clouds. But living on the particles are varieties of microbes. The microbes make proteins, which lace water molecules together. The water forms a pattern similar to an ice crystal’s lattice, which encourages ice to form. Ice crystals then grow in the normal way, and rain — or snow — falls. A long-term goal of Prather’s research is to improve cloud-seeding technology. This was most publicly used just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to ensure clear skies for the opening ceremony. But the techniques are not always reliable. “Mother Nature has developed very effective ways to seed clouds, so perhaps we could take some tips from her,” says Prather. Evidence, if any more was needed, of the extraordinary power of natural selection. All organisms need to be able to disperse and find new areas to live. After staying alive and reproducing, dispersal is the third most important item on any organism’s to-do list. It seems a range of organisms have found a way to manipulate weather systems to help them do that. There are occasionally reports of masses of frogs raining out of the sky, or of fish falling in the desert. In Kerala, in southern India, there was an infamous occurrence of red rain, which had some people speculating that alien life forms had rained down from space when a meteor exploded in the atmosphere. It turned out to be red algae that had been swept into the air after a storm, just like when frogs and fish are swept up on freak air currents. But the finding that there are organisms that live for at least part of their life cycle in the atmosphere — that is as wonderful as stories about magical creatures that live in the clouds, and all the more impressive for being true.

weather;environment;ecosystems;cloud seeding

jp0000294

2014/08/16

Kepco: the monstrous 500-pound gorilla of Kansai

Last month, Chimori Naito, a 91-year-old former vice president at Kansai Electric Power Co., admitted what was hardly a secret but which put the utility under intense media scrutiny. Naito said in a series of interviews with the Asahi Shimbun that he supervised under-the-table cash payments to seven prime ministers and key politicians in the ruling and opposition parties between 1972 and 1990 to ensure favorable policies, especially nuclear power policies. Naito guessed Kepco’s annual payoffs were in the hundreds of millions of yen. Kepco got its money’s worth. Prior to March 11, 2011, Japan relied on nuclear power for about a third of its electricity needs. But half of Kepco-supplied electricity came from nuclear power. Fukui Prefecture became home to 11 Kepco reactors, the largest concentration in the country and, perhaps, the world. And it was Kepco’s two Oi reactors that were switched back on in the summer of 2012 despite massive public opposition. In terms of local economic presence, Kepco is the 500-pound gorilla. The company employs more than 22,000 people directly (and, indirectly, thousands more), has nearly 40 affiliated firms, and owns shares in about a dozen local public-relations facilities. These often take the form of “educational museums” that promote nuclear power. It also has small investments in Kansai-area television and radio stations. All of this makes Kepco similar to Japan’s other utilities. But over the past two decades, as other Kansai firms moved to Tokyo or overseas, Kepco has consolidated its power and influence over regional politics and policymaking to a degree unprecedented elsewhere, and in ways not always obvious to outsiders or Kansai residents. Senior Kepco officials serve as top representatives of hugely influential organizations such as the Kansai Economic Federation, which draws up regional political and economic strategies, and serves as a de facto political lobbying group in Tokyo. A Kepco chairman has led the federation for 27 of its 68 years, and Shosuke Mori, Kepco’s current chairman, presently heads it. Many of Kansai’s failed public works projects funded by Osaka were strongly backed by the federation. In addition, why was the barely used second runway at Kansai airport constructed despite criticism it was a waste of public funds? You can thank a local airport promotion group headed by Kepco’s chairman. Given that Kepco has long provided direct election support, in the form of company “volunteers,” to local LDP candidates, the fact Kepco-favored plans usually become reality is hardly surprising. Ideas promoted by Kepco-led organizations have several common traits. First, they tend to result in massive physical structures (buildings, transportation systems) that, obviously, require Kepco-generated electricity to run and maintain — nuclear-generated electricity, of course, not renewables. Second, they are often based on the “Kepco School of Management,” a mixture of top-down, centralized planning among a select few men over the age of 60 who decide what’s best for the local economy — and for themselves. The result of this Kepco-influenced Kansai economy since the mid-1990s has largely been one of stagnation, an accelerated shift to Tokyo of local money and talent, and a sense the gap between Kansai and other regions in East Asia in particular is growing. This is a major reason why Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto hates Kepco and publicly criticizes it. But Kansai’s 500-pound gorilla remains as strong as ever, and despite the recent media attention, looks set to remain so for years to come. Which makes one wonder: Will we be reading, in 30 years, about how some Kepco official paid off Liberal Democratic Party officials to help ensure the return of Shinzo Abe and the LDP? View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.

nuclear power;kepco;nuclear energy

jp0000296

2014/08/31

Glimpses of Ryogoku, Japan's sumo wrestling mecca

Home to the Kokugikan sumo stadium, Tokyo’s Ryogoku district in Sumida Ward has long been known as the mecca of the sport. Around the stadium, where three of the six national tournaments are held every year, are stables where rookie and veteran wrestlers alike engage in rigorous daily practice. The area’s history as a tournament venue dates back to 1833, when the nearby Eko-in Temple hosted one to help raise funds for a public construction project. Nearly 200 years on, the traditional ambience still permeates the district. In addition to Kokugikan, tourists flock to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which has recently seen a jump in foreign visitors interested in the capital’s history. Volunteer guides at the museum help explain its displays in English, German, Spanish and Chinese.

tourism;edo tokyo museum;ryogoku;kokugikan;sumo

jp0000297

2014/08/30

Ex-Myanmar beauty queen accused of stealing crown

YANGON - A Myanmar beauty queen who was stripped of her title for allegedly being rude and dishonest has run off with the $100,000 jeweled crown, a South Korea-based pageant said Friday. Myanmar, which only recently emerged from a half century of military rule and self-imposed isolation, started sending contestants to international beauty pageants for the first time in decades in 2012. May Myat Noe was crowned Miss Asia Pacific World in Seoul in May 2014. But, according to David Kim, director of media for the Seoul-based pageant, the 18-year-old was a disappointment from the start. Attempts to reach May Myat Noe for comment were unsuccessful Friday and her Myanmar phone was switched off. According to the online edition of Eleven Media, a Myanmar newspaper, she was back in the country and would address a news conference soon, although it wasn’t clear when. Following her success, the organizers said they were arranging singing and video deals for her. But they also wanted to change the looks of the 5’7″ (170-cm) teen, Kim said. “We thought she should be more beautiful . . . so as soon as she arrived we sent her to the hospital to operate on her breasts,” he said. “It’s our responsibility,” he said, adding that sponsors picked up the $10,000 tab, as they have for past winners. “If she has no good nose, then maybe, if she likes, we can operate on her nose. If it’s breasts, then breasts.” Kim said that the troubles started from there. The beauty queen brought her mother with her to Seoul for what was supposed to be a 10-day visit, but that quickly turned into three months, incurring extra costs for the organizers, he said. She “lied” and “never had respect for the main organization, the national director, the manager, media or fans who made her the winner,” organizers said in a statement. May Myat Noe was notified earlier this week that she would have to give up her title and the crown, Kim said. She was also given an airplane ticket back to Yangon, but never showed up, with Eleven Media reporting that she got on an earlier flight. Kim said she absconded with the bejeweled Swarovski tiara — valued anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000. “Everyone knows she is no longer the queen, but she thinks as long as she keeps this crown she’s the winner,” he said. “She’s not.”

myanmar;theft;beauty contest

jp0000298

2014/08/30

In India, rice replaces ice in charity bucket challenge

NEW DELHI - The famous “ice bucket” challenge is inspiring thousands of Indians to follow suit, but with a twist- they are replacing ice with rice in a bid to help the country’s vast population of poor, hungry people. The challenge, going viral on social media, involves donating a bucket of rice to someone in need and clicking a picture to share online, with a tag #RiceBucketChallenge, to raise awareness. Started by 38-year-old journalist Manju Latha Kalanidhi in the southern city of Hyderabad, the movement’s Facebook page ( on.fb.me/1tASxph ) defines it as a “local challenge for local needs” and has clocked more than 52,000 ‘likes’ so far. The inspiration was drawn from the “ice bucket” challenge, in which people pour a bucket of ice-cold water over their heads to encourage donations for research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease. Celebrities such as software tycoon Bill Gates and tennis great Roger Federer have participated. “I felt (the ice bucket challenge) was a little bizarre … hunger is a disease anybody would connect with,” Kalanidhi told Reuters. Kalanidhi’s project has started to draw mass support. Students of the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala posted a video ( bit.ly/1pp3uer ) after donating rice, while budget airline AirAsia India said its chief executive and senior management will participate on Monday. Mass hunger, much of it poverty-induced, continues to haunt India. The country last year ranked 63rd on a list of 78 countries tracked by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index. China ranked sixth. Tackling poverty is high on new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda. On Thursday, he launched a banking-for-all scheme that he said should end “financial untouchability” and help lift people out of poverty. India is the world’s second-biggest rice consumer, with reserves of 21.2 million tons of the grain by July 1. It was the world’s biggest rice exporter last year.

india;contests

jp0000300

2014/08/24

Osaka merger drags on Hashimoto's return to Nagatacho

OSAKA - Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto may be moving forward with plans to once again become a notable player in Nagatacho by tying up with Yui no To (Unity Party). But back in Osaka, he, and his local political group Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), the largest party, find themselves unable to make headway on the very reason for Hashimoto’s political existence: the integration of the Osaka municipal and prefectural governments. Last month, angry at the way Hashimoto was attempting to override opposition in both the city and prefectural assemblies, where the opposition parties hold the majority, both legislative bodies passed resolutions that effectively declare Hashimoto’s merger proposal null and void. Without the assemblies’ cooperation, putting the merger plan to a public referendum is impossible. The staunch opposition of the other parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, Osaka Ishin’s nominal coalition ally, creates a bind for the pro-merger camp, especially the younger legislators in Osaka Ishin who entered politics because of Hashimoto and rode his coattails to victory. Lacking deep connections, a popular base of support, name power and, most importantly, big war chests, many of Hashimoto’s young municipal and prefectural assembly members face tough re-election bids next spring unless a referendum on the merger — or a clear schedule for one — can be set by then. One of the fundamental problems for the local opposition parties, especially the LDP and New Komeito, is that a merger is certain to redraw electoral districts, creating uncertainty locally and in the Diet. Meanwhile, opinion polls are split, with some saying a slight majority of the public favors the merger and others showing most Osakans are uncertain how the plan will affect their lives. Hashimoto, in other words, heads into autumn faced with the monumental task of convincing voters, and the opposition, to agree to his plan even as he makes attempts to return to the national stage.

toru hashimoto;osaka ishin no kai;yui no to

jp0000301

2014/08/15

Police have 'leads' in search for two Amish girls

OSWEGATCHIE, NEW YORK - Police have received “numerous leads” concerning two Amish girls abducted at a roadside stand in northern New York, where searchers scoured the countryside near the Canadian border for the missing children, authorities said Thursday. Deputies, state troopers, forest rangers and U.S. Border Patrol agents were part of the ongoing search for 7-year-old Delila Miller and 12-year-old Fannie Miller, St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said. Officials issued special alertt for the two girls after they were abducted around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the rural town of Oswegatchie. The girls went to wait on a customer at the family’s roadside stand, officials said. A witness saw a passenger in a vehicle put something into the back seat, and when the vehicle drove off the children were gone, police said. Both girls were wearing dark blue dresses with blue aprons and black bonnets. Because the Amish tend to shun modern technology, police had no photographs of the girls, Wells said. The rural county is home to New York’s second-largest Amish population, which has grown by some 10,000 upstate over the past decade, drawn by productive land and property prices lower than in Pennsylvania. Wells said the local Amish community was helping law enforcement by getting the word out despite a culture that avoids modern conveniences. “You’d be surprised how quick word spreads,” Wells said. The sheriff said police are looking for a white four-door sedan a witness reported seeing at the farm stand when the girls disappeared.

u.s .;kidnapping;new york;oswegatchie;border patrol;amish;police

jp0000302

2014/08/15

‘People’s Pope’ takes to streets in Kia Soul, fascinates South Koreans

SEOUL - Pope Francis’ choice of wheels during his five-day South Korean visit has surprised many in this painfully self-conscious country, where big shots rarely hit the streets in anything but expensive luxury cars. After his arrival Thursday, the pope left the airport in a compact black Kia that many South Koreans would consider too humble a conveyance for a globally powerful figure. In a live television broadcast, the pope climbed into the backseat of the boxy Kia Soul, rolled down the window and waved. Surrounded by a few bigger black sedans, the pope’s compact car headed toward Seoul. Francis’ frugality and humble demeanor have received wide coverage in South Korea, a fiercely competitive country that celebrates ostentatious displays of status and wealth. This national trait can be seen in booming industries such as private tutoring and plastic surgery. The images of the smiling pope in his little car struck a chord online, with many playing on the car’s name. One South Korean user tweeted: “The pope rode the Soul because he is full of soul.” For the man called “The People’s Pope” the choice makes sense. He has eschewed the bulletproof “popemobiles” that his predecessors used on foreign trips and urged priests around the world to travel in low-key cars. Inside the Vatican City, the pope prefers a blue Ford Focus, or when he’s out in St. Peter’s Square, a white open-topped vehicle that allows him to literally reach out and touch the masses. South Korean media widely reported that the pope requested the smallest South Korean car during his visit. The Soul is Kia’s second-smallest model and reportedly provides more leg room than other compact cars. Though not everyone loves the Soul’s funky design, it appeals to a niche of young, practical drivers. It has never, however, been a car of the rich and powerful. Already bubbling with excitement over the first papal visit in 25 years, South Koreans appeared fascinated by the humble papal car. “I feel honored that Pope Francis will not be in a bulletproof vehicle,” said Shon Cho-eun, a 22-year-old Christian student. “I hope he arrives safely and delivers good messages to us.”

south korea;pope francis;south koreans;kia soul

jp0000303

2014/08/15

Teacher in Shizuoka reportedly urged student to commit suicide

SHIZUOKA - A teacher at an elementary school in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is facing discipline for abusive treatment of one of his pupils that allegedly included urging him to commit suicide. The 41-year-old teacher allegedly told his second-grade student on July 17, “Do you have (a purpose to) live? If not, then jump from the window,” sources familiar with the matter said Thursday. The teacher at the city-run Shirawaki Elementary School also reportedly physically abused the 8-year-old boy by grabbing his arm and pushing him. The boy hit his back against another pupil and fell to the floor, the sources said. The Hamamatsu board of education is considering punishment against the teacher, determining that an apology he offered to the boy and his parents isn’t enough, the sources said. The teacher reportedly told the board that he became angry with the boy because he didn’t follow instructions. Board member Yasuo Sasahara said the city is taking the matter seriously and is investigating the teacher’s past behavior as well. According to other sources, he once reportedly told a non-Japanese pupil to “go back to your country.”

violence;teachers;education;hamamatsu;child abuse;schools;shizuoka;students

jp0000304

2014/08/13

Robin Williams fondly remembered by Japan's film industry

It was an open secret among Japanese film distribution companies that Robin Williams, who died at his California home on Monday in an apparent suicide, was a “yobitai sutaa” (“a want-to-invite star”). Unlike other Hollywood celebrities, Williams was famed for two things: He never complained, and he was always appreciative. Add to this a deep and sincere love for Nintendo (Williams even named his daughter after Princess Zelda from Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda”) and what the distributors had was a Hollywood guest from heaven. “Honestly, he was the nicest guy, ever,” says Atsushi Hirayama, who looked after Williams when he came to Tokyo on a promotion tour for “Bicentennial Man” in 2000. At the time, Hirayama was working for a major film distribution and advertising company. He recalls that of all the A-list stars he encountered between the mid-1990s and 2004, when he left the industry, “Robin-san was the most gracious person you could ever hope to meet. He was totally different from everyone else. “He never put on airs or made impossible demands or anything like that. In the mornings when I picked him up at his hotel, he was always spruced up, ready to go and concerned about how I was feeling that day. A real gentleman,” he said. One legendary Robin Williams episode goes like this: On one of his promotion tours, he was driven around Tokyo for a week by the same chauffeur. At the end of his stay, he presented the man with a pair of Louis Vuitton leather driving gloves because he loved the fact that “all the drivers in Tokyo wear white gloves. I can’t imagine anyone in the U.S. doing such a thing. You people live in an amazing country!” The chauffeur was so moved by Williams’ gesture that he wept. Williams also went out of his way to delve into Japanese culture, particularly anime. In an interview he gave The Detroit News in 1996, Williams talked about how taken he was with Japanese animation, specifically “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell.” He had already seen “Princess Mononoke” in Japan, and described it as a picture “almost Greek in sophistication,” though it would be another three years before it opened in the U.S. “Japanese culture can be very dark,” Williams said in a Tokyo press conference in 2000. “It’s the contrast between the darkness and the brightness and humor and precision that I see so much of, that’s what makes it thrilling for me to be here.”

film;celebrities;u.s .;suicide

jp0000306

2014/01/04

Kagoshima volcano erupts, warplanes fly over Tokyo, exhibit shows Okamoto's bold side, Emperor dies

100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1914 People flee as volcano erupts near Kagoshima A terrible eruption on Sakurajima, an island in Kagoshima Bay having an active volcano, occurred yesterday at 10 a.m. Up to that time, since the night of the 10th, more than 70 earthquakes had been experienced in Kagoshima. With thundering sounds, the eruption was visible from all sides of Kagoshima. Columns of dark smoke cover the sky over the island. It would seem the people in the island are flying to the seashore for their lives. The latest report from the Home Ministry says that telegraphic communications between Kagoshima and Sakurajima have been cut off as the result of the eruption, and nothing can be known of the conditions in the volcanic isle. The eruption of Sakurajima on Jan. 12, 1914, caused 58 deaths and the destruction of more than 2,000 houses. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Jan. 6, 1939 Warplanes to fly in formation over Tokyo More than 400 airplanes of the Imperial Army and Naval air forces will fly over the capital Friday morning and afternoon in spectacular formation. The epochal undertaking, it is stated, was planned by the authorities in order to respond to the earnest support rendered by the people on the so-called “home front” as well as to demonstrate the activities of the military air forces. According to an announcement by the Information Bureau of the War Ministry Wednesday afternoon, approximately 240 craft of the Army air force will gather over the Telegraphic Corps in Nakano in a great formation at 11:15 a.m. After appearing over Yasukuni Shrine, Kudan, via the Akabane and Fukagawa aerodromes, the participating machines are expected to circle over the city for about half an hour. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Jan. 22, 1964 Exhibition shows Taro Okamoto in full force Open and direct expression of idea and personality is still a rarity in Oriental art. Still rarer are exuberance and humor in any art that aspires to “seriousness” and monumentality. The fact that Taro Okamoto’s art contains the qualities of exuberance and bold expression is not to be attributed to his decade of studies in Paris, for many other Japanese artists have returned from France without such liberation. His character is more likely derived from his parents, from a father who was a renowned cartoonist and a mother who was a poet. If Taro does not fit the Japanese pattern, neither does he conform to any precise category or styles. His Parisian studies took place in the 1930s, in the decade of fashionable surrealism. Everything Taro says is emphatically delivered. There is much to anger him in this troubled, confused, stupid, irrational, belligerent yet cowardly world. He senses the surrounding chaos with an artist’s sensibility and the soapbox orator’s vehemence. The years immediately after the war aroused his greatest indignation. The very titles of his paintings are embattled — as in “Man Atomized,” “The Disfigured One” and “Law of the Jungle” — or else sardonic, as in “Sunrise” (over chaos) and “Blue Sky” (with only a smidgen of blue in evidence). The long-awaited peace had brought new terrors, keener competition, aggravated hates, more powerful modes of destruction, and against these threats Taro finds only hypocrisy, shilly-shallying, cowardice. He strides forth to combat these devils, singlehandedly if need be. His tools are strident color, dynamic rhythms, violent oppositions, sharp contrasts, complex entanglements and diagonal crossings. Taro Okamoto is thus a “rara avis” among Japanese decorative artists. He has something to say and insists on being heard. Taro Okamoto’s giant mural “The Myth of Tomorrow” (1969), an imagination of the moment the atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is installed at Tokyo’s Shibuya Station. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, Jan. 8, 1989 Emperor dies of cancer at 87; Heisei Era begins The Emperor — who personified Japan during its conquest of its Asian neighbors and its surrender to the Allied powers, during war-inflicted devastation and the dramatic postwar economic recovery — died of cancer Saturday at the age of 87. His death, at 6:33 a.m. in Fukiage Palace of the Imperial Palace, ended the Showa Era. The 55-year-old Crown Prince immediately succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne in accordance with the Constitution and the Imperial House Law. The late Emperor reigned just over 62 years after acceding to the throne Dec. 25, 1926. He reigned far longer than his grandfather, Emperor Meiji, whose reign of 45 years and seven months had previously been the longest in Japan’s history. At an extraordinary Cabinet meeting later Saturday, the government chose “Heisei” as the new era name. It takes effect today. In announcing the name, Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi explained that it was taken from the Chinese classics and meant “achievement of peace both at home and abroad in heaven and earth.” The Emperor’s death was announced by the Imperial Household Agency at 7:55 a.m. Shoichi Fujimori, grand steward of the agency, made the first official announcement of cancer as the cause of death. He told reporters the late Emperor had been suffering from glandular cancer of the duodenum, with complications including inflammation of the bile duct, obstructive jaundice and uremia. Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita issued a statement of mourning. The statement expressed the hope that with the new Emperor’s ascension to the throne, the bonds that bind the Imperial Family and the people will become even stronger and good will towards other nations deeper.

tokyo;kagoshima;emperor hirohito;taro okamoto;showa

jp0000308

2014/01/20

Expiry dates

Dear Alice, My teenage daughter recently turned into a food-label tyrant, apparently convinced that her doddering old parents aren’t up to the job of maintaining a safe kitchen. She patrols our refrigerator daily, fiercely checking every label. If the date on a package has passed, she tosses it in the trash. We’ve had fights about this. I’ve explained that manufacturers set those dates conservatively, so food is still safe to eat for a while past expiry. She insists we’ll die if it’s even one day over. So, what’s the truth? What the heck do those dates really mean? Sam T., Kumamoto Dear Sam, It’s hard when our children decide we’re past our prime, but old dogs can learn new tricks. Let’s prove we’ve still got a little shelf life by sorting out an admittedly tricky subject. First of all, there are two distinct types of dates used on food packages in Japan: shōhi kigen (消費期限) and shōmi kigen (賞味期限), which mean different things and are used on different foods. The two look confusingly similar in roman letters but are a little easier to distinguish when written in Japanese. For reference, both are visible in the photograph accompanying today’s column. I started my research at the Consumer Affairs Agency in Tokyo, where officials were sympathetic about your troubles. “Date labeling is confusing for Japanese consumers, too,” one assured me. “Many people don’t understand the difference between sh ō hi kigen and sh ō mi kigen, and they don’t know how to use the information.” That’s partially because the system is relatively new. Until 1995, companies were required to label foods with the date of manufacture. But consumers had no way of knowing how long after manufacture a product was safe to consume, and a lot of perfectly good product was returned or discarded. The current labeling was adopted to address that problem and to bring Japan’s labeling into line with international standards. Now, as part of an effort to reduce shokuhin rosu (food loss), various government agencies are making a renewed effort to help consumers use date-labeling correctly. Let’s do our part by learning the terms, starting with “sh ō hi kigen,” which you can see on the rice ball in the left side of the photo. It’s the four characters in front of the date. It means “limit for consumption” and is equivalent to the “use by” wording on food labels in English. “Sh ō hi kigen” is used for highly perishable products, including bento box meals, sandwiches and cakes made with fresh whipped cream A sh ō hi kigen should be taken seriously, because any product that warrants this labeling goes bad quickly after its “use by” date. The government states it this way: “ Kigen ga sugitara, tabenai hōga yoi .” (“If the date has passed, it’s better not to eat it.”) Adjusting for the less forceful way of expressing things in Japanese, they’re telling you to pitch it. Now look at the four characters on the snack package on the right in the photo. They read “ shōmi kigen ,” which corresponds to “best by” and “best consumed by” in English. The government defines “sh ō mi kigen” as, “ Oishiku taberu koto ga dekiru kigen” (“The limit for best taste”) adding, “ Kono kigen o sugitemo sugu taberarenai toiu koto wa arimasen .” (“That doesn’t mean the product can no longer be eaten as soon as the date has passed.”) This labeling is used on products with a long shelf life, including potato chips, instant noodles and canned food. Here, the date is more a reference to quality than safety. You might find the flavor off in out-of-date product, and the nutritional value may not be what it once was, but you’re unlikely to come to any harm if you consume it. But be aware that there are also moderately perishable foods, including milk, eggs, ham and tofu, that are labeled with sh ō mi kigen (“best by”) rather than sh ō hi kigen (“use by”). All these products are safe to eat for some days after the date on the package. It’s difficult to say exactly how long, but fortunately it’s pretty obvious when one of these foods goes bad. The government advises you to rely on your senses, checking for off colors and smells, and even taking a little into your mouth to make sure it’s right. You are absolutely correct that manufacturers set their “best by/use by” dates conservatively. In fact, government guidelines tell them to do so. The industry term for this is “ anzen keisū ,” which is expressed as “factor of safety” in English. The guidelines don’t specify what factor of safety should be used, but most food manufacturers in Japan use a 0.8 or 0.7 factor of safety. Here’s how that works, using an example I found on an industry website. If, for example, testing on a product shows that bacterial levels are within safe limits even five days after the date of manufacture, a company may use a 0.8 factor of safety (five days × 0.8 = four days) to set the sh ō hi kigen at four days. Throwing out good food is not only hard on your pocketbook, it’s also bad for the environment and a shame when so many people in the world are hungry. And given that Japan depends on imports for 60 percent of its food, it could be dangerous in times of crisis. Nevertheless, every year Japan produces more than 18 million tons of food waste, much of which is believed to still be edible. Some of this waste originates in industry practices, but an estimated half comes from households who buy more than they need and throw out food that is still safe to eat. So, is this enough information to convince your daughter to relax her guard? I do hope she’ll work with you to strike a balance between safety and the wise use of food. And maybe she won’t put you out to pasture just yet.

health;expiry date

jp0000309

2014/01/18

Cooperation vs. competition in space

Shadows of winter clouds Run over the ocean Just before sunset It’s a pretty haiku, but it becomes quite extraordinary when you learn that it was written aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by astronaut Koichi Wakata, who tweeted it to his 50,000 followers on Jan. 9. That’s the same Wakata, of course, who spoke with his companion Kirobo on the ISS in December last year in what was the first human-robot interaction in space. In 2000, Saitama-born Wakata — whose Twitter alias is @Astro_Wakata — flew on the 100th mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle, and was the first Japanese to help build the ISS. Perhaps less notably, he revealed on returning from a monthlong Shuttle mission in 2009, he wore the same underpants the entire time. To be fair, they were a high-tech pair designed for long-term use. Right now, the extraterrestrial celebrity is nearly halfway through a six-month stay at the ISS as its first Japanese commanding officer. No doubt he welcomed the U.S. announcement last week that it intends to extend the life of the ISS until 2024. It’s an expensive commitment — costing NASA $3 billion a year — and the Americans are hoping other countries will pitch in. Science and Technology Minister Hakubun Shimomura said Japan — which, with the European Space Agency and Canada, is a major supporter of ISS funding — should positively consider the U.S. proposal. If the life of the ISS is not extended past its current end date of 2020, then in six years time it will be “de-orbited” and allowed to crash into the South Pacific. By most measures, the Americans don’t want that to happen. Quite apart from the scientific and engineering work conducted on the ISS, there is national pride. Or, put another way: If the U.S. winds down the ISS, the Chinese will take control of space. Some U.S. politicians view this as a national-security issue. That was one reason the U.S. blocked China’s initial approaches to join the ISS project: It feared it would improve China’s ability to develop space weapons. Tokyo may also prefer to continue supporting the U.S. effort in order to stop China making the running. But it’s only a matter of time — and Beijing is arguably already making the running. Last month it landed a rover on the moon — the first such “soft” landing there for 40 years. And the Chinese want to establish a space station by 2020. All astronauts speak in similar ways about how it made them feel to look down on Earth from space. They talk of a new and profound understanding of the fragile beauty of our planet, and of the need for different nations and religions to work together for the greater good. Canadian Chris Hadfield, who also commanded the ISS and has spent 166 days off-planet, said being in space “helps you recognize the unanimity of our existence.” Grimy politics usually gets in the way of such ideals. In 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a law prohibiting NASA from, among other things, hosting Chinese astronauts and scientists at its facilities. But there are signs that relations are thawing. On Jan. 11, Xu Dazhe, the new boss of China’s national space agency, said he wants to encourage international cooperation in space. And a few days earlier, at an International Space Exploration Forum at the U.S. State Department, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns expressed hope that the countries could work together. “The question is whether we can muster the courage and political will to advance space exploration and ensure cooperation continues to trump competition,” he said. As a strong Chinese presence off-planet looks certain, it makes sense to cooperate — and for inspiration we need look no further than at Ants in Space, an experiment that has just been delivered to the ISS by a rocket, Cygnus, operated by private company Orbital Sciences. It aims to research how ants — which in nature have no master plan or commanding officer — cooperate to explore new territories and work together to forage and build a nest. Entomologist Deborah Gordon of Stanford University in California has designed an experiment involving a capsule of worker ants delivered by the Cygnus craft that school students worldwide can take part in. The ants will be allowed to forage in special arenas on the ISS and schoolkids will be able to see how they operate in micro- gravity and test theories about the deceptively simple rules ants use to work together. Sounds like a promising metaphor for space cooperation among nations. Just beware one thing: The ant species being used is the Pavement ant (Tetramorium caespitum) , a nasty and invasive pest.

koichi wakata;space shuttle;chris hadfield;international space station;kirobo;hakubun shimomura;european space agency;william burns

jp0000310

2014/01/18

In Jomon and Heian, the times weren't a-changin'

“Man the change-maker.” That is one definition of Homo sapiens. Other creatures are changed — by Nature, by evolution — over vast expanses of time measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Humankind consciously generates change. We innovate, build, invent, destroy, build again. Even our earliest civilizations, ploddingly slow by present standards, far outpaced Nature as agents of change. Modern change, of course, knows no bounds; there’s never been anything like it. Last week’s science fiction is yesterday’s reality and today’s artifact. We’ve conquered space, conquered time — very soon, say some futurists (Raymond Kurzweil, most famously), we’ll conquer death, translating our mortal “selves” into immortal algorithms living on into cybereternity. To some this is exhilarating; to others, harrowing. Even the most progressive among us must at times long for a little rest, a brief pause, a quiet interval of contemplation: Where are we going? To what purpose? Are we headed in the right direction? Japan today is as frenetic as any other advanced society, but its past is long, and long stretches of it were surprisingly — astonishingly — changeless. Time stood almost still. Hundreds, thousands of years went by without life altering its course sufficiently to startle an imaginary observer who, having known the beginning, returned to see the end. Two periods in particular come to mind: the Jomon and Heian. They are not usually thought of together. The Jomon Period began roughly 12,000 years ago and lasted until about 300 B.C., making it one of the most enduring cultures in world prehistory. The Heian Period (794-1185) is an eye-blink in comparison, but by civilized standards long enough — and yet 794 and 1185 seem, culturally, economically and technologically, more similar than different. Nothing in 1185 would have left anyone in 794 speechless. What can neolithic hunter-gatherers, locked in a brutal and often losing struggle for mere survival in a harsh and untamed world, have in common with the dandified aristocrats of the urban, literate, musical, indolent, elegant, hyper-refined Heian Period? A few things. Changelessness, for one. We can’t penetrate the Jomon mind as we can, to some extent, the Heian. Jomon people left us no writing, as Heian people did, in profusion — “The Tale of Genji” most notably. “Genji” is a long (1,000-page-plus) novel, arguably the world’s first, by a sometime court lady called Murasaki Shikibu (born circa 975, death date unknown). Her prime concern was with the thoughts and feelings (mostly feelings) of her characters, some 430 of them. We get to know them and their small, narrow world very intimately. Of how many ancient societies can we say the same? They had everything, those Heian grandees — wealth, leisure, love, art, exquisite sensitivity, all the material satisfactions — and yet they were not happy. The dominant mood was melancholy. Their overdeveloped sensitivity was the problem. It showed them beauty’s beauty — but also its poignancy. Beauty blooms but also fades. The cherry blossom was Heian’s symbol par excellence — so beautiful and yet so fleeting! That visible truth reinforced their one overriding philosophical concept, derived originally from Buddhism — that the world was illusory. It was smoke; it was a wisp of cloud; you clung to it in vain. Better let it go — “leave” it if you can, not by suicide but by taking holy orders and becoming a monk or a nun, absorbed in prayers and visions of the next world, hopefully a more “real” world than this one. If this world is not real, why, or how, strive to change it? Not once does even a single character in the vast and populous “Genji” reflect on the possibility that human energy and creativity can change the world for the better. The Heian people were not change-makers. They were, ideally, world-transcenders. How different in that respect from us! We too have everything and are not happy — but we will be happy, so we seem to believe, if we can only produce just a little more of everything … and then a little more still. Heian Japan knew no corresponding hope. Jomon folk were artistic too. They produced not literature but pottery and sculpture — wildly primitive, shockingly beautiful ceramic sculpture, much of it representing pregnant women. The earliest figurines, called dog? , are some 12,000 years old, and thousands of years passed from then before experts can point to changes in style and technique. A nonexpert might sum up one change thus: For the first several thousand years, what seems most expressive in the dogū are not their faces but their bellies, source of life and sole defense against rampant, ever-present death. The odds of a newborn surviving infancy were surely very low and maybe, some archaeologists hypothesize, the dog? were a form of prayer on behalf of fertility and life. Conditions eased little by little across the millennia, accounting perhaps for an apparent shift in emphasis from belly to facial features. Though inconceivably harsh by civilized standards, the Jomon environment was not unkind as prehistory went. Archaeologists have discovered some 600 types of Jomon food, including a “bread” made from bean skins. Most neolithic cultures graduated from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Jomon didn’t. Why not? Evidently starvation, though widespread, was never urgent enough to demand or stimulate radical improvement. Contentment with the status quo — or perhaps an instinctive certainty that the status quo is all there is and all that is possible — infuses both the cultures of the Jomon and Heian. Their inertia baffles and disconcerts us, whose insatiable craving for change, for more, for better, hurtles us forward into an unknown future. Would they have envied us? Do we, in some secret corner of our 21st-century hearts, at odd moments in our busy, harassed, restless days, envy them?

jomon period;murasaki shikibu;heian period

jp0000311

2014/01/18

Ishin's Osaka wing hopes Tamogami loses in Tokyo

To the frustration — and rising panic — of nuclear village chieftain and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s gubernatorial election next month is shaping up to be a contest not about “local” issues like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or even perennial complaints such as the lack of economic reform. Barring some last-minute change or surprise, it’s now a contest about the future of nuclear power in Tokyo and Japan. But in Osaka, the real question is what effect the entry of an old far-right-wing nationalist known for his inflammatory comments — who has the support of an old, far-right-wing nationalist also known for making inflammatory comments — will have on the political fortunes of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party). In one corner of the campaign, we have former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, considered a moderate but, in reality, a conservative who, prior to March 11, 2011, argued for nuclear power. Since then (surprise, surprise) he has kept rather quiet. In another corner sits former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. He’s backed by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Both oppose nuclear power, and Hosokawa is under attack by Abe and the most entrenched members of the nuclear village, particularly economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari. Among older Osakans, Hosokawa is known less for his stance on nuclear power and more because he hails from Kumamoto Prefecture, where, as governor, he learned firsthand how impoverished Japanese politics and society had become in a Tokyo-centric nation — a message that resonates well in Osaka and Kansai. Meanwhile, Masuzoe appeals to younger Osakans who are less-focused on a rivalry with Tokyo and more interested in a TV-friendly candidate with a slight populist bent who seems like a rich, successful version of themselves. However, it’s a third candidate who is getting the most attention in Osaka’s political world, especially because his entrance may further drive a wedge between the Tokyo and Osaka factions of Nippon Ishin: Toshio Tamogami. The former chief of staff of the Air Self-Defense Force, fired in 2008 for defending Japan’s wartime aggression, advocates a nuclear-armed Japan against China and all of the usual political and social agendas favored by ultranationalists and right-wingers. Needless to say, Tamogami’s biggest political supporter is Nippon Ishin co-leader and former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. Earlier this month, Ishihara hinted he would support Tamogami’s bid, but only personally. Hashimoto and most in Nippon Ishin’s Osaka faction have no use for Tamogami. Younger Osaka party members derisively refer to Ishihara and the elderly Tokyo nationalists as “old garbage,” and Hashimoto is not pleased with Ishihara’s latest move. He and the Osaka faction wanted the party to back someone more in tune with Nippon Ishin’s local economic and bureaucratic reform agenda, but couldn’t find anyone. Thus, the party will not officially endorse a candidate. However, ideology aside, the move by the Osaka faction is good politics. With the Olympics coming, the same Tokyoites who didn’t much care when Ishihara, as their governor, made racist comments and provoked the United States, China and South Korea by trying to purchase the Senkakus are suddenly all nervous smiles, anxious to forget the past and move on by electing a governor who will not embarrass them internationally over the next four years. Hashimoto, and the Osaka faction, know Abe and the central government feel the same way. Even if many around Hashimoto share Tamogami’s views privately, they recognize that, politically, the smart move now is to keep quiet and not upset the ruling party. Ishihara and his allies can be dealt with once Tokyo voters chose either Hosokawa or Masuzoe.

shintaro ishihara;toru hashimoto;yoichi masuzoe;toshio tamogami;morihiro hosokawa

jp0000312

2014/01/29

Flu menace again reaching peak

While this year’s influenza season is predicted to peak around early February, anybody of any age group, sex or nationality is at risk of infection all the way through March. While 210,000 children under age 10 accounted for almost a third of the 660,000 flu cases reported in the week of Jan. 13 to 19, another 200,000 patients were made up of people in their 30s and 40s, according to data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Following are questions and answers on how to prevent the flu and what measures to take if you do come down with it: How does influenza differ from a normal cold? A cold is generally triggered by different kinds of viruses, and involves such symptoms as sore throat, nasal discharge and coughing, but normally these aren’t severe, and a fever, if present, isn’t so high. Influenza is caused by the influenza virus and normally comes with a fever of over 38 degrees and the sudden appearance of systemic symptoms such as a headache and joint and muscle pain. People who develop any of these symptoms should consult a doctor as soon as possible, as the flu can sometimes cause complications such as acute encephalopathy in children and pneumonia in the elderly or those with low immunity to diseases. Does the flu vaccine prevent infection? The vaccine reduces the chances of getting sick after infection. It can also reduce the severity of symptoms when a person does come down with the flu. As the vaccine doesn’t take effect for about two weeks after inoculation, the best time to get a shot is around mid-December. What measures can be taken to prevent infection? Lately, products have come on the market billed as having “a chlorine dioxide generator” with the ability to kill viruses and bacteria. The products include room dispensers, devices you wear around your neck and sprays for face masks. More orthodox measures are washing hands after going out, sanitizing hands using an alcohol formula, spending as much time as possible in adequate humidity (50 to 60 percent) and avoiding crowded places. What should you do if you’re diagnosed with influenza? Take adequate medication prescribed by a doctor, get plenty of rest — sleep is especially important — and try to take lots of liquids.

epidemic;prevention

jp0000313

2014/01/29

Number of influenza patients rising rapidly

With the influenza season approaching its peak this winter, the number of patients reached about 660,000 nationwide in the week of Jan. 13 to 19, almost doubling the 340,000 tallied the previous week. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry issued a warning last week that the outbreak has reached epidemic proportions and that the peak won’t be reached until early February. The health ministry said Okinawa Prefecture, followed by Miyazaki, Gifu, Oita and Fukuoka, are the hardest-hit areas. Close to 700 schools for all age groups were closed from Jan. 13 through 19, and the number is expected to rise. Although the epidemic has spread mainly in western Japan, it was also expanding in the Kanto region, including Tokyo and Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures. Large numbers of cases appeared in early December in Saitama and then spread to Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba in the week of Dec. 16 and expanded through the third week of January, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Infectious Disease Surveillance Center. “The epidemic is bound to spread even further in the next few weeks,” said Yoshiyuki Sugishita of the center. Although the flu peak varies from year to year, it usually occurs between late January and early February. The health ministry said that during last winter, the number of patients increased from 800,000 in the week of Jan. 7 to 13 to 1.4 million the following week and then to 2.14 million in the week of Jan. 21 to 27. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said that almost 50 percent of the cases were due to Hong Kong A-type virus, followed by H1N1 swine flu, accounting for about 30 percent. Sugishita said the reason for the resurgence in swine flu, which became a worldwide epidemic in 2009, has not yet been discovered. “Influenza is expected to approach its peak in the next week or two, so countermeasures such as not getting close to anyone who has the flu, washing your hands thoroughly and wearing a mask become necessary,” he said.

patients;infectious disease surveillance center

jp0000314

2014/01/28

Unions to demand robust pay rises

Unions are adopting robust demands for this spring’s annual “shunto” wage talks, with those of Toyota Motor Corp. considering an average ¥2.3 million annual bonus and the electronics industry its first basic pay hike in five years. For the talks, the 600,000-member Japanese Electrical, Electronic & Information Union, or Denki Rengo, said Tuesday it will demand a monthly pay-scale hike for the first time since 2009 of ¥4,000 or more for engineers. The 63,000-member Toyota Motor Worker’s Union is expected to decide Feb. 6 on a bonus demand equivalent to 6.8 months of wages, up ¥300,000 from the previous year, along with an average ¥4,000 hike in the pay scale. The electric industry union, comprising workers of mainly electric machinery makers, is a key member of the nation’s largest labor union federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). It has decided to demand a hike in the minimum monthly wage by ¥3,000 to ¥158,000 for an 18-year-old worker in the industry. “A basic pay hike is necessary for these (spring) talks. Otherwise, it won’t contribute to a virtuous cycle in the Japanese economy,” said Shoji Arino, leader of the industry union. Last year it demanded only the maintenance of the pay scale, under which individual workers get seniority-based raises without an increase in total labor costs for the industry.

toyota;unions;wages;shunto

jp0000315

2014/01/19

Shift to isle defense requires upgrade of all three branches

The Cold War ended about 20 years ago and Japan is finally trying to execute a drastic transformation of the Ground Self-Defense Force by shifting its focus from the north to the southwest — effectively relaxing its guard against Russia and bolstering it against China. Facing China’s growing military power, the new 10-year national defense guidelines the Cabinet endorsed in December spell out plans to bolster the defense of islands to the southwest, most notably Okinawa and the disputed Senkaku chain in the East China Sea. The GSDF will procure 17 MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and 52 amphibious vehicles and create new units dedicated to defending “remote islands” like the Senkakus, which are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan. The GSDF plans to remove all of its tanks from Honshu and leave only about 300 on Hokkaido and Kyushu. The Defense Ministry will meanwhile procure 99 faster, more maneuverable combat vehicles that will be capable of reaching speeds of 100 kph and can be airlifted to remote islands. Experts are skeptical about the need for amphibious units to defend the Senkakus, arguing the GSDF might be just trying to secure budget allocations at a time when the debt-ridden government has little room to increase the defense budget further. Without air and maritime superiority, an amphibious unit would have little chance of prevailing in a battle over a remote island. Thus the Maritime Self-Defense Force and Air Self-Defense Force need to be reinforced before amphibious units are introduced, said Shunji Taoka, a noted military journalist and former senior writer for the major daily Asahi Shimbun. “If you maintain air and maritime superiority, no (enemy) force could approach (a remote island). If you lose it, you cannot send an amphibious unit there. “So it is air and maritime superiority that matters. You don’t need a landing force” to defend the Senkakus, Taoka maintained. Toshiyuki Shikata, a professor of Teikyo University and former commanding general of the GSDF’s Northern Area Army, agreed that the most important element in defending an island is air superiority, and then to win control of the seas. “Given that (improving) the MSDF and ASDF is the priority now, the GSDF is in a difficult situation” when it comes to budget allocations, Shikata said. But he stressed that the creation of an amphibious unit that includes Ospreys will greatly enhance the GSDF’s capabilities and be useful if a remote Japanese island needs to be recaptured, like one of the Senkakus. The Osprey flies twice as fast as the aging CH-47 helicopters long used to transport GSDF troops. Shikata estimates that an Osprey could carry SDF troops from a camp on Okinawa Island to the Senkakus in an hour, whereas it would take some 10 hours if they went by ship. “The great thing about (Osprey) is its speed,” said Noboru Yamaguchi, a former lieutenant general of the GSDF who is now a professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan. Ospreys have a range of around 600 km and can be refueled in flight. The islands of Okinawa could even be defended by MV-22s based in Honshu, Yamaguchi said. He emphasized it is urgent for the operations of the ASDF, MSDF and GSDF to be integrated in order to defend remote islands. As it is, joint operations for the three branches are key elements of the new national defense guidelines, which call for bolstering the network data linkage among the ASDF, MSDF and GSDF. The Defense Ministry plans to purchase six U.S.-made AAV-7 amphibious assault vehicles to study their performance before making a final decision on which equipment to procure.

china;self-defense force;senkakus

jp0000317

2014/01/26

Tokyo, Washington agree to stay course on sealing TPP

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - Japan and the United States have agreed to continue to work closely on speedily concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks, trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi said after meeting Saturday with the U.S. trade chief on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Motegi, the Economy, Trade and Industry minister, said he urged Washington to show more flexibility in his meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. Froman called on both sides to do so, Motegi said. The 12 TPP countries bordering the Pacific Ocean have been struggling to seal a pact at an early date after missing a much-touted 2013 deadline for an agreement at their last ministerial meeting in December in Singapore. Tokyo and Washington have been at odds over how to deal with tariffs that Japan seeks to retain on five “sacred” farm product categories. The U.S.-led TPP aims in principle to abolish all tariffs. Farm minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also met separately with Froman and said they discussed tariffs on the five sensitive categories, which are rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar. He declined to elaborate. The U.S. government, which hopes an outcome can be reached before midterm elections in November, is proposing convening the next 12-country ministerial meeting in late February, but it has yet to be confirmed. TPP nations initially sought to hold such a meeting in January, but decided to delay it because there was little chance of overcoming the huge gaps over such issues as tariffs, intellectual property rights as well as reform of state-owned firms. In a separate meeting of trade ministers, meanwhile, chiefs of the world’s biggest economies pledged to broaden a deal to boost global trade, with the U.S. saying nothing is off-limits. At a Swiss-hosted meeting on the sidelines of the WEF, ministers from China, the European Union, Japan, the U.S. and 15 other nations agreed to build on the “positive momentum” of a World Trade Organization summit last December in Bali where its 159 member economies agreed to cut customs red tape. Motegi said Saturday’s discussion focused on “how to go forward with the WTO” while also implementing the red tape-cutting provisions previously agreed to in Bali. Japan, he said, has shown “a considerable amount of flexibility” during the talks and hopes the U.S. will be similarly flexible. The ministers agreed to address the most difficult remaining negotiating topics of agriculture, market access and services that eluded an agreement last month in the first WTO deal since the global trade body was formed in 1995, said Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, who hosted the meeting. BOJ’s Kuroda cautious Jiji Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda expressed cautious optimism on the global economy at a discussion in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday. The U.S. economy is “likely to grow by 3 percent this year and next year,” and the European economy is “finally recovering and growing,” Kuroda said. Japan is also making “significant progress” and can get out of deflation, he noted. “We have to be always mindful of” downside risks, Kuroda said, but added, “I think we can be cautiously optimistic about the global economic outlook.” “There is still a long way to go” before the central bank reaches its 2 percent inflation target, the BOJ chief said.

japan;tpp;davos;wef;u.s.n free trade

jp0000318

2014/01/26

No plan best plan in Kansai nuclear disaster

Ten months after regional governments were required to submit nuclear disaster evacuation plans, a lack of central government guidance and local-level cooperation is generating concern that Kansai will be ill-prepared to respond if any of Fukui Prefecture’s 13 commercial reactors suffers a meltdown. Questions remain about how fleeing Fukui residents who pass through neighboring Kyoto would be stopped and screened for radiation, and how residents in the rural northern areas closest to the reactors would be gathered and evacuated in a timely manner. Evacuating the elderly, young mothers and the pregnant is also a serious concern. There is also the question of what to do if Shiga’s Lake Biwa, which supplies drinking water to about 14.5 million people, gets contaminated with radiation. Citizens’ groups have posed these and other detailed questions to prefectural officials in Kyoto and the Union of Kansai Governments, a loose federation of seven prefectures and four major cities in the region. But Kansai officials reply that, on many issues, there is little they can do because the central government hasn’t drafted specific guidelines. For example, while Tokyo will order residents within 30 km of a nuclear plant to evacuate in a crisis, winds could stretch a radioactive plume well beyond that range. Detailed plans based on wind projections during a radiation leak continue to be discussed, but there is little in the way of concrete proposals. It is also unclear how evacuations would be carried out if a storm, blizzard or other natural disaster on the Sea of Japan coastline of Fukui or Kyoto ends up closing access roads within 30 km of a power plant. Local disaster response plans have yet to spell out how people in northern Kyoto, which is rural and lacks the wide thoroughfares of the capital, can be effectively evacuated. “Kansai authorities have admitted that many towns and cities are not ready to receive evacuees. Authorities admit that the evacuation of pregnant women, young children and others who need care should be a priority, but no such plans are in place,” said anti-nuclear activist Aileen Mioko Smith of Kyoto-based Green Action, following meetings with Kyoto and Kansai officials late last year. Under a Union of Kansai Governments agreement, Hyogo Prefecture is in charge of coordinating disaster response policy for the union’s seven prefectural members, although Fukui is not one of them. Last year, Hyogo officials carried out a simulation of what would happen just to Hyogo if a Fukushima-like event were to occur at one of the four reactor sites in Fukui. They concluded that the town of Sasayama (population 43,832) would be exposed to a maximum of 167 milliseiverts over a seven-day period, three times an international level that triggers the use of iodine tablets. Guidelines established by the Nuclear Regulation Authority call for iodine tablets to be distributed to those within 5 km of a nuclear plant. While there are discussions about extending the radius to 30 km, no final decision has been made. “I don’t think that stockpiling and dispensing iodine tablets is particularly difficult compared with, say, stockpiling Tamiflu for avian flu. Plans need to be revised quickly,” Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido said when the results were announced. Under the Hyogo simulation, parts of Kyoto Prefecture would be in even greater danger — a point Smith and other Kyoto citizens have made to local officials. In Kyoto, there are now specific emergency drills based on what would happen in a nuclear disaster. The most recent exercise was conducted on Jan. 17, the 19th anniversary of the Kobe earthquake. The small drill involved about 20 prefectural and Self-Defense Forces officials responding to reports of radiation in the air following an earthquake and tsunami. The drill assumed that critical information from the national SPEEDI network, which assesses radiation levels in real time, would be conveyed to them quickly. There are seven SPEEDI monitoring spots within 10 km of the power plants in Fukui that collect data on Fukui and Kyoto prefectures, and another six within 30 km, including one in Shiga. Kansai leaders recognize that more monitoring stations, particularly in northern Kyoto and Hyogo, are needed, but without guidance from the central government, as well as funding, there is little they can do. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has made restarting the nation’s nuclear reactors a primary goal. The discussions have focused mostly on the technical issues related to the plants and whether the fault lines surrounding them, or in some cases under them, are active. Given the widespread concerns, Smith says such thinking puts the cart before the horse. “It’s a very serious problem that Japanese nuclear power regulation does not require evacuation plan approval as a prerequisite for restarting nuclear power plants,” she said.

fukushima no . 1;kansai;fukui;fukushima nuclear power plant;evacuation plans

jp0000319

2014/01/26

Jury still out on Kansai union's worth

OSAKA - A useless talk shop that will ultimately be remembered as a massive waste of taxpayer money, or a farsighted experiment that will someday be seen as the forerunner of a fundamentally new system of central government? That’s the question that supporters and critics of the Union of Kansai Governments are asking three years after seven Kansai prefectures and four major cities banded together to increase cooperation in everything from disaster planning to tourism promotion and standardized testing and licensing. Due to geography, Kansai’s main cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe are no more than an hour apart by limited express trains. It’s possible to travel to all four in under 2½ hours, which is less than the time it takes to travel by shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka. But familiarity often breeds contempt. Kansai’s local governments have a long history of not cooperating with each other, resulting in rival plans to attract businesses and tourists. They’ve also been plagued by traditionally limited communication or mountains of bureaucratic red tape when it came to things like dispatching emergency vehicles and personnel across prefectural borders. Over the past three years, progress has been made toward removing some of the barriers. The governors and mayors meet on a regular basis and draw up plans in areas they specifically agree to coordinate for the entire union. Hyogo, having suffered the 1995 Kobe earthquake, is in charge of coordinating disaster relief measures. Kyoto is in charge of tourism promotion for the region, while Osaka is in charge of economic development. Their most visible success to date has been agreeing to get the entire region to cut back on electricity usage in 2011 after the nuclear power plants were shut down, resulting in expeditious, coordinated action that prevented rolling blackouts during the peak summer months. But while demonstrating some ability to react to outside events, the union has been poor at being proactive, partially because of the limited local powers under the prefectural government system. Advocates of the union point out that it’s too early to issue a final report card on how useful it is, and that its ultimate goal is to replace the Meiji Era prefectural system with a series of semi-autonomous regional blocs and a weak central government. Needless to say, that idea is met with open hostility in Tokyo, which fears it would lose power and prestige. Critics come in two types. The first consists of those who see the union as a good idea being poorly executed because of central government regulations, entrenched local bureaucratic rivalries and differing attitudes among the political members about the wisdom of drawing too closely together. The second group, even as they agree with the first group about the problems, sees the union as fundamentally anti-democratic, a creation of Kansai’s corporate lobby that is more interested in taking away local rights to, for example, block construction of an airport, dam or power plant. The union is not about smaller government, they say, but about creating a Kansai fiefdom that would be run as a giant corporation where efficiency trumps local democracy. To what extent the union’s political leaders will be willing to spend political capital to enact ideas has always been the question. As efforts to formulate a detailed, unionwide disaster response plan in the event of not only an earthquake and tsunami, but also a nuclear disaster demonstrate, however, local politicians and bureaucrats are hard-wired to deal with the problems in front of them, not those on the horizon, however imperative it may be to address them before they become disasters.

osaka;kyoto;kobe;nara;union of kansai governments

jp0000320

2014/01/31

Japan, Russia discuss territorial issue

The deputy foreign ministers of Japan and Russia met Friday in Tokyo to resume talks for settling the long-standing territorial dispute over the Russian-held islands off Hokkaido. Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama is representing Japan while the Russian delegation is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov. Similar talks were held last August in Moscow. Since the summit last April between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Vladimir Putin, Tokyo and Moscow have moved closer, with the two countries reinforcing common interests in areas such as energy and security. Several summits and talks between top officials have followed. Tokyo hopes to grab the momentum to break the territorial stalemate and conclude a peace treaty with Russia. Japan has said that if Russia acknowledges the four islands as belonging to Japan, Tokyo is prepared to respond flexibly to the timing and manner of their actual return. But Russia has shown no signs of recognizing Japanese sovereignty. After day-long talks at the Foreign Ministry’s Iikura guesthouse, Sugiyama said the two had practical and meaningful discussions on the deadlocked territorial dispute. “We discussed (the territorial dispute) from historical, legal and many different aspects. We’ve spent the whole afternoon on this matter, talking to the extent that I’ve become bit exhausted,” Sugiyama told reporters after the eight-hour meeting, of which five hours were dedicated to the territorial issue. “We had talks last August (in Moscow), but this was the first for me to have such earnest discussions using hours covering various issues (on the territorial dispute),” Sugiyama said. But holding such meaningful discussions just one time is not enough to resolve the long-standing issue, he said, adding that Tokyo and Moscow will arrange to schedule the next negotiations. Along with the territorial dispute, the two discussed economic cooperation and cultural exchanges as well as the situation in North Korea, the Middle East and Central Asia, he said. The meeting precedes talks Saturday between Foreign Ministers Fumio Kishida and Sergey Lavrov in Germany, Abe’s attendance at the Feb. 7 opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics and an expected visit to Japan by Putin this year. The dispute over the islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a peace treaty for World War II. The four islands — Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group — were seized by Soviet forces in the closing days of World War II after Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15, 1945. Abe and Putin agreed in their April meeting in Moscow to resume the sovereignty negotiations. Since then, the two leaders have held four meetings and are expected to hold another one in February when Abe visits Sochi. “Although there still remains a wide gap between the positions of Japan and Russia concerning the issue of the Northern Territories, the main pending issue, Japan will persistently engage in negotiations in order to resolve the issue of the attribution of the four islands and conclude a peace treaty with Russia,” Kishida said Jan. 24 in an address on the first day of the current Diet session. Information from Kyodo added

russia;territorial row;shinsuke sugiyama;igor morgulov

jp0000321

2014/01/08

Lixil mulls another overseas takeover

Lixil Group Corp., which agreed to buy bathroom-fixture makers American Standard Brands and Grohe Group last year, is studying another overseas acquisition to boost revenue from emerging markets. The planned deal will help Tokyo-based Lixil achieve its target of increasing sales from emerging markets to more than 30 percent of its revenue, from about 20 percent now, Chief Executive Officer Yoshiaki Fujimori said in an interview Monday. The company could spend tens of billions of yen on its next takeover, Fujimori added. Since Fujimori joined the company in June 2011, Lixil has spent $5.3 billion buying companies in the U.S. and Europe to counter slowing demand at home amid the shrinking population. It is now seeking acquisitions that can help increase revenue from Southeast Asia, South America and Africa, he said. “2014 will be the year for Lixil to start full-fledged efforts to globalize itself with the brands we have created and gained through acquisitions,” said Fujimori, who formerly worked for General Electric Co. “We’ll seek a two-digit percentage growth in revenue by expanding sales from emerging markets.” Fujimori declined to identify any targets, saying only that a deal would be “water-related.” Besides bathroom fixtures, Lixil also manufactures building materials for housing as well as doors and windows. To keep pace with its global shift, Lixil plans to reshape management for some of its departments, including human resources, marketing and business development, Fujimori said. The company will hire an American lawyer fluent in Japanese, Chinese and English to head its legal department starting in April, he said, without identifying the person. In September, Lixil and Development Bank of Japan agreed to acquire an 87.5 percent stake in Germany’s Grohe, a maker of high-end faucets and other bathroom fixtures, for €2.94 billion ($4 billion). The deal is expected to close by June 30. It earlier bought the maker of American Standard toilets for $542 million and has also purchased Permasteelisa SpA, which made walls for the Guggenheim Museum and Sydney Opera House. Lixil’s revenue for the year that ended in March 2013 rose 11 percent to ¥1.44 trillion, while net income jumped more than elevenfold to ¥21.3 billion. It forecasts profit of ¥41 billion for this business year, on revenue of ¥1.6 trillion, Lixil said in its Nov. 5 earnings statement. Fujimori said he almost pulled out of early negotiations to buy Grohe after disagreeing on price and will always keep the option of walking away from an acquisition. “You don’t put yourself in a position that you must make a deal no matter what,” he said.

takeover;lixil

jp0000322

2014/01/06

Taiwan unveils baby panda to public

TAIPEI - A 6-month old giant panda was unveiled to her adoring public in Taiwan on Monday, as long lines of children of all ages queued up at the Taipei zoo to see the cub cavorting around her cage with an understandably protective mother. Yuan Zai’s debut had long been anticipated on this island of 23 million people. With delighted visitors passing in front of her cage at the rate of 40 per minute, Yuan Zai showed off her climbing skills before retreating to mother Yuan Yuan’s embrace, and then heading off for a nap. She currently sleeps 20 hours a day. Zoo officials say they will be able to accommodate 19,000 visitors a day to see Yuan Zai, whose mother and father came to Taiwan from China in late 2008. Their arrival was seen at the time as a high water mark in Beijing’s use of “soft power” in Taiwan, which split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949, and remains the object of unwavering Chinese attempts to bring it back into the fold — by persuasion if possible, by force if necessary. But politics seemed to be about the last thing on the minds of Yuan Zai’s fan base Monday as again and again visitors’ faces lit up with broad smiles amid giggles of glee and repeated cries of “how cute” or “how beautiful.” Chinese giant pandas have been a hit all around the world, but they seem to have a special cachet in Taiwan, where animal figures are so much in vogue that Taiwanese airline company Eva Airways has found that festooning its aircraft in the livery of fictional Japanese character Hello Kitty provides a powerful boost to sales.

china;taiwan;animals;pandas

jp0000324

2014/01/22

Renesas hopes to ax 5,400 more jobs

Struggling chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp., seeking to accelerate restructuring efforts, plans to slash another 5,400 domestic employees, or around 20 percent of its workforce, by the end of March 2016 through early retirements, according to company sources. The labor union, however, opposes the plan. The move by the labor side could make it difficult for the company to carry out the personnel cuts. Renesas aims to achieve an operating margin of 10 percent in fiscal 2016. It cut about 3,000 employees last fall after the third round of calls for early retirement, but it has been forced to consider additional restructuring measures as it fell short of its goal. The semiconductor maker has been rebuilding its management after seeing its business deteriorate due to the strong yen in the past and intensifying competition from overseas rivals. During the three calls for early retirement since its launch in 2010 through the merger of Renesas Technology Corp. and NEC Corp.’s semiconductor unit, more than 11,000 workers left the company. After announcing the closure of some production bases, Renesas received ¥150 billion in investment from the government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and eight Japanese companies, including Toyota Motor Corp., last September. Renesas intends to further slash its fixed costs to improve profits as its profit plan does not see sales increasing, the sources said. As for the envisioned personnel cut, the company plans to introduce a new program to encourage employees to transfer to other companies in addition to soliciting early retirements, the sources said. PCs tumble in Asia Singapore AFP-JIJI Sales of personal computers fell 10 percent in the Asia-Pacific region last year due to sluggish economic growth and tough competition from mobile devices, an industry analyst said. International Data Corp. said Tuesday that sales of PCs fell to 108 million units outside Japan, marking the region’s first annual double-digit decline. “The economic sluggishness in big emerging markets in the region adversely affected buying sentiment,” IDC said. “On the consumer side, smartphone and tablet distractions spread throughout the region this year, further contributing to the sharp decline in the PC market.” IDC analyst Handoko Andi added that “2014 is expected to remain another challenging year for the PC market as competition will only grow among the devices.”

renesas;job cuts;restructuring;chipmakers

jp0000325

2014/01/22

Sea Shepherd: Dolphin roundup biggest in four years

Fishermen in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, have finished killing about 40 dolphins targeted for their meat as part of a larger group trapped recently in what activists say was the biggest roundup they have witnessed in the last four annual hunts. Sea Shepherd, best known for its anti-whaling activities, said that of roughly 250 captured dolphins, the fishermen first selected 52 to keep alive for sale to aquariums and other customers. They included a rare albino calf and its mother. Of the rest, about 40 were killed, one became stuck in a net and drowned, and the others were released, it said. A video released Tuesday ( apne.ws/1hIC1xm ) by Sea Shepherd shows dozens of fishermen on boats surveying the dolphins after they were confined to a cove with nets. Divers can be seen holding the dolphins selected for sale and guiding them to nets hanging off the boats. While other dolphins have been killed since the hunting season began in September, Sea Shepherd said the 250 herded into the cove last Friday was the largest group it has seen since it began monitoring the hunt. The annual hunt in the village of Taiji received high-profile criticism when U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy tweeted last weekend that she was deeply concerned about the practice. The fishermen say the hunt is part of their tradition and call foreign critics who eat other kinds of meat hypocritical. A government spokesman defended the annual dolphin hunt on Monday, saying it is carried out in accordance with the law. The hunt was the subject of the Academy Award-winning 2009 film “The Cove.”

taiji;sea shepherd;wakayama;dolphin

jp0000326

2014/01/25

In Davos, gripping kabuki with little substance

Afriend asks via email: “Did you see the video of Abe in Davos?” I hadn’t. So I did. Many thanks to the friend for some highly toe-curling and blood-curdling entertainment. Much effort must have gone into achieving that overall effect. Gripping as the performance was, the temptation to hide behind the couch for sheer embarrassment was rather great. Apart from the entertainment value, there were a number of points that I felt compelled to comment on regarding the content of Abe’s speech. Three to be precise. For one, the gent doth protest too much, methinks. I have discovered that Wikipedia has some interesting things on this point. Let me quote them verbatim: ” ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks” is a quotation from the 1602 play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. It has been used as a figure of speech, in various phrasings, to indicate that a person’s overly frequent or vehement attempts to convince others of something have ironically helped to convince others that the opposite is true, by making the person look insincere and defensive.” To my mind, the above sounds like the live commentary on that Davos speech of Abe’s. There was much protestation concerning the robustness of the Japanese economy, of the new industries that were about to spring to life, of the vibrancy that defies the concept of twilight. All this is great stuff insofar as rallying cries go. But are they true? More to the point, why so much emphasis on health and well being? Such excess protestation tends to sow seeds of doubt. Does he know something we don’t? Are things so bad that he has to go to this extent to protest against reality? Is he in denial? And so forth. Of course, it could well be that he believes he can walk on water anyway. In which case woe betide those who are on board when his ship starts sinking after all. The second issue is one of positioning. Abe was supposedly given the honor of delivering a keynote speech for the Davos gathering. Putting aside for the moment the issue of what on earth these meetings are for in the first place, keynote speeches are surely not about posturing. Nor are they about parading one’s perceived achievements. Keynote speeches, as I understand them, should set the tone for the questions that need to be addressed in the discussions that are about to take place. Such speeches ought to inspire. They should get people thinking. They should stimulate minds. They should give rise to discourse of a high intellectual caliber. High octane was much in evidence in the Abe speech, but to what keynote end was not at all evident. The third issue is one of semantics. The prime minister and his cohorts seem eager to make the phrase “ganban kisei” catch on. “Ganban” is a thick slab of rock. “Kisei” is regulation. Japanese newspapers reported that the prime minister made much of this phrase in his Davos speech. What the prime minister actually said in English was that he will go ahead and destroy all “rock solid vested interests.” “Rock solid” is entirely acceptable as a translation for ganban. But what about vested interests? Are all rules and regulations actually vested interests? Should all regulations be the target of ax-grinding and drill-wielding because they are by definition borne out of vested interests? Are there no regulations anywhere that are deemed legitimate because they protect the right kind of interests? In this day and age of “black” companies that exploit their staff, it could well be that we need more, not less, regulation. Of the right kind. Noriko Hama is an economist and a professor at Doshisha University Graduate School of Business.

shinzo abe;world economic forum;davos;noriko hama;japanese perspectives;wef

jp0000327

2014/06/03

More than 1,600 overcome by heat last week

Hospitals across Japan treated 1,637 people for heatstroke last week, including four fatalities, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday. The preliminary tally represents a more than sevenfold increase from 230 cases during the same period a year earlier, and compares with 352 cases the previous week. The agency said casualties spiked Saturday and Sunday, when temperatures topped 35 degrees in some parts of the country. Of those taken to the hospital by ambulance, 425 people required hospitalization and 41 required stays of three weeks or more. More than 40 percent of those hospitalized were 65 or older. The heat showed no signs of easing Tuesday as the town of Bihoro in Hokkaido recorded an all-time high of 37.2 degrees by early afternoon. It was the fourth consecutive day in which temperatures in Japan topped 35. The Meteorological Agency issued a heat alert for most of Hokkaido and for nearby Akita Prefecture, and urged the public to take precautions against heatstroke. The agency reported the start of the rainy season in the Shikoku region in western Japan, two days earlier than normal. The rainy season usually ends in Shikoku around July 18

temperature;heat;heatstroke

jp0000328

2014/06/28

When a physical wasteland bred a moral wasteland

He lived by fire and he died by fire. He was vile — coldblooded, amoral, ruthless. He was the man his time called for, and the man his time called forth — a vile time, by most standards. Its name is Sengoku Jidai, a period of prolonged civil war. Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) is its most representative character — a military genius and a moral monster. He was a visionary, a shaper of the future, to which, if necessary — and it was — he would sacrifice the present. Or was he simply power-mad? The central government, long impotent, had collapsed altogether, leaving Japan a confused welter of domains ruled by ungovernable warlords — some 260 of them as of 1467. The Onin War that began that year dragged on for a decade, reducing Kyoto, the ancient capital, to a smoldering ruin. The Zen poet Ikkyu (1394-1481) wrote: “One burst of flame and the capital — gilt palaces and how many mansions — turns before one’s eyes into wasteland.” Physical wasteland breeds moral wasteland — a morality of the sword. “As the cherry among blossoms, so the warrior among men,” goes an old saying. No saint, the warrior. “The path of the soldier is a deceitful one,” wrote the Confucian scholar Kaibara Ekiken (1630-1714). Bored with the peace of his own time, Ekiken looked back with nostalgia on Nobunaga’s era, perhaps on Nobunaga himself. “Depending on the circumstances of the moment,” he wrote, “one might trick or betray one’s allies, usurp the spoils won by others or throw the land into turmoil and seize it from those above: As a matter of military tactics, there is nothing wrong with this. It is the way of warfare in Japan.” The end of the Onin War brought not peace but fighting under different names, or under no names, for causes that defy attempts to make them sound noble. Or, perhaps not. For beneath the sordid land hunger and lust for power, amid the carnage, the disdain for life, the shifting alliances and betrayals and breakdown of even a semblance of moral decency as anyone now living understands the term, an idea was taking shape, vague at first, clearer as time passed. Nobunaga, with what mixture of idealism and cynicism it is impossible to know, was among the first to articulate it. His motto, tenka fubu (“the realm, ruled by might”) meant, in effect, national unification, under a ruler strong enough to quell chaos and impose order on fierce local lords. He was the man and his the might, he thought. So it might have proved, had he lived. He was born in 1534, son of a minor samurai in a minor province, Owari, roughly today’s Aichi Prefecture. His father’s death in 1551 left the family headship in dispute, and the first act by which we know Nobunaga is his murder, by a foul stratagem, of a younger brother asserting rival claims. The second is more significant — stunning, in fact. With 3,000 soldiers he crushed an army of 25,000 — probably the largest army in Japan at the time — led by a neighboring lord en route to Kyoto to press his own version of something like tenka fubu. If you’ve never heard of the Imagawa clan, it’s because Nobunaga effectively wiped it out — otherwise you might have. He was suddenly much sought after as an ally. Alliances were customarily sealed with marriages. Nobunaga’s younger sister, Oichi, symbol to later times of the samurai woman quietly enduring the unendurable, around 1565 was given in marriage to a son of the Asai clan. In 1570, the Asai broke with Nobunaga and joined his enemy, the Asakura clan. Didn’t they know who they were dealing with? Defeated, a surviving Asai-Asakura remnant sought refuge in the Enryakuji, one of thousands of Buddhist temples on Mount Hiei overlooking Kyoto. Buddhist monks then were not what they are now. They were armed and dangerous. Here was Nobunaga’s chance. His soldiers set fire to the surrounding dry fields. Thousands burned to death. “Everything, everywhere,” says a contemporary chronicle, “from the central cathedral to the 21 shrines of the Mountain King, the bell tower and the library, were burned to the ground.” Buddhism in Japan never recovered its dominating influence. Oichi was permitted to return to her brother’s castle with her three daughters. Her infant son, however, was put to death. By 1582, Nobunaga was master of Kyoto and of one-third of Japan. The nation’s future seemed his to mold. A resentful retainer turned on him, setting fire to the Kyoto temple in which he was hosting a tea party. Nobunaga’s body was never found. The future was his anyway — or was it? It was, in that within 30 years of his death tenka fubu was no dream but reality, Japan firmly united under the rule of Nobunaga’s ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu, first of a long line of Tokugawa shoguns stretching all the way ahead to 1867. In another sense, Nobunaga was less successful. Not he but his treacherous assassin was the hero of 18th-century kabuki re-enactments. In one play, his killer declaims, “Heedless of remonstrance, Nobunaga destroyed shrines and temples, daily piling up atrocity upon atrocity. It was my calling to slay him for the sake of the warrior’s way, for the sake of the realm” Never mind that in the Sengoku Jidai there was no “realm” — and not much of a “warrior’s way” either, unless it was the “way” articulated by Ekiken, or by a warlord named Uesugi Kenshin (1530-78), a Nobunaga rival and a Zen man who succinctly summed up both Zen and his times: “Those who cling to life die. Those who defy death live.”

kyoto;oda nobunaga;ikkyu;kaibara ekiken

jp0000330

2014/06/24

U.S. professors urge universities to sever ties with China's Confucius Institutes

BUFFALO, NEW YORK - University professors in the United States have joined their Canadian counterparts in urging universities to cut ties with Confucius Institutes unless the agreements that bring them to campus are reworked to guarantee academic freedom. A report by the American Association of University Professors said universities “have sacrificed the integrity of the university and its academic staff” by allowing the Chinese government to supervise curriculum and staff at the institutes it has established on more than 100 North American campuses to promote Chinese culture and language. “Allowing any third-party control of academic matters is inconsistent with principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and the institutional autonomy of colleges and universities,” the report by the association’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure said. The Canadian Association of University Teachers raised the same issues in December following an instructor’s human rights complaint alleging discrimination based on her belief in Falun Gong, a spiritual group that has been banned in China. The complaint led McMaster University in Ontario to close its Confucius Institute last year after the complaint was settled through mediation. The Beijing headquarters for the Confucius Institutes, the Office of Chinese Language Council International, known as Hanban, did not respond to requests for comment. However, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, ran an article Friday seeking to refute the AAUP report’s claims, quoting representatives from foreign institutions from Germany to Thailand who called them unfounded. When reached, directors at several Confucius Institutes in the U.S. also defended the institutes, saying the AAUP doesn’t understand how they work. “The university comes first, and then the Confucius Institute, which must operate within the rules of the university,” said Xu Zaocheng, director of the institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. “It is true that it is a program under the Chinese Ministry of Education, but the accusations reflect the Cold War mentality,” Xu said. The Chinese “fund these activities, but they are not controlling them,” said Stephen Dunnett, chairman of the binational committee that oversees the University at Buffalo’s 5-year-old institute. “If they came here and said we will give you this money but we’re going to control it: We’re going to pick the curriculum, we’re going to pick the teachers by ourselves, and we’re going to teach or not teach what we want. . . . What U.S. university would ever do that?” he said.

china;u.s .;education

jp0000332

2014/06/13

Doctor admits trying to murder dialysis patient 'on impulse'

A doctor has admitted trying to kill a dialysis patient by removing a tube and causing the man to bleed out, police said Friday. Internist Kenjiro Hashizume of Machida, western Tokyo, told investigators he went to his clinic and picked a victim at random after suddenly getting an urge to kill someone, officers at Machida Police Station said. Hashizume, 49, was arrested Thursday for allegedly removing a tube that controlled the blood flow of a patient undergoing dialysis the previous day. He appeared before the Tokyo Public Prosecutor’s Office on Friday. A specialist in internal medicine, Hashizume is director of the Akebono No. 2 Clinic, which specializes in kidney conditions. Police quoted him saying he felt a sudden urge to kill when calling at a convenience store on his way home from work at 7 p.m. Wednesday. He returned to the clinic at around 8:20 p.m. The 50-year-old victim realized he had been disconnected from the dialyzer when he saw blood spurting from a tube, police said. Hashizume then drove to Machida Police Station and turned himself in. The victim is described as being in a stable condition. Police suspect the physician may be mentally ill. Hashizume said he has been telling his family about problems at work and other worries for years, adding that he tried to kill himself a few days before the incident, the police said. “I tried to commit suicide but I failed,” they quoted him as saying. “I wanted to kill someone, then get caught by police and be put to death.” They added Hashizume reported having trouble sleeping and concentrating at work for about six months. During questioning, the police said Hashizume told them he picked the victim “because he happened to be near the entrance” of the dialysis room. About 10 patients were undergoing treatment at the time and were under the care of clinic staff on shift at that time.Toshiaki Nango, director of the Sanyukai group, which runs Akebono No. 2, apologized for what happened. The company also runs two other clinics and Akebono Hospital in Machida. A similar event at the same clinic resulted in the death of a woman in June 2010, investigators said. The patient died of severe bleeding after a tube was disconnected. Hashizume was the doctor who confirmed the woman’s death, but investigators concluded that one of the nurses, not Hashizume, was responsible and filed a case with prosecutors on charges of professional negligence resulting in death. Patients and neighbors expressed shock at the arrest of a man they had considered mild-mannered. “He looked really gentle and didn’t seem to be capable of doing such a horrible thing,” said a man in his 70s living near the clinic. Fujiko Kinoshita, 72, a Machida resident received dialysis treatment under Hashizume’s care, gave a similar impression. “He was very polite and always kind when he responded to my questions,” Kinoshita said.

akebono;dialysis

jp0000333

2014/06/14

The hormone behind man's best friend

The other day I saw a picture of a dead dog on Twitter. Gross, right? Not at all, for this wasn’t just any old dog: This was Hachiko, perhaps the most famous dog in the world, and certainly the most famous in Japan. The tweet announced that it was the last photo ever taken of Hachiko. He is shown lying on a pallet, surrounded by the staff of Shibuya Station and his owner’s wife. It is 1935, and every day for the last 11 years Hachiko has been turning up at Shibuya Station to meet his master, a University of Tokyo professor called Hidesaburo Ueno. But unbeknownst to the dog, the professor died in 1925, so for 10 of those years Hachiko has waited in vain. Even when he was alive, Hachiko was a famous dog. People would come to see him, pat him and give him treats. But when he died (of cancer, not from a yakitori skewer as some legends have it), the fame just got bigger. A year before his death, a statue was erected outside the station in his honor. It’s obvious why he is so famous. It’s a touching story. People like to feel the sad warmth that comes from contemplating a story of death, loyalty and love. When I searched Twitter to find the photo I’d seen, I found lots of mentions of Hachiko, lots of stories about him and lots of retweets of “the last photo.” Dog lovers are a fierce tribe, and it may be reckless to even ask why dogs are so loyal, or seem coldly scientific to investigate the underlying cause. But getting on for 100 years since Professor Ueno’s death, fellow University of Tokyo scientists are doing just that. Teresa Romero, Miho Nagasawa and colleagues — all current or one-time dog owners — are looking at how the hormone oxytocin is involved in the way dogs form bonds with humans and other dogs. If Hachiko is the world’s most famous dog, oxytocin may be the most famous hormone. (Though adrenalin would put up a good fight.) Often introduced as “the cuddle chemical,” “the love hormone” or even “the moral molecule,” it is known to be involved in the formation of the bond between mother and child (the contractions of the uterus stimulate its production). It is behind the monogamous pairing of prairie voles, and it can also make people more trusting. Most research on oxytocin has been on monogamous animals, and in humans in a reproductive context. Romero and Nagasawa wanted to explore its possible role in other types of social relationships. Being dog people, they naturally wondered about dogs — canine relations with humans and with other dogs. How do dogs — which are pack animals, remember — form social bonds with their group members? “Oxytocin was an excellent candidate, since previous research has shown that it plays an important role in parental bonding and mating in both humans and other animals,” says Romero. And if oxytocin is involved, it makes sense to investigate its role in the relationship dogs form with humans. The team recruited 16 dogs. (It would be nice for my story if one of the subjects was an Akita dog, the same breed as Hachiko, but no: nine standard poodles, four Labrador retrievers, one German shepherd, one Shetland sheep dog and one border collie.) The animals were given oxytocin in a nasal spray, and their behavior was recorded for the next half hour. The team found that compared with dogs given only a saline nasal spray, the oxytocin-dosed dogs showed more positive social behavior toward other dogs and humans. They approached them more, looked toward them more and initiated social contact more. “Oxytocin plays an important role in how dogs form and maintain friendly relationships with both their owners and dog partners,” says Romero. The team conclude that oxytocin might be the way enduring cooperative bonds evolved. Dogs or other animals don’t need to understand that it will be in their genetic best interest to cooperate with each other, or even with other species — oxytocin does it for them. Dog people will often assert that their dogs have moods, and even that dogs are capable of love. Sometimes it’s hard to deny the idea. I read about a dog with a lifelong hatred of water, but which jumped into a lake to drag a fallen child to safety. But oxytocin can explain bonding without invoking love. Since the hormone enhances the feeling of reward that the animal receives, a dog automatically learns to associated the good feeling it gets from positive interactions with another dog or with a human. A positive feedback loop means that if it repeats something that has given it a rewarding feeling — such as waiting for its master at the train station for the pat on the head it receives — it will continue to perform that behavior. Or as Romero puts it: “Our results provide new insight into the mechanisms that facilitate the maintenance of close social bonds and complement a growing body of evidence that identifies oxytocin as one of the neurochemical foundations of sociality in mammals.” Her work is published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI reference: 10.1073/pnas.1322868111). It makes me wonder about Hachiko. Why did he wait so long? Was he stuck in a hopeless feedback loop, waiting every day for a reward that never came? “It’s unknown if differences in the type and distribution of oxytocin receptors in dogs modulate their behavior,” says Romero. Surely in normal cases the loop wears out — dogs stop waiting, people stop loving. If you never stop loving and you never stop waiting, is something wrong? Actually, I think that’s something that no experiments on oxytocin will ever answer.

science;pets;dogs;love

jp0000334

2014/06/14

Is 'rational' Toru Hashimoto acting irrationally?

Just how little influential political or intellectual opposition in Japan is there to fundamentally conservative politics and economic theories touting the wisdom of the corporate mentality? Well consider this: Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka and co-founder of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), may soon start to look like a rational moderate. Yet that’s the Alice in Wonderland world we’re in, following Nippon Ishin’s split between Hashimoto and 37 of his mostly Osaka, mostly younger followers, and Shintaro Ishihara and the 23 mostly Old Men of Tokyo (at least at the top), who are by and large conservative or ultraright-wing in their views and supported by the more extreme elements of Japan’s electorate. After the split, “rational” was the word Hashimoto used several times to describe the character of his Osaka supporters. They are, he suggested, men and women more interested in practical issues than in refighting World War II or nursing a grudge over the U.S.-led Occupation. When it comes to China and South Korea, there’s something of an attitude in the Hashimoto camp of “business is business and politics are politics,” and the two can, and should be, separated (although they erred badly in assuming their Asian “friends” would feel the same way about Hashimoto’s “comfort women” remarks last year). As a politician, Hashimoto has visited China and South Korea (but hasn’t yet set foot in the continental U.S.) and was impressed by the energy — and comparative youthfulness — of local government and business leaders, how “rational” they appeared, and how Osaka needed some of their “pragmatic” leadership. Of course, the rationale behind Hashimoto’s use of the word rational is political and ideological. His economic advisers tend to admire the political-economic policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The mostly older male corporate leaders and academics were studious young men during the 1980s, when such theories were in vogue. They learned their lessons well, even if most have learned little since. But the new version of Hashimoto and Nippon Ishin is drawing interest both inside and outside of Osaka. The Democratic Party of Japan’s Seiji Maehara, the darling of U.S.-Japan think tank experts and a China hawk, appears interested in a political alliance with Hashimoto. Maehara, from neighboring Kyoto, enjoys the support of many businesses there involved in renewable energy, a key Hashimoto goal. Since Hashimoto’s Nippon Ishin already plans to merge with Yui no To, which will add 14 members, an agreement with Maehara and his roughly 20 followers to merge or cooperate in the Diet would turn it into a powerful opposition party. If, as some in Osaka predict, the DPJ’s Goshi Hosono and his 15 followers also decide to tie up with Hashimoto, the Osaka mayor would again be one of Japan’s most influential politicians. However, the break with Ishihara and the political chattering about how many Diet allies Hashimoto will wind up with obscures a vital fact: Locally, he and his Osaka-based group Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) are in deep trouble. The plan to administratively merge the city of Osaka with the prefecture is all but dead due to opposition in both assemblies from New Komeito and the LDP. Osaka Ishin’s members are now nervously eyeing their prospects in the local elections scheduled for spring 2015, wondering if they’ll be voted out of office. So while many in Osaka are happy that Hashimoto ditched Ishihara and continue to back him during his attempt to recast himself as a rational opposition leader in the Diet, a growing number in Osaka are wondering if Hashimoto’s claim of rationality isn’t — politically at least — irrational. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.

china;nippon ishin no kai;shintaro ishihara;toru hashimoto;osaka;south korea;kansai;japan restoration party

jp0000335

2014/06/22

Gambling experts await green light

At last month’s Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E) in Macau, casino and resort operators, game machine manufacturers, government officials and countless others gathered to review gaming laws and markets in countries ranging from Vietnam to China and the Philippines. But at this year’s G2E in the 3,000-room Venetian Macao resort, which boasts a shopping arcade mimicking the canals of Venice and acres of casino space large enough to host thousands of attendees from over 70 countries, it was Japan, the one major Asian country without casinos, that was on the minds of many attendees. “There are a couple of things that are different this time about the movement in Japan to legalize gaming through integrated resorts compared to past discussions. First, there is now political stability with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Second, there’s a renewed emphasis on the economy with ‘Abenomics,’ and this type of economic project fits in with those macroeconomic policies,” said Ed Bowers, senior vice president of global gaming development at MGM Resorts International, which is interested in building a casino in Osaka. Gaming professionals noted that, unlike Tokyo, Osaka government officials have been very proactive in courting international resort operators and interest in the city is high. However, Bowers and Japanese gaming officials present in Macau, while optimistic, were also cautious. “It’s going to take time. The IR promotion bill now being considered in the Diet has to be passed, probably in the autumn session. Within a year after that, the government has to draw up the legal framework for casinos and then amend or create new legislation necessary to allow casinos,” said Takashi Kiso, CEO of the International Casino Institute, a Japanese think tank and lobby group. Nobody in Macau was placing bets on whether casino gambling would arrive in Japan before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But there was a general feeling that, when Japan does open its first integrated resort with a casino in Osaka or elsewhere, it will likely be a hybrid of the casino models found in Singapore and Macau. “The Singapore model restricts entry of locals, with controls such as entrance fees and third-party blacklisting (those on welfare or with bad financial records). At the Venetian in Macau, you have a casino right in the middle of the complex. But in Singapore, the casino had to be more hidden, and those wanting to go would have to find it themselves. There are also severe restrictions on advertising,” said Steve Park, managing director of KORE Co., a Seoul-based consulting firm to the international gaming industry. “The Macau model is freer but puts more responsibility on individuals to ensure they don’t end up in harm’s way. Singapore, though, is paternalistic,” Park said. “If you look at South Korea, a Confucian-based culture, or Japan, also very conservative, the paternalistic model of restrictions has to be to their nature. That’s probably why those countries’ officials like the Singapore model better than the Macau or Las Vegas model.”

casino;macau;global gaming expo

jp0000337

2014/12/03

Shark 'photo-bombs' competition for surfing mothers in Australia

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - A jumping shark has “photo-bombed” a surfing competition off an Australian beach. Amateur photographer Steph Bellamy captured the image of the shark with her smartphone on Sunday as she was photographing mothers and their children paddling on their surfboards off a beach in the New South Wales state town of Coffs Harbour. Bellamy, 47, said Tuesday that she did not know that the splash in her viewfinder was a shark until she examined the image on her phone moments later. “He jumped twice, he photo-bombed big time, then he went on his way,” Bellamy said. “Photo-bombing” is a term for when someone jumps into the frame of a photo just before the shot is taken. The mothers, like Bellamy, had children in the Coffs Harbour Boardriders club and were taking part in a special mothers’ heat toward the end of day of a local surfing competition when the shark appeared a few meters away from the group. She photographed the second breach. Bellamy quickly showed the image to organizers, proving that the split-second disturbance had not been caused by a dolphin or tuna. The surfers were called out of the water. But about 15 minutes later, most returned and the completion continued, she said. “Nobody was rattled. Everybody was really cool and blown away that I got the shot,” Bellamy said. Colin Simpfendorfer, a James Cook University shark expert, confirmed that the image was of a shark. He said it was possibly a spinner shark, which is common in the region and is known to jump from the water. He estimated it was around 2 meters long. Lee Winkler, who was among the surfers near the shark, said he mistook it for a tuna. “It was having a bit of fun,” Winkler said. “It just jumped up and had a spin, then jumped up and had another spin, then went away.”

australia;animals

jp0000338

2014/12/03

LDP campaign message diverges in urban, rural areas

The Dec. 14 Lower House election is being billed as primarily a voter referendum on economic issues, especially “Abenomics.” But regardless of what the parties’ Tokyo headquarters say is official policy on various issues, it’s what the candidates and the local party chapters say, or don’t say, out on the campaign trail that wins or loses votes. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s national platform devotes one paragraph to the Trans-Pacific Partnership — that the party is pursuing the most favorable path for Japan’s interests based on previous LDP and Diet resolutions. But in those parts of the country where the free trade pact is a particularly sensitive issue, local LDP chapters have released their own interpretations. “We will not allow the abolishment of tariffs on important agricultural items, and that won’t stop us from withdrawing (from negotiations) if these sacred areas can’t be guaranteed. We’ll protect until the end the life and industry of the people of Hokkaido,” the LDP Hokkaido chapter campaign platform reads. In the Hokkaido No. 11 district, the LDP’s Yuko Nakagawa, 55, is seeking re-election in a district that includes the farm-heavy Obihiro and Tokaichi areas, where anti-TPP sentiment is among the strongest in Japan. She has repeatedly reminded voters of the prefectural chapter’s message, even though opinion about the TPP in Hokkaido as a whole is varied. “Eastern Hokkaido is generally more against TPP than western Hokkaido and the Sapporo area, which is more like Tokyo,” says Shoko Uchida, a Tokyo-based anti-TPP activist. “People just want cheap agricultural goods.” In early 2013, a Mainichi Shimbun survey of 480 Lower House members on their attitudes about participating in TPP negotiations revealed that 244 were opposed. The negotiations remain stalled, partially due to the inability of Tokyo and Washington to come to an agreement on agricultural products. Other issues high on voters’ minds are restarting the nation’s idled nuclear power plants to public concerns about collective self-defense and the new state secrets law. The national LDP’s platform is more detailed about nuclear power than it is on the TPP, calling it an important baseload energy source. It goes on to talk about the need to obtain local understanding for restarting reactors if they pass the new safety regulations. In Kagoshima Prefecture, where two reactors at the Sendai plant may be restarted early next year, the LDP’s prefectural chapter has similar language about the need to pass new safety standards. But it also says it will make the maximum effort to obtain the sufficient understanding of residents and local governments, which can be read as broader in scope than merely obtaining the permission of Satsumasendai, the city where the plant is located. The Sendai plant lies in the Kagoshima No. 3 district, where incumbent Takeshi Noma, who is running as an independent and is wary of the restarts. Noma is facing off against LDP and Komeito-backed Takuma Miyaji in a race that is expected to be close.

tpp;liberal democratic party;lower house election;platform;local chapters

jp0000339

2014/12/04

#pulsepresents: gift idea grab bag

Stumped about what kind of Christmas gift to give the Japanophile in your life? Here’s a grab bag of possibilities, prepared by Japan Pulse’s elves. And you can follow us on Twitter for more #pulsepresents , tweeted daily. Commemorative Tokaido Shinkansen KitKats Trainspotters will love you forever if you can track down a package of these cool limited edition KitKats, sold in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Tokaido Shinkansen. The packaging, depicted a number of classics, can be folded into a mini train. The flavor is, inexplicably, frozen mikan. Jagarico Panic In this hot potato-style game, which requires the actual potato snack, players take turns opening up the container to remove a crunchy potato stick. The loser has to draw a penalty card which, in this video, includes a tissue nose probe. Ew. “The Art of Setting Stones” For your stressed-out friend, we suggest “The Art of Setting Stones” an overview of traditional Japanese gardens, which describes how the gardens are both “a microcosm of the natural universe and a clear expression of our humanity.” Ki no Kami Snap Animals The “Wooden Paper” Snap Animals series lets kids build their own toys by snapping together shapes to construct various animals. Cardcaptor Sakura Cosmetics Cardcaptors of the Clow, expect the unexpected blemish now! A new cosmetic kit featuring Sakura’s magical tools doubles as cute trinkets from the anime and manga series, as well as lip balm and foundation. Funagata Bags Designer Kazumi Takigawa has created a new type of canvas bag that has a similar look of the typical brown paper bag but with the functionality and durability of a tote. Each bag is handmade in a variety of shapes and sizes. Hello Kitty, Hello 40 On her anniversary, 40 fans — from comic artists to toy creators — pay homage to world’s most famous mouthless feline.

christmas;gifts;japan pulse

jp0000341

2014/12/20

Rage against the capital's (bureaucratic) machine

As the Dec. 14 Lower House election demonstrated, media analysis of political campaigning typically focuses on personalities and parties. In recent years, official manifests serve as TV talking points as pundits — be they boorish young comedians or serious, sober-minded, gray-haired fellows — debate at length each party’s stance on the economy, social welfare, constitutional revision, nuclear power, self-defense or the rural-urban divide. Invariably, reams of data are presented as insightful analysis, while no reporter wishes to be thought of as being irresponsible for depriving the citizenry of their right to know how many terms the candidate has previously won, or failing to show how they are all striving equally hard to win. But while the media focus on politicians and elected parties address the who, what, where and when of Japanese politics, it can fall short of providing a road map to understanding the “why.” That’s because, as any loyal Osakan will tell you, the country’s media tend to give the bureaucracy’s role in the political process something of a pass. One of the reasons Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) is hated in Tokyo so much is that, among other things, it proposes some fundamental reforms that strike at the heart of the nation’s bureaucratic kingdom, and the cozy relations that exist between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito and the bureaucracy. It’s not just oft-heard demands such as cuts in civil-servant salaries that Ishin wants, but something much more frightening: accounting transparency. The Osaka lawyers and business consultant types who joined Hashimoto’s movement brought with them standards and practices from the corporate world that threatened the unwritten rules developed over decades of LDP cooperation with the bureaucrats. Osaka’s corporate world is hardly an international model of accountability. Yet, compared to the creative bookkeeping exercised by the central government and the Diet, it at least has a logic, and a clear goal — profit — that can be easily understood. However, because Ishin handled one of its key issues, the integration of Osaka city and prefecture, so poorly, running up against entrenched local political and bureaucratic opposition that it has yet to be overcome, it was no wonder that many Osaka voters cast their ballots for the LDP or Komeito in single-district seats, even as the party finished first in Osaka Prefecture for proportional seats. Of course, the former requires more votes to obtain than the latter. But the message out of Osaka seems to be that, while voters in certain districts personally preferred LDP Candidate A to Ishin Candidate B, the number of votes cast for Ishin’s proportional seats means many in Osaka have not given upon on the dreams of either Hashimoto or Ishin to achieve civil-service reform and, eventually, more autonomy for local government. This is because a lot of younger, ambitious Osaka voters don’t trust the LDP to do much more than maintain a good relationship with the bureaucrats — namely, maintain the status quo and not move forward with fundamental reform. Such an attitude could well be seen again in April, when voters go to the polls in local elections nationwide. Ishin does not have a majority in either the municipal or prefectural assemblies, and how the Lower House results will affect those campaigns is unclear. Of course, much of Ishin’s rhetoric about corrupt bureaucrats is just that, while what sounds like utopia to Hashimoto’s supporters sounds like dystopia to a lot of other people. But Hashimoto’s reform philosophy still resonates deeply in Osaka, even if voters went for the LDP this time due to Hashimoto’s personality and Ishin’s inability to translate rhetoric into reality.

shinzo abe;toru hashimoto;osaka;ldp;liberal democratic party;bureaucracy;ishin no to;japan innovation party

jp0000344

2014/12/20

Sea Shepherd protesters found in contempt of court for anti-whaling campaign

SAN FRANCISCO - Radical environmentalists were found in contempt of court Friday for failing to heed an order to halt their relentless campaign to disrupt the annual whale hunt off the waters of Antarctica. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a commissioner to determine how much Paul Watson and members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society he founded owe Japanese whalers for lawyer fees, damage to their ships and for violating the court order to stop their dangerous protests. The Japanese whalers are demanding $2 million in addition to their lawyer fees and damage and cost to their ships for warding off the protests. Calls and emails to the Sea Shepherd U.S. office and its lawyer were not returned Friday. In 2012, the court ordered Sea Shepherd to stay at least 500 feet (150 meters) from Japanese whalers and to halt dangerous activities like attempting to ram the whaler and also throwing smoke bombs and bottles of acid at the Japanese ships. The crews of Sea Shepherd ships also drag metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders, launch flares with hooks and point high-powered lasers at the Japanese whalers to annoy crew members. The Sea Shepherd’s exploits have been documented on the long-running Animal Planet reality TV series “Whale Wars.” The Japanese whalers filed a lawsuit in Seattle in 2011 seeking a court order halting the Sea Shepherd’s campaign. The 9th Circuit in December 2012 ordered the Sea Shepherd’s to stop their dangerous harassment of the Japanese fleet and for the group’s four ships to stay at least 500 feet (150 meters) from the whalers. Watson then transferred all of Sea Shepherd’s U.S. assets to foreign entities controlled by the group. Sea Shepherd has organizations in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Watson also stepped down from the board of directors of Sea Shepherd organizations in the United States and Australia. Sea Shepherd Australia took over management of “operation zero tolerance,” the group’s annual harassment campaign of the whalers in the Southern Ocean. Watson also resigned as captain of the Sea Shepherd’s flagship the “Steve Irwin,” but remained aboard as an “observer.” In February 2013, the 9th Circuit appointed a commissioner to investigate whether Watson or Sea Shepherd should be held in contempt of court. The commissioner concluded on Jan. 31 that the Sea Shepherds weren’t in violation of the court order because the harassment campaign was being managed outside the United States. That same month, the Sea Shepherd’s ship “Steve Irwin” with Watson aboard collided with a Japanese whaler. On Friday, a three-judge panel rejected the commissioner’s findings. The 9th Circuit ruled that the transfer of asset and control of the Sea Shepherd from the U.S. to Australia and other countries didn’t change its 2012 order to the group to cease its dangerous activities. Contrary to the commissioner’s conclusions, the 9th Circuit said that Watson and the Sea Shepherd’s U.S. affiliate could be found liable for aiding and abetting the organization’s foreign offices to violate the court’s injunction. “Sea Shepherd U.S. is liable because it intentionally furnished cash payments, and a vessel and equipment worth millions of dollars, to individuals and entities it knew would likely violate the injunction,” Judge Milan Smith wrote for the unanimous panel. The court ordered the case sent back to the commissioner to determine how much the whalers are owed.

u.s .;courts;sea shepherd;whaling

jp0000346

2014/12/10

State secrecy law takes effect amid protests, concerns over press freedom

Japan’s controversial state secrets law came into effect Wednesday as hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets, saying the measure undermines the public’s right to know and demanding that it be scrapped. More than 300 protesters, including roughly 100 journalists, gathered in front of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, chanting slogans like “We oppose the secrecy law for going to war” and “Information belongs to citizens.” “We’ve seen more and more pressure on media organizations that are critical of the administration,” said Seigo Arasaki, who heads the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers Unions, known as Shimbun Roren. “We will monitor how the law will be applied, and raise questions,.” Under the law that cleared the Diet in December 2013, the heads of 19 government ministries and agencies can now designate as state secrets information deemed to be sensitive in the areas of diplomacy, defense, counterterrorism and counterespionage. A recent Kyodo News survey covering the 19 government offices showed the number of state secrets will likely be around 460,000. Civil servants or others who leak the secrets will face up to 10 years in prison, and those who instigate leaks, including journalists, will be subject to a prison term of up to five years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who established the National Security Council to speed up decision-making on diplomacy and defense, has said the law will help Japan to promote exchanges of sensitive information with other countries and forge closer ties with them. State secrets are defined in 55 categories, including information about the development of submarines, aircraft, weapons and ammunition. Intelligence and images obtained via radio waves and satellites and provided by foreign governments and international organizations could be withheld from the public. The initial five-year-designation period for a state secret can be extended for up to 30 years. But state secrets can be classified for a maximum 60 years if approved by the Cabinet for security reasons. The law takes effect just as Abe appears to be seeking greater influence over the nation’s media, according to Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo. The LDP sent a letter to Japan’s five biggest broadcasters last month to demand “neutral” reporting on the election. Abe told reporters on Dec. 1 he didn’t order the party to send the letter, though he hoped the election would be covered “fairly and impartially.” The Japanese Federation of Bar Associations said on its website the new act opens the door to the government arbitrarily designating secrets. “The definition of secret is very vague, and people, including myself, are wary of misuse,” said Kaori Hayashi, a professor at Tokyo University’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association said in a Dec. 8 statement the maximum sentence for leaks was too harsh and could damage reporting activities and the public’s “right to know.” Criticism has also been directed at the absence of an independent watchdog, as oversight entities will be placed under government control. To ease such public concerns, the Cabinet approved guidelines on the handling of state secrets, pledging that it will keep “the minimum amount of information as secrets for the shortest period of time possible” as the public’s right to know should be “greatly respected” in a democratic society. “We will make sure that the people’s right to know will not be hurt,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday. It has been revealed, meanwhile, that the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, which holds jurisdiction over the secrecy law, had warned government offices in 2011 that people who have studied or worked abroad have a higher risk of leaking state secrets. Under the secrecy law, security clearance is required for officials to handle state secrets, and the government will set up hotlines so officials can report suspicions about arbitrary classification or declassification of state secrets. The prime minister is also required to make an annual report to the Diet on the designation, safeguarding and disclosure of state secrets. After the passage of the secrecy bill last year, Japan fell six places to 59th out of 180 nations in Reporters Without Borders’ 2014 World Press Freedom Index, below such nations as Serbia and Botswana. “Investigative journalism, public interest and the confidentiality of journalists’ sources are all being sacrificed by legislators bent on ensuring that their country’s image is spared embarrassing revelations,” the group said.

shinzo abe;secrecy law;whistle-blowers

jp0000347

2014/12/26

Digital tack taken to revive interest in New Year's cards

The tradition of sending “nengajo,” or New Year’s postcards, has been in decline as people turn to the Internet, social networking and digital gadgets like smartphones instead of putting pen to paper. Japan Post Co., the postal arm of government-owned Japan Post Holdings Co., is thus hoping to get younger generations interested in writing paper greeting cards this year by introducing a digital feature known as augmented reality, or AR. “Young people are using smartphones now, and we hope to attract them to the New Year’s greeting card tradition through those smartphones,” said Hiroyuki Sugita, senior manager at logistics and sales at Japan Post. “By connecting digital to tradition, we want them to discover the fun of sending New Year’s greeting cards,” he said. Numbers tell the story about the decline in nengajo. Japan Post’s issuance of New Year’s cards peaked in 2003 at 4.45 billion. The number has been falling every year since 2008, and only 3.3 billion have been issued this year. In a bid to revive interest in the New Year’s tradition, Japan Post this year is selling cards that offer virtual character content, including Hello Kitty and Japan Post’s Poskuma bear mascot, via augmented reality. Japan Post said all plain New Year’s greeting cards, which account for about 80 percent of the 3.3 billion copies, have an AR feature provided by Sony Corp. The AR feature is viewable via a special app downloaded on smartphones. The stamp locations on the cards have an embedded AR code that, when viewed through a smartphone, displays Poskuma mascot offering a greeting. Japan Post will update the special AR content on New Year’s Day so it features the pop idol group Nogizaka 48. Japan Post has produced various New Year’s greeting card designs over the years, but they never offered digital elements, Sugita said. “This time, we have blended (digital elements in the paper cards) with smartphone applications, so that customers can enjoy a different experience,” he said. Japan Post has also prepared 15 million copies of Hello Kitty-themed New Year’s cards with an AR feature provided by creator Sanrio Co. “We’ve surveyed people about (greeting card) characters and Hello Kitty is popular every year. Kitty is also popular with younger generations of women that we’d like to target for New Year’s cards,” said Shuichi Adachi, assistant manager of the postage stamp and postcard division. Naturally the AR content of the Hello Kitty cards boasts the feline character, which will appear on card recipients’ smartphone screens, clad in kimono and offering a greeting. People can also touch and move the AR Kitty around on the screen and adjust its size. Recipients can also take a picture with the AR Kitty and use it on return greeting cards. Adachi said just offering an AR feature that offers virtual content wouldn’t be very interesting, so Japan Post made it possible to take pictures with the character and use them to design New Year’s cards. Still, it is unclear how AR content will help motivate people to get back to the paper tradition, as many young people now use SNS services like Facebook , Twitter and Line to greet friends over the holidays. Japan Post offers Line nengajo services, too. While the Internet and smartphones have contributed to decline in nengajo writing, Sugita and Adachi also mentioned that Japanese people are generally becoming more sensitive about giving out their home addresses as they become increasingly aware of the need to protect personal information. This trend is also cooling people to the traditional New Year’s greeting cards, upon which they provide their address and personal notes, they said, in the belief that going digital is somehow safer. Also, “people can easily contact their friends with smartphones, so they don’t need to know their address,” Sugita said. Sugita noted that while young people nowadays rarely write and send New Year’s greeting cards, the tradition is also on decline among older generations.

new year;technology;japan post;augmented reality;ar;nengajo

jp0000348

2014/12/21

Ishin-DPJ tieup, Kepco's greed to play key roles in April polls

The Dec. 14 Lower House election was many things. But in terms of domestic politics, it was merely a prelude to something far more important: the nationwide local elections next April. Even as debate continues about whether the election weakened Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, strengthened coalition partner Komeito, showed Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) could still garner support, reinvigorated the Japanese Communist Party or sounded the death knell for extreme right-wing parties and politicians, all eyes have turned to April 12 and 26, 2015, when nearly 1,000 local governments, from prefectural assemblies to small villages, hold elections for governor, mayor and their legislative bodies. National-level politicians have had their eye on the April elections for a while now. Since September, Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party in particular have been talking up and promising assistance to different regions, at the sometimes nervous insistence of local LDP leaders worried that the party’s Diet members have paid insufficient attention to Japan outside of Tokyo and the bread-and-butter (or perhaps rice-and-miso soup) issues local voters expect politicians to address. For Kansai, Sunday’s Lower House election result and what it means for next April likely depends on three things. First, whether the unexpectedly strong showing of Ishin no To, co-headed by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, will also benefit his local political group Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka). Before the election, Ishin no To was widely predicted to lose as many as half of its 42 Lower House seats to LDP or Democratic Party of Japan candidates. But voters returned 41 Ishin members to the Diet. Osaka Ishin members hold pluralities in the Osaka Municipal and Prefectural assemblies. Hashimoto, and Osaka Ishin, have staked their entire existence on being able to merge the city and prefecture. However, opposition from all of the other parties, including Hashimoto’s nominal local partner Komeito, has prevented this from happening. With the LDP and Komeito agreeing to field candidates locally against Osaka Ishin in April, the party could find its strength further reduced. According to a Mainichi Shimbun prediction, 31 of the 53 single-seat districts in Osaka Prefecture will be up for grabs in April, but, thanks to the LDP-Komeito cooperation agreement, Osaka Ishin will only win only two, with the other 29 going to the ruling coalition. The second factor in who wins what in Kansai is related to the first. Hashimoto wants to tie up with those from the DPJ’s more conservative wing — especially those who are not beholden to the Rengo trade union confederation or strong unions in general. Prominent DPJ politicians mentioned by pundits as possibly joining Hashimoto include Seiji Maehara, who represents Kyoto, as well as Goshi Hosono, who represents Shizuoka but was born, raised and went to school in Shiga and Kyoto prefectures. “We’re happy to cooperate with those DPJ members who share our goals. But not DPJ members like Kiyomi Tsujimoto,” said Osaka Gov. and Ishin Secretary-General Ichiro Matsui during a recent television appearance with Tsujimoto, a liberal Lower House member from Osaka who is strongly backed by workers’ unions. The DPJ and Ishin are already working to forge a cooperation agreement for at least some races in Kansai next April. In Kyoto, where Hashimoto and Ishin are generally unpopular because they’re seen as crude loudmouths from neighboring Osaka, the two parties are plotting a strategy that would ensure no Ishin candidate runs in the same district as a DPJ candidate for the Kyoto Municipal and Prefectural assembly elections. If this “Kyoto connection” by the DPJ and Ishin produces satisfactory results, it would likely lead to other efforts by the parties’ leaders to cooperate, at the local level at least. Finally, the other issue likely to play a major role in the April elections, and one the newly elected, or re-elected, Lower House members from Kansai will have to carefully manage, is the question of reactor restarts and electricity supply. With the announcements last week that the Nuclear Regulation Authority had cleared reactors 3 and 4 at the Takahama plant, helping smooth the way for Kansai Electric Power Co. to restart them next year, and that Kepco is planning to raise prices by as much as 10 percent next April not because of a projected rise in fuel costs, but to improve its bottom line, local voters are angry at the utility. The Takahama reactors are unlikely to be restarted until after the April elections. But the NRA decision has put the problem in a political spotlight the LDP had hoped to avoid.

ldp;elections;ishin no to;snap election 2014

jp0000349

2014/12/21

In no-surprise poll, parties' main players re-elected in Kinki

In an election that produced no surprises, it’s little wonder the biggest political names in the six prefectures that make up the Kinki region (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara and Wakayama) were all returned to the Diet, though one or two had a close call. No doubt Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was especially happy with the result in the Nara No. 2 district, which includes the prefecture’s eastern edge along the border with Osaka and the city of Nara. There, his close friend, the ultra-right wing Sanae Takaichi, his internal affairs and communications minister, easily defeated a candidate from former Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa’s latest political incarnation, Seikatsu no To (People’s Life Party). Takaichi, who in 2003 lost her seat in the district and was forced to relocate to a more conservative, rural part of the prefecture, bagged over 96,000 votes, one of the highest totals among Kinki bloc winners and about 58,000 more than her Seikatsu no To rival. The man who unseated Takaichi in the city of Nara 11 years ago also had a big night. Sumio Mabuchi of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force, served in the DPJ Cabinet of Naoto Kan from 2010 to 2011 as transport minister and minister for Okinawa and the Northern Territories, and then as a special adviser to the prime minister following the March 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. Mabuchi had a brief scare, running neck and neck with the LDP candidate for a couple of hours after the polls closed last Sunday. But he ended up with 79,000 votes, about 12,000 more than his rival. The other prominent DPJ candidate to win re-election was Kiyomi Tsujimoto, who took Osaka’s No. 10 district, which includes the city of Takatsuki, after a three-way battle involving a candidate from the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition and one from Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party). Kenta Matsunami, the 43-year-old Ishin candidate, comes from a long line of Osaka politicians dogged by allegations of close ties to organized crime. But Matsunami is also a favorite of Ishin leaders Toru Hashimoto and Ichiro Matsui. Both campaigned hard on his behalf. He just managed to squeak back into the Diet under the proportional representation system. The other prominent DPJ member who cruised to victory was former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, from Kyoto’s No. 2 district, which includes much of the eastern part of the city of Kyoto. Maehara, who beat the ruling bloc-backed candidate by nearly 30,000 votes, enjoys the support of Kyocera Corp. founder Kazuo Inamori, who was appointed chairman of then-bankrupt Japan Airlines in 2010 after Maehara, who was then transport minister, pushed for him. But Kyoto was also where two of the LDP’s biggest heavyweights were returned to the Diet. Sadakazu Tanigaki, the party’s secretary-general, easily won re-election. He represents the Kyoto No. 5 district, a large, rural area in the northern part of the prefecture along the Sea of Japan. Extending from Hyogo Prefecture in the west to Fukui Prefecture in the east, it includes the port of Maizuru, likely to be a major evacuation point if disaster strikes Fukui’s Mihama nuclear power plant, which lies 5 km from parts of the city. Meanwhile, former LDP Finance Minister Bunmei Ibuki trounced his Japanese Communist Party candidate in the Kyoto No. 1 district, which includes the more central and western parts of the city of Kyoto, by a margin of 20,000 votes. With big local names from both the LDP and the DPJ back in the Diet, Kansai remains well-represented by the most powerful established parties. Despite the rise of Hashimoto’s Ishin no To these past few years, these parties remain as strong in Kansai as they are elsewhere.

elections;snap election 2014

jp0000350

2014/12/09

'Right to be forgotten' on the Internet gains traction in Japan

The Internet has made fact-checking easy and people routinely use it for this end, for example, to Google client names and personal backgrounds before their first business meeting, or to take a quick glance at a potential new hire’s reputation. But such information may become harder to acquire and background searches may someday yield little information. An increasing number of people are demanding that unflattering personal tidbits about them be deleted from online search results, especially in Europe, where moves to protect the “right to be forgotten” have gained momentum. At the same time, search engines are coming under greater pressure to act on such demands. Following are questions and answers regarding the legal issues surrounding the right to be forgotten: What is the “right to be forgotten” and how has the term come to be used? The right to be forgotten — an individual’s right to be freed from perpetual online stigmatization as a result of some past action — is stipulated in a draft version of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which the European Commission is trying to introduce to unify regulations on data protection within the EU. The term “right to be forgotten” became widely known worldwide following a May ruling by the European Court of Justice involving a Spanish man who demanded his past debt record be removed from the Internet. The court said a Spanish newspaper that carried articles about the man can leave them on its website, but Google must remove links to them, citing his “right to be forgotten after a certain time.” The court also said individuals have the right to demand that search engines, including Google, remove results that are deemed “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive.” How has Google responded? California-based Google Inc. set up a special Web form for people in Europe to file requests for removal of search results. As of Dec. 2, Google had received 178,609 requests covering 630,919 Internet addresses. It has deleted some 60 percent of all considered for removal to date but refuses to remove the rest. Google’s action, however, means that only the links to the articles are deleted, not the websites themselves. Therefore, people can still access such sites if they know the URL. Has the European decision influenced Japan? Yes. In a possible first in Japan, the Tokyo District Court in October issued an injunction ordering Google to remove the titles and snippets to websites revealing the name of a man who claimed his privacy rights were violated due to articles hinting at past criminal activity. Tomohiro Kanda, who represented the man, said the judges clearly had the European court’s ruling in mind when they ordered Google to take down the site titles and snippets. Google has since deleted search results deemed by the court as infringing on the man’s privacy, Kanda said. But generally speaking, Japanese judges have yet to reach a consensus on how to balance the right to privacy and the freedom of expression and of information. Last January, the Tokyo High Court reversed a lower court ruling that forbade Google from showing predictions in its search bar. In that case, a man sought an injunction, saying searches of his name would turn up words that suggest his involvement in a crime he did not commit. Presiding Judge Kenta Suzuki turned down the request, saying the damage the man suffers from such searches “does not outweigh the damage that Google and other Internet users would suffer (from losing that function).” The man has appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Then in September, the Kyoto District Court rejected a suit filed against Google’s Japan unit by a man in his 40s seeking to have his arrest record removed from its search results. The judges said the case lacked legal grounds and sided with Google Japan’s position that it is the U.S. parent company, not the Japanese unit, that is responsible for managing searches and therefore it is not obliged to supervise them. In the absence of regulations, Yahoo Japan convened a panel of outside experts last month to discuss the issue. Yahoo Japan, which, according to a 2009 report by U.S.-based comScore, had a 51 percent share of all search inquiries in Japan, followed by Google’s 38 percent, aims to come up with its own criteria for removal of search results by the end of March. How are privacy rights defined in Japan? Does excessive protection of those rights hurt people’s right to know and the free flow of information? Privacy rights are not clearly written into Japanese law but have been established through court precedents as part of personal rights, said Kenta Yamada, a professor of media law and journalism at Senshu University. He said that the 2003 Personal Information Protection Law only stipulates what businesses should do in handling personal information and does not spell out individuals’ rights to privacy. Yamada said he is worried the October injunction by the Tokyo District Court “will pose a huge danger to the freedom of expression,” as it could be abused by politicians or others to silence critics. “Japan is unique in the world in that politicians are quick to sue the media for defamation,” he said. “It does not matter whether they win the cases or not. It is a form of threat, and can easily lead to self-censorship on the part of the media. The October injunction could fuel that trend.” But Yamada also said that from a purely legal standpoint, Japan’s protection of free speech is among the strongest in the world. Article 21 of the Constitution places no conditions on the freedom of expression, declaring that “freedom of speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed” and that “no censorship shall be maintained.” Will Japan have more court cases brought by individuals? Undoubtedly. Attorney Kanda said he has been bombarded with requests from people wanting him to represent them. Also, the Tokyo District Court has seen a sharp increase in petitions for injunctions against malicious Internet postings, with the number of such petitions handled by the court growing more than 20-fold in four years, from 33 in 2009 to 711 in 2013, according to a recent report by Kyodo News citing court sources.

google;privacy;yahoo japan;right to be forgotten

jp0000353

2014/12/06

Obscenity arrest may be hiding dirty politics

What constitutes obscenity in Japan? The term, both legally and morally, has different meanings in Japanese, just as it does in English. In a strictly legal sense, the Japanese word for obscenity, waisetsu , refers to something that maliciously stimulates sexual desire in an inappropriate and immoral manner. There are plenty of widely available publications nationwide that would appear to fall within this definition: manga that depicts incest, gang rape and sexual abuse of children, as well as magazines and newspapers that publish illustrated stories or photo shoots on similar themes. Some people might even be offended by the fact that sexual services not only appear to be legal, but they are advertised. You don’t have to look too hard to find clasifieds advertising rates for fellatio or anal sex — both of which are legal — and yet actual intercourse is only legal in some situations. Heavens, child pornography is still technically legal, or at least until the grace period for possessing such material runs out in the middle of next year. Which, again, begs the question: What constitutes obscenity? As far as the Metropolitan Police Department appears to be concerned, a plaster cast of a woman’s vagina is most certainly obscene. On Wednesday, police arrested artist Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokudenashi-ko (“good-for-nothing girl”) on suspicion of sending a link “that shows her plan to create a boat using three-dimensional obscene data to a large number of people,” a police spokeswoman said. Sex toy shop manager Minori Watanabe, 44, was also arrested for “displaying obscene goods in her shop window in collusion with Igarashi” from around October 2013 until July, police said. It was the second arrest for Igarashi who was taken into police custody in July for distributing data that would allow people to make a 3-D replica of her vagina. The arrest in July garnered international attention, with rights groups accusing police of censorship and discrimination. So why did police officers arrest Igarashi again last week? In an article titled “Suppression of free speech: arrested author vanguard of Abe criticism” on Dec. 4, the Nikkan Gendai went as far to suggest the target this time was Watanabe, an author who works under the name Minori Kitahara. Kitahara has also been an acerbic critic of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The newspaper implies that the arrest may be a warning to other critics who have questioned the timing of the upcoming elections. The implication is perhaps not as whacky as it sounds. In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun in June, Kitahara dumped some fairly hefty criticism on Abe and his cronies. “I want to say to Abe, ‘Eat a strawberry in one bite (without a fork). Conduct politics like an adult,'” Kitahara said. “Since Abe came to power, the state secrets law has been passed and the Diet has reinterpreted (the principle of) collective self-defense,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence. We live in a world where hate speech flourishes and we’re closer to going to other countries to kill people. I feel as if we are no longer allowed to criticize the state. It’s scary.” Japan’s security forces have arrested opposition leaders and suppressed dissent before. On April 22, 2002, Tamaki Mitsui, former head of the public security department at the Osaka High Court Prosecutor’s Office, was arrested on corruption charges — the same day he was going to appear on television and expose prosecutors for using investigative funds for wining and dining. It’s not a secret that Abe hates criticism just as much as he hates the Asahi, the country’s liberal paper. When the Asahi admitted errors in past reports on “comfort women,” he publicly accused them of “shaming Japan.” Is it possible that someone in the Abe administration put pressure on the Metropolitan Police Department to silence Watanabe? Theoretically, yes. Abe himself gets to appoint the head of the Public Safety Commission that oversees the National Police Agency. Moreover, the police are almost obligated to make an arrest if a crime has been committed, however minor. I personally don’t believe Abe would ever put pressure on the police department himself, but his loyal posse? Maybe. With the state secrets law coming into effect on Dec. 10, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know. The new law stipulates that asking questions about a state secret — whether or not you even know it’s a secret — is a felony that may earn violators up to five years in jail for “instigating” a leak. This brings us back full circle to the original question: What constitutes obscenity? Some would argue that the state secrets law the Abe administration passed in December 2013 despite overwhelming public opposition is obscene. What’s more, it’s equally obscene to stifle any last-minute debate on its enactment by making sure that the press are occupied with election coverage. On this note, it’s also offensive for Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Nov. 19 to tell reporters that “we shouldn’t question the details of the secrecy laws one by one. The ruling party decides what the vote of confidence is all about. This election is about ‘Abenomics.'” That’s Liberal Democratic Party freedom of the press principles in a nutshell: We tell you what the election is about, don’t introduce other issues. Shortly before her arrest, Watanabe posted “Sayonara Abe government”in a tweet and then recommended 100 LDP politicians who should be defeated in the next election. In hindsight, was this a mistake? Perhaps Watanabe’s real mistake was questioning the reason for the election in the first place. Those of us who are not incarcerated can still ask such questions — at least until Dec. 10. After Dec. 10, asking such a question may itself be a crime. Whatever punishment is meted out for asking such questions, the answer is always going to be the same: “We are not able to answer that question; it’s a secret.” In a free and democratic society, that’s really obscene.

shinzo abe;censorship;rokudenashi-ko;megumi igarashi;minori watanabe;obscenity laws

jp0000354

2014/12/06

Opening WWI naval operations ended; U.S. architect plans Manchuria housing; Tokyo smog more poisonous; Ebola monkeys spur warning

100 YEARS AGO Saturday, Dec. 5 1914 First part of WWI naval operations successful The Navy Department yesterday published a survey of the operations of the different squadrons and divisions of the Imperial Navy since the outbreak of the world war, and announced that the first part of the operations has come to an end. In the early part of November, the survey noted, Germany’s warships in Kiaochou Bay, Hawaiian waters and the Indian Ocean all came to grief at the hands of the Imperial Navy. The rest of the enemy’s fleet are now known to have fled toward Chilean waters, thus marking the beginning of a new phase in operations. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1939 U.S. architect plans housing for Manchuria Dwellings for Japanese residents in Manchurian cities should be remodeled, in consideration of the colder climate and their traditional living habits, says Dr. W.M. Vories, a noted American architect who plans to build a model Manchoukuo apartment house in Mukden. Dr. Vories stated that a better ventilation system for houses in Manchuria is urgently needed as the Japanese people, mostly unused to such severe winter conditions as they find there, are too frequently inclined to shut themselves tightly indoors during the lengthy cold season. As a result, they contract pulmonary ailments, noticeable among the second generation. The veteran architect has devised an inexpensive system of indirect ventilation that he will install in the projected Mukden apartment building. The architect plans to open a branch office in that city, and believes the prospects for the success of his new Manchurian venture are good. Having lived and prospered for 35 years in Nippon and being a sincere well-wisher of the Japanese people, he said he would like to build comfortable, healthy buildings suited to this country for the Japanese and Manchou residents. Referring to his recent trip to America, he was at first amazed and almost dismayed by the intensity of the anti-Japanese sentiment there, he remarked. He found such regrettable feeling very strong among the church folk also. They alleged that the Japanese were trying to wipe out Christianity in East Asia, the same as the Nazis and Soviets have done in their countries. However, Dr. Vories thinks the arrival of Mr. Horinouchi as ambassador to Washington has had a salutary effect upon the American churchgoers, as the envoy is reputed to be a sincere Christian. The saner part of the population are beginning to see the issue of (the ongoing war in) China in a true light, he said. 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, Dec. 10, 1964 Tokyo’s smog whiter, far more poisonous For many Tokyoites, the acrid, dishwater-gray smog that often blankets the world’s largest city in winter has become almost a way of life. But year in, year out, the contents of toxic gases in the pallid veil known as smog are on the rise, despite a sharp decrease in smoke and soot particles in it. And in these days, it is not only the downtown area that suffers; it is seeping deep into suburbia. A survey by the Metropolitan Government’s Public Nuisance Department indicates: • Tokyo smog is becoming increasingly white. In downtown Tokyo, soot particles in the air have decreased by half since 1959. • The sulphurous acid gas content in the air has increased more than nine times since 25 years ago. The nitrous acid gas level is now as high as in Los Angeles. All this means the air looks cleaner but is actually getting dirtier and more toxic. “Air pollution in Tokyo could soon become as bad as that in London,” Yoshiaki Kawanami of the Public Nuisance Department said. The Metropolitan Government has been trying for years to get rid of air pollution. It extinguished dump fires, went after more than 12,000 factory smoke stacks and enforced stiff regulations on power plants and steel mills. Still, the progressively worsening smog is believed attributable to ever-increasing automobiles in the nation’s capital. More than 5 million automobiles now run in the city daily. One solution to the auto intoxication may be to equip all automobiles with “afterburner” devices, which are claimed to help eliminate hydrocarbons from exhaust gas. Still, they would be expensive — costing around $120 per vehicle. Another factor in the deterioration may be the fact that industrial plants are switching from coal to oil for fuel. It is still technically difficult for oil-burning facilities to prevent generation of gases. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Dec. 10., 1989 Ebola monkeys in U.S. spur import warning An emergency advisory urging Japan to restrict importation of monkeys for research reached the National Institute of Health Thursday from the World Health Organization. It said a deadly virus never before found in animals has been discovered in rhesus monkeys shipped from the Philippines to the United States in November. The virus causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever, whose symptoms are acute headaches and internal bleeding. According to the WHO, Ebola disease was found among rhesus monkeys that died at a private research center for animal testing in Virginia. According to the National Institute of Health, the virus is easily transmitted to humans, but Japan has no quarantine system to block such diseases from abroad. Japan imports about 3,000 monkeys annually, mostly for experimental use. The quarantine of experimental monkeys is done voluntarily by dealers. Pet monkeys do not go through any checks. The monkeys were later discovered to have been infected with what became known as Reston virus, which is related to Ebola.

pollution;manchuria;world war i;ebola

jp0000356

2015/03/02

Migrants flock to EU door at Hungary's border

ALONG, THE SERBIA-HUNGARY BORDER - Exhausted, hungry and cold, they have been walking for miles. What little they have is carried in plastic bags. They camp in abandoned homes, followed by stray dogs hoping to snag a morsel. Tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Kosovo have been flooding in a torrent this year to Serbia’s border with Hungary, hoping to cross illegally into the European Union nation and flee west to a better life. Many have been on the road for months. The 180-km-long (111-mile-long) border between Serbia and Hungary is flat farmland. Sometimes the migrants camp in the border area for days, hiding amid the crops, playing hide and seek with border patrols. Graffiti in Arabic, torn transit papers, ragged shirts and garbage litter the fields. Serbian and Hungarian border teams carry night-vision equipment as they patrol the border night and day. The situation has become so bad so quickly that German police have recently come to help. Hungary is part of the European Union’s Schengen passport-free travel zone but many migrants are seeking to reach Germany and wealthier EU nations. Groups of five or six migrants, all in hoods, walk slowly along the highway or the rail tracks in Serbia, patiently waiting for the best time to try to cross. If they are caught, they are either sent back to Macedonia or they seek asylum in Serbia, which buys them more time. Others make it across only to run into Hungarian authorities — some 25,000 migrants have been detained in Hungary so far this year alone, compared to nearly 45,000 last year. This week, a van packed with more than 40 migrants swerved off the road in southern Serbia, injuring half of them, some seriously. The driver ran away.

africa;middle east;hungary;eu;germany;serbia;kosovo;migrants;border patrol

jp0000357

2015/03/20

Is Burger King's 'Flame Grilled' fragrance a hoax in a bottle?

Burger King Japan has developed quite the reputation for its imaginative gastronomic creations, including the black Kuro Burger released last year. However, the result of the fast food chain’s latest experiment isn’t exactly edible. Starting in April, the company will launch a fragrance that will allow fast-food lovers to smell just like their beloved burgers. The perfume, named “Flame Grilled,” will be sold for one day only and exclusively at Burger Kings in Japan. A free Whopper is included in the purchase (at the high price of ¥5,000), so now you can eat your meal and smell like one too. The scent will be sold starting at precisely 10:30 a.m., just in time for an early lunch. As only a limited amount of bottles are being produced, Burger King fans will only be able to mist themselves with one bottle per customer. Many media outlets say they smell a long-game April Fool’s joke, but we’re tempted to believe that their aim is true. Burger King has even petitioned the Japanese government to make April 1 the unofficial “Whopper Day,” a move that suggests this may not all be pure mischief. Still skeptical? This isn’t the first time Burger King has tried to appeal to a sense other than taste. In 2008 the chain released “Flame,” a cologne hooked as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” Take a look at its disturbing video as proof.

burger king;hamburgers;promotion;japan pulse;fragrance

jp0000358

2015/03/20

Police who stand with big sticks

Dear Alice, I have noticed whenever I pass a police station in Japan, that there is almost always a policeman standing out front holding a pole. Is this some form of punishment? If not, what the heck is the rationale for using manpower in this way? It would seem a better use of taxpayer funds to have the officer doing something more useful. Nick T., Tokyo Dear Nick, When I got your question, the first thing I did was stroll over to my local police station to see if I could confirm your observation. Sure enough, right there at the front stood a handsome young officer, holding a very big stick. Sometimes the best approach is the direct approach, so I marched up and asked if he was in some kind of trouble. “Me?” he said, obviously taken aback. “No, not at all.” He then assured me he was engaged in official police business called ritsuban . Now before you add that to your flashcard pack, I should caution that it’s not exactly standard vocabulary. It’s not even listed in my big green Kenkyusha dictionary. And while it’s written with relatively easy characters— the ones for “stand” and “guard” — the Japanese friends I tried that combo on all misread it as “ tachiban .” I did find “ritsuban” in a bilingual glossary of police lingo, but the English equivalent offered was “point duty,” which is a term I’ve never heard before and probably doesn’t communicate much to the average English speaker. “Ritsuban” basically means to “stand guard.” It’s a practice that dates back to the early Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan set up its modern police system. But it’s important to understand that the officers you’ve seen outside police stations are doing more than protecting the facility and watching out for trouble. They are also making themselves visible to reassure citizens and deter those with criminal intent. Most importantly, though, they are making themselves accessible and available for anything that might come up, whether a true emergency or a simple request for directions. In effect, it’s like moving the front desk out onto the street. Some readers might appreciate a word, at this point, about the officer’s stick. It is called a keijō and isn’t meant to support the body while standing, as people sometimes presume, but rather to fend off possible attackers. It originates in a martial art developed centuries ago by samurai of the Fukuoka clan to subdue enemies with a minimum of bodily harm. The keijō was adopted as standard equipment by the Tokyo police around 1930, and it soon spread to police forces around the country. Today, Japanese police do carry guns, but whenever possible they respond with less deadly weapons first. You may have also noticed that police often stand out in front of kōban , the one or two-room substations found in neighborhoods throughout Japan. They are conducting ritsuban, too, even if they aren’t holding a stick. To get the facts on this, I requested an interview at the National Police Agency, which is the central coordinating agency and sets standards and policies for police forces throughout the country. Hiroki Okita, assistant director of the NPA’s Community Police Affairs Division, explained that ritsuban is one of the most basic tools in Japanese-style community policing. “Every police officer in Japan, regardless of rank or specialty, has conducted ritsuban at some point in his or her career,” he told me. “In Japan, our emphasis is on early intervention and crime prevention, through vigilance and close engagement with residents. The kōban is the center of that activity, and the first assignment for every graduate of the police academy is to work at a kōban as a chiiki keisastukan (community police officer). There are more than 87,000 officers — about one third of the national force — currently working at the kōban level, about 7 percent of whom are women. The main responsibilities of a community police officer, as mandated by law, are to conduct patorōru (patrols on foot or bicycle); go out on junkai renraku (routine visits to homes and workplaces to offer crime-prevention advice, listen to residents’ concerns and take down emergency contact information); and, of course, to conduct ritsuban. At kōban, officers can decide for themselves whether or not to hold a keijō while on ritsuban duty. Often they do without, in order to appear friendlier and more approachable. Visible policing makes residents feel safer, according to Okita, and acts as a deterrent to crime. It’s difficult, obviously, to quantify either factor, but communities do lobby regularly for increased patrols as well as keeping kōban staffed around the clock. And every year there are cases when an officer on ritsuban catches a criminal or stops a crime before it can happen. Okita shared one arresting example of an officer who was doing ritsuban duty outside a kōban at a busy Tokyo intersection. He noticed an elderly lady passing by who looked tired and disoriented, so he approached her and offered her a seat inside. As she was resting, he engaged her in conversation and learned she had just come to Tokyo and was on her way to deliver money to her son. The officer immediately suspected one of the so-called “ Ore, ore ” (“It’s me”) scams, in which fraudsters telephone elderly people and pretend to be a relative in urgent need of money to help them out of a jam. (Last year, such scams bilked unsuspecting Japanese of more than ¥40 billion). He convinced the woman to let him help her call her son, who, it turned out, had not contacted her and had no idea she was in Tokyo. The fraud might well have succeeded if the officer hadn’t been outside and noticed the woman appeared stressed. “Ritsuban teaches an officer to be observant, and to become sensitive to even small changes that signal that something is not right,” Okita explained. “It’s the very basis of Japanese police work — the starting point from which everything else evolves.”

police;koban

jp0000359

2015/03/26

North Korea's well-to-do feast on French baguettes

SEOUL - French-trained chefs are cooking up a storm in Pyongyang, where North Korea’s privileged classes are devouring their baguettes, a pro-North newspaper reported on Wednesday, even as much of the population outside the capital struggles to feed itself. The Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons, which was established in 2011, sent its pastry chefs to train in France last year as part of a drive to become a world-class food plant, the Choson Sinbo said. The daily, published by the association of North Korean residents in Japan, said in a report from Pyongyang that the wholewheat baguette had proved a hit. The North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, personally visited the factory in January. “He said that the factory should wage a dynamic drive for developing and producing foodstuff including chewing gum which is badly needed by the sportspersons and suited to the constitution of the Koreans,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said. Pyongyang is home to most of the North’s wealthy and educated class, as well as bureaucrats and a growing middle class. But in the countryside, many do not know where their next meal is coming from. The United Nations has said over a quarter of all children are malnourished.

north korea;kim jong un;japan;wealthy;chefs;french food;baguettes

jp0000360

2015/03/09

Will Line put the brakes on Uber with its taxi app?

In the not-so-distant future, it might be considered quaint to hail a taxi with your hand instead of using a smartphone app. Line Corporation, after expanding its mobile business with game apps and online purchases, is expanding its smartphone messaging platform with a new service called Line Taxi for users to book cabs in Tokyo via its app. Launched in January, users simply type their address into the app and, with GPS, the taxi’s dispatch time appears on the map. The taxi ride is automatically paid for using a pre-registered credit card, so there is no need to worry about having cash on hand. Line hopes the app will be useful for people who don’t want to fight over cabs during rush hour. Competitor Uber, a taxi booking app that’s already available in 55 countries , already expanded its service to Tokyo last spring and has many similar features to Line Taxi. However, along with Uber’s global expansion has come a series of huge bumps in the road, including an Uber driver being accused of raping a passenger in India in December 2014, and in the same month in Australia, Uber was harshly criticized for jacking up prices during the hostage situation in downtown Sydney . (They quickly apologized for the snafu .) Uber has also come under fire after testing out its services in Fukuoka. The government told the company to suspend its pilot project as the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry believes that the smartphone application service likely violates the Road Transportation Law prohibiting unlicensed taxi services. Although Line Taxi doesn’t have the premium service of luxury cars like Uber, the face that Line’s partner is Nihon Kotsu, Japan’s largest taxi company, means there might not be a big gap between the two. More than 3,000 taxis will be connected to Line, and the company plans to include more than 23,000 taxis for its service nationwide. Currently Line Taxi is only available in Japanese and the fare has to be paid with a Japanese credit card, but the app is expected to become more foreigner-friendly in the future and expand coverage throughout Japan. The company first said that they wanted to take their taxi service global since previewing it last October. So what’s it going to be? Will you get in Line?

line;uber;japan pulse

jp0000361

2015/03/31

India asks Saudi to help evacuate citizens from grave situation in Yemen

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA - India asked Saudi Arabia on Monday to help evacuate its citizens from Yemen, where more than 4,000 Indians, over half of them nurses, are caught up in fighting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said he had spoken by telephone with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and requested Riyadh’s “support and cooperation in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Yemen.” King Salman assured Modi of all possible assistance to help them leave, it said in a statement. Two Air India planes on standby in neighboring Oman were unable to fly in to the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday despite what Indian officials said earlier were Saudi assurances that an air corridor would be opened. The nurses, mostly from the southern state of Kerala, are often hired on harsh terms with middlemen taking up-front fees. Hospitals are reluctant to let them leave because they would have to close without foreign staff. Sajeesh Mathew’s wife, 29-year-old nurse Asha, has worked for three years at the Al-Naqib Hospital in the port city of Aden, scene of fighting following the flight of Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last week. “The areas around the hospital are now under the control of the Houthi rebels,” said Mathew, whose wife is one of 35 Indian nurses at the hospital. Although no Indian casualties have been reported, the nurses’ predicament in Yemen recalls the ordeal suffered by 46 Indian nurses kidnapped in Iraq last year as Islamic State militants advanced on Tikrit. The nurses were freed in June, in an early diplomatic triumph for Modi, but the fate of 39 Indian building workers captured in Mosul remains unclear. Eighty Indians were flown out on Sunday to Djibouti, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden, but no evacuation flights were possible on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. He said 400 Indians were being evacuated by sea from Aden and would reach Djibouti on Tuesday. They will be flown home by the Indian Air Force. New Delhi has issued a series of warnings this year to Indian nationals to leave Yemen, the last of them shortly before Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on March 26 against Iranian-allied Houthi militiamen. Ruben Jacob Chandy heeded the call, taking a flight out of Sanaa and arriving back in the Keralan capital Thiruvananthapuram on Monday with a handful of other Indians who escaped the fighting. “The situation is critical,” said Chandy. “The Saudis are carrying out a lot of air targeting — it starts from 6 p.m. until almost 6 a.m.” An Indian navy patrol vessel involved in anti-piracy operations was heading for Aden, and would be joined by two more navy ships. Two passenger ships with the capacity to carry 1,100 people had also set sail from India, Akbaruddin said. Indians returning from Yemen said the situation, especially in Aden, was grave. “They cannot go out of their residences. Many are running out of water and food,” said Lijo George, an IT worker who returned to Kerala on Monday from Sanaa. Speaking from the Military Hospital in Sanaa, paramedic Ranjith Cheerakathil said he and his wife, a nurse, had decided to stay. Most of the 240 Indian staff were waiting for a flight out. “Most of the operations in the hospital will be shut down when they leave. There will not be anybody to care for those who suffer injuries in the attack,” Cheerakathil said by telephone. “This is cruel. My conscience does not allow me to leave them like that.”

india;yemen;evacuation;nurses;narendra modi;sanaa;houthis;king salman;aden;saudi airstrikes

jp0000363

2015/03/30

R2-D2 toy keeps fans company and food fresh

R2-D2, the eccentric cylindrical droid from “Star Wars,” has helped save the galaxy time and time again, but now he will help you save electricity. Mobile gadget company Hamee will be releasing a 10 x 7 cm version of the robot to keep in your refrigerator. He will greet you when you open the door, and panic, if you leave it open. “Living alone can get a little bleak. We wanted to create something that could welcome you back home at the end of the day,” explains Atsushi Yamashita of the product management team in the promo video . Although this mini R2-D2 may not be able to project holograms, hack computers or extinguish fires like we’ve seen on the big screen, the company has made sure he looks and sounds exactly like the original by receiving direction from Lucasfilm . It responds to light, but pressing the button on his head works too. It has 15 types of beeps, including some rare outbursts that you may catch if you are lucky enough. A fan may recognize R2-D2 “lines” from specific scenes in the movies. Pre-sale orders for the R2-D2 Talking Fridge Gadget are already available, but its official release will be April 30, 2015, at ¥4,320 — just in time for the Star Wars Exhibition , scheduled to take place at Roppongi from April 29 to June 28, 2015.

star wars;r2-d2;japan pulse

jp0000365

2015/03/01

DPJ vows at convention to hold firm against Abe's security legislation

The Democratic Party of Japan pledged to stand firm against the government’s security legislation in the Diet as it held its party convention in Tokyo on Sunday. In adopting an action plan, the main opposition party also lashed out at “Abenomics,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic program, claiming it is widening economic and social inequalities in the country. The DPJ called for “cautious and sufficient” Diet debate on legislation aimed at giving the Self-Defense Forces bigger roles abroad. The government is expected to submit the legislation to the Diet in late April, after a nationwide series of critical local elections. The DPJ vowed to defend Japan’s principles of peace and its exclusively defense-oriented stance under the Constitution and draw people’s attention to the “danger” of the Abe administration. DPJ President Katsuya Okada, who was elected president in January, had to skip the convention to undergo retinal detachment surgery Thursday. The party, which got its first taste of power from September 2009 to December 2012, pledged to rebuild itself and return to its status as a viable alternative to Abe’s conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The DPJ, admitting to its “defeat” in the December’s Lower House election, said it plans to expedite rebuilding work because the next Lower House poll may be held at the same time as the next Upper House poll, which is scheduled for summer 2016.

democratic party of japan;opposition;security legislation

jp0000366

2015/03/06

Foreign tourists posing nude at temples infuriate Cambodians

SIEM, REAP CAMBODIA - Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction — the complex of ancient temples that includes Angkor Wat — is suffering from a form of overexposure: At least five foreign visitors have been arrested and deported this year for taking nude photos at the sacred sites. Authorities have no tolerance for people stripping down at Angkor Archaeological Park, a sprawling, centuries-old UNESCO World Heritage Site that drew 2 million visitors last year. The incidents are also upsetting to ordinary Cambodians, for whom the Khmer-era complex holds enormous spiritual and historical significance. “Angkor Wat is the most famous sacred … temple in Cambodia, where everyone — not only tourists but also Cambodians themselves — has to pay respect,” said Rattanak Te, an administrative assistant who lives in Phnom Penh, the capital. “It definitely upsets me and all Cambodians, because outsiders will think we — Cambodian people — are careless and do not take good care of this World Heritage (site) by allowing these tourists to do such an unacceptable act.” This month, guards arrested two American sisters after seeing them snap photos of each other’s naked backsides in the temple of Preah Khan, said Kerya Chau Sun, spokeswoman for the Apsara Authority, which manages the temple complex in Siem Reap, in northwestern Cambodia. Lindsey Adams, 22, and Leslie Adams, 20, both of Prescott, Arizona, were each sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence, a fine of 1 million riel ($250), deportation and a four-year ban from the country. In January, three French men in their 20s were deported after they were caught taking nude photographs at Angkor complex. Another photo showing a topless woman at the site has circulated on social media, but officials believe it is fake, according to Chau Sun. Three tourists were also caught riding a motorbike naked near Phnom Penh in January, according to local media. Reached via email, one of the Frenchmen, Rodolphe Fourgeot, said he did not want to talk about the case. He said it demonstrates “endemic corruption” in Cambodia but did not elaborate. A message on a cellphone listed for Lindsey Adams said the voicemail was full and not accepting messages. She also didn’t respond to a Facebook message. A message was left on a cellphone number listed for the sisters’ mother. This year’s incidents were not firsts for the Angkor temples, but Chau Sun said earlier attempts by tourists to get naked were thwarted. Signs at the temples and ticketing booths urge visitors to behave respectfully, and Chau Sun said the Apsara Authority plans to add posters warning them that taking nude photographs can lead to arrest and deportation. “As a Cambodian, I am hurt … I think especially to the poor Cambodians saving to be able to come across the country to pray at Angkor,” she said. “They don’t understand why people could behave like that.” Angkor Archaeological Park is the biggest tourist draw for this Southeast Asian country, which still feels the effects of the Khmer Rouge, the fanatical communist regime behind a reign of terror that left an estimated 1.7 million people dead from 1975 to 1979. The massive Angkor complex is in a sense a proud counterpoint to that painful legacy. It contains the remains of capitals of the Khmer Empire, which existed from the 9th to the 15th centuries and at its peak controlled most of Southeast Asia. For a time, Angkor was among the world’s biggest cities. The temples are renowned for their architecture and art, with countless intricate carvings, including semi-nude spirits known as apsaras. Angkor Wat is the largest and best preserved of the structures. The temples are much more than stone ruins for most Cambodians, said Trevor Sofield, a professor of tourism at the University of Tasmania in Australia. They are places of Buddhist worship as well as a symbol of the Khmer heritage, he said. He added that the Apsara Authority and UNESCO should focus on educating the public about the living sacred nature of the site in addition to its historical characteristics. Angkor is not the only world-renowned site that has had to deal with nude tourists. In 2014, officials at Peru’s Machu Picchu said they were increasing surveillance after visitors were caught taking nude photographs or running through the ancient site naked. Amichay Rab, a 32-year-old accountant from Tel Aviv, was one of those tourists who posed in the buff. Rab documented his nude escapades while on a nine-month trip through Central and South America on his blog. Many of the photos were taken early in the morning before there were crowds, he said, and local residents often snapped the photos for him. “I was anxious sometimes but was never afraid (of) getting in trouble as I was very discreet,” he said. “I was waiting for the right moment in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.” Cambodian Mollyda Keo said people there recognize that different cultures and societies have differing views on the body and what is deemed acceptable. Cambodian women, for example, will only swim in a T-shirt and shorts but are used to seeing Western women in bikinis, she said. She said posing naked at the temples crosses the line. “I just feel they don’t respect the culture,” she said. “You come from another culture. You should respect ours.”

scandal;tourism;cambodia;angkor wat;machu picchu

jp0000367

2015/03/14

When nature evolves to be awesome

A few years ago, an anthropologist told me an amazing story about a wild chimpanzee she had observed in Senegal. A bushfire had ignited in the summer heat, and she saw a chimp stand upright on its hind legs, face the fire and perform “a really exaggerated slow-motion display.” The chimpanzee then started barking, apparently communicating with other chimps sheltering nearby. The anthropologist, Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames, said this kind of barking had never been heard in her roughly 2,000 hours of observations of chimps. What was the chimpanzee doing? It appears it was monitoring the fire. The community of chimps retreated a short distance as the fire approached, but remained calm. Other animals panic and stampede when they encounter fire, but these chimps, perhaps because they have experienced bushfires in the past, apparently knew what it was — they understood the concept of fire. But what was that weird, slow-motion dance? I couldn’t help but imagine it as a primitive kind of worship to some kind of fire god. Other chimps have been reported performing strange dances when they encounter unusual natural phenomena such as rainstorms or waterfalls. Perhaps it is an expression of awe in the face of natural power? As a flight of fancy, I like to think that this sort of behavior lies at the evolutionary root of our worship of natural spiritual powers. I remembered all this a couple of weeks ago when, to my surprise, I experienced the same feelings of awe. I was in Yosemite National Park in California. Tired after a day in which I had hiked some 20 km, I arrived at the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. Tired? Who am I kidding — my legs had practically given out. I was hobbling with the aid of a stick I’d found on the path. My friend and I walked another kilometer or so through a forest of giant conifers. It was around 5 p.m., and no one else was around. The only sound was the occasional echoing drumming of woodpeckers. We stared open-mouthed at what we thought were sequoias, towering above us. Amazing, we said. We walked some more. Then we came upon what was self-evidently a real giant sequoia. The others had just been big trees. The giant sequoia is the world’s largest tree and, measured by volume, is the largest living thing in the world. This one was truly massive, some 80 meters tall and maybe 3,000 years old. I felt something stir inside me. To be next to this thing was mind-boggling. I felt like a chimp that had discovered a waterfall, or a forest fire. There are some 25 giant sequoia in the Tuolumne Grove. A couple have fallen. I clambered on one, which lay like the backbone of some gigantic sea monster across the forest floor. I took some photos, but it’s hard to capture the scale, and even more difficult to communicate the pine-scented chilled mountain air, the isolation and the feeling of diminishment. What I was experiencing, of course, was awe. The feeling is captured in Japanese in the phrase ikei no nen , meaning reverence, awe and respect. I felt all these things. But why? That’s the question evolutionary biologists (and children) always ask. Why did such-and-such a behavior evolve? What is the evolutionary reason for feelings of awe? Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, and Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, considered this question in a paper published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. They suggest that awe evolved from the hard-wired response automatically felt when a low-status individual encounters a more powerful, high-status individual. We’ve all experienced that and, in Japan at least, the high-status/low-status ranking is embedded in the language. This “know-your-place” feeling helps reinforce rankings in a social group. Keltner and Haidt believe the awe response developed from the status-response, and arises when people — and maybe other animals — encounter any powerful natural phenomenon or work of sublime beauty: a waterfall, a breaching whale, a giant sequoia. It also arises when we hear a sublime piece of music or art or understand a profound scientific explanation — such as natural selection. Many things in biology can be better understood by examining how they evolved. They start off as one thing and are later used for another. An example is feathers, which probably evolved to keep dinosaurs warm and were later used to help them fly. Keltner and his colleagues also believe that awe helps to direct attention to the environment. When encountering something new, complex and powerful, the feeling of awe helps the brain focus and process the information it is receiving. This, Keltner and his colleagues argue, gives a survival advantage and so is favored by natural selection. Could awe help focus the mind on environmental issues? A sense of wonder about natural beauty can drive support and action for environmentally sensitive policies. This was not what Keltner and his colleagues were referring to, but the point is worth making. Giant sequoias, found only in the Sierra Nevada mountains, are classified as endangered. They live in humid climates where summers are dry and winters are snowy. Climate change may well pose a threat to them. While giant sequoias are only found in limited parts of the western United States, there is a related tree in Japan that rivals the majesty of the sequoias: the Japanese redwood, or sugi . The sugi is the national tree of Japan. You don’t need to hike in the mountains to see them; sugi are typically planted at shrines and many have been designated special natural monuments. Ishikawa Prefecture, for example, has the great sugi of Kayano, a 55-meter-tall tree that is some 2,300 years old. I say “planted at shrines” but when a tree is this old, it is more likely the shrine was built near the tree. The Jomon sugi of Yakushima Island is named after the prehistorical period of Japanese history and the Jomon sugi has been estimated to be anywhere from 2,100 to 7,000 years old — though the lower end seems more likely. Around some ancient sugi, artefacts from the Jomon period have been discovered. That, as the kids say, is awesome.

biology;yosemite national park;giant sequoias

jp0000368

2015/03/14

Of birds and bugs: journalism in Tokyo and Osaka

One of the first things Tokyoites who relocate to Osaka notice is that, while their favorite mainstream media news source is available in both cities, the tone and often substance of the reporting is different. It’s a cliche among Japan watchers that “Japanese newspapers and TV news are all the same.” Yes, one sees the similarities easier than the differences. But it’s equally false to imply that readers of the five major newspapers or viewers of the major TV networks receive exactly the same views about the same subjects. Fundamentally, Tokyo journalism emphasizes a “bird’s-eye view” of news topics, and encourages a dry, and often humorless, tone about major events. How can one be possibly taken seriously when discussing serious topics unless one is, well, serious? There are, of course, advantages to bird’s-eye journalism. Breadth and width for starters. Journalists are, by nature, generalists. The Tokyo-style of journalism, at its best, encourages a wide variety of basic knowledge about different subjects, especially those of comparatively little interest to the Osaka journalism philosophy: politics and international affairs. Too many Osaka reporters, editors and producers simply don’t care about what’s happening in the halls of power in Tokyo, let alone abroad. And when confronted with a Tokyo-style journalism critique of themselves that is far deeper than the usual clever but politically correct comments and cliches in local media, they become thin-skinned. In a recent TV Osaka program about the city, its politics and how it was viewed by the outside world, Tokyo-based journalist Akira Ikegami provided a cool, somewhat verbose and yet concise analysis of Osaka. The Osaka commentators who sat alongside Ikegami attempted to make light of the report’s more critical comments at first. But as his detailed — and extremely accurate — analysis continued, a couple of panelists grew visibly annoyed at Ikegami’s style. “Well, it can’t be helped,” grumbled one of the Osaka-based tarento , after interviews were shown with foreign visitors about Osakans’ notoriously bad manners. The disadvantage of bird’s-eye journalism is that it overlooks important details and can lack the human touch. Defenders of Tokyo-style journalism might retort that their reporting style is “cool,” “dispassionate,” and “objective.” However, that can sometimes feel “cold,” “boring,” and “detached” to a lot of people in Osaka (as well as in Tohoku, Okinawa and among foreign readers of Japanese news). Osaka journalism, by contrast, traditionally offers a “bug’s-eye view” of the world, focusing on various crimes, follies, tragedies and victories of ordinary people. At its best, traditional Osaka-style journalism is progressive on human rights issues and sometimes more sensitive to the country’s ethnic and cultural minorities than the Tokyo media. In 2012, Shukan Asahi was forced to apologize to Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto after it ran a cover story titled “Hashishita yatsu no honsho” (“The true nature of Hashishita” — the kanji for Hashimoto’s name can also be read as “Hashishita,” and that’s how it used to be pronounced in traditional buraku communities). Hashimoto, who has buraku roots, took offense at what he felt was discrimination on the part of the magazine. Why did Shukan Asahi use “Hashishita”? Theories abound. However, veteran Osaka journalists quietly say that an editor from Osaka would have been more sensitive to the history of buraku discrimination than a clueless Tokyoite, and the word “Hashishita” would have not been used. Not, at least, in that way. Ironically, the Japanese-language newspaper that perhaps best represents the progressive, and sometimes cheeky, spirit of traditional Osaka journalism is the Tokyo Shimbun. It has a growing reputation for providing a bug’s-eye view of the details with a bird’s-eye analysis, proving the best journalism is, in fact, a combination of both styles.

tokyo;toru hashimoto;osaka;akira ikegami

jp0000369

2015/03/14

Nation stiffens defenses to counter invasion

Doom was closing in. It was greeted with anxiety but without surprise. Its coming had been foreseen. Two centuries earlier — in the seventh year of the Eisho Era, 1052 by the Western calendar — humanity had entered the degenerate age of Mappo, the Latter Days of the Law. So taught the Buddhist sages. What did this mean, practically speaking? Political disorder, cosmic disorder, evil beyond anything imaginable — or maybe good beyond anything imaginable, for had not Amida, the “Buddha of boundless light,” vowed eons earlier to save all who faithfully called on him? The principal preachers of the new Amidist sect were Honen (1133-1212) and Shinran (1173-1263). Their vision of a “Pure Land” of radiant jewels, glittering palaces, celestial music and “the light radiating from the Buddha” took hold among a population slowly sinking into earthly despair. Only believe, pleaded Honen and Shinran, and rebirth in the Pure Land will surely follow. Nonsense, sneered the third great preacher of revivalist “Kamakura Buddhism” — so named for the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) in which it thrived. “Pure Land”? No such thing, scoffed Nichiren (1222-82) — not while humanity remained mired in sin. He saw one way out: mass conversion to his own teaching — which was what? A notion so unprecedented in Japanese history that Nichiren was exiled, arrested and very nearly executed for his temerity. The traditional Buddhist sects, powerful though they were, had always acknowledged themselves servants and protectors of the state. They did not, unlike the contemporary European medieval Christian church, claim to be its masters. Nichiren made that claim for them. For Nichiren, religion — Buddhism — was paramount; the state, secondary. Scorning all efforts to silence him, he preached on. The earthquake of 1257 was nothing, he said; likewise the famine and plague that followed. Worse was coming. What could be worse? A foreign host, unleashed by heaven to chastise a sinning nation. How many Japanese at that point would even have heard of the Mongols, let alone quailed at the mention of their name? How much did Nichiren himself know? And yet “they blew up like a hurricane,” writes historian J.M. Roberts, “to terrify half a dozen civilizations, slaughter(ing) and destroy(ing) on a scale the 20th century alone has emulated.” The story begins with the conquests of Genghis Khan early in the 13th century. By the time his grandson, Kublai Khan, forced himself on Japan’s attention, the Mongols ruled the largest land empire in history, twice the size of the Roman Empire at its peak. China, Korea, Russia and Central Asia were swallowed; Eastern Europe barely escaped. In 1268, Kublai dispatched a letter to the “king of Japan.” “We,” it read, “the great Mongolian Empire, have received the Mandate of Heaven and have become the master of the universe. Therefore, innumerable states in far-off lands have longed to form ties with us.” Why not Japan? asked Kublai. “From now on,” he wrote, “let us enter into friendly relations with each other. Nobody would wish to resort to arms.” Master by conquest of half the globe and yet reluctant to “resort to arms”? A strange note to strike — what did it mean? Japan by then had had no official relations with China in almost 400 years. Merchants and monks still traveled back and forth on private business, but neither the military government in Kamakura nor the Imperial court in Kyoto had very clear notions of what was transpiring in the country that once had been Japan’s revered teacher in the arts of civilization. Maybe this is why, as historian George Sansom puts it, “The Japanese at first made the mistake of despising their enemy.” Kublai’s letter went unanswered, his envoys dismissed with contempt. Subsequent Mongol envoys were beheaded. Still Kublai remained patient — why? “The use of military force without reason,” he wrote shortly afterwards, “runs counter to Confucian and Buddhist teaching. Because Japan is a divine country, we do not intend to fight with force.” This too was ignored. Patience has its limits. The Mongol fleet sailed at last, on the third day of the 10th lunar month of 1274. First to feel its wrath were the tiny islands of Tsushima and Iki, whose inhabitants, writes Sansom, “were treated with revolting cruelty.” Then it was Kyushu’s turn. But the harsh lessons of war, in this the only foreign invasion Japan had ever suffered, or ever would suffer until the Americans came calling in the 19th century, were destined to be taught by the insular Japanese, and learned, at great cost to themselves, by the world-conquering Mongols. Where were Japan’s poets and bards in those fraught years? Alive and well — busy composing the magnificent Tales of the Heike in memory of the civil wars (1156-85) that marked the nation’s passage from elegant, decadent, aristocratic pacifism to one of the hardiest militarisms the world has ever known. Celebrated in history and nationalist mythology for the “divine wind” ( kamikaze ) that blew the Mongol fleet to smithereens in 1274 and again in 1281, Japan’s most heroic battles escaped the shaping hand of literary genius — there is no Tales of the Mongols. Typhoons played their part, no doubt, but Japanese defenders — numbering in the hundreds against thousands; fighting “in loose formation or in no formation at all” (Sansom) against a tightly drilled, highly disciplined army; wielding swords against poisoned arrows and catapults and Chinese firearms — surely deserved a better memorial than history or literature has accorded them. While the fighters fought and the winds blew and the nation stiffened its defenses against anticipated future invasions, prayers rang through the land. “Here is what I have heard,” wrote an anonymous court noble in the 14th-century chronicle The Clear Mirror. “Just as the Great Wisdom (Sutra) recitations at Iwashimizu (Temple) reached their climax, a single black cloud suddenly appeared in the clear sky. … Huge waves sprang up, and the entire invasion force drowned in the wild waters. It was wondrous proof that ours is indeed the land of the gods” — a notion with a long and baleful history ahead of it.

religion;genghis khan

jp0000370

2015/03/22

First wave of April elections litmus test for Osaka merger plan

For most prefectures, cities and towns, April’s quadrennial unified elections will be the last opportunity for the next few years to vote on local matters. But in the city of Osaka, the April 12 assembly poll is but a barometer — albeit a crucial one — for the May 17 referendum that will decide whether the city will be fundamentally restructured. After choosing a new municipal assembly next month, Osaka’s 2.1 million voters will then be asked to vote yes or no on the question of whether the city’s current 24 wards should be integrated into five large semi-autonomous areas, each with its own elected head and assembly. This would also mean abolishing the Osaka mayor and municipal assembly by 2017. The most recent media polls indicate the vote is likely to be close and that the pro-merger camp is gaining ground. Surveys by Kyodo News, the Mainichi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun dailies in mid-March showed around 43 percent of the respondents favored the merger and 41 percent opposed it. That’s a change from an Asahi Shimbun poll earlier this year, where more opposed the plan than supported it. The reasons for the shift toward support vary. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga have said the referendum is “significant,” which the pro-merger camp, led by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, welcomed as a huge boost to its efforts. In addition, Hashimoto and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui have barnstormed the city in recent weeks to push the plan, saying it will make Osaka efficient, more streamlined, more democratic and reinvigorate the local economy. The sight of Hashimoto and Matsui speaking on street corners, often in cold and windy weather, carefully going through detailed flip-charts of the plan for passersby, has convinced many that Hashimoto, if nothing else, is earnest in his desire to sell the plan. In the meantime, merger opponents, including the local chapters of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and Japanese Communist Party, have found themselves on the defensive these past few months, forced at every turn to provide counter-arguments to the media-savvy Hashimoto rather than clearly articulate a detailed, alternate vision for the city. The result is that they sometimes sound like stern accountants, schoolmasters, or even parents saying “no.” Not the kind of image likely to sway lots of younger Osaka voters who, if the recent media polls are to be believed, tend to be more supportive of the merger plan than their elders. The Mainichi Shimbun poll showed that about 54 percent of voters in their 30s want the merger but only 33 percent of those in their 70s and above are in favor. Where city voters live also plays in role in their inclinations. In the tony areas of north and central Osaka, where many major firms have their offices, support for the merger appears somewhat strong. But in the more working-class districts, as well as the port area, opposition appears to be greater than support, as residents wonder if Hashimoto’s plan will increase the wealth and services gap with the more wealthy districts. However, it’s too early to predict how the referendum will turn out. Hashimoto himself has dismissed the latest polls, saying they’re always changing. Ultimately, the victorious side will be the one that wins the public debate in the coming weeks. The April 12 assembly elections, therefore, will determine which side will go into May enjoying the final, and probably decisive, political momentum in that debate.

osaka;elections;kansai perspective

jp0000372

2015/04/04

Koga's parting shot may not hit its target

In February, Reporters Without Borders published its annual list of countries ranked in terms of press freedom. Japan came in at No. 61, down two places from the previous year and lower than Taiwan (51) and South Korea (60). The reason for the decline was the state secrets act , which came into force last December and criminalizes the disclosure of classified information, whether by parties inside or outside the government. Japan had already been falling on the list. In 2010 it was No. 11. The sudden “deterioration in trust,” according to Kobe College professor Tatsuru Uchida , writing in Aera, was brought on by the “ambiguous” coverage of the March 2011 nuclear disaster and subsequent cleanup efforts. Uchida said the Japanese press did not sufficiently investigate the actions of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government, and as a result Reporters Without Borders assumed the country’s media was under their sway. It’s easy to accept these assertions if you closely follow Japanese media, but it’s difficult to find clear examples of press organs bowing to pressure from above, so when an example seems to present itself, it’s news. Last weekend, the media was buzzing over the dustup on TV Asahi’s “Hodo Station” between commentator Shigeaki Koga and anchor Ichiro Furutachi. Koga is the former Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official who quit some years ago and has since made a living criticizing government policy. For a while he has been an occasional guest pundit on “Hodo Station,” which prides itself on more in-depth coverage than you get from other news shows. The producers appreciate Koga’s willingness to speak his mind, though their superiors at TV Asahi reportedly felt otherwise. Koga has explained publicly, through social media and other means, that he was told in January he would no longer appear on “Hodo Station” after April due to some of his on-air comments about the government’s handling of the hostage crisis, which ended with the death of two Japanese nationals at the hands of the Islamic State group. During a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Feb. 25 he said that TV Asahi executives are “trying to curry favor with the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” and so they forced the producer of “Hodo Station” to let him go. Though it was not announced as such, Koga had assumed his March 27 appearance would be his last for the program. He was supposed to discuss the crisis in Yemen, but when Furutachi asked him for an analysis Koga changed the subject and mentioned he would be leaving the show due to the desires of TV Asahi’s top brass and Furutachi’s management company, which has a hand in the production. Such a revelation was unusual in and of itself — “Hodo Station” is broadcast live — but Furutachi compounded the surreal quality of the moment by contradicting Koga, saying it “isn’t the case” that he is being dropped. Koga replied that was odd as Furutachi had earlier apologized to him for “not being able to do anything” about the dismissal, and Koga could prove it since he recorded their conversation. He then went on to castigate Abe. Furutachi’s famous candor as an interviewer is a function of his prima donna attitude, and he obviously resented Koga for hijacking the show. TV Asahi was more forthcoming: Over the weekend, its PR department issued a statement blasting Koga, whose remarks about government involvement were “not based on fact.” It chastised him for rudeness and then apologized to viewers, even if the incident was probably the most entertaining thing that’s ever happened on “Hodo Station.” Adding to the excitement was a statement from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying that the prime minister’s office had not put any pressure on TV Asahi to dump the ex-bureaucrat. We can only take Koga’s word for it that he was dropped from the show because of his views, but even if TV Asahi and the government are telling the truth, members of Japan’s mainstream press, unlike Koga, go easy on those in power as a matter of course, and not because they’re intimidated. In a recent piece in Gendai Business about the Reporters Without Borders ranking , former Tokyo Shimbun editor Yukihiro Hasegawa said there is no real press freedom in Japan, “but it has nothing to do with the secrecy act.” Most reporters would never leak confidential information because they aren’t, strictly speaking, reporters. “They are salarymen,” Hasegawa says, and care more about their positions within their companies than they do about their work: “They’re all in line waiting for promotions.” The notorious press clubs, where journalists regurgitate information spoon-fed to them by government organs, are designed so that every news outlet has a fair and equal shot at a story. “It’s an open secret,” Hasegawa points out, “that when reporters talk to politicians, they all share their memos with one another.” This means every news outlet reports the same information, the only difference being the outlet’s “ideology.” As to whether or not this helps the government, Hasegawa doesn’t think it makes any difference. “The media covered the collective forces issue thoroughly,” he says, referring to Abe’s efforts to allow the Self-Defense Forces to participate in military activities with allies, “but the public doesn’t know anything about it.” In a February interview with Mainichi Shimbun , also about press freedom, bestselling novelist Jiro Asada decried gumin shisō —limiting information so as to better control the people — but why should the government need to cultivate “ignorant masses” when the media is incapable of making the news relevant anyway? It’s worth noting that Hasegawa is a political conservative — he has no ethical problem with the secrecy act — who worked for the most liberal daily in Japan. He has seen firsthand how truth is at the service of expedience. Koga’s impromptu rant has drawn both admiration and condemnation, but in the end he’s just screaming into the void.

censorship;press freedom;tv asahi;shigeaki koga

jp0000373

2015/04/04

Learning valuable lessons from the yakuza?

“He had connections and interactions with individuals related to the yakuza. Why on earth would he be appointed a (Cabinet) minister? The responsibility of the prime minister for appointing him to this position is tremendously weighty.” These angry words were said by a New Komeito Diet member in 2012. The Cabinet minister in question was Keishu Tanaka, a Democratic Party of Japan member appointed as the minister of justice. In contrast, Komeito and the Liberal Democratic Party have remained remarkably silent about the yakuza allegations surrounding Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura. Shimomura lobbied hard for his position in 2012 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP and Komeito coalition government seized power. He also spearheaded Abe’s program to bring back “moral education” in schools. If you have any ethical sensibilities he appears to be the quintessential hanmen kyōshi — “someone who teaches by setting a poor example.” Even without an education in morality, most people know that it’s wrong to take money from the yakuza or accept campaign contributions that may be possibly illegal. The scandal began in January, when the Akahata Shimbun reported that a front company for the country’s largest crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, had donated ¥180,000 over two years to a branch of the LDP — the Tokyo No. 11 district — headed by Shimomura. The company is banned from accepting public works and recognized by the police in Osaka as a yakuza operation, specifically a Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai operation. (Remember that name — it comes up again.) The scandal didn’t attract a great deal of attention and interest in it waned after a short time. In February, however, the Shukan Bunshun reported that Shimomura had received illegal political funds, including contributions from another individual connected to — surprise, surprise — the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai. He quickly denied the allegations. The Shukan Bunshun and Sankei Shimbun have reported that regional support groups acting on Shimomura’s behalf had not been registered as political organizations and had improperly and, possibly, illegally collected funds on his behalf. These support groups, operating under regional organizations called hakuyūkai , were consortiums of private school and cram school owners. One might suspect a conflict of interest in them funding the man in charge of public education, but let’s put that issue aside for a second. The Political Funds Control Law obliges entities that support a politician or nominate a political candidate to register as a political group and submit reports on their income and expenditure of political funding. The groups run by Shimomura’s regional hakuyūkai failed to do this. When he appeared before the Lower House Budget Committee on Feb. 26, Shimomura said he had never received a donation from the regional groups, nor had he ever received money for “taxi fares” or “travel expenses.” He also described the political groups as voluntary organizations set up by friends in the education industry. At first, Shimomura said he planned to protest over the magazine’s report. He also denied receiving a ¥100,000 donation in 2009 from Masahiro Toyokawa, a yakuza associate and former cram school operator. Police sources say Toyokawa is a longtime associate member of the Yamaguchi-gumi — specifically, the Kodo-kai — and that Toyokawa and Shimomura had known each other for several years. They believe that Toyokawa may still be running cram schools from behind the scenes. Toyokawa also reportedly loaned roughly $6 million to a chain of massage parlors known to be paying protection money to the Yamaguchi-gumi, according to several reports. Toyokawa is important because he was also a central figure in creating the Chubu Hakuyūkai, one of the main political groups collecting funds for Shimomura. Shimomura has changed his story several times and even admitted that his secretary had urged regional support groups not to speak to reporters about allegations of financial irregularities. He has also admitted to receiving the ¥100,000 donation from Toyokawa, reversing previous denials. A former executive member of a hakuyūkai support group held a news conference last month, during which she admitted giving Shimomura an additional ¥100,000 in cash for a lecture, saying the money had come from Toyokawa. Shimomura has denied this. Although the jury is still out on how the country’s “moral education” is working out, it’s hard to imagine that voters condone taking money from criminals or lying while in public office. Since Oct. 1, 2011, it is also illegal to accept money of any kind from “anti-social forces” — including members of the yakuza and its associates. In the same way the government’s new education policy places importance on tradition, domestic politics has long had ties to gangsters. The LDP itself was founded with money provided by notorious underworld power broker Yoshio Kodama. Even Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, respected the yakuza, particularly the Yamaguchi-gumi. In 1971, Kishi paid the bail of a Yamaguchi-gumi leader who was later convicted of murder. Abe himself has been photographed in 2008 with Yamaguchi-gumi associate Icchu Nagamoto, but has denied any knowledge of the man. On the other hand, Nagamoto told his yakuza connections that he helped gather local votes for Abe to be elected top dog of the LDP in 2006, thereby ensuring Abe became prime minister in his first time at bat. That said, it’s hard to take a gangster’s words at face value. The law says that accepting money from anti-social forces, asking them to set up your political support group and supporting yakuza-backed groups is illegal. National Police Agency chief Eriko Yamatani also has a history of association with Zaitokukai, a yakuza-linked group that has been identified as being a security threat and is responsible for hate crimes. How much could and should be read into this? Abe has not apologized for the questionable connections of his handpicked Cabinet members. In fact, he has said nothing — I can’t find a record of him condemning the yakuza or those who kowtow to them. The Japanese word for this is mokunin , or admission by silence. Silence, sometimes, speaks louder than words.

yakuza;hakubun shimomura

jp0000374

2015/04/04

Women's participation in elections questioned; sake labels mandatory; Tokyo bathhouses call for one-day lockout; automatic ticket gates employed

100 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 8, 1915 Women’s participation in elections questioned Women’s participation in election campaigns, which has hitherto been considered a matter of taste, is now reported to become a legal question as well. Those who disfavor the idea of any political action by the gentle sex claim that, while the police regulations, in force, forbid women’s attendance at a political meeting, it is against the spirit of the rule to acquiesce, as was done in the recent general election, by wives, mothers and daughters’ assisting in soliciting votes. If this be allowed, it is further alleged, a race of suffragists and suffragettes would grow in this country, as was done in the West, which must harm the beautiful ideals and characteristics of womanhood in Nippon. Critics will not be slow, however, to remind the lawmakers, whoever they may be, of the inconsistency of allowing women to listen to parliamentary debates and read political discussions in newspapers, books and magazines, and also of the impossibility of barring political reading at any rate. Madame Haruko Hatoyama, perhaps the real pioneer in this new field of feminine activity in Japan and the mother of a newly returned Seiyukai Representative, defends her position on a somewhat novel ground. The candidate can not attend to every detail of routine business by himself, says she, such, for instance, as the hiring of a meeting hall or the bookkeeping of campaign expenses. His relations and intimate friends, therefore, must perforce be asked to help. What she and other like-minded women did in the election campaign was, not to express political views themselves or of others, but the work of faithful messengers to convey their loved one’s wishes to the voters. This certainly does not touch the spirit of the existing police regulations, she further observes, and also is outside the question whether it is right or not for women to discuss politics. The work of pure love, done for one’s husband or son, can not possibly be represented as injurious to the traditional ideal of Japanese womanhood. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 9, 1940 Sake labels mandatory; price of beer pegged “The time has come,” the walrus said, “to speak of other things, of ships and snails and sealing wax and”… the price of beer (if you can find any) and the labelling of sake casks and bottles (if you can read the labels). All of which means the powers that be have erected another milepost in Japan’s drinking history by ordering labels pasted on sake containers and fixing the price of beer. Nothing is reported, however, on what has been done to supply the sake to go in the keg on which to paste a label or to produce the best to go in the bottle which is to sell for 70 sen a quart. The last report we had from a brave man who began a search for a bottle of beer was not reassuring. However, all we can do is report what the Chugai Shogyo says and what Domei guesses. The Chugai says, according to our translator: “All casks and bottles containing sake or Japanese wine will have labels pasted on them showing the respective contents of alcohol. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry thought of this novel method for the purpose of eliminating all watery kinds of sake and showing the purity of sake for the satisfaction of all tipplers.” Beer prices, according to Domei and Chugai, should come down, if the regulations are to be believed. All you have to do is find the beer. 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 13, 1965 Tokyo bathhouses call for one-day lockout An estimated 2,500 public bathhouses in Tokyo will close Wednesday to press their demands for higher public bath charges. The public bathhouse operators will also hold a rally at Hibiya Park on Wednesday and representatives will call on Gov. Ryotaro Azuma and the Metropolitan Assembly after the rally to present their case. The association decided to close for one day because its request to the Metropolitan Government last November has not been acted upon. The bathhouse operators want to raise the charge for adults by ¥9 to ¥32, for junior high student from ¥15 to ¥25, and for primary school and younger children from ¥8 to ¥15. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, April 22, 1990 Automatic ticket gates employed at some exits East Japan Railway Co. started using automatic ticket gates Saturday at three Yamanote Line exits at Tokyo and Komagome stations. The system records on tickets the names of passengers’ points of entry and exit, as well as the time and date the ticket was used. The service has been implemented at Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi north exit and Marunouchi underground south exit, and the east exit of Komagome Station. JR East officials expressed hope that the new system will prevent passengers from not paying the full cost of fares. The railway company estimates it loses about ¥20 billion a year in lost fares. At Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi north exit, passengers passed through the gates smoothly during the morning rush hour Saturday. But some passengers were held up because their commuter passes were incompatible with the new system. Some salaried workers complained the new system was “troublesome” because they had to remove their rail passes from the cases each time they passed through the gates. JR East plans to set up automatic ticket gates at other major stations on the Yamanote Line, such as Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno, by July. Teito Rapid Transport Authority, which runs Tokyo subways, will introduce the system at all its stations within five years.

tokyo;sake;suffrage

jp0000376

2015/04/20

Naturalized Kabukicho denizen hopes to teach China lesson in democracy

Second in an occasional series on the quadrennial unified local elections. The second round will be held on April 26. Komaki Lee gained fame as a pioneering “Kabukicho guide” who showed foreign visitors the ins and outs of the capital’s seedy nightlife entertainment district in Shinjuku Ward. Now he’s going into politics. “I’m not running to become a bossy politician. . . . I’m running as just one foreign resident in Shinjuku . . . running to represent 36,000 foreigners from 121 countries living here,” Lee, 54, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times, speaking in fluent Japanese. “If people call me sensei (teacher), I will scold them.” If elected to the Shinjuku Ward Assembly on Sunday, the China-born Lee will be the first naturalized Japanese in the ward to become an assemblyman. Lee, born in China as Lee Xiaomu, became a naturalized citizen in February after spending 27 years living in Japan. His goal is to become a symbol of change in a society he regards as somewhat closed to foreigners, and to show 1.3 billion people in China what democracy truly means. The former ballet dancer and author now owns a Chinese restaurant in Kabukicho, allowing him to experience the sweet and sour of Japan from the center of the capital. He is also continuing his tour guide business, showing customers around Kabukicho’s fancy stores and restaurants as well as its cabarets, sex parlors and other shady haunts. This has given him an insider’s view on life in Japan. “After 27 years living here . . . I still see signs saying ‘foreigners and nightlife business workers OK’ when looking for an apartment in Shinjuku,” he said, noting this implies both are looked down upon in Japanese society. “You never see ‘salaryman OK’ signs, right?” This bias prompted Lee to pursue a seat on the Shinjuku assembly. Shinjuku has the largest population of foreign residents in the nation. Although 11 percent of the ward’s residents are non-Japanese, its policies predominantly reflect the Japanese perspective, Lee said. Lee’s interest in politics didn’t emerge all of a sudden. His father, a former politician, was arrested in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, leading Lee to develop a critical attitude toward the elitist nature of Chinese politics while living in Japan. Now he can somewhat appreciate Japan for being an open society — at least on a tatemae (surface) level. “(In Japan,) I could do everything my father wanted to do . . . from writing an article to publishing a book to being featured by a newspaper,” all of which he could not have accomplished in China, he said. He even used to write a monthly column for Newsweek’s Japanese edition. Now, by running for office, “I want to tell 1.3 billion people in China about what democracy is like . . . that even a foreigner-turned-Japanese who is involved in a kind of job many people look down upon on can get a chance,” he said. Lee’s first wish has come true. News that he is running for a seat in the Shinjuku assembly has generated huge buzz in China, where it was shared over 8 million times on Sina Weibo, Twitter’s counterpart in China. “They seemed to be surprised to know how I can behave freely,” he said. But Lee has a bigger goal: to improve democracy in Japan by changing the honne (true feelings) of Japanese toward foreigners entering politics. “When I tell people that I’m running for the Shinjuku assembly, even my Japanese friends expressed concern,” he said. “They seemed to be afraid that a foreigner might attain a position (that would allow him) to alter their country,” because they can’t foresee how Japan would change if led by “a foreigner.” Even harsher criticism erupted in Japanese online, Lee said. Some people began spreading rumors that he is connected with the Chinese mafia and wants to subvert Japan from inside. “But such criticism is still part of democracy — the right of expression,” he said, adding that he wants to change such prejudiced mind-sets starting from Shinjuku, a step forward to improve Japanese democracy at the local level by adding a non-Japanese perspective to the assembly. Even if he is not elected, Lee said he will accept that as a sign that Japanese democracy has yet to open its doors to non-Japanese. “My challenge won’t stop” until the day when society accepts various parties and they can live in harmony, he said.

china;elections;komaki lee

jp0000377

2015/04/18

On the pleasing violence of fairy tales

Traditional fairy tales are so steeped in blood it’s astonishing that children didn’t all grow up to become deranged in days gone by. Take, for example, the popular Japanese fable “Shita-kiri Suzume” (literally, “Tongue-Cut Sparrow”), which tells the tale of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow. Some versions of the fable end with the greedy woman being tortured to death by demons, serpents and skeletons. Horror is by no means limited to Japanese fables — it’s a universal revulsion. The original versions of fairy tales that were penned by the Brothers Grimm are full of gore. I was fortunate enough to see some of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm’s stories in London last month as part of an immersive production based on a retelling by British writer Philip Pullman. The show included an adaptation of “The Goose Girl,” which ended with a woman — women typically bear the brunt of the punishment in fairy tales, I’m afraid — being thrown into a barrel that has spikes hammered into it. And, just in case that wasn’t gruesome enough, the barrel was then rolled down a hill. Titled “Grimm Tales,” the production was staged in a crumbling old warehouse on the south bank of the Thames, and took place across several floors. Each space was decorated with spooky things such as creepy doll’s houses and broken clocks. If you stop and think about it, it’s a bit strange that some people genuinely like being scared. Just look at the sheer number of people who flock to see horror movies at movie theaters. Fear, of course, is a vital emotion, and evolved to protect us from the very real dangers of the wild. Humans have an instinctive fear response. If your life is on the line — and it often was back in the day, when humans lived in caves and died from broken bones or something as small as a scratch — it pays to err on the side of caution. Therefore, being afraid when there’s no real apparent danger nearby — that is, watching a movie — seems to be physiologically pleasurable in some hormonal way. Greek philosopher Aristotle developed a few ideas about this. He believed that we derive pleasure from depictions of tragedy because it is cathartic. This may be true, but there’s also something to what suspense mastermind Alfred Hitchcock said in 1974: “Give them pleasure — the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” Fairy tales are also important from an educational perspective. Instinct does seem to feature in our fear of certain animals. There is some evidence that our propensity for fear of spiders and snakes is genetic, but there needs to be an initial trigger. When we’re born, we’re only naturally afraid of falling and of loud bangs. It’s the same with other animals — they don’t seem to be born with innate fear, rather they learn what they should and shouldn’t be afraid of. One recent and fascinating discovery on this subject concerns smell. We know that certain smells can be associated with fear if they accompany a fearful experience. However, when biologists trained mice to associate the smell of cherry blossoms — of all things! — with electric shocks, they found that even the grandchildren of the trained mice were afraid of the scent of blossoms. The fear response persisted even though the younger generation had never been shocked. Learning to be afraid of the smell of a predator or the sight of a human with a gun is one thing. However, modern society is rather more complicated than what you find in the jungle, and our fears are rather more sophisticated. Learning what humans need to be afraid of in these modern times takes rather more than a close encounter with a snake. This explains the evolution of folk tales. Before public health announcements and compulsory education system, knowledge was passed on orally. As a result, folk tales exist in all cultures. As Hideo Toguchi of Chuo University put it: “In this world of pleasure and pain, everybody is on a long journey in pursuit of happiness. Fairy tales express these symbolic dynamics of life.” Symbolism can be found in virtually all fairy tales. Sexual partners often take the form of animals. In the Pullman adaptation, an ugly frog turned into a handsome prince. In Japanese folk tales, foxes typically disguise themselves as women. Which makes me wonder. Animals don’t have fairy tales to help them learn about danger. Or do they? Some fox cubs visited my garden last year and I enjoyed watching them play. They would stalk each other and tumble around on the lawn. At a very basic level, the play-ambush teaches the cubs about the dangers of the world around them. However, it would be bit of a push to call that a fairy tale. Obviously animals don’t have an oral tradition, right? Not, at least, as we understand it. Putty-nosed monkeys in West Africa have a very basic kind of language. The monkeys make different alarm calls depending on the type of danger. If there is a leopard nearby, the monkeys emit a “pyow” call. If there is an eagle, they shout “hack.” Each call elicits a different response from the group of monkeys. A pyow call causes the monkeys to move away, while a hack cry makes them stay still and take cover. And then there’s a third option: If a monkey puts the calls together and says “pyow-hack,” it means, “Let’s move.” I like to imagine the monkeys at night telling stories to their children by making the calls. Perhaps — and there’s no evidence for this — they act out the movements and reactions piece by piece, making the younger monkeys cling to their mothers in fear while they’re remaining safe in their nests.

violence;fairy tales;fear

jp0000378

2015/04/18

Mind the gap: Nara election reveals voter values

In the wake of last Sunday’s local elections, big city political reporters were quick to see the results as (1) a mandate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; and (2) a disaster for the Democratic Party of Japan. The conclusions reached by those far removed from the rest of Japan — the place they sometimes visit during holidays in order to pay their respects to relatives living and deceased — are factually correct and rationally argued. But they offer little clue as to more fundamental social realities driving political choices. The real story behind this year’s local elections is, in fact, many stories. It’s a tale of the “Abe economic bubble” in (parts of) Tokyo and the gap with other regions, of public works critics in Honshu cities that enjoy mild climates and hyperconvenient transport infrastructures, and public works-friendly voters in the remote snowy mountains, forests and fields of rural Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu, and of overcrowded and expensive urban centers and depopulated regions with abandoned houses. In short, the elections were about social, economic, political and even cultural and philosophical divides that will shape Japanese politics for years to come. One example of this was the Nara prefectural governor’s election. Incumbent Gov. Shogo Arai, backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and other established players, defeated Makoto Yamashita, an independent candidate. That’s all you might have read in Tokyo. The real story is that 70-year-old Arai won a closer-than-expected race against 46-year-old Yamashita, despite the former having the support of three major parties (the LDP, the DPJ and Komeito) and facing a candidate with no party support but lots of youthful energy. Arai and the old guard got a scare because a new generation of Nara residents, who often work in neighboring Osaka or Kyoto, is growing in political strength. Like Yamashita, they are younger, urban-educated and have little patience for traditional politics. Their priorities are different from those of Arai’s elderly supporters, where the motto is still “public works projects, spending on social welfare for the elderly, and agricultural protection.” Instead, they seek “economic growth,” as well as better child care, lower taxes, less bureaucracy (read: interference in their lives by bureaucrats of Arai’s generation) and decent public schools. Nara is really two prefectures in one. Northern Nara is home to the city of Nara, UNESCO treasures and a good chunk of its population. Younger residents who share Yamashita’s views are numerous. On the other hand, southern Nara contains some of Japan’s most ancient farmland, deep mountains and rugged forests. Here, younger politicians with “modern” ideas are rarely welcome. As the results showed, for the moment at least, the old guard — i.e. your grandfather’s LDP — remains on top. Not only in Nara but also in pretty much every prefecture nationwide. It’s easy to conclude that this is because there was no real choice, the DPJ and opposition parties are weak, etc. But politics is about convincing people to support you at the ballot box — out of hope or fear, and the latter is especially powerful. A best-selling book last year by the former governor of Iwate Prefecture created such fear by warning parts of Japan could go extinct as birthrates plunged, the percentage of elderly rose, and far fewer women of child-bearing age remained in the provinces. Voters in prefectures that, like Nara, were named in the book as being in danger of losing their populations thus chose safe, stable and well-known LDP candidates. Not just because of a lack of opposition, but also because, at a time of worries about depopulation and uncertainty about the future of their localities, who wants to take the risk of voting for the unknown?

elections;politics;nara;shogo arai;makoto yamashita

jp0000380

2015/04/27

Route to base camp blocked, scores stranded on Everest above 20,000 feet

MUMBAI - Ankur Bahl, a New Delhi shipping industry specialist, was ascending Mount Everest as part of a quest to climb the world’s tallest peaks when a devastating earthquake in Nepal stranded him about 21,000 feet above sea level. Now Bahl, 54, is stuck at Camp 2, about halfway up the mountain, after the path down was blocked following avalanches, according to his wife Sangeeta, who’s trying to arrange for a helicopter evacuation. About 120 other climbers are either in Camp 1 or Camp 2 and can’t get back to base camp, she said. Failure to evacuate the remaining climbers could add to the death toll on Everest, where at least 19 people, including a Google Inc. executive have already died after Saturday’s earthquake. Many of those killed were at base camp, which was heavily damaged by boulders, snow and blocks of ice. Bahl told his wife via satellite phone on Saturday that his group of 12 climbers felt the tremors while climbing to Camp 2 from Camp 1, which has an elevation of around 20,000 feet. He hung up because the phone was low on battery, and they haven’t spoken since. Madison Mountaineering, the Seattle-based company leading Bahl’s expedition, said on its website that the climbers were safe and would attempt to reach Camp 1 for an air evacuation. The group’s medic, Marisa Eve Girawong of New Jersey, died of her injuries at base camp, it said. The route through the Khumbu Icefall that stands between Camp 1 and base camp is impassable, Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering wrote on the site. The group is running low on food and fuel and needs to descend, he said. “At this point our only option to get down is by helicopter evacuation,” Madison wrote. “Our plan is to descend tomorrow to Camp 1 and hopefully with good weather fly to base camp to reconnect with the other members of our expedition who survived the avalanche.” Nineteen bodies have been recovered from Everest base camp, Sitanshu Kar, a spokesman for India’s Defense Ministry, said on Twitter. More than 2,300 people have died altogether in the most powerful earthquake to hit Nepal since 1934. Bahl’s friends were trying to arrange an airlift for him via Indian military helicopters, Sangeeta said. Bahl and Sangeeta, also an avid mountaineer, are attempting to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.

mount everest;earthquakes;nepal;avalanches;base camp

jp0000381

2015/04/29

Iran fires warning shots, boards, seizes freighter in Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Iranian forces fired warning shots across the bridge of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel as it was traversing the Strait of Hormuz in Iranian territorial waters, boarded the ship and directed it toward the Iranian mainland, a Pentagon official said Tuesday. The incident, which prompted the U.S. Navy to dispatch a destroyer and a plane in response, comes as Iran and the U.S. along with other world powers try to hammer out a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear program. The master of the cargo ship MV Maersk Tigris had initially refused an Iranian order to move further into Iranian waters, but after the warning shots were fired the vessel complied, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. The cargo ship, which had more than 30 people aboard, was directed to waters near Larak Island, he said. The island sits off the major Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and is one of several in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state television reported that only 24 crew were onboard the vessel, and hailed from Britain, Bulgaria, Romania and Myanmar. It said the ship was seized based on a court order due to unspecified violations. Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Bandar Abbas is the main port for Iran’s Navy and separate naval forces operated by the elite Revolutionary Guard, as well as the country’s primary commercial port. It overlooks the Strait of Hormuz, the highly strategic waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The strait is the route for about a fifth of the world’s oil and is only about 33 km (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point. Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only 2 miles wide, with a 2-mile buffer zone between them. Iran has in the past threatened to block the strait, a move that could spark a military conflict in the Gulf. American and allied naval forces routinely patrol the strait and have conducted military drills aimed at countering threats such as sea mines that Iran might use to close the waterway. Tehran frequently conducts military exercises of its own in and around the strait. Large-scale, live-fire naval drills in February saw Revolutionary Guard forces assault a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier built in a Bandar Abbas shipyard. “It is inappropriate” for the Iranians to have fired warning shots across the ship’s bridge in Tuesday’s circumstances, Warren said. He said it was too early to know whether the Iranian intervention amounted to a violation of the freedom of navigation through a waterway heavily used by international shipping. Warren said the cargo ship had been boarded by Iranians, but no one was injured and no Americans were involved. The spokesman said the U.S. government has “certain obligations” to defend the interests of the Marshall Islands, but he was uncertain how those obligations to the Pacific Ocean nation apply in this situation. The Iranian vessels, numbering five or six, were with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, he said. The incident began at about 4:05 a.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, he said. After the cargo ship sent a distre6ss call, the U.S. Navy sent the destroyer USS Farragut and a Navy maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to the area of the incident to monitor the situation, according to Warren. Lt. Joseph Hontz, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, which oversees American maritime operations in the region, declined comment further on the incident and referred queries to the Pentagon. Maersk, based in Copenhagen, said the ship was chartered to Rickmers Ship Management, based in Hamburg, Germany. Maersk said it had no information about the crew or the cargo. Sabina Pech, a Rickmers spokeswoman in Hamburg, said she was aware of the incident but had no information and could not comment. In 2007, Revolutionary Guard forces captured 15 British sailors and marines from a frigate in the Gulf, accusing them of operating in Iranian waters. They were released less than two weeks later.

iran;marshall islands;u.s. navy;freighter;strait of hormuz

jp0000382

2015/04/10

In China, knock-off Apple Watches have their own fans

SHENZHEN, / HONG KONG - Lining the glass display cases of Shenzhen’s giant tech malls, knockoff versions of Apple Inc’s smartwatch were on sale at many stalls, with some Chinese consumers eager to snap them up for a fraction of the cost of the original. “It came on sale in mid-March and has been constantly out of stock,” said one imitation-Apple Watch seller who declined to give his name. “On average we sell around 40 a day. Some customers just came and bought five or more at a time.” The watches, built on Google Inc’s operating system, do not need a separate smartphone to work, said one merchant. At her store, one was retailing for 360 yuan ($58) — around one eighth of the cost of Apple’s cheaper Watch models. One version used a SIM card, could make calls, send messages, browse the Internet and take pictures, she said. In Hong Kong, the official Apple Store preview of the Watch was quiet. No queues stretched down the street as they normally do for Apple product launches. A handful of people waited at the door, outnumbered by Apple staff whose cheers lasted a handful of seconds. Most of the shoppers from mainland China, who commonly cross the border to pick up the latest Apple must-have, were there for other gadgets. “I’m here to buy an iPad,” said a shopper from the southwestern city of Chongqing, who gave her surname as Jian. “I will take a look at the Watch later . . . none of my friends have talked about the Watch back home.” But the technology bazaars in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen were chaotic on Thursday. Merchants hawked their goods to Chinese and foreign shoppers, showing off different smartwatches’ various colors and models. Some were unimpressed with the imitation Apple Watches. “I really want to buy the original one,” said Vikram Jan, an Indian businessman from New Delhi shopping in Shenzhen. “The fake one is really bad.” Though the knockoffs have their admirers, some merchants are doubtful about the impact on genuine Apple Watch sales. “You know some want the real thing and some just want to go for the cheaper option,” said the woman selling knock-off watches. “There are all kinds of customers and people who want the cheaper one would still buy our product.”

china;smartphones;apple;apple watch;smartwatches

jp0000384

2015/04/19

For foreign caregivers, role remains ambiguous

Does Japan really want to accept foreign caregivers? This question, which has dogged the rapidly graying nation for years, continues to loom over a government program to bring in caregivers under bilateral economic partnership agreements. Japan opened its doors to foreign care workers in 2008, when, via an EPA with Indonesia, it accepted 104 people to work in the nation’s nursing homes to assist the elderly. Subsequent EPAs with the Philippines and Vietnam paved the way for the start in 2009 and 2014, respectively, of similar programs, through which a total of 1,500 caregivers have so far been accepted. But the government doggedly has maintained that these caregivers were brought in to “strengthen economic cooperation” under the free trade deals, not to fill manpower shortages in the nursing care sector. As such, their raison d’etre in Japan has always been ambiguous, experts say. Yasuhiro Yuki, professor of welfare policy at Shukutoku University in Chiba Prefecture, says care facility operators had wrongly expected them to stay in Japan indefinitely, when the system was simply not designed that way. “I think the caregivers have succeeded in serving the original purpose of personnel exchange,” Yuki said. “But care facility operators in Japan had hoped they would stay on as care workers. . . . They never understood that the government accepted the workers in exchange for lower tariffs on cars and bananas.” EPA caregivers, despite being licensed as nurses back home, must pass the state qualification exam in Japan to be licensed as kaigo fukushi shi (nursing care specialists) at the end of the four-year EPA program in Japan, if they hope to continue working thereafter. Every year, only around half of the EPA workers who take the exam — which is held only in Japanese — pass. If they do, they are allowed to stay and their visas are renewable, but those who fail are sent back home. In response to criticism that the exam’s hurdles are unrealistically and unnecessarily high, the government has tweaked the test, attaching hiragana to all the kanji, introducing a little bit of English and extending the test time for EPA applicants. Also, since 2012, the government has given a second chance to those who fail the exam, out of “diplomatic consideration,” according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Instead of being immediately repatriated, EPA caregivers can now stay in Japan for one more year to prepare for a second chance at the exam “as an exceptional measure.” But even then, more than a third of those who pass anyway go home, according to the labor ministry. Yuki, who got involved in the one-year, pre-arrival training program for Vietnamese caregivers at the request of the Foreign Ministry, said foreign applicants mostly see their stint in Japan as a high-paying job that lasts just a few years, after which they can return home and easily find jobs as translators or tour guides for Japanese visitors and businesses, using the language ability acquired under the EPA program. This, Yuki said, has left nursing care facility operators disenchanted, especially since the majority of the workers have been highly motivated and proved themselves to be valuable staff at care homes. Yas Idei, a journalist who has covered foreign labor issues extensively, called the EPA program a failure. “The government accepted people under EPAs without making it clear whether it wants to welcome foreign caregivers (as a long-term source of labor),” he said. “The minor tweaks of the qualification exam might have helped a few dozen others pass it, but that gives no impact on the gap in the labor market, where the government says Japan will be short 300,000 caregivers by 2025.” Idei said the government intentionally set the hurdle too high for EPA workers to discourage them from settling in Japan, noting that 3 in 4 Japanese working at care facilities don’t have the same state qualification. According to Idei, Japan needs to have a serious debate about how many of the 300,000 care-worker slots it wants to fill with non-Japanese, now that two new systems for bringing in foreign caregivers — through the technical training program and a new visa status for such professionals — are being planned. Germany and some other European countries are also trying to recruit Asian caregivers, with their governments investing heavily in language education, Idei said, noting that, in contrast, Taiwan has imported some 200,000 caregivers as cheap labor, forsaking quality over quantity. “First, Japan needs to decide if it wants to accept caregivers. If it does, the country should also discuss how to make itself an appealing labor market for them, ditching the self-conceited idea that simply by opening doors, good talent will flow in,” he said.

foreigners;nursing care;epa;caregivers

jp0000386

2015/04/26

Unlike elections, referendums are a PR free-for-all

With less than three weeks until the May 17 referendum on whether to consolidate the city of Osaka into five semi-autonomous wards, supporters and opponents of the plan are engaged in an intense and unprecedented media and public relations campaign to win over voters. Unlike elections, where campaigning methods are strictly controlled, there is a remarkable degree of freedom on all sides to debate, and propagate, their message during a referendum campaign. What kind of freedom? First, you’re allowed to drum up support for your position before the official campaign period begins, and you can even harangue potential voters on the day of the referendum. Second, there are no limits on the amount each side can spend to promote its views. Third, political parties do not face detailed rules on the design and number of posters and pamphlets they can print up and pass out advocating their position. Finally, candidates for public office face restrictions on TV commercials. Their messages are about the political party’s activities, not the individual. But there are no real restrictions on TV commercials for a referendum. All of this means that supporters and opponents in the Osaka merger referendum have, in theory at least, unprecedented opportunities to get their messages out via the media and other public relations activities. For Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and his Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) political group, this means directly appealing to voters for support. Over a 12-day period this month, Hashimoto barnstormed the city, holding three town meetings a day lasting about two hours in all of Osaka’s 24 wards. A downloadable pamphlet from the city’s website explains the plan and has been sent to all Osaka residents by mail and was distributed at the town meetings. All major parties opposed to the plan have drawn up their own pamphlets and materials as well. Both are now flooding social media with their views in ways never seen in election campaigns. None of this comes cheap. Osaka Ishin is expected to spend from ¥400 million to ¥500 million on the referendum blitz, while the local segment of the Liberal Democratic Party, which opposes the merger, will invest tens of millions of yen to counter him. Who’s winning the PR war? As of late April, it appears to be the anti-merger camp. Voters and some media are expressing irritation with the way Hashimoto ran the town meetings, sometimes limiting question time. Local media polls in mid-April showed opposition eclipsing support, a reversal of the situation in March. But with fewer limits on campaigning, Osakans are likely to see a very different blitz in the coming days than the usual campaigns, where white-gloved candidates do nothing but shout their name at passers-by. That could be a good thing, as it means more direct and detailed appeals from both sides, helping to ensure participation on May 17 is well above voter turnout rates for elections.

toru hashimoto;referendum;osaka ishin no kai

jp0000387

2015/04/26

Cycling the Kyoto maze could get easier

Kyoto’s historical and cultural treasures have always attracted large numbers of tourists. But getting around the city by car or bus has never been easy, even when traffic is light. Train and subway stations are somewhat limited and not always near the most visited historical sites. Narrow one-way streets abound, and even the main roads are often clogged with vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Long-term residents give directions by joking that your destination is a 10-minute walk or a 30-minute taxi or bus ride away. That makes bicycles particularly popular. After Tokyo and Osaka, Kyoto, with a population of about 1.5 million to Osaka’s 2.7 million, has more people commuting to work or school by bicycle than any other city in the country. Yet that creates its own problems. For many years, bicycle use in Kyoto was loosely regulated and parking, as with autos, was a huge headache. People lined up their bikes, illegally, in long rows that took up half the sidewalk, squeezing foot traffic into a narrow area and making a stroll downtown difficult for those whose natural speed is faster than a turtle. But at the end of March, Kyoto announced plans to make the city more cyclist-friendly by 2020. More money will be spent on adding bicycle lanes, improving public knowledge of safety issues, building parking spaces and working with the private sector to expand bike tours. While some Kyoto roads now have bicycle lanes, there are plans afoot to create new routes in three parts of the city, including virtually its entire center, by 2020. The lanes will be marked with pictographs, not kanji. Efforts to make Kyoto more cyclist-friendly actually began in earnest in 2010, when more than 86,000 illegally parked bicycles were removed by the city. New measures increased the number of private parking lot owners, and there is now authorized parking space to accommodate over 54,000 bicycles, up from about 49,000 in 2010 and 39,000 a decade ago. At the same time, crackdowns on illegal parking meant the city removed just over 54,600 bikes in fiscal 2013, especially from the banks of the Kamo River and city streets late at night, on weekends and holidays. Progress has thus been visible even with the number of tourists on the streets rising rapidly. The latest available figures, from fiscal 2013, show more than 51.6 million tourists visited Kyoto. That includes over 1.1 million foreigners who spent at least one night in Kyoto — a 35 percent increase over the previous year. While fleets of air-conditioned buses with guides speaking nonstop through a public address system the entire tour still shepherd large groups around, not a few foreign tourists, especially from the United States and Europe, prefer to travel individually or in small groups by bicycle. Over the past decade or so, some long-term Kyoto expats have begun to offer bicycle tours of the major temples, shrines and historic sites, or provide English-language information on where, and how, to get around Kyoto on two wheels. While generally agreeing the city is better today than a couple of decades ago when it comes to its bicycle policy, several people have offered specific advice on how to create an even more-cyclist friendly environment. Chris Rowthorn, author of Lonely Planet’s Japan and Kyoto guides, runs his own tour company. He says that while Kyoto is one of the most bikeable cities in Asia, it doesn’t make it easy, particularly foreign cyclists who cannot read Japanese. “The city’s main bicycle parking lots, including the new ones on Oike dori (Oike Avenue, directly across from Kyoto City Hall), lack English-language explanations on the payment machines,” he said. And parking, he says, remains a problem. “There is an acute shortage of places to park bicycles in the city. Kyoto is assiduous about removing bicycles parked on city streets, but much less concerned about building bicycle parking lots or spaces and making them easy to use for foreign visitors,” he said. Sanborn Brown, who created the CycleKyoto.com website, a bilingual reference for tourists, commuters, first-time visitors and long-time residents, offered a half dozen suggestions on what might be done over the coming years. “As much as possible, the city needs to separate cars, bikes and pedestrians. A citywide rental system, like Velib in Paris, would be nice. It would require multiple pickup and drop-off ports, ease of use (read: multilingual instructions) and payment for non-Japanese speakers,” Brown said. Many of the above suggestions have been incorporated into the 2020 plan announced by the city last month. With the Tokyo Olympics that same year, Kyoto’s politicians and merchants are looking forward to greeting large numbers of visitors and making sure they get around smoothly. But given the reliance of Kyoto’s tourism industry on large group tours, taking the kind of additional cyclist-friendly measures seen in some overseas cities could be tough. “The number of cars and tour buses on the road should be reduced if the city really wants to make it safe for cyclists and pedestrians, though this is not likely to happen,” Brown said.

kyoto;tourism;bicycle;kansai perspective

jp0000388

2015/04/21

Taco Bell returns to Japan with launch of Shibuya outlet

What’s the same: that iconic bell sign, friendly and casual staff, and a range of crunchy and soft tacos and burritos. What’s different: a real live yuru-kyara mascot greeting customers, a couple of localized dishes, and prices double or triple those in the United States. U.S. fast food chain Taco Bell Corp. made a much-hyped re-entry into the Japanese market on Tuesday, opening a store in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward through Asrapport Dining Co., a Japanese operator of restaurant franchises. The U.S. restaurant chain, known for its Mexican-inspired menu, operated restaurants in Japan in the late 1980s but later pulled out, with the exception of outlets at U.S. military bases, which remained. On Tuesday morning, Taco Bell aficionados were out in force, lining up before the doors opened. At 10 a.m., as bells rang, an English-speaking staffer and the mascot, named Taco Man, led customers in one by one. “We came here because we wanted to be the first,” said California native Jason Stillwell, a 37-year-old English teacher from Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. He arrived at the store at 7:30 a.m. to be among the first 100 patrons to get a free taco and a T-shirt. “I have a friend who’s a Taco Bell manager back home. So I emailed her and said ‘We have a Taco Bell in Japan too!’ ” The chain’s foray into Japan comes at a time when a handful of U.S. dining chains, including Carl’s Jr. and Shake Shack, are planning to enter the Japanese market, aiming to attract not just domestic customers but also increasing numbers of foreign visitors ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Melissa Lora, president of Taco Bell International, is optimistic that the firm’s second crack at the nation’s ¥24 trillion restaurant market will succeed, stressing the market environment is better than in the late 1980s. “The world has changed,” Lora said. “Back then, no one took pictures of the food. With social media and all the focus on new, interesting foods that are in the world today, we feel now is the perfect time to come into Japan.” Keiko Takasaki, 29, who came with a friend, was among many customers who learned of the store’s opening through Facebook. “I enjoyed Taco Bell in California, where I used to live,” she said. She was looking forward to Japan-only dishes such as shrimp avocado burrito and taco rice. Unfortunately, prices will also be Japanese-style: Most dishes cost ¥500 or ¥600, with the cheapest taco on the menu — a beef crunchy taco — priced at ¥270. Asrapport Dining official Mike Morizumi said the higher prices were inevitable due to the yen’s rapid depreciation over the past two years and because the restaurant chain sees little benefit from economies of scale in Japan at the moment, with just one location. The firm aims to open 15 outlets nationwide within five years, he said. Some customers said the prices might be too stiff. “Taco Bell in America is famous for cheap tacos,” Stillwell said. “If they cost ¥200 or ¥300, it would be (the same as) a regular restaurant.”

restaurants;fast food;shibuya;taco bell

jp0000389

2015/04/07

Under 'Abenomics,' rich thrive but middle class on precipice

This is the third story of a four-part series on evaluating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s namesake economic program, backed by the aggressive monetary-easing by the Bank of Japan. The recent debate over wealth inequality has highlighted an unpleasant fact for policymakers — that the income gap between rich and poor is not shrinking, even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies have been in play for two years now. Ever since the translated version of French economist Thomas Piketty’s best-selling book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” was published in Japan in December, academics have closely scrutinized “Abenomics” and its results. What became clear was that in a society long dominated by families of moderate means — the top 1 percent of wealthy people account for a mere 10 percent of overall incomes — Japan’s middle class is now facing an existential crisis. According to Akio Doteuchi, a senior researcher at the NLI Research Institute, what is threatening people here is that, under the current social structure, virtually anyone in the middle class is at risk of falling into poverty. “It’s like walking in a mine field. Many risks lie ahead of you,” Doteuchi said. “Even if you are in the middle class, if something unexpected happens, you could slip into poverty.” Such risks could include contracting diseases such as cancer and being unable to work, the failure to land a job soon after graduation, or an ill parent who needs looking after. The big problem in Japan is that there are few social safety nets for such situations. In the past, workers had been shielded by the guarantee of lifetime employment at companies. When they retired, they were supported by family members, Doteuchi noted. But now, there is an increasing number of nonregular workers, particularly younger ones, whose financial situations are unstable. More and more single-person households are vulnerable to serious health problems. Data back this up. According to labor ministry figures announced April 1, the number of households living on welfare hit a record 1,618,817 in January. This figure has been on the rise for the last two decades. The country’s relative poverty rate has also edged up over the last 30 years, especially with single mothers and fathers raising children, although the latest data are for 2012. On the other hand, data also show that the rich became even wealthier under Abe’s tenure. Their numbers and the amount of their assets surged in 2013 and are still rising mostly due to sharp gains in stocks triggered by the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing, which started in April 2013, experts said. According to the Nomura Research Institute, the number of wealthy households jumped 24.3 percent, with the amount of their total financial assets rising 28.2 percent in 2013, compared with 2011 figures. And as the stock market uptick continues, so too will the number of wealthy people grow. “Since stocks account for a larger portion of their assets, both the number of wealthy people and their assets are on the rise,” said Hiroyuki Miyamoto, general manager of Nomura Institute’s financial business consulting department. Households on average are believed to have a majority of their assets either in bank accounts or in cash. But the wealthy hold risk assets such as real estate, stocks and bonds — assets more likely to grow in value faster than mere savings accounts, Miyamoto said. But at the same time, the wealthy in Japan are less dominant in terms of overall assets when compared with the rich in the U.S., partly because income levels of top corporate leaders are not as high as those in the U.S. and the tax system levies heavier income taxes on wealthy people than in many other countries, he said. Experts have said the widening gap between haves and have-nots could be an economic driver when a country is rapidly growing. However, once it matures, any wide disparity can hamper economic growth, NLI’s Doteuchi said. Then what policies will help shrink the gap? The first thing the country needs to do is to help young people find stable employment, he said. “Abenomics has boasted economic strength, telling people that higher economic growth will shrink the gap between the haves and have-nots via the trickledown effect,” Doteuchi said. “But is that really true? I think not. Solving inequality is the way to improve the economy.”

poverty;abenomics;wealth;assets

jp0000390

2015/04/07

Tokyo's Ueno Park blossoms as tourist site

Ueno Park, one of Tokyo’s best-known landmarks, is Japan’s first government-designated park, with its origins dating back to the Meiji Era. It was Dutch military Dr. Anthonius Franciscus Bauduin (1820-1885) who first proposed the idea of giving the area special status. At this time of year, hundreds of cherry trees in full bloom add a seasonal color to Ueno Park. Visitors can enjoy illuminated blossoms between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. until April 12 during the Ueno Sakura Matsuri. Japan’s love of sakura (cherry blossoms) is strong. Even in this high-tech era, hanami (cherry blossom viewing) parties under the trees remain popular. In fact, it is not an uncommon sight these days to see foreign tourists also joining in the action. The percentage of tourists, especially those from other parts of Asia, has shot up in recent years. Walking south from JR Ueno Station, you will find the famed Ameyoko shopping arcade, with some 400 shops tightly lining a 400-meter-long stretch. The arcade began as a black market in the ashes of the war, dealing in American goods obtained from Occupation forces. In recent years, food stalls selling dishes from China, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Turkey and other parts of Asian are gaining more prominence, giving the shopping arcade a global diversity. Various ethnic foods are also available on the underground floor of Ameyoko Center Building. Foreign tourists with knowledge of the area come to the floor to buy the ingredients for dishes from their homelands. Despite its origin as the downtown area of Edo, today’s Ueno has everything from natural beauty to international diversity. Easy access from Tokyo Station and Narita Airport also add to its popularity.

cherry blossoms;ueno park

jp0000392

2015/04/23

Foreign visitors top 1.5 million to break March record

Tourist arrivals to Japan topped 1.5 million to break a March record this year as Chinese travelers flocked to the country for cherry blossom season, new figures released Wednesday show. The rise in arrivals to 1.526 million, up 45.3 percent from a year earlier, was also attributed to the weaker yen and expansion of consumption-tax-free products for foreign tourists since October, the Japan National Tourism Organization said. “Japan is now enjoying popularity among foreign tourists with visitors from all countries equally increasing,” said Japan Tourism Agency chief Shigeto Kubo. By country and region, China accounted for the largest share of the total at 338,200 people, up 83.7 percent, followed by Taiwan at 277,900, up 33.2 percent, and South Korea at 268,200, up 39.6 percent, according to the JNTO. The upward trend also extended to European travelers with a record number of British and German tourists in March at 25,200 and 18,400, respectively, in what was attributed at an earlier Easter holiday period. The number of visitors from the Philippines more than doubled to 26,800 from the previous year. According to the JNTO, the number of visitors to Japan between January and March was 4.13 million, up 43.7 percent from the previous year. If the trend continued, international tourist numbers were likely to top 16 million this year. “Foreigners are drawn by public safety, healthy food and rural landscapes that are specific to Japan,” said Shinichi Shimizu, who teaches tourism at the Rikkyo University. Japan also saw a growing trend with Chinese tourists flooding Japan’s most popular cherry blossom viewing spots. JTB Corp., a major travel agency, said the number of inquiries from Chinese tourists had increased after the company started offering cherry blossom tours in English, Chinese, Korean and Thai. Japan is hoping to boost tourist numbers with the government setting a target of 20 million tourists by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics Games. But industry watchers fear the number could drop after the event. The key, they say, is to raise tourist satisfaction levels by offering services in multiple foreign languages. “To lure foreigners to the countryside and to increase repeat visits, local municipalities need to rediscover what is unique to their region and map out a long-term city plan,” Shimizu said.

holidays;tourism;foreigners;jtb;jnto

jp0000394

2015/04/22

Social media wrap-up: The day Taco Bell returned to Japan

After Taco Bell’s brief presence in Japan in the 1980s, the U.S.-based chain exited the market (with the exception of outlets on U.S. military bases). To the delight of fans of fast-food Tex Mex, it was announced in February 2015 that Taco Bell would come back to Japan in April and be operated by Asrapport Dining Co. [ View the story “Social media wrap-up: The day Taco Bell returned to Japan” on Storify ]

restaurants;fast food;shibuya;taco bell

jp0000395

2015/04/25

Cash shortfall among the elderly could push Japan over the edge

Last summer the welfare ministry reported that a record number of households were receiving government assistance, and 47.1 percent of these households were made up of either elderly people only or the elderly and unmarried family members under 18. The media has been reporting for years that an increasing number of seniors are joining the welfare rolls. National pensions were never meant to cover every retiree’s living expenses, but it’s obvious that many are not prepared for their old age. How much do you need to save in order to guarantee a comfortable life when you retire? The anonymous 30-year-old who writes the popular investment blog Setsuyaku Toshi no Susume recently wondered the same thing when he realized his parents would be broke by the time they retired. He will support them in their old age, but he doesn’t want to be a “burden on my own children.” He cites a 2013 survey by the Japan Institute of Life Insurance, who questioned more than 4,000 married couples about their retirement plans. One-third of the respondents said they needed “at least” between ¥200,000 and ¥250,000, and another third answered between ¥250,000 and ¥400,000. Only 5 percent thought they could make it on less than ¥150,000, and 1.7 percent couldn’t do with less than ¥400,000. The average for all responses was ¥220,000. Then JILI asked the same people how much money they needed for a “comfortable” life. The average for all responses came to ¥354,000, or ¥134,000 more than the minimum they said they required. How does that stack up to reality? According to a study carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications last year, the average expenditure of a hypothetical couple whose husband is over 65 and whose wife is over 60, neither of whom work, was ¥239,485, down from ¥242,598 in 2013. After subtracting taxes and insurance, this couple’s income came to ¥177,925 for 2014, down from ¥185,006 in 2013. That means they needed to find an extra ¥62,560 a month, which is ¥4,968 more than they needed in 2013. Things are tougher for single retirees over 60, who in 2014 needed on average ¥41,516 a month extra to make ends meet. Based on current longevity statistics, the model couple’s husband should live to be 80 and the wife 87. Under those circumstances, they would need, over the years, ¥18.5 million more than their income just to survive, and that figure doesn’t take into consideration probable changes in pension outlays or retirement age. Since these figures are averages, some have it easier and some harder. The ministry calculates that the average expenditure for housing by the aforementioned couple was ¥16,158 a month in 2014. Many retired couples own their homes outright, but others are either still paying off loans or renting. Also, average income decreased between 2013 and 2014. More specifically, the couple’s total pension-derived income went from ¥200,309 to ¥190,800. For a single senior it went from ¥114,415 to ¥103,767. At the high end of the pension spectrum are couples where the husband was enrolled in the company-sponsored kōsei nenkin system and also receives a basic pension ( kiso nenkin ), while the wife, as a full-time homemaker, qualified as a “No. 3” national pension subscriber, and thus receives her own basic pension. Such a couple could receive up to ¥230,000 a month in pension payments when they reach retirement age. But most seniors don’t fit that model. First, the retiree has to have paid into the system his or her whole working life to receive the maximum amount. Second, people whose employers didn’t belong to the kōsei nenkin system only receive the basic pension — but only if they have paid into it for at least 25 years, regardless of whether or not they worked. The basic pension maxes out at ¥70,000 if you’ve paid at least 40 years, but many people haven’t. Ever since employment practices were deregulated in the ’90s, more workers have been designated as nonregular employees, which means they don’t have to belong to the kosei nenkin system. They still have to pay into the basic pension system, but many don’t, because they can’t afford the fixed premiums. Since the retiring boomer generation is large and a good portion has managed to save, it may not be a big problem in the short run, but if all of them tap into their savings at the same time, it could have an effect on the national debt. Banks use that enormous savings pool to buy Japanese government bonds, which keeps the government afloat. The current pension system was designed for a different economic climate. Basic pensions were meant for self-employed people, who could sell or live off their businesses when they retired. They weren’t meant for part-timers or contract workers, who tend to live from hand to mouth.

retirement;poverty;pension funds;old age