Datasets:

multiIR

/

toy_data

like 0

People out and about in the capital talk about their predictions for the Rio games and Tokyo's turn as host city in 2020.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F10%2Fvoices%2Fviews-tokyo-hopes-expectations-rio-olympics%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p8-views-g-20160811.jpg

en

Views from Tokyo: What are your hopes and expectations for the Rio Olympics?

www.japantimes.co.jp

Nischa Janssen Flight attendant, 35 (American) I’m looking forward to seeing Michael Phelps win again — he’s an outstanding athlete. With all the circumstances and issues leading up to the Olympics, I’m just hoping everything runs smoothly until the end. My most memorable Olympic moment would have to be the Harding-Kerrigan skating scandal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, but let’s hope nothing so scandalous happens this time! Hiroshi Takehara Event planner, 30 (Japanese) I was looking forward to watching Japan’s men’s soccer team, but with only one game left (and with the team having lost and drawn its first games), I’m afraid that all we can do is pray for the best. I’m expecting Japan to get more than 30 medals, or at least as many as we can! I’m very excited about Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympics, so we’d better show them what we’re capable of. Alisa Iwaki Student, 20 (Japanese) I’m definitely rooting for 16-year-old swimmer Rikako Ikee — she’s come incredibly far at such a young age. But I’ll never forget Kosuke Kitajima’s impressive swimming gold medal wins at previous Olympics — he made me feel proud to be Japanese. If we continue winning medals like we have in the last few days, I’m sure Japan will do well. Ludi Samik Ibrahim Customer care, 32 (Indonesian) I’ve been rooting for Indonesia’s badminton teams ever since our singles victories at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. We have a big chance of winning gold again this year. Like every time, I have no doubt the U.S. and China will win the most medals. Hopefully the Olympics will help Rio in the long run. What’s important is that the games promote diversity and unity, which are crucial in these turbulent times. Cathy Quinn (Australian) I have high expectations for our Campbell sisters to win the 100m freestyle swimming races. I’m also looking forward to the Nigerian marathon runners and, of course, Michael Phelps. I haven’t followed Japan’s progress much, but I was really impressed by Hiromi Miyake’s bronze in weightlifting. The people here are so lovely and helpful, so I have no doubt that the Tokyo Olympics will be wonderful. Nabil Hasan Student, 16 (Bangladeshi) I’m probably most excited about the 4x100m relay races — they should be good. I support Bangladesh, but I think that the Olympics Games are a great chance for everybody to come together, appreciate other cultures and realize that the media’s negative representations of various nationalities and races are false. Interested in gathering views in your neighborhood? E-mail community@japantimes.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/10/voices/views-tokyo-hopes-expectations-rio-olympics/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/b309f395561850bf9ab8db19c53badabc94892de48f1eb140fd4fe27260e3d24.json

Wake up, it's a beautiful morning Waking up to natural sunlight is not just a nice way to wake up, it actually inhibits the release of the hormone melatoni

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F20%2Fdigital%2Ftech-ways-deal-everyday-chores%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p20-komoriya-ontech-a-20160821-870x416.jpg

en

Tech ways to deal with everyday chores

www.japantimes.co.jp

Wake up, it’s a beautiful morning Waking up to natural sunlight is not just a nice way to wake up, it actually inhibits the release of the hormone melatonin, which keeps you less alert, and helps you get up faster. Forcing yourself out of bed first thing in the morning to open the curtains first, however, is another matter. Mornin’ is a welcome invention to anyone who makes a habit of hitting the “snooze” button. This Bluetooth-controlled device clips onto the curtain rail (the kind with tracks) and will pull open a curtain at whatever time you set it for via a smartphone app. The app, which can be set different daily opening times, can control up to four Mornin’ devices, so it can be used for more than one room. Mechanically, it is pretty simple: Set on rollers, it’s hidden behind the curtain, which it literally pulls it with it when triggered to move. When Mornin’ was released in July, it was such a popular idea that its first batch of 1,000 sold out in just one day. Mornin’ costs ¥3,985 and can be purchased via amazon.jp, while the app is available on iTunes Japan. It needs three AA batteries that will last for about five months. mornin.jp Knowing when the heat is on The Earphone Jack Thermometer by Thanko is a handy little device if you like to keep an eye on the weather, or need to track the temperature of something specific. A small earplug-sized gadget, it just slots directly into the earphone jack of an iPhone of iPad. As a “non-contact” thermometer, it can take the temperature of items from up to 2 centimeters away, and it only takes a second to do so. The dedicated app also allows users to make a log of temperatures taken, which can be checked on an Excel sheet. This may sound like an unusual tool to have, but it can be particularly useful to mothers who need to check the temperature of milk or foods, as well as a handy device for cooks or home beer brewers. Available via the Thanko webstore, the Earphone Jack Thermometer is priced at ¥6,980. bit.ly/jacktherm Laundry on the go Removing a stain on an item of clothing is sometimes a laborious task. Usually, it means having to hand wash the mark and then run the whole item through the machine again. Sharp, however has come up with a “portable washing machine,” designed to treat stains directly. The UW-A1 by Sharp is just 4 by 4 centimeters wide and 16 cm tall, and uses ultrasonic vibrations to help push marks out of clothing. Designed to be used like a fat pen, it’s a hand held, cordless and rechargeable device. All you need to do is soak the stained part of clothing in the sink or tray of about a centimeter of water and then run the tip of the device over the mark. The tip vibrates at 38,000 times per second, which creates tiny bubbles that push the dirt out of fabrics. According to test runs, the UW-A1 can remove shirt-collar stains in around one minute and it is far gentler on fabrics than rubbing them with a stain-remover. It comes in silver, pink and gold and is available from most large electronics stores for around ¥15,000. www.sharp.co.jp/sentaku/uw

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/20/digital/tech-ways-deal-everyday-chores/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/5342d8b5a541088fd91f104d7403ea861c11c16fb301b6ca477907465c549041.json

Tim Tebow crushed a batting-practice fastball with a confident left-handed swing, sending it into the trees next to the scoreboard beyond right field. The

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fbaseball%2Fmlb%2Ftebow-shows-skills-mlb-workout%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-tebow-a-20160901-870x623.jpg

en

Tebow shows skills in MLB workout

www.japantimes.co.jp

Tim Tebow crushed a batting-practice fastball with a confident left-handed swing, sending it into the trees next to the scoreboard beyond right field. The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback only paused an instant to appreciate his shot, and then he went right back to work on the unlikely next chapter in his unique athletic story. Tebow took his first big swings at a baseball career Tuesday, showing off a powerful bat and other developing skills during a workout in front of dozens of major league scouts and reporters. The 29-year-old aspiring outfielder went through drills at the University of Southern California’s Dedeaux Field for over an hour, confidently chasing a dream deferred for 12 years. Declaring his football career essentially over, Tebow insists he is serious about becoming more than a baseball curiosity. “The goal would be to have a career in the big leagues,” Tebow said. “I just want to be someone to pursue what I believe in, what I’m passionate about. A lot of people will say, ‘But what if you fail? What if you don’t make it?’ Guess what? I don’t have to live with regret. I did everything I could. I pushed it. I would rather be someone that could live with peace and no regret than what-if, or being scared.” Tebow’s heavily muscled, 115-kg physique and 6.70-ish time in the 60-yard dash were impressive to the scouts. He also showed undeniable hitting ability with a series of line drives and long homers during batting practice. But Tebow also showed he still needs baseball seasoning when he faced live pitching from former big-leaguers David Aardsma and Chad Smith, who repeatedly fooled him with off-speed pitches. Tebow could only grin in frustration after he fanned on a series of changeups and breaking balls. “There is 100 percent nerves, no question about it,” Tebow said. “When you’re at the combine or a pro day, you have your body of work for four years, everything that you did, so it’s not just that one day. Here, you might have seen me when I was 17, but you haven’t seen me since. A lot goes into it, so you’d better show something. A lot of nerves, a lot of pressure, for sure.” Tebow hasn’t played baseball regularly since his junior year at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Florida. He left early to enroll at Florida, beginning a fabled college football career that led to the 2007 Heisman and two national titles for the Gators. But 12 years ago, Tebow was a .494-hitting, all-county outfielder who loved hitting a baseball every bit as much as he loved leading a huddle. “The second-hardest decision I ever made was giving up baseball to go to the University of Florida and play football,” said Tebow, whose choice of Florida over Alabama was the toughest. “There wasn’t a season that went by that it wasn’t something that I thought about. When I felt like I had this opportunity, I wanted to take it and pursue it with everything I had.” A few big-league teams talked privately with Tebow after the workout, and he seems unlikely to have trouble finding an organization willing to give a chance to a celebrity with clear baseball ability, however rudimentary. “It’s not about publicity,” Tebow said. “It’s definitely not about money. It’s a pay cut to do this. Just pursue what you love, right? Regardless of what else happens. Regardless of if you fail, or if you fall on your face. If that’s the worst thing that can happen, that’s OK.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/31/baseball/mlb/tebow-shows-skills-mlb-workout/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/3b7a0d4cf744f53c4e3205e633f05d8cc84a5f5dc454eb87314ea082e6757e74.json

The bulk of "Demythologizing Pure Land Buddhism" is a collection of essays by Rijin Yasuda (1900-1982), a Shin Buddhist thinker in the modernizing traditio

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fbooks%2Fbook-reviews%2Fdemythologizing-pure-land-buddhism%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p22-treyvaud-demythologizing-b-20160825.jpg

en

Demythologizing Pure Land Buddhism

www.japantimes.co.jp

The bulk of “Demythologizing Pure Land Buddhism” is a collection of essays by Rijin Yasuda (1900-1982), a Shin Buddhist thinker in the modernizing tradition of Kiyozawa Manshi (1863-1903). Yasuda “taught a conception of Amida and the Pure Land that made them existential realities in the present,” as translator Paul B. Watt puts it in his introduction: The Pure Land for Yasuda was not a cosmic bliss dimension but rather “that place where sentient beings discover their true identity as the Tathagata.” Demythologizing Pure Land Buddhism, by Paul B. Watt 196 pages UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I PRESS, Nonfiction. Watt’s readable and wide-ranging introduction does not assume any familiarity with Shin Buddhist theology, but the essays are a different story. These essays were written for an audience of students and intellectuals, and the influence of Heidegger and other German thinkers on Yasuda’s thought, both directly and via the philosophers of Kyoto school, is palpable (not least because Watt makes a point of leaving German words in the original untranslated, albeit end-noted). A single sentence might borrow from two or three other languages: “The realm of dharma-nature that is the adornment of the mind of aspiration is also the name as the fact of wirklich.” This is not to fault the translation, however. The dense, methodical texture is, as Watt intended, a faithful recreation of the style of the originals essays, right down to Yasuda’s page-long paragraphs. For those with an interest in modern Shin Buddhist thought, Yasuda’s bracing humanism might well justify the demands of the form.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/27/books/book-reviews/demythologizing-pure-land-buddhism/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/e40e2e07d4c1a65349937e9b13deb46555e4c6f23e917a7811197800d77f5d2a.json

In Russia, the U.S. now faces a rival great power that is willing to take the kind of decisive action to alter the course of events in the Middle East that had previously been limited to Western states.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fsyria-russia-u-s-fight-mideast%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-Apps-a-20160827-870x612.jpg

en

In Syria, Russia and U.S. fight for the Mideast

www.japantimes.co.jp

Two years into Washington’s war against the Islamic State group, it may finally be winning. At the same time, however, its influence over events in the broader Middle East seems perhaps terminally in decline. What happens in the coming months and years in Syria will be key to the future shape of the region. No country has challenged U.S. policymakers more — and the Obama administration has faced heavy criticism. This month, however, has seen what feels like the first good news for the United States from Syria since the uprising began. In early August, U.S.-backed Syrian forces seized back the town of Manbij. Footage of jubilant locals embracing those they see as liberators has been flashed around the globe, providing exactly the kind of propaganda victory Washington needed. Manbij could open the door for an offensive against the true militant heartlands. IS is losing ground, money and support. It may soon be stripped of remaining strongholds in Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq. But the battle for the future of Syria — and, indeed, the Middle East — is much more complex than the fight against IS. And there are powerful forces — particularly Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Iran and what remains of Bashar Assad’s government — that also want to call the shots. The U.S. and Europe long struggled to find an approach to Syria, undecided on how hard to push against Assad and how much to back — or trust — the opposition. Moscow, in contrast, has always known which side it was on. Last week, Russia shocked U.S. analysts by moving long-range bombers to Iran, flying through Iraq airspace to strike targets in Syria. It was the first time Iran’s rulers had allowed their military bases to be used by a foreign power since the 1979 revolution, a dramatic sign of the growing Russia-Iran axis. The strikes came against the backdrop of a much broader escalation by the Syrian government and its allies that some reports suggest has included a handful of chemical strikes. In Aleppo, the United Nations says an upsurge in fighting in recent weeks has killed hundreds and markedly worsened the already catastrophic humanitarian situation. In many respects, the relatively small town of Manbij is a sideshow compared with some of the larger, longer running battles and sieges. But for the U.S., it was a major achievement. The victors were, on paper at least, the “moderate Syrian opposition,” an entity the U.S. has been desperately hoping would come into existence for years. Given its unsuccessful and wasteful early attempts at building that opposition, this victory is no small deal. The reality was always somewhat more complex — according to some accounts, up to 60 percent of Syrian Democratic Fighters are Kurdish. While the group also includes Sunni and Assyrian fighters, it’s not the kind of pan-Syrian force the West would really like to see. It is, critics say, essentially dominated by the Syrian Kurdish YPD — which means its successes are viewed with suspicion by neighboring Turkey — no fan of Kurdish separatism — and Iraq. Whether the U.S. can grow enough moderate local forces to significantly alter the larger conflict remains unclear. Eventual peace will likely come down to a negotiated deal that must involve both local Syrian actors and their international backers. The broader geopolitics now seem clear. Moscow has put itself firmly on the side of the Shiite-run Tehran-Damascus axis. At the same time, however, the U.S. is drifting further from its key Sunni regional partners, particularly Saudi Arabia and Turkey. That’s not necessarily a criticism of President Barack Obama — history handed him a nightmarish situation. The more robust interventionist approach of the George W. Bush administration was no more effective — and in many respects a lot more costly. Obama has had his share of successes, in particular, avoiding war with Iran. Most importantly, the kind of military operation the U.S. is currently pursuing in the region is much more sustainable. Broadening U.S. military and diplomatic focus beyond the Middle East was, after all, one of Obama’s earliest ambitions. The U.S. is much less dependent on Middle Eastern energy. It also has growing responsibilities and worries elsewhere, not least in confronting a rising China and resurgent Russia. It is in its growing confrontation with Moscow, however, that things get complicated. In Russia, the U.S. now faces a rival great power that is willing to take the kind of decisive action to alter the course of events in the Middle East that had previously been limited to Western states. Neither Moscow nor Washington, it’s clear, have any enthusiasm for the kind of troop-heavy missions the West tried in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are very different conflicts, fought largely by local forces with support and advice from powerful outside sponsors. Despite what some in the U.S. might want, there is little appetite in Washington for expanding strikes to deliberately weaken Assad’s forces. Such action might, in any case, merely prolong Syria’s nightmare. Attacking anything belonging to nuclear-capable Russia, of course, is not on the table at all. It would just be too risky. There’s clearly a significant moral gap between the unrestrained brutality of Putin and Assad and Washington’s more limited approach, moderated as it is by a desire to keep down unnecessary casualties and collateral damage. Still, the West doesn’t have nearly as much moral high ground as it might like to believe. Washington is seen still turning a blind eye to the actions of its allies — for example, in Saudi Arabia’s increasingly bloody Yemen intervention. Whoever wins the U.S. presidency in November will want to put their own mark on America’s role in the Middle East. Where things stand in Syria when they take office, however, will hugely influence their options. That means plenty for all sides to fight for in the weeks and months to come. Don’t expect things to get any simpler anytime soon. Peter Apps is a Reuters global affairs columnist.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/26/commentary/world-commentary/syria-russia-u-s-fight-mideast/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/a674e5f3eb8dd275a259cd0a7ac2e2354f8d4f5fb37d369bf095c4cef73fb16e.json

Japanese animators have good reason to hate the label "new Miyazaki," meaning successor to animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, who retired from feature filmma

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Ffilms%2Ffilm-reviews%2Fname-makoto-shinkai-next-big-name-anime%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-schilling-your-a-20160901-870x580.jpg

en

'Your Name.': Makoto Shinkai could be the next big name in anime

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japanese animators have good reason to hate the label “new Miyazaki,” meaning successor to animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, who retired from feature filmmaking in 2013. First, it saddles them with fan expectations that their films will resemble — or imitate — the master’s. Second, their box-office figures are compared to Miyazaki’s, which soared to stratospheric heights that few rivals or successors have ever approached. So here’s a shout-out to Makoto Shinkai, among the most prominent of the “new Miyazakis,” whose latest feature “Your Name.” is distributed by Toho, the same company that handled all of Miyazaki’s biggest hits. However, its late-August release date is not quite the mid-July box-office sweet spot once regularly reserved for Miyazaki’s masterpieces. Animated with a blend of gorgeous, realistic detail and emotionally grounded fantasy that make comparisons with Miyazaki not absurd, Shinkai’s films to date, including his 2007 break-through “5 Centimeters per Second” (“Byosoku 5 Senchimetoru”), display a sensibility more romantic than Miyazaki’s, with stories about young lovers instead of the maestro’s plucky young heroines on various sorts of quests. “Your Name.,” whose title and story echo a famous postwar radio drama and film trilogy (1953-54) about star-crossed lovers, is the latest in this line. Based on Shinkai’s original script, the film focuses on two teenagers: Mitsuha (voiced by Mone Kamishiraishi), a girl living unhappily in the countryside, and Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a Tokyo high school student who is something of an architecture buff. Your Name. ( Kimi no Na wa. ) Rating 4 out of 5 Run Time 105 mins Language Japanese Opens Now showing To the surprise of no one who has ever seen a Japanese seishun eiga (youth drama), these two are fated to connect, but the film’s way of accomplishing this is unusual, to say the least: They switch bodies in their dreams. (Nobuhiko Obayashi’s similarly themed “I Are You, You Am Me” [“Tenkosei,” 1982] was a remarkably progressive look at gender bending for its time, but with no dreaming whatsoever.) Shinkai’s movie also delivers — actually, over-delivers — the comedy of adolescent embarrassment and awkwardness, with Mitsuha, transformed into Taki, finding herself using the feminine “watashi” (“I”) to his pals’ surprise and fumbling for the gender-appropriate “ore.” These and other gags are cute enough, but so are similar ones in dozens of local TV sitcoms. This film, however, also regards its gender-crossing pair with a tender seriousness that is uniquely Shinkai’s, as they struggle with their odd situations and unfamiliar yearnings. They leave each other notes and even quarrel. Of course, once things reach this stage, we know that love will bloom. But at the heart of the story’s mystery is a once-in-a-thousand year comet that appeared in the skies a month before the story begins. Did it portend doom for the budding relationship of our central pair? The plot takes many twists, but stays focused on the respective fates of Taki and Mitsuha. Supporting characters, such as Miki (Masami Nagasawa), Taki’s sexy, worldly wise senior at the coffee shop where he works part-time, and Mitsuha’s old-school grandmother (Etsuko Ishihara) and no-nonsense kid sister (Kanon Tani), serve primarily to highlight the two principals’ personalities and dilemmas (including the dilemma posed by Taki’s awkward crush on Miki). But as climax tops dramatic climax, with the heavens erupting in dazzling displays of color and light, “Your Name.” becomes like the dream almost everyone has from time to time, of the lover too perfect, the encounter too short and the ending too abrupt, with bliss dissolving into thin air as waking life takes hold. Yet something remains — a memory, however faint, of paradise. “Your Name.” gets that something, a blend of aching pathos and glimmer of unearthly beauty, memorably right. Miyazaki would not have made this film, but Makoto Shinkai did. Hopefully, just maybe, he will lose the “new Miyazaki” tag forever.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/31/films/film-reviews/name-makoto-shinkai-next-big-name-anime/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/4bbb837557bad5a53ca517cea891f74b031c046f235640d057efbbae2819a652.json

When her mother passed away, a 59-year-old single woman was struck with a sense of absolute loneliness. "There were times when I didn't speak to anyone on

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnational%2Fsocial-issues%2Fcollective-homes-solution-japan-dont-want-live-alone%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-sharehouse-a-20160831-870x575.jpg

en

Collective homes a solution for those in Japan who don't want to live alone

www.japantimes.co.jp

When her mother passed away, a 59-year-old single woman was struck with a sense of absolute loneliness. “There were times when I didn’t speak to anyone on weekends, and I felt a sense of crisis, thinking I shouldn’t live on like this,” said the woman, a Japanese language teacher who asked not to be named. She moved in to what is known as a collective house, a concept similar to a shared house but one that offers a little more privacy. Collective houses typically have a common living and dining space but private bathrooms and kitchens. Residents of Collective House Seiseki in the Tokyo city of Tama, where the woman lives, take turns cleaning the common areas. The building had 26 residents in 16 households as of the end of July. They ranged in age from infants to people in their 80s. Collective houses are gradually being looked to by single middle-aged people and seniors as a way to live with others while retaining a measure of privacy. “After moving in, I dislocated my shoulder one night, but I was helped by one of the other residents, who called an ambulance and came with me to the hospital,” she said. When the devastating 2011 Tohoku quake rattled Tokyo, residents stuck together, sharing food and drinks. There is a great mix of ages and backgrounds. On the day a reporter visited, a 4-year-old girl was nearby during an interview, blowing bubbles. Later that day, many residents gathered in the dining room where curry was served, made by the duty cook. Whether to eat and when is up to each resident. While residents take turns cleaning and making dinner once or twice a month, the elderly handle less physically demanding tasks, such as assisting with cooking rather than going shopping and carrying heavy luggage. “It’s sometimes bothersome since everything is decided through negotiations, but it always teaches me a lesson, since there are people in all sorts of ages and backgrounds,” said Yuki Yahata, a 34 year-old office worker who lives there with his wife and 1-year-old child. Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Collective Housing Corporation operates 20 houses, including the Tama property. Units vary in size from one room to two-bedroom flats with a private combined living room, kitchen and dining area, with monthly rent ranging from ¥60,000 to ¥140,000. The nonprofit says briefing sessions are increasingly attended by people in their 50s and 60s who are widowed or divorced. The group says collective housing started in Northern Europe and became more common after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. Many young people now are open to sharing a roof with others, even after they get married or start raising a family. As such, the ages and occupations of residents are diverse. Mie Karino, director of the NPO, said: “There are people who wish to be connected with the others while at the same time staying independent, regardless of whether they have a child or not. With a decreasing birthrate and an aging population, it could become a new way of living.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/30/national/social-issues/collective-homes-solution-japan-dont-want-live-alone/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/889624dd5249020011c915e05c96c65bc46d8069d388bd5be9927593d63e0382.json

A recent spate of defections suggests that some North Korean elites are losing faith in the country's future under Kim Jong Un.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F24%2Feditorials%2Frising-tide-n-korean-defections%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Rising tide of North Korean defections

www.japantimes.co.jp

It was revealed last week that Thae Yong Ho, deputy ambassador of the North Korean Embassy in the United Kingdom, has defected. He is the most senior North Korean diplomatic official to ever defect from the North to the South. Thae is the most recent in a number of defections, prompting speculation that Pyongyang is growing more unstable. The key word here is “speculation.” While there are indications of instability and uncertainty, Kim Jung Un remains North Korea’s supreme leader and there is no viable challenge to his authority. Thae has an impressive pedigree. His father was a general who fought with Kim Il Sung, founder of the North Korean state and the grandfather of Kim Jung Un. Thae went to high school in China and speaks Chinese and English along with his native tongue. That fluency made him a very visible figure in London, where he was a glib defender of the Pyongyang government and its policies. His wife was equally well connected: Her father was also a close associate of the senior Kim. His children attended British schools; one received a university degree and the other went to a London high school. The entire family defected to South Korea. After several days of silence, South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced that Thae left because he was “tired of Kim Jong Un’s regime.” The North responded through its KCNA news agency by denouncing Thae as “human scum” and a “criminal” who had been under investigation for “intentionally leaking secrets, embezzling state property” and a “sex offense.” Thae’s defection is only the most recent — and public — in a recent spate of such moves. There are reports that a North Korean general and several diplomats recently bolted in China. A Korean Workers’ Party official fled while in Russia earlier this year. Yet another diplomat, working in Thailand, defected two years ago. A teenage math prodigy from an elite family sought asylum at the South Korean consulate in Hong Kong after participating in the International Mathematics Olympiad there in July. In one of the biggest black eyes for the North Korean regime, in April 13 waitresses at a North Korean restaurant in China fled to the South as well. The total number of defectors reaching South Korea jumped 15 percent in the first six months of this year compared with 2015. The Pyongyang government has two concerns about the rising tide of defections. The first is the insight that they, especially those from the highest levels of elite society and the government, can shed on how North Korea and the Kim regime operate. In fact, Thae can offer little insight on this. While he worked with top officials like Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho — previously North Korea’s ambassador to the U.K. and then chief negotiator for the six-party talks over its nuclear program — he has lived in London for over a decade and has little direct knowledge of Pyongyang’s dynamics. Moreover, while foreign outposts like embassies are notorious for raising money (both legally and illegally), those operations are highly compartmentalized and Thae may have little knowledge about even those within his own embassy. More revealing would be information provided by the general who allegedly defected in China: He is said to have managed the government’s illicit accounts in the General Politics Bureau. Still more worrisome for the regime is the increasing readiness of elites to flee. This suggests growing uncertainty and concern even among cadres that have benefited most from government policy and have been insulated from hardship. Loyalty toward the leadership has been diminishing for some time and the government’s once-iron grip on all dimensions of society has weakened. Periodic reports of public executions and news that there is a crackdown underway against officials responsible for ensuring the loyalty of elites and security forces tasked with keeping an eye on North Koreans working overseas suggest that brute force and raw fear are the most potent currency to keep North Koreans in line. North Korea’s economy is not strong, but it has been stable in recent years. South Korean sources reckon that it has been growing since 2010, although it shrank 1.1 percent in 2015. That tightening should continue following the imposition of tougher sanctions agreed by the United Nations and signs that China is finally taking those resolutions seriously. While ordinary North Koreans have long been accustomed to hardship, the upper classes have been spared many difficulties. That may be changing. This doesn’t mean the end is looming for the Kim regime. It has proven remarkably resilient, and it retains considerable resources and the ability to enforce its will on those it governs. The evidence does suggest that strains will intensify, however, and as they do, the world needs to be prepared. North Korean military capabilities are formidable. Its nuclear and missile forces threaten Japan and other countries in the region. It may soon possess the ability to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead that could hit the United States. A government that possesses these weapons and fears for its survival should not be underestimated.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/24/editorials/rising-tide-n-korean-defections/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/47a69482101baa21fa0f0c72cbd2a1bc5ae663ed08bdbd7d1a1b2d7b15522983.json

It's a measure of the parlous mood in Latin America's most conflicted nation that the fate of the Colombian peace process is still anyone's guess.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fnow-colombians-must-decide-nations-fate%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p10-margolis-a-20160831-870x465.jpg

en

Now Colombians must decide their nation's fate

www.japantimes.co.jp

In the coming weeks, Colombians will be asked to cast a vote like none other in the country’s history. The sole question on the ballot will be whether Latin America’s third most populous nation should ratify a historic peace agreement to end the longest-running guerrilla insurgency in the Western Hemisphere. It seems like a silly question: After a conflict that has raged for half a century, taken 220,000 lives and uprooted more than 6 million people, what’s to decide? And yet, it’s a measure of the parlous mood in Latin America’s most conflicted nation that the fate of the Colombian peace process is still anyone’s guess. After all, the talks between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have dragged on since November 2012, suffered multiple setbacks and left some vexing details hanging. One sticking point is that despite their tacit agreement to lay down weapons, FARC will not be fully disarmed by the time Colombians vote on the referendum, which is scheduled for early October. The end of the insurgency doesn’t mean drug trafficking will stop, nor will it compel holdout groups, such as the estimated 2,000-strong National Liberation Army (ELN), to cease their hostilities. While no one imagined that ending the longest-running war in the Americas would be simple, Colombians would be forgiven for wondering what comes next and who’ll pay the price. In many ways, the 297-page agreement unveiled in Havana on Aug. 24 is just the beginning of an even trickier moment for the Andean nation of nearly 50 million people. Colombian lawmakers must still sign off on the plan, which Santos submitted to them on Thursday. Likewise, the guerrilla leaders will have to consult their top guns at an undisclosed location in the Colombian jungle. Santos doggedly insists that once the accord is finally signed, Colombians will vote “overwhelmingly” to support peace. He has argued, convincingly, that war’s end will encourage investment, bringing a “peace dividend” of up to 1.5 percent annual growth. (Of course, that will be at least partly offset by the estimated $16.8 billion Colombia will spend rebuilding the country.) That’s one reason why two-thirds of Colombia’s small businesses, which generate 67 percent of the country’s jobs, back the peace plan. An August poll by Invamer backed this claim, showing that two-thirds of those surveyed planned to vote for the deal. (Another poll showed Colombians more evenly divided.) But that’s not the whole story. Invamer also reported that few Colombians believed that peace will spread wealth in the countryside (37 percent), reduce ideologically motivated violence (22 percent), impel FARC to compensate their victims (20 percent) or lead ex-combatants to fight drug trafficking (17 percent). There’s reason for skepticism. Start with the fact that Santos’ peace initiative was seen by many Colombians not just as a gamble but an act of political sedition. After all, Santos’ predecessor Alvaro Uribe had waged an outright war against the FARC, vastly reducing their numbers and firepower — with Santos as his defense minister. Uribe left office with soaring ratings, and his protege, a political novice, swept into power on a hero’s coattails. By reversing course and reaching out to FARC, Santos not only scrapped Uribe’s hawkish line but also turned his former mentor into his fiercest rival, who still commands a respectable following. What’s clear now is that the fate of Colombian peace turns less on the nuances of the proposal than it does on the battle between the country’s political brokers, which is raging. Though war-weary Colombians gave Santos the benefit of doubt, re-electing him over a hardliner in 2014, the arduous talks and relentless attacks by “Uribistas” have taken their toll. After Santos’ six years in office, only one in four Colombians approve of his government. Santos’ error was not trying to woo the enemy into a deal but in misreading the country’s misgivings over the terms of peace. After half a century of bloody insurgency and failed truces, loathing for FARC runs deep in Colombia, and the government’s concessions to former combatants risk seeming overly generous. Critics are especially galled by the provisions that allow penitent guerrillas to avoid jail and even run for political office if they come clean. “Colombians clearly wanted an end to war, but not necessarily this agreement,” Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy research center, told me. “They wonder if the government has given up too much to a group already on the run and with little political support.” With an unprecedented truce at hand, Santos hasn’t flinched. Only now he must not just bring home the peace but also convince his compatriots that it wasn’t surrender. Mac Margolis writes about Latin America for Bloomberg View.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/30/commentary/world-commentary/now-colombians-must-decide-nations-fate/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/843b1becbf1577a1a3a5ecc43d8d94d61dc58c8ce7c50feef2e5cfb420b541bc.json

Two-time defending champion Petra Kvitova needed just an hour Thursday to beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-1 and move into the semifinals of the Connecticut

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fmore-sports%2Ftennis%2Fkvitova-radwanska-advance-new-haven%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-tennis-a-20160827.jpg

en

Kvitova, Radwanska advance in New Haven

www.japantimes.co.jp

Two-time defending champion Petra Kvitova needed just an hour Thursday to beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-1 and move into the semifinals of the Connecticut Open, despite suffering from a cold. Looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as a four-time winner in the tournament, Kvitova overpowered the Olympic doubles champion, breaking her four times — three during the 25-minute final set. “I think that sometimes I can’t really pay too much attention how I feel,” Kvitova said. “It’s just going out there, just being strong mentally, think about the next point, think about the tennis.” The Olympic bronze medalist and two-time Wimbledon champion has been criticized during her career for inconsistent play. But the Czech star will be looking for her fifth consecutive appearance in the finals here and her third straight title. She also won in 2012. “They should look at New Haven,” she said about her critics. “It’s always nice coming somewhere when you feel, you know, at a home and you know you can play well. It always gives you (a) little bit more confidence than normally.” She will face top-seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the semifinals. Radwanska beat lucky loser Kirstin Flipkens of Belgium 6-1, 6-4. The world’s fourth-ranked player had an easy time in the first set, but needed a break in the ninth game of the second set to secure the win over the 30-year-old Flipkens, who struggled with an injury to her left hand. Nishikori looks to peak KYODO Kei Nishikori said Thursday he is hoping to hit his best form of the season at the upcoming U.S. Open. World No. 7 Nishikori goes into the Grand Slam having recently won the bronze medal at the Rio Games, where he gave Japan its first tennis medal at the Olympics in almost a century. “I’ve come here hoping to be at my peak at this tournament. I want to play with confidence,” the sixth-seeded Nishikori told a news conference. In Rio, Nishikori lost to the eventual gold medalist, second-ranked Andy Murray, in the semifinals, but rebounded to outlast fifth-ranked Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-7 (1-7), 6-3 to win Japan’s first Olympic tennis medal in 96 years. In his first tournament after the games, he fell in straight sets to Australia’s Bernard Tomic in the third round in Cincinnati. “I felt I was able to improve my level under pressure that is unique to the Olympics,” said Nishikori, who lost in the quarterfinals of the London Olympics four years ago. “I came through after struggling against Nadal and it was a really fulfilling Olympics.” Nishikori will be seeking his first Grand Slam title in New York, where he reached the final two years ago.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/26/more-sports/tennis/kvitova-radwanska-advance-new-haven/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/5a073098bb4126c8e7a8ce80ae314172538eb0d9d1aa2c990194d522b0f661d3.json

Insisting on maintaining a facility that has only brought shame and embarrassment to the U.S. is wrong.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fguantanamo-remains-stain-u-s-policy%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-chelala-a-20160830-870x605.jpg

en

Guantanamo remains a stain on U.S. policy

www.japantimes.co.jp

The U.S. government’s recent decision to send 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United Arab Emirates is the largest and most recent detainee transfer under President Barack Obama. The transfer, however, doesn’t hide the fact that Guantanamo (“Gitmo”) remains a stain on the reputation of the United States. Gitmo was opened in January 2002, under the administration of President George W. Bush, for the purpose of locking up foreign terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks and subsequent U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Some 779 men have been brought there since it opened. Nine prisoners have died at the facility. While most of them were released by Bush, 161 were released during Obama’s administration. Only 61 prisoners remain in Guantanamo, of which only seven are facing criminal charges. Both Republicans and some Democrats claim that Guantanamo prisoners are too dangerous to keep on U.S. soil and reject the idea of bringing them to the U.S. for trial. Keeping an individual locked up for years under administrative detention is in itself a judicial travesty, however, and maintaining such indefinite deprivation of liberty without bringing criminal charges is a gross human rights violation. Confirming what impartial observers stated in the past, Obama acknowledged last February that “not a single verdict has been reached” on any of Gitmo’s prisoners, adding that “Guantanamo undermines our standing in the world.” Not only Obama but many military leaders and national security experts agree that the facility harms national security and should be closed. Thirty-two of the most respected retired generals and admirals asked Obama to submit a plan to Congress detailing actions the administration will take to close Guantanamo. Obama’s plans to close Guantanamo suffered a setback when, on Nov. 25, Congress passed a defense authorization bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), reinforcing a ban on the use of torture, another historical stain on U.S. foreign policy also tied to Gitmo’s infamous story. Although widely praised by its stand on torture, the NDAA contains provisions that make it practically impossible for Obama to close Guantanamo. Following the enactment of the NDAA, Obama said, “I am, however, deeply disappointed that the Congress has again failed to take productive action toward closing the detention facility at Guantanamo. Maintaining this site, year after year, is not consistent with our interests as a nation and undermines our standing in the world. “As I have said before, the continued operation of this facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists. It is imperative that we take responsible steps to reduce the population at this facility to the greatest extent possible and close the facility. … It is long past time for the Congress to lift the restrictions it has imposed and to work with my administration to responsibly and safely close the facility, bringing this chapter of our history to a close.” Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo has found strong Republican opposition. Republicans have criticized the last wave of releases and want to keep that facility open and imprison there fighters from the Islamic State. Donald Trump, with his characteristic insouciance said that, if he were elected, he would fill Guantanamo with “bad dudes” and “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” This is not the wisest course of action. Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo is based on speeding up the work of the Periodic Review Boards, created by executive order on March 7, 2011. As stated by Human Rights First, an independent advocacy and action organization: “The Periodic Review Boards are meant ‘to determine whether certain individuals detained at [Guantanamo] represent a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States such that their continued detention is warranted.’ “ Insisting on maintaining a facility that has only brought shame and embarrassment to the U.S. is wrong. There are presently about 35 countries willing to accept a Guantanamo detainee, where the remaining 61 detainees could be transferred. There are too few inmates to justify maintaining Gitmo. Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, has said that the human spirit of many Guantanamo detainees has been broken, the saddest commentary on that tragic place. Cesar Chelala is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award and two national journalism awards in Argentina.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/29/commentary/world-commentary/guantanamo-remains-stain-u-s-policy/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/72d9f423fe728b23c3f02fb6bd6854ed58c48826fffc56d781e37013246784b6.json

Last month it was revealed that a Bangladeshi former associate professor at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University was wanted by police for his suspected involveme

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Freference%2Fterror-financing-laws-limited-burden-proof%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-fyi-a-20160830-870x529.jpg

en

Terror financing laws limited by burden of proof

www.japantimes.co.jp

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

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/reference/terror-financing-laws-limited-burden-proof/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/654db30945855876516fcef98c20c38eb2219695a72de181745c660e44c42293.json

Lawmakers from South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party have said the country should weigh building nuclear-powered submarines as Pyongyang makes progress in its

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fasia-pacific%2Fsouth-korean-lawmakers-call-nuclear-subs-face-growing-missile-threat-north%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-sknukesubs-a-20160830-870x572.jpg

en

South Korean lawmakers call for nuclear subs in face of growing missile threat from North

www.japantimes.co.jp

Lawmakers from South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party have said the country should weigh building nuclear-powered submarines as Pyongyang makes progress in its atomic weapons program. North Korea on Wednesday lofted a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) 500 km toward Japan — a distance analysts said highlighted weapons advances made by the reclusive regime of leader Kim Jong Un. In a statement posted to Facebook late Sunday, a group of 23 lawmakers led by Saenuri Party floor leader Won Yoo-chul blasted the North’s missile test and urged a more robust response by Seoul to Pyongyang’s saber-rattling. “South Korea’s military should move to deal effectively with North Korea’s SLBM threat by deploying submarines with nuclear propulsion that can better detect and attack North Korean vessels,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “Pyongyang must stop military provocations that threaten not only Northeast Asia, but the entire world,” it added. “North Korea should take the path of peace and prosperity and realize that nuke tests and missile launches will only lead to self-destruction.” Nuclear submarines have considerable advantages over conventional diesel-electric subs, including the ability to stay submerged for long durations that are limited only by the need for the crew’s supplies. When compared with land-based missile platforms, nuclear submarines — which are far more difficult to detect — provide a safer bet of a successful launch. Won said without such subs, South Korea is “vulnerable to North Korea’s SLBM threats,” the Yonhap news agency reported. “Deployment of nuclear-powered submarines is needed to counter such provocations.” While Kim has praised the country’s missile program for having “perfectly acquired” SLBM technology in a short period of time, rocketry analyst John Schilling cautioned Friday on the influential 38 North website run by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies that an immediate rollout should not be expected. “The success of North Korea’s latest submarine-launched ballistic missile test suggests the program may be progressing faster than originally expected,” Schilling wrote. “However, this does not mean it will be ready next week, next month, or even next year.” According to Schilling, the pace and method of the North’s SLBM testing suggests the weapon’s possible deployment in an initial operational capability by the second half of 2018 at the earliest. The lawmakers’ push for a more robust response to the North comes amid questions over the reliability of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system due to be deployed to South Korea next year. Critics have said the THAAD system might be unable to defend South Korea if the North’s submarines launch ballistic missiles from waters off the Korean Peninsula’s southern coast, given that the system is designed to shoot down North Korean missiles fired from the north. Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, said the latest development shows a growing sense of fear and frustration in Seoul over North Korea’s military modernization. “The decision to deploy a THAAD battery, invest in anti-submarine warfare capabilities and this legislative push for nuclear-powered submarines are all reactions to this fear,” Cook said. “THAAD is part of the response and so is not undermined by the North Korean SLBM launch, he added. “Rather, the launch shows how much more Seoul must do to counter the threat from Pyongyang.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/asia-pacific/south-korean-lawmakers-call-nuclear-subs-face-growing-missile-threat-north/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/0bf1495cb1ee16a8b160102d3f9e63b8cbb1563f9098e87882a42fbe82239e5e.json

Republicans and Democrats sparred Sunday over whether Hillary Clinton crossed ethical lines during her tenure as secretary of state by talking with people

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fworld%2Fpolitics-diplomacy-world%2Fpoliticos-spar-over-ethics-surrounding-clinton-foundation%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-clintonfoundation-a-20160830-870x637.jpg

en

Politicos spar over ethics surrounding Clinton Foundation

www.japantimes.co.jp

Republicans and Democrats sparred Sunday over whether Hillary Clinton crossed ethical lines during her tenure as secretary of state by talking with people outside the government who had contributed to her family’s philanthropy foundation. Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee, said it is not unusual for supporters and activists to seek out private meetings and that there is no evidence Clinton did any favors on behalf of foundation donors. “When Republicans meet with their donors, with their supporters, they call it a meeting,” she told CBS. “When Democrats do that, they call it a conflict. It’s not pay-to-play, unless somebody actually gave someone 50 cents to say, ‘I need a meeting.’ “ GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence countered that because foreign donors cannot contribute to a presidential campaign, it is possible they were seeking political leverage within the U.S. government by donating to the Clinton Foundation. He reiterated calls by Donald Trump’s campaign for the federal government to appoint a special prosecutor to examine possible corruption. “This (foundation) becomes a conduit for people to gain access, and gaining access is a favor,” Pence told CNN. The State Department has released all Clinton’s calendars and about half her detailed daily schedules as secretary of state, after The Associated Press sued for access in federal court. Based on the records released so far, more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Clinton during her tenure as a Cabinet secretary had given money — either personally or through companies or groups — to the Clinton Foundation. The AP’s analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives. The government said Friday it probably will not release the remainder of the detailed schedules until Dec. 30, weeks after the national election. Clinton has said the AP’s analysis was flawed because it did not account fully for all meetings and phone calls during her entire term as secretary. She also said the analysis should have included meetings with federal employees and foreign diplomats. The AP said it focused on her meetings with outsiders because those were more discretionary, as Clinton would normally meet with federal officials and foreign officials as part of her job. Her campaign also objected to an AP tweet that stated “more than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary gave money to Clinton Foundation” and linked to the analysis. The tweet didn’t note what was in the story: that the records only covered part of her tenure and excluded meetings or calls with federal employees or foreign government representatives. AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll told CNN on Sunday that the tweet was “sloppy” and “could have used some more precision.” But she said the story linked to the tweet was “completely rock solid.” “I think the issue about conflict with interest is not whether there’s an actual quid pro quo, it’s the proximity,” she said. “It’s the impression that people have of maybe they got the meeting because they donated, maybe they didn’t.” She added: “All of us can’t be held responsible for the way that everybody thinks about and responds to and talks about the coverage. Our responsibility is just to give them fair and balanced, rock-solid reporting and let them agree with it, disagree with it, talk about it, think what they might about it.” Clinton said Friday she would take “additional steps” to ensure there wasn’t a conflict of interest with the foundation if she is elected president. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had already said the foundation would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations and that he would no longer raise money for the organization if she became president. The Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea, would remain on the foundation’s board.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/world/politics-diplomacy-world/politicos-spar-over-ethics-surrounding-clinton-foundation/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/9f949273b1156500aae1fe555693921a431973e4a117f55e1b42614baca8d264.json

Ryo Ishikawa, who has struggled with lower back issues this year, captured the JGTO tour's Rizap KBC Augusta on Sunday by five strokes for his first win of

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fmore-sports%2Fgolf%2Fishikawa-wins-domestic-tour%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-jgolf-a-20160829-870x1231.jpg

en

Ishikawa wins on domestic tour

www.japantimes.co.jp

Ryo Ishikawa, who has struggled with lower back issues this year, captured the JGTO tour’s Rizap KBC Augusta on Sunday by five strokes for his first win of the season. On a day when play was suspended for nearly three hours due to approaching thunder storms, Ishikawa closed with a 3-under-par 69 at the par-72 Keya Golf Club. After starting the tournament in a share of the lead and never trailing, Ishikawa finished with a four-day total of 15-under-par 273 and prize money worth ¥20 million yen. “With the suspension of play and everything else, it was one long day,” Ishikawa said. “Being the leader put pressure on me all this time and I’m exhausted. “I was concerned having been away from the game, but I made good shots when I needed to. I’m so happy to have won. I want to aspire for something more.” Ishikawa has not played on the U.S. tour since he made the cut at February’s Phoenix Open. He pulled out of the next tour event, the Pebble Beach Pro Am, with what was later diagnosed as lumbar discopathy. He returned to action at the end of July in Japan’s PGA Championship, where he failed to make the cut. Ishikawa is still looking for his first career victory on the PGA tour.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/28/more-sports/golf/ishikawa-wins-domestic-tour/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/c167bd050ae5621b4e12223a1ab58ad8bf7f3f52c6e4a59e78da3105799db64f.json

North Korea has executed a vice premier for showing disrespect during a meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong Un, and banished two other officials for r

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fasia-pacific%2Fseoul-says-top-north-korean-official-executed%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-nkexec-a-20160901-870x524.jpg

en

Seoul says top North Korean official executed for 'showing disrespect' to Kim

www.japantimes.co.jp

North Korea has executed a vice premier for showing disrespect during a meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong Un, and banished two other officials for re-education, South Korea said Wednesday. If confirmed, they would be the latest in a series of killings, purges and dismissals carried out since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011. North Korea is a closed, authoritarian country with a state-controlled press that often makes it difficult for outsiders, and even North Korean citizens, to know what’s happening in the government. “Vice premier for education Kim Yong Jin was executed,” Seoul’s Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said at a regular briefing. Kim was killed by a firing squad in July as “an anti-party, anti-revolutionary agitator,” added an official at the ministry, who declined to be named. “Kim Yong Jin was denounced for his bad sitting posture when he was sitting below the rostrum” during a session of North Korea’s parliament, and then underwent a interrogation that revealed his other crimes, the official told reporters. The mass-selling JoongAng Ilbo first reported Tuesday that top figures had been punished, but identified the education official by a different name. “He incurred the wrath of Kim after he dozed off during a meeting presided over by Kim. He was arrested on site and intensively questioned by the state security ministry,” it quoted a source as saying. The Unification Ministry said two other senior figures were forced to undergo re-education sessions. One of them was Kim Yong Chol, a top official in charge of inter-Korean affairs and espionage activities against the South. The 71-year-old Kim is a career military intelligence official who is believed to be the mastermind behind the North’s frequent cyberattacks against Seoul. Kim is also blamed by the South for the sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010 near the disputed sea border with the North in the Yellow Sea. Kim was banished to an agricultural farm in July for a month for his “arrogance” and “abuse of power,” the ministry official said. Kim Yong Chol, who was subsequently reinstated this month, is likely to be tempted to prove his loyalty by committing provocative acts against the South, the official said. “Therefore, we are keeping a close tab on the North,” he said. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency put the number of party officials executed during Kim Jong Un’s rule at over 100. The most notorious case was that of Kim’s uncle and onetime No. 2 Jang Song Thaek, who was executed for charges including treason and corruption in December 2013. In April 2015, it was reported that Kim had his Defense Minister, Hyon Yong Chol, summarily executed with an anti-aircraft gun. Reports of the latest execution coincide with a series of high-profile defections from the North. North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to the South with his family, the Unification Ministry said earlier this month. Thae Yong Ho was driven by “disgust for the North Korean regime” and concerns for his family’s future, it said. Twelve waitresses and their manager who had been working at a North Korea-themed restaurant in China also made headlines when they arrived in the South in April as the largest group defection for years. About 10 North Korean diplomats made it to the South in the first half of this year alone, Yonhap said, quoting informed sources.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/asia-pacific/seoul-says-top-north-korean-official-executed/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/6fa870dd596ced5de54c2309a7f98e57c691ae98cbc1c57c739ba7160d3cac7a.json

Nine bodies were recovered Wednesday after the Omoto River burst its banks and flooded a nursing home in the town of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, police sai

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fnational%2Fleast-10-dead-japan-typhoon-lionrock-flooded-nursing-home-caused-damage%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-typhoon-a-20160901-870x1056.jpg

en

At least 10 dead in Japan after Typhoon Lionrock flooded nursing home, caused other damage

www.japantimes.co.jp

Nine bodies were recovered Wednesday after the Omoto River burst its banks and flooded a nursing home in the town of Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, police said. Broadcaster NHK showed a rescue helicopter landing on the facility’s roof as tree trunks and mud lay piled up around the building. A body was also found lying among storm debris in the city of Kuji in the prefecture, they said. Powerful Typhoon Lionrock battered the area on Tuesday, bringing strong wind, heavy rain and the fear of mudslides. The typhoon was the season’s 10th. As it approached, municipalities in Tohoku issued evacuation advisories for around 410,000 people due to the risk of landslides and wave damage along the coast. The storm made landfall near Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Tuesday evening. It then struck neighboring Aomori Prefecture before heading out into the Sea of Japan. It was the first typhoon to strike Tohoku from the Pacific since records began in 1951. More than 100 domestic flights and over 50 shinkansen services were canceled. The city of Miyako in Iwate Prefecture had 80 mm of rainfall in one hour, a local record. The typhoon forced many manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp., to suspend operations at factories in the region for the safety of their workers.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/national/least-10-dead-japan-typhoon-lionrock-flooded-nursing-home-caused-damage/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/4a2d9a63b6e4fe203ec94cfad3770ff3469824d9f059fb0b6f776b28c14c7589.json

Is Donald Trump softening his hard-line immigration stance to a "fair and humane" policy ahead of November's presidential election? Or is he still intent o

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fworld%2Fpolitics-diplomacy-world%2Ftrump-jr-says-donald-not-softening-immigration-just-wait-arizona-speech%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-trumpjr-a-20160901-870x580.jpg

en

Trump Jr. says Donald not 'softening' on immigration, just wait for Arizona speech

www.japantimes.co.jp

Is Donald Trump softening his hard-line immigration stance to a “fair and humane” policy ahead of November’s presidential election? Or is he still intent on deporting millions who entered the United States illegally? The picture has been fuzzy for weeks, with the Republican flag-bearer appearing to shift his positioning. But it could become clearer in Arizona on Wednesday, when Trump unveils immigration policy prescriptions and perhaps clears up the confusion surrounding one of the pivotal issues of his White House campaign. Trump’s son offered a hint Tuesday at the message that the brash billionaire will deliver in Phoenix. “He wasn’t softening on anything,” Donald Trump Jr. told CNN when asked about how his father recently appeared to survey a Texas campaign crowd over what he should do about the nation’s roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants. Challenged on whether the Republican nominee still wanted to deport them, Trump Jr. said that was “correct,” but suggested a more moderate tone on the controversial issue. “You have to start with baby steps,” he added. “You have to eliminate sanctuary cities. You have to get rid of the criminals certainly, first and foremost. And you have to secure the border.” Trump’s signature campaign promise has been to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and he repeated that pledge in a Tuesday tweet. “From day one I said that I was going to build a great wall on the SOUTHERN BORDER, and much more. Stop illegal immigration. Watch Wednesday!” he posted on Twitter. But recently, Trump has distanced himself from previous vows to mount a “deportation force” to remove millions. The Republican presidential candidate’s hard-line stance on repatriating undocumented immigrants in the United States has been a central tenet of Trump’s White House campaign — and a hugely popular selling point to his most ardent supporters. It now looms as an obstacle, however, as he seeks to expand his base in the general election contest with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has accused Trump of fueling xenophobia and racism. Trump’s new campaign director, Kellyanne Conway, said there has been little real change in the central tenets of Trump’s immigration platform, including “no amnesty” for those in the country illegally. But she stressed Trump was committed to a “fair and humane” approach to securing America’s borders. One year ago, he issued an immigration reform plan calling for an end to automatic citizenship for those born in the United States, a right some say is abused by undocumented migrants seeking American birthright for their children. This past week, however, the Republican presidential candidate — once uncompromising in his vow to use a deportation force to repatriate illegal migrants — seemed less resolute, even suggesting he could work with law-abiding immigrants who paid taxes. “There certainly can be a ‘softening,’ because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump told a Fox News town hall last week. Trump in recent days has signaled he will focus first on removing those undocumented immigrants with criminal records. He touched on his plan in a weekend speech. “These international gangs of thugs and drug cartels will be — I promise you, from the first day in office … we’re going to get rid of these people,” Trump said Saturday in Iowa.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/world/politics-diplomacy-world/trump-jr-says-donald-not-softening-immigration-just-wait-arizona-speech/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/55f08b4739150c1060f48dd15961181011961ee933224c21261123128f50bc62.json

Nonprofit groups are ramping up efforts to help students who feel driven into a corner as suicide rates tend to spike around the end of the summer holidays

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fnational%2Fsocial-issues%2Fnonprofits-step-help-school-shy-students-time-suicide-numbers-rise%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-kidshelter-a-20160830-870x580.jpg

en

Nonprofits step up help for school-shy students at time when suicide numbers rise

www.japantimes.co.jp

Nonprofit groups are ramping up efforts to help students who feel driven into a corner as suicide rates tend to spike around the end of the summer holidays. The groups are offering a range of services such as free consultations and help in finding a temporary alternative school, targeting those students who are reluctant to return to their regular ones because they feel burdened by exam pressure, bullying or overbearing teachers. The groups’ message: Life is bigger than school. A government white paper on suicide prevention last year showed that high numbers of people under the age of 18 attempt suicide around Sept. 1, right at the end of the summer break. The data showed a consistent tendency stretching back 40 years. A loose grouping of around 90 nonprofit organizations have been trying to offer alternatives. The effort’s slogan is “If you find it hard to return to school after summer, remember you can come here.” The project was launched by a group of operators of free schools, private, unaccredited facilities that typically offer a loose daily schedule. Public schools count the number of days pupils spend at free schools as part of their regular attendance. Its website offers information on around 15 organizations in nine prefectures that offer assistance. The site, at www.freeschoolnetwork.jp , also advises children where to turn for further advice. The project was set up by the operators of Crane Harbor, a free school in the city of Nagasaki. The school is running a consultation center this week for children to attend if they find it too difficult to face returning to their scheduled classes. “There is a widespread societal belief that children are not allowed to miss school, and that makes them feel under pressure,” said the school’s head, Takeru Nakamura. “Their belief that there’s no one around to turn to or whom they can rely on makes the children feel all the more isolated.” One of the project members, a group named Tokyo Shure, has been providing children with “space to relax,” where they can relieve their stress and enjoy a sense of liberation in three schools in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture. The spaces opened Monday. “School shouldn’t be a place requiring children to sacrifice their lives,” said the organization’s director, Kunio Nakamura. “I want children to know there are places other than school where they can learn and make new friends.” In Suita, Osaka Prefecture, where the summer break for public schools has already finished, local free school Koko got teenagers involved in organizing a food festival. Over six days last week, students mainly from the city’s junior high and high schools attended the festival to serve meals. Koko head Motoaki Mishina, who sometimes holds discussion meetings with students who are reluctant to go to school, says he hopes such programs will help youngsters overcome their anxieties. “I want to let children know there are other people of the same generation who went through a hard time at school, and that there are adults willing and ready to lend a hand,” Mishina said. “I hope this knowledge will be reassuring.” Yasuyuki Shimizu, who heads the Tokyo-based suicide prevention center Lifelink believes the best way to reach children struggling with school pressure is to inform them of alternative options. “We need to let children know of their possibilities, as there are various forms of support they can receive on a regular basis,” he said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/national/social-issues/nonprofits-step-help-school-shy-students-time-suicide-numbers-rise/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/dbca7d65f3b824beb6bb5dc9d583d44214b4943595e1af460b52a4d391f51dad.json

A body believed to be that of a missing 7-year-old girl who vanished Saturday was found floating in a river in the village of Otari, Nagano Prefecture, Mon

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fnational%2Fgirl-7-disappears-near-grandparents-home-nagano-mountains%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-missing-a-20160830.jpg

en

Body believed to be of missing Nagano girl, 7, found floating in river

www.japantimes.co.jp

A body believed to be that of a missing 7-year-old girl who vanished Saturday was found floating in a river in the village of Otari, Nagano Prefecture, Monday morning, authorities said. Police were working to confirm the identity of the body. Seven-year-old Rina Machida, who had been staying at her grandparents’ home in the village, was reported missing after she left the house before noon Saturday. Her sandals were found in bushes about 300 meters away from the house, and a police dog used to search for the girl had failed to turn up any traces of her whereabouts. The village where the house is located is surrounded by a river, forests and mountains. On Monday, about 150 police officers, firefighters and local residents continued to comb the area for the girl. They searched vacant houses, warehouses and in the mountains. Police said they suspected Machida might have lost her way in the mountains. The girl vanished at around 11:40 a.m. after she told her grandmother that she would follow her mother, who left minutes earlier with her brother for a community center about 50 meters away from the grandparents’ house. She had been staying there with her family members for the summer holidays. A resident of the village reportedly saw Machida around noon Saturday in front of a shrine near the community center. “I want to find her as soon as possible,” said her grandfather, who had joined police in their the search.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/national/girl-7-disappears-near-grandparents-home-nagano-mountains/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/dd6354326663de17dcb25c34f82b5f80b88fdb8041689e8ac5cd20de34ba6dac.json

Sexism is one of the scourges of the nation. Fortunately, it's a problem that can be tackled through education. So why isn't anyone doing this?

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Four-lives%2Fjapans-men-women-must-stand-together-scourge-sexism%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-chav-a-20160829-870x1045.jpg

en

Japan's men and women must stand together against the scourge of sexism

www.japantimes.co.jp

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “womenomics” program, which aims to put more females in managerial positions in companies across the archipelago, ignores the most fundamental issue preventing women from being promoted within the workplace: sexism. Just encouraging companies to promote women isn’t going to fix this problem. Japan’s sexism is infamous internationally, and I’d even rank it as one of the scourges of the nation. Fortunately, it’s a problem that can be tackled through education. So why isn’t anyone doing this? Sexism is endemic in homes, schools, universities and workplaces. From a young age, boys see women objectified in manga, anime and the Japanese tabloid sports pages. Men grope women on trains and stalk them. With such treatment of women being so common, is it any wonder more career women aren’t promoted to senior managerial positions? If women are denigrated outside the workforce, how are they supposed to survive and thrive within it — especially in a male-dominated workplace? Rules on sexual harassment, formed to protect women, are a start, but why is sekuhara a purely judicial subject? Why are we waiting for guys to be taken to court and told that what they are doing is wrong? I’ve endured overt sexism myself during my 20 or so years here. In addition to men asking me about my breast size and the color of my pubic hair, the following exchange took place just the other day. I was talking to a male friend in his 30s about a new pudding that is gaining popularity in this part of Japan. It’s made from shonyū, the milk heifers produce just after they calve. This nutrient-rich milk is said to account for the dessert’s rich taste. The guy looked at me and said, “Oh, is it made from the milk from your breasts?” I was shocked that he would say such a thing and I reprimanded him for it. He replied with “It’s just a joke,” as if that made it OK. Disguising a comment as a joke doesn’t make the comment any less sexist (or racist or bigoted). Needless to say, he didn’t understand what the big deal was. Another time, I was with a female university student. Some middle-aged males were sitting near us, and they clearly thought she was cute. They asked her, jokingly, “What color underwear are you wearing today?” Embarrassed for her, I apologized and told her to ignore them. She said, “Oh, it’s OK,” seemingly accepting them as “men acting like men.” We ignored their continued taunts for an answer, but now, I wish I had rebuked them. By ignoring lewd comments, we are effectively condoning the behavior. I used to think it was just older men who were afflicted with this male solipsism, and that it was a generational problem. But now I know better. It’s that the older men are emboldened after having spewed degrading epithets for so long. This has become ingrained in their treatment of women. In addition, Japanese women are so accustomed to this treatment that they think it’s normal. I would like Japanese women to know that this is not normal and not acceptable. As women, we need to speak up. There are many Japanese men — hopefully most — who would never say such things to women. These men need to speak up for women too, so as not to contribute to this silent conditioning of men and dehumanization of women. This is so basic, it’s not even about unequal opportunity or unequal pay. It’s about mutual respect. Men need to be called out on their behavior before it reaches the judicial stage. Women, with the help of men, need to raise the bar on proper behavior. Only by challenging these behavioral patterns will things get better. We can start tackling the problem through public education and by addressing those men who don’t understand what they’re doing wrong, or who don’t know where to draw the line. And to be fair, women must be clear about not crossing that line either. I offer the following guidelines for men dealing with women, inside or outside the workplace. Men: memorize them! Women: Pin them up on the wall for men to see! Subjects off-limits when talking to women: • Breasts and other female body parts, including shape, size, etc. • Body: shape, size or weight (including weight gain or loss) • Bras, panties and other undergarments • Beauty, or lack thereof • Sex, including sexual appeal or the lack of it You might add to this list depending on your own situation and environment, but this is a start. Women will never be able to reach their true potential in the workforce if men don’t treat them with more respect. Your comments and Community story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/28/our-lives/japans-men-women-must-stand-together-scourge-sexism/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/389c8ea6f47b7b14b60fc6398543b36f2e9d564c0ee29aaca9a8e8b823af99af.json

Brazilian police charged American swimmer Ryan Lochte on Thursday with filing a false robbery report over an incident during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Folympics%2Fsummer-olympics%2Frio-cops-charge-lochte-absentia-false-robbery-report%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-lochte-a-20160827-870x494.jpg

en

Rio cops charge Lochte in absentia with false robbery report

www.japantimes.co.jp

Brazilian police charged American swimmer Ryan Lochte on Thursday with filing a false robbery report over an incident during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. A police statement said Lochte would be informed in the United States so he could decide whether to introduce a defense in Brazil. The indictment will also be sent to the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission, the statement said. Lochte initially said that he and fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi by men with a police badge as they returned to the Olympic Village from a party Aug. 15. However, security video suggested the four actually faced security guards after vandalizing a gas station restroom. Lochte left Brazil shortly after the incident. Three days later, local authorities took Conger and Bentz off an airliner heading to the United States so they could be questioned about the robbery claim. They were later allowed to leave Brazil, as was Feigen, after he gave testimony. Feigen, who initially stood by Lochte’s testimony, was not charged. Lochte has since acknowledged that he was highly intoxicated and that his behavior led to the confrontation. It is not clear from the video whether a gun was ever pointed at the athletes. Under Brazilian law, the penalty for falsely filing a crime report carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison. Lochte could be tried in absentia if he didn’t return to face the charge. The United States and Brazil have an extradition treaty dating back to the 1960s, but Brazil has a long history of not extraditing its own citizens to other nations and U.S. authorities could take the same stance if Lochte is found guilty. That is currently the case of the head of Brazil’s soccer confederation, Marco Polo del Nero, who faces charges in the wide-ranging scandal entangling international soccer’s ruling body, FIFA. He has not traveled outside Brazil for more than a year to avoid being arrested by U.S. authorities somewhere else. The charges in Brazil raise questions about the future for Lochte, who is planning to take time off from swimming but wants to return to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has 12 Olympic medals, second only to Michael Phelps among U.S. male Olympians. Lochte lost four major sponsors early this week over the controversy, including Speedo USA and Ralph Lauren. But on Thursday he picked up a new sponsor — Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops. Pine Bros. said people should be more understanding of the swimmer and said he will appear in ads that say the company’s product is “Forgiving On Your Throat.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/26/olympics/summer-olympics/rio-cops-charge-lochte-absentia-false-robbery-report/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/7f8a01ea9501cde602398e68a951ff020ce3bf5666351cc37ee6d243ae58a4f6.json

The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August on Friday night, calling them "grave violation

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fasia-pacific%2Fu-n-security-council-condemns-north-korean-missile-launches-vows-fresh-measures%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-unnk-a-20160828-870x580.jpg

en

U.N. Security Council condemns North Korean missile launches, vows fresh measures

www.japantimes.co.jp

The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned four North Korean ballistic missile launches in July and August on Friday night, calling them “grave violations” of a ban on all ballistic missile activity. A press statement approved by all 15 members deplored the fact that the North’s ballistic missile activities are contributing to its development of nuclear weapon delivery systems and increasing tensions. The council expressed “serious concern” that North Korea carried out the launches after six ballistic missile firings between April and June “in flagrant disregard” of its repeated statements to halt such launches as well as nuclear tests which violate council resolutions. It urged all U.N. member states “to redouble their efforts” to implement sanctions against Pyongyang, including the toughest measures in two decades imposed by the council in March. Those sanctions reflected growing anger at Pyongyang’s nuclear test in January and a subsequent rocket launch. North Korea has repeatedly flouted Security Council resolutions demanding an end to its nuclear and ballistic missile activities and has continued to launch missiles, escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the region. The latest submarine launch of a ballistic missile on Wednesday came days after the U.S. and South Korea began military exercises, prompting North Korean threats of retaliation for the military drills, which it views as a rehearsal for invasion by the U.S. and other adversaries. South Korean officials said the submarine-launched missile flew about 500 km (310 miles) toward Japan, the longest distance achieved by the North for such a weapon. That means all of South Korea, and possibly parts of Japan, are within its striking distance. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the missile breached his country’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and condemned what he called an “unforgivable, reckless act” and a grave threat to Japan’s security. The council condemned that launch as well as another on Aug. 2 that for the first time fell in Japanese controlled-waters and two other missile tests on July 9 and 18, saying these were all “in grave violation” of U.N. resolutions. China, a neighbor and ally of North Korea, had either blocked attempts by the United States and other council members to condemn the three previous attacks when they happened, or insisted on unacceptable language. The council was unable to agree after Beijing pressed for language in a statement opposing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system that the United States plans to deploy in South Korea. The council’s agreement on Friday’s statement, just two days after the latest North Korean test, reflects growing anger and concern at the North’s continuing defiance of the council, including by China. In Pyongyang, North Korean Foreign Ministry official Jon Min Dok said in an interview that the U.S.-led discussions at the U.N. were a “terrible provocation” and that the country is developing nuclear weapons because of “outrageous nuclear intimidation” by the United States. Jon spoke just before the Security Council concluded the discussions with a statement. He said that the latest submarine-launched missile didn’t cause any harm to the security of neighboring countries. He said it showed North Korea’s “great power and inexhaustible strength in the face of the trials of history and the challenges of our enemies.” “The best way for the U.S. to escape a deadly strike from us is by refraining from insulting our dignity and threatening our security, by exercising prudence and self-control,” Jon said. North Korea already has a variety of land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases in those countries. Its development of reliable submarine-launched missiles would add a weapon that is harder to detect before launch. Wednesday’s launch was the latest in a series of missile, rocket and other weapon tests this year by North Korea, which is openly pushing to acquire a wider range of nuclear weapons, including those capable of striking targets as far away as mainland United States. In Friday’s statement, the Security Council “reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia at large.” Members also expressed “their commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation” and stressed “the importance of working to reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/27/asia-pacific/u-n-security-council-condemns-north-korean-missile-launches-vows-fresh-measures/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/c293bdf2cf8a441efeef4a675d96ba06fb321c89f865d19e42ad6c092a6c9461.json

The heat and humidity of August doesn't help a waning appetite. Spicy food does, though, and in Japan "spicy" means curry. The most popular form of curry i

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F19%2Ffood%2Fbeat-heat-help-spicy-japanese-staple%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p10-itoh-food-z-20160820-870x624.jpg

en

Beat the heat with help from a spicy Japanese staple

www.japantimes.co.jp

The heat and humidity of August doesn’t help a waning appetite. Spicy food does, though, and in Japan “spicy” means curry. The most popular form of curry in Japan is karē raisu, a dish that’s known around the world as Japanese curry — a thick curry-spiced stew served over steamed rice. Personally, I don’t like to make karē raisu in the summer. Like any stew, it needs a long simmer to be really good, and who wants a hot bubbling pot going for hours in the kitchen? One way to get your curry fix is to take a look at other homegrown dishes that are lighter and quicker to cook. For instance, dry curry is ground meat and chopped vegetables that are sauteed and flavored with curry powder — a kind of curry-flavored meat sauce. It’s served on plain rice, stirred into fried rice, used as omelette filling and more. It’s also great in bentos. Soup curry originated in Sapporo in the 1970s. It’s a curry-flavored soup with a chicken soup base that was inspired by soto ayam, an aromatic Indonesian soup, and similar soups from Singapore and other Asian cuisines. Soup curry has become increasingly popular across the country in the past decade or so, and has come to represent Sapporo as much as miso ramen and fresh seafood. And then there’s karē pan (curry bread), a bun stuffed with dry curry or thick curry stew that’s breaded and deep-fried like a Russian piroshki. It’s not that easy to make at home, but it’s available everywhere and makes a tasty, if somewhat greasy snack. Another type of popular homegrown curry dish is karē udon, a classic bowl of hot udon noodle soup with curry roux (or curry powder and a thickener like potato starch) added to the broth. It may be the most Japanese curry dish of them all, since it combines dashi stock, soy sauce and mirin or sake — the foundations of washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) — with curry spices. There are several theories for the origins of curry udon, but it was most likely invented at an udon restaurant in Tokyo during the postwar period to cater to the ever increasing demand for curry-flavored dishes. The recipe this month is for a curry dish inspired by the curry udon served in Kyoto. It has a classic udon noodle soup base in which summer vegetables like eggplant and kabocha squash are simmered until very tender and spiced up with curry spices and ginger. Sababushi (dried mackerel flakes) is used instead of the usual katsuobushi (bonito flakes) because it has a stronger flavor that stands up well to the spices, but if you can’t find it use katsuobushi instead. This dish is just the thing to have the day after a long summer’s night out, slurped down in an air-conditioned room. Summer vegetable curry with ‘udon’ noodles Serves 4 For the broth: 1 10-cm. square piece konbu (kelp) seaweed 20 grams sababushi (dried mackerel flakes) or katsuobushi (bonito flakes) 1 liter of plain water 3 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons mirin For the curry roux: 2 tablespoons curry powder 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) 1½ tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or butter 1 medium onion 1 large piece ginger 2 small eggplants 1 large bell pepper ¼ small kabocha squash, de-seeded 1 block (200 grams) atsuage (thick fried tofu) or 200 grams boneless chicken breast 1½ tablespoons vegetable oil 4 frozen udon noodle packets, defrosted Make the dashi: Soak the konbu seaweed in 1 liter of water for at least an hour, or overnight in the refrigerator. Put the water and konbu in a pan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and put in the sababushi; simmer for two to three minutes. Strain through a sieve. Finely chop the ginger and slice the other vegetables. Pour boiling water over the atsuage, and cut into bite size squares (you can use boneless chicken instead if you prefer). Saute the onion and ginger in 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan for three minutes. Add the other vegetables and saute for another three minutes, then add the dashi stock, mirin, soy sauce and atsuage. Heat to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat until the vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes. Make the roux: Heat up a small frying pan with the butter or oil, and add the flour. Keep stirring over medium heat until the flour turns a light brown. Add the curry powder and, if you like, cayenne pepper and stir. Take off the heat immediately. Take the pan with the vegetables off the heat and stir in the curry roux until dissolved. Add the udon noodles to the broth. Heat through while stirring, and serve hot.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/19/food/beat-heat-help-spicy-japanese-staple/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/bde143f3c43ddcd034948993a6aded897bb81d53327808959367be36184062a8.json

North Korea has made considerable progress this year on weapons technology, including testing a submarine-launched missile for the first time, but it is st

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fasia-pacific%2Fnorth-korea-makes-progress-missiles-no-evidence-nuclear-warhead-yet%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-nkanalysis-a-20160901-870x554.jpg

en

North Korea makes progress on missiles, but no evidence of nuclear warhead yet

www.japantimes.co.jp

North Korea has made considerable progress this year on weapons technology, including testing a submarine-launched missile for the first time, but it is still not clear if the isolated nation has developed a nuclear warhead. It also does not yet have a fleet of submarines that can launch the newly developed missile. Nevertheless, concerns about the threat posed by North Korea have spiraled since it conducted its fourth nuclear explosion in January and followed it up with a series of missile tests despite severe United Nations sanctions. Also, three major factories known to produce machine parts for North Korea’s sanctioned nuclear and missile programs have been modernized or expanded, according to analysis of recent satellite imagery seen by Reuters, a further sign of its commitment of scarce resources to weapons. “North Korea has dramatically increased the pace of missile testing and invested heavily in modernizing its factories that produce them, something we can see in satellite images,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “These investments have paid off with the recent test of a solid-fueled submarine-launched missile, but North Korea has not yet completed development of a submarine to carry that missile.” In April, a South Korean official said the North had accomplished miniaturization of a nuclear warhead to mount on a missile, although there was no direct evidence it had done so. The United States has said the North’s claim that it had miniaturized a warhead had to be taken as a credible threat. “I think North Korea is capable of miniaturizing nuclear bombs,” said Yang Uk, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum and a policy adviser to the South Korean navy. “But they don’t have any standardized warhead yet to put on missiles. They keep gathering data through nuclear tests and working to standardize a warhead.” Experts have predicted that the delivery vehicle for the North’s first nuclear warhead would be the medium-range Rodong missile, which can fire a 1 ton warhead up to 2,000 km. Despite threats to strike the mainland United States, the North is seen as several years away from building an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that can carry a nuclear warhead. In the past year, North Korea has boasted of numerous weapons breakthroughs in unprecedented detail. Although some of it was bluster, international experts have concluded North Korea’s missiles have flown higher and for longer than previously, indicating progress in the country’s banned missile program. In June, after repeated failures, it successfully launched an intermediate-range missile, which can fly up to 3,500 km. Analysis of satellite images shows that the North has recently expanded factories known to contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. An Aug. 22 image of a sprawling plant in a rural area 60 km north of Pyongyang appears to show several new structures, extensive refurbishment of existing buildings and a new entrance to a probable underground facility, according to data from satellite imagery provider Planet that was analyzed by Lewis. The January 18 General Machine Plant has long been used to produce engines for tanks, missiles and other military vessels, according to experts. “This represents an enormous investment in North Korea’s missile production infrastructure, something that is consistent with the propaganda offensive we have seen and the spike in missile testing,” said Lewis. The Kanggye General Tractor Plant, believed by arms control experts to assemble North Koreans munitions, was also upgraded in the last year, according to imagery analyzed by Lewis. The plant is the country’s “main weapons production base,” a defector who worked in North Korea’s secretive munitions industry told South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo newspaper in 2010. For Pyongyang, however, building a new submarine fleet seems to be a top priority. A new construction hall has come up at North Korea’s Sinpo submarine base on the east coast, according to images collected by Planet. An image from Aug. 10 shows a new structure being built beside a refurbished pier within the base, although it was not clear if the new hall would house a new class of submarine. Perfecting submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) technology and having a fleet of submarines that could deploy the weapons would raise North Korea’s threat to Japan and U.S. interests in the Pacific to a new level, given the ability of submarines to escape a land attack and evade missile defense shields. Leader Kim Jong Un proclaimed the SLBM test the country’s “greatest success” and said North Korea was at the “front-rank of nuclear powers.” Moon Keun-sik, a retired South Korean submarine captain and squadron leader, said North Korea’s conventional diesel-powered submarines were a persistent threat despite their age but its SLBM-capable craft could be a game-changer. “North Korea will be or is already in the process of building a newer, bigger submarine that may happen as early as next year,” he said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/asia-pacific/north-korea-makes-progress-missiles-no-evidence-nuclear-warhead-yet/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/14217f12f11f8eb837479d70263f3c99500eabab9b06e7ba33360ab563155e7c.json

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump announced he'll be making a speech on illegal immigration on Wednesday in Arizona, after a week of spec

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fworld%2Fpolitics-diplomacy-world%2Ftrump-tweets-plan-speak-illegal-immigration-team-vows-fair-humane-approach-skips-details%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-trumpimmig-a-20160830-870x580.jpg

en

Trump set for major speech on illegal immigration, as shifting stance makes life tough for surrogates

www.japantimes.co.jp

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump announced he’ll be making a speech on illegal immigration on Wednesday in Arizona, after a week of speculation that he might be softening his hard-line promise to deport 11 million people living in the United States illegally. The speech announcement, posted in a tweet late Sunday, was initially set for last week in Colorado, but was pushed back as Trump and his team wrestled over the details of what he would propose. There has been debate within his campaign about immigrants who haven’t committed crimes beyond their immigration offenses. The candidate’s shifting stance hasn’t made it easy for top supporters and advisers, from his running mate on down, to defend him or explain some campaign positions. Across the Sunday news shows, a parade of Trump stand-ins, led by vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, couldn’t say whether Trump was sticking with or changing a central promise to use a “deportation force” to expel immigrants here illegally. And they didn’t bother defending his initial response Saturday to the killing of a mother as she walked her baby on a Chicago street. Questioned on whether leaving key details on immigration policy unclear so late in the election is a problem, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus demurred: “I just don’t speak for Donald Trump.” It was a striking look at Trump’s leadership of a team he had said would help drive him to victory in the Nov. 8 election. Surrogates speak for and back up their presidential nominee. But Team Trump’s struggled to do so even as they stayed tightly together on the details they know: Trump will issue more details on the immigration plan soon, the policy will be humane, and despite his clear wavering, he’s been “consistent” on the issue. Any discussion of inconsistencies or potentially unpresidential tweeting, Pence and others suggested, reflected media focus on the wrong issue. Asked whether the “deportation force” proposal Trump laid out in November is still in place, Pence replied: “Well, what you heard him describe there, in his usual plainspoken, American way, was a mechanism, not a policy.” Added Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway: “The softening is more approach than policy,” adding that on immigration, Trump “wants to find a fair and humane way.” The Indiana governor, Conway and other surrogates said the main tenets of Trump’s immigration plan still will include building a wall along the southern U.S. border and making Mexico pay for it, no path to status adjustment or citizenship for people here illegally and stronger border enforcement. Pence also did not answer whether the campaign believes, as Trump has said, that children born to people who are in the U.S. illegally are not U.S. citizens. That, he said, “is a subject for the future.” Native-born children of immigrants, even those living illegally in the U.S., have been automatically considered American citizens since the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868. Trump has focused lately on deporting people who are in the U.S. illegally and who have committed crimes. But who Trump considers a criminal remained unclear Sunday. Trump in recent days has suggested he might be “softening” on the deportation force and that he might be open to allowing at least some immigrants in the country illegally to stay, as long as they pay taxes. But by Thursday, he was ruling out any kind of legal status — “unless they leave the country and come back,” he told CNN. Recent polls indicate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is ahead in some of the most competitive and pivotal states. The first presidential debate is set for Sept. 26. His surrogates on Sunday refused to comment on Trump’s reaction to the fatal shooting of NBA star Dwyane Wade’s cousin Friday, as she pushed her baby in a stroller in Chicago. Trump’s first tweet about the shooting ended this way: “Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!” A few hours later, he followed up with a tweet offering condolences to Wade and his family. Asked whether the initial tweet was presidential or appropriate, GOP officials and campaign advisers instead talked about reducing crime or said they were pleased Trump followed up with a tweet of condolence and empathy. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the media “focus on process … instead of the message.” He said the killing of someone pushing a stroller “is unacceptable in an American city” and that “the level of violence in Chicago is unacceptable.” Pence appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Priebus was on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Christie was interviewed on ABC’s “This Week” and Conway was on Fox and CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/world/politics-diplomacy-world/trump-tweets-plan-speak-illegal-immigration-team-vows-fair-humane-approach-skips-details/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/80aa91c15e41a78fff6f030f576c3b588bec028121fac96c9ba5d556cb5fb50d.json

Nobody here on the Community page has weighed in on Japan's Upper House election last July 10, so JBC will have a go. The conclusion first: Prime Minister

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F07%2F31%2Fissues%2Fabe-will-always-constitution%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/p11-debito-justbecause-a-20160801-870x603.jpg

en

For Abe, it will always be about the Constitution

www.japantimes.co.jp

Nobody here on the Community page has weighed in on Japan’s Upper House election last July 10, so JBC will have a go. The conclusion first: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scored a hat trick this election, and it reaffirmed his mandate to do whatever he likes. And you’re probably not going to like what that is. Of those three victories, the first election in December 2012 was a rout of the leftist Democratic Party of Japan and it thrust the more powerful Lower House of Parliament firmly into the hands of the long-incumbent Liberal Democratic Party under Abe. The second election in December 2014 further normalized Japan’s lurch to the far right, giving the ruling coalition a supermajority of 2/3 of the seats in the Lower House. July’s election delivered the Upper House to Abe. And how. Although a few protest votes found their way to small fringe leftist parties, the LDP and parties simpatico with Abe’s policies picked up even more seats. And with the recent defection of Diet member Tatsuo Hirano from the opposition, the LDP alone has a parliamentary majority for the first time in 27 years, and a supermajority of simpaticos. Once again the biggest loser was the leftist Democratic Party, whose fall from power three years ago has even accelerated. So that’s it then: Abe has achieved his goals. And with that momentum he’s going to change the Japanese Constitution. Amazingly, this isn’t obvious to some observers. The Wall Street Journal, The Economist (London), and Abe insiders still cheerfully opined that Abe’s primary concern remains the economy — that constitutional reform will remain on the backburner. But some media made similar optimistic predictions after Abe’s past electoral victories. For example, Abe wouldn’t change Japan’s security laws punishing the release of “state secrets” (whatever that meant — for what fully qualifies as “secret” is a state secret) because it would chill Japan’s media and hurt Japan’s democracy. Again, Japan’s economy was Abe’s main focus. But guess what: Abe changed that — and more. Abe even circumvented Japan’s constitutional issues of self-defense by simply ignoring them through reinterpre- tation. And despite all the wan hope that Abe would let loose “three arrows” — empowering women, reforming Japan’s immigration policies and generally enabling the disenfranchised to make structural inroads — three years later the Pollyanna pundits were wrong again. Abe abandoned “womenomics” after he switched slogans to “100 million active people,” and his imported labor policies remained the same revolving-door foreign “trainee” programs to service the 2020 Olympics. For decades Abe and his minions at the ultranationalist Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) lobby group (of which most of Abe’s Cabinet are members) have made no secret that their primary goal is to make Japan “autonomous.” To restore Japan to an imagined state of glory based upon blood nationalism, returning power to a bred elite, reviving Japan’s military political power with a seat at the civilian policymaking table, and putting the duty on the people to follow the state, not the other way around. That has always meant getting rid of that pesky American-written and “imposed” postwar “peace Constitution” that enshrines allegedly “Western” values of human rights and empowerment of the individual. No longer content to ignore the Constitution, Abe wants to scrap it. And it has been no secret of what he wants in its place. The LDP has put up a draft constitution for public view since 2012 (see it at www.jimin.jp/activity/colum/116667.html) For the lowbrow reader, they even put out a comic book last year (see Colin P.A. Jones, “The LDP’s comic appeal for constitutional change falls flat,” July 15, 2015). If you think my concerns are overblown, let’s have a constitutional scholar analyze where this is going: In his 2013 Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus article, Lawrence Repeta, a law professor at Meiji University, listed up the “ten most dangerous proposals for constitutional change” that put “Japan’s democracy at risk” by “ripping the imposed constitution out by its philosophical roots.” These proposals include rejecting the universality of human rights, elevating the maintenance of “public order” over all individual rights (including freedom of speech and press), deleting the comprehensive guarantee of all constitutional rights, suspending the Constitution during “states of emergency,” lowering standards for making future constitutional amendments, and, of course, scrapping Article 9 limiting Japan’s military power. All of this, incidentally, benefits those in power by giving them more of it. What is Abe’s motive (I mean, aside from grabbing more power for his ruling class)? It’s seemingly intensely personal. Need I remind readers that Abe is the grandson of suspected Class-A war criminal Nobusuke Kishi who nevertheless became a prime minister? And given that Abe’s ilk see the family unit (not the individual) as the “natural and basic unit of society,” Abe views this as a matter of clearing his family name of “victor’s justice.” He won’t rest until he does. And he can do it. Unlike any other modern prime minister, he has been granted a second chance, a third mandate and two supermajorities. So despite what pundits keep saying about Abe’s economics focus, don’t be fooled. This past election was a referendum on whether people are scared of Abe scrapping the Constitution. Clearly they’re not. Despite public opinion polls opposing constitutional reform, convictions were not serious enough to vote for someone else last month. It wasn’t even a tie. Abe and his lot still gained seats. So what more does Abe need? He’s more successful than the LDP’s template PM, Junichiro Koizumi. He’s got an electorate becoming more geriatric, and thus more conservative. He’s even bandwagoned Japan’s youth, the newly-enfranchised voters aged between 18 and 20 who generally voted for him too. (Understandably; Japan’s electorate doesn’t usually favor underdogs — why waste your vote on losers?) That’s why JBC predicts that Abe will now redouble his efforts to amend the Constitution. Why not? Voters just keep giving him green lights. And if (more likely at this writing, when) that happens, beware — for Japan’s right-wing swing toward fascism then becomes permanent. Debito’s book “Embedded Racism: Japan’s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination” has just come out in paperback. Twitter @arudoudebito. Lawrence Repeta’s article is at apjjf.org/2013/11/28/Lawrence-Repeta/3969/article.html.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/07/31/issues/abe-will-always-constitution/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/090e191909c7022c5aaac3fa426fce3d33260dcf94e6c0f8e65f152a0f79eca0.json

The printed page is not dead. Sure, many of its mainstream forms need a lie-down, and probably should be thinking about taking early retirement, but as tex

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fbooks%2Fsays-printed-books-shelf-life%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p20-tran-bookfair-a-20160828-870x580.jpg

en

Who says printed books have a shelf life?

www.japantimes.co.jp

The printed page is not dead. Sure, many of its mainstream forms need a lie-down, and probably should be thinking about taking early retirement, but as text and images are being increasingly viewed in the same way — pristinely flat with glassy surfaces and shrunk to fit the size of the smartphone — there is still healthy enthusiasm for analog handmade “zines,” artists’ monographs, catalog raisonne, photography and picture books. In other words, publications that have their own character as objects seem to be more indulgent, visual and tactile pleasures than ever before. The upcoming Tokyo Art Book Fair (TABF, Sept. 16-19) is a great event if you don’t know your leporello from your four-hole pouch binding, and want to find out more about the wildly different ways pages can be assembled. If you do know the difference between a book that opens like an accordion and one that is stitched together (a design that dates back to the 14th century), then the event is no doubt already on your list of things to do in September. The annual fair has been going for several years, and is a firm favorite among art and design students, but it also generally attracts admirers of the quirky, ingenious, and lovingly crafted. Last year had an attendance of around 10,000 visitors, and there’s no reason to suppose 2016 will not see even more people enjoying an event that exemplifies what it means to be a cool kid in Tokyo. This year a section will be devoted to books from Brazil, with the organizers of the Sao Paulo Plana art book fair, and 10 of country’s publishers in attendance. There will also be a Food Section where it will be possible to grab a drink or bite to eat, courtesy of catering companies, bars or restaurants that also publish or sell books. Various stages and processes of book production will be represented by ink, paper and printing companies, allowing visitors to observe and try out, among other things, lithography and letterpress printing — the now economically extinct use of moveable type that was once responsible for disseminating the ideas of the Renaissance. As one of the biggest events of its kind in Asia, TABF covers a lot of bases. At the more luxurious end of things is the high quality photo-book. In the past 10 years these have become eagerly collected as artworks in themselves, with rare examples being resold at auction for many times their original price. One of the world’s foremost art-book publishers, Steidl, is launching a new book award at the 2016 TABF, which aims to be an annual event for photographers and book designers based in Japan. The shortlist, chosen from 680 mock-ups submitted earlier this year, will be displayed at the fair, with the winner being announced in November at the opening of a Steidl-organized exhibition of Robert Frank’s work at the University of the Arts, Tokyo. Marshall McLuhan, the media studies guru who coined the phrase “the medium is the message,” described technology like TV as “hot,” because it engaged several senses at once and provided a wealth of different kinds of information. “Low definition” printed matter, such as comics were “cool,” and in his definition, required more work and involvement on the part of the user to extract value. Writing in the 1960s and ’70s, before the internet, 4K video and virtual and augmented reality, McLuhan was prescient about the fact that quicker access to a greater quantity of information does not necessarily cultivate understanding. By this metric, the book fair will be “hot,” but once you get home and settle down with your new reads, you’ll be a lot cooler. The Tokyo Art Book Fair takes place from Sept. 16 to Sept. 19 at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, Tohoku University of Art and Design Gaien Campus, 1-7-15 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo. For more information, visit tokyoartbookfair.com.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/27/books/says-printed-books-shelf-life/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/032e02313128eee0a73ed9cafc47e69e85ee64df867b146d34ed07f5662e3b93.json

Weighing less than most cats, Parasol belongs to the breed of dog that was long popular in the houses of Japanese nobility.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F07%2Four-lives%2Ffine-day-stroll-japanese-chin-cross-named-parasol%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-ark-a-20160808-870x1311.jpg

en

Fine day for a stroll: a Japanese Chin cross named Parasol

www.japantimes.co.jp

Parasol is a 3-year-old Japanese Chin cross who lost her home when her owner fell into financial difficulties. A petite 3.4 kg, which is less than most cats, Parasol belongs to the breed of dog that was long popular in the houses of Japanese nobility. Pretty but quite pale, she would do well to avoid long days at the beach unless she indeed had a parasol at hand. She is a quiet soul, happy to snuggle up beside you or simply curl up nearby. She has a calming effect on other animals and people alike with what seems to be a gentle aura around her. Never one to anger, never one to bark incessantly, Parasol would do best with a kindred lady or gentleman who can spend time with her. A lark to care for and infinitely affectionate, Parasol is truly a walk in the park. If you are interested in adopting Parasol, email ARK at Tokyoark@arkbark.net or call 050-1557-2763 Monday to Saturday (bilingual) for more information. Tokyo ARK is an NPO founded by Briton Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and re-homing abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered and microchipped. Prospective owners are requested to undergo a screening process.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/07/our-lives/fine-day-stroll-japanese-chin-cross-named-parasol/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/68c507b7b0377e710dec505e9797ab198d1a85baed58292e0989826879b5a999.json

It's a long way from Tokyo to the balmy, subtropical Ryukyu Islands — approximately 1,500 kilometers as the crow (or plane) flies. But Japan's southernmost

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F19%2Ffood%2Ftinsagu-nu-hana-serves-melodic-mix-okinawan-cuisine%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p10-swinnerton-tinsagu-a-20160820-870x679.jpg

en

Tinsagu nu Hana serves up a melodic mix of Okinawan cuisine

www.japantimes.co.jp

It’s a long way from Tokyo to the balmy, subtropical Ryukyu Islands — approximately 1,500 kilometers as the crow (or plane) flies. But Japan’s southernmost prefecture feels a whole lot closer when you’re out in the residential suburbs of Suginami Ward. At least it does when you’re sitting in Tinsagu nu Hana, at the heart of the bars enclave known as Little Okinawa. Less than 15 minutes from the bustling bright lights of Shinjuku, this cluster of restaurants and bars was only created some 10 years ago. Now a growing number of people are making their way to these narrow alleys near Daitabashi Station in search of the distinctive cuisine of the southern isles. Tinsagu nu Hana — named after a popular folk song — is the main reason they are there. Like most Okinawan restaurants in Tokyo, it is an izakaya, a tavern where the emphasis is as much on drinking and chilling with friends as actually eating. All the tried and true staples of Okinawa’s distinctive cuisine are present and correct, from rich, soft cubes of melting rafuti (pork belly) and crunchy mimiga (pig’s ear) to the classic noodle bowl of the islands, sōki soba. Where to start? Perhaps a nice cooling tofu salad topped with strands of crunchy, dark green umibudō (“sea grape”) seaweed. Or the tempura of urizun-mame green beans. There’s always a good sashimi selection. And you can’t go wrong with an order of the home-made jimami-dōfu, a silky-smooth white block resembling tofu but actually made from creamed peanuts. This is served two ways: as it is, with a savory sauce; or dusted and deep-fried in karaage style. Both are great. Scan the daily menu of specials: if you’re in luck, it will list minudaru, a pork dish once served to the Ryukyu nobility. Slices of moromi-buta pork, a breed from Ishigaki Island, are marinated in a sweet-savory sesame paste and then steamed until delectably soft. What to drink with it? There’s fizzy Orion lager, of course, and sours made with island fruit such as pineapple or shikuwasa, the tiny local limes. And there’s a large range of awamori, the Okinawan “national” firewater. The mild, summery Suito is perfect with its gentle flavor and relatively low alcohol content (just 19 percent). But the really good stuff is the aged awamori, known in the vernacular as kūsū. Most are aged five years, but if you ask, the manager may pull out rarer bottles, such as the 40-plus-year-old Shurei, a kūsū with the depth and character of a fine grappa. Whether you’re sitting at a table downstairs or under the rafters on the second floor — be warned, it’s a hard floor and the zabuton cushions are thin — there is always a cheerful crowd at Tinsagu nu Hana. A couple of times a week there are also live performances on sanshin, the Okinawan three-string banjo. Okinawa Town Market, Daito Ichiba, 1-3-15 Izumi, Suginami-ku, Tokyo; 03-3321-2139. Open 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 5 p.m.-midnight (Sat., Sun. and hols. noon till midnight); closed Tue.; nearest station: Daitabashi; lunch from ¥1,000, dinner around ¥3,000 plus drinks; major credit cards; smoking not permitted; Japanese menu, English not spoken. Robbie Swinnerton blogs at www.tokyofoodfile.com.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/19/food/tinsagu-nu-hana-serves-melodic-mix-okinawan-cuisine/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/d86c5515074280a669ca578998aac1efd8104f173430a37cd6de5275ddf05c53.json

More than 20 percent of workers have seen discriminatory acts against LGBT people in the workplace, according to a survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confe

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fnational%2Frengo-poll-finds-20-1000-respondents-know-workplace-harassment-lgbt-people%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Rengo poll finds 20% of respondents know of workplace LGBT harassment

www.japantimes.co.jp

More than 20 percent of workers have seen discriminatory acts against LGBT people in the workplace, according to a survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). Released Thursday, the survey was Rengo’s first of its kind. It was conducted online on 1,000 male and female company employees between the ages of 20 and 59. Among them, 8 percent identified themselves as sexual minorities. Nearly 23 percent of the respondents said they have witnessed or heard of harassment toward LGBT people at their workplaces, including 1.3 percent who said they had personally experienced harassment. Many of the respondents attributed this to prejudice against such people and gender stereotypes. Asked what they would think of LGBT colleagues, 35 percent — 23.2 percent of women and 46.8 percent of men — said they would find it offensive. People who have difficulty accepting LGBT individuals in the workplace accounted for 28.4 percent of the respondents in their 20s, while the ratio was 39.2 percent for those in their 50s, the survey said. Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents said companies should take measures to prevent and ban harassment toward LGBT people. At the same time, more than 1 in 3 respondents said they have no opinion on the issue, an indication of the need to better define harassment. Asked what kind of measures should be taken at the workplace, 38.1 percent said workers should be allowed to dress freely according to their gender identity. Just over 47 percent said workers should be allowed to discuss and make arrangements in their offices so that transgender colleagues can use toilets and locker rooms according to their gender identity.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/26/national/rengo-poll-finds-20-1000-respondents-know-workplace-harassment-lgbt-people/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/258aded51b07c915a87f670a69654d982a62b88bdbd8270b86f3167147c0dce0.json

The White House says President Barack Obama will expand a national monument off the coast of Hawaii, creating the world's largest marine protected area. Ob

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fworld%2Fscience-health-world%2Fobama-create-worlds-largest-marine-reserve%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-papahana-a-20160827-870x526.jpg

en

Obama to create world's largest marine reserve

www.japantimes.co.jp

The White House says President Barack Obama will expand a national monument off the coast of Hawaii, creating the world’s largest marine protected area. Obama’s proclamation will quadruple in size a monument originally created by President George W. Bush in 2006. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument will contain some 582,578 square miles, more than twice the size of Texas. Obama will travel to the monument next week to mark the designation and cite the need to protect public lands and waters from climate change. The designation bans commercial fishing and any new mining, as is the case within the existing monument. Recreational fishing will be allowed through a permit, as will be scientific research and the removal of fish and other resources for Native Hawaiian cultural practices. Some fishing groups have voiced concerns about what an expansion of the marine national monument would mean for their industry. Sean Martin, the president of the Hawaii Longline Association, said he was “disappointed” by Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s decision to support expanding the monument. He said the monument’s expansion would be based on political and not scientific reasons. Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet supplies a large portion of the fresh tuna and other fish consumed in Hawaii. Martin has previously estimated the fleet catches about 2 million pounds of fish annually from the proposed expansion area. The White House is describing the expansion as helping to protect more than 7,000 species and improving the resiliency of an ecosystem dealing with ocean acidification and warming. A fact sheet previewing the announcement states that the expanded area is considered a sacred place for Native Hawaiians. Shipwrecks and downed aircraft from the Battle of Midway in World War II dot the expansion area. The battle marked a major shift in the war. Obama will travel to the Midway Atoll to discuss the expansion. With the announcement, Obama will have created or expanded 26 national monuments. The administration said Obama has protected more acreage through national monument designations than any other president. The White House said the expansion is a response to a proposal from Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz and prominent Native Hawaiian leaders. The federal government will also give Hawaii’s Department of Natural Resources and Office of Hawaiian Affairs a greater role in managing the monument, an arrangement requested by Schatz and Hawaii Gov. David Ige.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/26/world/science-health-world/obama-create-worlds-largest-marine-reserve/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/419ca8e4f491ea77fbff346a913b30e2e888b3870e9c647ea4cfa60ac82184ef.json

From the White House to San Francisco police union headquarters, Colin Kaepernick's name came up Monday as his decision to sit down during the U.S. nationa

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fmore-sports%2Ffootball%2Fkaepernick-faces-scrutiny-anthem-protest%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-nfl-a-20160831-870x619.jpg

en

Kaepernick faces scrutiny over anthem protest

www.japantimes.co.jp

From the White House to San Francisco police union headquarters, Colin Kaepernick’s name came up Monday as his decision to sit down during the U.S. national anthem reached far beyond football. Many aren’t thrilled with the 49ers quarterback’s strong words about why he is doing it: To instigate change and challenge authority when it comes to race relations and what he considers police brutality. Even his former coach, outspoken University of Michigan leader Jim Harbaugh, chimed in from afar in disagreement with Kaepernick’s tactics — clarifying some earlier remarks that questioned the quarterback’s motivation. “I apologize for misspeaking my true sentiments. To clarify, I support Colin’s motivation. It’s his method of action that I take exception to,” Harbaugh posted on Twitter. A day after Kaepernick called Donald Trump “openly racist,” the Republican presidential candidate fired back on Seattle’s KIRO radio. “I have followed it, and I think it’s personally not a good thing. I think it’s a terrible thing,” Trump said. “And you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him. Let him try, it won’t happen.” Kaepernick, who has sat through the anthem for all three 49ers preseason games so far, is prepared to keep fighting for what he believes in — even alone. “The fact that it has blown up like this, I think it’s a good thing. It brings awareness,” Kaepernick said Sunday. “Now, I think people are really talking about it. Having conversations about how to make change. What’s really going on in this country. And we can move forward. . . . There is police brutality. People of color have been targeted by police.” Martin Halloran, the San Francisco Police Officers Association president, sent a letter Monday to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and 49ers CEO Jed York denouncing Kaepernick’s “ill-advised” statements and a “naiveté” and “total lack of sensitivity” toward police, along with an “incredible lack of knowledge” about officer-involved shootings. “There is some depth and some truth to what he was doing,” Seahawks star Richard Sherman said of Kaepernick. “I think he could have picked a better platform and a better way to do it, but every day they say athletes are so robotic and do everything by the book and then when somebody takes a stand like that, he gets his head chopped off.” The police union invited Kaepernick or anyone else from the league to visit the San Francisco police academy to build communication and understanding about the profession. “I only wish Mr. Kaepernick could see the emotional and psychological challenges that our officers face following a fatal encounter,” Halloran wrote. “Some are so affected they never return to the streets. In short, Mr. Kaepernick has embarrassed himself, the 49er organization, and the NFL based on a false narrative and misinformation that lacks any factual basis.” At the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, top-ranked American John Isner spoke of Kaepernick after winning his first-round match Monday. “I thought that was pathetic from him. The cause he was going for, fine by me — but don’t do it in that fashion,” Isner said. “For him doing it in that way really irked me. I’m a big Blaine Gabbert fan now.” Gabbert and Kaepernick are competing for San Francisco’s starting QB job. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he was confident U.S. President Barack Obama is aware of Kaepernick’s actions, but hadn’t spoken directly with the president about it. “In general, what I can say is that I certainly don’t share the views that Mr. Kaepernick expressed after the game in explaining his reasoning for his actions, but we surely would all acknowledge and even defend his right to express those views in the settings that he chooses,” Earnest said. “That’s what he’s done, and even as objectionable as we find his perspective, he certainly is entitled to express it.” Kaepernick’s stance, which he further explained Sunday after he was shown sitting on the bench for “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Friday’s preseason loss to the Packers, was still the chatter around the NFL as well. Steelers left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, who played at Army and served in Afghanistan before forging a job in the NFL, said he agrees that the U.S. “is not perfect” but insists it is the best country and he is unsure how he would react if one of his teammates sat down for the anthem. “I just know that I am very thankful to be an American. I will stand very proudly, and I will sing every single line in the national anthem every single time I hear it,” Villanueva said. “I will stop whatever I am doing, because I recognize that I have to be very thankful to be in this country.” As some of Kaepernick’s teammates noted Sunday, many are offended by his bold move — one he plans to continue indefinitely. “The American flag and our national anthem stand for something, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States salutes all who stand with us,” said Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Brian Duffy.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/30/more-sports/football/kaepernick-faces-scrutiny-anthem-protest/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/258a4fe4c0b92d921bd6b773580706c9dc2668fcf217b1915521ebe0fe0a1abf.json

Meet the athletes flying the flag for Japan and challenging the conventional definition of what it means to be Japanese.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F17%2Fissues%2Fcelebrating-japans-multicultural-olympians%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p8-olympians-a-20160818-870x579.jpg

en

Celebrating Japan's multicultural Olympians

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan and Brazil’s ties go back to the early 20th century, when the first Japanese immigrants arrived as farmers in the South American country. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan — 1.5 million of the country’s 205 million people identify themselves as Japanese-Brazilian, including a handful of members of the Brazilian Olympic team. But although the host countries of the current and next Summer Olympics share cultural bonds, compared to Brazil, where nearly half of people consider themselves mixed-race, multiculturalism remains elusive in Japan, where ethnic homogeneity is often held up as something to be proud of. Though Japan is home to the second-largest Brazilian community outside of Brazil, only 2 percent of the country’s population was born overseas. Compared to most other developed countries, immigration to Japan is negligible. However, despite having to deal with an aging, shrinking population, the majority of Japanese seem to prefer it this way. In a recent Yomiuri Shimbun poll, only 37 percent said they felt that more non-Japanese should be accepted to fill the gaps in the country’s labor market. Japan is home to 2.2 million foreign residents, and like it or not, a growing number of them are marrying Japanese citizens. The number of international marriages increased tenfold between 1965 and 2007, with registered new multiracial couples peaking at 40,272. Due to tighter immigration rules, the number has since dropped considerably, but marriages between Japanese and foreign nationals still make up roughly 1 in 30 unions — and around 1 in 10 in Tokyo. However, no matter how common international marriages are today, Japanese society still sets the children of these couples apart. They may have grown up as Japanese citizens or be fluent at the language, but many complain of feeling excluded or discriminated against because of their backgrounds. These individuals’ struggles in dealing with their classification as hāfu (half) have been recounted numerous times in the media, particularly by bicultural figures in the public eye. Some of these children, however, grow up to be Olympians — flying the flag for Japan and challenging the conventional definition of what it means to be Japanese. At the Rio Olympics, more than any before, multicultural Japanese athletes have been a notable presence in the stadiums. Here are profiles of some of these athletes — those who have given their all in Rio for Team Japan, broken the glass ceiling and possibly even opened up minds in their homeland. Mashu Baker | REUTERS Mashu Baker, 21 Judo (men’s 90 kg) Also known as Matthew Baker, this 21-year-old judoka captured the heart of the nation at this year’s Olympics by bringing home the ultimate prize: a gold medal. Born to an American father and Japanese mother, Baker started judo at the age of 7, making a name for himself by winning competition after competition. Baker is in his fourth year at Tokyo’s Tokai University. The 2nd-degree black belt won bronze in the middleweight division at the World Judo Championships in 2015. Famous for his ippon (one throw) victories, Baker is currently ranked world No.1 in his division. Result: Baker won gold against Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani in the 90 kg finals. Aska Cambridge (left) | KYODO Aska Cambridge, 23 Athletics (100 meters, 4×100-meter relay) 飛鳥 (Asuka) literally translates as “flying bird” — a fitting name for the young athlete. This 23-year-old half-Jamaican sprinter has been racing from a young age, representing his high school in Tokyo and later Nihon University, where he was a literature and science student. At the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, his relay team broke the Asian junior record, claiming the bronze medal. A year later, the 4×100-meter relay team triumphed at the East Asian Games, setting a competition record in the process. Cambridge also won the gold medal in the 200 meters at the games in Tianjin. His personal bests are 10.10 seconds for the 100 meters and 20.62 over 200 meters. Result: Cambridge came in seventh in the men’s 100-meter semifinals and therefore did not make the cut for the final. He will compete in the men’s 4×100-meter relay on Aug. 18. Lomano Lemeki | REUTERS Lomano Lemeki, 27 Men’s rugby sevens Born in New Zealand, Tongan-Japanese Lomano Lemeki has played for Japan’s sevens team since moving here in 2009. The fullback also plays for Honda Heat — based in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture — in the Top League. Lemeki and the Olympic team famously beat New Zealand 14-12 in the group stage in Rio, which he considers a true accomplishment, despite referring to himself as “one of the most hated” Kiwis at the moment. Result: Japan’s rugby sevens team lost 19-21 to Britain and won 31-7 against Kenya in the group stage. They came second place in Group C with 7 points. They went on to win 12-7 against France in the quarterfinals, lost 20-5 to eventual gold winners Fiji in the semis and lost 54-14 to South Africa in the third-place playoff, thereby missing out on a bronze medal. Lote Tuqiri (right) | REUTERS Lote Tuqiri, 28 Men’s rugby sevens The Fijian-born Japanese international rugby union player was another big name at this year’s Olympic sevens games. After graduating from Tochigi Prefecture’s Hakuoh University with a degree in business management, Tuqiri was employed in Hokkaido and started playing for the Hokkaido Barbarians as a solid center. He made his debut for the Japan sevens team at the 2011 Hong Kong Sevens, and continues to represent Japan. The 28-year-old shares his full name with his more famous cousin, Lote Tuqiri, a wing who ended his professional career with the NRL’s South Sydney Rabbitohs. Result: See above. Kameli Raravou Soejima | REUTERS Kameli Raravou Soejima, 33 Men’s rugby sevens Kameli Raravou Soejima may have been the eldest on this year’s Japan sevens team at the Rio Olympics, but he is also the most successful. The Fijian-born Japanese rugby union player made his debut at the 2014 Dubai Sevens. Winger Soejima was Japan’s top try-scorer in the 2015-16 World Rugby Sevens Series, and continues to impress Japanese fans. Result: See above. Taro Daniel | REUTERS Taro Daniel, 23 Tennis (men’s singles) American-born Taro Daniel is another Japanese athlete who rose to prominence at the games this year. Although he grew up in various places around the world, he spent most of his elementary school days in Saitama and later attended Nagoya International School. Daniel’s passion for tennis was sparked at the age of 7, and he came third in the All Japan Junior Tennis Tournament not long after. His family moved to Spain when he was 14. Daniel was quick to make it up the ladder, raising his ATP ranking between 2011 to 2013 from No. 978 to 241. He has participated in the U.S., Australian and French Open tournaments, as well as Wimbledon. Currently residing in Valencia, Spain, his coach is former Spanish pro Jose Francisco Altur. Taro Daniel entered the ATP top 100 rankings for the first time last year, seeded 93. Result: Taro Daniel won in straight sets against American Jack Sock in Round 1 and Britain’s Kyle Edmund in the second round. He lost two sets to one to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, the eventual silver medalist, in Round 3. Musashi Suzuki (second from left) | KYODO Musashi Suzuki, 22 Men’s soccer Born in Jamaica, Musashi Suzuki’s soccer career in Japan was quick to bloom. The striker, known for his speed, grew up in Gunma Prefecture. He played for Kiryu Daiichi High School, and in 2011 his team advanced to the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament. At the same time, he was a member of the under-17 national team and attended the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico. In 2012, Suzuki signed professionally with J-1 League team Albirex Niigata, where he continues to play today. As part of the under-23 national team, Musashi Suzuki managed to make it to the Rio Games this year on the back of their results at the Asian U-23 Championship in January. Result: Japan lost 5-4 to Nigeria, tied 2-2 with Colombia and won 1-0 against Sweden. They finished in third place in Group B with 4 points. Asako O | KYODO Asako O, 28 Women’s basketball Born in Tianjin, China, Asako O soars at 189 cm (6 foot 2 inches), making her perfect basketball-player material. The center currently plays for the Mitsubishi Electric Koalas. Besides this year’s Rio Olympics, she has also competed in FIBA Asian women’s championship competitions in 2013 and 2015, as well as the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women. Result: Japan won 77-73 against Belarus, 82-66 versus Brazil and 79-71 against France. They lost 76-62 to Turkey and 92-86 to Australia. They are currently in fourth place in Group B with 8 points. They lost 110-64 to the United States in the quarterfinals. Julian Jrummi Walsh | KYODO Julian Jrummi Walsh, 19 Athletics (400 meters, 4×400-meter relay) The son of famous Jamaican reggae drummer Emanuel Walsh, this sprinter has had an impressive run-up to the Olympics at the mere age of 19. Moving to Japan as a toddler, he grew up in Tokyo’s Higashimurayama. A late bloomer, Walsh only started running track in the 10th grade, and struggled to take it seriously at a school with no practice facilities and no coach. Despite only participating in two seasons prior to this, Walsh led the Japanese silver medal-winning relay team at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014. He managed to graduate to the senior-level competition, leading the Asian-Pacific 4×400-meter relay team at the IAAF Continental Cup that same year. Walsh hopes to attend university in Japan and dreams of competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Result: Walsh placed 38th in the men’s 400 meters after the heats, meaning he didn’t make the semis. He will compete in the men’s 4×400-meter relay on Saturday. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown | KYODO One to watch: Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, 17 Athletics (100 meters, 200 meters) Although a left thigh injury forced Sani Brown to withdraw from the national championships, meaning he couldn’t make the Olympic team this year, he is one to look out for. Born of Ghanaian and Japanese parents in Fukuoka Prefecture, he became the first Japanese to win the IAAF Rising Star Award in 2015. At last year’s World Youth Championships in Athletics in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, Sani Brown set a championship record of 10.28 seconds for the 100 meters and 20.34 for the 200 meters, breaking the 200-meter record held by the legendary Usain Bolt since 2003. Sani Brown currently runs for Josai High School in Tokyo and is preparing in earnest for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Your comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp The Brazilians with Japanese roots Charles Koshiro Chibana, 26 Judo (men’s 66 kg) Born in Sao Paulo, Chibana is a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian. Although he considers Portuguese his first language, he still speaks Japanese at home with his parents. Having trained in Japan, the 26-year-old is now considered one of Brazil’s best judoka. Chibana’s team came won silver at the World Judo Team Championships in Beijing in 2007, and a bronze in the Tokyo championships the following year. He also came first in the 2015 Pan American Games held in Toronto in 2015. At this year’s Olympics, however, he lost in his first match to bronze medal winner Masashi Ebinuma of Japan. Mahau Camargo Suguimati, 31 Athletics (400-meter hurdles) Suguimati was born in Brazil’s Goias state but grew up and studied in Saitama Prefecture. After discovering his talent for athletics, he started training in Japan, and went on to make his international debut representing Brazil at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Suguimati qualified for the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008 and came seventh in the 400-meter hurdles semi-finals. Suguimati’s personal bests are 21.62 seconds for the 200 meters, 46.21 for the 400 meters and 48.67 for the 400-meter hurdles. He came 29th in Round 1 at this year’s games. Paula Harumi Ishibashi, 31 Women’s rugby sevens Sao Paulo-born rugby union player Ishibashi traces her roots back to Japan. Introduced to rugby sevens through friends, she has played for the Brazilian team for a decade now and is the current captain. She was presented with the Athlete of the Year Award in 2013 and the Best Rugby Player of 2015 award by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. Ishibashi’s sevens team won bronze at the Pan American Games in Toronto last year. At this year’s Olympics, the women’s rugby sevens team lost 3-29 to Britain, 0-38 to Canada and won 26-10 against Japan in the group stage. They won 24-0 against Colombia and 33-5 to Japan, finishing ninth overall.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/17/issues/celebrating-japans-multicultural-olympians/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/169fd466c22716ca427d05570d6d2c0b442890c81c7139fc5b065bb1b01acc78.json

In the latest issue of Kinema Junpo, Japan's most venerable film magazine, you can read a lengthy tribute to Gaga, the dogged independent movie distributor

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Ffilms%2Ffilm-reviews%2Fgods-egypt-ungodly-mess%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-hadfield-gods-a-20160901-870x546.jpg

en

'Gods of Egypt': What an ungodly mess

www.japantimes.co.jp

In the latest issue of Kinema Junpo, Japan’s most venerable film magazine, you can read a lengthy tribute to Gaga, the dogged independent movie distributor that’s marking its 30th anniversary this year. The occasion is certainly worth commemorating: This is the company that released “Seven,” “Talk to Her,” “The Artist” and “12 Years a Slave” in Japan, not to mention all of Hirokazu Koreeda’s recent films. In a movie market strewn with casualties, it’s a genuine survivor. Alas, the film splashed across Kinema Junpo’s front cover hails from an altogether less exalted pedigree. Gaga may be synonymous with prestigious Oscar bait, but it is also the distributor of C-grade schlock, such as “Pompei,” “Last Knights” and now, just in time to piddle in the birthday punch, “Gods of Egypt.” Even judged against the cruddiest offerings from the Gaga back catalog, this would-be blockbuster from Alex Proyas — whose name should probably be preceded with the title “former visionary director” — is spectacularly shoddy. Set in an Ancient Egypt populated mostly by Caucasian actors, who deliver their lines in crisp English accents worthy of a village amateur theater production, it seems intent on evoking the cheesy thrills of the sword-and- sandal movies that Italy used to churn out in the 1960s. That’s a pretty low bar, yet “Gods of Egypt” still struggles to clear it. Gods of Egypt ( Kingu Obu Egypt ) Rating 1 out of 5 Run Time 127 mins Language English Opens SEPT. 9 In this (very) loose retelling of a famous story from Egyptian mythology, the god-king Osiris is killed by his brother, Set (Gerard Butler), just as he’s about to transfer the crown to his son, Horus (“Game of Thrones” regular Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The evil Set allows his nephew to live, but gouges out his eyes, usurps his throne and steals his lover — just for good measure. A year later, Horus sets out to get his revenge, aided by a plucky mortal, Bek (Brenton Thwaites), who’s looking to rescue his recently deceased girlfriend from the Underworld. The script comes courtesy of Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless — the screenwriting duo behind “Dracula Untold” and “The Last Witch Hunter” — who clearly have a talent for making mulch from myths. I can only assume they penned the screenplay during a drinking binge after spending a few minutes browsing the Egyptology pages on Wikipedia, though the reality was doubtless much more prosaic. The action is peppered with cute one-liners that acknowledge the story’s hokeyness without being witty enough to alleviate it. Coster-Waldau delivers these bon mots with a weariness that’s probably genuine, but some of the cast actually appear to be having fun. Thwaites is almost infuriatingly chipper throughout, while Butler chews through the virtual scenery by essentially playing his character from “300” as a pantomime villain. (When a minion declares, “This is madness!” I desperately wanted him to reply: “Madness? This. Is. Egypt!”) The whole thing looks like it has been shot against green screens, although it’s a mystery what happened to the movie’s reported $140 million budget. The CGI effects vacillate in quality from ho-hum to horrendous. Each time the titular gods transformed into a stew of badly rendered polygons in preparation for a fight, I found myself emitting a stupefied giggle that was part embarrassment, part childish delight. This is pinch-yourself cinema — it’s something to savor. With big-budget Hollywood pictures increasingly content to settle for aggressively focus-grouped mediocrity, it’s almost refreshing to come across a movie as odiferous as “Gods of Egypt.” It’s surprising, too. When international box-office hits like “Spy” and “Kung Fu Panda 3” are going straight to DVD or Netflix in Japan, how does a turkey like this manage to secure a theatrical release? Even the widely derided “Suicide Squad,” which opens in Japan the day after “Gods of Egypt,” looks like highly competent filmmaking in comparison. But I know which one I enjoyed more.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/31/films/film-reviews/gods-egypt-ungodly-mess/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/51ef9faf90b3e3e6ce09a4284601a3a21c207a40d791b49ed2a055c93dd506db.json

Japan and South Korea agreed Saturday to launch talks on resuming a currency swap deal, reflecting newly cooperative relations between the two neighbors. T

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fbusiness%2Fjapan-and-south-korea-to-resume-currency-swap-deal%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/b-japankorea-a-20160828-870x636.jpg

en

Japan, South Korea to resume currency swap deal

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan and South Korea agreed Saturday to launch talks on resuming a currency swap deal, reflecting newly cooperative relations between the two neighbors. The two began operating a swap agreement in 2001, but testy ties precluded any effort to extend or renew it when it expired in February last year. The deal lets one nation obtain dollars by giving its currency to the other. This serves as a cushion at times of market instability. In talks between financial officials of the two countries, the South Korean government proposed to strengthen bilateral economic ties and establish a new swap arrangement as a token of cooperation, the Japanese Finance Ministry said. The bilateral currency swap agreement “contributes to enhancing the regional financial stability” amid growing uncertainty in the global economy such as Britain’s decision to exit from the European Union, the ministry said in a press release. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso and South Korean Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho shared the view that “the global economy is on a gradual recovery path but remains weaker than desirable” due to persistent downside risks, it said. The talks in Seoul by the two countries’ finance ministers follows a similar meeting in May last year in Tokyo, which resumed after a hiatus of more than two years due to tensions over a territorial row and different interpretations of history. The bilateral relationship improved further recently following progress made toward ending a protracted dispute over Korean women and girls forced to work in wartime brothels for the Imperial Japanese military, with Japan disbursing ¥1 billion to a South Korean foundation to support the former so-called comfort women. The dialogue was held as the two neighboring countries face such challenges as a slowdown in emerging economies, including China, while the financial markets remain volatile due partly to speculation about an interest rate hike in the United States. The currency swap deal, formed in 2001, was expanded in 2011 to $70 billion from $13 billion to ensure South Korea had access to sufficient dollar funds amid the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The one-year expansion expired in 2012 and the overall size of the swap deal was cut back to $13 billion. Tokyo and Seoul then reduced it to $10 billion in 2013.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/28/business/japan-and-south-korea-to-resume-currency-swap-deal/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/fa027d18ebd9b44d70a9a6ec4e2ee0f2699a0669b9e1ae1b222ad1a305241f64.json

The Finance Ministry remains hesitant to back its tough talk with action, not least because of U.S. disapproval of supposed "currency manipulation."

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fcommentary%2Fjapan-commentary%2Ffinance-ministry-vs-currency-speculators%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Finance Ministry vs. the currency speculators

www.japantimes.co.jp

With Japan’s economy struggling to escape its deflationary torpor, the economic-revitalization plan that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched in 2012 has come under growing scrutiny. But Japan’s current travails, which have brought a concomitant decline in Japan’s stock market, stem from the yen’s appreciation — 24 percent over the last year — against major currencies. Abenomics — which included substantial monetary and fiscal expansion — has nothing to do with it. Since Abenomics was introduced, Japan’s labor market has improved considerably: 1.5 million new jobs have been created, and the unemployment rate has fallen to just over 3 percent . Moreover, corporate profits have soared, and tax revenues have increased by more than ¥20 trillion. To build on these gains, Japan has promised a large fiscal expansion next month, which some describe as a piecemeal, temporary version of “helicopter drops” (permanent monetization of government debt). But there is concern that it will not be enough, if the yen continues to appreciate. To be sure, expansionary policies, particularly monetary policies — a pillar of Abenomics — could contribute to currency depreciation. But the U.S. Federal Reserve’s dovish approach to exiting its own quantitative-easing program, together with expansionary policies in other major economies, has weakened their impact on the exchange rate. More recently, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, together with the introduction of negative rates by multiple central banks, including the Bank of Japan, shook markets. Taking advantage of this nervousness, hedge-fund managers and other speculators have increasingly been betting on the yen’s appreciation; indeed, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange shows substantial interest in the yen futures market. In a flexible exchange-rate system, each country conducts monetary policy independently, based on domestic objectives, and accepts the resulting exchange rate. But when exchange-rate movements become sharp or erratic, monetary authorities have the authority — even the obligation — to intervene to smooth them out. The Japanese authorities seem to recognize this, in theory. On Aug. 18, officials from the Finance Ministry, the Financial Services Agency, and the BOJ gathered to discuss what can be done to stem the yen’s appreciation. After the meeting, Masatsugu Asakawa, the deputy minister of finance for international affairs, declared that the Finance Ministry would act swiftly against exchange-rate movements deemed to be speculative. The announcement was supposed to cause speculators to shake in their boots. Yet markets moved only slightly, within a range of a couple of yen to a dollar. After all, the Finance Ministry has made such threats before — for example, just after the introduction of the BOJ’s negative interest-rate policy, and again after the Brexit decision — but never followed through. Like Aesop’s boy who cried wolf, the Finance Ministry has lost credibility, at least when it comes to the threat of intervention in currency markets. So speculators remain convinced that they are making a one-way bet — win big or break even — and continue to push the yen higher. At this point, the Finance Ministry words will not be enough to deter speculation. But the Finance Ministry remains hesitant to back its tough talk with action, not least because of American disapproval of supposed “currency manipulation.” High-level officials at the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve actively try to dissuade advocacy of direct intervention, including by me. An American scholar reacted angrily when I merely mentioned the word, as if it were an obscenity. U.S. officials, for their part, emphasize that if Japan can be accused of manipulating currency markets, the U.S. Congress will not approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It is possible that the Finance Ministry will choose to keep the U.S. on its side, and continue to offer only empty threats to speculators. Or it may simply vacillate until it is too late to take real action. Either approach may well produce the same disastrous result: allowing the yen to appreciate to damaging levels and causing Abenomics to fail. What the Finance Ministry should do is intervene courageously in currency markets to stem the yen’s appreciation. Speculators will learn a tough lesson, and Japan’s economy could get back on track. Though Japan may become a scapegoat for the failure of the TPP, it seems unlikely that the deal would be ratified in any case, given the current political climate in the U.S. An alternative would be for the BOJ to purchase foreign securities. Many hedge fund managers, along with some economists, claim that the key to saving Japan’s economy from deflation is a more direct helicopter drop, with newly printed cash delivered directly to consumers. Yet these same people are impeding effective macroeconomic policy, by betting on the yen’s appreciation. Only when the speculators are brought to heel should such a bold — and highly risky — monetary policy even be up for discussion. Koichi Hamada, special economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is a professor emeritus of economics at Yale University and at the University of Tokyo. © Project Syndicate, 2016

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/30/commentary/japan-commentary/finance-ministry-vs-currency-speculators/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/c0252cfd900909b5057d79c745b0ed43a96f75929da36ac9e02382061401a139.json

Law has the teeth to tackle everything from peeing and posters to more serious matters.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F07%2Fissues%2Fjapans-minor-offenses-act-major-untapped-potential%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-lotl-a-20160808-870x641.jpg

en

Japan's Minor Offenses Act has major untapped potential

www.japantimes.co.jp

I sometimes worry about my continuing failure to devote a column to vagina-kayak creator Megumi Igarashi, the controversial artist currently appealing her May 2016 conviction for the obscene act of distributing data for the topographical coordinates of her naughty parts so that anyone with a 3-D printer can replicate them. Somewhere along the line, she used the data to make a kayak (as one does). It all fits together in a rich tapestry of law interwoven with culture and the absurd double standards applied to genital depictions in Japan. However, Igarashi has already received plenty of attention, that sort of being the point of her quixotic struggle against the phallocracy. I recall there is some business book that says we should seek to sail in “blue oceans,” free of competition, so in order to avoid the red oceans already crowded with (commentary about) yonic watercraft, I am going to talk about the arguably more important subject of public urination. As you might expect, it’s a crime — a minor crime, that is, proscribed under the Minor Offenses Act and punishable by jail or a fine. A total of 242 people were nabbed for extemporaneous number ones or twos in 2014. Actually, a lot of things are crimes under the Minor Offenses Act: wearing medals you didn’t earn, deliberately scaring cows, interfering with funerals, peeping tommery, being homeless or jobless, not reporting dead bodies or abandoned fetuses, as well as using streets and bushes as a toilet. In fact, the act may form part of the foundation of Japan’s famed politeness, and its legislative history shows it was part of an effort to effectively legislate public morality. Queue-jumping, for example, is also a crime (two busts in 2014!), as are some other behaviors that we will get to later. Dating back to 1948, the Minor Offenses Act replaced a 1908 regulation that empowered the now-defunct Home Ministry (which once controlled the police) to issue decrees defining minor infractions and their punishments. In essence, the police could themselves criminalize whatever bothersome behavior they wanted to deter, punish or use as a pretext for locking someone up. The list of offenses was much longer back then, and rather more quaint, including as it did: bothering people with religious nonsense, abusive hypnotism, bewildering the ill with bogus mystical potions on them, and aggravating people with false statements or rumors (this was before Facebook, remember). Not only did the police make and enforce these rules, but they tried the cases as well, with initial hearings being conducted before the local chief of police rather than a judge. This arrangement was incompatible with the country’s postwar Constitution and its bothersome separation of powers. The Home Ministry was dismantled, the police decentralized and the judicial function clearly separated from the rest of the government. The Minor Offenses Act was then passed by the Diet so cops could continue arresting people for being annoying jerks without causing a constitutional crisis. The legislative history of the Minor Offenses Act is worth reading because at one point there is a back-and-forth between a couple of the participants speculating as to why public urination has become such a problem. One speaker suggests that it has become so common that “even American soldiers are doing it.” Another snorts at the fantastical idea of well-behaved members of the occupation forces engaging in such behavior; no, it is clearly due to some deficiency in Japanese people today. This exchange resonates with me because it captures how many discussions about Japan end up playing out. Someone says something like “Japanese people are X.” Then, if I am involved, someone assumes I am American and says something like “Oh yeah? Well America is even more X, and Y too.” Another person may agree that Japan is in fact X, but it is actually America’s fault. An ojisan with an advanced degree may be on hand to help explain why his countrymen (implicitly excluding himself) are so backward compared to other (read: Western) countries. Invariably some clever lad scolds everyone else for daring to discuss anything without reference to empirical data on the comparative ethnography of exo-structural micturition. As compelling as these discussions may be, they typically miss the point. When talking about what the law is or should be — which is what most discussions about law are usually about on some level — the most important thing is usually how the law is used and by whom for what purpose. Laws are just tools, designed and enforced by rational people with rational goals. A random assortment of people of different races and nationalities, washed ashore on a deserted island, probably all quickly learn it is easier to use rocks to break open coconuts than the reverse. How tools can be used — or misused — is an issue that transcends a lot of usually nonsensical generalizations about race- or nationality-based groupings. Whether public urination (for example) is an American innovation or a Japanese vice is a pointless distraction when compared with what authorities can do once it is criminalized (as opposed to sanctioned through nonpenal fines or other civil penalties). To their credit, many who debated the draft Minor Offenses Act back in 1947 were cognizant of its potential as a tool of state oppression; that was, after all, their experience (in the case of some, personal experience) with the regulations and enforcement regime that it was supposed to replace. A recurring concern of some was that the law would leave the police countless pretexts for suppressing workers attempting to exercise their new constitutional rights to strike and collective bargain. Indeed, any large gathering of workers at a factory or public space would probably result in a certain amount of public weeing. So efforts to criminalize it may not have just been about social decorum, though in the minds of some commentators the law was about just that: stemming the crushing tide of declining Japanese morality, the favorite lament of Japanese elites since forever. When the first modern prohibition on indiscriminate whizzing was introduced early in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the reason is said to have been to help make Japan seem more “civilized” in the eyes of Western visitors. Following the development of the Minor Offenses Act and after it was duly passed into law, what is interesting is that in the 1960s, one of the top grounds for arrests under it became “putting up posters or interfering with the posters of others.” During the turbulent years of protests by students and labor groups against the Japan-U.S. Security Alliance and the Vietnam War, the Minor Offenses Act became a useful tool for suppressing political speech — posters expressing protest or calling for action — in the name of protecting property rights of utility poles and factory walls. Even today, you may notice the only constituency reliably able to post notices on phone poles (“Beware of burglars,” etc.) is … the police. The role of the Minor Offenses Act in chilling various forms of expression — anti-establishment expression, that is — is rarely noted but may be significant. In fact, the “social nicety” that the various trivial offenses defined by the law may easily be misinterpreted as cultural. In fact, they may reflect a much more guarded relationship with authority. The use of these tools only occasionally makes the news. In 2010, a man was arrested for mocking the police by putting up a poster saying “Congratulations on the first anniversary of failing to solve this case” at the site of a gruesome multiple homicide. In 2015, another gentleman was arrested for the heinous crime of adding Hitler mustaches to posters of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Perhaps such actions should be crimes. Yet it is where the police exercise their discretion not to act that the true shape of the law becomes apparent. In 2015 the Diet passed the nation’s first anti-hate-speech law. Some may see it as a step forward, but it is an oddly-written thing, containing no criminal penalties, limited in scope to discriminatory speech directed at “people from other countries” who are “legally in Japan.” I suppose credit should be due for drafting a law with enough specificity that it can’t be used to suppress critical, negative or sarcastic (!) speech of any sort (“Your snarky tweets about our dumpling festival mascot character were hateful,” etc.). However, that still may not save it from appearing to be a ridiculous law. Insofar as the primary victims of hate speech have been Japan’s ethnic Korean community, which has roots going back for generations, a legislative response that characterizes them as “people from other countries” seems pointlessly mean-spirited. Moreover, by defining hate speech in terms of the visa status of its victims, the law bizarrely seems to greenlight by omission hate speech directed at illegal immigrants, visa overstayers, children born into such categories and numerous disadvantaged communities of Japanese people. And here’s the thing: If authorities really wanted to do something — that is, use the coercive tools of the state to stop it, as they have done to people defacing Abe posters — the necessary tools already seem to exist in the Minor Offenses Act. In fact, the legislation seems to include tools for dealing with abusive right-wing sound trucks and, for that matter, stalkers as well: that is, “inconveniencing large numbers of people in public places with significantly coarse or violent words or behavior,” “using abnormally loud sounds such as voices, musical instruments or radios to disturb the peace and inconvenience the neighborhood, in violation of official instructions to cease and desist” and “following other people around in a way that is frightening or bothersome” are all crimes under the Minor Offenses Act. If standing outside a school and shouting hateful, threatening things at the children inside through a megaphone at (as was the case at a Korean school in Kyoto a few years ago) doesn’t trigger one of these proscriptions, I can’t imagine what else possibly could. Whether any particular type of expressive behavior should be criminalized or regulated as hate speech is a subject well worth extended discussion. However, the subtle ways in which enforcement decisions are already shaping behavior should never be forgotten. It shouldn’t take a whiz to figure these things out. Colin P.A. Jones is a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. The views expressed are those of the author alone. Law of the Land usually appears on the second Monday Community Page of the month. Your comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/07/issues/japans-minor-offenses-act-major-untapped-potential/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/75312b25e3fd459bccf1289b0b763fc72a3402a36ead6fbd470ed887092ae13e.json

Introducing the meaning and usages of the two i-adjectives 長(なが)い (long) and 短(みじか)い (short).

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Flanguage%2Fbeyond-long-short-nagai-mijikai%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Beyond the long and short of 'nagai' and 'mijikai'

www.japantimes.co.jp

Chotto tanki-na-no-ga tansho-desu. (His weak point is that he’s a bit short-tempered.) Situation 1: Ms. Gray gives her junior, Ms. Aoyama, advice. 青山 : ちょっと短気なのが彼の短所なんです。すぐに怒って、テーブルの上の食器を落とします。 グレイ： 「ちょっと」どころじゃないでしょ。それ、完全に ＤＶよ。 Aoyama: Chotto tanki-na-no-ga kare-no tansho-na-n-desu. Sugu-ni okotte, tēburu-no ue-no shokki-o otoshimasu. Gray: “Chotto”-dokoro-ja nai-desho. Sore, kanzen-ni DV-yo. Aoyama: His weak point is that he’s a bit short-tempered. He gets angry easily and throws crockery off the table. Gray: That doesn’t sound like “a bit.” That’s definitely domestic violence. Today we will introduce the meaning and usages of the two i-adjectives 長(なが)い (long) and 短(みじか)い (short) and their related expressions. 短気(たんき)な, which Ms. Aoyama uses in Situation 1, is a na-adjective that means “short-tempered.” As a phrase, it is expressed as 気(き)が短い. The antonym of 気が短い is 気が長い, and since they are i-adjective phrases, they can modify nouns, as here: 気の短い人はきらいだ (I don’t like short-tempered people). The equivalent na-adjective 長気な does not exist. Instead, the adverb 気長(きなが)に can be used to communicate someone’s patient attitude, as in: 生徒(せいと)の成長(せいちょう)を気長に 待(ま)ってる教師(きょうし) (a teacher who can patiently wait for their students’ growth). A synonym for the noun 短所 (たんしょ, fault/bad point) is 欠点(けってん). Situation 2: Continued from Situation 1. グレイ： そんな人とは、別れたほうがいいんじゃない？ 青山： でも、長所もいっぱいあるんですよ。ふだんは、とてもやさしくて、思いやりのある人なんです。 Gray: Sonna hito-to wa, wakareta hō-ga ii-n-ja nai? Aoyama: Demo, chōsho-mo ippai aru-n-desu-yo. Fudan-wa, totemo yasashikute, omoiyari-no aru hito-na-n-desu. Gray: Shouldn’t you break up with a guy like that? Aoyama: But he has lots of good points, too. He’s usually a gentle, considerate guy. 長所 (ちょうしょ, literally, “long point”), the antonym of 短所, which Ms. Aoyama uses in Situation 2, means someone’s good point. 長 is attached to various nouns and makes combined nouns as in the following examples: 長旅 (ながたび, a long journey), 長居 (ながい, a long stay), 長年 (ながねん, for a lot of years), etc. These do not have antonyms. Bonus Dialogue: After work, two young male colleagues are chatting at a bar. 三田： もう四か月(よんかげつ)経(た)つのに、今年(ことし)の 新入(しんにゅう)社員(しゃいん)は、あいかわらず学生(がくせい)気分(きぶん)で、困(こま)っちゃうよ。先輩 (せんぱい)の都合(つごう)も聞(き)かずに、夏休(なつやす)みも、さっさと先(さき)に取(と)っちゃうし…。ちょっと個人(こじん)主義(しゅぎ)すぎるのが、彼(かれ)らの短所(たんしょ)だよな。 セレ： うん。だけど、注意(ちゅうい)してやれば、意外(いがい)とすなおに、すぐ直(なお)すよね。すなおなのは、長所(ちょうしょ)だと思(おも)うよ。 三田： まあ、そうだな…。あれっ、こんな会話(かいわ)、去年(きょねん)もセレくんとここでしていたような気(き)が する。 セレ： うん。去年だけじゃなくて、一昨年(おととし)も…。 三田： その前(まえ)の年(とし)は、ぼくたちが新入社員で…。 セレ： 先輩たちが、きっとこういう会話をしていたんだろうな。 三田： そうか、ぼくたちも、ずいぶん先輩たちに迷惑(めいわく)をかけていたというわけだ。 セレ： まあ、長い目で見て、後輩を温(あたた)かく見守(みまも) っていこうね。 Mita: It’s been four months, but the new recruits still act like students and that’s a problem. They prioritize their own summer vacations without asking about their senior colleagues’ plans. Their problem is that they’re a little bit too individualistic. Sere: Yeah, but if we warn them, they’ll earnestly take it on board and soon change. That earnestness is their good point, I think. Mita: Well, maybe you’re right. Hey, I feel like we had a similar conversation here last year, too. Sere: Yeah. Not only last year, but also the year before that. Mita: Three years ago, we were new recruits. Sere: And our senior colleagues must have had this kind of conversation. Mita: Actually, we must have given them a lot of trouble back then. Sere: Well, we should think long term and watch over the new guys in a warm (nurturing) way.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/22/language/beyond-long-short-nagai-mijikai/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/1ee910f83ad4a5c3d4f82090f3c079310924ac85abd72e040cf3a65974a10eb3.json

The government is requesting a bigger budget for security as North Korea's nuclear provocations and China's military assertiveness continue to unsettle the

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fnational%2Fjapan-seeks-%25C2%25A55-1-trillion-defense-next-year-2-3-rise-reflects-new-threats%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Japan seeks ¥5.1 trillion for defense next year; 2.3% rise reflects new threats

www.japantimes.co.jp

The government is requesting a bigger budget for security as North Korea’s nuclear provocations and China’s military assertiveness continue to unsettle the region, and the Dhaka terror attack showed ordinary Japanese are also at risk. The Defense Ministry on Wednesday submitted its fiscal 2017 budget request totaling more than ¥5.1 trillion, up 2.3 percent from the fiscal 2016 budget. The defense budget request has been increasing for the last five years, and this is the third year in a row the amount exceeded ¥5 trillion. The ministry requested more than ¥100 billion to strengthen the intercept capability of the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles to better counter North Korea’s enhanced missile capability. The ministry also requested ¥14.7 billion to introduce the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, which will intercept missiles in outer space. To counter China’s increasing military assertiveness in the East China Sea, the ministry is requesting almost ¥75 billion to deploy Ground Self-Defense Force patrol units on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture and on Amami Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. Almost ¥9 billion will likely be earmarked for creating an amphibious unit to protect remote islands. Some ¥94 billion is also sought to procure Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters to better secure Japan’s air supremacy in the event of a crisis. The stealth jet will be rolled out in mid-September at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth factory in Texas. The defense budget boost comes amid the increasingly bellicose behavior of North Korea and China. The North last week claimed to have successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile, which would be difficult to intercept with the current missile defense system. Chinese spy ships have been entering Japanese territorial waters despite Japan’s strong protests, while Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets scrambled a record 199 times against Chinese aircraft near Japanese airspace between April and June. To counter the worsening security situation, the Japan Coast Guard also is also seeking a bigger budget — of more than ¥200 billion, up 7 percent from the previous year. Last year, the Coast Guard formed a special unit to patrol the Japan- administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are also claimed by China and Taiwan, and called Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively. The budget to patrol around the remote isles increased by almost 19 percent this year to almost ¥47 billion, which will partly be spent to deploy 190 new personnel in an effort to beef up patrols. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday submitted a budget request totaling ¥773 billion, up more than 8 percent from last year, mainly focusing on official development assistance and counterterrorism. Japan’s ODA spending peaked in 1997, while global powers have aggressively spent funds in financial assistance. But last year Tokyo increased its ODA budget for the first time in 17 years, and this year’s request also increased by 13 percent to more than ¥490 billion. Some ¥11 billion in ODA money is requested for capacity-building in maritime patrols. Japan has been aggressively providing patrol vessels to its Southeast Asian neighbors as part of ODA, but the budget has more than doubled this year. The ministry is also beefing up security at overseas schools catering to Japanese students, following the terror attack in Dhaka that left seven Japanese nationals among the dead. The ministry said it is requesting more than ¥1 billion to upgrade the facility, such as through building taller walls and installing iron bars on the windows to prevent attackers from entering the schools.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/national/japan-seeks-%C2%A55-1-trillion-defense-next-year-2-3-rise-reflects-new-threats/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/c4e45fba016eb5f12f7fe371ed62e56a7d2077bcd829844f4e6c443ced118b3c.json

A labor-exporting cartel would would change the dynamics of labor supply and demand to the benefit of both workers and importing countries.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F23%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fopec-cartel-labor-exporting-countries%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

An 'OPEC' cartel for labor-exporting countries

www.japantimes.co.jp

In September 1960, delegates from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela met in Baghdad to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. As the world’s dependence on oil increased, so did OPEC’s power. Today, with many developing countries, including a majority of the countries in the Middle East, serving as some of the world’s main labor exporters, might it be time to consider the formation of an OPEC-like cartel for migrant workers? OPEC succeeded in protecting its members’ shared interests that they could not protect individually. When a market has structural distortions, political tools and collective action of the sort that OPEC embodied can be more effective than public policy. Labor-exporting countries today are not so different from OPEC’s founding members in 1960. They, too, are vulnerable in a market where their customers call the shots. Rich labor-importing countries and poor labor-exporting countries have a mutually dependent relationship; but labor importers can unilaterally tighten or loosen immigration or labor-market regulations, leaving exporters in a constant state of uncertainty. This imbalance can have serious costs for labor exporters. Remittances by expatriate workers are an essential lifeline for many developing countries — more so than any other financial inflows, including foreign direct investment and aid — and often help to balance a country’s books. Indeed, according to the World Bank, in 2013 remittances amounted to 20-24 percent of GDP in the Philippines and Indonesia, 42 percent in Tajikistan, 32 percent in Kyrgyzstan, 17 percent in Lebanon, 10.8 percent in Jordan, 9.9 percent in Yemen, and 6.6 percent in Egypt and Morocco. For many developing countries, labor is a strategic production factor, just as commodities are for resource-rich economies. When we think about migrant labor, we think of low-skill work in agriculture, construction, services, and domestic work. But countries such as Jordan and Lebanon (among others) are now educating workers to compete as high-skilled expatriates, too. Labor exporters now need to protect their investments in human capital, and a cartel-like political body is the most effective way to do this. If the countries listed above were to join with China, Mexico, India and other major labor exporters, they would be holding most of the chips in a collective negotiation about wages, visa terms and other conditions — some of which would also benefit non-members as global norms changed. Labor importers would have to vie for access to a collective market, rather than individual national markets, and countries that gained access would have a significant comparative advantage over those that did not. A cartel would prevent labor-exporting countries from cannibalizing their own interests, as currently happens with bilateral arrangements. For example, if they were to conclude separate agreements with Gulf Cooperation Council countries, individual Southeast Asian countries would undercut one another, with the result that they might end up with worse deals. With a cartel, governments would instead set minimum wages for different professions and trades, as well as for different skill levels. As exporters trained their migrant workforces, demand for their labor would grow and spark competition among venders rather than suppliers, thus fueling a virtuous cycle of higher wages and even more skills training. And, because this would all happen on global markets, the prices of certain skills would become more transparent to training institutions, students, employees and employers alike. In this new system, importing countries would collect taxes — on the basis of the newly set minimum wage — and remittances would remain untaxed. In this sense, the cartel would double as an international workers’ union, lending bargaining power to employees in countries where unions are weak or not permitted at all. A labor-exporting cartel would have far-reaching effects on the current system. Cartel members would be empowered to reward and penalize third parties acting in bad faith. And, most important, the workers themselves would be empowered to reclaim their dignity in a system that has long stripped them of it. Indeed, we could expect xenophobia to wane worldwide as access to foreign workers became more privileged. A cartel could advance the cause of comprehensive immigration and expat labor reform in many countries, including the United States, Japan and the Gulf states. Under a newly negotiated arrangement, labor-exporting countries would likely have an incentive to curb free riders and illegal emigration, and labor-importing countries would likely have an incentive to legalize and manage the status of illegal immigrants already within their borders. One likely objection to this proposal is that low-skilled labor will cost more, which could accelerate automation. But the jobs automation displaced from the production sector would simply move to the leisure sector, because demand for domestic workers, waiters, gardeners and the like would increase. Because a cartel would make these market changes more discernible, labor exporters would be able to respond and adjust their worker-training systems accordingly, increasing labor importers’ ability to recruit migrant workers better suited to the available jobs. All told, a labor-exporting cartel would bring order to an industry that has long been mired in controversy, damaging the reputations of more than a few labor-importing countries. It would change the dynamics of labor supply and demand to the benefit of both workers — who would have new protections — and importing countries, which would have access to trained laborers to respond to rapid changes — often driven by technology — in economic conditions. Sami Mahroum is the director of the Innovation & Policy Initiative at INSEAD. © Project Syndicate/Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives, 2016

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/23/commentary/world-commentary/opec-cartel-labor-exporting-countries/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/ed1f89f3304295db7a3a0f87e60c5704e64476a2f44949cc83299345c6c238ca.json

North Korea publicly executed two top officials earlier this month with anti-aircraft guns on the personal order of supreme leader Kim Jong Un, a South Kor

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fasia-pacific%2Ftwo-officials-executed-kim-special-order-report%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-nkexecution-a-20160831-870x580.jpg

en

Two officials executed on Kim 'special order': report

www.japantimes.co.jp

North Korea publicly executed two top officials earlier this month with anti-aircraft guns on the personal order of supreme leader Kim Jong Un, a South Korean newspaper reported Tuesday. Citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the North, the JoongAng Ilbo daily named the victims as Hwang Min, a former agriculture minister, and Ri Yong Jin, a senior official with the Education Ministry. According to the report, the executions were carried out on the “special order” of Kim himself. The daily quoted the source as saying Hwang was executed over a policy proposal that represented a direct challenge to the Kim regime. The report did not elaborate on the proposal. Ri’s fate was reportedly sealed after he fell asleep during a meeting presided over by Kim. The report said he was arrested on site and later executed after a probe uncovered corruption and other malfeasance. Both were killed at a military academy in Pyongyang, the source said, adding that an anti-aircraft gun was used in the executions. The report could not be independently verified. The North rarely publicly acknowledges executions or purges, and prior media reports of leading officials’ executions in the reclusive state have proven to be false. In December 2013, however, Pyongyang publicly announced perhaps its most high-profile execution, that of Kim’s uncle and key adviser, Jang Song Thaek. Kim’s former defense chief, Ri Yong Gil, was reported by the Yonhap news agency in February to have been executed, although his name was seen in May on a list of officials selected for senior posts at the Workers’ Party Congress that month.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/30/asia-pacific/two-officials-executed-kim-special-order-report/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/f276413cabf13cbeed06786cb514a40579c4067cc6ccaeab3984238e3557ef2d.json

In the same way that shops jump the gun on Christmas by getting the Santa decorations out on Nov. 1, konbini (convenience store) shelves begin stocking aut

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Ffood%2Flook-chocolates-getting-jump-autumn%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p12-st.-michel-konbini-a-20160827-870x653.jpg

en

Look! Chocolates are getting the jump on autumn

www.japantimes.co.jp

In the same way that shops jump the gun on Christmas by getting the Santa decorations out on Nov. 1, konbini (convenience store) shelves begin stocking autumn-themed treats while the mercury is still well above the 30 degrees Celsius mark. Sweets company Fujiya is one of the first this year to roll out special treats for the forthcoming season, with its special-edition in the Look series of chocolates being the highlight of the harvest. The pack of 12 confections (¥130) is split between two fall-appropriate flavors: purple sweet potato jelly and Japanese chestnut. The prior packs a rich potato punch made all the better thanks to a subtle smoky aftertaste. The latter, meanwhile, delivers something closer to coffee. It may yet be a bit early to give up on ice creams and frozen lattes, but these snacks will shine soon enough.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/26/food/look-chocolates-getting-jump-autumn/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/2036dd33e5d3c32011526fbc1a2f5d55538a67cf58ad0ec122fd33ebe52230fa.json

After two aborted test flights in as many days tied to a problematic air-conditioning system, Japan's first locally built passenger jet was back for checks

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fbusiness%2Fcorporate-business%2Fmrj-back-hangar-test-flights-u-s-thwarted-air-conditioner%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/b-mrj-a-20160830-870x580.jpg

en

MRJ back in hangar after test flights to U.S. thwarted by air conditioner

www.japantimes.co.jp

After two aborted test flights in as many days tied to a problematic air-conditioning system, Japan’s first locally built passenger jet was back for checks and fixes amid delays to a program aimed at challenging the dominance of Brazil’s Embraer SA and Canada’s Bombardier Inc. Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp., the builder of the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, will make a decision on resuming test flights to the United States after the problem has been fixed, Spokesman Kenichi Takemori said by phone from Nagoya Monday. The company has delayed delivery of the aircraft at least four times, with ANA Holdings Inc. scheduled to receive the first MRJ in mid-2018. Mitsubishi Aircraft, a unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., is trying to break the regional-jet duopoly of Embraer and Bombardier. The MRJ, which can seat as many as 92 people, is getting a boost as Bombardier focuses on building C Series jets that will be able to carry as many as 160 passengers, rather than renew its lineup of planes with fewer than 100 seats. The air conditioner issue is unlikely to cause another postponement, said Kenjin Hotta, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities (Japan) Ltd. “It sounds like the planes will be on their way sooner or later,” he said. “I am not terribly concerned.” The plane is the first of four that the firm plans to fly to the U.S. for testing as the company works toward getting certification in the world’s largest economy. It returned to Nagoya after aborting the trip mid-flight as it headed to Hokkaido. The consecutive disrupted journeys underscore the challenges in building and testing new passenger aircraft, which can bedevil even long-established plane manufacturers such as Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE. The aircraft, which made its first flight in November last year, won its first order from a European company in February. Mitsubishi had 407 orders for its new aircraft, including options and purchase rights, as of the end of last year, and its two biggest customers are based in the U.S. The MRJ is also Japan’s first locally built passenger plane in more than 50 years. The country’s last domestically produced commercial aircraft was the YS-11, a turboprop made by Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., a consortium that included Mitsubishi Heavy, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Production was stopped in 1974 after 182 of the planes were sold.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/business/corporate-business/mrj-back-hangar-test-flights-u-s-thwarted-air-conditioner/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/b3ca290fe7354356c50d5286333173cc9cea0c43c200af3cbb6be3c8701c26e0.json

The government talks about creating a society where every woman can play an active role, but the chronic shortage of day care is pushing some entrepreneurs

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnational%2Fsocial-issues%2Fshared-homes-offer-respite-japans-struggling-single-mothers%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-mother-a-20160831-870x580.jpg

en

Shared homes offer respite for Japan's struggling single mothers

www.japantimes.co.jp

The government talks about creating a society where every woman can play an active role, but the chronic shortage of day care is pushing some entrepreneurs to take things into their own hands. When Megumi Katanuma got a divorce in 2011, she faced a harsh reality: nowhere to live, no job, and two teenagers in junior high and high school. She earlier held a managerial position at a firm run by her husband. “I knew I had to work,” she said in a recent interview. Katanuma now runs Codona HAUS, a shared house for single mothers in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, which she set up in September 2014. Katanuma’s initiative is one of about a dozen across the country run by support groups that offer services for this vulnerable demographic. Single moms pay about ¥80,000 a month for accommodation and child care, and get a place where they can also support each other. Before Katanuma decided to open the shared house, she found herself a job that gave her a decent life. However, the work failed to compensate her for the family time she sacrificed. “I spent too little time at home, working overtime and on weekends,” she said. “There were times my children were left alone for the whole day. They had to eat alone three times a day throughout their summer vacation. I felt sorry.” The “survival life” as she calls her experience prompted Katanuma to open the shared house for women like her. “I thought women with younger children face even more struggles,” she said. According to the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry, there were about 760,000 one-child single-parent households headed by women as of 2011. “It won’t solve all the problems single mothers are grappling with, but at least some,” she said. “Everyone moves in here at a different stage in their lives. What’s important is this house is never empty. Even the fact that the lights are on at the entrance makes a difference.” Katanuma believes such an environment, where women can share information, offer advice and learn from each other, helps single mothers build independent lives. For a 36-year-old mother of a 5-month-old boy who never married, the shared house was a solution to loneliness and situations where she would have to leave her child alone or cause upheaval when forced to move house in the future. The woman, who requested anonymity, is a newcomer who settled in early August. Currently on maternity leave, she plans to return to work at a clothing firm in Tokyo in April. “If you’re only with your child, the house is so quiet,” she said. “I thought this environment, with these people around, would help me raise a happier child. I’d like to stay here for a while.” The two-story house with four separate bedrooms, and one living room with kitchen annex used as a shared space, can accommodate four families with children up to 15 years old. Two apartments are currently occupied. The mothers are offered child care twice a week from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m., which enables them to work or have time to themselves. This is provided by nursery staff and Katanuma, who prepares dinner and takes care of the children. “The monthly fee isn’t cheap, but it’s suitable for people who choose convenience,” Katanuma said. “It’s more affordable than standard apartments requiring a deposit and commissions. Here women can bring only their basic belongings.” Codona HAUS is one example among a growing number of shared dwellings for single mothers. Some operators believe such initiatives can help address Japan’s social woes. Gasshoen, a private provider of social welfare services, believes offering room and board for single mothers who want to work is a win-win situation for the women and for industry, as it helps mitigate the nation’s workforce shortage. The nursing sector in particular is in crisis as Japan grays and its population shrinks. The welfare ministry estimates Japan will need 2.53 million care workers in fiscal 2025. To address the problem, Gasshoen, headquartered in the Tokyo city of Machida, has established a shared house for single mothers on its staff. “We hope this will provide a chance for women with children enrolled in day care centers or elementary schools, who are unable to work long hours or on night shifts without assistance,” said Yasushi Sugimoto, strategy manager at Gasshoen. Gasshoen provides nursing care mainly for the elderly, including intensive care and help for people with disabilities. The shared house for single mothers, essentially a staff dormitory, is thought to be the first example of its kind in Japan. The operator hopes it will help provide vulnerable women with a more secure working environment. Gasshoen’s Sugimoto explained that while women comprise much of the nation’s nursing care workforce, many quit after marriage or having a baby. “We’ve lengthened maternity leave so mothers can care for their children until the kids are ready to go to day care centers or the facility’s nursery, but recruiting care workers remains a challenge,” Sugimoto said. The group has tied up with nationwide public employment service Hello Work in a bid to recruit mothers with young children, including single mothers. “If we don’t employ people of a wider range of backgrounds, this industry will continue to suffer,” Sugimoto said. He said the group aims to help women by offering full-time jobs much earlier than is usual in Japan by removing the day care headache. In addition, single mothers, in particular those with no stable income, often struggle with finding somewhere to live, said Codona HAUS operator Katanuma. The latest survey by the welfare ministry, carried out in 2011, found that 80.6 percent of single mothers have jobs but only 39.4 percent of working mothers are in regular employment. However, although Gasshoen hoped to attract single mothers, so far it has struggled to find them, Sugimoto said. “They can’t cover overnight or early shifts without assistance, so they give up on seeking work through employment services.” Gasshoen’s staff dormitory has space specifically for single mothers with children. The facility was finished last month with capacity for up to five families. It has a day care center where children can stay from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. In the Machida facility, mothers can benefit from child care support — the group dispatches a helper to take care of a child or help with homework and prepare dinner to let mothers rest. The service is available free of charge once a week. Satoshi Akiyama, the architect who designed Gasshoen’s Machida shared house, says the project should not be seen as charity but as offering a protective environment for vulnerable people. Akiyama, who also represents Parenting Home, which established Japan’s first share houses for single parent households around Tokyo, hopes such an environment will encourage mothers with young children to return to the workforce. “Most people think that single mothers live in poverty, but that’s not the case,” he said, noting a main obstacle to the career development of single mothers is finding somewhere to live. Akiyama stressed that shared facilities can “make women feel that’s the place they want to spend their lives and raise children.” The group Parenting Home, where child care service is also available, built its first shared house for single mothers in March 2012 in Kawasaki, and by that November had opened three more, in Kawasaki, Yokohama and Tokyo. “The space where people spend time heavily affects their wellbeing and productivity, and it might be reflected in women’s participation in bringing up children,” Akiyama said. Similar share houses run by different operators have been established in other areas, including Okinawa, Osaka, Saga and Saitama Prefectures. Some offer accommodation for unemployed single mothers, but Akiyama said more facilities are needed. “The number is still small,” he said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/30/national/social-issues/shared-homes-offer-respite-japans-struggling-single-mothers/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/a05fd76dc648dc2ffa756fbba6e6b0328e252455ff55ebdb514f4ee558ecf134.json

Japanese and African leaders on Sunday pledged to fight terrorism and emphasized the importance of rules-based maritime order as they wrapped up a Japan-le

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fnational%2Fpolitics-diplomacy%2Fnairobi-declaration-japan-african-nations-vow-fight-terrorism-stress-rule-based-maritime-order%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-declaration-a-20160829-870x991.jpg

en

As conference wraps up, Japan, African leaders vow to fight terrorism, stress rules-based maritime order

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japanese and African leaders on Sunday pledged to fight terrorism and emphasized the importance of rules-based maritime order as they wrapped up a Japan-led international conference on the continent’s development. In the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), the leaders also agreed to promote investment in infrastructure that leads to job creation in the fast-growing region. “Japan’s public and private sectors will offer cooperation for the development that is led by Africa itself,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference after wrap-up of the sixth TICAD, convened in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told the same news conference that Japan does not press its own views on the continent and continues to be a force for African development. The triennial conference was held outside Japan for the first time, as Tokyo seeks to strengthen its economic and political presence in the continent amid China’s increasing influence. On the conference’s opening day Saturday, Abe pledged that Japan will mobilize a total of $30 billion in private- and public-sector funds to invest in Africa over three years to boost infrastructure-building on the resource-rich continent. “We stress the importance of promoting regional and international efforts related to maritime security, including piracy, illegal fishing and other maritime crimes, maintaining a rules-based maritime order in accordance with the principles of international law,” the Nairobi Declaration said. The reference to maritime security comes as tensions remain high in the South China and East China seas amid China’s growing assertiveness there. Japan has repeatedly called for the rule of law and opposed the use of force or coercion in maintaining maritime security. The declaration also reconfirmed efforts to reform the U.N. Security Council, currently comprising five permanent veto-wielding members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 elected members that serve two-year terms. Africa is vital for Japan in its bid to become a permanent member of the Security Council. There are 54 countries on the continent, making up a large voting bloc among the world body’s 193 members. As for investment in infrastructure, Japan hopes to distinguish its aid in the region from that of China through the promotion of “quality infrastructure,” Japanese officials said. “We will promote investment in quality infrastructure which leads to job creation and transfer of expertise and know-how, as well as to capacity building of African countries and people,” the declaration said. In the discussions at TICAD, Abe called on his African counterparts to take measures to create a favorable business environment in terms of safety and legal matters so that Japanese investments in the region can be promoted. On terrorism, the declaration said: “We strongly condemn terrorism in all forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomever committed. … We call for enhanced international cooperation in strengthening counter-terrorism capacity in Africa.” Abe was accompanied by around 200 officials from more than 70 Japanese companies during his trip to Nairobi, the first official visit by a Japanese prime minister in 15 years. Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, the country’s most influential business lobby also known as Keidanren, also took part. Noting that Africa faces challenges such as terrorism, infectious diseases and falling commodities prices, the Japanese and African leaders also vowed in the Nairobi Declaration to make efforts to create jobs for young people and women, promote structural reforms to diversify industries and enhance health care systems to improve the quality of life.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/29/national/politics-diplomacy/nairobi-declaration-japan-african-nations-vow-fight-terrorism-stress-rule-based-maritime-order/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/d981dab0395b6617887697abb5b4db6899fb68a1f822b1aee570a3f087d90e03.json

Japan's Rio Olympic judo gold medalists believe their country has reclaimed its rightful place as the sport's world No. 1, but warned the pressure to succe

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Folympics-judo%2Fjapans-judo-gold-medalists-praise-countrys-efforts-eye-2020-games%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-judo-a-20160831-870x596.jpg

en

Japan's judo gold medalists praise country's efforts with eye on 2020 Games

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan’s Rio Olympic judo gold medalists believe their country has reclaimed its rightful place as the sport’s world No. 1, but warned the pressure to succeed at the 2020 Tokyo Games will be enormous. “Our results in Rio have increased expectations on judo toward the Tokyo Olympics,” men’s 73-kg champion Shohei Ono, one of three Japanese judo gold medalists at the Rio Games, told an audience at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Tuesday. “It’s natural that Japan will win medals. That is the environment that has been created. Of course being the host country will add a pressure incomparable to what we experienced in Rio. But in the time before then, I’d like to keep setting small goals and hopefully that will lead to one big achievement in four years’ time.” Japan enjoyed a fruitful time on the Rio Games mat from Aug. 6-12, with Ono joining men’s 90-kg champion Mashu Baker and women’s 70-kg winner Haruka Tachimoto on top of the podium. Japan also captured one silver and eight bronze medals from the seven weight categories in each of the men’s and women’s competitions — two bronze medals are awarded in each event — to top the medal standings ahead of France and Russia. Japan’s medal haul in Rio marked a stark contrast to the slim pickings it took from the London Games four years earlier, where an overall total of one gold, three silvers and three bronzes meant the men’s team came home with no gold medals for the first time since the sport was introduced to the Olympics at the 1964 Tokyo Games. “Compared to the London Olympics, this time every member of the men’s team won a medal in each weight class,” said Ono, who beat Azerbaijan’s Rustam Orujov at Carioca Arena 2 to pick up the Japanese men’s first gold of the Rio Games. “Winning gold medals is very much our mission as the Japanese team. That’s not to say anything bad about winning bronze, but really when you look at judo as a national sport, winning gold is the only target. I think it’s good to have one sport where Japan is able to set this as a goal.” Japanese judo was dragged through the mud after the London Games when revelations emerged of coaches sexually harassing and physically abusing members of the women’s national team. Two-time world champion Ono and 11 others were also suspended for kicking and slapping first-year students at Tenri University in Nara Prefecture. “After the London Olympics, it was said that judo was losing popularity,” said Baker, who beat Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani in the 90-kg final. “That was the result of various incidents that happened in Japan, and we looked at how we could restore judo’s image. That was one of my own goals and I hope that my gold medal can help to improve the image of judo here in Japan.” While reform in the wake of the scandals has helped judo clean up its image away from the mat, a new coaching regime — 2000 Sydney Games gold medalist Kosei Inoue leading the men and Mitsutoshi Nanjo taking charge of the women — has been credited with reviving the national teams’ fortunes. “After the London Olympics, Coach Inoue took over and I have had the pleasure of training under him,” said Baker. “I don’t know what it was like in 2012, but I can say that under Coach Inoue we have had very personalized training which really looks at making the most of the skills of each individual athlete. “I think this really helped us, not only wanting to win the gold for ourselves but for the coach as well. To be able to deliver the gold medal to him was one of the driving factors for my result in Rio. All the coaches came together and created a united atmosphere, and that was a big factor for our success.” Japan’s women claimed one gold and four bronzes in Rio, and Tachimoto, who beat Yuri Alvear of Colombia in the 70-kg final, paid tribute to her country’s sporting infrastructure. “I often use the National Training Center, and not just the judo facilities but the overall facilities including the pool, the care that is provided and so on,” she said. “They really are excellent facilities. I was able to meet athletes from other sports there, and that inspired me. I think that was one of the factors that contributed to our medals.” Judoka from 134 different countries competed at the Rio Games, but Ono believes Japan still sets the global standard. “I believe we were able to show to the world the strength and beauty of Japanese judo,” he said. “I am always very conscious of showing respect and giving thanks, and this is very important on the Olympic stage. We were able to show to people around the world the spirit of Japanese judo.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/30/olympics-judo/japans-judo-gold-medalists-praise-countrys-efforts-eye-2020-games/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/551635d0fccd2c85d40c3ac1c434ec451e7f7625a1a11172dcd7be2c8c9b6fef.json

South Sudan will only realize lasting peace when all its people regardless of ethnicity feel that they are full citizens with equal rights.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Feditorials%2Fwar-looms-south-sudan%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

War looms again in South Sudan

www.japantimes.co.jp

It has been a short and turbulent life for South Sudan, a nation born just five years ago. Civil war flared less than two years later, but a power-sharing agreement seemed to heal the rift. That deal collapsed weeks ago and South Sudan is again on the brink of upheaval. Even though United Nations peacekeepers have failed to keep the peace, the U.N. this month voted to boost its peacekeeping presence there, a move that Juba has challenged. The world must bring all its resources to bear to bring peace back to South Sudan. Conflict has long dominated life among Sudanese. When Sudan was a single country, there were two north-south civil wars: The first lasted from 1955 to 1971, while the second was even longer, extending from 1983 to 2005. Peace negotiations resulted in independence for South Sudan in 2011, but the country descended again into ethnic conflict by 2013, a bloody struggle that resulted in as many as 300,000 deaths, 1 million internally displaced refugees and another 400,000 refugees who fled to neighboring states. That fight was concluded by an international-brokered August 2015 peace agreement that installed Riek Machar, head of the Nuer, South Sudan’s second-largest ethnic group, as first vice president under President Salva Kiir, who belongs to the Dinka, the country’s largest ethnic group. Other provisions set aside posts and revenue for each man and his faction, as well as an electoral and constitution-writing process. As the civil war had begun with Machar’s dismissal from that same post, odds were long that this deal would survive. Pessimism proved apt when fighting broke out again last month, and Machar fled the capital, refusing to return without international protection. Kiri’s government says Machar’s decision to leave meant that he was abandoning the peace deal; Machar countered that the president’s selection of a replacement for him effectively ended the agreement. Nearly 300 people have been killed since fighting resumed in July. The U.N. believes that more than 35,000 others have sought protection at its base in Juba and more than 100,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries. In response, the U.N. Security Council voted this month to extend the mandate of the existing peacekeeping mission for at least three more months, boost its current 12,000 personnel by an additional 4,000-strong “regional protection force” composed of African troops, and extend its mandate to use more force if necessary. The resolution also threatens to impose an arms embargo against the country, which in theory provides the U.N. leverage over the Kiir government. That leverage will be needed. After the Kiir government initially opposed the U.N. decision on grounds that it could “allow our country to be taken over by the U.N.,” Kiir modified the position but still expressed its “serious concerns” over the move and said the deployment of more peacekeepers must not result in U.N. intervention in the country’s domestic affairs. Its opposition likely stems from that last provision: While both sides of the fighting have committed atrocities, government forces were responsible for the worst acts and the prospect of U.N. forces weighing in could tip the balance in the fighting — as well as expose government officials to international sanctions. Unfortunately, the U.N. record does not inspire confidence. There are reports that U.N. peacekeepers did not respond to pleas for help last month as soldiers raped and murdered civilians outside the U.N. camp in Juba. U.N. workers have been harassed and attacked, and in some cases killed. Japan has deployed its peacekeepers to the U.N. mission in South Sudan since 2012. Its roughly 350-strong Ground Self-Defense Force members engage in engineering missions. The government is now reportedly contemplating adding a new duty to the GSDF members to aid other troops and U.N. and NGO workers under attack — a mission made possible by the contentious security legislation enacted last year. Deploying the additional 4,000 troops will take weeks, if not months. During that time the humanitarian crisis will worsen. The government’s funds have been depleted by the fighting and essential infrastructure crippled or neglected by war. Food production has been crippled and the price of food staples has skyrocketed; inflation is 600 percent. The U.N. believes that 4.8 million people are in urgent need of food and nutritional assistance; a quarter of a million children face severely acute malnutrition. The international community has provided more than $500 million in aid, but that is less than half the amount that is needed. The ability of the U.N. to help is severely restricted if the government no longer sees it as a neutral party — which seems to be the case as U.N. passports are seized and aid flights restricted. Diplomacy is the only possible solution. The two sides are evenly matched and neighboring states have stakes in outcomes, which means that they will ensure their partners can fight on. One possible key actor in South Sudan is China. The two countries have close economic ties: China financed and defended the pipeline that sends oil to the world. At one time, South Sudan provided about 5 percent of China’s oil imports and the China National Petroleum Corp. owns 40 percent of South Sudan’s oil fields. South Sudan has asked China for a $1.9 billion loan — almost 20 percent of the country’s GDP — to develop oil fields and infrastructure. This relationship affords Beijing considerable influence — if it cares to use it. The greatest danger is that decades of war have left South Sudanese feeling that conflict is inseparable from life. There must be more than political reconciliation. South Sudan will only realize lasting peace when all its people regardless of ethnicity feel that they are full citizens with equal rights.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/22/editorials/war-looms-south-sudan/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/d3df264a1871d509dd05d9f32543705b2033f3204fc5e48bc53aa5c230b1fed0.json

Most big-league managers would have still held on to a sliver of hope as Friday night's game between the Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers came down to

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fbaseball%2Fmlb%2Fverlander-sharp-again-for-tigers%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-mlb-a-20160828-870x1377.jpg

en

Verlander sharp again for Tigers

www.japantimes.co.jp

Most big-league managers would have still held on to a sliver of hope as Friday night’s game between the Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers came down to its last few moments. Yes, Nick Buss had just hit what looked like a game-ending double play ball, but Andrelton Simmons was crashing into Detroit shortstop Erick Aybar as he prepared to make the relay to first. If Simmons’ clean slide could break up the double play, the Angels would still be alive. Scioscia, though, knew they wouldn’t be. After all, he had been Aybar’s manager for 10 years until he was traded last winter. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a shortstop that is better than Erick at turning the 4-6-3 double play,” he said. “If he gets a decent feed, he’s going to get the ball to first no matter who is coming at him.” Sure enough, Aybar threw a strike to Miguel Cabrera, even as he was flipped on his face, clinching Detroit’s 4-2 victory. The Angels had a better chance in the eighth, when they pulled within 4-2 and chased Justin Verlander, but that brought in another of Scioscia’s former players — Francisco Rodriguez. Rodriguez walked Mike Trout to put the tying run on base, then saw Albert Pujols barely miss a homer down the left-field line before getting him to ground out to end the threat. “You knew that was going to be a battle with Frankie and Albert out there,” Scioscia said. “Albert almost got him, but he just couldn’t wrap it around the pole, and then Frankie made a great pitch. That’s what he’s going to do.” That was enough for the Tigers, who have won five straight to move back into contention in both the AL Central and wild-card races. Verlander (14-7) allowed four hits and a walk while striking out eight in his ninth straight quality start. Since July 2, he is 7-1 with a 2.00 ERA while giving up 48 hits in 76⅓ innings. “This is what you work for,” he said. “You work so hard in the offseason so that you can be strong at the end of the year and continue to give your team a chance to win when it really counts.” Trout went 0-for-3 against Verlander, and is 1-for-15 against the Detroit ace in his career. “That was obviously a tough night,” Trout said. “He was throwing near 100 (mph, 161 kph), he was working the corners, and he was keeping us off balance. That doesn’t give you many chances.” Justin Upton hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth — his fourth in five games. Indians 12, Rangers 1 In Arlington, Texas, Corey Kluber pitched six strong innings for a career-best sixth straight victory and Abraham Almonte hit two run-scoring doubles, helping Cleveland rout the Rangers. Mariners 3, White Sox 1 In Chicago, Chris Sale struck out 14 but got outpitched by Felix Hernandez and the Seattle bullpen. Yankees 14, Orioles 4 In New York, rookie Gary Sanchez homered for the eighth time in nine games and drove in four runs to help the Yankees pound Baltimore. Blue Jays 15, Twins 8 In Toronto, Russell Martin and Justin Smoak each homered and drove in five runs and the Blue Jays handed Minnesota its eighth straight loss. Astros 5, Rays 4 In Houston, Carlos Correa and Evan Gattis hit back-to-back homers in the ninth inning to lift the Astros past Tampa Bay. Royals 6, Red Sox 3 In Boston, Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon homered, and starter Ian Kennedy allowed one run through five innings to lead Kansas City past the Red Sox. NATIONAL LEAGUE Cubs 6, Dodgers 4 (10) In Los Angeles, Kris Bryant hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the 10th inning to go with an earlier solo shot, lifting Chicago over the hosts. The Cubs improved to 19-4 in August while earning their major league-leading 82nd victory. Giants 7, Braves 0 In San Francisco, Jeff Samardzija and two relievers combined on a seven-hitter. Mets 9, Phillies 4 In New York, Wilmer Flores launched a grand slam, Asdrubal Cabrera homered from both sides of the plate and even Bartolo Colon had two helpful hits while pitching the Mets to a victory over Philadelphia. Pirates 5, Brewers 3 In Milwaukee, Jordy Mercer’s first career grand slam capped a five-run sixth inning that started with two errors by Brewers third baseman Jonathan Villar in Pittsburgh’s victory. Nationals 8, Rockies 5 In Washington, Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy hit solo homers and drove in two runs each, and Gio Gonzalez earned his 100th career victory. Marlins 7, Padres 6 In Miami, Chris Johnson’s run-scoring ground-rule double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth gave the Marlins a victory over San Diego. Marlins pinch hitter Ichiro Suzuki walked in the ninth. Diamondbacks 4, Reds 3 (11) In Phoenix, Brandon Drury scored the winning run on a wild pitch with two outs in the 11th inning. INTERLEAGUE Cardinals 3, Athletics 1 In St. Louis, Jedd Gyorko homered and Luke Weaver pitched six strong innings against Oakland to earn his first major league victory.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/27/baseball/mlb/verlander-sharp-again-for-tigers/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/9f45eb7de0b371ac6d3b57de9a836869cd1cc515abf9f702520a217f3ad4d013.json

A former employee has been placed on the wanted list for his suspected involvement in Monday's fatal shooting at a construction firm in the city of Wakayam

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F30%2Fnational%2Fcrime-legal%2Fsuspect-wakayama-shooting-placed-wanted-list%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-wakayama-a-20160831.jpg

en

Suspect in Wakayama shooting placed on wanted list

www.japantimes.co.jp

A former employee has been placed on the wanted list for his suspected involvement in Monday’s fatal shooting at a construction firm in the city of Wakayama, investigators said. The police obtained an arrest warrant for Yasuhide Mizobata, 45, who is also the second son of the company’s president, on suspicion of murder and attempted murder for the shooting that left one person dead and three injured, two seriously. According to investigators, security camera footage showed Mizobata leaving the company’s office with a bag shortly after the shooting took place at around 8:50 a.m. and heading toward a car in the parking lot. Mizobata was recently convicted under the Stimulant Control Law and was supposed to have be taken to prison Monday. At the time of the shooting, he was still out on bail. The injured employees reportedly told the investigators the suspect shot them with a gun that he took out of a bag. Since the gun was not found at the site, investigators believe Mizobata is still armed. Mizobata’s car was found Monday afternoon in a parking lot at JR Wakayama Station, and footage showing a man matching his description was caught by multiple security cameras around the station, the police said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/30/national/crime-legal/suspect-wakayama-shooting-placed-wanted-list/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/cd6b164659ff4010bd91ea69d416c55b1a89b2c3b7a281f75d3a257e52d9db42.json

Japan came close to sabotaging Usain Bolt's bid for Olympic immortality but settled for a first-ever silver medal in the men's 4×100-meter relay at the Rio Games.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Flanguage%2Flets-discuss-mens-4x100-relay-rio%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Let's discuss the men's 4x100 relay at Rio

www.japantimes.co.jp

This week’s featured article ANDREW MCKIRDY, THE JAPAN TIMES Japan came close to sabotaging Usain Bolt’s bid for Olympic immortality but settled for a first-ever silver medal in the men’s 4×100-meter relay at the Rio Games on Friday. The Japan team of Ryota Yamagata, Shota Iizuka, Yoshihide Kiryu and Aska Cambridge finished second in a new Asian-record time of 37.60 seconds, just 0.33 behind Bolt and his Jamaica teammates. “It’s a great feeling, winning a medal was our goal all along,” said Cambridge, who took the baton for the anchor leg neck-and-neck with Bolt and held off Trayvon Bromell of the United States and Canada’s Andre De Grasse to secure silver. “I believed that my three teammates would put me in a good position, and that’s what happened. We have a great team and I was determined not to lose. I started to lose my balance but luckily I didn’t fall.” Bolt completed an unprecedented sweep of three sprint titles for a third straight Olympics after anchoring a Jamaican team also featuring Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade to the gold medal in a time of 37.27. “All the weight is gone now,” said Bolt, who says he will retire after next year’s world championships in London. “I would have never thought I could go back-to-back-to-back Olympics. At the first one I was just happy. The second one was a challenge, and then to come into the third one is just unbelievable. I hope I’ve set the bar high enough that no one can do it again.” Japan got off to a flying start through Yamagata, who chased down China’s Tang Xingqiang on his outside lane and passed the baton to Iizuka in a strong position. Iizuka and Kiryu then kept Japan in gold-medal contention, handing over to Cambridge for the final leg, but the 23-year-old could not keep up with Bolt as the star attraction of the Rio Games powered Jamaica to the title. “This time we won the silver medal so next time we are aiming for gold,” said Yamagata. “I think winning the silver has earned us the right to think like that. I want us to be confident and target the gold.” First published in The Japan Times on Aug. 21. Warm up One-minute chat about the Olympics. Game Collect words related to games, e.g., player, score, winner. New words 1) sabotage: intentionally destroy or damage; e.g., “He sabotaged her plan.” 2) unprecedented: never before known or done; e.g., “The city is attracting an unprecedented number of tourists.” 3) neck-and-neck: even or extremely close; e.g. “With both teams on 12 points, the game was neck-and-neck.” Guess the headline Bolt completes triple-triple with Jamaica’s gold in 4×100 r_ _ _ _; Japan makes history by taking s_ _ _ _ _ Questions 1) What two unprecedented achievements are mentioned in the article? 2) Will Usain Bolt compete at the next Olympics? 3) What are the names of the members of the Japan men’s relay team, and in what order did they run at the Rio Olympics? Let’s discuss the article 1) Did you watch the Rio Olympics? 2) What was the highlight of the Rio Olympics for you? 3) What do you expect the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to be like? Reference 人類最速の男と言うイメージが定着し、そのイメージを崩すことのないまま有終の美を飾ったボルト選手の強さは計り知れませんが、そのボルト選手に続いて世界の大舞台で第二着となった日本チームの活躍は大きな注目と喝采を集めました。 他の競技でも多くの日本代表選手がリオオリンピックで素晴らしい活躍をし、その様子が報じられていました。 次の夏季オリンピックはいよいよ日本で行われます。世界の選手たちがその力を最大限発揮するために私たちにも出来ることがあるのでしょうか。 朝の会に参加し、皆さんで話し合ってみましょう。

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/29/language/lets-discuss-mens-4x100-relay-rio/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/61936c896728d8fcf2e76ff504f44c6b67ce043fe81bff599a43f51cbc3b7e54.json

Debates are the biggest potential game changer in U.S. elections, and the best entertainer always wins them.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F23%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fu-s-election-debates%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

U.S. election is all about the debates

www.japantimes.co.jp

Conventional wisdom says Donald Trump is going to lose, and lose big. You see it everywhere in corporate media. Republican Party insiders are bereft and in denial, simultaneously refusing to accept the reality that their party is facing the possibility of catastrophic defeats in races all over the country this fall; indeed, some pundits say Trump marks the beginning of the end of the GOP. The New York Times is running a 24-7 odds placement that puts Hillary Clinton’s chances of victory at 86 percent against his 14 percent. Indeed, if the election were held today, Clinton would beat Trump by a sizable margin. But that’s not the case. Two months is a long time. Old scandals percolate; new ones emerge. Another terrorist attack could prompt voters to turn to the right. By far the biggest potential game changer, however, are the presidential debates. Conventional wisdom says Clinton will use her superior command of the facts and her ability to name-drop world leaders to run circles around Trump. But conventional wisdom is often wrong — just ask unstoppable 2016 Republican presidential nominee Jeb Bush. I think Trump will trounce Clinton in the debates. In fact, I can’t imagine any scenario in which she doesn’t get destroyed. We like to think that the presidential debates are about issues and facts. They aren’t. The winner is the candidate who unleashes the zingiest one-liners and putdowns. “There you go again.” “Where’s the beef?” “I knew Jack Kennedy; Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” You’ve watched Trump. You’ve watched Clinton. Who do you think is better positioned to control the format? I have no idea whether Clinton can be quick on her feet or sharp with a nasty one-liner. It doesn’t matter. Her brand is experience and competence. She can’t get down into the gutter with Trump without undermining her message that she’s the adult. She has to look serious and come across as — there’s no other word for it — boring. Remember what happened to Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush when they tried to out-Trump Trump: they wrecked whatever chances they still had to stop him during the primaries. A more courtly candidate (Bernie Sanders) might have gone easy on Clinton for fear of being viewed as sexist. That concern won’t cross Trump’s mind. He’ll go after her with the ferocity of Black Friday shoppers chasing down a discount Xbox. Does Trump have vulnerabilities? Obviously. Clinton’s aces in the hole are the temperament argument and his refusal to release his taxes. The secrecy surrounding his tax returns raises suspicions that risk unraveling the fundamental rationale of his candidacy: I’m rich and successful, and I can use the talents I used to get that way to benefit the country. But her vulnerabilities are more serious. The problem for Clinton is that she has gotten a relatively free ride from journalists and pundits, most of whom will vote for her. Her hypocrisies and inconsistencies comparatively unexamined, she emerges from her primary campaign untested and untempered. The debates offer Trump a juicy opportunity to expose those weaknesses on what promises to be a national stage with record audiences. If she asks him about his tax returns, he can deflect by demanding the transcripts of her speeches to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms, which she repeatedly refused to release while fending off Bernie. When she goes after him on ethics, he’ll pound away on the 30,000 deleted emails. Oh, and now there’s the latest Clinton Foundation sleaze too. If Trump wants to go nuclear, he can slam her with the biggest unreported story of the year: the allegation that her husband Bill was a frequent flyer on a convicted pedophile’s sexual tourism escapades overseas. I understand why Clinton was reluctant to agree to any debates. Past performance suggests that she isn’t a strong debater to begin with. Going against a master reality TV and pro wrestling ringmaster like Trump has got to feel like walking into the Coliseum with nothing but faith in God to protect you from the lion’s maw. Trump knows all the tricks: how to deploy comical facial expressions as well as Jim Carrey, how to dominate others using body language, a laser-like ability to identify an opponent’s weaknesses and reduce them to rubble via ridicule (“Little Marco”). In an American presidential debate, 15-point white papers don’t count for jack. The best entertainer always wins. During a 2000 debate Al Gore walked right up to George W. Bush, looming over him in what many watchers interpreted as an attempt to intimidate the Texas governor. Bush merely looked up at Gore and nodded, a droll look on his face. Bush was an idiot. Gore was a genius by comparison, a fact he proved by repeatedly drawing upon his superior knowledge of the issues and proposing infinitely more intelligent solutions to problems. But it didn’t matter. Voters thought Bush won. Will Trump’s likely victories in the debates be enough to close the current gap between him and Clinton in the polls? Maybe. All I know is, anyone who says it’s all over is whistling past the graveyard. It’s all about the debates. A political cartoonist, columnist and writer, Ted Rall’s latest book is the graphic biography “Trump.” © 2016, Ted Rall

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/23/commentary/world-commentary/u-s-election-debates/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/42ee2c8a86c0874e789fa90a3b7c81203ef628155c184f3b9646d515794bff4f.json

While English prefers to describe things in terms of an actor who performs some action on an object, in Japanese such things often seem to happen out of themselves.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F22%2Flanguage%2Fstuff-happens-opening-intransitive-japanese-verbs%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p7-backhaus-bilingual-feature-a-20160823-870x653.jpg

en

Stuff happens: opening up to intransitive Japanese verbs

www.japantimes.co.jp

“Please open,” said the dentist, and these words gave me something to think about during the uncomfortable moments of oral inspection that followed. Because what she actually said was 開いてください (Aite kudasai), a request form of the verb 開く (aku, open). However, 開く is an intransitive verb, meaning that it does not take a direct object. I don’t know if linguists have a different idea of grammar than dentists, but to me this all but sounded like a request straight to the mouth (“Mouth, open”), rather than to the person in charge of that mouth. What I, who happened to be that person, would have expected is a construction using the transitive verb 開ける (akeru, open) — though I felt it unwise to start a discussion with my dentist at this point. The distinction between intransitive and transitive is one of the most fundamental ways of categorizing verbs and, unlike in English, this distinction is very systematically encoded in Japanese. The 開く vs. 開ける pair is but one of countless examples where a verb stem combines with two different endings to express intransitivity (“The mouth opens”) or transitivity (“The patient opens his mouth”). While there are a handful of comparable examples in English, such as lie vs. lay, sit vs. seat, and rise vs. raise, most of the time one and the same English verb is used for both intransitive and transitive purposes. Here are a few more examples where two different Japanese forms translate as the same English verb: 閉まる (shimaru, something closes) vs. 閉める (shimeru, close something), 動く (ugoku, something moves) vs. 動かす (ugokasu, move something), 起きる (okiru, someone wakes up) vs. 起こす (okosu, wake someone up), and ぶつかる (butsukaru, bump into something) vs. ぶつける (butsukeru, bump something into something). It’s not always easy to know which is which. My personal rule of thumb is that transitive verbs tend to have a “sharper” ending — like す, for instance, which is a fairly reliable indicator of transitivity. On the other hand, there are a few nasty pairs that seem to exist for the sole purpose of confusion. In our “opening” example from the dentist, for instance, we have the intransitive-transitive pair 開く (aku) vs. 開ける (akeru). Other verbs work just the opposite way, as in the case of the intransitive 裂ける (sakeru, something splits) and the transitive 裂く (saku, split something). In addition, there are a few covert pairs that, due to historical accidents, ended up with different kanji in their stem. Examples are 座る (suwaru, sit) vs. 据える (sueru, put, install, seat) and 廃る (sutaru, fall out of use, be disgraced) vs. 捨てる (suteru, dump, abandon). One common translation pattern for Japanese intransitive verbs is to use an English passive. Take examples like the transitive 決める (kimeru, decide), かたづける (katazukeru, tidy up) and 捕まえる (tsukamaeru, arrest), and their intransitive correspondents, 決まる (kimaru, be decided), かたづく (katazuku, be tidied up) and 捕まる (tsukamaru, be arrested). As can be seen here, while in Japanese it suffices to tinker a little bit with the endings of these verbs to “intransitize” them, you would have to go through great pains to engineer a nonpassive English translation for them. Given these differing preferences, Japanese is sometimes classified as a “become language” as opposed to English being a “do language.” This means that whereas English prefers to describe things in terms of an actor who performs some action on an object, in Japanese such things often seem to happen more or less out of themselves. Here is an example: When you have looked for something in vain, the best way to express your efforts in English is “I didn’t find it” (transitive). By contrast, in Japanese most people would choose the intransitive verb form 見つからなかった (mitsukaranakatta, “It wasn’t to be found”) rather than use the transitive verb 見つける (mitsukeru, find). This general tendency may be one reason why, as in the case of my dentist, we find these strange intransitive constructions in Japanese directives. On the phone, for instance, it is totally normal to say お母さんに代わってください (Okāsan ni kawatte kudasai, “Please put your mother on the phone”). If taken literally, this is an invocation to the current, child-on-the-phone state of affairs to transform into one where the mother will be on the phone, not suggesting any human interference whatsoever. Likewise, in Japanese families, you commonly hear things such as もっと早く気がつきなさい (Motto hayaku ki ga tsukinasai, “Come to notice this more quickly”) or ６時過ぎにならないでください (Rokuji sugi ni naranai de kudasai, “Don’t become later than six”). The good thing about this is that you don’t even need an appointment at the dentist’s to witness intransitive verbs doing quite transitive things.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/22/language/stuff-happens-opening-intransitive-japanese-verbs/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/7b215171a75b5ab07172d0c965888e13427233cb35a93da704b55304750508e0.json

Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska breezed through her Connecticut Open semifinal Friday, routing two-time defending champion Petra Kvitova 6-1, 6-1. Radwanska

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fmore-sports%2Ftennis%2Fradwanska-advances-final%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-tennis-a-20160828-870x642.jpg

en

Radwanska advances to final

www.japantimes.co.jp

Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska breezed through her Connecticut Open semifinal Friday, routing two-time defending champion Petra Kvitova 6-1, 6-1. Radwanska, who will be seeded fourth next week in the U.S. Open, was never challenged. The Polish star won the first five games of the first set and the first four in the second against her Czech opponent, who has been fighting off a cold all week. The 27-year-old is looking for her second title of the year after winning the Shenzhen Open in China in January. “It’s good that I’m again in this level that I can really play my best tennis, especially before the Grand Slam,” she said She will face the Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in the final. The 21-year-old Svitolina ousted Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-4, 6-2. Svitolina beat Serena Williams in the Olympics and is ranked No. 23 in the world. She’s 4-0 in WTA finals, but this will be her first in a Premier event. “It feels, of course, more special because it’s a premier event,” Svitolina said. “For the rest, I don’t think this way. It’s just a final, you know. My goal is to win a Grand Slam. It’s just another step in the right direction.” Radwansaka also has never won a Grand Slam, but is looking for her 19th WTA singles title. Fifteen of those have come on hard courts. She had never made it past the quarterfinals in New Haven, but had a relatively easy trip this year that included a first-round bye and straight-set wins over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and lucky loser Kirsten Flipkins of Belgium The loss snapped an 11-match winning streak for Kvitova in New Haven, where the Olympic bronze medalist was looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as four-time winners. She also won the tournament 2012. The two-time Wimbledon champion said she was fatigued, a bit ill and Radwanska just ran her off the court. “She’s not playing very hard, but she’s using her speed, she’s putting everything in,” Kvitova said. “Even (when) you feel it’s winner there, she still can catch it and rallies continue.” The first match began with three consecutive service breaks before the 21-year-old Svitolina found her touch and took control. The 10th seed broke Larsson at love in the fifth game of the second set and cruised from there. Svitolina said she’s received a lot of congratulations since the Olympics, but she was disappointed because she did not medal and hopes for bigger things next week. “I wouldn’t dream if I didn’t think I could achieve this,” she said of a Grand Slam title. “I think I need some time to adjust my game to try to compete against top players.” Radwanska has a bit of an extra incentive on Saturday. A win would give her enough points to clinch the U.S. Open Series bonus challenge and a chance for up to an extra $1 million, depending on her finish at the U.S. Open. “Definitely it’s worth the win,” she said. “I will just do everything within my power to win tomorrow.” Meanwhile, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Roberto Bautista Agut will meet fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in the Winston-Salem Open final after he outplayed Serbian Viktor Troicki 7-5 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 in a dramatic semifinal that lasted more than two hours in steamy afternoon heat on Friday. Bautista Agut appeared to be cruising after taking the first set and racing to 5-0 in the second. In a sudden transformation, Troicki started going for his shots, hitting winner after winner as he reeled off five straight games and dominated the tiebreak to even the match at a set apiece. A short break between sets seemed to help Bautista Agut, who steadied the ship and served strongly in the final set to move within sight of his fourth title of the year. “I was a bit tight when trying to close out the match,” Bautista Agut told reporters. “It’s a normal thing, though. Everyone is a bit nervous when trying to win the match. “I was very disappointed to lose the second set after leading 5-0. But the good thing is that I was able to recover and set aside the bad feelings in the third set. I work hard on the mental side of my game and I think it is one of my strengths.” Troicki, though disappointed to lose, took heart from his comeback. “I’m disappointed in the loss but still proud of how I fought,” he said. In the evening semifinal, Carreno Busta took down John Millman 6-4 7-6 (7-5). The 49th-ranked player in the world, Carreno Busta has yet to lose a set in the tournament.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/27/more-sports/tennis/radwanska-advances-final/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/c10f84fc2ff0a8e6f523bb1c2e1cd2134f6b2a1165adbea8391635cb2afba344.json

When Italian chef Massimo Bottura arrived in Japan in late July to present a series of meals at the elegant Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, it represented quite a coup

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F19%2Ffood%2Fchef-massimo-botturas-kyoto-menu-colorful-daring%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p10-swinnerton-bottura-b-20160820-870x580.jpg

en

Chef Massimo Bottura's Kyoto menu is both colorful and daring

www.japantimes.co.jp

When Italian chef Massimo Bottura arrived in Japan in late July to present a series of meals at the elegant Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, it represented quite a coup for the hotel in only its second year of existence. Just six weeks earlier, Bottura’s restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena, had been voted into top place on the increasingly influential World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Although he had presented some dishes in Tokyo last year, this was the 53-year-old Bottura’s first time in Japan to offer a full multicourse menu of the inventive, artistic, contemporary Italian cuisine that has also won him three Michelin stars. Demand for tables was intense, with some customers arranging to fly in specially for the occasion from as far away as Singapore. The setting was well worthy of the occasion. The Ritz-Carlton’s flagship Italian restaurant, La Locanda, occupies pride of place on the hotel’s ground floor and boasts a remarkable interior. The inner dining room was part of the old villa that formerly occupied this site by the Kamo River. Built in 1908 for the aristocrat industrialist Baron Denzaburo Fujita, the two beautifully preserved rooms boast wood panels and European light fixtures along with traditional Japanese motifs, and look out onto a dry-stone garden that is raked to perfection each morning. Both the five-course lunch and seven-course dinner (plus nibbles at the beginning and end) comprised dishes from Bottura’s most recent repertoire. Some featured intensely vivid splashes of color; others were daring, almost provocative monochromes. All were memorable and, most essentially, unfailingly delicious. Among the standouts was the dish he calls “Autumn in New York.” Named after a Billie Holiday song, his original inspiration was the fall produce he found at New York’s famed Union Square farmers market. But, just as Holiday didn’t only sing the number in autumn or only in New York, Bottura adjusts his recipe to the place and season. His “midsummer in Kyoto” version featured cooling cucumber, melon and watermelon, all set against an underlying motif evoking the Big Apple. Speaking after his first lunch service, Bottura expressed both elation and relief, his wonder at the quality of the ingredients in Kyoto and the sophisticated palates of his customers. “I think the two cultures have a shared obsession for the best produce. I feel so good here in Japan — people understand what I’m doing (in my cooking) without any need to have it all explained for them.” Bottura’s event was the second in a series of guest appearances titled “A Tavola con Valentino,” named after La Locanda’s executive chef, Valentino Palmisano. For information about future events, contact The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto located at Kamogawa Nijo-Ohashi Hotori, Hokodencho, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto (075-746-5555), or visit www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/japan/kyoto/dining/la-locanda.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/19/food/chef-massimo-botturas-kyoto-menu-colorful-daring/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/b31185529d3d457fe581e18e470cc7dbd190af594fceb31fb9aa198d2f8ab7c8.json

Hopes were fading Saturday of finding more survivors under the rubble of central Italy's devastating earthquake. The first funerals for victims were held F

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fworld%2Fitaly-mourns-quake-dead-hope-survivors-wanes%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-italyquake-a-20160828-870x580.jpg

en

Italy mourns quake dead as hope for survivors wanes

www.japantimes.co.jp

Hopes were fading Saturday of finding more survivors under the rubble of central Italy’s devastating earthquake. The first funerals for victims were held Friday as the country prepared for an emotionally charged day of mourning. Flags were to fly at half-staff across the country on Saturday in respect for the victims of Wednesday’s disaster, which killed at least 281 and left 388 hospitalized with injuries, according to an updated official toll. The Civil Protection Agency’s emergency unit said no new survivors had been found Friday in the mountain villages hit hardest by the pre-dawn quake. No one has been pulled alive from the piles of collapsed masonry since Wednesday evening. “We will go on searching and digging until we are certain there is no one left,” said Luigi D’Angelo, a Civil Protection officer working in the town of Amatrice, where the death toll stands at 221. Forestry police officer Valerio Checchi said he expected rescuers to shortly start using mechanical diggers to move debris — a sign that virtually all hope of finding survivors has gone. “We will still use thermal devices that can detect the presence of human bodies,” said Checchi. At least eight foreigners were among the dead, according to updates from foreign ministries. Britain’s Foreign Office on Friday confirmed that a British couple in their 50s had been killed in the quake as well as a 14-year-old boy. Romania said two of its citizens who were living in Italy had died. Spain, Canada and El Salvador each said one of their citizens had perished. As powerful aftershocks closed winding mountain roads and made life dangerous for more than 4,000 professionals and volunteers engaged in the rescue effort, survivors voiced dazed bewilderment over the scale of the disaster that struck their sleepy communities. “I have been through earthquakes before, but this was not a quake, it was an apocalypse,” said Anacleto Perotti, 66. This resident of the tiny hamlet of St. Lorenzo Flaviano has gone back to his house, which survived the quake. But he is sleeping in an armchair. “It is too scary in bed. After a quake comes fear — depression takes you over from the inside.” Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has declared a state of emergency for the regions affected by Wednesday’s quake, which occurred in an area that straddles the regions of Umbria, Lazio and Marche. Renzi also released an initial tranche of €50 million ($56 million) in emergency aid. The first funerals took place in Pomezia, south of Rome, home of six of the victims, including an 8-year-old boy. Renzi and President Sergio Mattarella on Saturday were to attend a funeral service in the city of Ascoli-Piceno for some of the 46 people who died in the mountain villages of Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto. The youngest local victim was 3 or 4, the oldest in her 90s. Over 2,000 people who spent the night in hastily erected tented villages were shaken by a magnitude-4.8 aftershock just after 6 a.m. on Friday. More than 900 aftershocks have rattled the region since Wednesday’s quake, which had a magnitude of 6.0 to 6.2 and triggered the collapse of hundreds of old buildings across dozens of tiny communities playing host to far more people than usual because of the summer holidays. Many of the survivors, who are now living in tents, were carrying plastic bags containing the few possessions they grabbed before fleeing their homes: clothes, ID documents, phones and wallets. Quake experts estimate that the cost of the short-term rescue effort and longer-term reconstruction could exceed €1 billion ($1.13 billion). There are also fears of a negative effect on the already-stagnating Italian economy, with tourism — which accounts for 4 percent of GDP — certain to take a hit. Analysts noted, however, that the disaster could help Renzi get clearance for reconstruction spending to be excluded from EU calculations of the country’s compliance with budget rules. Renzi’s government and local authorities are now facing questions as to why there were so many deaths in a sparsely populated area so soon after a 2009 earthquake in the nearby city of L’Aquila left 300 people dead. That disaster, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the south, underscored the region’s vulnerability to seismic events — but preparations for a fresh quake have been exposed as inadequate. “Italy should have a plan that is not just limited to the management of emergency situations,” Renzi said. He said that reinforcing centuries-old buildings would be difficult but that more could be done.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/27/world/italy-mourns-quake-dead-hope-survivors-wanes/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/f2790d72ebb49a17477946a860a24e733b7d303cd95afa1978a7ab48eb020ae2.json

In his classic polemic against modern Japan, "Dogs and Demons," Alex Kerr described how a system of government loans and subsidies in the 1980s spurred a n

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F21%2Fmusic%2Fsukiyaki-meets-world-music-festival-thinks-global-acts-local%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-hadfield-sukiyaki-a-20160822-870x653.jpg

en

Sukiyaki Meets the World music festival thinks global and acts local

www.japantimes.co.jp

In his classic polemic against modern Japan, “Dogs and Demons,” Alex Kerr described how a system of government loans and subsidies in the 1980s spurred a nationwide outbreak of grandiose construction projects. Today, the Japanese countryside is littered with oversized, underused cultural centers, many of which are managed by private firms because local authorities couldn’t afford to pay for their upkeep. One blessed exception is in Nanto, a thinly spread municipality of 60,000 people in Toyama Prefecture, about half an hour’s drive from Kanazawa. When the city’s Fukuno Creative Cultural Center Helios opened in 1991, it inaugurated a music festival that has endured to the present day. Sukiyaki Meets the World now ranks as Japan’s premier world music event, drawing more than 15,000 people each year to watch musicians from nations as diverse as India, Argentina and Senegal. “After 26 years, the local people really understand what we’re doing,” says Nicolas Ribalet, the cultural center’s artistic director, and producer of Sukiyaki Meets the World since 2006. The festival has attracted some big names in the past, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Buena Vista Social Club, but its longevity owes more to how thoroughly it has established itself with the local community. It’s organized entirely by volunteers, and visiting musicians are encouraged to participate in workshops and classes with the locals, both before and during the main event in late August. These workshops have spawned a host of Nanto-based groups that practice and play year-round, including the Sukiyaki Steel Orchestra and Salaam Aleikum!, an African and Korean percussion ensemble. The festival receives 30 percent of its budget from the city of Nanto, and while Ribalet says the amount has been gradually getting smaller, he doesn’t think their long-term funding is under threat. “In terms of priority, we are really high,” he says. “If they touch us, it’s going to be really unpopular. The cost-performance ratio of the festival is very good.” Ribalet came onboard just as Sukiyaki Meets the World was beginning to shift its focus, after years of relying on Tokyo-based concert promoters to book its international acts. Though the likes of Buena Vista Social Club, who headlined in 2000, brought a significant amount of kudos, it was hard to reconcile the needs of such high-profile stars with the event’s open-door ethos. “The backstage access was very limited,” recalls Ribalet, who attended the festival for the first time in 2000. When people weren’t even able to say hello to the participating artists, he says, the organizers decided: ” ‘No, that’s not what we want to do. Let’s have more accessible guys.’ “ Since then, Sukiyaki Meets the World has created its own network, booking overseas artists directly, with less regard for prevailing trends on the European world music circuit. Under Ribalet’s tenure, the festival has also introduced a residence program, inviting visiting musicians to stay in traditional houses around Nanto for extended periods and practice, record or work on collaborations with other artists. One beneficiary of this change was Peter Solo, a Togolese musician based in Lyons, France, where he fronts the ebullient Afro-funk outfit Vaudou Game. Solo was first booked to play at Sukiyaki Meets the World in 2009, when he appeared with his former band, Kakarako. The following year, he returned to take part in an international super-group, Sukiafrica, featuring musicians from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, South Korea and Japan. The members of the band spent three weeks living together and preparing for their debut performance at the festival, and subsequently went on tour in South Korea and southern Africa. “There are some experiences you live once in your life, they make you different, they change you,” says Solo, speaking over the phone from his home in France. “That one changed something inside me forever. Japan is my country, man.” The nephew of Roger Damawuzan, a famous Togolese singer from the 1970s, Solo had found fame in his native country in the early 2000s before moving to England, and later France. He describes his first visit to Japan as a pivotal moment in his career: It was the first booking he’d had outside Europe, and made him review his commitment to music making. (“That put me to work,” he says.) He subsequently disbanded Kakarako and embraced the analog funk sound that his uncle has championed since the ’70s. Vaudou Game, which released its debut album in 2014, also gives him a platform to espouse the music and philosophies of Togo’s indigenous religion, Voodoo. Though Hollywood has traditionally depicted it as a cult of zombies and black magic, Solo describes an animist tradition that sounds far closer in spirit to Shinto. “Voodoo says we need to be in harmony with nature,” he explains. “That’s why I feel at home in Japan, people care about the environment and try to respect nature.” Expressing these ideas through Vaudou Game required him to teach the music of Voodoo rituals to his French and Chilean bandmates, none of whom were raised in the tradition. However, with breezy confidence that sounds in keeping with the Sukiyaki Meets the World philosophy, he insists this was less of a challenge than it might sound. “It was not difficult, because they are musicians,” he says. “If you are a musician, you don’t need to grow up in Japan to play Japanese music. Give me one week or give me two weeks with Japanese musicians, I will play Japanese music, man. Because I’m a musician.” Sukiyaki Meets the World is held in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture from Aug. 26 to 28. Tickets for the main concerts are ¥3,000 at the door on Aug. 26 and 27, and ¥4,000 on Aug. 28. For more details, visit www.sukiyakifes.jp. Vaudou Game also plays at WWW in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo on Aug. 30, at the first of two Sukiyaki Tokyo shows (7:30 p.m. start; ¥5,000 in advance; 03-5458-7685). For more details, visit www.sukiyakitokyo.com.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/21/music/sukiyaki-meets-world-music-festival-thinks-global-acts-local/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/d6b13e97553f418d102f4f6fb7e41b60f2bd47ab7733190373f0fc0434e1ffb6.json

A U.S. Marine has been arrested in Okinawa Prefecture on suspicion of attempting to enter a woman's residence, local police said Wednesday. Isaac Edward Ha

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fnational%2Fcrime-legal%2Fu-s-marine-held-in-alleged-bid-to-enter-womans-apartment-in-okinawa%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

U.S. Marine held in alleged bid to enter woman's apartment in Okinawa

www.japantimes.co.jp

A U.S. Marine has been arrested in Okinawa Prefecture on suspicion of attempting to enter a woman’s residence, local police said Wednesday. Isaac Edward Harkless, 26, who is stationed at Camp Courtney in the city of Uruma, was taken into custody Tuesday on suspicion of trying to enter the woman’s second-floor apartment in the neighboring village of Yomitan at around 5:20 p.m. The company employee, 45, called the police after hearing someone trying to turn the locked doorknob on her apartment door, according to the police. When the police arrived, they found Harkless standing in the passage outside her apartment. The suspect is refusing to answer questions, according to an investigative source.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/national/crime-legal/u-s-marine-held-in-alleged-bid-to-enter-womans-apartment-in-okinawa/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/232eae166982e089c3128597d0bd8f6be3861a10f910f4e188167ca902d47b64.json

Wines produced in Chile, Australia and other New World regions are gaining popularity among consumers in Japan due to their reasonable prices and eye-catch

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Ffood%2Fput-bird-wallaby-logos-sell-new-world-wines%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p12-tokudo-wines-a-20160827-870x653.jpg

en

Put a bird on it, or a wallaby: logos sell New World wines

www.japantimes.co.jp

Wines produced in Chile, Australia and other New World regions are gaining popularity among consumers in Japan due to their reasonable prices and eye-catching animal logos. Honami Shiro, a 26-year-old company official in Tokyo who drinks wine on special occasions, says she likes New World wines because they taste great and are not that expensive. “Since I’m not particularly knowledgeable about wine, I usually pick a bottle with a cute label,” she says. Shiro recently picked up Yellow Tail, an Australian wine that features a wallaby on its label, for a gathering with her friends. Sapporo Breweries Ltd., which has imported Yellow Tail wines since 2004, says it saw a 50 percent rise in shipments in fiscal 2015. In a bid to attract more customers, Sapporo Breweries has created special labels targeted at consumers here in collaboration with an Australian designer and plans to use them for its three mainstay products from autumn. “We hope that the new labels will attract those who are not wine drinkers,” says Yusuke Tamura, an official of Sapporo Breweries’ wine business strategic division. In 2015, Chile toppled France as top wine exporter to Japan, according to the Finance Ministry. Imports of Chilean wine jumped 18.1 percent from the previous year to 51.59 million liters, while those of French wine fell 2.8 percent to 51.51 million liters. Mercian Corp. has been selling two Chilean wines bearing an image of a pudu, the world’s smallest deer, since July 2015. “Recent customers, particularly women, choose wine by just looking at the labels,” says Kana Takigawa, an official of Mercian’s marketing division. She adds that she believes they enjoy chatting about the images with friends instead of pursuing specialized knowledge of wine. Major supermarket operator Aeon Co. has also imported a Chilean wine called Condor from a local wine maker since 2012 and sells it under as a top value brand for ¥580. Aeon added another Chilean wine with a label bearing a deer last year. “For consumers, it’s apparently easy to remember bottles with animal images,” says Shuichi Kato of Aeon’s liquor products planning department. “We assume that once they like it, they will come back to buy more.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/26/food/put-bird-wallaby-logos-sell-new-world-wines/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/cb5fd5f7106ca1a8b6ed5eec0dafc442329cdef6565d0a9d23d41ac902666aec.json

Japan's postwar years were marked by raw needs and wounds, as well as great societal change. A glimpse of the era is offered in this collection of stories

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fbooks%2Fbook-reviews%2Flong-belts-thin-men%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p22-gattig-long-belts-a-20160825.jpg

en

Long Belts and Thin Men

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan’s postwar years were marked by raw needs and wounds, as well as great societal change. A glimpse of the era is offered in this collection of stories by Nobuo Kojima (1915-2006), most of which appear in English for the first time. Long Belts and Thin Men, by Nobuo Kojima 239 pages Kurodahan Press, Fiction. Ambiguity and defeat imbue most of the characters, drawn in a style both detached and yet oddly earnest. In “The Smile,” a soldier returning home from the war is unable to accept his son’s disability, while “The Black Flame” shows an office worker lusting after a male colleague, only to start an affair with the man’s wife. The highlight of the collection is “The American School,” which in 1954 earned Kojima the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. It shows a group of Japanese English teachers, hungry and demoralized after the war, on their march to an international school to receive training. Through a range of characters and their interaction with occupation officials — one teacher is mortified to speak English with a black army driver; another eager to work with the new rulers, his war crimes notwithstanding — Kojima reveals the English language as a symbol of status and inferiority. One of the teachers sums up his dilemma: “It’s shameful to talk exactly like a foreigner. And it’s shameful to fail to talk like a foreigner as well.” The volume ends with stories based on Kojima’s travel and homestay in the American Midwest. Not just for completists of 1950s literature, then, it holds anthropological insights that still resonate in Japan today. Read archived reviews of Japanese classics at jtimes.jp/essential.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/27/books/book-reviews/long-belts-thin-men/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/f6fa2b078bc3c5f58d845e7cdde8b4cdb5d3b9fb47f6256bc460a13a6fc00d2b.json

Lost jobs and destroyed industries give way, over time, to new industries and jobs.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Frise-robots-not-future-fear%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Rise of the robots is not the future we should fear

www.japantimes.co.jp

We are such an anxiety-ridden society that we worry about problems that haven’t happened, and, almost certainly, won’t. Robots are an apt example. Even McKinsey and Co., the high-powered management consulting firm, professes to be concerned. We imagine hordes of robots destroying jobs, leaving millions of middle-class families without work and income. Relax. Unless we adopt self-destructive policies, this is one doomsday we’ll avoid. One thing that the U.S. economy excels at is creating jobs. You might doubt this listening to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, who promise personally to create millions of high-paying jobs. This is misleading. The overwhelming share of jobs are created by the private market, not government or politicians. Yes, there are recessions. Two of them in the post-World War II era were quite severe (those of 1981-1982 and 2007-2009). We had scary levels of unemployment. But eventually the job creation machine reasserts itself. In 2015, employment totaled 149 million, up from 99 million in 1980 and 137 million in 2000. What about the robots? In truth, they are not a new problem. There have always been new technologies and products that eliminate entire industries and occupations. But lost jobs and destroyed industries give way, over time, to new industries and jobs. Cars replaced buggies; smartphones are replacing land lines. Robots are simply the latest chapter in this narrative. Sure, some jobs will vanish. But others will materialize. Often, increases occur so silently and slowly that they’re only noticed when they’ve become a major part of the labor force. Just the other day, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report on “information technology” workers, a job category that didn’t exist until 1970. Since then, their numbers have increased tenfold, growing from 450,000 to 4.6 million. These are well-paying jobs; median earnings in 2014 were $80,665. The same logic applies to robots. Someone has to design the robots, program them, sell them, service them and fix them. These people buy homes, send their kids to college, take vacations and have health costs. The economy is a circular process, where one person’s costs are another person’s income. If robots cut costs, the savings have to go somewhere — lower prices, higher wages, higher profits or more business investment. All potentially augment demand. None of this demeans the hardships — sometimes tragedies — of workers who lose their jobs to new technologies and competitors. Workers whose skills and contacts become obsolete face a difficult time. But this is a long-standing problem that has defied many efforts to solve it. There are two dangers for the future. One is that the new jobs created by new technologies will require knowledge and skills that are in short supply, leaving unskilled workers without income and the economy with skill scarcities. The second danger is that government will damage or destroy the job creation process. We live in a profit-making economic system. Government’s main role is to maintain the conditions that make hiring profitable. If we make it too costly for private firms to hire (through high minimum wages, mandated costs and expensive regulations) — or too difficult to fire — guess what? They won’t hire. That’s what ought to worry us, not the specter of more robots. Robert J. Samuelson writes a column on economics for The Washington Post. © Washington Post Writers Group 2015

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/28/commentary/world-commentary/rise-robots-not-future-fear/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/168615b2d9bf2b1d8d318788d683c1344fce4e6814769a50a1a86d8e7c76d518.json

How to help ease tensions in what is often called the world's most important bilateral relationship.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Freducing-u-s-sino-tensions-south-china-sea%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Reducing U.S.-Sino tensions in the South China Sea

www.japantimes.co.jp

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has taken an assertive stance to defend the rule of law and stability in the South China Sea. In the wake of the controversial ruling by the international tribunal in The Hague, China has categorically refused to acknowledged the court’s decision, throwing into question what, if anything, the United States and its allies and partners in the Pacific can do to ensure China adheres to international norms upholding the freedom of navigation and peace in the South China Sea. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (currently the Democratic nominee for president) was the first U.S. official to declare freedom of navigation and respect for international law in the South China Sea a national interest to the U.S., on a trip to Vietnam in 2010 for the ASEAN Regional Forum. Obama himself has declared that “the United States has been, and always will be, a Pacific nation.” While these statements have drawn a lot of attention, there remain doubts as to the extent of U.S. capabilities and willingness to protect its interests in the South China Sea. Here are a handful of issue areas and policy options for U.S. decision-makers to consider. Unilateral actions versus diplomatic options Washington is rather constrained in regard to unilateral policy options. The only unilateral action the U.S. has undertaken, arguably, is regular freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), in which it has sailed aircraft carriers and destroyers with high visibility through contested waters in the South China Sea. This isn’t likely to solve anything directly, and in fact greatly aggravates China by the “loud” nature of the demonstrations, which Beijing interprets as a thinly veiled threat. There’s a great deal more room for progress on diplomacy. The U.S. and China have regular high-level dialogues such as the annual Strategic & Economic Dialogue. This allows the two nations’ diplomats, defense and trade officials to speak directly and candidly on a variety of topics. Certainly Obama and his Cabinet members have already spoken privately and directly to President Xi Jinping and his top leaders. Forums like the upcoming Group of 20 China is hosting next month also present opportunities for direct side talks. It is safe to assume that there is some forceful diplomacy behind closed doors going on as well to tamp down tensions. Public positions and private positions are likely quite different in this regard. Misplaced sticks and carrots left to play The FONOPs have been vocal, prominent and highly counterproductive in demonstrating U.S. views to China on Beijing’s South China Sea sovereignty claims. If the U.S. did them quietly rather than with announcements and bravado, this would leave China more room and flexibility to respond. It would likely allow China’s leadership to “save face” without shaming them and pushing them into a corner. Beijing faces a great degree of nationalism and public pressure to show defiance and stand up for its claims, in light of what it perceives as historical Western aggressors. Washington’s flaunting of aircraft carriers in their backyard doesn’t help and only adds fuel to the fire. Cooperative efforts in other fields show more promise. The U.S. government should pursue with renewed vigor the Bilateral Investment Treaty, which is currently stalled. The U.S. and China have shown a remarkable ability to cooperate on transnational issues like trade and climate change, areas of potential progress that would benefit not just the two superpowers, but the world. These deals allow China to signal to the world it is a responsible great power. The U.S. should seek to reinforce that. Despite the high-stakes tensions on security issues, cooperation on areas like trade and investment, climate change and educational exchange remains likely. China is an eminently practical country, and Chinese leaders have historically been able to separate sensitive issues of national interest from more pragmatic cooperation in other areas with calm and level heads. Beijing is far more likely to make rash and hurtful decisions (such as banning exports of rare earth metals to Japan for computer and cell phone chip manufacturing, in response to the East China Sea dispute, for example) toward less-powerful neighbors like Japan and South Korea than it is toward the U.S. Beijing still prioritizes the relationship with the U.S., which remains the most important one on a variety of global issues. Ecological destruction Though often overlooked and seemingly unrelated (precisely its strength!), cooperation on ecological and fishery protection may be one of the best avenues to pursue (alongside mineral, oil and natural gas exploration — responsibly) for regional cooperation and peace in the South China Sea. There are lots of unexplored (or shelved) opportunities for joint resource exploration and management, joint patrols (countering piracy, for instance), and other shared responsibilities. The scourge of nationalism American diplomacy greatly impacts Chinese nationalism, and often this backfires on the Chinese Communist Party. Rather than helping the situation, this often forces the CCP’s hand and brings about results counter to U.S. interests. Even though China is not a democracy, leaders in Beijing are greatly constrained by public opinion. The Chinese public, for instance, has relied on claims that the U.S. is trying to “contain” China’s rise and even pointed to the UNCLOS tribunal’s Japanese judge as a sign of a U.S. conspiracy on the South China Sea case. Moreover, every time somebody like U.S. Pacific Commander Harry Harris clamors about China’s “Great Wall of sand” or criticizes China’s militaristic intentions, the Chinese public take note and are left to believe the U.S. wants war. Best to quietly convey such concerns to China’s leadership in private. This would have the result of a more direct avenue for communication and simultaneously dampen Chinese populist nationalism, which gets in the way of effective diplomacy. Ideally, most-senior-level diplomacy — by this I mean heads of state Obama and Xi sitting down, meeting and talking as they did in Sunnylands in 2013 — is the best path for resolving and downplaying tensions. Moving away from the South China Sea — as I recently argued in The National Interest — is also crucial for cooperation on a variety of other areas in Asia: trade, climate change and infrastructure development, just to name a few. Finally, people-to-people ties (i.e., Chinese students studying in America and learning U.S. perspectives, American students learning more from Chinese host families and peers about their viewpoints, culture and history, and tourism) will all go a long way toward easing animosities and bringing about friendship and understanding in the longer term. Hunter Marston is a political analyst who focuses on Southeast Asia. He has worked in international development organizations, the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar, and writes frequently in The Diplomat, The National Interest and elsewhere. © 2016, The Diplomat; distributed by Tribune Content Agency

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/25/commentary/world-commentary/reducing-u-s-sino-tensions-south-china-sea/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/e1ff7308e8b3c73b5cbacf3b39ec5fdb3307406412f6e58c43ce0bc2a3a969d0.json

Have you seen Pikachu yet?

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F13%2Fvoices%2Fahead-of-the-game%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Ahead of the game

www.japantimes.co.jp

American dad: Have you seen Pikachu yet? Teenage child: I saw one when I first started playing (“Pokemon Go”). Dad: Doesn’t that mean you’ve won? Child: No, I read the secret “Pokemon” tips before starting to play the game — Yoyogi Park, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Overheard by a Japan Times On Sunday reader Overheard a conversation you’d like to share? Simply fill out the online submission form at jtimes.jp/overheard. Please recount the conversation in the format above and be sure to provide a description of the participants (age, male/female, nationality if relevant, etc.), note where the conversation took place and include any other context that might be necessary.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/13/voices/ahead-of-the-game/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/b269db7d3b51b538cb04b5bdd559d5002b05e8964a4dbe4a75cade28e5440498.json

A few days before the Rio Olympics kicked off, Mototaka Kohama, the godfather of Japanese basketball, reunited with one of his closest friends. Toronto Rap

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fbasketball%2Fkohama-casey-friendship-endures%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-ed-a-20160828-870x832.jpg

en

Kohama-Casey friendship endures

www.japantimes.co.jp

A few days before the Rio Olympics kicked off, Mototaka Kohama, the godfather of Japanese basketball, reunited with one of his closest friends. Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey made a long-awaited visit to Japan to see Kohama. The two men hadn’t seen each other in nine years, though Casey frequently asks about Kohama via email and telephone conversations with his vast network of Japan basketball colleagues. It was a special reunion. In early August, Hoop Scoop was invited to attend a small dinner party where Kohama and Casey sat on opposite sides of a table in a private room in a traditional Japanese restaurant in the basement of a swanky Tokyo hotel. There was genuine joy in the room as Kohama, Casey, longtime Hakuoh University women’s basketball coach Toshinobu Sato and basketball agent Toshinori Koga recalled both funny and intense moments shared with Kohama on and off basketball courts near and far. Kohama, now 83, spoke about his earliest memories as a basketball player and about meeting Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, one of the players on the U.S. gold medal-winning squad at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, years later. How did Kohama, who was born in Tokyo, and Casey, who was raised in a small Kentucky town, become lifelong friends? It started in 1979 at the University of Kentucky, where Casey was a grad assistant. Kohama came to live in Lexington, Kentucky, for a year to observe one of the NCAA’s elite college basketball powerhouse programs. The Wildcats had won the title the previous year. During their leisurely dinner, decades of hoop history were recounted, with Casey, Kohama and their assembled guests swapping stories and laughter about the old JBL days, exhibition games against U.S. college squads here, hoop camps and more, including Japan’s appearance in the 1998 FIBA World Championship in Greece, where Kohama and his assistant, Casey, led the men’s national team. “My friendship extends beyond basketball with Kohama-san. He is a dear friend who is like family to me,” said the 59-year-old Casey, who worked in the now-defunct JBL and the college ranks here during the late 1980s and early ’90s, a period in his life that strengthened his ties to Japan’s basketball circles. “We worked together side by side with the Japan national team for many years. He is one of the old pioneers with Japan’s modern-day basketball. … A lot of the modern-day growth and success started with Kohama-san.” He added: “I will always have an interest in the growth of basketball in Japan at each level. Whatever I can do to help all levels of Japan I am always willing to help.” Many rich details of the dinner conversation remain off the record, but I can tell you without hesitation that it’s clear as the sky on a bright, sunny day that Kohama, who had remarkable success during his time coaching the now-defunct Isuzu Giga Cats, during their 1980 and ’90s heyday, remains keenly aware of key developments within Japanese basketball at all levels. And he follows the game with never-ending passion. The elder statesman of Japan hoops sees the big picture, preaching the need for stronger fundamentals and the desire to elevate the coaching profession. Kohama admitted he wants to see the B. League, the new hoop circuit that combined the bj-league, NBL and NBDL under a new three-division umbrella, succeed and grow in popularity and success in the coming years. After Casey’s short visit to Japan earlier this month, he returned to his home near Seattle for a few days of relaxation before the long journey to Rio de Janeiro, where he watched the closing chapter of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament and the United States’ third straight Summer Games gold-medal triumph under Mike Krzyzewski. Specifically, he was there to support Toronto stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, key individuals in the team’s rise. (In May, the Raptors fell to the eventual-champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals after a franchise-best 56-win regular season.) Reflecting on Toronto’s rise and seeing his aforementioned standouts in Rio, Casey, who trails only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Dallas’ Rick Carlisle in tenure with their current NBA teams, had this to say: “We have grown in Toronto with our program. We started six years ago with building our player development program. Then we focused on building our defensive approach. We started out 30th in the NBA. We went to the top 10 in the league in a two-year period. The development of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry has been a huge part of our success. They have been leaders on and off the floor for us. Both are two-time All-Stars and now both are gold-medal players playing for this year’s USA Olympic team. “Those (guys) playing in this year’s Olympics will be a huge shot in the arm for our program. For the Toronto Raptors to have two Olympic players on the national team was a huge accomplishment for our team. “I was so proud watching those two represent not only the Toronto Raptors but the USA flag.” A day after their special dinner in Tokyo, Kohama, Casey, Sato and Koga traveled to Hakuoh University in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, where Sato’s squad took part in a one-day hoop clinic. “Not only was it at a chance for women’s college basketball players to hone their skills; it was also an opportunity for Kohama to pass on his wealth of wisdom to coaches assembled from across the nation,” Casey noted, speaking about nearly 100 coaches, representing all levels of the game, who were present. “(Kohama) was great at the coaches clinic,” Casey went on. “We basically used the girls to demonstrate drills for the coaches from all over the country that were there. “He spoke to all of the coaches about basketball, the history and the importance of teaching fundamentals and how my relationship started with the country of Japan in men’s and women’s basketball now dating back some 37 years.” It’s a relationship forged by their common love for the game. Casey, who was here for the 2006 FIBA World Championship, plans to return to Japan next year. Reason No. 1: He wants to introduce his kids to Kohama.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/27/basketball/kohama-casey-friendship-endures/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/3e6a8dfcd309bdce51fbc9e88091bbd231cd30c806245fb4e62e3b3bdb1eaaa5.json

Steven Hill, a versatile character actor in theater, films and television who achieved his greatest success late in life as grumpy District Attorney Adam S

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F24%2Fentertainment-news%2Flaw-order-veteran-character-actor-steven-hill-dead-94%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-hill-y-20160825.jpg-870x568.jpg

en

'Law & Order' veteran character actor Steven Hill dead at 94

www.japantimes.co.jp

Steven Hill, a versatile character actor in theater, films and television who achieved his greatest success late in life as grumpy District Attorney Adam Schiff on TV’s long-running “Law & Order,” died Tuesday. He was 94. He died Tuesday morning at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, his wife, Rachel, said. The cause of death was not immediately available, but his wife said he suffered from several ailments. Hill, who also starred for a season in the 1960s series “Mission Impossible,” was remembered warmly by “Law & Order” producer Dick Wolf. “Steven was not only one of the truly great actors of his generation, he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. He is also the only actor I’ve known who consistently tried to cut his own lines,” Wolf said in a statement. Hill, whose more than two dozen films included “Billy Bathgate,” “White Palace” and “Yentl,” recalled in 1999 how his presence as “Law & Order’s” grouchy legal stickler developed gradually during his 10 years with the show. “It was like a very pleasant back-and-forth kind of thing,” he said. “I’d come up with these ideas, give suggestions on (Schiff’s) kind of thinking, and the writers used that as a kind of springboard.” He also studied up on the law to make his character more believable. “I believe the audience needs to feel you understand what the heck you’re talking about and they can tell if you don’t,” he said. After he left the show in 2000, Hill remained visible on TV for a time as the no-nonsense pitchman in commercials for TD Waterhouse Investor Services. Hill had honed his craft in the years immediately after World War II, taking classes at the Actors Studio in New York with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. He made his Broadway debut in 1946 with “A Flag Is Born” and was in the original casts of “Mister Roberts” and “The Country Girl.” When the TV networks began broadcasting live drama programs during television’s Golden Age, Hill made the transition to the small screen seamlessly, appearing on “Studio One,” “The Ford Theatre Hour,” “Lux Video Theatre,” “Goodyear Television Playhouse” and “The Philco Television Playhouse.” Later, he appeared on shows including “thirtysomething,” “The Fugitive,” “Rawhide,” “Ben Casey,” “Dr. Kildare,” “The Untouchables” and “Route 66.” When “Mission Impossible” debuted in 1966, he landed a starring role, as undercover team leader Daniel Briggs. But he left after one season when the show’s shooting schedule interfered with his observation of the Jewish Sabbath. He was replaced by Peter Graves. An Orthodox Jew, Hill abandoned acting for a time in the late 1960s to study religion. He said later he believed the sabbatical improved his acting ability. He had made his movie debut in 1950 in “A Lady Without Passport” with Hedy Lamarr. Other notable films over the years included “Teachers,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Legal Eagles.” He also portrayed the father of Christine Lahti in “Running on Empty,” of Meryl Streep in “Heartburn” and Jill Clayburgh in “It’s My Turn.” Born Solomon Krakovsky to Russian immigrant parents in Seattle, Hill said his interest in acting was ignited at age 6, when he landed the lead in a production of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” He married Selma Stern in 1951 and the couple had four children before divorcing in 1964. He married his second wife, Rachel, in 1967, and they had five children together, according to the New York Times.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/24/entertainment-news/law-order-veteran-character-actor-steven-hill-dead-94/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/38eb34122bd33fea6806a651f1eba4288092efd128eb6597f803febb69de605c.json

Numerous municipalities nationwide are struggling to aid foreign students who are learning at local public schools but cannot understand the Japanese langu

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fnational%2Fsocial-issues%2Fscores-municipalities-struggling-aid-foreign-students-no-japanese-language-skills-survey%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Scores of municipalities struggling to aid foreign students with few or no Japanese language skills: survey

www.japantimes.co.jp

Numerous municipalities nationwide are struggling to aid foreign students who are learning at local public schools but cannot understand the Japanese language fully or at all, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday. In a questionnaire survey on issues facing foreign children living in Japan, 46 percent of the 1,612 municipalities that responded said that learning the Japanese language and other subjects, which are taught in Japanese, remain a challenge for foreign students. The survey, conducted from May to July, also highlighted another stumbling block in aiding foreign students: many are dispersed in small numbers — sometimes one or two — in public schools nationwide. In the survey, the city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, said foreign students who speak 14 languages, including Vietnamese and Thai, are scattered across 39 of its 93 public elementary schools and junior high schools. In the southwestern city of Kagoshima, some of the foreign students cannot maintain the pace of classes with their Japanese peers and struggle in understanding tests, the questionnaire also showed. According to the survey, 16 percent also said foreign students struggle with making a decision to enter high school here, while 5 percent said job-hunting is a challenge. In Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture, the survey pointed to many cases where foreign students opted not to attend high school due to their lack of or poor Japanese skills. The education ministry says the number of foreign students in need of Japanese language training or assistance at public schools across the nation is rising, totaling around 29,000 as of May 2014. Nationwide, there are a diverse range of mother tongues spoken by students including Portuguese, Chinese and Vietnamese. Among the areas hosting high concentrations of foreign students, Aichi, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures top the list.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/27/national/social-issues/scores-municipalities-struggling-aid-foreign-students-no-japanese-language-skills-survey/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/4f872f6eff8a4d9c87159c1810fb264fb22a0f53ff2d7c8af423b7c31cad5b24.json

"If I remain living abroad separated from my husband for a time, can I then come back and file for divorce without his consent?" asks a reader.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F07%2Fhow-tos%2Fseparation-may-factor-not-clincher-divorce-cases-japan%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-lifelines-z-20160808.png

en

Separation may be a factor, but not a clincher, in divorce cases in Japan

www.japantimes.co.jp

A foreign resident here married to a Japanese citizen sent us some more questions relating to divorce, signing off as “Trapped”: I want to divorce but my husband does not. (We have been married 18 years and have two junior high school-aged children.) Next year I am moving abroad with my children to put them into international school there. My husband is in agreement with this, but not with the divorce. My question is, if I remain living abroad for a certain period of time, e.g., five years, can I then come back and file for divorce without his consent? How long does a couple normally have to live apart for divorce to be granted if one partner is against the divorce? Can I file for divorce at the Japanese Embassy overseas, or would I need to come back and do it here? Trapped, as to your final question, regardless of whether a couple lives apart for a certain period or not, the answer is no — it is not possible to obtain a divorce by filing with a Japanese Embassy abroad. As your husband is Japanese and has an address in this country, the courts here have jurisdiction over the marriage — and under Japanese law, put simply, either an agreement between a couple to divorce or a court judgment admitting the existence of legal grounds for divorce is required. In the event that you can get your husband’s consent to divorce, simply submitting divorce papers with both parties’ seals (or a signature in the case of the non-Japanese spouse) to the relevant municipal office is all that’s needed to finalize a divorce legally. However, if you are a foreign national, you need to consider other issues. For example, if your country does not have a law that allows for divorce by mutual consent, such a divorce in Japan might not be recognized in that country. The lack of court involvement in the process may also be an issue that influences recognition by other countries. For these reasons, even when the Japanese spouse’s consent has been given, going through a divorce procedure in court — either mediation or litigation — may be worth considering. If one partner will not consent to a divorce, the next step for the other partner would be to initiate mediation in family court. In this procedure, court-appointed mediators will try to help the two of you reach an amicable agreement on the conditions for a divorce. These proceedings must take place at the court with jurisdiction over the Japanese partner’s address. In principle, mediation — which usually takes between three and six months — is required before a party can resort to litigation. If mediation fails to result in an agreement, the next step would be litigation. In court, the plaintiff would have to prove that in their case, there is cause for divorce prescribed in law. Usually, if one party is considering divorce seriously, they would have valid reasons, and in most cases a court would permit a divorce based on these reasons. A long period of separation is one factor that could count toward the case for divorce, although there is no rule requiring such a period. If there are clear reasons why continuing the marital relationship would be difficult, a divorce would be granted without the need for a preliminary separation period. However, suits are dismissed by courts if they find there are no legal grounds for divorce in a particular case. Also, a suit for divorce is less likely to succeed if the person who created the grounds for divorce in the first place has brought the case. And in that kind of situation, the period of separation would certainly matter. You mention that you are moving abroad next year. However, as mentioned earlier, a long period of separation by itself will not be enough to establish the legal grounds for divorce. Without your husband’s consent, mediation in court will be necessary, and if the mediation fails, litigation too. With your two children soon to be living abroad with you, going through all these procedures will not be easy. If you have definitely decided to seek a divorce, it would be best to initiate mediation as soon as possible. Even if all the processes are not finished by the time you go abroad, the list of procedures left to work through when you return would be much shorter, particularly with the help of a Japanese attorney. Once you have settled into your new home overseas, initiating the entire process from the beginning in Japan, including finding an attorney, might prove to be very tough — and potentially expensive. Suhyon Kim is an attorney with the Foreign nationals and International Service Section at Tokyo Public Law Office, which handles a wide range of cases involving foreigners in the Tokyo area (www.t-pblo.jp/fiss; 03-6809-6200). FISS lawyers address readers’ queries once a month. Your questions and other comments: lifelines@japantimes.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/07/how-tos/separation-may-factor-not-clincher-divorce-cases-japan/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/586354a498aec9e5094427472321ba85b2284e49b8f5392dd94b68911ac31a7d.json

Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education is still a distant prospect for far too many children.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fforging-education-road-map-2030%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Forging the education road map to 2030

www.japantimes.co.jp

When I visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan earlier this year, I met with children who told me what education means to them. For Syrian youths who have been forced from their homes and have lost everything, education is about more than qualifications or test scores; it embodies their hope for the future. Millions of children around the world, like those in Zaatari, are central to the work of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity, which I joined last September. This commission is committed to the fourth U.N. Sustainable Development Goal, which aims by 2030 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” This goal is still a distant prospect for far too many children. With so many development issues demanding our attention, policymakers should bear in mind that education is not just a good in itself; It is also a catalyst for many other development gains. As the old African proverb goes, if you educate a girl, you educate an entire nation. Ensuring access to quality education for children, especially girls, will lead to fewer child marriages and less child labor and exploitation. And education has long-term societal benefits: Aside from increased political engagement, educated children contribute intellectual capital and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities when they grow up, boosting economic growth. Tackling the education challenge needs to start from two principles embedded in the goal. First, “for all” means that we must focus on the children who have been left behind. Millions of children are out of school or are receiving a substandard education because of who they are or where they live. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, refugee children are five times more likely to be out of school than other kids in the countries to which they’ve been displaced. In all but two African countries, girls remain less likely than boys to complete a primary education. Getting these children into school will require new approaches that directly address their exclusion and make schooling accessible and relevant. Second, “quality.” Education must be effective, so that children actually learn. For the 61 million children who are out of primary school, formal education is beyond reach. But, just as urgently, more than one-third of children of primary-school age — 250 million — are not learning the basics, according to the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report. Half of these children have been in school at least four years. We must address the barriers to learning, both in the classroom and at home, by improving the quality of teaching and classroom conditions, and teaching parents how they can support their children’s education. Upholding these two principles will require increased investment. Last year, UNESCO calculated that governments must double education spending as a share of national income to achieve the 2030 goals. This will require increased revenue from taxation and stronger efforts to collect what’s owed. Donors also need to live up to their aid commitments and target aid more effectively. For example, less than one-third of education aid goes to Africa, even though the region accounts for almost two-thirds of out-of-school children. Moreover, at the moment, education budgets are often regressive, with almost half of spending in the poorest countries allocated to the most educated 10 percent of the population. Fixing education investment requires action in two key areas. First, we need equitable financing, with more investment in early childhood care and development, where there is the biggest potential for returns. Budgets must be focused on the most excluded children, and primary education must be free at the point of use, so that every child can learn. We also urgently need more transparency and accountability, so that budgets are visible and communities have a say in school governance. Second, we need to strengthen domestic education systems so that governments see themselves as the guarantor of accessible, quality schools for their citizens, rather than abdicating that role to outside development agencies. In particular, we should push for partnerships between government and business to boost domestic resources for education, and eliminate illicit capital flows that deprive governments of the means to fund it, such as tax evasion and money laundering across national borders. With these priorities in mind, the education commission will deliver its recommendations at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 18. The education commission will have succeeded if we are able to leverage the funding and political will to ensure that every child learns, regardless of income, location or social status. Our work will not be complete until that happens. Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt is chief executive of Save the Children. © Project Syndicate, 2016

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/27/commentary/world-commentary/forging-education-road-map-2030/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/b0f84cdd7dedcb27fdab9e7c9fea9ad831aac9776bcb51412ddf354c42bcb503.json

When it comes to inspiration, winning an Olympic medal is pretty hard to beat. For Kei Nishikori, the bronze medal he won at the Rio Games earlier this mon

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fmore-sports%2Ftennis%2Fglad-back-n-y-nishikori-reaches-second-round-u-s-open%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-nishikori-a-20160901-870x621.jpg

en

Inspired Nishikori wins first match at U.S. Open

www.japantimes.co.jp

When it comes to inspiration, winning an Olympic medal is pretty hard to beat. For Kei Nishikori, the bronze medal he won at the Rio Games earlier this month could be what gets him over the line in a grand slam for the first time. Sixth-seed Nishikori, a runner-up at the U.S. Open two years ago, held off a fightback from German Benjamin Becker on Tuesday to kickstart his 2016 title bid with a 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory. “There is a lot of chance (to get to another final), for sure, if I can play good,” said Nishikori, who will face Russian qualifier Karen Khachanov in round two. “I got a lot of confidence from Toronto (where he reached the final) and this summer in the Olympics, too. I played some good tennis. Beating Rafa (Nadal to win the bronze medal), it was a great experience I had in the Olympics. “Mentally, physically, I’m ready for these two weeks. It’s going to be a big goal for me to get this title.” Nishikori romped through the first two sets as Becker, who famously ended the career of Andre Agassi when he beat him at Flushing Meadows 10 years ago, was completely outplayed. But the 35-year-old German took control in the third and led by a break early in the fourth before Nishikori righted the ship in the nick of time to secure a spot in the second round. “He started playing much better so it was a tough third and fourth sets but luckily I got out of the last two games,” said Nishikori. “It was a pretty good match. “I’m very satisfied with my tennis today. Credit to him, he played really well in the third and fourth sets. But I stepped it up in the last two games. I played a little more aggressive and I took the little chance. It was great match, and I think a good start of this week.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/31/more-sports/tennis/glad-back-n-y-nishikori-reaches-second-round-u-s-open/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/6ccf0cafe5277674fe3f194b18c5cb515312251d7fe54f2b1d472961721c68e5.json

Ministry to push for relaxation of rules to let operators generate more revenues

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fnational%2Fjapan-airports-may-able-add-duty-free-shops-arriving-passengers%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Japan airports may be able to add duty-free shops for arriving passengers

www.japantimes.co.jp

The transport ministry will recommend opening duty-free shops for people arriving on international flights, in its tax system reform requests for fiscal 2017, sources said. The ministry has received requests for this from the operators of Sendai International Airport in Miyagi Prefecture, which was privatized in July, and Kansai International Airport in Osaka. Currently, duty-free products can be sold only in the departure areas of international airports and on airplanes. Duty-free shops in airport immigration areas have not been permitted as it was judged unfair if only people returning from foreign trips can buy products for use in Japan free of duties. But after years of declining airfares and amid the entry of budget carriers into Japan, more people are now able to fly. The ministry judged that overseas travel has become so common that duty-free shops in immigration areas would no longer cause a sense of unfairness among the public, according to the sources. The ministry is also lured by the promise of additional spending, the sources said. Sendai International Airport Co. has operated its runways and passenger facilities in an integrated manner since the July privatization of the airport. It aims to increase earnings by boosting sales of products at the terminal building and reduce landing fees to encourage airlines to use the airport. The operator hopes duty-free shops in the immigration area will boost overall sales.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/28/national/japan-airports-may-able-add-duty-free-shops-arriving-passengers/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/17170cf8a12e059f30621d78d75430d8a4fd286daaace4ee9281da69ac8785b6.json

The skies were clouding over as I strode briskly across that famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, ready for a productive day checking off Florentine must-sees

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Ftravel%2Fbest-italys-florence-galleries-gelato%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p16-florence-a-20160828-870x541.jpg

en

The best of Italy's Florence: from galleries to gelato

www.japantimes.co.jp

The skies were clouding over as I strode briskly across that famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, ready for a productive day checking off Florentine must-sees. Slight problem: The first museum on my list was open, but the ticket office was closed. OK, then, on to the Uffizi Gallery. Except this time both ticket office and museum were closed; I had forgotten it was Monday. A fine rain began to fall as I wandered listlessly past the open arches of the building next door, the statue-studded Loggia dei Lanzi. This wasn’t going at all as planned. And then it hit me. Wait. This was the Piazza della Signoria, where novelist E.M. Forster’s adorable Lucy Honeychurch witnessed a stabbing moments after complaining about the dullness of life in “A Room With a View.” And those had to be the steps where the brooding George Emerson carried Lucy’s fainting form. Sunshine filtered through. I had found Florence. Or rather, it had found me. If you’re planning a trip here, you could do worse than wander until you find what you didn’t know you were looking for. Here are a few starting points. The Opera Duomo Museum, devoted to art created for the famous Florence duomo (cathedral), has been given a major makeover and expansion. A highlight is the exhibition hall featuring a replica of the former facade of the cathedral. A €15 pass (about $17) will get you access to the museum as well as the cathedral dome and bell tower, both with steps to the top. Open daily except the first Tuesday of the month, but check website (www.museumflorence.com/museum) for unexpected closures. The Central Market (Piazza del Mercato Centrale on Via dell’Ariento) has a bright and bustling remodeled second floor, home to food stands, a restaurant, pizzeria, wine academy, cooking school and more. Open daily, 10 a.m. to midnight. If there is one must-see in Florence it’s Michelangelo’s David. Yes, there are lines, crowds and a forest of smartphones waving in front of you, but all that falls away as you round the corner to the long gallery and confront 5 meters of cool, concentrated, confident youth. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15 a.m. to 6:50 p.m., about $14. The Uffizi Gallery, set in an imposing 16th-century building, is home to outstanding art, including Giotto’s altarpiece, the Ognissanti Madonna, which revolutionized painting by portraying the human figure in perspective, not just two dimensions. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15 a.m. to 6:50 p.m., around $10. You can’t miss the Duomo, the Gothic cathedral encrusted in pink, green and white marble that is a striking feature of the city. The inside is less impressive but is open most days 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and free. The Ponte Vecchio isn’t the most beautiful bridge in the world, but it is interesting, with its lineup of stores, mostly jewelers and souvenir sellers. It was big news in May when a sinkhole opened up, swallowing a score of cars on a stretch of road between Ponte Vecchio and the bridge immediately east, Ponte Grazie. The mayor of Florence vows to complete repairs by November. Around sunset, head to the Piazzale Michelangelo, on a hill on the south side of the Arno, for terrific views of the city. You can get there by taxi, the No. 12 bus or by walking about 20 minutes from the Uffizi Gallery. Florence is a walking city; bring comfy shoes. If you have a car or hire a driver, consider emulating Miss Honeychurch and cousin Charlotte and head for the hills. You’re in the middle of Chianti wine country with several estates to visit, including Poggio Casciano, a 14th-century villa that is part of the Ruffino wine company and about a 30-minute drive from the city. The estate produces Modus, a “super Tuscan” red blend of sangiovese, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. By appointment only; reserve tastings and tours, www.ruffino.com. Farther afield is the Romitorio di Serelle, about 40 kilometers from Florence, where you can rent apartments by the week or have lunch on the property’s wide terrace perched above rolling vineyards. If you’re planning on visiting museums, consider buying tickets online; book entrance times to skip long lines. More into shopping than sculpture? Check out the Santa Maria Novella, an apothecary that traces its history back 600 years. Don’t miss the displays of antique remedies such as anti-hysteria pills as well as the beautifully packaged perfumes and other products available for modern consumers. For a touch of local night life, the Piazza Santo Spirito on the south side of the Arno is lined with cafes and bars. A hot spot for gelato is La Carraia, Piazza Nazario Sauro 25R. Work up a literary appetite and order something in honor of Miss Honeychurch, who “loved iced coffee and meringues.” Enjoy your treats on the nearby Ponte alla Carraia where you’ll have more room, and, naturally, a view.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/27/travel/best-italys-florence-galleries-gelato/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/cb8a1fc7939b487094dd90b8a2d9f6d70ad1eef83357d19bf7e06860d663f975.json

Goalkeeper Hope Solo has decided to end her season with the Seattle Reign of the National Women's Soccer League. The beleaguered goalkeeper, who was handed

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fsoccer%2Fbeleaguered-solo-cuts-short-season%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-soccer-a-20160901-870x570.jpg

en

Beleaguered Solo cuts short season

www.japantimes.co.jp

Goalkeeper Hope Solo has decided to end her season with the Seattle Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League. The beleaguered goalkeeper, who was handed a six-month suspension and saw her contract with U.S. Soccer terminated last week, announced her departure from her professional club team in a statement Tuesday. U.S. Soccer suspended Solo following disparaging comments she made about Sweden during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, calling her opponents a “bunch of cowards” for their defensive style of play during the quarterfinals. She won’t be eligible for selection to the national team again until February. Before a match last weekend against the Portland Thorns, the Reign announced Solo was granted an indefinite personal leave. Haley Kopmeyer took over for Solo in goal and the Reign won 3-1. “Coming to terms with the fact I was fired from the U.S. Women’s National Team after 17 years of service has been devastating. After careful consideration, I have decided to end my season with the Seattle Reign, an organization I love playing for,” Solo said Tuesday. “Mentally, I am not there yet. After watching the team’s win against Portland this weekend and seeing Haley Kopmeyer playing so well in goal, I truly believe this decision is what’s best for me and for the Reign organization.” Reign head coach and general manager Laura Harvey issued a statement saying that while the team was disappointed in Solo’s decision, it was understood and respected. “Hope has always wanted what is best for our team — she is a relentless trainer, a fierce competitor and demands from herself nothing less than excellence on the pitch,” Harvey said. The three-time defending champion U.S. women were handed their earliest-ever exit from the Olympics earlier this month when Sweden advanced 4-3 on penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw on Aug. 12. Torino welcomes Hart AFP-JIJI England goalkeeper Joe Hart was given a rousing welcome by ecstatic Torino fans Tuesday as he held up the team’s jersey ahead of signing a season-long loan with the unfashionable Serie A club. Hart, 29, fell out of favour with new coach Pep Guardiola at Manchester City following the signing of Claudio Bravo from Barcelona and has caused general surprise by joining Torino in a bid to preserve his international career following England’s spectacular Euro 2016 exit. Television pictures earlier showed Hart arriving at the city’s Caselle airport and the ‘keeper on a balcony in the city center holding up a Torino shirt with his name emblazoned on the back. Although Torino has yet to make an official announcement, Hart’s agent earlier told Tuttosport: “Yes, Joe Hart will play at Torino. It’s a done deal. He has said ‘yes’ to the club and now Manchester City have given the OK.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/31/soccer/beleaguered-solo-cuts-short-season/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/37f66716298021aba0409b8e8550644fff6b4572dfdca6fe574195d7fb36a598.json

Myanmar's new government should strive to accomodate the country's ethnic minorities through greater autonomy and federalism.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F23%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fsuu-kyis-greatest-challenge-share-power%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-Mishra-a-20160824-870x596.jpg

en

Suu Kyi's greatest challenge is to share power

www.japantimes.co.jp

Yangon is suddenly a city of phablets. Nowhere in Asia, let alone Europe, have I seen so many supersized smartphones in public spaces, and with such egalitarian appeal: Pavement vendors selling early 20th century British guides to English grammar seem as transfixed by them as Yangon’s smart set playing “Pokemon Go.” For many in an isolated country, a 4G smartphone is their first taste of modern consumer luxury. Its proliferation, in a country where a SIM card once cost more than $2,000, seems an example of “leapfrog development,” in which economically backward countries take quick shortcuts to modernization and urbanization. Of course, in Myanmar as elsewhere, inexpensive Chinese brands such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo make it easier to project an appearance of affluence and entrepreneurial dynamism. A poster dubiously advertising, “Rolex — Opening Soon” at a construction site in Yangon’s crumbling downtown is a good reminder of the limitations of a consumer revolution in an overwhelmingly poor country. Myanmar’s GDP may be growing at more than 8 percent. But the economic challenges in this country, where 70 percent of the population is employed in low-yield agriculture, are rendered formidable by crumbling and non-existent infrastructure, archaic laws, unskilled workers, low tax revenues, budget deficits and high inflation. Long power cuts, housing shortages and gridlock traffic still define everyday life for city-dwellers. Debt crushes many in the rural population. Far from leapfrogging, Myanmar, recently liberated, and only partially, from military rule, is inching up a steep learning curve under its first elected government in more than 50 years. Its first experiment in self-rule ended, like that of many multiethnic and poorly imagined nation-states in Asia and Africa, in civil war, the empowerment of the military and eventually a coup in 1962. The outcome of its second experiment still depends a great deal on how Myanmar’s new leaders deal with the country’s restive minorities. Certainly, their agenda is full. Last week the headline in one of Myanmar’s English dailies read: “FM crams for China visit.” It referred to Aung San Suu Kyi, who holds the office of “state counsellor” and foreign minister (and several other portfolios in an attempt to circumvent the constitutional bar on her becoming president). Suu Kyi was visiting China in her first major foray outside Southeast Asia after her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was elected to power four months ago. Her biggest challenges, however, are at home. Of Myanmar’s numerous sectarian conflicts, none has challenged her moral authority as much as rising anti-Muslim sentiments have. In 1982, Myanmar’s military rulers stripped the Muslim population in the western state of Rakhine of citizenship, despite their centuries-long presence in the region. More recently, while transitioning from military to civilian rule, Myanmar has witnessed an explosion of hatred, not only in Rakhine, where in 2012 mobs killed scores of Rohingya Muslims and drove more than 100,000 from their homes, but also in other parts of the country. The advent of electoral democracy this year and the empowerment of an international icon like Suu Kyi don’t necessarily presage a change in the circumstances of besieged minorities. Even the Dalai Lama has expressed his disappointment with Suu Kyi’s less-than-Buddhist silence over the plight of Rohingya Muslims. Sporadic mob violence continues to drive Muslims into refugee camps, or onto rickety boats sailing for Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia — perilous journeys with extortionate human-traffickers that rarely end well. I met the daughter of a former legislator in Rakhine who now languishes in a refugee camp near his old house in Sittwe. She had herself escaped Rakhine after bribing an immigration officer. Like many others, she was increasingly pessimistic about Suu Kyi’s capacity or willingness to resolve the issue. Certainly, Suu Kyi, though widely popular in Myanmar, must move cautiously through a thicket of aggressive claims and counter-claims. Democratization is far from a benign process, as Iraq, Egypt and Turkey have most recently shown; the merest semblance of political freedom releases many toxic fantasies forged in the furnace of despotism. In Myanmar, too, unleashed passions have been exacerbated by global economic and cultural forces. Realigning political identities, they’ve encouraged such patent incongruities as “militant” Buddhism, which thrives on widespread anti-Muslim sentiment. The fluidity of the country’s situation contains both promise and danger; it calls for both moral leadership and political pragmatism. While a return to military rule might seem inconceivable at this point, excessive centralization by heavy-handed civilian leaders can also breed sectarian passions in a multiethnic country like Myanmar. The best way to forestall them would be to accommodate, as Indonesia did, the country’s many sub-nationalisms through greater autonomy and federalism. Suu Kyi was an exemplary political prisoner, brave and principled. She now has to set a very different example for her fledgling democracy by using power wisely — or, in other words, sharing it broadly. Bloomberg View columnist Pankaj Mishra is an Indian essayist and novelist. His books include “From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia,” “Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond” and “An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/23/commentary/world-commentary/suu-kyis-greatest-challenge-share-power/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/e56283febb124d0788128d7d4716763cdfc6d673333a6ef979d0000310947d64.json

The fact that Scandinavian-Americans enjoy far higher living standards than their relatives in Europe raises questions about the alleged superiority of Nordic socialism.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Fdenmarks-nice-danes-live-better-u-s%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Denmark's nice, but Danes live better in U.S.

www.japantimes.co.jp

During the Democratic primary season, Bernie Sanders stressed some of the superiorities of Denmark over the United States. And indeed Denmark is wealthy, has strong social and economic indicators, and it offers a comprehensive safety net. But is it the policies of Denmark that we should admire, or is there something special about being Danish? A closer look at the evidence shows a more complex picture and one actually pretty favorable to the American way. Nima Sanandaji, a Swedish policy analyst and president of European Centre for Entrepreneurship and Policy Reform, has recently published a book called “Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism.” And while the title may be overstated, his best facts and figures are persuasive. For instance, Danish-Americans have a measured living standard about 55 percent higher than the Danes in Denmark. Swedish-Americans have a living standard 53 percent higher than the Swedes, and Finnish-Americans have a living standard 59 percent higher than those back in Finland. Only for Norway is the gap a small one, because of the extreme oil wealth of Norway, but even there the living standard of American Norwegians measures as 3 percent higher than in Norway. And that comparison is based on numbers from 2013, when the price of oil was higher, so probably that gap has widened. Of the Nordic groups, Danish-Americans have the highest per capita income, clocking in at $70,925. That compares with a U.S. per capita income of $52,592, again the numbers being from 2013. Sanandaji also notes that Nordic-Americans have lower poverty rates and about half the unemployment rate of their relatives across the Atlantic. It is difficult, after seeing those figures, to conclude that the U.S. ought to be copying the policies of the Nordic nations wholesale. It is instead more plausible to think that Americans might learn something from the cultural practices of Nordic-Americans. Sanandaji says those norms include hard work, honesty, a strong civil society and an ethic of cooperation and volunteerism. My own view is that many groups work hard, but that a disciplined, family-based approach to education and human capital investment is the important norm in this context. All the main Nordic groups in the U.S. have high school graduation rates over 96 percent. That compares with an average of about 82 percent for the U.S. as a whole. Given all that, should one conclude that the American system of policies and laws is superior and the Nordics ought to try to copy the Yankees? Probably not. For one thing, Nordic immigrants to the U.S. probably came from the better trained, more literate and more ambitious segments of the population. For instance, data on Danish migrants from 1868 to 1900 show that laborers were underrepresented in the group and artisans and craftsmen were overrepresented by a factor of two. It is perhaps no wonder that the ethnic Danes in the U.S. are relatively high earners, because they are the results of a process of positive selection. And there is a growing literature showing that the cultural traits of migrants can persist to some degree for generations in their new countries. Furthermore, larger countries tend to have higher levels of income inequality than do smaller countries. The most successful producers in the U.S. are selling to larger home markets, and they will earn more than comparably talented producers in Denmark. And some of that trickles down to higher earnings for their doctors, dentists and other service providers as well. But this cuts both ways. The less successful producers, or for that matter the unemployed, often have a harder time in the U.S. than in Denmark. A small country with higher ethnic homogeneity and with only a few concentrated population centers usually can provide higher levels of social insurance without experiencing the level of system abuse that might occur in the U.S. The goal should not be for either nation to copy the other, but rather to borrow the best policies of the other. Conservatives should note that when it comes to regulatory efficiency and business freedom, Denmark has a considerably higher score than does the U.S., at least according to the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. Most of all we should consider the option of greater freedom of choice for residence decisions. For all the anti-immigrant sentiment that is circulating at the moment, would it hurt the U.S. to have fully open borders with Denmark? It would boost U.S. GDP and probably also improve U.S. education. History teaches that serious assimilation problems would be unlikely, especially since many Danes already speak English. Open borders wouldn’t attract Danes who want to live off welfare because the benefits are so generous at home. How’s this for a simple rule: Open borders for the residents of any democratic country with more generous transfer payments than Uncle Sam’s. Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg View columnist and a professor of economics at George Mason University.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/25/commentary/world-commentary/denmarks-nice-danes-live-better-u-s/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/917d21c370488ac449351108a7ae7dcfe11c360d22237abbb187a0e17ce94d07.json

Take care, it's hot out there today.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fvoices%2Fhot-under-the-collar%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Hot under the collar

www.japantimes.co.jp

Mom: Take care, it’s hot out there today. Teenage boy: Mom, it’s summer. — Shiki, Saitama Prefecture, Tokyo. Overheard by a Japan Times On Sunday reader Overheard a conversation you’d like to share? Simply fill out the online submission form at jtimes.jp/overheard. Please recount the conversation in the format above and be sure to provide a description of the participants (age, male/female, nationality if relevant, etc.), note where the conversation took place and include any other context that might be necessary.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/27/voices/hot-under-the-collar/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/56404905f7925dc1854fd861aa9dd236f55306d0ca2f389dae1e97b50724163d.json

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa is hoping to exorcise his demons and help Japan get off to a winning start in the final Asian round of 2018 Worl

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Fsoccer%2Fkagawa-looking-banish-ghosts-uae-showdown%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-soccer-a-20160830-870x1113.jpg

en

Kagawa looking to banish ghosts in UAE showdown

www.japantimes.co.jp

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa is hoping to exorcise his demons and help Japan get off to a winning start in the final Asian round of 2018 World Cup qualifiers when it faces the United Arab Emirates in Group B in Saitama on Thursday. UAE wrecked Japan’s bid for a second consecutive Asian Cup title with a 5-4 penalty shootout win after a 1-1 extra-time draw in the quarterfinals of last year’s tournament in Australia. Kagawa missed his spot kick when he hit the post in the shootout and Ismail Ahmed kept his cool to rifle in the decisive penalty and set UAE up with a meeting with host Australia in the semis. Kagawa was in tears after that match and admits the penalty miss still torments him. “The (UAE) team was different then and so was our coach, the players and the situation, but I can still see the torment in my mind,” said Kagawa. “That was then but this is now and we just have to prepare well to beat them this time. “I’m not sure who is in their team this time and we will have to have a look at some video footage but they have some good players and under our coach will have to have a look at how we will take them on over the next few days.” Japan plays ever-improving Thailand in Bangkok in its second game in Group B on Sept. 6. “We cannot afford to lose these two games. The first one and second one we have to win,” said Kagawa. “It is a long road (to Russia) in the qualifiers and we want to make a good start.” Sterling powers City AP Fernandinho scored the other goal for City, which has won its first three matches of the campaign to be level on points with title rivals Manchester United and Chelsea. A negative for Guardiola’s side could be a second-half incident in which star striker Sergio Aguero appeared to swing an elbow at marker Winston Reid as they competed for a high ball. The referee was nearby and didn’t give a foul, but if he says he didn’t see it, Aguero could face a retrospective ban that would rule him out of City’s next game — the Manchester derby. Guardiola said he didn’t see the incident and gave short shrift to the possibility of a suspension for Aguero — but was much happier to talk about Sterling’s revival. The winger, who cost City £49 million ($76 million) in the summer of 2015, lost his place in the team at the end of last season under former coach Manuel Pellegrini and endured a disappointing European Championship with England. He has looked a different player under Guardiola, rediscovering his confidence and dribbling ability. He now has two goals to his name, the first coming in the seventh minute to finish off one of City’s many flowing team moves in a dominant first-half display by the hosts. Fernandinho added a second goal in the 18th minute with a powerful header from Kevin de Bruyne’s free kick. But it needed Sterling’s injury-time goal — when he rounded the goalkeeper and scored from an acute angle — to see off a West Ham side that improved in the second half. “Of course, we are pleased,” Guardiola said of Sterling. “He can play right, left, center. He is so dynamic. I am so happy he is playing good.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/29/soccer/kagawa-looking-banish-ghosts-uae-showdown/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/9f6c284b8cc3635307e0d385dc99285f4630a58cbd98e765e50b04ebc3f443d6.json

France's highest administrative court Friday suspended a ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit introduced in a French Riviera town after it was challenged by

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fworld%2Fcrime-legal-world%2Ftop-french-court-set-rule-legality-burkini-swimsuit-ban%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-francekini-a-20160827-870x1200.jpg

en

In ruling expected to set precedent, top French court suspends ban on burkini swimsuits

www.japantimes.co.jp

France’s highest administrative court Friday suspended a ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit introduced in a French Riviera town after it was challenged by rights groups. In a judgment expected to set a precedent, the State Council ruled that local authorities can only restrict individual liberties if there is a “proven risk” to public order. The case before the court concerned the Riviera resort of Villeneuve-Loubet, one of around 30 towns which have passed burkini bans. The French Council of the Muslim Faith hailed the ruling as “a victory for common sense.” Police have fined Muslim women for wearing burkinis on beaches in towns including in the renowned Riviera resorts of Nice and Cannes. At a hearing Thursday, lawyers for the rights groups argued that the bans are feeding fear and infringe on basic freedoms. Mayors who have banned burkinis cite concern about public order after deadly Islamic extremist attacks this summer, and many officials argue that burkinis oppress women. The swimsuits cover the head, torso and limbs. The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger abroad, especially after images circulated online showing French police appearing to force one Muslim woman to take off her tunic. The legal challenge focused on the ban in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet on the French Riviera, but the council’s ruling will be binding for all the 30 or so towns that have banned the burkini. Critics say the bans are feeding a racist political agenda as campaigning for next year’s French presidential elections kicks off. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced this week he’s seeking the conservative nomination for the 2017 race, said at a rally Thursday night in southern France that he wants a law banning the burkini “on the entire territory of the republic.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/26/world/crime-legal-world/top-french-court-set-rule-legality-burkini-swimsuit-ban/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/cba50b3e2972479ff95f8fe1f8ba1b6cb287529d5020831299f5cd487a065a67.json

It's no more Mr. Nice Guy for Donald Trump.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F24%2Fcommentary%2Fworld-commentary%2Ftrump-campaign-going-mattresses%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p7-Borosage-a-20160824-870x616.jpg

en

Trump campaign going to the mattresses

www.japantimes.co.jp

Flagging in the polls, U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has decided to shake up his campaign, bringing in Stephen Bannon, head of Breitbart News LLC, as CEO. Paul Manafort, the experienced Republican operative who has urged Trump to pivot toward the center for the general election, resigned Friday morning. Since the GOP convention in July, Trump’s poll numbers have plummeted, as he denigrated a Muslim Gold Star mother whose son died in Iraq; insisted that President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton were the “founders of ISIS,” and suggested that “Second Amendment people” might take care of Clinton if she were elected president. But Trump apparently blames his flagging popularity on Manafort and others pushing him to pivot, lay out policy addresses and appear more “presidential.” “I am who I am,” Trump told Wisconsin radio, “It’s me. I don’t want to change. I don’t want to pivot. I mean you have to be you.” The change, Washington Post reporter Robert Costa wrote, sends “a signal, perhaps more clearly than ever, that the real estate magnate intends to finish this race on his own terms.” The gloves are already off in a campaign that is the nastiest in memory. Trump’s choice of Bannon suggests that now his campaign team will don brass knuckles and plan back-alley brawls. Bannon, whom Bloomberg Politics dubbed “the most dangerous political operative in America,” is a former Goldman Sachs banker turned right-wing populist media mogul. He has no experience in running a presidential campaign but is a pro at attack journalism. Political pros consider this turn in the Trump campaign suicidal. Erick Erickson, a conservative Trump critic, dismissed the move as “doubling down on crazy,” arguing that Trump had to move in the opposite direction to gain any traction. But there may be method to this madness. Trump is already the most unpopular candidate in the history of presidential polling. Clinton has made his character and temperament, his lack of experience and policy ignorance central themes of her campaign. She’s sought to make the election a referendum on whether Trump is “fit or unfit” to be president. If that is the question, surely Trump will go down to defeat. But Clinton is the second-most unpopular presidential candidate, with majorities of Americans deeming her untrustworthy. With his new attack team, Trump will surely seek to focus the race on Clinton’s character, past scandals and record. He can’t sustain a policy debate between his platform and hers. But he can wage a scorched-earth assault on her personally and on her record. If he can turn the race into a referendum on Clinton, he might fare better by driving up her negatives and perhaps suppressing turnout, particularly of young voters. For a campaign of character assassination, Bannon and Breitbart News offer Trump an experienced ally. In recent weeks, for example, Breitbart has berated Obama for “importing more hating Muslims” and compared Planned Parenthood’s women’s health services to the Holocaust. Bannon took over Breitbart after the death of its founder, Andrew Breitbart, in 2012, and has turned the website into a far-right, pro-Trump propaganda arm. Even before he took over, though, Breitbart News prided itself on its take-no-prisoners approach to attack journalism. It sponsored, for example, a sting on Acorn, a national association of grass-roots community organizations. A “documentary” it produced purported to show Acorn organizers advising clients on criminal activity. The group’s funding dried up and it had to shut down. Breitbart also produced a video that was edited to distort remarks by Shirley Sherrod, an African-American official in the Agricultural Department and longtime civil-rights advocate. The video led to accusations of anti-white racism, and the administration fired Sherrod before the scam was revealed. Breitbart also has a history with the Clintons. Breitbart released the “sexting” of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, husband of long-time Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who is enmeshed in the Clinton email mess. Bannon helped turn the book “Clinton Cash,” a politically charged investigation of the Clinton Foundation, into a documentary film. Bannon, says Kellyanne Conway, the conservative pollster brought in to travel with Trump as campaign manager, “has a long history of, I think, being unafraid.” Conway explained, “You have to be unapologetically, unflinchingly unafraid of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and all that the Clinton campaign means. Because we feel like we’re up against a major machine here. You need people girded for battle, who are at least willing to leave it all on the field, give it our best shot.” So, Conway says, we’re going to let “Trump be Trump” so he feels “comfortable in his own skin.” He’ll go back to doing the raucous rallies featured in his primary campaign. We’ll see a return to attack tweeting. He will wage a campaign of insults, not ideas, in seeking to make Hillary Clinton’s character and record the centerpiece of the campaign. Clinton’s response to the Trump shake-up was to keep the spotlight on him. “There is no new Donald Trump,” she asserted. “This is it.” Trump agrees with her. There will be no “pivot,” no “more presidential” Trump to appeal to the general electorate. Instead, expect new Breitbart exposes that provide grist for Trump’s mill. Trump’s attack lines will likely be echoed by the Breitbart right-wing media Wurlitzer. Just as the Wall Street Journal and American Spectator invented or inflated scandals about Whitewater, women and Vince Foster in the early years of Bill Clinton’s presidency, now Bannon will likely ensure that Breitbart and other right-wing news outlets will gear up to trumpet a new round of scandal and innuendo. Trump is probably betting that if he can’t convince a majority to vote for him, he may just be able to convince them to vote against Hillary Clinton. Get ready. They’re going to the mattresses. This race is going to get far uglier than it already is. Robert L. Borosage is president of the Institute for America’s Future.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/24/commentary/world-commentary/trump-campaign-going-mattresses/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/38bf414cd613b1e05742e7a1fcd9765a5ebe34b27298eafd0332a8a6115580df.json

Yoga takes up a huge chunk of Japan's fitness market. Some IT companies in the Tokyo area have even incorporated yoga and meditation into their daily sched

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Ffilms%2Fbreath-gods-deep-breathing-stressful-life%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-shoji-yoga-wa-a-20160901-870x525.jpg

en

'Breath of the Gods': Deep breathing for a stressful life

www.japantimes.co.jp

Yoga takes up a huge chunk of Japan’s fitness market. Some IT companies in the Tokyo area have even incorporated yoga and meditation into their daily schedules, just to show how much they care about their employees’ health and mental state. But some employees need no prompts. According to healthcare site bikenmaster.jp, the yoga population in Japan has reached 3.5 million. It’s no surprise then that yoga movies are also gaining popularity, with “Breath of the Gods” (Japan title: “Seinaru Kokyu: Yoga no Rutsu ni Deau Tabi”) opening this weekend at the Ebisu Garden Cinema. Directed by German documentarian Jan Schmidt-Garre, this is a de-glammed “Eat, Love Pray” for the first-world traveler longing for true relaxation from a fast-paced life. Of course, the idea isn’t new. George Harrison and his fellow Beatles went to India partly for the yoga, while Madonna is a renowned yogini. But it’s becoming universal — even my aunt loves it. And now, Schmidt-Garre takes his camera crew to the southern regions of India, where the practice is said to have originated. In “Breath of the Gods,” Schmidt-Garre steps up to the yoga mat in one of the world’s poorest countries to and talks with yoga masters and pupils of all ages as he tries to unlock the mysteries behind this ancient religious ritual. An eye-opener, it may have you running out to buy a yoga mat, or at least trying to breathe deeply through your nose for two minutes. Most of the narration is in English, and the rest has Japanese subtitles. bit.ly/breathofgods

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/31/films/breath-gods-deep-breathing-stressful-life/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/6f277f6d2b20d194c98afd3933b198869454d0aef6663c12f5a878c9e26df79e.json

Although the Tokyo Sikh community has come a long way, creating a place for itself in a foreign land, outside of the temple, serious issues remain.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F24%2Fissues%2Fsikhs-hope-temple-tokyo-sets-stage-tolerance-understanding%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p8-sikhs-a-20160825-870x580.jpg

en

Sikhs hope temple in Tokyo sets the stage for tolerance and understanding

www.japantimes.co.jp

However long a migrant group has lived within a host culture, that settlement process can feel incomplete without a place to call their own — a focal point for the community where they can come together, celebrate important occasions and preserve their traditions. That was certainly the case for Tokyo’s small Sikh community as the 300th anniversary of an auspicious date approached at the end of the millennium. The year 1699 marks the institution of the Khalsa, the Sikh fraternity created by their 10th spiritual leader, Guru Govind Singh, to protect the rights of the community, which at the time faced violent oppression. Among Tokyo’s Sikhs, their joy as the April 1999 third centennial drew closer was tempered by their yearning for their own temple, or gurdwara, within the city, a spiritual emblem that would mark their origins. While a gurdwara already existed in Kobe — the Guru Nanak Darbar, a place Sikhs in Tokyo often visited to fulfill their spiritual needs — traveling to Kobe proved costly and inconvenient for many. For three years starting in 1998, devotees would gather once a month or on special occasions at one of a number of Indian restaurants, where they had set up a temporary temple in what was usually a limited space. Here they were able to offer worship, and the temple would move from one restaurant to another. Since Indian immigrants owned these restaurants, the space was granted on a voluntary basis. “We came early morning and arranged the restaurant space for the one-day temple, cleaned the hall, prepared food for the devotees, and made the traditional offering called Kada Prasad,” recalls Bhupender Singh Sokhi, who played a key role in setting up the temporary temples. The most commonly used restaurant was The Great Punjab in Akasaka, which is today known as Dining Bar Sonia, owned by Latesh Kumar Gajria. Three years later, in 2001, Sokhi asked Gajria if the community could rent a vacant room in the basement of an office building he owned in the Myogadani district, Bunkyo Ward, and here, finally, Tokyo’s Sikh community established its first small house of worship, known as the Guru Nanak Darbar Tokyo. Initially, community members paid a fixed amount toward the monthly rent, but later the temple committee purchased the entire basement floor. Sikhs initiated into the faith are required to wear what are known as the five Ks, which all have important symbolic meaning and value. These are kesh (uncut hair — often wrapped in a turban), kara (steel bracelet), kanga (wooden comb), kacchera (cotton underwear) and kirpan (dagger). In famously homogeneous Japan, Sikhs that keep these traditions can’t help but stand out from the crowd, which has been a source of problems in the past. “Even though we finally found a permanent place, along with it also came some challenges,” explains Sokhi. “Many Sikhs give up their five Ks on moving overseas, but there are also those who stick to their faith and faithfully follow religious laws. A person with knowledge of the Sikh religion can easily identify a Sikh by appearance, but some get intimidated on seeing a male Sikh with a turban and beard. The Japanese in the temple vicinity experienced something similar on seeing large numbers of us once in a month.” There were several complaints from neighbors in the initial years — some locals apparently even feared they were terrorists — and the police kept a close eye on the activities of the gurdwara devotees. But with time, things changed, and soon Japanese too were joining the faithful and even donating food and money regularly to the temple, as well as helping with the cleaning and other preparation during festivals. The Japanese who visited and supported the gurdwara were mainly friends and colleagues of members of the congregation, as well as researchers who were keen to study the community. The Japanese wives of Sikhs also attend the temple, some regularly along with their husbands and children, with a small number dressing in the traditional salwar kameez worn in India’s Punjab region and even becoming devout followers of the faith. The word Sikh means “disciple” or “learner.” Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that originated in the Punjab region of South Asia during the 15th century. Their sacred scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, teaches the importance of faith and meditation in the name of the one creator, unity and equality of all humankind, selfless service for the benefit and prosperity of all, and honest conduct. Sikhism’s history in western Japan can be traced back to the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when Indians abandoned the ruins of Yokohama and relocated to Kobe. Whether Kanto or Kansai today hosts more Sikhs is an open question, as the Japanese government does not record the religion of its Indian residents. The temple in Tokyo attracts about 70 Sikhs, other Indian residents and locals during festivals and between 35-50 attendees for regular services. The longer existence and relative economic stability of the community in Kobe makes it easier for Sikhs there to maintain their identity in comparison to their fellow belivers in Tokyo, many of whom work as laborers rather than traders or professionals, making them more vulnerable and often leaving them with tough choices. Although the Tokyo Sikh community has come a long way in creating a place for itself in a foreign land, outside of the gurdwara issues remain. Perhaps the biggest challenge of all is reconciling Sikhs’ duty to wear the five Ks, the most obvious being kesh, while functioning within Japanese society. “I had to cut my kesh because the boss at my factory had no idea about our religion,” said one temple attendee who requested his name not be published. “He refused to employ me, and told me bluntly that he couldn’t hire me with this appearance.” For Mandeep Kaur, kesh is already an issue for her son, who is only 5 years old. “Our biggest challenge is to convince our kids not to cut their kesh, but the truth is many of us fail,” she says. “My son keeps telling me to cut his hair because his classmates find him different, and he is often mistaken for a girl. He also finds his long hair a challenge during swimming lessons. “A friend’s son decided to cut his hair because it was preventing him being selected for the soccer team, since he was told that he couldn’t join with a turban. He then decided to shave his legs as well, because of frequent remarks by Japanese friends about him being ‘hairy.’ “ While some parents are flexible and cave in in such situations, there are others who find themselves unable to. One couple reported that their son was keen on joining his school baseball club, but was told he couldn’t because of his turban. The boy took the decision to hold on to his Sikh identity and gave up on his dream of joining the baseball club. Kaur says that while some children are self-assured enough to brush off comments by friends, others are sensitive, and in these kinds of cases parents often feel they have no choice but to give in. She believes that the low number of Sikhs in Japan makes it difficult to imbue children here with a clear understanding and high regard for the five Ks. For people in business or other white-collar jobs, or those linked to Indian or other international schools, the turban is often much less of an issue. In fact, one Sikh man said that his headwear attracted such a lot of attention that he was eventually interviewed on Japanese TV around the late 1990s, and this in turn brought a lot of publicity to the electronics store where he worked. Later, when he was forced to cut his hair for medical reasons, his Japanese boss was distraught — more so, even, than the man’s family members — because it meant less publicity for his store and therefore less custom. A frustration that comes up repeatedly in conversations with Sikhs here is with the rigidity of Japanese rules, particularly as they relate to restrictions that prevent them fully participating in society while observing kesh. While Sikhs say they do not experience racism to the degree that exists in other parts of the world, Japan often forces them to make the choice between observing the rules of their faith and qualifying for a job or membership of a school sports club, for example. Compromise rarely seems to be an option. “Sikhism is in our hearts, and we will always be Sikhs even if we cut our hair,” said one interviewee, but this is not a sacrifice that all are prepared to make, even if the alternative is exclusion. Megha Wadhwa is a Ph.D. candidate at Sophia University who is researching the Indian diaspora in Japan. Your comments and ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/24/issues/sikhs-hope-temple-tokyo-sets-stage-tolerance-understanding/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/8cc47edc981f1cdf1d58e0b0ff73d3ca7ea7b24a065493824b65e00c72846790.json

Acrid smog blanketed Singapore Friday as the city-state was hit by the year's first major outbreak of haze, an annual crisis sparked by forest fires in nei

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fenvironment%2Fsingapore-shrouded-blanket-smog-illegal-forest-fires-burn-indonesia%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-singaporesmog-a-20160827-870x579.jpg

en

Singapore shrouded by blanket of smog as illegal forest fires burn in Indonesia

www.japantimes.co.jp

Acrid smog blanketed Singapore Friday as the city-state was hit by the year’s first major outbreak of haze, an annual crisis sparked by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. Singapore’s air quality index reached unhealthy levels with conditions deteriorating through the day, marking the worst haze episode in the city since vast parts of Southeast Asia were blanketed in smoke in 2015. Last year’s haze outbreak was among the worst in memory, shrouding Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Thailand in acrid smoke. The blazes are started illegally to clear land, typically for palm oil and pulpwood plantations, and Indonesia has faced intense criticism from its neighbors over its failure to halt the annual smog outbreaks. Indonesian police said a total of 463 people have been arrested over forest fires so far in 2016. This is more than double the number arrested over the blazes in the whole of 2015 but the data suggest that most of this year’s arrests involved smallholders. Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) said the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) breached “very unhealthy” levels of 215 during the day. PSI levels above 100 are deemed unhealthy and people are advised to reduce vigorous outdoor activity. The NEA added that the smoke was being blown from fires in central Sumatra, the Indonesian island just across the Malacca Strait from Singapore. Visibility from high-rise offices and other vantage points was virtually zero. A photographer said he could hardly see the skyline from one of the city’s highest points at Mount Faber, while haze kits sold out at a drugstore chain by lunchtime. Food server Marcus Tan, 28, who works at a riverside restaurant with outdoor seating, said he was worried the haze would agitate his asthma. “I know I’m supposed to wear a mask so I don’t have another asthma attack. But do you think anyone will want to eat food served by someone wearing a mask?” he said. Smog was also visible in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of neighboring Malaysia, over a few days last week but did not breach unhealthy levels. Singapore last September closed schools and distributed protective face masks as the air pollution index soared to hazardous levels following three weeks of being cloaked in smoke. Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said on its website that the number of hot spots on Sumatra had increased in the past 48 hours. A hot spot is an area of intense heat detected by satellites, indicating a blaze has already broken out or that an area is very hot and likely to go up in flames soon. As of Friday, there were 69 hot spots on Sumatra, up from 43 two days earlier, the agency said. In the Indonesian part of Borneo island — another area where large numbers of smog-belching fires occur every year — there were 31 hot spots as of midnight Thursday local time, it added. However there were far fewer fires than at the peak of last year’s crisis, when hundreds burned out of control.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/26/environment/singapore-shrouded-blanket-smog-illegal-forest-fires-burn-indonesia/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/795d4650edb8477077d12ddb9b3c2e3ae7d1069bbe93b8b198fce352baf01891.json

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is refusing to stand for the national anthem before games because he believes the United States oppresses

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fmore-sports%2Ffootball%2Fniners-kaepernick-protests-by-sitting-during-u-s-anthem%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-nfl-a-20160829-870x580.jpg

en

Niners' Kaepernick protests by sitting during U.S. anthem

www.japantimes.co.jp

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is refusing to stand for the national anthem before games because he believes the United States oppresses African Americans and other minorities. Kaepernick sat on the team’s bench Friday night during the anthem before the Niners played host to the Green Bay Packers in an exhibition game. He later explained his reasoning in an interview with NFL Media . “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Saturday that “players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem.” The 49ers issued a statement after Pro Football Talk initially reported on Kaepernick’s stand, saying that Americans have the right to protest or support the anthem. “The national anthem is and always will be a special part of the pregame ceremony,” the team said. “It is an opportunity to honor our country and reflect on the great liberties we are afforded as its citizens. In respecting such American principles as freedom of religion and freedom of expression, we recognize the right of an individual to choose to participate, or not, in our celebration of the national anthem.” Coach Chip Kelly said Saturday that he had not talked with Kaepernick about his actions or comments but said that Kaepernick also did not stand for the national anthem before last week’s game in Denver when he was injured and did not play. “We recognize his right to do that,” Kelly said. “It’s not my right to tell him not to do something. That’s his right as a citizen.” Kaepernick, who is biracial, was adopted and raised by white parents. He has been outspoken on his Twitter account on civil rights issues and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Kaepernick is not the first U.S.-based athlete to use the anthem for protest. In 1996, NBA player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the anthem, saying the United States had a history of tyranny and doing so would conflict with his Islamist beliefs. The NBA initially suspended Abdul-Rauf for his stance before the ban was lifted when he said he would stand and pray silently during the song. Kaepernick said he is not worried about any potential fallout from his protest. “This is not something that I am going to run by anybody,” he told NFL Media. “I am not looking for approval. I have to stand up for people that are oppressed. . . . If they take football away, my endorsements from me, I know that I stood up for what is right.” Kaepernick’s agent did not immediately return a request for comment. Kaepernick is in competition to win back the starting quarterback job in San Francisco that he lost to Blaine Gabbert last season. He made his first appearance of the preseason on Friday night after missing two games with a tired shoulder. He finished 2-for-6 for 14 yards and added 18 yards on four runs. Kelly said Kaepernick is still in the running to win the starting job and his protest won’t impact the decision.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/28/more-sports/football/niners-kaepernick-protests-by-sitting-during-u-s-anthem/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/fa514c61c1e9560ad1b07f3424dbc4eee403374a3bbfeb8ea5ea3f608b7ccfde.json

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic having an off day, Manchester United turned to a striker at the opposite end of his career to keep its winning run going in the Eng

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fsoccer%2Frashford-strikes-late-to-lift-united-to-win-over-hull%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-soccer-a-20160829-870x570.jpg

en

Rashford strikes late to lift United to win over Hull

www.japantimes.co.jp

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic having an off day, Manchester United turned to a striker at the opposite end of his career to keep its winning run going in the English Premier League on Saturday. Marcus Rashford came off the bench and scored two minutes into injury time to give United a 1-0 victory at Hull, lifting the team alongside Chelsea on a maximum nine points. The 18-year-old Rashford was a revelation in the second half of last season, scoring eight goals after coming from the youth setup to solve an injury crisis, but has been displaced by offseason signing Ibrahimovic under new coach Jose Mourinho. He has just given Mourinho some thinking to do. Rashford came on in the 71st minute with United struggling to break down Hull’s stoic defense and in danger of dropping points for the first time. Along with fellow sub Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Rashford changed the dynamic of the game with his direct running and was on hand to tap in the winning goal after Wayne Rooney raced clear down the left and sent over a cross. “We did everything to win,” Mourinho said. “I know when you score (in) minute 90-something, you talk of a bit of luck. But we were so dominant, so intense in our attacking wave.” United has won its first three games of the season for the first time since 2011, when Alex Ferguson was still in charge. It’s early days but United under Mourinho is beginning to have the same aura as Ferguson’s sides, and even scoring goals in so-called “Fergie Time.” The 34-year-old Ibrahimovic was well-shackled by the Hull defense and missed out on becoming only the second United player to score in his first four games for the club. “We deserved it and in a more comfortable way,” Mourinho said. “We had an amazing mentality. We tried and tried and got it. “I tell the boys every day, we have to go into every match to win. We know we will draw or lose matches but the mentality has to be, ‘Go to win.’ Today they showed that.” Chelsea had it much easier against another promoted side. Eden Hazard, Willian, and Victor Moses scored in a 3-0 win over Burnley at Stamford Bridge, with a ruthless performance reminiscent of those produced in the team’s title-winning campaign in 2014-15, when Mourinho was Chelsea’s coach. Hull and Manchester City started the weekend as the other teams with 100 percent records after two games. City was scheduled to host West Ham on Sunday. Leicester and Arsenal, the top two teams last season, racked up their first wins on the third attempts, and their star attackers were back on the scoresheet. Jamie Vardy set champion Leicester on its way to a 2-1 win over Swansea at King Power Stadium. Wes Morgan added a second goal and Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez had a penalty saved before Leroy Fer pulled a goal back for the visitors. Alexis Sanchez was the inspiration behind Arsenal’s 3-1 victory at Watford, earning a ninth-minute penalty converted by Santi Cazorla, scoring himself, then setting up Mesut Ozil for the third goal before halftime. Tottenham and Liverpool are two more teams hoping to be in the mix for the top four, perhaps even the title, and they drew 1-1 in a frenetic match at White Hart Lane. Two left backs scored, with James Milner’s penalty for Liverpool canceled out by Danny Rose’s 72nd-minute strike. Tottenham has five points, one more than Liverpool. Everton kept up its unbeaten start to the league under new coach Ronald Koeman by beating Stoke 1-0, courtesy of a penalty from Leighton Baines that struck the post, hit goalkeeper Shay Given on the head, and rebounded in. There were also two 1-1 draws, between Southampton-Sunderland and Crystal Palace-Bournemouth. Those four teams remain without a win this season.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/28/soccer/rashford-strikes-late-to-lift-united-to-win-over-hull/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/ab6eb388f0097da2af45e1d318ea6a8dfaadeb98574e0544624d44d0c990478b.json

Ai Miyazato shot a 4-under-par 68 and compatriot Sakura Yokomine carded a 67 as both moved within five shots of the lead after the second round of the Cana

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fmore-sports%2Fgolf%2Fmiyazato-yokomine-tied-for-ninth-after-36-holes-in-canadian-pacific-womens-open%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-wgolf-a-20160828-870x727.jpg

en

Miyazato, Yokomine tied for ninth after 36 holes in Canadian Pacific Women's Open

www.japantimes.co.jp

Ai Miyazato shot a 4-under-par 68 and compatriot Sakura Yokomine carded a 67 as both moved within five shots of the lead after the second round of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open on Friday. World No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand shot a 64 to hold a three-stroke cushion atop of the leaderboard over South Korea’s Chun In-gee (67) and Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow (69). Former World No. 1 Miyazato made five birdies and one bogey over a seven-hole stretch from the 12th at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club and joined Yokomine in a tie for ninth at 7-under 137. “My putting wasn’t bad but it was difficult to read (the greens),” said Miyazato, who opened with a 69. “I didn’t make that many mistakes, short game included. “Over these two days I have been hitting my putts and strokes without any hesitancy. Hopefully I can keep playing like this,” she said. Yokomine had six birdies against a lone bogey on the 10th hole. “I played with determination not to miss the cut,” Yokomine said. “After I made my first birdie I felt relaxed. My shots were really good.” Harukyo Nomura, who finished fourth at the Rio Olympics, matched par with a 72 and was at 3-under tied for 36th with Mika Miyazato and Ayako Uehara.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/27/more-sports/golf/miyazato-yokomine-tied-for-ninth-after-36-holes-in-canadian-pacific-womens-open/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/005f9648380ff3be617c25b1336d768dfea94494f98dbab820b4849c48e444b8.json

Graying Japan may get even more elderly friendly — at least for some of its aging politicians. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering scr

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F26%2Fnational%2Fpolitics-diplomacy%2Fldp-may-drop-age-72-limit-proportional-representation-seats-lower-house%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

LDP may scrap upper age limit for some Lower House candidates

www.japantimes.co.jp

Graying Japan may get even more elderly friendly — at least for some of its aging politicians. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering scrapping its age limit on candidates vying for Lower House proportional representation seats, sources said Thursday. The party currently requires these candidates to be no older than 72. The LDP’s Headquarters for Party and Political System Reform Implementation, chaired by LDP Vice President Masahiko Komura, will review the rule starting this autumn, the sources said. The task force will consider a number of options, including scrapping the rule. The LDP hopes to reach a decision on the mater as early as this year, the sources added. But proposals to eliminate the age rule are likely to face cries of hypocrisy in the face of the government’s own push to reinvigorate the economy by “creating a society where all 100 million citizens can play active roles.” One LDP member, a former Cabinet minister who did not give his name, said any age limit runs counter to this policy. The age limit, introduced in 2000, was meant to clear a path for younger candidates in a party that had long embraced a seniority-based structure, leaving it with many aging lawmakers with numerous election wins under their belt. Former prime ministers were initially exempt from the rule, but the LDP made no exceptions to the rule in the 2003 Lower House election, forcing former Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Kiichi Miyazawa to retire from politics. However, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the current LDP President, has been encouraging companies to make better use of elderly workers in the labor force. The government’s social revitalization action plan, adopted this year, included steps to lay the groundwork for companies to raise the retirement age. One LDP lawmaker who is over 70 said the age-limit rule prevents the elderly from actively participating in society and “should be scrapped.” Still, there are concerns among LDP members that lifting the age-limit rule could alienate younger and nonaffiliated voters.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/26/national/politics-diplomacy/ldp-may-drop-age-72-limit-proportional-representation-seats-lower-house/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/806b6e9c8a7c0f263e1198121bcbd940575c3801056e4afa28faf8caec0e23f8.json

It is puzzling that the black bears have become aggressive recently, given their previous inclination to retreat when confronted by humans. My theory is th

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fcommentary%2Fbears-encroach-blurred-human-boundaries%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Bears encroach on blurred human boundaries

www.japantimes.co.jp

It is puzzling that the black bears have become aggressive recently, given their previous inclination to retreat when confronted by humans. My theory is that winters are shorter and that means shorter hibernations and more active time spent consuming dwindling supplies of food. They love beech nuts but, when they exhaust the supply, they come down the hills toward human settlements. Compared to 20 years ago, the edges of the forest have crept in on remote villages, as older people are not cultivating the fields further away that had been a boundary of sorts. Once carefully cultivated, land is now left fallow, and the brush and grass that was cutback is flourishing while the abandoned mulberry tree patches have grown promiscuously wild. All of this is good news for the wildlife, but also blurs the boundaries between human areas and those where animals roam and forage. Animals encounter fewer people, a consequence of depopulation and the rapid aging of rural Japan, and thus grow bolder and more accustomed to their expanded territory. So people looking for mountain vegetables are competition and unwelcome visitors where bears have become territorial. In addition, nobody eats inoshishinabe (a local simmered delicacy made from boar) anymore because after the Fukushima meltdowns there were reports of radiation plumes spreading far afield, including Minakami, Gunma Prefecture. Farmers told me that cesium reportedly concentrates in mushrooms that are boars’ favorite food, so people have shied from eating their meat. Locals may have been wrong about the dangers and the problem may no longer persist, but it is clear that the biggest beneficiaries are the wild boar. Boar numbers have exploded post-2011 and signs of their furrowing and foraging are widely evident, in some extreme cases making it look like someone with an excavator had run amok. To some extent, they compete with the bears for the same limited supply of nuts and roots, so their spiraling numbers are bad news for the bears. More importantly, farmers have responded by surrounding their fields and orchards with solar-powered electric fences to keep the varmints out and protect their livelihoods. The costs of doing so have dropped considerably while the costs of not doing so have risen substantially, so farmers have acted accordingly. I spoke with an apple farmer who estimated that in a single night, marauding bears can cost him ¥100,000 worth of apples, so the snacking is not unsubstantial. Thus, Gunma’s 21st-century enclosure movement removes a valuable fallback food source for bears. Hence, the angrier bears are probably hungrier, more desperate and feistier in their foraging, especially in the grey zones of blurred boundaries where the human retreat has been most pronounced. Last August, I received a wonderful gift from a neighbor: a can of bear spray. I read the instructions that stated its best to wait until the bear is 5 meters away and to spray sparingly in short bursts. Obviously the troll who wrote these instructions has never confronted a bear and needs to get out of the cubicle more often. The next day, just as I was returning from a relatively modest 6 km hike, my puppy Zoe — only 5 months old—went bounding off the trail down toward the stream. Suddenly the sound of barking and then yelps of pain pierced the forest calm. Goro, a 12-year-old shibainu who has had his share of bear confrontations, bolted toward the sound. Running down the hill, I saw as he lunged at the bear without hesitation, saving Zoe’s life. Later I discovered he got clawed on the hindquarters but, at the time, he was fearless and didn’t back down. Alas, the bear ran from him and then charged me 30 meters away. I pulled off the safety of the bear spray and had little time to wait as the bear covered the distance in a few seconds. I confess I didn’t follow the instructions, spraying it like it was air freshener way before it got 5 meters away. I have never regretted this squandering of the bear spray because it worked, stopping the bear, standing and bearing its teeth just an arms length away. Oddly enough, I forgot about using the leg sweep technique. After retreating, it charged again and, luckily, I still had some ammo and held it off, but ran out of spray and was very shaken. As I was quickly traversing the hill toward home, calling for Zoe to no avail, I saw a cub high in a tree abut 20 meters from where I had been standing. That explains its mom’s persistence. By that time, I had Goro on a leash to prevent further heroics. Heading home, I suddenly decided to turn back to search for Zoe where I had last seen her, thinking she might be alive but too injured to respond. Goro had the good sense not to budge, pulling me out of harms way; saving a stupid master from a dumb decision is all in a dog’s day. I imagined Zoe was dead— the bear had been on top of her flailing away — but 20 minutes later, as I headed out to look for her, she came stumbling down the driveway — a battered puppy bleeding from claw wounds, the side of her head swollen like a boxer that had lost a 15-round bout. Somehow she had crossed a stream and found her way home from a place about 2 km away that she had only been to once before. Later the vet told me she had two broken ribs and lost a tooth, but that the eye, although swollen shut, was miraculously undamaged. Goro got seven stitches to his hindquarters and a big Aussie steak to share with his little sister. Luckily, they both fully recovered from their wounds and Zoe romps with her buddies in the park everyday. We now take shorter forays into the foothills and forest fringes, and the dogs also wear bear bells on their collars. Alas, the days of tranquil, contemplative summer hikes in the cool forests are over. Jeff Kingston is the director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/27/commentary/bears-encroach-blurred-human-boundaries/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/e5a1a3147fb5d21cb8be3194837fcad1956d3eb70c9dde51cd469061ce6fa75b.json

In an unprecedented prerecorded video message to the nation, Emperor Akihito expressed concern about how his advanced age is affecting the performance of his public duties.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Flife%2F2016%2F08%2F29%2Flanguage%2Femperor-signals-wish-abdicate%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Emperor signals his wish to abdicate

www.japantimes.co.jp

Sample newspaper article 天皇陛下は前例のない国民向けのビデオメッセージで、年齢が公務の遂行に支障を来たしていることへの懸念を表明した。8月8日に放送 された録画映像は、近い将来退位をしたいという陛下の希望を伝えるものとして広く受け止められた。82歳の天皇陛下は、天皇が崩御前に皇位を退くことを認めていない皇位継承制度を改正するような具体的な案について話すことは慎重に避けた。しかしながら陛下は、既に２回の手術を受けており、「次第に進む身体の衰えを考慮する時、全身全霊をもって象徴の務めを果たしていくことが難しくなるのではないかと 案じている」と述べた。 (Aug. 9) Words and phrases 天皇陛下 (Tennō heika) His Majesty The Emperor; 前例のない (zenrei-) unprecedented; 国民向けの (kokuminmu-) to the nation; 年齢 (nenrei) age; 公務 (kōmu) public duties; 遂行 (suikō) performance; 支障を来たして (shishō-ki-) affecting; 懸念 (kenen) concern; 表明した (hyōmei-) expressed; 放送された (hōsō-) aired; 録画映像 (rokuga eizō) prerecorded video; 近い将来 (chika-shōrai) near future; 退位する (tai’i-) abdicate; 希望 (kibō) wish; 伝える (tsuta-) conveying; 広く受け止められた (hiro-u-to-) widely interpreted; 崩御前 (hōgyomae) before he dies; 皇位を退く (kōi-shirizo-) step down; 認めていない (mito-) does not allow; 皇位継承制度 (kōi keishō seido) Imperial succession system; 改正する (kaisei-) revise; 具体的な案 (gutaiteki-an) specific ideas; 慎重に (shinchō-) carefully; 避けた (sa-) avoided; 手術を受け (shujutsu-u-) had operations; 次第に進む身体の衰え (shidai-susu-karada-otoro-) fitness level is gradually declining; 考慮する (kōryo-) consider; 全身全霊をもって (zenshin zenrei-) with my whole being; 象徴の務め (shōchō-tsuto-) duties as the symbol of the state; 難しく (muzuka-) difficult; 案じている (an-) worried; 述べた (no-) said Sample radio or television report Tennō heika-wa zenrei-no-nai kokumin-muke-no bideo messēji-de, nenrei-ga kōmu-no suikō-ni shishō-o kitashiteiru-koto-e-no kenen-o hyōmei-shimashita. 8-gatsu yōka-ni hōsō-sareta rokuga eizō-wa, chikai shōrai tai’i-o-shitai-to-iu heika-no kibō-o tsutaeru-mono-to-shite hiroku uketomeraremashita. Hachijū -nisai-no Tennō heika-wa, Tennō-ga hōgyo-mae-ni kōi-o shirizoku-koto-o mitometeinai kōi keishō seido-o kaisei-suru yō-na gutaiteki-na an-ni-tsuite hanasu-koto-wa shinchō-ni sakemashita. Shikashi-nagara heika-wa, sude-ni nikai-no shujutsu-o ukete-ori, “Shidai-ni susumu karada-no otoroe-o kōryo-suru-to, zenshin zenrei-o-motte shōchō-no tsutome-o hatashiteiku-koto-ga muzukashiku-naru-no-de-wa-nai-ka-to anjiteiru”-to nobemashita. Translation In an unprecedented prerecorded video message to the nation, His Majesty Emperor Akihito expressed concern about how his advanced age is affecting the performance of his public duties. The prerecorded video, aired on Aug. 8, was widely interpreted as conveying his wish to abdicate in the near future. The 82-year-old Emperor carefully avoided discussing any specific ideas to revise the Imperial succession system, which does not allow an emperor to step down before he dies. But he has already had two operations and said, “When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now.” Conversation between acquaintances A: Tennō heika-no kokumin-muke-no bideo messēji mimashita-ka? (Have you seen the Emperor’s video message to the nation?) B: Heika-wa seizen tai’i-o kibō-sarete-iru yō-desu-ne. (Apparently he wants to step down before he dies.) Conversation between husband and wife H: Kōshitsu Tenpan-wa tennō-no seizen tai’i-o mitomete-inai-n-da-ne. (The Imperial Household Law doesn’t allow an emperor to step down before he dies, does it?) W: Seido kaisei-ni-mukete giron-o subeki-yo. (I think we should discuss revising the system.) (No. 1321)

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/29/language/emperor-signals-wish-abdicate/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/9865ff8951fc26143468e35c1fcba644e4b8f71ac268e2b5f577240afbdc0013.json

We in the West are used to thinking of music mainly as entertainment. On occasion, it can fulfill a religious function, or be deployed to argue one politic

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fculture%2F2016%2F08%2F21%2Fmusic%2Fsahra-halgan-sings-recognition-somaliland%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-grunebaum-halgan-a-20160822-870x486.jpg

en

Sahra Halgan sings recognition for Somaliland

www.japantimes.co.jp

We in the West are used to thinking of music mainly as entertainment. On occasion, it can fulfill a religious function, or be deployed to argue one political point or another. But for Sahra Halgan, the purpose of her music is to bring recognition to Somaliland, a self-declared state unrecognized by the international community. “When you flee to another country, you feel guilty,” Halgan tells The Japan Times via phone while on tour in France. “And then when I had a chance to help my people I felt I had to show what’s going on in Somaliland.” Now 46, Halgan escaped civil war in Somalia in 1993, becoming a refugee in France. People in the north part of what was then Somalia had rebelled against the brutal dictatorship of Siad Barre, splitting off to form what is now Somaliland in 1991. Born into a family of artists, Halgan’s life was upended by the outbreak of hostilities. At a time when she should have been in school, Halgan found herself called to help her compatriots. “I was with people who had operations … who had amputations,” she explains in halting English about her sudden switch from student to untrained nurse in the backlines of battle. “I started singing when I was 13,” she continues. “Somalia was still at peace. Then to encourage fighters in the civil war, I became a nurse even though I didn’t have proper training to help fighters who were attacked with airplanes and artillery. Singing isn’t only for fame or money, sometimes you can use music like medicine.” Halgan sings with a clear, uplifting voice in the traditional Somali style, which bears much in common with the music of Sudan and the Arabian peninsula. It is often accompanied only by handclaps, although for the last several years Halgan has been touring with French musicians Aymeric Krol and Mael Saletes in a style they call “World Music from Somaliland.” Music had been suppressed by the Barre regime and Halgan’s songs were part of a wave of protest music. “My songs had the opportunity to play that role,” she says. “I sang for people fighting against the dictator. We had to go to the bush, and I would go to tents that were transformed into surgery rooms and encourage patients.” With the collapse of Barre rule, Somaliland was able to forge a separate peace. Its rulers created democratic institutions and it currently enjoys a quasi-independent status, but the international community still treats it as part of Somalia. After decades in France, in which she eked out a living as a cafeteria worker and musician, Halgan returned to the capital of Somaliland, Hargeisa, three years ago. There she opened a studio that is apparently the only place in the country where musicians and poets can produce themselves. She notes with a laugh that she does weddings too, but her main focus is on bringing attention to her forgotten land. “I wanted to show what’s going on in Somaliland, because the world forgets us, I don’t know why. We decided to live alone without Somalia, but they won’t accept that. “My songs are political and personal,” she continues. “I ask, ‘Why do you forget us? We did everything the international community has asked.’ “ Halgan hopes her first visit to Japan to perform at the Sukiyaki Meets the World Festival and French Institute goes some way in enlightening Japanese as to the status of her land. “I am glad to visit Japan and I want to educate them. I’ve never seen a Japanese person in Somaliland,” she notes. “I want the whole world to know there is a democratic, peaceful country called Somaliland with no Islamists. The world is forgetting 4 million people. It’s as if we don’t exist. It’s not just.” Sahra Halgan plays Aug. 27 at Sukiyaki Meets the World, held in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture. Admission costs ¥3,000 at the door. She plays at Institut Francais in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, on Aug. 29 (7 p.m. start; free admission but a reservation is required). She plays at Sukiyaki Tokyo, held at WWW in Shibuya-ku on Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m. start; ¥5,000 in advance; 03-5458-7685). For more information, visit www.sahra-halgan.com.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/08/21/music/sahra-halgan-sings-recognition-somaliland/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/6251823a779c2aedbc8acf804f59a778ef9584207d60e196feefdc5aa160a47a.json

Japan has no laws regarding age limits or parental consent when it comes to advice on reproductive health care advice and obtaining contraception.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F21%2Fhow-tos%2Fteens-reproductive-health-rights-doctors-whim%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p11-lifelines-a-20160822-870x639.jpg

en

Teens' reproductive health rights are at doctors' whim

www.japantimes.co.jp

This week’s Lifelines deals with some important questions from a high school student about her rights regarding reproductive health care. She writes: I just want to share my experience at a Japanese clinic. I went to a nearby Japanese ob-gyn clinic by myself and the clinic wouldn’t let me in because I wasn’t with my parents. Why can’t I go to the gynecologist by myself? Is that the law in Japan? I want to get tested for STDs and have access to contraceptives pills but I can’t. Also, I recently went to the family doctor and got tested for cystitis (an infection of the bladder, common among women). I told the clinic I’d had sex, as maybe it was the cause of my cystitis. I asked the clinic not to tell my parents, but they called them. Where’s my privacy? I know I’m only in my mid-teens, but I have rights. I talked to Dr. Kunio Kitamura, a gynecologist who is well-known for his work educating adolescents about reproductive health care and contraception. Kitamura is the chairperson of the Japan Family Planning Association and operates a clinic in Tokyo. He also runs an informative website through the JFPA and writes about sex education and reproductive health care in the media. Surprisingly for a country where so many things are governed by rules, Kitamura says that Japan has no laws regarding age limits or parental consent when it comes to advice on reproductive health care and obtaining contraception. “To this end, the staff at the clinics visited by your reader did her a great disservice. As a doctor, I’m upset that she met with this treatment,” he says. “She was trying to take responsibility for her own health, and deserves respect and privacy. Young people should not be belittled in this way. Furthermore, calling the parents and telling them about their daughter’s visit was wrong in this case.” Kitamura admits that not all doctors and parents would agree. “Certainly, some doctors take a paternalistic attitude, and think it is best to involve a parent in the case of a minor patient,” he adds. Kitamura’s clinic is familiar with calls from upset or angry parents — usually mothers — who find an appointment card or receipt for contraceptives in their daughter’s room. “Even if they call and demand information, I always tell them we can’t divulge patient information over the phone,” Kitamura says. “I tell them to start by asking their daughter and trying to talk openly with her.” The JFPA’s clinic and its various outreach programs are working to educate adolescents, but Kitamura says that parents should ideally be the primary source of information for young people about their bodies and sexual health. “From a young age, children deserve to be given the correct facts,” he says. While many of the patients who visit Kitamura’s clinic are teenagers who come in alone, the clinic also welcomes adult patients, as well as parents and children together. With the number of single-parent families rising, Kitamura notes that they are now seeing fathers wanting to get help with raising daughters, too. The JFPA clinic is located near Ichigaya Station and operates on an appointment-only basis. Kitamura invites foreign residents to take advantage of the services offered, and says consultations can be conducted in English. The JFPA also operates a telephone hotline for young people wanting answers to their questions. Japan Family Planning Association: www.jfpa-clinic.org or call 03-3235-2694. JFPA hotline for advice on adolescence and contraception: 03-3235-2638. Thank you to Sara at Japan Healthcare Info for her help with this article. JHI (www.japanhealthinfo.com) is a nonprofit, social entrepreneur corporation providing services in English for the foreign community about health care and the Japanese medical system. Send your comments and questions to lifelines@japantimes.co.jp.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/21/how-tos/teens-reproductive-health-rights-doctors-whim/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/3ecb988d26d23028fc4b0ad29b331f10c5d48b42fc1d5f7f7242fca956e16a5e.json

A gunman holed up in an apartment block in Wakayama is captured after shooting himself in the stomach, ending a 17½-hour standoff with police.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fnational%2Fcrime-legal%2Fstandoff-ends-as-police-take-wakayama-gunman-in-custody%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-wakayamanew-a-20160901-870x651.jpg

en

Standoff ends as police take Wakayama gunman into custody

www.japantimes.co.jp

A gunman who defied police in a 17½-hour standoff at an apartment block in the city of Wakayama was captured late on Wednesday after he shot himself in the stomach. Former construction worker Yasuhide Mizobata, 45, held off officers for hours, firing occasional shots and yelling about a failed business. Police evacuated residents and tried to talk the gunman into giving himself up. Mizobata is suspected of shooting dead a former colleague and injuring three others when he pulled a gun during a meeting at a construction firm’s office in the city on Monday. He reportedly blasted the victims in their torsos and legs. One of the survivors remains unconscious, and the two others have serious injuries. Mizobata is the second son of the company’s president. He used to work for the firm. The suspect barricaded himself into a unit in an apartment block, firing an apparent warning shot at around 6:40 a.m. Another shot followed. He interacted with police and pointed a gun at himself a few times. Police say he asked officers to hand his mother ¥2 million. They found a bag containing the cash and a letter apparently written by Mizobata on a street nearby. Officers first intercepted Mizobata late Tuesday while he was riding a bike. He fired four shots at a police car and fled. They then tracked him down at around 1 a.m. Wednesday and the siege began. Investigators say security footage incriminates Mizobata in Monday’s killing, showing him leaving the company premises shortly after the shootings and heading toward a car in the nearby parking lot. Mizobata was convicted of a drugs offense last year and was out on bail at the time of the shootings. His conviction was recently finalized and he was supposed to go to prison on Monday to begin a jail term.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/31/national/crime-legal/standoff-ends-as-police-take-wakayama-gunman-in-custody/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/1e62681abb6e7421fbba2bfc42ad3ab5a08cadf4a3181164c81a80424b9c6594.json

Japan's temples are an integral part of the country's traditional culture. For the majority of us, visits are usually limited to specific events such as Ne

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F03%2Fissues%2Fforeign-wives-provide-insight-temple-lives%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p8-temple-a-20160804-870x653.jpg

en

Foreign wives provide insight into temple lives

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan’s temples are an integral part of the country’s traditional culture. For the majority of us, visits are usually limited to specific events such as New Year’s Eve, or perhaps as part of a sightseeing agenda if the temple is a famous one. The lives of some Japanese, however, still revolve around their local temples — and none more than those families that care for them. While Japanese Buddhist priests traditionally inherit the position from their fathers and grandfathers, what happens to the women who marry into these families? Several women share their insights into a lifestyle that is little understood by most Japanese, let alone foreign nationals. American Gretchen Miura lives at Dairyuji, a temple on the picturesque Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture, where her husband, Keno, is the head priest. In addition to caring for the couple’s four children and managing an online business, Miura assists with running the temple. With 400 temple “members” — each consisting of one household — to take care of, it’s a busy life. For Miura, achieving a balance between the traditional lifestyle she married into and her own inherent cultural values has been key. “It is incredibly important to be a part of and respect the community you live in, especially when you are raising children and, in my case, connected to a temple in a small rural town ,” she says. “Yet, rather than sacrifice too much of yourself to achieve that acceptance, it is much better to remain authentic.” A major part of Miura’s work at the temple is helping to set up for events and feed the guests. “An average ceremony will involve between 20 and 30 local priests coming to help, along with approximately 70 to 100 members attending,” Miura says. Set among beautiful grounds and featuring a water garden, the temple is also something of a tourist attraction in its own right. “The temple is always open to visitors,” Miura says. “The tours are usually arranged by local onsen or tour groups, so they will contact us to see if they can come. We do not actively promote the temple for tourism too much — we like to think of it as ‘a best-kept secret’ type of place to visit. “Keno’s mother still does the lion’s share of the typical day-to-day duties, such as planning memorial services, accounting and managing the temple. It is something I am very aware of and appreciate deeply.” However, Miura knows there will be a transition in the not-so-distant future, and that she must be prepared. “Without a deep-rooted understanding and knowledge, there are things I will simply not be able to do, such as choosing auspicious Buddhist days for funerals,” she says. “But I hope there are other things I can bring to the table.” Keno Miura is proud of his wife’s efforts to fit into the complex environment of temple life. “One challenge with being an international temple family is that Gretchen has had to learn everything from zero, but it is also good since she has no preconceived notions about Buddhism and she offers new ideas and approaches,” he says. “She has helped me open my mind.” It isn’t just foreign temple wives who grapple with some of the finer points of the role. Miura’s Japanese friend, Ayuko Kori, lives with her husband and teenage sons at Kannonji, another temple in Akita Prefecture. Kori struggles with what to do about all the foodstuffs and other gifts that people leave at the temple. “We can’t eat everything ourselves, and deciding how to pass things on is stressful,” Kori says. “I’m still not sure of the best way to share the offerings among the various temple families.” Chochomin Sato resides with her husband and elderly mother-in-law at Seishoji temple in the Oga region. Sato ran a successful ethnic restaurant in the area before her marriage in 2007. Sato hails from Myanmar, reportedly the most religious Buddhist country in the world in view of the percentage of income spent on religion. While one might assume this would give her an advantage in her role as a temple wife in Japan, she points out that there are differences in the two approaches to religion. “People in Japan tend to think of the temple as a place to honor the dead or one’s ancestors, but in Myanmar it is also a place for self-improvement,” she says. One major aspect of Buddhism in Myanmar is seeking to obtain a favorable rebirth via the accumulation of merit from good deeds. “Following and respecting the teachings of Buddha in one’s daily life is the way to happiness,” Sato explains. Boys are also expected to enter a monastery as novices, even if just for a short time. At the other end of the country, Victoria Yoshimura from Britain is forging her own path in a rural community in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu. Seventeen generations of the Yoshimura family have presided over Shonenji, a 450-year-old Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple in the Takachiho area. Yoshimura’s schedule is not for the fainthearted. In addition to teaching at a number of local schools and nurseries, she runs her own English school and has also built up a reputation as a speaker, traveling around Japan to give speeches. Income from her outside work allows her husband to concentrate on his role as head priest. On top of this, Yoshimura is a priest in her own right. She says the desire to carve out a different role for herself dates back to the early years of her marriage, when the two oldest of her three children were very young. “After providing an heir and a spare, I felt that they just wanted me to stay back, shut up and serve tea, although my husband insists this was not the case,” Yoshimura says. “But I felt that I had given up any opportunity to do post-graduate study by marrying and staying in Japan. I wanted intellectual stimulation and to know the whys and wherefores of the huge temple on my doorstep.” The Jodo Shinshu branch of Buddhism promotes an enlightened approach to women and their role. “It was the first sect to approve of marriage for priests,” Yoshimura says. “The Japanese term for a priest’s wife is ‘bomori.’ When I got married, I became a wakabomori — ‘young wife.’ Now I’m a bomori and my mother-in-law is a zenbomori — ‘previous wife.’ “ Yoshimura notes that female priests are “totally accepted” by Jodo Shinshu, although less than a third of temple wives actually take the priesthood. Despite being equals to men within the religion, however, she says that in reality this does not pan out for women in rural Kyushu. Once she had decided to train for the priesthood, Yoshimura did all her own research, consulting with the head temple in Kyoto. “I ascertained that it was possible to get the qualifications,” Yoshimura says. “I’m basically illiterate in Japanese, even though I’m a fluent speaker. They were very supportive. I started studying, and things started looking up!” It took Yoshimura around a year to reach the first level in priesthood and then, 12 years ago, she decided to train for the next level to become a head priest. “My husband was diagnosed with double cancer and as there was a chance I was going to be a widow, I feared they would put another priest in his place to sideline me,” she says. Fortunately, his health improved and he continues to fulfill the demands of his head priest role at Shonenji. Like Miura, a large portion of Yoshimura’s duties as a temple wife involve preparing for gatherings at the temple, from cleaning and shopping for the guests, to coordinating groups of “temple ladies” who come to help with catering. “Even when I officially became a bomori upon my father-in-law’s abdication, people still look to my mother-in-law, because being a foreign woman makes you incapable in many people’s eyes. My mother-in-law has handed the responsibilities over to me and deliberately fades into the background, but the temple ladies still want the OK from her and, ultimately, don’t believe me,” Yoshimura says. “My priest work, on the other hand, is much more satisfying. I do house visits, funerals, chanting — everyone is appreciative,” she says. “I’ll go to someone’s house for a memorial, chant for 45 minutes in front of about 50 people, do a sermon, go to the tombstone to chant, then back to the house for a first-class kaiseki meal.” With Japan’s rapidly aging population and the exodus of young people away from rural areas, temple families face challenges ahead. “There are about 75,000 temples in Japan, so there are too many temples combined with a decreasing population. If there are 300 members per temple, then the temple can survive, but with less than that it becomes difficult,” Keno Miura says. The Miuras say there is no pressure on their own children to take up the mantle of running the temple. Yoshimura’s oldest son, however, is already looking seriously at his future. Although still in college, he has completed training for priesthood. An international studies major, Yoshimura says her son is also studying for a teacher’s license, as supporting a future family on just temple income isn’t feasible. Ayuko Kori echoes this sentiment. “It will be hard for the next generation of temple families to survive on donations alone, so I think we need to examine the role of the temple in the community and what we can offer,” Kori says. While change is inevitable, Chochomin Sato notes that part of a temple’s role is to be a constant presence in the lives of those they serve. “I hope our temple can be a place where people can find peace of mind,” Sato says. Gretchen Miura sees potential opportunities for temples to expand their activities and connect with the community in new ways. “In the past, most people would visit temple just for a memorial service, but now they visit to enrich their lives though zazen, or to learn about sutras or to have a spiritual experience,” she says. “I have many ideas for the temple, such as running weekend English zazen or yoga retreats. There is so much interest from abroad and it would provide a unique and fulfilling experience both for the guests as well as for ourselves.” Yoshimura notes that her presence at the temple has brought unexpected benefits. “Our temple is vibrant and popular. We do unusual things and it can be blamed on the foreign wife!” she quips. “My husband is constantly being challenged by me, so he knows how to think outside of the box.” For more information on the Shonenji and Dairyuji temples in English, visit shonenji.org and www.facebook.com/dairyuji.oga.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/03/issues/foreign-wives-provide-insight-temple-lives/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/96745524ea0ceabf4980a0ef3f0bf365e5ce78ac85ffa013af7dabbda6c26343.json

Ten-year-old Nexco, a gentle, healthy Akita mix with an endearing smile promises no hassle, no drama, no silliness.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Four-lives%2Fbelieve-magic-akita-mix-named-nexco%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p9-ark-a-20160829.jpg

en

Believe in magic: an Akita mix named Nexco

www.japantimes.co.jp

Youth is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially when it comes to pet ownership. And yet, with the focus on cute puppies and kooky kittens, most people lose sight of — or indeed never learn about — what animals in their golden years have to offer. Ten-year-old Nexco, a gentle, healthy Akita mix with an endearing smile, should fill them in. No hassle, no drama, no silliness — just a dog that’s begging to be your loyal companion, no kidding. Older dogs know what’s important in life: the little things, the people you share it with, and being yourself. As one ARK staff member who adopted a 10-year-old “pup” says, “Older dogs don’t sweat the small stuff.” Nexco is happy to go on walks or just chill. She makes no demands and she’s doggone adorable. Whoever said “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” didn’t bother to add that you don’t need to; they know all the old ones. Besides, who needs tricks when you yourself are pure magic. If you are interested in adopting Nexco, email ARK at Tokyoark@arkbark.net or call 050-1557-2763 Monday to Saturday (bilingual) for more information. Tokyo ARK is an NPO founded by Briton Elizabeth Oliver. It is dedicated to rescuing and re-homing abandoned animals. All animals are vaccinated, neutered and microchipped. Prospective owners are requested to undergo a screening process.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/28/our-lives/believe-magic-akita-mix-named-nexco/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/ee0bee89cce52fb318c6ef5dbd157804c8f8e09b90815d011a0523eb0a946f1e.json

Prime Minister Abe should realize that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in no position to make concessions on the disputed Northern Territories.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fopinion%2F2016%2F08%2F23%2Fcommentary%2Fjapan-commentary%2Fabes-diplomacy-putin-will-come-short%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/p8-Sentaku-a-20160824-870x606.jpg

en

Why Abe's diplomacy with Putin will come up short

www.japantimes.co.jp

The prospect of a constitutional amendment has been making headlines after proponents of revising the supreme law gained a two-third majority in both chambers of the Diet following the July 10 Upper House election. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s top political priority for the remainder of the year is not amending the Constitution, but holding talks with Russia to conclude a peace treaty and resolving the territorial dispute over the Russian-occupied islands off Hokkaido. Abe has long maintained that the only way to resolve the territorial row with Moscow would be for him to talk directly with President Vladimir Putin. He has thus instructed officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry to secure as many opportunities as possible for one-on-one talks with Putin during his overseas tours this fall. It has already been decided that Abe and Putin will meet in the Russian port city of Vladivostok during the Eastern Economic Forum starting Sept. 2 and again on the sidelines of the Sept. 4-5 Group of 20 summit in Hangzhou, China. He looks forward to meeting with Putin again in late September during the United Nations General Assembly session in New York. The two governments are also in talks for Putin’s visit to Japan in December on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, which ended the state of war and restored diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Moscow. During his Upper House campaign in Sapporo last month, Abe said he was determined to push forward with the talks on concluding the peace treaty by inviting Putin to Japan “this year.” It has been a year since Abe started zeroing in on and preparing for his Russian diplomacy. He visited Russia three times in a row, defying a normal diplomatic protocol of the heads of governments visiting each other alternately. Why is it that Abe thinks now is the right time for promoting his diplomacy with Russia? A principal reason is that the United States will remain preoccupied with its presidential race for the rest of the year. In February, when Abe was preparing for a visit to Sochi in May to meet the Russian leader, U.S. President Barack Obama asked him in a telephone talk to reconsider the timing of his visit. Obama apparently thought Abe’s pursuit of dialogue with Putin could undermine the united stand taken by Japan and Western powers, accompanied by economic sanctions, against Russia in protest of its 2014 annexation of Crimea. Abe managed to obtain Obama’s consent for his Sochi visit when they met on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit in March — but only after going through a cumbersome experience of being told what to do and not to do by Washington. A ranking official close to Abe confides that such U.S. pressure would ease during the American presidential race — and that Abe is determined to get things done before the new U.S. president takes office on Jan. 20 next year. It must not be forgotten, however, that all those scenarios are based solely on one-sided speculation on the part of Abe, because Russia has not shown signs of offering any compromise on the territorial dispute. Seen from Putin’s perspective, it seems obvious that the Russian leader cannot afford to spend time and energy on making concessions to Japan — just as his country is beset with international destabilizing issues like the chaos in Syria and the terrorist attacks in Nice and Munich. The expulsion of some Russian athletes from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on doping charges has only exacerbated the problems he faces. On Sept. 18, Russia will go to the polls for the election of the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, which is held every five years. Knowing that the result of the election will have an important bearing on his bid for reelection in 2018, Putin tried to stir up patriotic sentiments among his citizens in a May speech. Under these circumstances, there appears to be no chance whatsoever of him making concessions to Japan on the territorial row. The only potentially strong card Japan has vis-a-vis Russia is economic cooperation. Putin showed keen interest when Abe proposed at their Sochi meeting an eight-point cooperation program including industrial development in the Russian Far East and the provision of recycling technologies. An official with the Prime Minister’s Office explains that Japan will seek to conclude the peace treaty talks on the potential strength of economic cooperation. The trouble is, however, that these two issues are not being handled by the same government body. The Prime Minister’s Office is responsible for economic cooperation while the matters related to the peace treaty are in the hands of the Foreign Ministry. This is said to have stemmed from concerns entertained by the Prime Minister’s Office that should everything be put in the hands of the Foreign Ministry, only economic cooperation will make headway. But the result did not appear to change. Most of the high-ranking Russian officials who visited Japan following the Sochi meeting are in charge of economic affairs, like Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev and Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukaev. The talks on the peace treaty, in contrast, have made little progress. Even after a six-hour marathon session in Tokyo on June 22 between Chikahito Harada, ambassador in charge of Russo-Japanese relations, and Vice Foreign Minister Igori Morgulov, both sides went no further than restating their own basic positions. It should indeed be in Russia’s interest to push economic cooperation with Japan while leaving the territorial issue up in the air. A Russian government insider has stated, “Honestly speaking, our only interest regarding Japan lies in economic matters.” For the past 3 1/2 years following his return to power, Abe has traveled literally around the world. But there is a limit to what he can accomplish diplomatically on such missions. He has succeeded in shifting the government’s diplomatic initiatives from the Foreign Ministry to his office. While this has strengthened his influence on foreign policy, it has also raised risks. As has been the case with his signature economic policies, Abe appears to be telling the nation that there is no alternative to his present diplomacy. But everybody knows who would have to bear the cost should his policies fail. For two days starting in the early hours of June 8, Chinese and Russian naval vessels simultaneously entered into the contiguous zones surrounding Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. The Foreign Ministry summoned Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua at 2 a.m. to lodge a protest, but Tokyo only issued a notice to Russia — even though from the point of view of international law, the ships of both countries were engaged in identical acts. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga hinted that the tougher action against China was in retaliation for mounting tensions. Yet, it appears utterly unlikely that Japan is fully cognizant of Russia’s military intensions. Russia is pushing ahead with plans to turn the disputed islands off Hokkaido into bases for its military operations. It also completed renovation of a former Japanese Army airfield on Matua Island located near the center of the Kurils chain in June and will start building a naval base before the end of the year. Abe is striving to enhance his ties with Putin, but apparently is disregarding Putin’s bid to take advantage of Japan’s weaknesses. It will be sooner rather than later that the outcome of Abe’s diplomatic gamble comes to light. This is an abridged translation of an article from the August issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering political, social and economic scenes. English-language versions of the magazine’s articles can be read at www.sentaku-en.com

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2016/08/23/commentary/japan-commentary/abes-diplomacy-putin-will-come-short/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/28a8962f3f82305b4d18a96d9a79e58d227f9cfceed65c5e8c405a7eadfecdec.json

Japan coach Vahid Halilhodzic recalled Mainz striker Yoshinori Muto on Thursday as he named a 24-man squad for the upcoming Asian final-round World Cup qua

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F25%2Fsoccer%2Fstriker-muto-named-japan-squad-upcoming-world-cup-qualifiers%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-jsoccer-a-20160826-870x980.jpg

en

Striker Muto named to Japan squad for upcoming World Cup qualifiers

www.japantimes.co.jp

Japan coach Vahid Halilhodzic recalled Mainz striker Yoshinori Muto on Thursday as he named a 24-man squad for the upcoming Asian final-round World Cup qualifiers against United Arab Emirates and Thailand. Muto returns after a lengthy spell sidelined with an injury, joining a strong squad that features AC Milan attacker Keisuke Honda, Borussia Dortmund’s Shinji Kagawa and Leicester City striker Shinji Okazaki. The squad also includes Arsenal striker Takuma Asano and Kawasaki Frontale midfielder Ryota Oshima, who both played for Japan’s Under-23s at the just-concluded Rio Olympics. Japan kick off the final round in Group B at home against UAE in Saitama on Sept. 1 looking to exact revenge for its quarterfinal penalty shootout defeat at last year’s Asia Cup. The Samurai Blue move to Bangkok to play Thailand on Sept. 6. Muto is back after injuring his knee in February and aggravating it upon his return late in March. Halilhodzic said he would take a look at Muto before deciding whether he is ready to play, but said he has been given assurances by Mainz’s medical staff. “Muto is coming back from injury but he is training well. He didn’t play in the last game but could play in the start of the (Bundesliga) season (this weekend). I have been told by their medical staff I can have peace of mind in calling him up,” said Halilhodzic. Halilhozic also said he wanted a good look at Asano, who recently joined Arsenal but will be loaned out to a club outside Britain this season after failing to get a work permit. Asano was part of the Japan U-23 team that was knocked out in the group phase in Rio. “Asano is in a difficult situation. I don’t know who told him to come back to Japan after the Olympics, but someone told him to rest,” said Halilhodzic. “I spoke to (Arsenal manager) Arsene Wenger on the phone but the plan was that he was to be away for the whole Olympics so he is training in Japan and we don’t know where he is moving. I’m not sure whether he will play in the first match (against) UAE, but I trust him.” Urawa Reds defender Tomoaki Makino has been called up despite injury concerns, but Kashima Antlers striker Mu Kanazaki has been axed for throwing a tantrum when he was substituted in a league game against Shonan Bellmare on Saturday. “He (Kanazaki) was on my list but you cannot have an attitude like that as a candidate for the national team,” said Halilhodzic. Makoto Hasebe is set to make his 100th appearance against UAE and Halilhodzic paid tribute to his captain. “Hasebe is my captain and I hope we can win as it would be a nice present for him,” the coach said. “If he scored it would be a fantastic occasion.” Japan came through the second round of qualifiers after being held to a shock 0-0 draw at home to Singapore. Its final round group also features Asian Cup winners Australia and Iraq, who like UAE reached the semifinals of last year’s tournament. Saudi Arabia is also in the group. “It is a hard road ahead and we cannot forget what happened against Singapore,” said Halilhodzic. “Three of the teams in our group reached the semifinals of the Asian Cup and we are determined to get revenge against UAE. We have to be brave and go and get wins.” The squad: Goalkeepers — Masaaki Higashiguchi (Gamba Osaka), Shusaku Nishikawa (Urawa Reds), Akihiro Hayashi (Sagan Tosu) Defenders — Yuto Nagatomo (Inter Milan), Tomoaki Makino (Urawa Reds), Masato Morishige (FC Tokyo), Kosuke Ota (Vitesse Arnhem), Maya Yoshida (Southampton), Hiroki Sakai (Marseille), Gotoku Sakai (Hamburg), Shoji Gen (Kashima Antlers) Midfielders — Makoto Hasebe (Eintracht Frankfurt), Yosuke Kashiwagi (Urawa Reds), Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund), Hiroshi Kiyotake (Sevilla), Hotaru Yamaguchi (Cerezo Osaka), Ryota Oshima (Kawasaki Frontale) Forwards — Shinji Okazaki (Leicester City), Keisuke Honda (AC Milan), Yu Kobayashi (Kawasaki Frontale), Genki Haraguchi (Hertha Berlin), Takashi Usami (Augsburg), Yoshinori Muto (Mainz), Takuma Asano (Arsenal)

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/25/soccer/striker-muto-named-japan-squad-upcoming-world-cup-qualifiers/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/79fbbdfcf31da60515a8714522ec57bfb924174a8735c95f72e2f6669512f641.json

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is expected to miss at least the next season while recovering from a dislocated left knee and torn anterior

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fmore-sports%2Ffootball%2Fvikings-qb-bridgewater-miss-year-least%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-nfl-a-20160901-870x560.jpg

en

Vikings QB Bridgewater to miss year at least

www.japantimes.co.jp

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is expected to miss at least the next season while recovering from a dislocated left knee and torn anterior cruciate ligament after a freak practice injury on Tuesday. Bridgewater was taken by ambulance to a hospital after crumpling to the turf during practice, and the team announced hours later that his knee also had “other structural damage” that will need to be repaired in a surgery that will be scheduled in the coming days. But the team did say he had no nerve or arterial damage and it expects a full recovery after a “significant” rehabilitation. “Teddy has already displayed the attitude needed to overcome this injury and attack his rehab,” said Eric Sugarman, the director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer for the Vikings. Bridgewater suffered a non-contact knee injury while dropping back to pass, and it was so jolting that coach Mike Zimmer immediately ended practice. Players were visibly distraught as they left the field, some hurling expletives into the air and others kneeling in prayer for one of the team’s most popular players. Moments later, a siren-blaring ambulance rushed to team headquarters to get the quarterback to the hospital. It was a somber scene for a shaken franchise, one that reported to training camp with designs on a Super Bowl run. “Sometimes the worst things happen to the best (people),” Vikings receiver Jarius Wright tweeted. “God has a plan.” About 2½ hours after the injury, Zimmer tried to straddle the line between expressing concern for a beloved teammate and keeping the rest of his team from losing focus and confidence. Zimmer addressed the team in full and was clearly upset for Bridgewater, a player he quickly bonded with after he was drafted in the first round in 2014. But he also tried to steer the team’s focus back to the field as the players prepare for their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night and the season opener at Tennessee on Sept. 11. “I’m not going to let this team feel sorry for itself,” Zimmer said before the full details of his injury were known. “We’re going to grieve today and be upset about it. It’s more about our feelings for Teddy and him as a person and getting better than it is about anything else. Teddy’s a great kid and he’ll be back as soon as he possibly can if it is real bad. But we’re going to keep fighting.” Zimmer said he spoke to Bridgewater’s mother several times to keep her updated, had some phone conversations with mentor Bill Parcells and even talked “in spirit” to his father Bill, an ex-coach who died last summer, about how to best handle the situation. “We’re not going to stick our heads in the sand, we’re not going to tuck our (tail between) our legs,” Zimmer said. “We’re not looking for excuses. We’re going to go out and fight like we always do.” There is little behind Bridgewater on the depth chart. Shaun Hill is the primary backup, but he’s 36 years old and has played only sparingly over the last five years. Taylor Heinicke, last year’s No. 3 quarterback, has been out all preseason with an injury, and undrafted rookie Joel Stave has struggled mightily at times during practices. Hill started eight games for the Rams in 2014, throwing eight touchdown passes and seven interceptions. Other than that, he has thrown a total of 23 passes dating back to 2010. “I have confidence in Shaun,” Zimmer said. “I think he’s played great this preseason. He’s been in 2-minute drills. He’s done a phenomenal job.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/31/more-sports/football/vikings-qb-bridgewater-miss-year-least/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/73d5fc6f43185de3a01a92078b3121e67a40888b9e625b95267e0f1286a639ba.json

An ex-wife of Donald Trump's new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, said Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters to p

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F27%2Fworld%2Fpolitics-diplomacy-world%2Fex-wife-says-trump-campaign-ceo-bannon-made-anti-semitic-remarks%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/f-bannon-a-20160828-870x580.jpg

en

Ex-wife says Trump campaign CEO Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks

www.japantimes.co.jp

An ex-wife of Donald Trump’s new campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, said Bannon made anti-Semitic remarks when the two battled over sending their daughters to private school nearly a decade ago, according to court papers reviewed Friday by The Associated Press. That revelation came a day after reports emerged that domestic violence charges were filed 20 years ago against Bannon following an altercation with his then-wife, Mary Louise Piccard. In a sworn court declaration following their divorce, Piccard said her ex-husband had objected to sending their twin daughters to an elite Los Angeles academy because he “didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.” “He said he doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats,’ ” Piccard said in a 2007 court filing. Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, took the helm of Trump’s campaign last week in yet another leadership shake-up. The campaign has been plagued by negative stories about staffers, including charges lodged against his former campaign manager following an altercation with a reporter, and questions about his former campaign chairman’s links with Russian interests. Alexandra Preate, a spokeswoman for Bannon, denied Friday night that he made anti-Semitic remarks about the private school. “He never said that,” Preate said, adding that Bannon was proud to send his daughters to the school. Trump has previously been criticized for invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes, including tweeting out an anti-Hillary Clinton image that included a Star of David atop a pile of money. He also raised eyebrows when he spoke in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition and declared, “I’m a negotiator like you folks were negotiators.” Clinton has tried in recent days to highlight Trump’s popularity with white nationalist and supremacist groups. She delivered a speech Thursday that linked him with the “alt-right” movement, which is often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white identity,” oppose multiculturalism and defend “Western values.” Trump has pushed back, defending himself and his supporters, and labeling Clinton “a bigot” for supporting policies he argues have ravaged minority communities. Trump has noted that his daughter, Ivanka, would soon be giving birth to another Jewish child. Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, a young real estate developer who has become a driving force in his father-in-law’s campaign. The court filing was among several documents related to Bannon and Picard’s voluminous divorce case, filed in 1997, which was revisited several times as Piccard sought support for tuition and other expenses. The documents reviewed by the AP were part of a request for Bannon to pay $25,000 in legal fees and to cover the $64,000 in tuition it cost to send both girls to The Archer School for Girls for the 2007-08 school year. Bannon’s remarks about Jews followed other comments that caught Piccard’s attention when they were visiting private schools in 2000. At one school, she said, he asked the director why there were so many Hanukkah books in the library. At another school, he asked Piccard if it bothered her that the school used to be in a temple. “I said, ‘No,’ and asked why he asked,” Piccard said. “He did not respond.” Piccard said Bannon wanted the girls to attend a Catholic school. In 2007, when the girls were accepted at Archer, he told Piccard he objected because of the number of Jews in attendance. Piccard filed for divorce in January 1997, just over a year after she told police Bannon roughed her up on New Year’s Day 1996 following a spat over money, in which she spit on him. A police report obtained by The Associated Press said he grabbed her wrist and “grabbed at” her neck. When she tried to call 911, she told police that Bannon grabbed the phone and threw it across the room. An officer who responded reported seeing red marks on her wrist and neck. Bannon was charged in 1996 with misdemeanor witness intimidation, domestic violence with traumatic injury and battery, according to a Santa Monica, California, police report. The charges were dropped after his estranged wife didn’t show up at trial, according to court records. Piccard said in her declaration that she skipped the trial after Bannon and his lawyer arranged for her to leave town. She said Bannon had told her the lawyer would make her look like the guilty party if she testified and the attorney told her she’d be broke if Bannon went to jail. The Trump campaign declined to comment on the abuse charges. But Preate said police never interviewed Bannon. She added that Bannon has a great relationship with his ex-wife and kids.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/27/world/politics-diplomacy-world/ex-wife-says-trump-campaign-ceo-bannon-made-anti-semitic-remarks/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/8a72e94dc44a6d10fe81c4ab6b92e0d345376ad3b6e4f44f939144310debe577.json

A "Concerned Mum" writes in regarding the risks of heat stroke at Japanese schools.

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F08%2F14%2Fhow-tos%2Fschools-japan-need-educating-dangers-heat-stroke%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/themes/jt_theme/library/img/logo-japan-times_square.png

en

Some schools in Japan need educating about the dangers of heat stroke

www.japantimes.co.jp

With temperatures peaking across the Japanese archipelago, this week’s topic is very timely. A reader signing herself “Concerned Mum” wrote to Lifelines regarding the risks of heat stroke at Japanese schools. Her elementary school-aged daughter has twice been sent home sick after being made to stand or sit outside for extended periods in the sun: Last year when she was in Grade 1 (in Tohoku), she sat out of a swimming lesson as she was recovering from a cold. She was forced to sit on hot concrete in an unshaded area on a 32-degree day, without a hat or drink. She consequently suffered from severe heat stroke. Recently, at a different public school in Tokyo, she was sent to the nurse’s room with a stomachache and headache after being made to stand outside in the sun on a very hot day during the school’s morning meeting. I realize that the idea of gaman (withstanding discomfort) is a large part of the Japanese culture, but I do not believe that this concept should apply to defenseless children whose health and safety are in being placed in danger. The reader adds that she and her husband contacted the current school and then the local board of education to express their frustration, and asked why there seemed to be no standard policy on sun safety in schools. Although they were assured there would a meeting at the BOE with local health officials and the department responsible for school operating policies, they have yet to hear back about this. Heat stroke (also known as sun stroke, or netchūshō in Japanese) can be quite a common problem in Japan’s humid summer. With the current “Pokemon Go” craze coinciding with hotter temperatures, the government even issued a warning to players to be careful of heat stroke. Young children, the elderly and those who spend a long time outside working or playing sports are particularly susceptible. Sun stroke occurs when the body is exposed to extreme heat or humidity and cannot dissipate the heat through the skin or by sweating. The body temperature rises as a result. Another cause is severe dehydration. According to data from the Japan Meteorological Agency, average air temperatures nationwide have risen by the equivalent of 1.15 degrees Celsius over the past century. (The global average was 0.74 degrees.) Things are only going to get hotter from here on, it seems. Dr. Joe Kurosu, a Tokyo-based bilingual general practitioner who trained in the U.S., had this to say about the problem. “My impression is that heat-related illness has become somewhat over-hyped in Japan these past few years. During the summer we see many patients, often with very minor symptoms, worried about heat stroke, most of whom do not have it or anything close to it. I think this is in part due to this hyper-awareness. “I do believe there is still some degree of the ‘You need to suck it up’ attitude, but I do not feel this is any different than that seen with, for example, football practice in grueling heat in the U.S.,” says Kurosu. I called the reader’s local board of education in Tokyo, but as the Concerned Mum didn’t want her daughter’s school’s name mentioned, the person I spoke to couldn’t comment on the specifics of the case, and it was unclear if he had heard about the parents’ complaint. In any case, privacy issues would probably have prevented him from divulging specific information. “I’m sorry to hear of this family’s problems. We do regard the issue of heat stroke among children as a serious issue, and every year we give out promotional materials to schools, highlighting the risks,” he said. “However, it is basically up to each school to handle things.” According to education ministry data, between 4,000 and 5,000 schoolchildren suffer from heat stroke each year, with the majority being junior or senior high school students. This is possibly due to the propensity for many in this age group to engage in rigorous daily training outdoors for bukatsu school clubs. (This data covers all children, from babies to 18-year-olds, that suffered heat stroke at schools, kindergarten or day care centers, and for whom medical care costs were claimed under the school medical insurance system.) For more specifics on the efforts being made to educate schools, I called the agency that produces and disseminates information about heat stroke. This is the Japan Sport Council (Nihon Supotsu Shinko Senta), and a representative from their School Safety Division was happy to explain in more detail. “We produce pamphlets and posters, educating about the issues with heat stroke, and these are sent out to boards of education nationwide before the weather heats up — typically by early June. The BOEs would then pass these on to the schools under their jurisdiction,” he said. “If the outside temperature is expected to rise above 31 degrees, we issue advisories that students refrain from going outside as much as possible. In terms of preventing heat stroke, we advise schools to ensure that students have access to adequate fluids, rest in shaded areas and protective clothing.” (In other words, the things that the reader’s daughter was denied on the occasions she had heat stroke.) The Japan Sport Council representative admitted that it was difficult to monitor how well each area of Japan was doing in terms of disseminating the information, but he noted that the Japan Sports Center is willing to conduct seminars and training sessions for teachers. Again, these events are arranged through each BOE. At the end of the day, it would seem that the best bet for our reader is to pursue the issue through her board of education, and suggest that they enlist help from the Japan Sports Center to ensure the local teachers are better informed. Kiwi Louise George Kittaka has been based in Japan since she was 20. In the ensuing years she has survived PTA duty for three kids in the Japanese education system and singing live on national TV for NHK’s “Nodo Jiman” show, among other things. Send your comments and questions to lifelines@japantimes.co.jp.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2016/08/14/how-tos/schools-japan-need-educating-dangers-heat-stroke/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/1f4c940eed41a9989fa45b3d2d45c79fa18b646510ec7fdebab0ccf4a938c7da.json

Package partly a bid for support in Japan's campaign for Security Council seat

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fnational%2Fpolitics-diplomacy%2Fabe-dangles-30-billion-africa-leaders-nairobi-counter-china%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-ticad-c-20160829-870x615.jpg

en

Abe dangles $30 Billion at Africa leaders in Nairobi in counter to China

www.japantimes.co.jp

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge Saturday to invest $30 billion to boost African growth and infrastructure over the next three years comes as he seeks to win over national leaders already being wooed by China and the U.S. Japan’s planned investment in the continent of 1.2 billion people shows it has “faith in Africa’s future,” Abe told the heads of states gathered in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development. Thirty-four heads from across the 54-nation continent, including those from South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Uganda attended the high-level gathering, which was held outside Japan for the first time. TICAD ran through Sunday. The amount pledged includes private sector investment and $11 billion left over from a $32-billion commitment made at the previous meeting in 2013. In pledging more support, Japan is competing for influence in the continent with the U.S., China and former European colonial powers such as Britain and France. China, whose investments in sub-Saharan nations have increased 40-fold since 2003, pledged $60 billion for the continent at a similar summit by President Xi Jinping in South Africa last year. The money was to be spent on interest-free loans, preferential financing and funding to support development. The U.S., on the other hand, said it would give $14 billion at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014. About $10 billion of Japan’s planned investment is earmarked for electricity-generation projects and upgrading urban transport systems and ports, Abe said. The nation will work with the African Development Bank to boost private sector investment on the continent struggling with intermittent power outages, dilapidated infrastructure, poor sanitation and grinding poverty. Japan, which invested $47 billion on the continent over the past 23 years, wants to connect Africa and Asia through sea lanes, Abe said. “Let us make this stretch that is from Asia to Africa a main artery for growth and prosperity. Let us advance together, Africa and Japan, sharing a common vision,” Abe said. Africa’s exports to Japan in 2015 were valued at $8.57 billion, according to the Japan External Trade Organization, compared with imports worth $11.6 billion. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta asked rich nations to be more open to trade with developing countries. “The critical ingredients of prosperity in the last half century have been free and fair trade, infrastructure integration of regions, educated and productive citizens who enjoy economic liberty and responsible government,” Kenyatta said. “Yet there is now a trend among many countries to turn toward more isolationist or grossly unfair positions on trade.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/28/national/politics-diplomacy/abe-dangles-30-billion-africa-leaders-nairobi-counter-china/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/eb7d13494c1b9bb774af00a67b75d58801321ecfc84e9d2c5ed83958722db051.json

What is a team to do when its best pitcher is also its best run producer? The answer is to have him swing the bat as often as possible — even if the

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fsports%2F2016%2F08%2F31%2Fbaseball%2Fjapanese-baseball%2Ffighters-face-ruthian-dilemma-with-young-star-otani%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/sp-otani-a-20160901-870x595.jpg

en

Fighters face Ruthian dilemma with young star Otani

www.japantimes.co.jp

What is a team to do when its best pitcher is also its best run producer? The answer is to have him swing the bat as often as possible — even if the pitcher is 22-year-old Shohei Otani and has a record-setting 163-kph fastball. That, in a nutshell, is why Japan’s fastest pitcher is not pitching even when he’s fit and ready to go. Although baseball people never tire of saying, “You can’t have enough pitching,” the Nippon Ham Fighters are proof positive that you can. When a player hits a home run every 12.6 at-bats, as Otani is currently doing, while hitting for a high average and drawing walks, you let him focus on hitting, not because it looks good, but because it helps you win more games. Until July 10, the Fighters had the best of both worlds. In a season in which he set Nippon Professional Baseball speed record, Otani would bat as the club’s designated hitter during the week, take Fridays and Saturdays off before taking the mound — and batting — on Sunday. But that day in July the right-hander developed a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and has pitched just one inning since. Voted into Japan’s annual All-Star series as a pitcher, Otani attended the games as a DH. He won the home run derby before Game 1 and was the Game 2 MVP. Although his blister is history, the left-handed swinging Otani has continued to blister baseballs with his bat. With pitchers Hirotoshi Takanashi and rookie lefty Takayuki Kato providing quality innings in Nippon Ham’s rotation, and Otani providing the lineup with his firepower six days a week instead of four, the Fighters overcame an 11½-game deficit to tighten the PL pennant race. With his team winning, there has been no rush for manager Hideki Kuriyama to ease Otani back to the mound — a process that will involve more days off with less payoff. “It will be soon,” Kuriyama said Tuesday when asked about Otani’s next mound appearance. “We’re going to do it in a way that is best for the team.” The situation is weighted with irony. As a high school fireballer, Otani told Japanese teams not to draft him as he intended to sign with a club in the U.S. major leagues. “It’s not the only reason he signed with us, but a big reason was that we were willing to let him hit,” top executive Toshimasa Shimada told Kyodo News in May, after his team began dumping the DH on days when Otani pitched. Yet, many players and former players have taken exception with Otani for not focusing on his pitching. The criticism didn’t stop in 2014, when Otani went 11-4 on the mound at the age of 19. That year, he became the first top-flight professional ballplayer with 10 homers and 10 pitching wins since Babe Ruth. Isao Harimoto, whose 3,085 career hits are the most in NPB history, was a harsh critic of Otani’s 2014 season, calling the youngster selfish for wasting his time on batting. On Tuesday, the Hall of Famer said he’s had a change of heart. “He’s hitting better,” Harimoto said. “I still want to see him settle on pitching, but when I actually watch him hit, I am not so sure of that.” A new weight-training regime in the offseason, some technical adjustments to his stance and swing, and a more refined approach have allowed Otani to unleash his batting beast. “He used to lunge at the ball with the barrel,” said former major leaguer Masao Kida, who now advises the Fighters front office. “He’d do that, roll over pitches and hit grounders. “Hideki Matsui did that when he first came up, but he learned to keep his hands inside the ball and then unleash the bat head. That’s when he began hitting 30 home runs a year. And that’s what Otani’s doing now.” Kida added that Otani has opened the team’s eyes about his upside as a hitter. “This past year, the former owner Mr. (Hiroji) Okoso, said, ‘A lot of young guys can pitch, but as a hitter Otani has the chance to be a presence in the game like Matsui or Ichiro (Suzuki),’ ” Kida said. “I think Mr. Okoso is onto something.” “There are guys who have great numbers like Yamada (the Tokyo Yakult Swallows’ Tetsuto Yamada) or Tsutsugo (the Yokohama BayStars’ Yoshitomo Tsutsugo). But which is better? Good numbers or a historic presence?” The Fighters dilemma is not a new one. Ninety-eight years ago, the Boston Red Sox went into the season with a 23-year-old left-handed pitcher, who two years earlier had led the American League in earned run average and in complete games the season before. But the kid could also hit and loved to hit. That 1918 season, George Herman “Babe” Ruth split his time between the mound and the outfield. Playing in the deadball era at Fenway Park — then a pitcher’s paradise —Ruth led the AL in home runs with 11, all on the road, and went 13-7 on the mound. But after that season, and his first taste of regular hitting, Babe Ruth would win just 14 more games as a pitcher, because the Red Sox and the New York Yankees chose great hitting over great pitching. So don’t be surprised if the Fighters do the same for as long as they can.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2016/08/31/baseball/japanese-baseball/fighters-face-ruthian-dilemma-with-young-star-otani/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/68d672857ffb0d62f546895f7810a6dc19b217adf0dd26e393b1ed31554259cd.json

A passenger jet being developed by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. aborted its second attempt to head to the United States on Sunday when an air conditioning pro

http%3A%2F%2Fwww.japantimes.co.jp%2Fnews%2F2016%2F08%2F28%2Fbusiness%2Fcorporate-business%2Fmitsubishi-regional-jet-aborts-flight-u-s-second-time%2F.json

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/n-mrj-a-20160829-870x535.jpg

en

Mitsubishi Regional Jet aborts flight to U.S. for second time

www.japantimes.co.jp

A passenger jet being developed by Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. aborted its second attempt to head to the United States on Sunday when an air conditioning problem that thwarted its first bid reoccurred. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, which has been mired in a series of development delays, left Nagoya at around 1 p.m. for Hokkaido, its first planned stop. But it was forced to turn around two hours later, according to Mitsubishi Aircraft, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. The company said it has not decided when the jet will make the next attempt to fly to the U.S. as it needs to identify the cause of the problem. Mitsubishi Heavy aimed to take the MRJ to the U.S. for certification testing by the end of this month. The aircraft, designed for short- to medium-haul flights, first set off from Nagoya on Saturday headed for the Grant County International Airport in Washington State, where the tests will take place. It was scheduled to make refueling stops in Russia and Alaska. The development of the MRJ, Japan’s first domestically produced passenger jet, has suffered a series of delays due to changes in the design, manufacturing process and parts.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/28/business/corporate-business/mitsubishi-regional-jet-aborts-flight-u-s-second-time/

en

www.japantimes.co.jp/02f3ea8d3018452d9ded71012cbfa220f3af5fef140dbb3a881b1901ccbc12e4.json