No-confidence vote falters, paving way for conspiracy bill to be rammed through Lower House

Abstract: The ruling bloc and the opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai jointly voted down a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda in the Lower House on Thursday, clearing the way for the controversial crime bill widely known as the conspiracy bill to go to the Upper House next week. Though deliberations in the Lower House had been stalled by the opposition camp’s no-confidence motion, the ruling coalition is now ready to ram the bill through the Lower House committee as early as Friday and through the entire chamber on Tuesday. The bill would then be immediately sent to the Upper House. The ruling coalition now aims to enact the bill by June 18, when the ordinary Diet session will close. If the back-and-forth with the opposition continues and deliberations in the Upper House are prolonged, however, the ruling coalition might extend the Diet session. “If we cannot start deliberation in the Upper House by May 24, the schedule would be very tight” and the ruling bloc would have no choice but to extend the session, Komeito executive Yoshio Urushibara was quoted as saying by Kyodo News on Thursday. The bill has drawn strong criticism because it is designed to incarcerate people who only plan, rather than commit, certain crimes. Opposition lawmakers have argued that such a powerful, wide-ranging law could be abused by investigative authorities to indiscriminately crack down on ordinary citizens, including political protesters and members of interest groups. Kaneda is the minister in charge of the bill and has long been criticized for being unable to explain its details in Diet sessions. “Justice Minister Kaneda is not qualified for the position. A vast majority of the nation shares the same feeling,” said Kazunori Yamai, the Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition force, on Thursday. The no-confidence motion was jointly submitted by the Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito reportedly plan to pass the bill through the Justice Committee of the Lower House on Friday and send it to the Upper House on Tuesday. Also Thursday, Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi told party executives that the legislation is necessary to crack down terrorists and prepare for major international events like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Yamaguchi added that other developed countries have similar laws. “I think a considerable, sufficient amount of deliberations have already been held,” Yamaguchi said. “I’d like (lawmakers) to send the bill from the Lower House to the Upper House.”

conspiracy bill
lower house
diet
komeito
ldp
jcp
dp


Waking up to the mechanics of sleep

Abstract: Feeling tired? Wish you had more time in your life? Got too much to do? I answer all three questions in the affirmative, and I am far from alone — in fact, almost everyone I know feels the same. The problem may be a lack of sleep, and, counterintuitively, it may also be a lack of play. But let’s start with the former. We would like more sleep, but we typically feel as if we just don’t have the time. The problem is particularly acute in Japan. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare tracks the number of people who report sleeping less than six hours in a 24-hour cycle, and the figure has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2007, around 28 percent of people were getting less than six hours per cycle; by 2015, the figure had climbed to 40 percent. Given that physicians recommend people get between seven and eight hours sleep per night, this is clearly a problem. It’s tempting to see Japan’s problems with sleep — or perhaps it’s better to say Japan’s motivation to work — in the light of the anxiety sowed by Buddha. He was not enamored of sleep and warned his followers not to spend too long in bed, proclaiming: “When one is lazy, gluttonous, snoozing and lolling on the bed like a great fat pig, he will be reborn again and again.” According to a report by research group RAND Corp., the economic cost of sleep deprivation is $50 billion in the United Kingdom, amounting to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product. The corresponding figure in Japan is $138 billion, or some 2.9 percent of GDP. That’s an extraordinary figure — in short, trying to squeeze too much out of each day is sapping our economic as well as our physical strength. Researchers worldwide are devoting plenty of resources into the study of sleep. We basically know that we need sleep to feel rested. We also know that REM sleep in particular, the phase of sleep where brain waves are short and during which we have the most dreams, is where we consolidate information picked up during the day into long-term memories. However, we don’t know much about the details. The fundamental reasons for sleep and the mechanisms that regulate different phases of the activity are, for the most part, unknown. This is where Hiroki Ueda and his research group at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine and the Riken Quantitative Biology Center, come in. Professor Ueda uses mice in his research, but is primarily interested in human sleep and, more broadly speaking, human consciousness. “Consciousness is hard to study because it is hard to measure,” Ueda says. “In most cases, however, it is tightly coupled with the waking state.” In other words, we don’t know exactly what consciousness is, but we know that we can only perceive it when we are awake. By understanding sleep, therefore, we can understand the bigger question. “Fortunately,” Ueda says, “the awake state and the sleeping state can also be objectively measured. I believe that sleep research will pave the way to a study of consciousness in the future.” All animals sleep — even the simplest animals such as nematode worms and fruit flies have periods of sleep-like rest. As far as humans are concerned, sleep duration changes over time. When we are newborn babies, we sleep for 20 hours a day. In old age, however, we may only need five hours. Sleep is a period of recovery; it gives the body an opportunity to remove waste products and recharge the immune system. It is also a period of consolidation, allowing the brain a chance to process what we’ve done that day and put it into memory stores. To try and get a handle on the manner in which humans sleep and for how long, Ueda’s team built a theoretical model and used it to identify seven genes responsible for causing mice to stay awake or fall asleep. His team used a new form of gene editing called CRISPR to make genetically modified mice. He found that a mechanism regulated by calcium is responsible for controlling the length of sleep. In effect, he found that mice needed an influx of calcium in the neurons — the specialized cells of the brain — in order to fall asleep. Correspondingly, mice would also wake up if calcium was removed from neurons. Some of the genetically modified mice slept less than regular mice. Some humans are able to sleep for shorter periods of time without apparent cost, but that’s not the case for mice. The genes that are linked in the mice to shorter sleep are also linked in people to schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, depression and autism if they are impaired, Ueda says. “This research has provided us with a wide range of potential targets for future research and therapies,” Ueda says. “We have discovered the regulator of sleep duration. Many mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases are also associated with sleep disorders, so understanding how sleep is regulated may lead to a deeper understanding of those diseases and future treatments.” The Rand Corp. report on sleep says that increasing the amount of sleep from under six hours to between six and seven hours per day could boost Japan’s economy by $75.7 billion. This therefore seems to suggest that we would be more productive in the office if we work less hours. Now we just need to convince our bosses that this is the case.

sleep productivity memory consciousness wellbeing tiredness


Magazine snares rival 'scoop thief' red-handed

Abstract: In its May 25 issue, Shukan Shincho set pens a-pushing and tongues a-wagging throughout the nation by accusing rival weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun of engaging in sneaky schemes to steal its thunder. In 10 full pages of text and three pages of photos — roughly one-tenth of an entire issue — Shukan Shincho meticulously paraded out detailed and specific evidence of its rival’s alleged transgressions. What did Shukan Bunshun do to incur the wrath of its rival? First some background: Each week, on the morning that weekly magazines go on sale, commuter trains and other transport in Japan’s major metropolitan areas carry ads — referred to as shanai kōkoku (train ads) or tsuri kōkoku (hanging ads) — that spell out the magazine’s latest headlines. In order to be posted the night before the magazines go on sale at newsstands, the ads need to be designed, printed and delivered to the railways several days in advance. So by determining where they are printed, and arranging to sneak a peek at the contents, a rival can not only know what’s going to appear in upcoming issues, but if time permits, it can even scramble to generate a similar story and blunt its rival’s claim to a scoop. If tabloid publishing were analogous to the game of baseball, this would be the equivalent of stealing the opposing team’s signals. Shukan Shincho’s “J’accuse” headline referred to Shukan Bunshun’s acts of corporate espionage as “ yogoreta jūdan ” (tarnished bullets). That title is a particularly unkind cut, as it recalls what is arguably Shukan Bunshun’s most famous investigative scoop, a series of articles appearing in 1984 titled “Giwaku no Judan” (“Bullets of Suspicion”). The articles accused Tokyo businessman Kazuyoshi Miura of arranging for the shooting murder of his wife Kazumi during a visit to Los Angeles in November 1981 in order to collect a large amount of life insurance. There may also, however, be a certain degree of professional jealousy involved. As was reported in this column on March 5, 2016 — “Bunshun editor Manabu Shintani returns in a blaze of scoops” ( bit.ly/blazescoops ) — when Manabu Shintani returned to his position after a three-month suspension, he launched a barrage of exposes against politicians, entertainers, athletes and other celebrities, which elevated Shintani to superstar status. In February 2016, while Shukan Shincho — which by virtue of having been launched in 1956 is three years its rival’s senior — was celebrating its kanrek i (60th anniversary) with a full month of special commemorative editions, Shukan Bunshun continued to engage in subterfuge. How did they pull it off? In general, the contents of a magazine sold Thursday mornings can be updated or even replaced if the material is laid out and proofread by 10 p.m. on Tuesday. Apparently Shukan Shincho’s schedule permitted Shukan Bunshun’s just enough time to do so. To identify the smoking gun that shows proof of Shukan Bunshun’s literary larceny, the Shukan Shincho article ran photos of a number of train ads placed by Shukan Bunshun in which the initially advertised story did not appear in the latter’s print edition; instead, it was replaced by an article on the same topic as a story in Shukan Shincho. And this happened far too many times to be coincidental. Shukan Shincho’s contents did not stop at accusatory innuendos, as is often the practice with the weeklies. It ran actual photos of the man identified as the culprit, shot at the printers. And also claims to have tailed him on the train back to Shukan Bunshun’s office in Kojimachi. Shukan Shincho’s issue of June 1 followed up on its initial report with an additional eight pages, including mostly negative commentary by nine prominent media figures. TV commentator Akira Ikegami remarked flat-out, “Shukan Bunshun is devious.” Ikegami also made critical remarks in his weekly column appearing in Shukan Bunshun, but the rest of the magazine was lying low on the controversy. Just one day after Shukan Shincho’s “Tarnished bullets” story went on sale, Yukan Fuji (May 20) went so far as to raise the possibility of the magazine filing criminal charges against Shukan Bunshun. The charge? “Having committed repeated cases of purloining stories that enabled the publication’s own scoops to be blunted.” Should charges be filed and police armed with a warrant raid Shukan Bunshun’s office, the possible penalties are nothing to sneeze at: According to the criminal code, an individual who leaks proprietary information may be imprisoned for up to 10 years and fined as much as ¥20 million. Corporations found guilty of similar malfeasance can be fined as much as ¥1 billion. Meanwhile, Shukan Post (June 2), says that the Shincho-Bunshun battle shouldn’t be seen as a case of taigan no kaji (“a fire on the opposite riverbank,” i.e., someone else’s concern). Apparently the practice of corporate espionage in the mass media may be more common than many realize. “Back when I was in charge, we used to sneak peeks at the ads for Shukan Post,” Masahiko Motoki, the former editor of the weekly magazine Shukan Gendai, admitted with a chuckle. As Shukan Post and Shukan Gendai both go on sale each Monday, a similar rivalry exists. Shukan Post also reported that the same day the accusatory issue of Shukan Shincho went on sale, the entire staff of Shukan Bunshun were reportedly summoned to a meeting at which an unapologetic editor Shintani delivered a pep talk urging his team to band together and stand fast. Sounding a bit cynical, the aforementioned Motoki observed that, “In this line of business, the publisher that grabs the dirty data winds up the winner. It’s not that we don’t understand why Shukan Shincho is upset, but there are lots of other stories they can pursue.” In any event, Shukan Post wishes to make one thing absolutely clear: at the very least it would never, ever attempt to steal advertisements from magazines like Gendai, Shukan Bunshun or Shukan Shincho. When it’s all said and done, the ad revenues apparently rate more than either reputation or readership.

shukan shincho
shukan bunshun
kazuyoshi miura
manabu shintani
shukan post
masahiko motoki
gendai
japanese magazines


Chinese buy condom business as sex-savvy youth spur demand

Abstract: SHANGHAI - April Zhang, a 21-year-old student from Shanghai, reflects the fast-shifting attitudes of China’s younger generations toward sex. She’s confident to talk about a topic once taboo here and is well educated about the risks. Zhang and her young contemporaries- though far from uniform in their views- are much more open in their attitudes to sex than their conservative parents and increasingly aware of the need for protection against sexually-transmitted diseases. This sex-savvy generation is set to spur sharp growth of the country’s condom market, a key driver behind a deal by Chinese investors to buy the world’s no. 2 condom business for $600 million from Australia’s Ansell Ltd. “Attitudes are certainly changing. We’re increasingly open,” said Zhang, adding her friends mostly chose brands like Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc’s Durex and Japan’s top-selling brand Okamoto due to their reputation for high quality as well as their visible marketing campaigns. “This is a very important product, if it goes wrong just once then the consequence is severe,” she said. In China’s big cities, condoms are now available in plain view: convenience stores on urban high streets often have condoms on display by the till, while brands like Durex have millions of followers on their China social media platforms. On supermarket shelves Ansell’s brands Jissbon- named to sounds like James Bond- and the higher-end SKYN brand sit alongside an array of local offerings with names like “Endless,” “Pleasure More,” “Double Butterfly” and “Donless.” Durex is by some distance the best-selling condom brand on Chinese online shopping platform Taobao, followed by Jissbon, Okamoto and local brands SixSex and MingLiu, according to data from Daxue Consulting. Ansell said on Thursday it had reached an all-cash deal with China’s Humanwell Healthcare Group Co. Ltd and CITIC Capital China Partners for its condoms business. Humanwell declined to comment on its strategy for the Chinese and other markets. CITIC couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. Condoms- and sex- are growing topics in popular culture, despite strict rules on nudity that mean China condom ads are tamer and more limited than in other Asian markets. Young people also chat about the subject online- though they often use code. Pornography is illegal, but China’s young find ways to watch it nonetheless, with an online vernacular growing around its availability. People who know about the best illegal sites are called “old drivers,” who help others to “find the car.” The government is helping too, spurred by efforts to raise awareness of illnesses such as HIV/AIDS through high-school sex education textbooks and campaigns with university students. Peng Liyuan, China’s popular First Lady, actively campaigns to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and how to respond to it. China’s conservative attitude, ushered in by the Communist Party when it took power in 1949, has slowly been changing — helped by growing affluence, more overseas travel and exposure to foreign popular culture. It’s far cry from where China was even two decades ago, when more permanent contraceptive techniques were used once a couple had their first child to avoid further pregnancy. Even now, sterilization and IUD coils are still far more prevalent methods than condoms. “Sexual awareness including contraception is slowly rising,” said Wang Xiaoshuang, founder of sex education firm Greenxxoo, pointing to premarital sex which is now broadly accepted. “Twenty years ago that sort of behavior was taboo.” Wang said that there was an increasing awareness of “safe sex” because of HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns, though added tough rules around advertising condoms meant most brands had to stick to online marketing. The more open attitude could see China’s condom market more than double in size by 2024 from $1.8 billion in 2015, according to a report from Transparency Market Research. China’s sexual revolution is still nascent, though. This week a Chinese “female virtues” teacher caused a social media storm by saying women should not wear short dresses and should save themselves for their husbands. “Everything thinks there’s a big trend toward buying adult products… But there is still a big swath of people here who don’t get it,” said a sales worker surnamed An at an adult products store in Shanghai. He said growth of the broader “adult” market was steady rather than stellar, but that young people were now starting to help change things. “The young want something fresh, they’re not just clinging to conservative views,” he said. Attitudes, including those about sex before marriage have changed drastically over recent decades, with most people now supportive. But sex education- key to driving contraceptive demand- still has some way to go, said student Zhang. “When I was younger my parents did talk to me about contraception and some basic things about sexually transmitted diseases. Everything else I had to go and find out for myself.”


Brewing Kake Gakuen scandal points to alleged Abe favoritism

Abstract: On Thursday a former top ministry official dropped a bombshell in a hastily held news conference in Tokyo. Kihei Maekawa, former vice minister of education, alleged that the Cabinet Office distorted administrative processes by citing the intent of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in approving a project concerning Kake Gakuen, a school run by his close friend. Supporting these claims, Maekawa attested to the authenticity of eight documents, which had been circulating in the media and political circles, asserting that they were produced by education ministry officials last year when he was vice minister. The following is a rundown of what is written in the documents in question, and the potential implications for Abe’s government. What is the Kake Gakuen scandal? Kake Gakuen is an school operator based in Okayama and chaired by Kotaro Kake, who reportedly became friends with Abe while they were studying overseas at a U.S. university in the 1970s. In January, Kake Gakuen won approval from the central government to open a new animal medicine department of its Okayama University of Science in a special deregulation zone in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. Opposition lawmakers have suspected that the government might have chosen Kake Gakuen for the deregulation project because of Abe’s close friendship with Kake. It was the first time in 52 years that the government gave approval for such a department, as it had been the long-standing view that the number of veterinarians in Japan has been sufficient to meet demand. Still the municipal government of Imabari plans to offer a plot of land valued at ¥3.68 billion to Kake Gakuen for free to build the new campus. Those favorable conditions have drawn public attention to the suspicion of influence raised by opposition lawmakers. According to the daily Chiba Nippo, Abe called Kake “my bosom friend who is always tied with me at the bottom of our hearts” when he addressed the 10th anniversary ceremony of Chiba Institute of Science, part of the Kake Gakuen group, on May 24, 2014. Abe and government officials have strongly denied any wrongdoing in choosing Kake Gakuen for the special deregulation project, saying the entity was chosen through fair and open administrative processes. What’s on the documents? The eight documents were allegedly produced by the education ministry. Their existence and content were first reported by the daily Asahi Shimbun on May 17, creating a stir and spurring opposition lawmakers to call for a government investigation. One of the documents, obtained by The Japan Times, quoted Cabinet Office officials as saying “the prime minister’s intent” is to allow a new department to be opened as quickly as possible in Imabari — an apparent reference to the university’s proposal. Another paper quotes the Cabinet Office as saying “the highest-level” officials in the Prime Minister’s Office want the education ministry to create the “shortest possible schedule” for allowing Kake Gakuen to open the new department in April 2018. What has Maekawa said about the documents? According to Maekawa, the documents were education ministry memos produced last fall, used in briefings for senior ministry officials, including Maekawa. The ministry’s former top bureaucrat said he thought the “highest-level” officials referred to either Abe or Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Maekawa alleged that the Cabinet Office “has distorted administrative processes that should be fair and impartial” by citing the intent of the prime minister to approve the Kake Gakuen project. In 2015 the government set four criteria to approve the opening of a new animal medicine department at a university. The criteria are: a proposal with a plan outlining a new concept; clear demand for vets in new areas; evidence that existing universities are unable to meet that demand; and consideration of the latest supply-and-demand balance of vets nationwide. The Kake Gakuen project had met none of the criteria, Maekawa said, especially since none of the government ministries have provided any projection of future demand for veterinarians. What happens if the allegations are true? The alleged actions, even if proven true, are unlikely to constitute illegal conduct by either Abe or the Cabinet Office. The scandal would still deal a blow to the administration, because Abe has repeatedly and vehemently denied that Kake’s close relationship with the prime minister was a factor in the government’s choice of Kake Gakuen for the deregulation project. It would also seriously damage the credibility of Abe’s government, which has denied the existence of the documents and has refused to reopen any investigation even after Maekawa’s public testimony. The education ministry has insisted it could not find any of the eight documents after surveying the online folder shared by officials at the Technical Education Division. Despite repeated requests from journalists and opposition lawmakers, the ministry has refused to look into the data storage of personal computers used by 31 officials at the division. What political impact could Maekawa’s testimony have on Abe’s administration? While it has already significantly damaged the administration’s public image and the credibility of official statements, it’s unclear whether Abe’s popularity will be dented. Without a forceful opposition or charismatic rivals within the Liberal Democratic Party, most voters see few alternatives to Abe’s government. If the approval rate plummets in upcoming media polls, the chance of an LDP victory in next elections would be reduced and thus considerably weaken Abe’s political clout. The reactions of voters in media polls will likely to be the key factor in the next phase of the Kake Gakuen scandal.

kake gakuen
kihei maekawa
shinzo abe
imabari
ehime
veterinary medicine


Notorious British child killer, 'Moors Murderer' Ian Brady, dies in prison at 79

Abstract: LONDON - One of Britain’s most notorious killers, “Moors Murderer” Ian Brady, who murdered five children with his lover and accomplice, Myra Hindley, during a sadistic two-year reign of terror in the 1960s died on Monday. Brady and Hindley were jailed for life in 1966 for abducting, torturing, sexually abusing and then murdering the children before burying their young victims on the bleak Saddleworth Moor near the northern city of Manchester. Brady died at Ashworth secure hospital in Liverpool, where he has been housed since 1985 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, aged 79. “We can confirm a 79-year-old patient in long-term care at Ashworth High Secure Hospital has died after becoming physically unwell,” a spokesman for the hospital said. For many of his last years, Brady had been on intermittent hunger strike and staff at Ashworth fed him via a tube through the nose on the grounds he was insane and incapable of deciding to end his own life. In 2013, a Mental Health Tribunal rejected his request to return to prison, ruling it was necessary in his interests and for the safety of others that he remain at Ashworth. The sadistic nature of the Moors Murderers’ killings made them among the most despised figures in Britain. Brady was found guilty of snatching and killing 12-year-old John Kilbride, Edward Evans, 17, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, while Hindley was convicted of murdering Downey and Evans and shielding her lover in the third case. In the 1980s, the couple admitted abducting and murdering 16-year-old Pauline Reade on her way to a Manchester disco in 1963 and killing Keith Bennett, 12, in 1964. They were finally caught when Hindley’s brother-in-law tipped off police During their trial the court heard tape recordings made by the couple of their victims pleading for mercy before they were tortured and killed. One tape featured the voice of Downey, filled with pain and fear, whimpering: “I want to see my mummy. Please God, help me.” Although their crimes took place 40 years ago, the revulsion felt by Britons and the hatred directed at them by the tabloid press hardly diminished. Hindley was Britain’s longest serving female prisoner when she died in 2002 after 36 years in jail. Successive UK governments had refused to release her despite her claims she had reformed and was driven to commit the murders by the psychopathic Brady. He insisted she was as much to blame. Hindley had tried to court favour by helping police to find the missing body of Bennett. But despite exhaustive searches, his body has never been found. When she was cremated, a banner which read “Burn in hell” was left outside the building.

ian brady
britain
myra hindley
serial killer
mass murder


Opposition makes last-ditch effort to block conspiracy bill

Abstract: Political wrangling over whether to approve a new penalty against criminal conspiracy approached a climax Wednesday after opposition lawmakers submitted a no-confidence motion against Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda as part of an eleventh-hour tactic to delay the vote. The proposed revision to the current anti-organized crime law — arguably the biggest source of controversy in the ongoing Diet session — is aimed at enabling law enforcement authorities to crack down on suspected terrorists who conspire to commit crimes. The government deems the revision vital to beefing up counterterrorism capabilities ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and has said the law was a prerequisite for participation in a U.N.-designated convention against transnational organized crime. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has even declared that Japan can’t host the Olympics without the law. Critics, however, say that a police crackdown under the revised law could extend to ordinary citizens, turning the nation into a surveillance society where everyday acts, such as bird-watching or withdrawing cash from banks, could be misconstrued as preparation for crimes. Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its allies were set to pass the revised bill at a Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday, with a view to push it through the plenary session of the chamber on Thursday. But hopes for such a scenario were dashed by the opposition camp Wednesday morning, as it jointly submitted the no-confidence motion against Kaneda, preventing the committee from being convened. The ruling coalition of the LDP and its junior partner Komeito is expected to strike down the motion Thursday, with the bill’s committee-level passage expected to be delayed until Friday. The Democratic Party, the Japanese Communist Party, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party said in submitting the motion that the level of Kaneda’s unsuitability as a state minister was “almost unprecedented” in recent memory. Kaneda, a legal amateur assigned to the portfolio in an August Cabinet reshuffle, has frequently fumbled for answers during the ongoing Diet session, prompting bureaucrats seated behind him to whisper the correct responses. “He can’t answer the most basic question regarding the revision. His lack of legal knowledge is appalling,” DP lawmaker Seiji Osaka told reporters after submitting the no-confidence motion, adding that Kaneda has failed woefully in his responsibility to explain to the public the revision that would “drastically change how Japan’s criminal law works.” The opposition has long argued that the criteria for what might constitute “preparing for crimes” remains unclear. Kaneda said in April that “objective evidence” will be a major factor in deciding whether someone is plotting a crime, providing as an example: “If you walk under cherry blossom trees with beer and a lunch box, that’s considered as hanami (cherry-blossom viewing). But if you do so carrying a map, binoculars and a notebook, that might be your attempt to inspect a crime scene beforehand.” Bewildered, JCP lawmaker Yasufumi Fujino contested: “You can still carry binoculars for bird-watching … That’s no clear criterion.” Fujino said the ultimate criteria would then boil down to what had been on people’s minds during these flagged actions instead of objective evidence. In response to the no-confidence motion, Kaneda said, “(I have) done all I could” to live up to public expectations. LDP lawmaker Yoshihisa Furukawa, chairman of the Judicial Affairs Committee, decried the opposition’s delay tactic, saying it hampered constructive discussion on the revision.


Kanagawa woman finds success in crowdfunding matchmaking quest

Abstract: A Kanagawa woman who started a crowdfunding project last year to bankroll her search for a husband is on course to reap the ultimate dividend. After meeting 11 suitors in the space of a month through the formal Japanese matchmaking tradition of omiai , 27-year-old Tomoko Takebe has found a man who intends to walk her down the aisle. “I was scared to actually go through with the project, but doing it has allowed me to meet a really great person,” said Takebe, whose project, titled “Is it OK if I like you? 26-year-old, 178-cm single woman is serious about omiai,” raised over ¥500,000 through the crowdfunding platform Campfire . “It was a really difficult first step, but I realized that you have to take up the challenge,” she said. “I did that and it has made me really happy.” Crowdfunding is a method of raising money for ventures by asking a large number of people to contribute varying amounts, and has been used to fund everything from movies to clean water projects in developing countries. Takebe met with The Japan Times in May last year to explain her project , which invited backers to pay money to either meet her for an omiai date or join a group of well-wishers supporting her quest for matrimony. Omiai, a tradition that began among the samurai class in 16th century Japan, involves men and women being formally introduced with a view to marriage. Personal details, including education and professional background, income and family history, are exchanged along with a photograph before meeting. Takebe, who worked in public relations and as a freelance writer at the time of her project, attracted 72 backers in total and met her crowdfunding target figure of ¥260,000 within the first 10 days. She spent the money on paying for dates and hiring a photographer to make formal introduction cards. From June 25 to July 28 last year, Takebe met 11 suitors, who included salarymen, a manga artist and a divorcee company president, and ranged in age from their mid-20s to 50s. “It was a lot of hard work,” she said. “I thought that if I left too much time between meeting each person, then they would all begin to seem the same. So I did it all in one month and it wore me out. “I never had any bad experiences. When you meet someone for the first time it can be exhausting, but it was always enjoyable.” Takebe’s fifth suitor, a 31-year-old, piqued her romantic interest. But before going back to ask him if he would like to be her boyfriend with a view to marriage, she made sure she met the remaining six and completed her project. “At first I thought he was very serious, to the extent that I was surprised that such a serious person would want to be involved in something like this,” she said. “He was the only one who I was really interested in, so I thought I would ask him if he wanted to take it further, and if he said ‘no’ then that would be the end of it. “I wrote to all the others to tell them I was sorry but I had found a boyfriend. I got replies telling me that they were happy that they could tell people that although they didn’t end up marrying me, they had an omiai date with me and they were involved in the whole thing. The feeling that I got was that they supported me and wanted me to do well.” Takebe and her boyfriend have been together since August, and although he has yet to propose, she insists that they have both been clear from the outset that they intend to marry. But while Takebe’s innovative use of crowdfunding and promotion on social media have helped her achieve her goal, her boyfriend, who declined to join her for an interview and prefers not to be named, is not so keen on the media attention. “Personally, when I think about my future and everyday life, I’d like to give as little of myself away on social media as possible,” he told The Japan Times by email. “I got involved in her project because I was charmed by what she was doing. I like her positive attitude and energy, but if you give too much away it can come back to haunt you in the future. “So if anything comes up, like getting requests for interviews, we talk it over. We always try to find a compromise and find something that we’re both comfortable with.” And Takebe’s actions have gained her more than just a boyfriend over the past year. The attention surrounding her project caught the eye of Campfire’s president, who offered her a job in the crowdfunding platform’s PR department. Her success has also allowed her to overcome her insecurity over her 178-cm height, which she says was one of the main reasons for starting the project. “Of the people who I met for omiai dates, one was 160 cm and he had a complex about being short so he liked taller women,” she said. “Another was 182 cm, so he was even taller than me. “My boyfriend is the same height as me, so when we talk our eyes are on the same level. Previously, when I was on a date I couldn’t wear high heels. But now I’m accepted for who I am and I feel positive about my height.”

crowdfunding
matchmaking
tomoko takebe
marriage


Japan using education to add influence, tap into booming Southeast Asia markets

Abstract: In a battle with China for influence and opportunity in Southeast Asia, Japan is making inroads on a new front: education. Japan is aggressively recruiting students from the region in hopes they will enhance economic ties with their home countries in the future. That’s because Southeast Asia is a key investment destination for the country — and an important source of talent. Vietnamese especially are taking up the offers. The number of Vietnamese studying in Japan, including language schools, increased more than 12-fold in the six years to May 2016, reaching about 54,000, according to the Japan Student Services Organization. They now account for nearly a quarter of international students in Japan, behind only Chinese students, who make up 41 percent but whose numbers have leveled off in recent years. Japan and China are both seeking bigger roles in Southeast Asia, which boasts rapid economic growth and a large and expanding middle class. It also has huge demand for infrastructure. Japan’s investment in the region has surged in recent years, as political tensions and a slowing economy have reduced China’s appeal. Meanwhile Beijing has sought to strengthen trade ties through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the One Belt, One Road initiative. Japan has made it a priority to recruit students from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A Japanese government scholarship has helped Tran Thi Quynh My, an official at the State Bank of Vietnam, pay for her two children’s studies in the country. “I chose Japan because it costs less than other countries while it has a good education system, instilling good discipline in students,” My said. “After studying in Japan my children will have better chance to get good jobs when they come back to work in Vietnam, since there are more and more Japanese companies investing in our country.” Vietnam’s economy expanded by more than 6 percent for a second year in 2016, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing. Japanese companies are increasingly looking to Southeast Asia, where incomes and consumption are likely to continue growing for years, said Shinobu Kikuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo. Japan is already Vietnam’s third-biggest trading partner, after China and the U.S. Two-way trade rose to about $30 billion in 2016, almost double the $16.8 billion in 2010, according to Vietnamese government data. The two countries aim to boost bilateral trade to $60 billion by 2020. Japan is also the second-biggest investor in Vietnam, with a total of $42.5 billion of foreign direct investment as of March 2017. In the past, manufacturers have entered Vietnam in search of cheap labor, but in recent years its growing domestic markets have attracted more nonmanufacturers such as retailers, according to Keisuke Kobayashi, who covers Vietnam at the Japan External Trade Organization. Regardless of sector, Japanese companies are looking for highly skilled, educated employees who can bridge language and cultural gaps, Kobayashi said. “Our surveys with companies always show a challenge in hiring,” he said. The growing presence of Japanese companies in Vietnam has students and their parents thinking about studying in Japan in hopes of landing a high-paying job with a Japanese company, said Itsuro Tsutsumi, director at Jasso’s student-exchange department. “There are high expectations,” Tsutsumi said. “Their families are sending them as a means of investment, hoping the return will be big.” Such high expectations can be exploited. In April, the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam cautioned that a rising number of Vietnamese students and so-called technical interns end up in Japan with a massive amount of debt after paying big fees to local agents who deceive them about prospective job opportunities. Tran Thi Bich Phuong has been more fortunate. She received two scholarships to study marketing at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Oita Prefecture. One was from the university and the other from Jasso, she said. The number of Vietnamese students at the university has more than tripled to about 500 over the past decade, according to the university. Phuong, who grew up in Vinh, Vietnam, plans to look for a job in Japan after graduation in September. “By working for a Japanese company, I’ll have an opportunity to learn professionalism at work and broaden my horizons,” she said. “In the long term, I want to go back and use my skills and experience in Japan in Vietnam.”

education
southeast asia
vietnam
foreign students


Strange Yomiuri story signals Maekawa being targeted for authenticating Kake papers

Abstract: An article run Monday by the Yomiuri Shimbun raised suspicions that an orchestrated smear campaign is underway to intimidate Kihei Maekawa, the former bureaucrat who is backing up the opposition’s claims about the Kake Gakuen scandal dogging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The story said that former administrative vice education minister Kihei Maekawa frequented a shady dating bar in the Kabukicho district in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward for a few years until around the end of last year. It is extremely rare for a major paper like the Yomiuri — the nation’s largest daily — to run a story of this type that reports no illegalities on the part of the former vice minister. The article said the women who come to the bar often invite men out and offer sex for money. The story immediately raised red flags in media and political circles: Was it leaked by the Prime Minister’s Office to damage Maekawa’s image and prevent him from divulging more inconvenient secrets? Government officials appeared worried that Maekawa might speak out more about the Kake scandal in public. At a news conference Thursday, Maekawa confirmed the authenticity of eight documents allegedly produced by the education ministry when he was there. Maekawa also said he was willing to give sworn testimony to that effect in the Diet. The papers, whose contents were first reported by the daily Asahi Shimbun on May 17, suggest that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressured the government to approve the opening of a veterinary medicine department at a university run by Kake Gakuen (Kake Educational Institution), a school operator chaired by Abe’s close friend Kotaro Kake. The opposition camp suspects the government tried to stop Maekawa from divulging information about the scandal. “There is suspicion that the Prime Minister’s Office may have tried to gag Mr. Maekawa by leaking information” to the Yomiuri, Kazunori Yamanoi, Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party, said on Thursday. “I’d feel really scared if the administration tried to leak scandalous information about a person who criticized or tried to criticize the government … Has Japan become such a scary country?” Yamanoi asked. At Thursday’s news conference, Maekawa admitted he used to go to a dating bar but said the purpose was to talk to the women who went there and learn about poverty in the country. He said his interest in the issue was piqued when saw a TV documentary that said many women who go to such bars suffer from poverty. “Sometimes I had meals with women and gave them some pocket money. Talking to them, I have learned that the issue of child poverty is connected to the poverty of women,” Maekawa told the news conference. “That was a very private act of mine. I have no idea why the Yomiuri reported about it at that time.” Maekawa also said that a top official from the Prime Minister’s Office somehow knew about his visits to the bar. Last fall, he said, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita noted the visits and urged him to “exercise caution.” Asked if he believes that Abe’s government intentionally leaked the information to stop him from speaking in public, Maekawa said: “I just don’t want to believe Japan is such a country.”

kihei maekawa
kake gakuen
shinzo abe
education


Redrawing of Nara's electoral map may force internal affairs chief into rematch with DP's Mabuchi

Abstract: NARA - The Cabinet’s decision last week to approve the redrawing of Japan’s electoral map by eliminating one Lower House district from each of six prefectures (Aomori, Iwate, Mie, Nara, Kumamoto and Kagoshima) is the central government’s response to a declining population that is increasingly concentrated in urban areas and to the vote disparity between rural voters and city dwellers. The changes in the single-seat electoral districts, which were submitted to the Diet, reflect a panel’s recommendations to the prime minister last month. “I will do my best to pass the legislation at the earliest date to rectify vote disparities,” internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi, who is in charge of drafting the legislation, told a news conference on May 16. But as a lawmaker, Takaichi, who represents the Nara No. 2 district , which includes the cities of Ikoma and Tenri , would also be affected by the electoral changes. The city of Nara is part of the No. 1 district. The realignment for Nara Prefecture means that Ikoma, where Takaichi has her local electoral office, would join Nara as part of a newly reshaped No. 1 district. The new No. 2 district would include Tenri and other towns and villages to the south of Nara and Ikoma, which are both on the prefecture’s northern border. The next Lower House election, therefore, for the only seat in the new Nara No. 1 district would pit Takaichi against veteran Democratic Party lawmaker Sumio Mabuchi, who represents the current Nara No. 1 district. It was Mabuchi who defeated Takaichi back in 2003, forcing her to move to Ikoma and run in the No. 2 district. She won that seat in the 2005 election. Since then, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has failed to dislodge Mabuchi, though Takaichi won her district in 2014 with 46,000 more votes than her two competitors combined. Farther south, Nara’s realignment means the rural, mountainous areas that comprise about three-quarters of the prefecture would have only one candidate representing them. In terms of population distribution, the three new districts would be roughly equal. There would be roughly 470,000 people in the No. 1 district, 460,000 in the No. 2 district, and about 430,000 in the No. 3 district. For his part, Nara Gov. Shogo Arai, who has the support of the LDP, welcomes the realignment. “From the point of view of reducing voter disparity rates, it’s a practical step,” he said earlier this month. That disparity is expected to grow further. In 2010, Nara Prefecture’s population was about 1.4 million. By 2060, it’s expected to fall to about 1.05 million, with the heaviest drop predicted to take place in the towns and villages in what would be the new No. 3 district. Unlike the cities of Nara and Ikoma, train access to Osaka and Kyoto from the No. 3 district is extremely limited, offering little hope of a huge influx of urbanites from surrounding prefectures in the coming years. The proposal, including the reduction in Nara, will now be taken up by the Diet. The ruling LDP-Komeito coalition aims to pass it by the end of the current session on June 18.

nara
elections
sanae takaichi
democratic party
sumio mabuchi
liberal democratic party


Kansai gropes for missile response as Korean war hype builds

Abstract: OSAKA - With North Korea test-launching missiles on a regular basis toward Japan, towns, cities and prefectures are getting more serious about how best to respond if and when one approaches. Parts of the Kansai region along the Sea of Japan coast appear to lie within range of the missile North Korea sent up on May 14. But the level of effort, and attention, that prefectural governments in particular are giving to what they can and should do to respond to a missile attack varies greatly. Like most other regions of Japan, the eight prefectures (Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, Tokushima, Shiga and Tottori) that belong to the Union of Kansai Governments have all listed general information, provided by the central government, about what to do in the event of a missile attack on their websites. However, as recent events have shown, there are differences in how they react to media reports, as opposed to official notifications about a launch. Tottori Prefecture had perhaps the most detailed public response to the May 14 missile launch among Kansai-area prefectures. Although the central government did not activate its J-Alert emergency advisory system, by 7:19 a.m., just over an hour after receiving the first media report of the launch, prefectural officials had been in contact with local fishing boats in the Sea of Japan, a cargo ship that was on its way to South Korea, and two planes that were scheduled to fly from Tottori’s Yonago Kitaro Airport for South Korea and Hong Kong. All were confirmed safe. Over the past few weeks, Tottori has been making stronger efforts to strengthen its response whenever news arrives that a missile has been launched toward the Sea of Japan. By the end of this month, the prefecture plans to have bureaucratic measures in place that will allow its officials to scramble more efficiently if the central government issues a J-Alert warning of a missile approaching Japan. “We confirmed that fishermen and others were safe, but the prefecture will continue to take measures to ensure local safety,” Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai said following the May 14 missile launch. On the other hand, officials in Shiga have been targeted for criticism for coming up with their own response to news of a missile attack. In late April, Shiga educational authorities sent a notice to prefectural schools and boards of education in cities and towns that called for children to remain indoors in case of a missile attack. The notice angered the teachers’ unions, which saw it as an overreaction that would just create unease among students who might fear Japan was preparing for war. At a May 11 meeting to discuss the issue, some mayors told Shiga Prefecture that local notices about how to respond to a missile launch should come from the governor’s office, not from prefectural bureaucrats, and should not be limited to just students. “Getting the message out to older people quickly is necessary. It’s the governor who must take responsibility for crisis management,” said Yasu Mayor Yoshiaki Yamanaka, who was one of a handful of mayors in Shiga who refused to pass along the April notice from the prefecture to area schools. Other Kansai prefectures that border the Sea of Japan coast like Hyogo and Kyoto are also reviewing what measures to take at the local level, not only to provide as much advance warning as possible, but also to deal with possibility, however remote, of a missile actually striking their prefecture. But Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada says people need to be realistic about what can be done, given how quickly a missile might arrive. “Testing the J-Alert system and increased cooperation with local officials are things that should be done. But when talking about drills to prepare for an attack, as a missile might arrive in only about five minutes, there’s not much more that can be done except take shelter underground. It would be different if there was a one- or two-hour advance notice (of an incoming missile),” Yamada said last month at a regular press briefing.

kansai
missiles
north korea
j-alert
evacuation


Aussie pair wins annual race up Taipei 101's 2,046 steps

Abstract: Taipei - Two Australians on Sunday won this year’s race up Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper, climbing 2,046 steps in the annual “Taipei 101 Run Up.” Some 4,500 runners from 36 countries took part in the race to the 91st floor of the Taipei 101 tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world. Mark Bourne won the men’s event with a time of 11 minutes and 24 seconds. His compatriot, Suzy Walsham, was the fastest woman with a time of 13 minutes and 36 seconds.


Sony to launch electroluminescent TV with sound-emitting screen

Abstract: Sony Corp. will from June 10 start selling 4K high-definition televisions featuring an organic electroluminescent screen that vibrates to reproduce sound and eliminates the need for conventional speakers. Along with the new sound system, the screen’s ability to display deeper black levels and reproduce images with fewer afterimages compared with a liquid-crystal display panel also make the new Bravia series TVs suitable for viewing movies and sports, the company said Monday. They are expected to retail for around ¥540,000 for the 55-inch model and about ¥864,000 for the 65-inch model. Sony plans to release a 75-inch model later this year.


Japan's little-known, but significant, role in World War I

Abstract: OSAKA - In the midst of debates about whether the Self-Defense Forces should be dispatched to the far corners of the globe to assist a military alliance partner, an obscure episode involving the Imperial Japanese Navy a century ago in the Mediterranean Sea offers key lessons for today’s politicians, bureaucrats and military leaders. In August 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, Japan, deciding to honor the terms of its 1902 alliance with Great Britain, declared war on Germany despite deep misgivings among many in the government and army, who felt Germany would prevail. The war in Europe quickly became a stalemate along the Western Front, with both sides dug into trenches, unable to achieve a decisive victory. By spring 1917, in a war that European politicians originally thought would be over by Christmas 1914, millions had died and there was no end in sight. In Japan, however, what was then called the “Great War” barely registered with the public. Japan had captured the German colony of Tsingtao, in China, in autumn 1914 and had chased the German East Asiatic Squadron out of the Pacific Ocean. The Imperial Japanese Navy had patrolled the South China Sea and had gone as far as the Indian Ocean, but there were no more major battles. Japan had not sent troops to the Western Front and had not yet sent the navy as far as Europe. That, however, changed in April 1917. After Great Britain requested more assistance, Japan decided to initially send eight (and eventually 14) destroyers and a flagship cruiser to assist British ships in the Mediterranean Sea. This task force, named the Second Special Squadron, was based at Malta. Its main mission was to escort British ships traveling between Marseille, France, and Malta; Taranto, Italy, and Malta; and Alexandria, Egypt, and Malta to protect them from German submarines. U-boats had inflicted heavy losses since the war began and had declared unrestricted warfare in February 1917 (a decision that would help end the neutrality of the United States, which officially declared war against Germany that April). Britain’s Royal Navy was operating in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, and its resources were stretched thin. “Initial requests by Great Britain for naval cooperation were often declined,” says Garren Mulloy, a British associate professor at Daito Bunka University and an expert on the history of the Self-Defense Forces. “Requests to coordinate activities with Royal Navy squadrons in the Pacific and South Atlantic appeared to be high risk ventures for the Japanese, and detached from Japanese interests. The eventual 1917 deployment of destroyers was a display of solidarity, and also a concession to constant appeals from the Royal Navy, which was being worn down in escort vessels by the resumed unrestricted U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic.” The Second Squadron was officially independent but received its duty orders from the British commander at Malta. By the war’s end in November 1918, it had been dispatched on 348 escort missions, escorting 788 Allied warships and transport ships and about 750,000 personnel around the Mediterranean. During that time the squadron engaged in 34 combat operations and a rescue mission. In his 2015 paper for the National Institute of Defense Studies, Tomoyuki Ishizu notes several episodes. One was when a German U-boat sank the transport ship Transylvania in May 1917. Two Japanese destroyers helped rescue the majority of the 3,300 personnel on board, a feat of bravery that ended with 27 Japanese officers and sailors receiving awards from King George V. Then there was the sinking of the Japanese destroyer Sakaki by an Austrian U-boat in June 1917 off Crete. A total of 59 were killed, including Cmdr. Taichi Uehara, the ship’s captain. The ship would be salvaged and repaired. “With these Japanese activities in the Mediterranean, Adm. G.C. Dickens, commander in chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet reported back to the Admiralty that ‘whereas Italians are inefficient, French are unreliable, Greeks are out of the calculation, and Americans are too far away, the Japanese are excellent, but small in number,’ ” Ishizu writes. The contribution in the Mediterranean a century ago is all but forgotten in Japan. But in Malta, there is a memorial at the Commonwealth War Graves to 78 Japanese sailors who perished, including those from the Sakaki. The site still draws some Japanese visitors, especially people with SDF connections. The dispatch itself was a minor footnote in the tragedy of World War I. But historians and military experts say that today’s leaders in Japan looking at an expanded role overseas for the SDF can learn much from it. “The Japanese were highly efficient. But the primary role of destroyers had long been seen as offensive and defensive against large enemy vessels and torpedo boats. Little thought had been given to countering submarines, and the Imperial Japanese Navy made little effort to learn from the bitter British experience in the Mediterranean against U-boat attacks. The navy eventually took on board some Royal Navy anti-submarine warfare practices locally, but these were never absorbed into the Japanese naval doctrine, with tragic results in the Pacific War,” Mulloy says. From a political point of view, he adds, the lesson is do not give the appearance of not wanting to take part in a military operation and then concede the point after much arm-twisting and delay. Ishizu also notes that the lessons learned by the navy in the Mediterranean a century ago, especially submarine and anti-submarine warfare, were neither properly learned nor implemented as policy by the navy as a whole. “Hence, the Second World War in the Pacific,” he writes.


High-profile journalist with close Abe ties accused of rape

Abstract: A 28-year-old woman has accused a former TV reporter, regarded as one of the journalists closest to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, of raping her two years ago. The woman, who only gave her first name as Shiori, alleged in a news conference on Monday that Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former Washington bureau chief of Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, raped her at a Tokyo hotel on April 4, 2015, when she lost consciousness after having dinner and drinks with Yamaguchi. It is extremely rare in Japan for a woman to go before TV cameras and openly talk about the experience of being raped. She gave the news conference at the Tokyo District Court alongside a lawyer. “I have come to believe I should tell the public how terrible rape is, and how big an impact it can have on your life,” a tearful Shiori said. She said she met Yamaguchi after he offered to help her find a job as a journalist, according to a document handed out at the news conference. It was the first time for them to meet one-on-one, she said. Yamaguchi, who has boasted about his strong friendship with Abe, is known as one of just a few journalists who can make direct phone calls to the prime minister. He has recently published two books detailing inside stories from Abe’s Cabinet. Yamaguchi had often been invited as a political commentator on TV news programs, but he stopped appearing in public after the Shukan Shincho weekly first reported the rape allegations earlier this month. Later Monday on his Facebook page, Yamaguchi responded to the news conference, claiming he has “never done anything illegal.” Police already investigated the allegation for more than one year and eventually decided not to charge him, Yamaguchi wrote. But during the news conference, Shiori said she filed on Monday a request that the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution review the case, seeking the indictment of Yamaguchi. According to Shiori, in 2015 investigators obtained an arrest warrant for Yamaguchi on suspicion of “quasi-rape” after examining footage from a security camera at the hotel and the testimony of the taxi driver who brought the two to the hotel. Under Japanese law, quasi-rape refers to having sex with a woman by taking advantage of her unconsciousness or other conditions. Police officers were ready to arrest Yamaguchi at Narita airport on June 8, 2015, but they ended up letting him walk “because of an instruction” from higher-ranking police officials, Shiori quoted a police officer as saying. At inquest committees, 11 citizens review cases and decide whether or not to urge prosecutors to indict a suspect. To make a recommendation, eight or more members must vote in agreement. Prosecutors can reject the recommendation from the committee once, but if the committee makes the same recommendation a second time, a suspect is automatically indicted and taken to trial.


Rising 'power harassment' scourge now affects 33% of workforce: survey

Abstract: About 1 in 3 workers has had a brush with “power harassment” over the past three years, up from 1 in 4 in the previous poll in 2012, a survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry says. The results show that bullying remains a prevalent problem in companies despite government efforts to improve the nation’s working environment. The results of the poll, released Friday, show that 32.5 percent of the respondents had been on the receiving end of abuses of authority carried out by higher-ranking employees, up 7.2 points from 2012, when the figure was 25.3 percent. However, about 41 percent of those harassed failed to take action, with the majority saying that even if they did, they thought nothing would be done about the problem. Some also refrained from taking action due to fears that it would damage their next job performance evaluation. The survey was conducted on 10,000 workers and 4,587 companies with at least 30 employees between July and October last year. In terms of frequency, 7.8 percent said they had been harassed “many times” and 17.8 percent said they had only experienced it “occasionally.” Power harassment was the most popular topic companies were consulted on by workers, followed by issues like mental health, working conditions (wages and hours), and sexual harassment. Most reported cases of power harassment took the form of psychological attacks, such as verbal abuse or threats, at 73.5 percent, while 21.2 percent took the form of demands. Those who faced power harassment said they felt anger or anxiety and loss of motivation to do their work. Some even visited the doctor and were prescribed medication. Although there has been an increasing awareness of power harassment over the past few years, nearly half of the companies, or 47.4 percent, had not taken preventive measures. The ratio was higher for small companies, at 73.6 percent for those with less than 99 employees and 11.3 percent for those with more than 1,000. The most popular measures companies resorted to was the introduction of consultation meetings and managerial training sessions about power harassment, the survey said. Asked about the positive effects of introducing preventive measures to combat the problem, 43 percent of the responding organizations said they improved the office environment by changing the mindset of the managers. Another 36 percent said it helped employees engage in smoother communications with their superiors. The companies also said the measures reduced the number of employees suffering from mental health problems. Last Friday, the labor ministry formed a panel to discuss measures to prevent power harassment, which was recently dragged back into the spotlight after the overwork-related suicide of 24-year-old Matsuri Takahashi at advertising giant Dentsu Inc. Takahashi’s family said their daughter was not only a victim of excessive overtime work, but a power harassment victim as well.


Urban Japan trying its hand at bicycle-sharing

Abstract: The so-called sharing economy has spread to a variety of fields such as cars and homes, and Japan has seen another rising trend in recent years — bicycles. A growing number of municipalities and private firms are providing bikes to gauge whether such services will catch on. Here are some questions and answers about bike-sharing in Japan: Is bicycle-sharing really growing? According to NTT Docomo Inc., which has been teaming up with municipalities to offer a bike-sharing service on an experimental basis, its bicycles were used about 1.8 million times in fiscal 2016, which ended March 31, up from 20,000 in fiscal 2012. Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile phone carrier, is partnering with Koto, Chiyoda, Minato, Chuo, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Ota wards in Tokyo. Around 4,200 two-wheelers were available at 281 “stations” as of March. Docomo also offers bike-sharing in the cities of Yokohama, Sendai, Hiroshima and Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. In November, SoftBank Group Corp., another mobile phone carrier, started providing a system so that other companies can offer a bike-sharing service. The system includes a bicycle lock equipped with GPS and a mobile internet connection, which enable operators to locate rented bikes and users to book them on the internet. East Japan Railway Co. has been providing the sharing service called Suicle since 2013, mainly in western Tokyo. How do such systems work? The operators try to set up their small stations in convenient locations. In general, they require users to become a registered member on their website, a process that includes giving a name, email address and credit card number. When the rider wants to return the bicycle, it must be brought to a designated bike station. The fee is roughly ¥100 to ¥250 per hour, depending on the operator. What are people using bike-sharing for? Docomo says commuting is the most popular use. For instance, people who live far from a train station pick up a bicycle from a bike lot near their home and turn it in at a different one close to the train station. A female user in her 40s interviewed by The Japan Times last week said she has been using Docomo’s service for about a year for commuting in Tokyo. It takes more than an hour to get to her workplace in Koto Ward from her home in Shinagawa Ward by train with two transfers. But she now gets off at an intermediate train station and picks up a shared bike to go to work. This reduces her commuting time to about 45 minutes, she said. “It is more efficient to ride a bike on the way to work,” she said as she was returning a bike at a lot near JR Shinagawa Station. Meanwhile, a customer survey conducted by Minato Ward found that 28 percent, the largest percentage, said they use bike-sharing for sightseeing, followed by 23 percent for shopping and 18 percent for business purposes. Rikito Kobayashi, 30, who works for a real estate company in Minato Ward, said he often rides a shared bike to visit clients located within the ward. He said it’s faster and costs less to use a bike than taking trains for these short business trips. The Shinagawa woman and Kobayashi both said they were satisfied with the service, but it would be more convenient if there were more bike stations. Can foreign travelers use the service? Some bike-sharing operators, including Docomo, have English websites and guides to make the service available for foreign tourists. Where did the idea come from? Katsusuke Nishikawa, director of community transportation in Minato Ward, said the idea of a rental bicycle service was first floated more than a decade ago to tackle the issue of bikes parked illegally. Such bicycles had been an eyesore. They also disturbed pedestrian traffic and blocked the way for blind people and those in wheelchairs, municipal officials say. Nishikawa said times have changed, and the notion of sharing emerged. “We thought we could apply this to bicycles … by sharing bikes, it could be possible to reduce the overall number,” he said. Also, bike-sharing can be regarded as part of public transportation and can improve the efficiency of overall mobility, Nishikawa said. For instance, as seen with the female commuter in Shinagawa Ward, there are cases in which it takes less time to ride a bike than to take a train. The service can also contribute to cutting carbon dioxide emissions and promoting bike tourism, Nishikawa said. Is there a downside? Nishikawa pointed out that one problem with bike-sharing is that while at first blush it may seem to be environmentally friendly, the reality is more complicated. Users returning bicycles tend to concentrate on certain bike stations, so the operator needs to pick up the bikes and redistribute them to other uncrowded spots using trucks, which means extra costs and vehicle exhaust. Hisakazu Tsuboya, president of Docomo Bikeshare Inc., a Docomo subsidiary, agreed, saying that managing the redistribution of shared bicycles is a challenge, as there are now more than 4,000 of them on the streets of Tokyo. “It is getting hard to predict where people will return them compared to when we were running the service with just a few hundred bikes,” he said. Some users may think it would be better if they could return bicycles anywhere. For instance, users of some services in China, such as Mobike and Ofo, can basically return the bikes at any location. But Tsuboya said it should be controlled, as he thinks bike-sharing should be considered a component of public transportation. If people can leave the bikes anywhere, “they will become randomly parked bikes and might cause accidents and other problems,” he said. Will bike-sharing continue to grow? Docomo and Minato Ward officials said they plan to keep and expand the service in the future. However, given that the fee is only a few hundred yen per use, “profitability is very low,” said Nishikawa of Minato Ward. “If we do well, we can probably break even,” said Docomo’s Tsuboya, adding that the firm is trying to find ways to make the service economically sustainable. He said the procurement cost can be lower if the operator prepares a massive number of bikes. Yet the number needs to be controlled if the goal is to make the service part of a well-organized public transportation network.

bicycles
sharing
ntt docomo
transportation


Modi calls new satellite a 'gift to South Asia' but Pakistan stays away

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India on Friday launched a communications satellite for its smaller neighbors to share, part of its efforts to build goodwill in the region and counter Chinese influence, but archrival Pakistan said it will stay away from the project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to office promising to strengthen ties with neighbors such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and even Pakistan, has called the satellite a gift to South Asia. “The successful launch of South Asia Satellite is a historic moment. It opens up new horizons of engagement,” he said soon after an Indian-made rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from the Sriharikota Space Center in southern India. So far Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have signed up to make use of the satellite. Pakistan said it is working on its own satellite and did not join. The South Asia Satellite will offer participating countries television services and communications technology for bank ATMs and e-governance, and may even serve as a backup for cellular networks, especially in places where the terrestrial connectivity is weak, India’s Foreign Ministry said. India is trying to push back against China’s expanding involvement in infrastructure building across South Asia by offering financial and technical aid of its own. Modi said the leaders of the participating countries joined him in a video conference to mark the launch. Ties with Pakistan remain difficult, with the Indian government this week accusing Pakistan of killing and then mutilating the bodies of two soldiers on patrol along the disputed Kashmir border, provoking calls for retribution. Pakistan denied the accusation.


Brazen heists suggest that crime syndicates may be back in business

Abstract: Last month, three masked robbers grabbed a suitcase stuffed with cash from a businessman who had just withdrawn the money from a bank in Fukuoka. The businessman is believed to have been planning to use the ¥380 million ($3.5 million) to buy gold. In December, gold bars worth ¥600 million ($5 million) were stolen by men disguised as police officers, also in Fukuoka. It’s possible the two crimes are related, with several news outlets and the police suspecting that crime syndicates could be involved. The two thefts total ¥980 million but that pales by comparison to the great ATM heist that was carried out last year. On May 15, 2016, an international gang used forged credit cards based on data leaked from a bank in South Africa to steal ¥1.86 billion from ATMs nationwide. The gang made a series of withdrawals from 1,400 ATMs in less than three hours, with cash-dispensing machines in convenience stores primarily targeted, especially those in Tokyo, Aichi and, not surprisingly, Fukuoka. To date, police have arrested more than 170 people in connection with the case, including members of six different crime syndicates. The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that high-ranking members of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate in Hokkaido coordinated the heists but have yet to prove their case. At an April 19 trial of an Inagawa-kai gang member facing charges of electronic fraud and theft for his role in the heists, prosecutors argued that participants in the crime were given 10 percent of whatever they could withdraw. The rest of the money, they contended, went into the coffers of the Yamaguchi-gumi. What makes this heist so unusual is not just the degree of sophistication involved, but the implication that members of supposedly rival crime syndicates were working closely together. It’s not unheard of for rival syndicates to coexist in peace or even for members of different groups to make a pledge of brotherhood. Indeed, gang bosses have been know to send New Year’s cards to rival syndicates. Sharing money, however, is something else altogether. Several suspects arrested in connection with the case are members of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, which split from the Yamaguchi-gumi on Aug. 27, 2015. And yet the police suspect they were actually working with their bitter rivals when committing the heist despite supposedly being in the middle of a gang war. Atsushi Mizoguchi, an expert on crime syndicates, predicted this state of affairs several years ago. Mizoguchi said gangsters who had been expelled from traditional syndicates would form cross-lateral new groups once their regular revenue streams (gambling, racketeering, etc.) dried up. This appears to be happening to some extent, except the Yamaguchi-gumi still appears to be pulling the strings in major operations. The National Police Agency began a crackdown on the Yamaguchi-gumi in 2009. At that time, the syndicate had about 40,000 registered members, with roughly the same figure making up the numbers in other groups combined. The total number of gang members across all groups has since dropped to half that figure. If the remaining syndicates are now working together under the guidance of the Yamaguchi-gumi, what does that mean? It’s possible the police may have accomplished what some feared: the crackdown has simply given the Yamaguchi-gumi a monopoly on organized crime and driven its rivals out of business. In 2015, the National Police Agency surveyed police officers in the field and asked them about the state of organized crime. The majority believed the yakuza were not only maintaining power and influence but perhaps even growing stronger. The Yamaguchi-gumi has restructured. It has shed unprofitable and risky side businesses, tossed out restrictions on crimes that were formerly frowned upon, created new revenue streams involving complicated financial transactions and moved on to theft, larceny and armed robbery. The syndicate has adapted to the times and is still in business. With casinos heading for legalization, the Yamaguchi-gumi and its affiliates appear to have a bright future ahead. Crime syndicates understand how to generate money from gambling. The name yakuza itself ( ya-ku-za , or 8-9-3) is a losing hand in a form of Baccarat. Despite its modest name, however, crime syndicates rarely lose — especially the Yamaguchi-gumi. It has outlasted most Japanese companies and business is booming. Perhaps an IPO isn’t out of the question?

crime syndicates
fukuoka
yamaguchi-gumi
national police agency
organized crime
yakuza


Japan Times 1917: 'Tampering with mail at the Post Office'

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 31 1917 Tampering with mail at the Post Office An extraordinary case of wanton mischief by Post Office employes was recently revealed by Mr. K. Ishikawa of Azabu, who made a formal complaint to the director of mails of the Department of Communications. Mr. Ishikawa contends that the Post Office employees have purposely crossed out the address written on a registered letter and written an entirely different address. Mr. Ishikawa sent a registered letter to a friend in South Manchuria on May 10, but the letter did not reach the destination at the proper time, and he made repeated requests to the Post Offices to trace the letter. The Post Office which received the registered packet duly forwarded it, but no trace of the letter could be found. However on the evening of May 25, the registered letter in question came back to the original sender, bearing a note from the Post Office that the addressee could not be found at the address written on the envelope. Mr. Ishikawa looked at the letter, and found that “South Manchuria” originally written on the envelope was crossed out with red ink, and “Formosa” was written by its side. The letter went to Formosa consequently, and came back to Tokyo undelivered. The receipt given Mr. Ishikawa at the Azabu Post Office says that the letter is for a person in South Manchuria, and consequently it must be someone in the Post Office who changed the address written on the envelope. The miscarriage of mails often happens, but the practice of changing the address written on letters is a most extraordinary outrage on the part of the Post Office. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, May 8, 1942 Japan forces defeat U.S. at Corregidor fortress The much-vaulted invulnerability of Corregidor in the Philippines was proven false, as the fortress, firmly entrenched by the American-Filipino troops was completely reduced by Japanese attacking forces Thursday, according to an Imperial headquarters communique issued at 5:50 p.m. on the same day. The communique reads: “Imperial Japanese Army and Navy forces in the Philippine area succeeded in effecting a forced landing on the island fortress of Corregidor at 11:15 p.m. on May 5 and then completely reduced the island and all forts on other islands at the mouth of Manila Bay at 8 a.m. on May 7.” The fugitive American-Filipino troops, who were defeated in the Bataan Peninsula by Japanese forces on April 11, had been offering useless resistance on Corregidor subsequently. They, however, had been exposed to the devastating bombings of the Army and Navy Air Forces almost every day since. Their defeat was a mere question of time. The landing in the face of enemy resistance by the daring Japanese Army and Navy units at 11:15 p.m. on May 5 finally dealt the finishing blow to the enemy. Unable to resist the furious onset of the Japanese forces, the whole island as well as its neighboring fort-isles was completely reduced on Thursday. This was the 27th day since the capitulation of the Bataan Peninsula. As a result, the whole region of Luzon, to which this island belongs, has been occupied by Japanese forces. The advance base of the American operation in East Asia thus has been completely upset. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, May 26, 1967 Mount Fuji is losing its symmetric outline The government plans to take steps to save the symmetric outline of Mount Fuji, symbolic of Japan’s scenic beauty, which is slowly being disfigured by a creeping landslide near the crater. Construction Minister Eiichi Nishimura Thursday instructed his men to study a remedy immediately in cooperation with experts of the Agriculture-Forestry Ministry. The landslide started more than a dozen years ago on its western slope. It has slowly but steadily spread so that now the landslide is 500 meters in width, 2,800 meters in length and 125 meters in maximum depth. Already the disfiguration of the mountain is clearly visible from the southern, western and eastern foothills. The ministry has built two retaining walls in the western foothills of the mountain to keep the moving earth from sliding further. However, more drastic and gigantic construction work near the peak will be necessary. Concrete embankments on both sides of the sliding area or retaining walls at intervals of about 50 meters on the slope are, at present, considered to combat the landslide. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, May 19, 1992 Tokyo residents avoid talking to foreigners About 60 percent of Tokyo residents said they do not want to become acquainted with foreigners, according to a survey on living conditions released Monday. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government last November interviewed 3,000 Japanese living in Tokyo age 20 or older. There were 2,106 responses. The questions included working and living conditions, and lifestyles of Tokyo residents. Older Tokyo women showed the greatest reluctance to associate with foreigners. About 73 percent of women in their 70s said they would prefer to avoid such associations. Metropolitan government officials blamed language barriers for the desire to remain separate from foreigners. “We think the result does not mean the Japanese dislike foreigners, but they hesitate to talk to foreigners because they cannot speak foreign languages,” an information official claimed. If asked by foreigners for directions, however, 69 percent said they would try and help.

mail
post office
tokyo
discrimination
philippines . wwii
mount fuj


Medical big data to be pooled for disease research and drug development in Japan

Abstract: Last month a bill aimed at facilitating medical research through the use of patient records stored at medical institutions cleared the Diet. The law, commonly called Jisedai Iryo-kiban Ho — roughly translated as the next-generation medical infrastructure law — will allow medical big data to be pooled anonymously so it can be utilized for research into diseases and the development of new drugs. Here are some basic questions and answers on the new law, which is set to come into effect by next May . Why is this law needed? Despite the nation being ranked the world’s No. 1 for longevity, many people in Japan spend the last 10 years or so of their lives mobility-impaired or bedridden. The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is keen to prolong people’s healthy life expectancy and also make the nation’s health care sector a “growth industry.” Medical records of people who receive care at hospitals and clinics have remained largely untapped due to privacy concerns and the difficulty of handling sensitive data. But the government believes they can be put to better use if they are made anonymous, with the goal of spurring drug development and other medical innovations. Do researchers have access to medical records now? Researchers have always studied individual patients, looking at areas such as the effects of drugs and disease conditions, with their consent. Moreover, all medical fee records, which refer to requests for fee reimbursements filed by hospitals and clinics for procedures performed under the nation’s universal health care system, have been available for research. But such records, known as reseputo , only provide information on medical procedures that were performed and drugs prescribed, and not on the outcome of the treatment. “The analysis of ‘input’ information, such as shots, surgeries and prescriptions, has been possible, but data on their outcomes have not been utilized,” said Toshihisa Okamoto, a counselor at the office of health care policy at the Cabinet Secretariat. “The outcome data should be made available for analysis, so each patient can get the best care they need.” Revisions to the Law on the Protection of Personal Information that came into effect this month have, in fact, enabled the use of clinical records for research without asking for a patient’s consent. But to use such data, each hospital and clinic is responsible for making its data anonymous by deleting patients’ names and other privacy information, which is seen as cumbersome when their primary job is providing health care. Okamoto said examples of research to be made possible under the new law include a more comprehensive review of the side effects of drugs. Currently, hospitals and drugmakers are required by law to report to authorities severe incidents following the prescription of a drug. But such reports are not comprehensive, as it is ultimately up to each facility to decide which cases to report. Okamoto said if raw data on a drug’s side effects are made available, it would be possible to better grasp the effect of different drugs, and to compare the harmful data of one drug against other drugs within the same patient group, for example. How will the framework work? The new law will allow hospitals and clinics to provide patient data to private-sector companies to be accredited by the state. Such companies will be responsible for making the data anonymous and searchable. The system is not mandatory, meaning that only hospitals that want to provide such data to companies can. The accredited data companies will store and make patient information anonymous, and will provide them to academic researchers, drug companies or government agencies for a fee, Okamoto said. Hospitals and clinics that want to provide such information can do so by informing patients beforehand. Patients can opt out if they do not wish to participate, he added. “The point is that the system is voluntary, and it is not aiming to collect the personal data of 130 million people in Japan,” he said. “Even if it’s a tiny portion of all medical data available, it could be used for research if the amount of information provided is statistically significant enough.” What type of information will be covered by the law? All clinical records, including a summary of conditions, prescriptions written by doctors and visual data such as MRI scans, will be included. One thing to note is that the data must be electronic. Handwritten memos by doctors or health data currently kept on paper — such as the results of health checkups held at schools — cannot be used. As of 2014, only 34.2 percent of all hospitals and 35 percent of all clinics in Japan kept clinical records electronically, according to the health ministry. Are there any dangers of personal data leaks? Privacy protection is key, especially with medical data, which are highly sensitive. Okamoto said the government will start the project small, accrediting only a small number of trustworthy operators. The Cabinet Office, the science ministry, the health ministry and the industry ministry will jointly screen each of the applications for accreditation, and the accredited data businesses will be required to take numerous measures to prevent data leaks, both through cyberattacks and through thefts of information by employees. Specifically, the accredited data companies will need to safeguard themselves from possible data theft by employees by having them sign confidentiality agreements and rigidly recording their entry into data rooms, including through security cameras. Employees who violate the regulations will be criminally punished. To avoid the kind of cyberattacks that led to the leak of 1.25 million cases of personal data at the Japan Pension Service in 2015, the core system that contains a personal information database will also need to be completely separated from the internet, Okamoto said.

diseases
research
drugs
law
medical records


Japan's fisheries still swimming upstream

Abstract: In March, the internet news site Videonews.com posted a conversation between environmental journalist Tetsuji Ida and Waseda University researcher Yasuhiro Sanada, who writes about fisheries . During the talk, Sanada said that whaling is a “dead industry,” and seemed to think that the ongoing controversy over Japan’s official research whaling policy is a red herring. The Nippon Research Center says that 95 percent of Japanese people consume whale very rarely or never at all . Whaling only employs about 1,000 people. And regardless of the questionable morality of Japan’s research whaling program, it only kills several hundred whales a year, which doesn’t have much of an impact, environmentally or otherwise . Hiroki Ose, a commentator for NHK, elaborated on this theme in a blog post on April 20 . Japan’s fishing interests are sensitive to international criticism because of whaling, he said, and this sensitivity is shared by the public, which tends to get defensive when it hears non-Japanese complain about Japan’s seafood industry. As a result, other contentious issues regarding Japanese fishing are seen as Japan- bashing. Both men were talking independently about a different subject: the overfishing of bluefin tuna, a problem for which Japan is mainly responsible. Japan consumes about 80 percent of the bluefin caught in the world , and though the country’s appetite for kuromaguro is described in its media as being voracious, it’s not a negative characterization, because the environmental effects of that appetite are rarely mentioned. So when people hear through news reports that international organizations are calling for stricter catch limitations and even moratoriums on tuna fishing, they feel as if their way-of-life is being threatened. “I’ve been to many international conferences about whaling,” Sanada said. “And, actually, they’re quite amicable. But at international meetings about bluefin tuna, everyone is antagonistic toward Japan.” The particulars of this antagonism, however, are almost never conveyed to the Japanese public. One obstacle to understanding is the Japan branch of the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean (ISC), an organization within the Fisheries Agency that manages policy for bluefin tuna. According to Ida, the ISC was specifically established to draw attention away from complaints by the international community about Japan’s tuna consumption, which, he said, is unsustainable. “We eat tuna everyday,” said Ida, “without realizing that it’s almost extinct.” Stocks of bluefin in the world now stand at only 2.6 percent of what they were in the late 1970s, before catches were monitored. “We ate the rest,” he added wryly. Countries such as Mexico and Croatia are expanding bluefin tuna farms to satisfy Japanese demand, but cultivated tuna makes up a very small portion of the Japanese market. Fishermen in both the Atlantic and the Pacific still hunt the fish using huge seine nets, which tend to catch young fish as well as old ones. That means many are caught before they have a chance to breed, thus accelerating the species’ decimation. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) prohibits the catching of fish that are less than 30 kilograms. Bluefin are about 3 years old at that weight, and only 20 percent are sexually mature. There is now a movement to change the limit to 85 kg, when the fish are about 5 years old. The problem in the Pacific is that almost all the tuna is caught by Japan, and the ISC, which is supposed to monitor the catch, doesn’t seem to be doing that. Though the Fisheries Agency, in line with international rules, limits catches in the Pacific, there are no penalties for violations. So when Sanada says that the ICCAT and other organizations complain about Japan, it’s ISC they are griping about, despite the committee’s purposely low profile. The ISC’s home page doesn’t even list an address. What angers international groups is that Japan doesn’t act in concert with the rest of the world. Because tuna travel long distances, they are a resource that needs to be managed globally. Japan, which dominates Pacific fishing interests, should be at the forefront of conservation efforts, but other countries have to apply pressure in order for Japan to come up with its own viable solutions or follow those implemented by international organizations to which it belongs. Generally speaking, the Fisheries Agency, when it does act, does so from an adversarial stance. When Atlantic bluefin stocks were dropping, Japan complained to the ICCAT that it wasn’t doing enough to control Atlantic fishermen, most of whom are European. The ICCAT responded through strict quota enforcement and by temporarily banning seine fishing. Stocks eventually improved. Now the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) has the same complaint about Japan, which doesn’t sufficiently uphold the WCPFC’s quotas and provides dodgy data, according to Ida. The Fisheries Agency’s main mission is to protect Japan’s coastal fishing industry , not the tuna themselves, though the agency doesn’t say so outright. Meanwhile, the Japanese public is oblivious to the controversy and enjoys tuna on a daily basis thanks to deflationary pressure. TV food shows prioritize tuna that everyone can afford but nevertheless the media saves its most hyperbolic praise for high-end product, most of which is caught by line-and-reel fishermen who bag one fish at a time in man-on-tuna battles worthy of Hemingway and which make for exciting TV specials . That image is misleading, however, since the vast bulk of tuna sold in stores comes from seine fishing. Tuna caught in nets en masse also aren’t processed as quickly as fish caught individually with a line, and thus don’t taste as fresh. This is the most significant aspect of tuna commerce — that in order to satisfy Japan’s appetite for its most prized delicacy, merchants give consumers an inferior product. That few of them understand the difference says a lot about that appetite.

fisheries
yasuhiro sanada
bluefin
tuna
isc
iccat
wcpfc
maguro
tesuji ida


Printed rocket makes history

Abstract: WELLINGTON - Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space launch company, on Thursday launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3-D-printed rocket from New Zealand’s remote Mahia Peninsula. “Made it to space. Team delighted,” Rocket Lab said on its official Twitter account. The successful launch of a low cost, 3-D-printed rocket is an important step in the commercial race to bring down financial and logistical barriers to space while also making New Zealand an unlikely space hub. The Los Angeles and New Zealand-based rocket firm has touted its service as a way for companies to get satellites into orbit regularly. “Our focus with the Electron has been to develop a reliable launch vehicle that can be manufactured in high volumes — our ultimate goal is to make space accessible by providing an unprecedented frequency of launch opportunities,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and chief executive in a statement. The firm had spent the past four years preparing for the test launch and last week received the go-ahead from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which is monitoring the flight. Bad weather had delayed the rocket from taking off three times this week. New Zealand has created new rocket legislation and set up a space agency in anticipation of becoming a low-cost space hub. Ships and planes need rerouting every time a rocket is launched, which limits opportunities in crowded U.S. skies, but New Zealand, a country of 4 million people in the South Pacific, has only Antarctica to its south. The country is also well-positioned to send satellites bound for a north-to-south orbit around the poles. But many locals in the predominantly Maori community were not happy with access to public areas blocked. “People come to Mahia so they can go to the beach, and it’s been chopped off now, and by the sounds of it one of these rockets are going to be launching one every 30 days, so they’ve taken over our lifestyle,” said Mahia farmer Pua Taumata. But Taumata also said the program could bring opportunities. “I’m for technology. … A lot of things could come of it through education. It gives our children something different in their careers. Nobody thought to get into the space industry (before now),” he said. Rocket Lab is one of about 30 companies and agencies worldwide developing small satellite launchers as an alternative to firms jostling for space on larger launches or paying around $50 million for a dedicated service. The company said in a statement it has now received $148 million in funding and is valued in excess of $1 billion. Rocket Lab’s customers include NASA, the Earth-imaging firm Planet and the startups Spire and Moon Express. The firm will carry out two more tests before it starts commercial operations, slated to begin toward the end of this year.