Japan-only KitKat varieties a draw as tourists spend more

Abstract: Japan’s inbound tourism shows no sign of slowing down, and spending by foreign visitors is also on the rise. But what exactly are they splurging on? One particular shopping draw is surely Nestle’s KitKat lineup. The British-born chocolate bar has become a tourist favorite thanks to a variety of only-in-Japan flavors — from mega-hit green tea to sake, strawberry cheesecake and even wasabi. But Nestle Japan is dead serious about what some regard as wacky KitKat flavors. In fact, they are the company’s answer to Japan’s aging society and the way to survive its shrinking market, said Takuya Hiramatsu, an assistant manager at Nestle Japan’s marketing and communications division. “For food makers like us, Japan’s total food consumption will inevitably decline as a result of its aging population,” he said. “We have produced unique, premium KitKat flavors to deal with this problem for more than a decade.” The number of foreign visitors last year topped 26.17 million in the 11 months through November, already passing 2016’s record 24.04 million, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. Tourist spending between January and September 2017 increased to ¥3.28 trillion, up 14.7 percent from the same period the year before, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. The agency said that of all the money spent by inbound tourists in that period, shopping accounted for the largest share at 36.9 percent, followed by accommodation (28 percent), eating and drinking (20.1 percent), and transportation (11.2 percent). Nestle Japan’s history of offering a wide variety of flavored KitKats dates back to 2000, when it released strawberry as the first nonchocolate flavor. In 2002, it introduced a melon flavor exclusively in Hokkaido, a product that helped the company realize KitKat’s untapped potential, Hiramatsu said. “After selling the melon flavor in Hokkaido, we found that people from other prefectures and foreign visitors actually came to Hokkaido just to buy our product. That was when we realized that unique KitKats with local flavors have potential as gifts,” he said. Since then, more than 300 varieties have hit the shelves — ranging from custard pudding and apple to soy sauce and cough drop flavors. About 30 different kinds of KitKat are currently sold in Japan, including recently launched Tokyo Banana flavor, which the company produced in collaboration with the maker of the popular sponge cake. Hiramatsu boasted that Japan is now the role model for the global Nestle group for transforming the everyday chocolate bar into a special souvenir. KitKat sales at its Japan branch increased 50 percent from 2010 to 2016, he said. In August, the company opened a new KitKat factory in Hyogo Prefecture — its first in 26 years — to boost production of the premium lineup. The company also opened the KitKat Chocolatory outlet in the posh Ginza shopping district in February to promote luxury items not sold in supermarkets. They include the Moleson series, the first KitKat chocolate bars with crunchy toppings. The price of a Moleson is ¥540, or about five times the price of a regular Kit Kat bar in the familiar red package. Despite the pricey fare, the street-level store is attracting both Japanese customers and foreign tourists looking for unique gifts. “It’s amazing. I had to come in,” said Ajia Fukumoto, who happened to pass by the store. “I had this image that KitKat was something you got cheap at convenience stores. But it’s amazing to know they have a luxury outlet like this in Ginza,” said the 43-year-old self-employed man, who bought boxes of luxury Gateau Mignon KitKat for his relatives. Naomi Babcock and her daughter, Kristen, from Los Angeles, said they came to the store looking for the sake-flavored KitKat as a gift for their neighbor. “My neighbor was here in March. And she told me that I have to go to this KitKat store,” Babcock said. “I have tried the green tea one before. And I liked them. It tasted just like matcha,” her daughter said. “We can’t find a lot of things that you guys have here (in Japan).” But KitKat is not the only made-in-Japan product that attracts foreign tourists. Recently, more foreign visitors come to buy daily commodities like fruit jellies and face washes — ones that are also popular among Japanese customers, said Yu Onozawa, inbound support leader at Don Quijote Co. Surprisingly, soy sauces made for tamago kake gohan (a bowl of rice mixed with a fresh raw egg) have also gained popularity recently with South Korean visitors at its stores, he added. Don Quijote’s discount stores in popular sightseeing areas enjoy strong sales from inbound tourists, particularly from China and South Korea; 61.9 percent of all sales at its Dotonbori Midosuji store in Osaka between July and September were from duty-free customers, according to the company. With bakugai (shopping sprees) by Chinese visitors losing momentum, many visitors from the rest of Asia, particularly South Korea, have been snapping up daily commodities in Japan by coming here with cheap ferry tickets, Onozawa said, noting that foreign customer demand has become much more diverse recently. They are more likely to buy things that also appeal to Japanese customers, rather than products specifically intended for foreign customers, Onozawa said. About 75 percent of all inbound visitors to Don Quijote stores are repeat customers, according to the company. Onozawa said Don Quijote has been offering assistance for duty-free customers, such as multilingual support using a computer tablet and free Wi-Fi. But winning the hearts of foreign tourists is not easy because “if you do too much, you may disappoint” them, he said, adding that the company’s primary target is domestic customers despite increasing foreign visitors. “Think, for example, about the situation when you go to a foreign country and find a store full of commercial messages written in your language,” he said. “Don’t you think shopping at a store for local people can be more attractive, even though you don’t understand the language?”


Winging it: Impatient passenger leaves delayed plane via emergency exit

Abstract: LONDON - An airline passenger was arrested after leaving a plane delayed on the tarmac at a Spanish airport via the emergency exit. Passenger Fernando Del Valle Villlobos captured the incident, which took place on Monday, in a video that showed the man walking along the wing with his bag in hand. Del Valle Villlobos said the Ryanair flight had left London an hour late and passengers were then held on the plane for a further 30 minutes after landing in Malaga, without explanation from the airline. Ryanair said: “Malaga airport police immediately arrested the passenger in question and since this was a breach of Spanish safety and security regulations, it is being dealt with by the Spanish authorities.”


Extremist link probed as Irish police arrest Egyptian in fatal stabbing of Japanese man

Abstract: LONDON - A Japanese man was stabbed to death and two others were injured in separate attacks on the streets of Ireland on Wednesday. The Irish Mirror newspaper reported that the Japanese man, aged 24, was stabbed in the back while walking to work and was unaware of the attacker because he was wearing earphones. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful, according to the report. The Japanese Embassy in Ireland said the victim’s family had requested that his name be withheld. An 18-year-old Egyptian national has been arrested and detained at the Dundalk Police Station in the Republic of Ireland just south of the border with Northern Ireland, according to police. The suspect has not been identified or charged. Authorities believe he had been seeking asylum in Ireland in recent days. The victim was attacked on the street and stabbed on Wednesday morning in Dundalk. He died at the scene. Media reports say the other incidents took place in other parts of Dundalk, with one other person also being stabbed and another attacked with an iron post. Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said the police received emergency calls from three separate locations in the Dundalk area and were able to quickly apprehend the suspect, who was carrying a large fence post when taken into custody. The first attack was reported at about 9 a.m. local time, Mangan said, adding that the attacks were spread out over 40 minutes. He said no motive had been established and that terrorism was being seen as one possibility. “We will endeavor to establish the suspect’s background, who they are and where they have come from and why are they here,” Mangan said at a news briefing. Police indicated the stabbing victim appeared to have been chosen at random and Mangan said it was not clear why an “innocent bystander” would be attacked. Mangan said the suspect had been in contact with the police two days earlier when questions were asked about his immigration status. Dundalk, which is located near the border with Northern Ireland in the U.K., is a small town with a population of some 30,000. It is a transport hub along a highway connecting Dublin and Belfast, the largest city in Northern Ireland.

egyptian japanese ireland terror murder asylum-seeker


China to plant new forests as big as Ireland

Abstract: SHANGHAI - China will plant new forests covering an area roughly the size of Ireland this year as it aims to increase forest coverage to 23 percent of its total landmass by the end of the decade, China Daily reported on Friday. Planting trees has become a key part of China’s efforts to improve its environment and tackle climate change, and the government has pledged to raise total coverage from 21.7 percent to 23 percent over the 2016-2020 period, said the China Daily, citing the country’s top forestry official. Zhang Jianlong, head of the State Forestry Administration, said at a meeting on Thursday that China would aim to grow at least 6.66 million hectares of new forest this year. He said 33.8 million hectares of forest had been planted nationwide over the last five years, with a total investment of more than 538 billion yuan ($82.88 billion), bringing the country’s total forest area to 208 million hectares. Three new state forests with a total area of 483,000 hectares would also be built in the new Xiongan development zone in Hebei province, he said. The heavily polluted Hebei, which surrounds the capital Beijing, has also pledged to raise total forest coverage to 35 percent by the end of 2020. China, which has to feed a quarter of the global population using just 7 percent of the world’s arable land, has long struggled to strike a balance between industrial growth, maximizing food production and protecting its environment. The government is currently promoting an “ecological red line” program which will force provinces and regions to restrict “irrational development” and curb construction near rivers, forests and national parks. The environment ministry said last month that 15 provinces had already drawn up plans, with the remaining 16 aiming to do so this year, but it is not yet clear what impact the policy will have on the country’s farmland.


Lixil takes the lead in affordable and clean toilets for developing nations

Abstract: Lixil Group Corp. has been offering affordable and clean toilets to help enhance sanitation in developing nations. The major toilet and housing equipment manufacturer has put in place 1.2 million units of the “safe toilet,” known as SATO, in developing countries through donations by citizens’ groups and foundations as well as Lixil’s direct sales. The program has helped an estimated 6 million people, according to the company. The toilet, developed in 2012 by Lixil’s American Standard brand, was launched in Bangladesh in 2013 and has since become commercially available in Uganda, Kenya and India. SATO is designed to flush waste with only 200 milliliters of water. It features a counterweighted trap door to minimize odors as well as the passage of flies and other disease-carrying insects, said Tadashi Matsuoka of the Tokyo-based company. The toilet is structured so simply that it can be produced in the targeted developing countries, the company said. Lixil is hoping to reach an additional 15 million people with plans to manufacture and distribute toilets in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Haiti, Ghana, Malawi and the Philippines with $1 million in funding under a program launched in September by the U.N. General Assembly. The Water Innovation Engine, established by the U.N. High Level Panel on Water, is responsible for the Urban Sanitation Challenge program, which funds projects tackling poor sanitation in developing countries. “Priced from $2 to $10, depending on model and country, (Lixil toilets) offer an effective, affordable way to mitigate the dangers and unpleasantness of typical pit latrines,” according to Grand Challenges Canada, which leads the program. Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Canadian government and other partners. It provides funds to innovators to help improve lives in low- and middle-income countries. The blue plastic toilet “looks simple but is designed by utilizing knowledge of hydrodynamics,” said Akane Odake, a senior manager at Lixil. According to the company, approximately 2.3 billion people around the world lack access to safe and sanitary toilets, of whom 892 million are forced to practice open defecation. What’s more, every day 800 children under the age of 5 die from diarrhea-related diseases due to unclean water or poor sanitary conditions, it said. Lixil hopes to make the venture a standalone business by 2020 and improve hygienic conditions for 100 million people. “We set up the social toilet department in 2016 to help resolve the grave problem of sanitation in developing countries,” Matsuoka said. Lixil carried out a campaign from April to September to donate a SATO unit to developing countries every time it sold one of its integrated shower toilets. The response to the program has been better than imagined, said Lixil spokeswoman Yuka Okamoto. “As more than 200,000 units have been donated, we believe (the program) has raised the public awareness about sanitary problems in developing countries,” she said.


Journalism tied to those in power must be checked

Abstract: “If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.” — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin At a recent Kyoto symposium, the issue of sontaku journalism was cited as a major problem affecting public trust in the media. Raising the issue were Isoko Mochizuki, a Tokyo Shimbun reporter, and Sanae Fujita, of the University of Essex School of Law/Human Rights Center. Mochizuki became famous last year after irritating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration with persistent questions related to preferential government treatment for Kake Gakuen, a school operator with close ties to Abe that runs an Ehime Prefecture veterinary school. Fujita writes about freedom of expression issues related to Japan and has worked with the United Nations on this subject. Both were clear about the dangers of sontaku journalism in Japan today. “Sontaku” doesn’t readily translate into English. In the context of Fujita and Mochizuki’s presentations, it can be taken to mean journalism deeply entangled with those in power. Much debate on the issue of sontaku journalism references Tokyo-based reporting by national media. Yet, Mochizuki and Fujita, perhaps inadvertently, raised questions that also have local media implications. Anyone familiar with Japan’s local newspapers knows they can, when they put their minds to it, become aggressive and pursue stories in a way their national media cousins do not. For example, prior to the Kake Gakuen scandal, we had the saga of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal in Osaka. The Osaka media were in a frenzy over the story, which involved the Prime Minister’s wife Akie. Yet from Osaka’s standpoint, the Tokyo-based mainstream media initially dragged its feet, not agreeing about the national significance until forced, thanks to the political and local media pressure, to treat it as a huge story. Other issues are pursued by local journalists less worried about upsetting Tokyo types and more concerned about angering local readers and viewers for merely repeating superficial national media views on a given subject with huge local implications. The Hokkaido Shimbun’s huge volume of reports on the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and agriculture was often more thorough and common sense-oriented than national media stories that repeated pro-TPP talking points. Elsewhere, the Fukui Shimbun and the Kyoto Shimbun ran, and continue to run, articles on nuclear power that are more critical and comprehensive than national media reports. And, love them or hate them, Okinawa’s newspapers retain a strong local identity and stubborn independence. Then there is Mochizuki’s paper, the Tokyo Shimbun. It’s a favorite of foreigners who read Japanese and have grown disillusioned with national papers. In 2015, it won the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan’s publication of the year for “excellent coverage of nuclear issues, political scandals and corruption.” Ironically, although based in and covering the nation’s capital, Tokyo Shimbun is owned by the Nagoya-based Chunichi Shimbun. Nor do local media always follow the national media line in the editorial pages. Tatsuro Hanada, a social science professor at Waseda University, noted last year in a book on Japan’s local media that in 2014, major national newspapers were divided over a collective self-defense bill. But 39 of 42 local newspapers editorialized against it, likely forcing more debate and compromising over the final bill than would have otherwise been the case. Obviously, sontaku local journalism at the local level is also a problem. Osaka-based media were slower than some Tokyo media to critically analyze Toru Hashimoto and the Osaka-based Nippon Ishin movement. In varying degrees, sontaku journalism will always be with us. But a stronger, independent local mainstream media along with a strong alternative media that intelligently challenges, well, everybody, can help loosen the grip of sontaku journalism as it’s practiced in Japan. Both are needed now more than ever.

journalism
sontaku
shinzo abe
kake gakuen
osaka


Debate grows over paying compensation to Olympic 'volunteers'

Abstract: A constant concern about the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics is its cost. Projected operating expenses for the games as of the end of last year was ¥1.35 trillion based on calculations made last May . Although the figure is smaller than it once was, the International Olympic Committee says it is still too high. Given that measures to address weather-related issues such as typhoons and high temperatures have yet to be factored into the budget, the cost could go even higher. According to the Tokyo Shimbun, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the central government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have together established a committee to “unify operating costs” in order to monitor them more effectively . However, this committee, which has only held one meeting, has not addressed the budget of the organizing committee itself. Cost is the main reason for the all-volunteer character of much of the 2020 Olympics staffing plans, and last year a blogger named Motoya Okutani wrote a post about volunteers that attracted attention. Okutani is a sports pharmacist. He monitors athletes’ use of drugs and carries out testing, and in the blog post he objected to the organizers’ solicitation of volunteer sports pharmacists to carry out anti-doping procedures during the games. The volunteers must be certified sports pharmacists and familiar with the procedures of the Japan Anti-Doping Association. They must pass a rigorous screening process and then be available to work at least 10 days. They must also be able to communicate in English. But they will not be compensated for their work and must pay for their own transportation and accommodation. In a related article in the Asahi Shimbun, the reporter says his mother, a pharmacist, spent a year qualifying to be a sports pharmacist for the Olympics but doesn’t think she can afford to take 10 days off. There are 7,900 certified sports pharmacists in Japan and Okutani has asked the organizers to provide volunteers with at least a per diem. An expert in volunteer services for sporting events told the reporter that usually in such circumstances volunteers who belong to a particular profession work for free in order to help publicize the work of that profession and show how it “contributes to society.” The reporter wonders if the organizing committee is really taking the good will of sports pharmacists into consideration, or are they simply trying to save money. And it isn’t just pharmacists. In 2016, Kyoto University foreign language professor Noriyuki Nishiyama urged interpreters in an open letter not to work for free. The requirements for volunteer interpreters are as strict as those for pharmacists, and Nishiyama thinks they exceed what would normally be expected for noncompensated volunteers. If all the person has to do is “stand on a corner and give directions,” he said, then there’s no problem, but these interpreters have to communicate directly with a diverse cross-section of non-Japanese, including high-level officials. They should be paid accordingly. Author Ryu Honma has taken up this crusade. In a tweet he posted last summer that received about 21,000 likes and was retweeted about 38,000 times, Honma urged young people not to volunteer for the Olympics, which he insists is a commercial enterprise. In a discussion with Honma on the internet news show “News Op-Ed,” fellow journalist Takashi Uesugi, who used to write for The New York Times, pointed out that the word “volunteer” in Japan means “to work for no pay,” whereas the English meaning is simply to offer services of your own free will. In the United States, members of the so-called all-volunteer army are paid. Honma, a former employee of advertising company Hakuhodo who was once imprisoned for insider trading, is extremely interested in Japan’s advertising juggernaut Dentsu , which has a huge stake in the Olympics. During a Tokyo symposium on Dec. 14, he outlined the results of his research and pointed out that the bid committee proposal stated in 2013 that the organizers would raise ¥92 billion through sponsors with Dentsu’s help. As of Dec. 4, that amount had ballooned to an estimated ¥399 billion. The Tokyo Olympics now has more than 40 sponsors, whereas there were only about 15 each for the London and Rio De Janeiro games. Honma could not find any explanation of how the sponsorship funds were collected nor a breakdown of how they are being spent, and he sent emails to the organizers to find out. He also asked if it was fair to not pay volunteers if the organizers had received so much money from sponsors. The only answers Honma received were statements taken from the organizers’ publicity materials: The volunteers will come away with “precious memories” and gain “invaluable experience.” But someone from the organizing committee also called Honma’s editor at the weekly magazine that had commissioned his story and complained about the questions, saying that no other media were making such inquiries. The magazine, which Honma hasn’t identified, canceled the article. Uesugi thought that was par for the course, since, except for the Sankei Shimbun and Chunichi/Tokyo Shimbun, all the national newspaper companies, along with their broadcast affiliates, are official sponsors of the 2020 Olympics, and, as Honma implied, they are not contributing money out of sports-loving altruism. The media expects to profit from the Olympics with the help of Dentsu, and none of their employees are “volunteering” their labor. They are working in concert with the organizers and getting paid for it. At both the symposium and on Uesugi’s show, Honma acknowledged that he has heard from people who say they are happy to volunteer for free, and he thinks that’s fine as long as they understand that other people are making money off of their work. However, he wonders if the university students the organizers covet so much can afford to volunteer. Normally, they sit for end-of-term exams in the summer around the time the games take place. The organizers have already asked universities to move up or postpone the exams, and some are apparently willing to do their part, regardless of how it affects their students’ studies.

volunteers
tokyo
tokyo olympics
olympic games


The knives begin to sharpen for Hakuho after sumo scandal

Abstract: At the start of last November’s Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament, Shukan Taishu magazine (Nov. 20) led off its issue with a four-page article titled “What you need to know to enjoy the year’s final tournament tenfold.” If only they had known. Shortly before the Kyushu Tournament, two upper-ranked Mongolian wrestlers came to blows while drinking with their compatriots during a jungyō (regional tour) in Tottori Prefecture. The recipient of the beating, Takanoiwa, missed competing in Kyushu and is also hors de combat in the New Year Tournament. Takanoiwa’s assailant, yokozuna (grand champion) Harumafuji, dropped out on the fourth day of the Kyushu Tournament and by the end of November had ignominiously been forced to quit the sport. He was also arraigned on charges of assault with injury, and on Jan. 3, a Summary Court fined him ¥500,000, in the equivalent to a plea bargain. Takanoiwa’s stablemaster, Takanohana, broke sumo’s version of omerta (code of silence), where public airing of internal disputes is frowned upon, spurring blanket coverage in the sports tabloids and weekly magazines. As a result, sumo’s woes have dominated the news cycle for the past two months. Aside from openly voicing his wariness over what he sees as creeping Mongolian influence in the sport, Takanohana is something of a rebel among his peers in the sumo association. Asahi Geino (Jan. 25) introduced the “three pacts” he has proposed to change the sport and make it more popular to the public, including re-arranging seating at the sumo arena, with reduced ticket prices for children; setting back TV broadcast times on some days to feature bouts in the evening, so that salaried workers can view them live after returning home; and reducing the influence of the tanimachi (wealthy backers) to allow more participation by fans, among others. Shukan Post (Jan. 26) reported on the “secret battle being fought outside the sumo ring during the New Year Tournament between stablemaster Takanohana and sumo association head Hakkaku (former yokozuna Hokutoumi).” In the end, a majority of directors sided with Hakkaku — agreeing that Takanohana was out of line — and voted to demote him two ranks in the association. Like the gentle sport of sumo, however, this is not a knockout blow, and Takanohana may possibly make a comeback by the time the next board is voted in. Depending on who’s reporting, it’s not easy to figure out who’s wearing the black hat, but it’s clear more criticism is being directed at Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho, who won his 40th tournament victory — an all-time record — in Kyushu with an outstanding 14-1 performance. Despite his success — or perhaps because of it — Hakuho’s popularity has been waning and some commentators are beginning to suggest that he retire while his reputation is intact. Others are inclined to accuse him of playing too rough, and offer some compelling evidence: Videos of his past bouts have been repeatedly shown on TV “wide shows,” in which he springs out of a crouch with an elbow smash that gave his opponent a bloody nose. An article in Flash (Jan. 30) demanded the association warn Hakuho not to engage in three moves considered “unbecoming” to a yokozuna: dame-oshi (to push an already defeated opponent); kachi-age (leading with an elbow thrust); or harite (slaps to the face). “Some say that there’s nothing in the rules banning these moves, but it’s not the kind of sumo a yokozuna is supposed to engage in,” sports writer Masayuki Tamaki says. “Association chief Hakkaku is powerless and can’t issue a warning. Hakuho should be told outright, ‘You absolutely can’t do that.'” One day into the New Year Tournament, Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 16) ran a full-page article on its back cover predicting Hakuho might withdraw. The gist of its story goes that the aging yokozuna is hard-pressed to compete against up-and-coming gachinko (earnest) grapplers, and is at a disadvantage when he can’t fall back on rough play. Nikkan Gendai also implied that Takanohana’s condition for a “cease-fire” is for the clique of Mongolian wrestlers (known as the mongoru gojokai, or mutual assistance association) be disbanded and predicted the weeklies were winding up to publish more dirt on Hakuho. Sure enough, four days later Shukan Bunshun (Jan. 25) broke a sensational six-page story that accused Hakuho of being a “key man” in arranging fixed bouts. As predicted, Hakuho pulled out from the New Year Tournament on Thursday after suffering toe injuries, the Japan Sumo Association said. “When it’s all said and done, sumo’s fans will stay loyal,” a 40-something woman tells Shukan Asahi (Jan. 26). “Since it’s the New Year Tournament held here in Tokyo, it’s especially popular.” Some blame was also directed at Takanoiwa, the initial victim in the current fiasco. “It was certainly terrible for ‘Iwa- chan ‘ to have been beaten up by Harumafuji over his smartphone use, but he looks at it constantly,” a former member of the Takanohana stable rationalized to Shukan Asahi. “And while it was kept a secret from the stablemaster, he has some air guns. Sometimes when he gets hyped up, he points them at people or takes pot shots at them.” Shukan Asahi also noted that Takanohana sent out a strange email to his followers that appeared to appeal to nationalistic sentiments. “Taking His Imperial Majesty’s words to heart,” he wrote, “I will endeavor to clarify sumo’s role as an organization that shoulders the burden of kokutai (national polity).” Such patriotic declarations notwithstanding, Shukan Asahi noted in an ironic tone that the association has been notified that the Emperor won’t be attending the New Year Tournament.

hakuho sumo takanoiwa takanohana haramafuji


Stranded Niigata train incident highlights flaws in social media

Abstract: Thanks to social media, anyone can log in to Twitter these days and comment on the fate of people who are stuck inside a stranded train from the comfort of their own homes. Is this what the world has become? Last week, several hundred commuters found themselves trapped inside an East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) train in rural Niigata for about 15 hours due to heavy snowfall . Domestic media jumped on their plight, with television networks making it one of the night’s biggest stories and newspapers devoting substantial space to it in print the next day. And users on sites such as Twitter and 2chan followed the situation closely, despite the story largely focusing on the train’s inability to move. If there’s perhaps one thing netizens do better than keeping close tabs on developing news, it’s doling out blame. While the train remained stalled, users on Twitter far removed from the action voiced criticism about JR’s handling of the situation, while also blaming the local government for not sending in Self-Defense Forces to help. Others wondered why passengers didn’t just walk to the station, or help move the snow themselves. Yet it wasn’t just social media users online criticizing those involved — mainstream outlets also got in on the act. The Asahi Shimbun wrote an article casting the whole incident in a negative light and featuring only angry quotes from passengers . The Kyodo report published by The Japan Times even cut the transportation company no slack. According to social media posts by passengers who were actually stuck on the train, the incident wasn’t nearly as bad as others were making out (to be clear, though, they did say it wasn’t fun). Tweeting about their experience, the passengers were far more appreciative of JR staff and described the experience as a triumph of human kindness rather than pure misery . Passengers took turns to sit down so that no one had to stand for too long, while portable smartphone chargers were shared in order to keep them in contact with the outside world. The JR workers appeared to be largely helpful based on posts by Twitter users such as @AzAzpq, who noted how one gave her a rice ball to eat . JR employees also distributed water , and appeared to do all they could to speed things up. Twitter user @mikeyalo_0914 recalled their experiences after finally arriving home from the ordeal, describing the criticisms that had been leveled at JR staff and going on to clarify what had actually taken place . User @mikeyalo_0914 said JR personnel worked hard to communicate with passengers and clear the snow, and any updates over the PA system were met with cheers of “Don’t give up!” from those inside. The post has been retweeted more than 85,000 times, and led to a wave of other social media posts acting as a counter to the initial cynicism that was expressed online. The idea that trapped passengers could simply walk through several feet of snow to the next station was debunked by those who recognized it was actually much safer to stay on a heated train. Others digitally rolled their eyes at the suggestion that passengers should have helped clear the snow, given that there wasn’t nearly enough equipment available for a bunch of regular folk to do that. Before too long, articles on the subject that were published by mainstream media outlets were lambasted for being overly critical, although Buzzfeed Japan’s balanced take on the issue received some praise . The whole incident is a reminder of how quickly the internet moves to voice an opinion once something happens. Fortunately, however, the same tool that is used to convey unsubstantiated negative opinions can be used the same way to counter such criticisms. In the case of the trapped passengers in Niigata, it helps to hear from people who were involved in the incident or those who have to deal with heavy snowfalls on a regular basis. That said, whether this heartwarming tale of overcoming a difficult situation will stop social media users from complaining about situations they don’t understand remains to be seen.


Nestle cooks up new ruby chocolate for launch in KitKat-crazed Japan

Abstract: Nestle SA will sweeten Japan’s Valentine’s Day with ruby chocolate KitKats, choosing one of the world’s most candy-obsessed markets for the debut of the first new type of natural chocolate in more than 80 years. Nestle struck a deal with Zurich-based Barry Callebaut AG, the developer of ruby chocolate, giving it exclusive rights for six months to the breakthrough product, which has a pinkish hue and natural berry flavor that’s sour yet sweet. The ruby chocolates went on sale Thursday at KitKat boutiques in Japan and South Korea as well as online, ensuring chocolate lovers will have access to the treat before the Feb. 14 observance. While Japan has seen many colors and flavors of KitKats before — its penchant for eccentric flavors such as wasabi or Hokkaido melon has attracted both local residents and tourists — this is the first time ruby chocolate is going on sale since Barry Callebaut announced the innovation in September. “Japan is the market that has made KitKat so iconic in terms of all the different flavors they’ve developed,” said Sandra Martinez, Nestle’s global head of confectionery. “This makes Japan the ideal market to go with this news, and KitKat is a brand that’s modern and connects well with millennials, so it’s the right brand to put the first ruby chocolate in the world.” The move also underscores Nestle’s commitment to the KitKat brand, even after taking a major step away from chocolate this week by selling its U.S. confectionery unit to Italian Nutella maker Ferrero Spa. The $2.8 billion (around ¥310 billion) sale of the business, which includes Butterfinger and Baby Ruth candy bars, comes as Nestle plans to focus on healthier and faster-growing categories like coffee, pet food and water. Ruby chocolate, which is based on a special type of cocoa bean found in Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador and Brazil, is naturally pinkish in color due to the powder extracted during processing. Standard Kit Kats are made from a blend of cocoa liquor, milk and cocoa butter, and the colored varieties are produced using natural food dyes. The innovation comes after about a decade of development. Barry Callebaut, which works behind the scenes to produce chocolate sold by all major producers including Hershey Co. and Cadbury PLC, chose to introduce the product through Nestle, which invented white chocolate more than 80 years ago. Switzerland-based Nestle will introduce the bars in Australia by the second quarter, and is eyeing Latin America by the end of the year. Japan’s $5 billion chocolate confectionery market is Asia’s largest, according to Euromonitor International. It’s also one of KitKat’s biggest markets, creating enough demand that Nestle last summer built its first KitKat factory in 26 years. Meiji Holdings Co., a Japanese chocolate maker, is investing some ¥27 billion ($240 million) into extending two domestic factories amid growing chocolate consumption in the country.

nestle
chocolate
kitkat
valentine 's day


Japan's crime rate hits record low as number of thefts plummets

Abstract: The number of recorded crimes in Japan continued to fall in 2017, hitting a record low of 915,111 on the back of a sharp drop in thefts, preliminary police data showed Thursday. The overall number of cases has consistently declined in Japan after hitting a peak of 2.85 million in 2002, with the government stepping up efforts to tackle crime by boosting police numbers and widening the use of security cameras. In 2016 the figure dropped below the 1 million mark for the first time since the end of World War II, to 996,120. But fraud committed via messages sent through social networking sites and other internet services has been trending upwards, with the police seeing 5,756 crimes last year — a 3.8-fold jump since 2013. Kidnapping and human trafficking also increased with the annual number rising 11 cases to 239 in 2017, a 1.3-fold climb since 2013. The majority of victims were young girls, with 50 cases involving elementary school pupils, 40 cases junior high school students and 42 cases senior high school students. Among those are girls who ran away from home and sought help via social media for places to stay, ending up going to places offered by men they had just met online. The National Police Agency cautions youngsters against simply following someone they do not know, describing this as “extremely dangerous.” The latest data suggests the focus of organized crime groups may be shifting to cybercrime and types of fraud that randomly target people via phone or email, an NPA official said. The overall number of serious crimes, such as murder and robbery, stood at 10,889 in 2017, down 657 cases from the previous year. By the type of crime, the number of larceny cases decreased 67,607 to 655,541 — down 33.2 percent compared with 2013 — with bicycle thefts falling by nearly 30,000 cases from 2016, to 205,392. After the definition of rape was broadened under the revised Penal Code last July to include male victims, the number of cases rose 122 from the previous year to 1,111. The number of indecent assaults and robberies fell by 380 and 480 cases since the previous year, respectively, to 5,808 and 1,852 cases, while there were 920 murder cases and 959 involving arson. Compared with 2013, the figure for robberies was down 44.3 percent. Given the rise in online fraud cases, the agency warned the public against communicating through tools that do not involve face-to-face contact. In relation to billing fraud, the agency said many victims were duped into covering fake charges using prepaid electronic money cards that can be purchased at convenience stores. There are also scams dubbed as “ ore-ore ,” which means “it’s me, it’s me” in Japanese. The swindle involves perpetrators making random phone calls and initiating a conversation by saying “It’s me,” before posing as an acquaintance to ask for a favor or money to pay off a bill. Elderly people are often targeted, with the perpetrators pretending to be a son or friend. Suspects were often identified through police questioning, followed by other means such as security camera footage and police interrogation. In many snatching cases, perpetrators were identified by security cameras. Meanwhile, the number of crimes uncovered and exposed by the police fell by 9,961 cases to 327,105. By prefecture, Tokyo was top for the number of recorded crimes with 125,258, followed by Osaka with 107,032 cases and Aichi with 65,511 cases.

crime
police
fraud
kidnapping
human trafficking
rape


'Living' robot implants are nothing to be squeamish about

Abstract: I think it’s safe to assume that Shogo Shimada, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon at the University of Tokyo Hospital, did not start his career thinking he might one day be implanting robots into living animals. Yet that is just what Shimada and a team of surgeons and roboticists from around the world have now achieved. Their work is the latest in a long line of attempts to solve problems in biology using robots. When I hear about this sort of research, it usually involves micro-robots. And then there’s talk of smaller, nano-size robots that can swim through the bloodstream and deliver drugs or make repairs, as referenced in the 1966 sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage.” We’ll return to this in a second, but let’s first examine the problem that Shimada and his colleagues are tackling. Every year, thousands of children are born with defects in some of the tubes in their bodies. For example, a section of the bowel could be missing, or there could be a gap between the esophagus and the stomach. In either case, it’s a serious problem, as food can’t be processed. Shimada was part of a team that implanted a robot into a living pig to fix the problem. The robot is not the sort of cute android we are used to seeing. It’s a machine made of a couple of steel rings and motors sheathed in waterproof skin. To demonstrate how it can help stimulate growth in an esophagus, it was implanted into a pig’s body and attached to the food pipe. A computer in the robot very gently controlled the elongation of the steel rings. The experiment showed that the robot caused the esophagus to grow by 77 percent in little more than a week. I contacted Dana Damian, a roboticist at the University of Sheffield in northern England. Damian is the lead member of the team. I ask her if people might feel squeamish about having robots “living” inside them, but she assuages my concerns. “Patients already wear implants in their bodies,” Damian says, pointing to hip implants, breast implants and so on. “We want to augment the capabilities of the medical implants.” This means enabling implants to be able to sense the precise state of the tissue near them, and decide a course of action to guide the repair process. “In the future, this technology could be used to reconstruct other tubular organs that have been clinically shown to respond to mechanical stimulation,” Damian says, naming organs such as the intestines and the vasculature of the heart. The team’s findings have just been published in the journal Science Robotics. So it seems this kind of robot will be inside us before even fancier sci-fi versions. However, those are also being developed. Shuhei Miyashita, who trained at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and is now based at the University of York in the United Kingdom, builds exquisite origami-style robots that can be swallowed. The robot then self-assembles inside the body and can be deployed to patch a wound in the stomach, deliver drugs or retrieve something that’s been swallowed. Scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shatin are using yet another method. They are augmenting living organisms and harnessing them instead of building a micro-robot from scratch. Li Zhang and his colleagues take an algae called spirulina and coat it with metallic nanoparticles. They effectively “robotize” the alga. The micro-bot is then controlled magnetically. The team found when they tested the robot in a petri dish, that it didn’t harm normal animal cells but destroyed 90 percent of cancer cells. Unexpectedly, the spirulina produces a compound that kills off tumor cells. And then there’s robo-sperm. Haifeng Xu, based at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Germany, managed to fit sperm with microscopic harnesses that can be loaded with drugs. Just like with the spirulina, this allowed the scientists to control the sperm with magnets. The team want eventually to release the sperm in the reproductive tract of women with cancer. In tests, the sperm swim toward tumors, release their payload of chemotherapy drugs and kill the cancer cells. We’re not there yet but get ready to become very intimate with robots. As all the scientists involved tend to say when asked about this, “We’re on a fantastic voyage.”


Is artificial intelligence killing Japan's banks?

Abstract: As part of an ongoing series about artificial intelligence, the Asahi Shimbun on Jan. 11 published a story that asserts the financial industry has adopted AI more readily than any other . Because finance is a data-driven endeavor, designing AI software to do things such as read and analyze reams of economic information and project future investment performance is progressing rapidly. Moreover, voice recognition is becoming so advanced that standing clients and potential customers will no longer have to talk to humans about their financial needs. Even if a person is going to make the final decision about a transaction, most of the work has already been done. This development, however, may also hasten the end of banks. Due to Japan’s zero interest rate policy, domestic banks can’t make money on loans, so they’ve become clearinghouses for other financial companies’ products, be it mutual funds or insurance policies. Banks are basically salesmen who collect handling fees for delivering products and services. Once that task is automated or otherwise rendered obsolete by new technology, what’s the point of a bank? These types of stories have been receiving a great deal of attention in the media for a while now, and Asahi’s affiliate weekly magazine, Aera, devoted a large portion of its Jan. 22 issue specifically to the end of banking in Japan. The articles seem to be a response to announcements made in recent months by the three Japanese “megabanks” that they would be eliminating a large number of jobs over the next decade: 19,000 at Mizuho Financial Group, 9,500 at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and 4,000 at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. The title of the lead Aera feature, “Seven more years for banks,” makes it clear. The article opens with a scene that took place at a Mizuho branch on Oct. 28 . Alarmed by media coverage of the staff cuts, employees confronted a manager, who said that the reductions would be carried out through “natural attrition,” meaning scheduled retirement and dwindling university recruitment targets. It didn’t mean that any existing employees would be laid off. However, elsewhere in the article, as well as in other articles in the issue, Aera explains that banks are anachronisms. The idea of a bank, which operates by paying interest to people who save their money there and then lends that money to others who pay the bank a higher interest rate, doesn’t apply any more. People will still need to borrow money, but the mechanics of financing is changing. The government has tried to postpone the end of banking by allowing more mergers, but there’s nothing left to merge. Banks still boast respectable profits, but that’s because they take advantage of Japan’s and others’ relatively robust economies and invest customers’ savings in stocks and bonds. They don’t need a lot of people to do that. Bankers who joined their companies during the bubble period in the late 1980s are feeling the most anxious, since they are due for retirement in the next decade or so. In its lead article, Aera cites a questionnaire given out by one bank to management level employees that provides three future job options : remaining at the bank where they are currently employed, transferring to an affiliate company or transferring to a client company of the bank. This last option is a custom peculiar to Japan: When there are no higher-level openings for a senior manager, the company will pressure a client to hire the manager for a dead-end job. In any case, there will be even fewer management slots in the future within banking companies . Younger bank employees may be better off looking for new jobs now while they’re at an age where they can still work their way up in another firm, but as one article points out, despite the high salary and perks that often come with a job in banking, more and more bankers are realizing that there is no guarantee that they will end up in the “elite course” management position they were led to expect . Even worse, they don’t feel they have any control over their future. Aera contends that bank jobs are still coveted by university students. More than 600 graduates of the University of Tokyo, the most prestigious school in Japan, have been recruited by megabanks over the past 10 years. The magazine finds this puzzling, since banks lost their luster after the asset bubble burst in the early ’90s. Smaller, regional banks either went bankrupt or were absorbed by larger firms. Then in 1998, the government had to inject money into the banking sector to keep it solvent. Banking gradually became a seedy enterprise in the public imagination, with employees chasing after more deposits and figuring out ways to increase interest rates on existing loans. And, despite the enormous popularity of the 2013 TV series “Hanzawa Naoki,” which dramatized the intrigues of Japanese banking during the postwar economic miracle, bank employees are no longer considered great catches at gōkon , the organized group dates in which men and women get together for purposes of possible future matrimony. One recruitment consultant told Aera that banks remain popular among students for reasons that have nothing to do with what they want from life. Students from prestigious schools have been “winners” their whole lives, and banks are thought of as the most discriminating employers, so they appreciate the challenge of trying to be hired by a bank even if they aren’t particularly keen to work for one. It’s about inertia, not ambition. And since banks are all the same, they try to recruit students from top schools in order to add distinction to their respective workforces. In the Dec. 20 edition of Diamond Online, economics critic Hajime Yamazaki wrote that he always tries to dissuade young people from working for banks . The salaries may still be high, but so is the risk of being laid off and the chance of upward mobility is getting slimmer all the time. Bluntly put, Yamazaki says banks hire excellent people and then squander their potential. It’s just as well they’re disappearing.

artificial intelligence
banks
banks
employment
banking


Shukan Bunshun shoots itself in the foot with Komuro scandal

Abstract: Another month, another celebrity controversy in Japan. This time, however, the commotion over J-pop producer Tetsuya Komuro’s alleged affair and subsequent retirement might mark the moment that netizens rejected the country’s obsession with scandals. It also allowed those who might fall under the media spotlight a chance to fight back. On Jan. 17, weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Komuro had been involved in an affair with a nurse from a clinic the producer consulted to receive garlic injections , a vitamin-based treatment used to recover from exhaustion. Komuro, one of the country’s most prolific pop artists and producers, has been married to Keiko, lead singer of the band Globe (of which Komuro is also a member), since 2002. Keiko suffered a stroke in 2011, and Komuro has been caring for her ever since. Two days later, Komuro convened a press conference during which he announced his intention to retire from the industry following the report. The story dominated the weekend news cycle, and seemed like another win for Shukan Bunshun. Over the past two years, the magazine has delivered a number of scoops that have focused on celebrities and public figures. It uncovered the affair between TV personality Becky and musician Enon Kawatani , and was one of the first to report on the struggles within boy band SMAP. It has also highlighted drug scandals involving baseball player Kazuhiro Kiyohara and musician Aska , among others. Mariko Oi at BBC News has called Shukan Bunshun the “ magazine shaking up the cosy media club .” Online reaction to the Komuro story, however, was mostly negative. Users of 2chan expressed shock that he had to retire following the publication of the story , with some chiding the sleazy nature of Shukan Bunshun’s reporting. The anger extended to Twitter, where users zeroed in on the publication’s tendency to make others unhappy to sell magazines . When Shukan Bunshun’s scoop-centric account posted a video summarizing the scandal , it achieved “ the ratio ” an unofficial Twitter law positing that if the amount of replies to a tweet outnumbers the amount of retweets and likes, then the tweet is bad. More than 4,300 people responded to scold the publication or hit them with funny pics . It’s a reversal of previous scandals exposed by Shukan Bunshun. Netizens gobbled up info about Becky and Kawatani, for example, and the weekly mag capitalized on the public’s interest. The magazine usually has a photo stand at video site Niconico’s annual Chokaigi event that plays on its reputation as an expose-producing juggernaut . However, Komuro was arguably too sympathetic a target for many. His story fell against a complicated backdrop of his wife’s illness. Komuro cared for her, but reports indicate that it took a toll on him too. A tweet by X Japan’s Yoshiki expressing concern for his friend only won more people over to the producer’s side. Komuro was also well-respected — netizens had mocked Becky and Kawatani well before their scandal — and a current wave of Heisei Era nostalgia doesn’t hurt. His Instagram post announcing the news was met with hundreds upon hundreds of sympathetic comments. Compare such support to any tweet or picture featuring Kawatani, which often inspire a flood of people to mock the singer. Japanese netizens appear to have turned against Shukan Bunshun and other scandal-baiting publications, at least for the time being. And joining them are a group of people with much more of a personal investment in the matter — celebrities and other public figures. It wasn’t surprising to see musicians such as tofubeats and Taku Takahashi offer support for Komuro. Both have worked with the superstar producer and grew up listening to his songs. Joining the chorus to condemn weeklies were baseball player Yu Darvish , politician Yoichi Masuzoe and Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie , among others. Maybe most striking, though, was Enon Kawatani’s response. His entire career was derailed by Shukan Bunshun, so seeing him come out swinging against weekly publications in the wake of Komuro’s retirement wasn’t surprising. (That said, many online said he was nothing like Komuro — netizens really loathe this guy.) A few days later, Kawatani’s band Gesu no Kiwami Otome. released a video for their latest song that further criticized Japan’s entertainment culture and also included some not-so-subtle digs at magazines. And it’s getting attention. Regular people online are condemning publications such as Shukan Bunshun and prominent figures are taking advantage of this to discredit one of the few outlets that has power to bring them down, should it choose to.

shukan bunshun
tetsuya komuro
globe
becky
enon kawatani


Cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck loses ¥58 billion in hacking attack

Abstract: Echoing the Mt. Gox fiasco that happened nearly four years ago, Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck disclosed Friday that a hacker had stolen about ¥58 billion ($532 million) worth of its holdings, sending clients into a panic about the fate of their virtual assets. If confirmed, the heist will surpass the ¥48 billion ($480 million at the time) lost in the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in February 2014. Coincheck Inc., one of Japan’s major cryptocurrency exchanges, said it discovered a significant drop in the balance of its NEM virtual currency at around 11:25 a.m. Friday after about ¥58 billion of it was illegitimately transferred. In a blog post at 12:07 p.m., customers were notified that their NEM deposits had been suspended and that they would be updated when more information became available. But the operational halt only grew bigger, and the startup subsequently froze all withdrawals, including in yen denominations, at 4:33 p.m. It then froze all trading in virtual currencies except in bitcoins at 5:23 p.m. “We are deeply sorry for troubling people with this issue,” Coincheck CEO Koichiro Wada said at a nearly 1½-hour-long news conference that lasted until about 1 a.m. Saturday. Yusuke Otsuka, a Coincheck executive, said the firm is investigating but remains unsure about how it was hacked and how many customers were affected. NEM is a virtual currency launched in March 2015. One NEM coin traded for ¥93 at 2 p.m. Saturday, down 16 percent from the previous day. Jeff McDonald, vice president of the Singapore-based NEM Foundation, which created the currency platform, said in a YouTube video Saturday that the foundation is working with Coincheck to investigate the theft. “We are trying to help them. We are tracking the funds that have been taken,” McDonald said while remaining vague on their prospects for recovering the stolen tokens. Otsuka said it is unclear when the exchange will be able to resume transactions. Coincheck has reported the incident to the police and the Financial Services Agency. Otsuka said Coincheck is considering compensating clients if it cannot recover the tokens but declined to say whether Coincheck had enough cash to do so. Asked whether the firm had sufficient security measures in place to protect clients, Otsuka said they were doing their best but admitted they might have come up short. For instance, Coincheck’s website says that bitcoins are to be stored offline when they are not being traded. Wada said its bitcoins were indeed stored offline but that the more than 5 million NEM coins that were stolen were not. The exchange explained that it was planning to move the assets offline but did not have enough manpower to do the job. Since Coincheck has been running internet and TV commercials featuring a well-known celebrity, some reporters asked whether its investment strategy was more focused on marketing instead of security. “I am in deep remorse on that point,” Wada said. As news of the hack broke, worried Coincheck users braved the frigid weather to gather at Coincheck’s headquarters in Shibuya district to get more information. “I came here because I knew people were gathering and the media were also here. I thought I might be able to get some information,” said a 27-year-old man from Nerima Ward who requested anonymity. He said he started investing in virtual currencies last May and had entrusted about ¥7 million to Coincheck. He also invested about ¥2 million in NEM. “(Coincheck) needs to tell us what is happening now,” he said before the news conference got underway. Due to the surging interest in blockchain technology and the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in 2014, Japan made legal revisions in April to tighten regulations on virtual currency exchanges. Cryptocurrency exchanges are now required to register with the government and submit annual reports, and the FSA can conduct on-site inspections and issue business improvement orders. Coincheck is not a registered operator but had applied to become one. As of Jan. 17, there were 16 registered cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, which has become a major player in the new field thanks to new legislation. According to cryptocompare.com , bitcoin’s trading volume in yen accounted for roughly 30 to 40 percent of the global total in the past month.


Olympic athletes unlikely to eat free-range eggs in 2020, if Japan's farmers have their way

Abstract: Welfare standards for hens are at risk of flying the coop in 2020 because eggs from caged hens are likely to be served up to athletes at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Having set sustainability objectives for the 2012 Games, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games (LOCOG) set a benchmark for animal welfare that required farmers to supply only free-range eggs and chickens at games venues and the Olympic Village. The same standard for cage-free eggs was also used during the 2016 Rio Games, ensuring the chicken served there came from birds that were fed a natural vegetable diet. Animal welfare standards for the 2020 Tokyo Games, however, do not put any restrictions on rearing hens in battery cages — closely arranged small wire cages that house several birds together — as these are widely used in Japan. “Hens have the natural behavior of pecking at the ground for food, as well as nesting before laying eggs. Battery cages limit these behaviors as there is almost no space for hens to move,” said Shusuke Sato, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Teikyo University of Science. “The European Commission banned the use of battery cages for egg-laying hens in 2012.” The Japan Livestock Technology Association, which sets the Animal Welfare-oriented Livestock Management Standards for the 2020 Games, acknowledges in its guidelines that Europe is shifting away from battery cages but says expanding the size of cages could lead to more conflicts among the birds and a decline in productivity. For the 2020 Games, producers who want to supply food must obtain one of two certifications: the Global Good Agricultural Practice (Global G.A.P.) or the Japan Good Agricultural Practice (JGAP). Both include criteria for animal welfare. The farm ministry is aiming to increase certified farmers ahead of the games. It sent out an announcement to its Regional Agricultural Administration Offices in November, calling for recognizing and sharing the basic concepts of animal welfare standards with local livestock producers. Neither of the standards, however, bans the use of battery cages. The farm ministry claims the animal welfare standards for the 2020 Olympics were created in accordance with the codes of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), adopted by 181 countries. But critics say the standards are low by European standards, as well as those used at the London and Rio Olympics, as they do not set numerical benchmarks. “In Japan, there is a similar animal welfare concept called dobutsu aigo (love and protection of animals). Japanese show relatively high concern for the welfare of pets, such as dogs and cats, but are not accustomed to considering livestock animals as part of dobutsu aigo,” said Chihiro Okada, a representative of nonprofit organization Animal Rights Center Japan. Teikyo University of Science’s Sato pointed out that the government’s reluctance to ban battery cages stems from low awareness of animal welfare among consumers. “Unlike Europeans who are highly concerned about animal welfare, public awareness of animal welfare is quite low in Japan, and therefore, Japanese tend to be reluctant to pay for cage-free eggs, which are priced higher than noncage-free eggs,” said Sato. “In Europe, some governments subsidize farm producers who raise uncaged hens. But considering the low public demand for cage-free eggs in Japan, the agriculture ministry is unlikely to subsidize livestock producers who raise uncaged hens.”

hens
cages
animal welfare
livestock
2020 tokyo olympics


Two Koreas' Olympic ice hockey team faces unexpected challenge: language

Abstract: SEOUL - The unified Korean women’s ice hockey team faced an unexpected challenge at their first joint training session, reports said Monday — vastly different hockey terminology on either side of the divided peninsula. Seven decades of almost total separation after the 1950-53 Korean War, with all ordinary civilian contact blocked between North and South, has seen their once common language diverge in many respects. The two Koreas still share the same writing system, known as Hangul — an alphabet developed in the 15th century to replace Chinese characters. But different words are emerging as they develop separately, and in the capitalist South, ice hockey players adapted the sounds of English words for most sporting terms. Skating is called “seu-ke-ee-ting” and a “t-push” — a defensive technique by a goalie — is “tee-pu-sh.” But the North created its own Korean-language words for each move, calling skating “apuro-jee-chee-gee,” while a t-push is a “moonjeegee-eedong,” literally meaning “a move by a gatekeeper.” To overcome communication issues, the South’s sports authorities put together a list of the different vocabularies and distributed it to the players ahead of their first skate together Sunday. It also includes the English pronunciation of the North Korean terms — apparently for the use of the South Korean team’s Canadian coach, Sarah Murray. The list was intended “to help players understand,” one official of the Korea Ice Hockey Association (KIHA) told the South’s top-selling Chosun daily. “But people are still in the process of getting used to it, so we hear a mishmash of terms from both sides during practice.” The joint team was forged as part of peace efforts by Seoul to use the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South to ease tension on the flash-point peninsula. The atmosphere at the first practice was “serious but amicable,” Seoul’s News1 news agency said, citing a KIHA official, adding many Northern players had demonstrated “great focus and fighting spirit.” Since the division of the peninsula the two Koreas have only competed as unified teams in 1991, when their women won the team gold at the world table tennis championship in Japan, and their under-19 footballers reached the world championship quarter-finals in Portugal. North and South have their own three-letter Olympic country codes — PRK and KOR respectively, for the People’s Republic of Korea and Korean Republic — and the unified team has been accorded its own country code, COR, from the French word for Korea, Coree. The ice hockey squad is made up of 23 South Korean players and 12 Northerners, who crossed the Demilitarized Zone last week. They were scheduled to hold a warm-up match against Sweden on Sunday. But the last-minute creation of the team sparked controversy among many South Koreans who accused Seoul of using athletes for political purposes and robbing Southern players of opportunities to compete at the Olympics. The North will send another 10 athletes to take part in the games in other sports, including cross-country skiing and figure skating after its leader, Kim Jong Un, announced an opening to join the event in his New Year’s speech.

languages
north korea
south korea
2018 pyeongchang olympics


Nagoya group home helps troubled youths build a better path to self-reliance

Abstract: A nonprofit organization in Nagoya is running a self-reliance assistance home for young delinquents with no place to return to after they leave juvenile correctional facilities. Operated by the Saihikouboushi Support Center Aichi (juvenile recidivism prevention support center Aichi), the facility, 4S Home, provides support for youths so they can be independent, and helps when they face issues at work or with friends, offering them a safe haven. The 4S home was opened three years ago and has so far helped 21 youths become self-reliant. One of them is a 20-year-old man who entered the group home in June 2016. He was arrested at the age of 17 for driving recklessly in a group and was sent to a juvenile correctional center. He was released a year later, and came to the group home because his mother was ill and he needed to keep some distance from delinquent friends. When the young man first came to 4S Home, he set goals with a staff member, including getting a stable job and saving money so he could become independent, and getting a driver’s license. However, six months later he stopped going to work without giving notice and holed up in his room. He said he “was completely tired,” as he had difficulties finding a suitable job and kept failing the test at the driving school. He lost confidence and locked himself up in his room for about a month. It was then that an old friend tried to tempt him back to his old life, saying: “You don’t belong in a place like that. It’s better to live in the underside of society.” He wavered, but decided to stay because of the relationship he had built with a staff member who came to talk to him in his room every day. The staff member gave him advice, saying: “Why don’t you choose one thing to focus on first, either your work or getting a driver’s license? If you want to quit your job, I can go with you to the company.” Soon after, the troubled teen found the detailed plan he had created to accomplish his goals when he left the correctional center. It reminded him of the determination he’d felt to “start afresh” when he first arrived at 4S Home. He asked himself, “Are you going to trample on the feelings of the people who helped you and return to your evil ways?” Then he thought of his mother, who cried whenever she visited him at the correctional center, and how she must have felt when she entrusted the group home with his rehabilitation. Last July he finally got his driver’s license and left the group home, where he had spent a year. He is now living on his own while working at a job that he secured through a recommendation. “I owe what I am to the group home and staff members,” he said. “The youths who just left juvenile correctional centers are at the starting line toward rehabilitation. We want the group home to serve as a base for them to think about their future path while respecting their individual intentions and hopes,” said Asato Takasaka, head of the NPO. According to the 2017 White Paper on Crime, the recidivism rate for minors who had previously been arrested or given correctional guidance is on the rise, marking 37.1 percent in 2016, up 7 percentage points from a decade earlier. The rate of juvenile delinquents being sent back to correctional facilities or prisons within two years after release is now 12.4 percent, and 22.4 percent within five years after release, according to the report. Having a stable job and relationships with others are vital to prevent juvenile repeat offenses, but many often stumble on their path toward rehabilitation. NPOs and social welfare corporations registered with a probation office operate self-reliance support homes to provide temporary housing — about six months in general — for youths who have just been released from juvenile correctional centers or prisons, until they become self-reliant. There are currently 375 organizations registered nationwide. The types of facilities differ depending on the organization that is running them. At 4S Home 11 residents stay in individual furnished apartments, and staff visit them every day to give advice on their work and other issues. “It is not enough to simply provide them with a place to live,” an official at the Nagoya Probation Office said. “The important thing is whether they can build a relationship with staff within which they can talk honestly when they are facing an issue.” Some of the troubled youths were abused or abandoned by their parents and were sent to live in children’s homes, where they began exhibiting problematic behavior. They are often shunted in and out of different facilities until they eventually end up in a group home. “They need adults who can be strict with them so they can be rehabilitated and become independent,” said Norifumi Senga, a lecturer at Nagoya University who provides psychotherapy to juvenile delinquents. “Building a relationship with trouble youths while supporting them by listening to what they want and what they are really thinking about becomes a matter of course. Such strong relationships have a greater power than strict regulations and penalties to help them start over again,” Senga said.

nagoya
group homes
delinquency
aichi
juvenile delinquents


Publisher of Japan's most authoritative dictionary corrects definition of LGBT

Abstract: The publisher of Kojien, Japan’s most authoritative dictionary, has revised the definitions of two words, including LGBT, that appeared in its seventh edition released earlier this month. The new entries for LGBT and Shimanami Expressway have been posted on its official website and will be the only words revised, publisher Iwanami Shoten said. In the LGBT entry, Kojien failed to distinguish lesbian, gay and bisexual from transgender, defining LGBT as collective term meaning “people whose sexual orientations are different from the majority.” Lesbian, gay and bisexual describe sexual orientations, but transgender refers to people whose gender identity differs from their sex at birth. The revised entry defines LGBT as, “in broad terms, people whose sexual orientations are not heterosexual or people whose gender identity does not match the sex they were identified with at birth.” The revision was prompted by LGBT advocates who demanded a correction. Also revised was the entry for Shimanami Expressway, which originally described it as a section of road linking Honshu and Shikoku and listed four other islands it runs through. In the revised entry, the incorrect reference to Suo-Oshima Island in Yamaguchi Prefecture was deleted and replaced with Oshima Island in Ehime Prefecture. The publisher offered an apology on Thursday and said the two words are the only ones that needed correction. Flyers bearing the corrections and an apology will be distributed at bookstores, and the revised definitions will appear in any reprints.

lgbt
kojien
shimanami expressway
iwanami shoten


Japan's dramatic surge in syphilis cases, with particularly high incidence in Tokyo, puzzles experts

Abstract: Syphilis, a classic sexually transmitted disease nearly eradicated decades ago, is seeing a resurgence in Japan, with the reported number of patients in 2017 topping 5,000 for the first time in 44 years. According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the number of people diagnosed with syphilis rocketed to 5,770 in 2017, more than double the 2,697 seen in 2015 and far exceeding the 621 in 2010. In November 2016 the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry launched a PR battle against sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis, tapping Sailor Moon — a female fighter from the eponymously titled popular manga/anime series — as its advocate and printing leaflets of the character quipping, “I will punish you if you don’t get tested!!” But such calls to arms have failed to stop the rapid rise of the disease, whose early symptoms can be easily ignored and which, if untreated, can cause serious complications. Today we examine syphilis in more detail: What is syphilis and what does it do to your body? Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacterium called treponema pallidum. The Japanese name baidoku , written with the kanji meaning “plum” and “poison,” comes from the way patients develop a red skin rash that looks like red bayberries, according to the health ministry. People can become infected through direct contact with a syphilis sore during vaginal, anal or oral sex. Syphilis can also spread from an infected mother to her fetus. Syphilis is divided into primary, secondary, latent and tertiary stages. Different signs and symptoms appear with each stage, but early signs are easily missed. According to the ministry, patients with primary syphilis develop firm sores at the original site of infection — usually on or around the genitals, around the anus or in the rectum, or in or around the mouth. But the symptoms at this stage cause no pain and recede after a while. It’s best for people to get tested early because the infection remains even after the sores are gone, and those who have been infected may still spread the disease to others. The secondary syphilis stage appears around three months later. By then infection has spread throughout the body and patients develop skin rashes, often on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. But symptoms can disappear within weeks naturally. The condition can be ignored or can be mistaken for symptoms of allergies, rubella or measles. Dr. Kunio Kitamura, chairperson of the Japan Family Planning Association, said many patients visit hospitals when they develop a skin rash. But because the rash can disappear even if untreated, some people ignore the rash and forgo treatment at this point. The latent and tertiary syphilis stages appear several years later, when patients can develop rubber-like tumors across the body, on the skin, in the muscles or within bones. Patients also suffer damage in their internal organs, including the heart, blood vessels and the brain, which can ultimately result in death. Kitamura added, however, that most patients are treated by then so late-stage syphilis cases are rare nowadays. Can it be treated? Yes. Syphilis can be treated with the antibiotic penicillin, experts say, adding that the dosage and period over which the drug should be taken varies from stage to stage. But treatment might not undo damage the infection has already done. Condoms are effective to reduce the risk of infection, though they won’t work if infected sites are outside areas that are covered by the condoms. Kitamura said patients in Japan must take penicillin pills for several weeks because the government has not approved the use of penicillin injections — which, with just one shot, can cure syphilis. Why are the number of infections increasing? The exact causes are unknown and are being studied by doctors and researchers. Kitamura said doctors have recently become more aware of the illness thanks to a recent government campaign and greater media coverage, which has led to more tests and more reports of infections. Doctors are mandated to report all syphilis cases to prefectural governments within seven days. Kitamura noted that unlike other developed countries where men who have sex with men have been associated with the rise, the increase in Japan has been attributed more to heterosexual encounters. Women who have one-off sexual encounters with men they become acquainted with through social media are also at high risk, he said. Dr. Makoto Ohnishi, director of the department of bacteriology I at the NIID, is leading a ministry-commissioned study on syphilis cases in Tokyo. Ohnishi said syphilis is far more infectious than HIV/AIDS, with an infection rate of 10 to 50 percent. He suspects that given the recent surge in the number of women with the disease, women engaged in sex work are among the high-risk groups. To understand how high-risk people contract the disease, Ohnishi’s group, with the help of clinics in Tokyo, is studying nearly 400 women — mostly sex workers — who get tested for syphilis, with the aim of comparing patterns of behavior between those who become infected and those who don’t. Tokyo is the epicenter of the syphilis outbreak, with roughly 30 percent of all cases — far higher than other cities. Is there any truth to comments attributing the rise in syphilis cases to tourists from overseas? In December, Nobuyuki Suzuki, a male assembly member for Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward, caused uproar by tweeting that the recent upsurge in syphilis cases is due to more tourists from abroad — especially from mainland China — bringing the bacterium into the country and spreading the disease by visiting sex industry establishments. Ohnishi said that infection routes are impossible to nail down and that such arguments are based on the mere fact that the timing of the increase in syphilis cases coincides with a surge in tourist numbers. “I won’t even take such claims seriously,” he said. But it’s important to understand, he added, that for anyone who uses the nation’s heterosexual sex industry, the risk of syphilis is there. This is unlike the United States, for example, where the risk of infection through using heterosexual sex services is low. Where can people get tested for syphilis? Urology, gynecology and dermatology clinics can perform a blood test for syphilis. Many municipal public health centers also offer anonymous screenings for free. You can also find information in English and Japanese about HIV/AIDS consultation centers that also offer syphilis tests at www.hivkensa.com .


Brawny pickups and SUVs main attractions at Detroit auto show

Abstract: DETROIT - It’s the year of the pickup truck at the 2018 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Ford unveil new trucks in the fast-growing and highly competitive U.S. auto market. But there are plenty of other vehicles at the show, which is one of the industry’s largest. Mercedes and BMW have new SUVs, while several Japanese automakers are showing off prototypes of future vehicles. It’s all happening in a U.S. auto market that’s shrinking but still expected to remain at healthy levels. Last year sales fell 2 percent to 17.2 million, still near record highs. Analysts expect sales to be just under 17 million in 2018. Here are some of the vehicles being unveiled at the show, which opens to the general public Saturday. Acura RDX prototype Honda Motor Co.’s struggling Acura luxury brand hopes to revive sales with a new version of its best-selling RDX. Acura showed a prototype of the midsize SUV at the show, but it’s close to the version that will go on sale in mid-2018. The 2019 RDX, the first to be designed in the U.S., is longer, lower and wider than the current model, with sharper lines outlined in chrome. A wide, panoramic glass roof will come standard. Under the hood is a new 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and a 10-speed automatic transmission. Acura says the RDX will have the most legroom and cargo space in its class. There’s also a touchpad to control infotainment functions on the 10.2-inch dashboard screen. Acura didn’t reveal pricing, fuel economy or other details. Volkswagen Jetta Volkswagen’s redesigned Jetta offers more room — and a shot at redemption as the automaker tries to recover from its 2015 emissions-cheating scandal. The German automaker says the 2019 Jetta is longer, wider and taller than previous models. VW also aims for a sportier look with a large front grille, higher chrome quotient and LED lighting. The car has a new standard six-speed manual transmission. An eight-speed automatic transmission is optional on the base model. The Jetta’s revamped interior includes a new storage console large enough to fit a standard iPad. The car is among the first of two new models planned this year and will come with a six-year, 72,000-mile (116,000-km) warranty — double what it has been. It goes on sale in the second quarter at a starting price of $18,545 — less than its predecessor. Ford Edge Ford Motor Co. is introducing a high-performance version of its midsize Edge SUV this summer: the Edge ST. It has a 2.7-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine that puts out 335 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque. That’s paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel-drive comes standard, and there’s a specially tuned sport suspension. The Edge ST also has special design cues, including a wide mesh grille, 21-inch wheels and “performance blue” paint. The regular Edge also gets an update, with a more efficient 2.0-liter four-cylinder that puts out 250 horsepower. New safety features include “evasive steering assist,” which uses cameras and radar to detect slower-moving vehicles. Pricing on the Edge and Edge ST hasn’t yet been released. Toyota Avalon Toyota has taken the wraps off its revamped Avalon, which features a longer, lower and wider exterior and a rear cabin that extends another 17.8 cm. The automaker boasts of a “neater” steering wheel, with a smaller switch cluster, enlarged hand grips and cruise control now accessible on the right spoke. The touch screen can be “pinched” or “flicked” like a smartphone. The new Avalon also can connect with a smartwatch or Amazon Alexa-enabled device. The car has two new powertrains: a 3.5-liter V-6 and 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid system. The Michigan-designed Avalon will arrive in showrooms in late spring. Ford Mustang Bullitt Ford Motor Co. is making a special edition Mustang to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film “Bullitt,” whose unforgettable car chase scene helped turn the sports car into an icon. The 2019 Mustang Bullitt — due out this summer — will have an upgraded 5.0-liter V-8 engine that puts out 475 horsepower. It has a top speed of 262 kph and a manual transmission with a white cue-ball shift knob. It’s available in dark highland green, the color “Bullitt” made famous, as well as black. Molly McQueen — granddaughter of “Bullitt” star Steve McQueen — introduced the 2019 Mustang Bullitt on Sunday at the Detroit auto show. It’s the first Ford has produced since 2008. Ford didn’t reveal the cost. Mercedes G-Class Mercedes’ boxy-looking G-Class SUV gets a face-lift that the company says will boost performance both on and off the road. The company readily acknowledges that its appearance hasn’t changed much in almost four decades. But the 2019 version gets numerous changes, including 5 additional centimeters of length and 12 cm of width. The G-Class gets a new independent front suspension as well as a nine-speed automatic transmission. It’s still powered by a 4-liter V-8 with 416 horsepower. It also gets new LED headlights. The G-Class will go on sale in the U.S. by late 2018, but no specific date was announced, nor pricing or fuel mileage.

suvs
detroit auto show
pickup trucks
ford
mercedes
acura
honda
gm


Martin Luther King children criticize Trump, decry racism on MLK holiday

Abstract: ATLANTA - Two of Martin Luther King Jr.’s children and the pastor of his historic Atlanta church marked the national King holiday Monday with sharp denunciations of President Donald Trump, focusing on disparaging remarks he is said to have made about African countries and Haitian immigrants. Angry pro-Haiti protesters and Trump supporters yelled at each other from opposite sides of a street near the president’s Florida resort. At gatherings across the nation, activists, residents and teachers honored the late civil rights leader on what would have been his 89th birthday and ahead of the 50th anniversary of his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. But in the many speeches delivered from pulpits and podiums across the country, Trump’s name came up nearly as often as King’s, with speakers indicating that his turbulent presidency was undermining efforts to ease racial tensions in the U.S. The president spent his first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in office buffeted by claims that during a meeting with senators on immigration last week, he used a vulgarity to describe African countries and questioned the need to allow more Haitians into the U.S. He also is said to have asked why the country couldn’t have more immigrants from nations like Norway. In Washington, King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III, criticized Trump, saying, “When a president insists that our nation needs more citizens from white states like Norway, I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is.” He added, “We got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.” In Atlanta, King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, told hundreds of people who packed the pews of the Ebenezer Baptist Church that they “cannot allow the nations of the world to embrace the words that come from our president as a reflection of the true spirit of America.” “We are one people, one nation, one blood, one destiny. … All of civilization and humanity originated from the soils of Africa,” Bernice King said. “Our collective voice in this hour must always be louder than the one who sometimes does not reflect the legacy of my father.” Church pastor the Rev. Raphael Warnock also took issue with Trump’s campaign slogan to “Make America Great Again.” Warnock said he thinks America “is already great … in large measure because of Africa and African people.” Down the street from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, Haitian protesters and Trump supporters yelled at each other from opposing corners. Trump was staying at the resort for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Video posted by WPEC-TV showed several hundred pro-Haiti demonstrators yelling from one side of the street Monday while waving Haitian flags. The Haitians and their supporters shouted “Our country is not a sh-thole,” referring to comments the president reportedly made. Trump has said that is not the language he used. The smaller pro-Trump contingent waved American flags and campaign posters and yelled “Trump is making America great again.” One man could be seen telling the Haitians to leave the country. Police kept the sides apart. Trump dedicated his weekly address to the nation, released Monday, to King. “Dr. King’s dream is our dream, it is the American dream, it’s the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people and written into the soul of humankind,” he said in the address, which he tweeted to his followers. “It is the dream of a world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from.” The president’s remarks appeared not to resonate with the Rev. Al Sharpton, who also used the holiday to take aim at the racial rhetoric Trump is said to have used. “Trump Tower is in the wrong state,” Sharpton told a crowd of 200 at the National Action Network in Harlem. He said it was embarrassing that Trump is from New York. “What we’re going to do about Donald Trump is going to be the spirit of Martin Luther King Day,” he said.

racism
donald trump
haitians
u.s .
native americans
martin luther king jr .
cherokees


Wallaby gets the jump on police in Sydney Harbour Bridge chase

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australians often joke that tourists expect to see kangaroos hopping across the Sydney Harbour Bridge but the joke was on police on Tuesday when a wayward wallaby led them in an early-morning chase across the famous landmark. Police said they chased the mysterious marsupial on foot and in a car over the bridge before dawn before catching it in a downtown park and taking it to the city’s Taronga Zoo. “Officers took the startled macropod into police custody … with the police mounted unit arriving on scene soon after to take it to the zoo for veterinary assessment,” New South Wales Police said in a statement. Video filmed from a pursuing patrol car showed the meter-high wallaby, which looks like a small kangaroo, hopping across the famous bridge. A policeman stifled a laugh as he drove behind. “Sydney’s got the best harbor in the world, so I’d imagine he was taking in the view,” police inspector Kylie Smith later told reporters. “We actually do have wallabies or kangaroos that jump down the main street of Sydney.” Nicknamed “The Coathanger,” Sydney’s famous arch-span bridge opened in 1932 and, with 8 traffic lanes, 2 railway lines and a footpath and cycleway, is the main harbor crossing linking the city with its northern suburbs. While wallabies and kangaroos are found in both rural and leafy suburban areas, it is highly unusual to see them in the middle of a major city. “I’m from the ‘bush’ (rural Australia), so I’m used to see them running around all over the place but I’ve never seen one so close to the city before,” said a driver who gave his name as Ray, one of several people who called Sydney radio station 2GB. Police said the wallaby probably began its city-bound journey at a golf club on the harbor’s north shore before it was spotted hopping south across the bridge in lane 8 at about 5 a.m. “Traffic controllers … monitored the wallaby as it hopped across to lane 1 and, without indicating, exited onto Cahill Expressway then to Macquarie Street,” police said in a statement. Larry Vogelnest, senior veterinarian at Taronga Zoo, said X-rays showed the wallaby had not suffered any serious injuries. “The swamp wallaby remains in a stable condition at Taronga Wildlife Hospital’s intensive care unit … our hope is that the wallaby will be able to be released back into the wild,” he said in a statement.


University entrance exam question on Moomins series leaves Japanese students bewildered

Abstract: A confusing question on the annual university entrance exam featuring hippopotamus-like creatures and Nordic languages left many Japanese high school students scratching their heads. The controversial multiple-choice question in the geography section of the National Center Test for University Admissions, which took place over the weekend, asked students to identify the setting and corresponding language spoken by the Moomins, the main characters in a popular series of picture books and comics by Finnish author Tove Jansson. Answers made public after the test gave the correct choice as Finland and Finnish, despite the fact that the setting is never made clear in the stories. The question quickly gained attention on social media, with many commentators expressing criticism. The outcome of the test is often the most important determinant in the university admissions process, with one incorrect answer having the potential to be the difference between attending university or spending another year preparing for the subsequent year’s test. A manifestation of the widespread frustration among students could be seen in a hashtag translating to “unforgivable Moomin,” which briefly became a top trending phrase in Japanese Twitter feeds. “While the Finnish author of the Moomins, Tove Jansson, may have written the stories with a Nordic nature in mind, the whole idea to the story is that it takes place in an imaginary place,” said Markus Kokko, counselor of press and culture at the Finnish Embassy in Tokyo. A portion of the question, which also included Swedish writing and a corresponding cartoon, drew the additional ire of a team of professors from the Swedish language research center based at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Language and Culture. The team of researchers pointed out what they saw as a number of linguistic and cultural misconceptions overlooked by the makers of the test. “We want to express our unease about the risks that this question poses to both test-takers and Japanese society,” they wrote in a public letter posted online. This is not the first time that the examination has come under fire. Responding to criticism pertaining to an over-emphasis on rote learning, exam administrators have in recent years introduced a slate of changes set to be implemented in 2021. The new format will include Japanese composition in addition to English writing and speaking. Over 580,000 people took the exam in 2018, according to official figures from the National Center for University Entrance Examinations, the independent body that administers the test. The pressure on students is often high, as many spend years preparing for the various sections of the exam, which include social studies, geography, history, Japanese and English. Days before the test, students often make pilgrimages to shrines devoted to scholarship to pray for good fortune. On Monday afternoon, reflecting the importance of the test in Japanese society and widespread interest in the controversial question, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was asked to respond to the controversy. “While I am aware of the reports, it is not the position of the government to comment on the test,” Suga replied.