Mike Pompeo in Mideast seeks to build coalition against Iran but faces hard sell

Abstract: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks Monday with the Saudi king and crown prince about countering the military threat from Iran by building a broad, global coalition that includes Asian and European countries. Pompeo is likely to face a tough sell in Europe and Asia, particularly from those nations still committed to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump repudiated last year. With tensions running high in the region after Iran shot down a U.S. surveillance drone on June 20 and Trump said he aborted a retaliatory strike, Iran’s naval commander warned that his forces won’t hesitate to down more U.S. drones that violate its airspace. The U.S. has been building up its military presence in the Persian Gulf. The U.S. announced additional sanctions Monday on Iran aimed at pressuring the Iranian leadership into talks. The sanctions, re-imposed after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, have crippled the Iranian economy and pushed up the cost of living. Iran has decried U.S. sanctions, which essentially bar it from selling its oil internationally, as “economic terrorism.” Pompeo, considered a hard-liner in Washington, referred to Iran as “the world’s largest state sponsor of terror” before he embarked on the hastily arranged Middle East stops on his way to India, Japan and South Korea. He said he’d be speaking with leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned, and how we can build out a global coalition … not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe” that is prepared to push back against Iran. But Germany, France and Britain, as well as Russia and China, remain part of the nuclear accord that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for set limits on its uranium enrichment levels. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal last year. Germany, Britain and France have sent envoys to Tehran recently, signaling they remain committed to diplomacy and dialogue. They cautioned against moves that can lead to conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Berlin appears cool toward U.S. talk of a global coalition against Iran as it tries to salvage the nuclear deal. German media have drawn parallels between Pompeo’s talk of a coalition and President George W. Bush’s “coalition of the willing” against Iraq in 2003, which Germany and France opposed. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said his country had “taken note via the media” of Pompeo’s comments and that Germany’s “top aim is and remains a de-escalation of the serious situation.” On Monday, Trump tweeted that China and Japan depend on the security of the Persian Gulf waterways for the bulk of their oil imports, and he asked why the U.S. is protecting the shipping lanes for other countries “for zero compensation.” “All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been a dangerous journey.” He said the U.S. doesn’t “even need to be there” because it produces much of its own energy needs. Brian Hook, the U.S. special envoy for Iran, said one option could be to “enhance” an existing multinational maritime force of about 30 countries that currently fights drug and arms smuggling in the region. Alternatively, he said allied nations with commercial interests in the oil-rich region could launch an all-new maritime security initiative. Another option could be military ships patrolling the Gulf waters and equipped with surveillance equipment to keep watch on Iran. The narrow Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and Oman and opens to the Persian Gulf, is paramount for Asian oil importers. An estimated 18 million to 20 million barrels of oil — much of it crude — pass through the strait every day. The U.S. Navy, which has its 5th Fleet based in Bahrain to protect the strait, escorted oil tankers to ensure American energy supplies in the 1980s when Iran and Iraq were targeting each other’s exports, but the U.S. is no longer as reliant on Arabian producers. Today, any conflict that threatens tankers would badly disrupt crude supplies for energy-hungry countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia, which are among the top five importers of Arabian oil. After his meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Pompeo tweeted that he had a “productive meeting” with the monarch and discussed “heightened tensions in the region and the need to promote maritime security” in the Strait of Hormuz. Pompeo then traveled to neighboring Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, another close U.S. ally. The regional stops may be aimed at reassuring Washington’s Sunni Gulf Arab allies that the White House remains committed to keeping pressure on Shiite Iran following Trump’s decision against retaliation, which likely raised questions about U.S. willingness to use force against the Islamic Republic. On a visit to Israel on Sunday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, also considered a U.S. hard-liner, said Iran should not “mistake U.S. prudence and discretion for weakness.” Iran’s naval commander, Rear Adm. Hossein Khanzadi, declared that Tehran is capable of shooting down other American spy drones that violate its airspace, saying “the crushing response can always be repeated.” He spoke during a meeting of defense officials in Iran. Trump has wavered between bellicose language and actions toward Iran and a more accommodating tone, including an offer for negotiations. Iran has said it is not interested in a dialogue with Trump. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. accused Iran of being behind attacks on tankers near the Persian Gulf in recent weeks, while the UAE has been urging diplomacy to avert a wider conflict. On the eve of Pompeo’s visit to the kingdom, Yemen’s Iranian-allied rebels attacked a Saudi airport near the Saudi-Yemen border, killing a Syrian resident and wounding 21 other civilians, the Saudi military said. The Houthi rebels claimed they used bomb-laden drones to attack the Abha airport, the second in less than two weeks. Drones were also used against a Saudi oil pipeline last month. Saudi Arabia has been at war with the rebel Houthis in Yemen for more than four years. The Houthis say the attacks are a response to relentless Saudi airstrikes on Yemen that have killed thousands.

mike pompeo
iran
donald trump
drones
saudi arabia
france
china
strait of hormuz
bahrain
u.s .


Police in Belgium nab man suspected of planning attack on U.S. Embassy in Brussels

Abstract: BRUSSELS - Belgian counterterrorism police have arrested a man suspected of plotting an attack against the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, federal prosecutors said Monday. The police Saturday arrested the man following “converging signs raising fears of an attack against the U.S. Embassy,” the prosecutor’s office said. “The suspect has been detained for an alleged attempted attack within a terrorist context and preparation of a terrorist offense,” it said in a statement. The man, identified only as M.G., appeared Monday morning before an investigating judge who ordered him held, it added. The suspect denies any involvement in the alleged plot. A source close to the investigation said the suspect is a Belgian man around 40 years old and a convert to Islam who had “raised suspicion because of his behavior.” He had been seen “scouting” the embassy area before he was arrested, the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source declined to say whether the suspect fit the profile of a jihadi. A spokesman for the embassy said, “We have no comment at this time.” Jihadis have staged a number of attacks in Brussels, which hosts the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. The worst was carried out on March 22, 2016, when suicide bombers killed 32 people and wounded hundreds of others at Brussels airport and a metro station near EU headquarters buildings. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the twin attacks. Since 2016, several other attacks, some of them also claimed by IS, have targeted Belgian police or soldiers. The last “terrorist attack” occurred in the eastern city of Liege on May 29 last year when Benjamin Herman shot dead two female police officers and a student. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) before being shot dead by police. Since the end of January 2018, the terrorism alert level in Belgium has been set at two, which means an attack is considered unlikely, the same as it was before January 2015. A level three alert — indicating an attack is possible and likely — was set later in January 2015 after police smashed a jihadi cell in the eastern city of Verviers. That Belgian police raid occurred a week after attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. The level four alert — which means a serious and imminent threat of attack — has been put in place twice but for limited duration. It was imposed for the first time for a week in the wake of the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris which claimed the lives of 130 people and wounded hundreds of others. It was then raised from three to four in the days after the March 2016 attacks. Police say they believe the same cell was behind both the French and Belgium attacks.


'Fraught with uncertainty': Helsinki bombshell and Mueller probe loom over Trump-Putin meeting

Abstract: NEW YORK - The shadow of Helsinki lingers. Uncertainties about Russia’s past and future election interference continue. And tensions are high over hot spots from Iran to Venezuela. When President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet this week on the sidelines of an international summit in Japan, it will mark a new chapter in a much scrutinized relationship that crackles with questions and contradictions. Even as Trump places a premium on establishing close personal ties with Putin, his government has increased sanctions and other pressures on Moscow. The agenda remains a mystery, as still does the outcome of their last meeting, nearly a year ago in Finland. “The whole world was watching in Helsinki when President Trump sided with Putin over his own intelligence community and we still, all this time later, don’t know what they discussed in their private meeting,” said Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama. “And now, I suspect, they will bond over the end of the Mueller probe and push the narrative, individually and together, that there was nothing there. It will feel like a vindication to them both.” The Group of 20 summit in Osaka will be the leaders’ first meeting since special counsel Robert Mueller ended his investigation with no finding that the Trump campaign in 2016 conspired with Russia. That question long had shadowed Trump’s presidency. Putin has denied that Russia meddled in the American election to help Trump win, even though Mueller uncovered extensive evidence to the contrary. That included a Russian military intelligence operation to break into Democratic Party emails and efforts by a “troll farm” to spread divisive rhetoric and undermine the U.S. political system by using phony social media accounts. The current tensions with Iran are certain to be a meeting topic. Trump last week called off airstrikes to retaliate for Iran’s destruction of a U.S. drone hours after Putin said the use of U.S. force in the region would trigger a “catastrophe.” Putin’s defense of Tehran is not the only authoritarian government that he has backed. Putin has supported Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and Syria’s Bashar Assad, helping keep each in power despite American opposition. Moscow’s deepening ties with China also have unnerved many in Washington. For years, Trump has raised eyebrows with his effusive praise of Putin. The Russian president has steadfastly refused to criticize Trump, saying Russia-U.S. relations have become hostage to American political infighting and its “deep state.” “Even if the president wants to take some steps forward, to discuss something, there are plenty of restrictions coming from other state structures,” Putin said in a radio call-in event last week, adding that he believed Trump’s re-election bid will further tie his hands. “Dialogue is always good and necessary. If the American side shows interest in that, we are naturally ready for a dialogue as much as our partners are.” The leaders last year announced their withdrawal from a key arms control pact, the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. It is set to terminate this summer, raising fears of a new arms race. Another major nuclear agreement, the New Start treaty, is set to expire in 2021 unless Moscow and Washington negotiate an extension. “The relationship between the two nations is in poor shape by any measure and the administration policy toward Russia is relatively tough even though the president’s rhetoric is not,” said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. “There is nothing teed up to succeed at this meeting.” Along with arms control frictions, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine weigh heavily on Russia-U.S. relations. Last November, Trump abruptly canceled a scheduled round of talks with Putin on the sidelines a summit in Argentina, citing Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian navy ships and their crews. The two men briefly spoke later. Putin’s primary goal is to get Trump to ease sanctions that Congress has stepped in and toughened. Putin acknowledged last week that U.S. and European Union sanctions have cost Russia an estimated $50 billion since 2014. That has helped weaken Putin’s hand and reduced his hopes for some grand bargain that would elevate Russia’s power around the globe. As for Trump’s aims, “it’s hard to know what the White House’s goals are because this is not a normal administration,” said Kimberly Marten, political science chair at Barnard College. “If it were, you could imagine progress being made on New Start treaty and arms control, while also trying to avoid conflict escalation in areas where their interests oppose, like Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Ukraine. But I am not sure what the purpose of the meeting is.” All of Trump’s meetings with Putin have raised questions. At their first one, in Germany in 2017, Trump took his interpreter’s notes afterward and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone. Trump later sat next to Putin at dinner without any American witnesses. That fall, in Vietnam, Trump listened to Putin’s denials about interfering with the 2016 election. And last July, Trump and Putin spent more than two hours in a private meeting in Helsinki with only their interpreters present. Some U.S. intelligence officials were never briefed on the discussions. On Monday, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said the White House never responded to a February letter asking what happened to records of the discussion. At the news conference that followed the Helsinki summit, Trump responded to a reporter’s question by declining to denounce Russia’s election interference or side with his own intelligence agencies over Putin. Last week, when asked on NBC if he would warn Putin not to interfere in the 2020 election, Trump offered “I may.” He made no promises to push to safeguard the American vote. “This meeting, like their others, feels fraught with uncertainty,” said McFaul.

helsinki
russia
iran
donald trump
vladimir putin
osaka
robert mueller
u.s .
g20
russia probe


Three Chinese banks face U.S. restrictions in North Korea sanctions probe: report

Abstract: BANGALORE, INDIA - Three large Chinese banks could lose their access to the U.S. financial system, after a judge found them in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a probe into the violation of North Korean sanctions, The Washington Post reported Monday. The three banks were not identified by the judge, but details in the court ruling align with a 2017 civil forfeiture action against Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, according to the report. At that time, the U.S. Department of Justice accused the banks of working with a Hong Kong company, which allegedly laundered over $100 million for North Korea’s sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank, according to the paper. A spokesman at China Merchants Bank said he was aware of the report but could not immediately comment. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Bank of Communications could not be reached immediately for comment. The report comes as the United States and China have been engaged in a trade dispute for months on issues such as tariffs, subsidies, technology, intellectual property and cyber security, among others. The U.S. government has put some Chinese companies, including telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, on a trade blacklist, while China is also drawing up its own “Unreliable Entities List” of foreign firms, groups and individuals. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet this week at the G20 summit in Japan amid hopes they will calm their 11-month trade war.

banks
north korea
sanctions
china
u.s .
nuclear weapons
united nations


Myanmar blackout may be cover for gross human rights violations, U.N. investigator says

Abstract: GENEVA - Myanmar’s army may be committing gross human rights violations under cover of a mobile phone blackout in parts of Myanmar’s Rakhine and Chin states, U.N. special rapporteur Yanghee Lee said on Monday. Lee, an independent expert who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council on human rights in Myanmar, said nine townships had been blacked out, with no media access and serious restrictions on humanitarian organizations. “I fear for all civilians there,” Lee said in a statement. “I am told that the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s army) is now conducting a ‘clearance operation,’ which we all know by now can be a cover for committing gross human rights violations against the civilian population.” The statement said there were credible reports that army helicopters carried out attacks in Minbya Township in central Rakhine on June 19, and the following day, the Arakan Army fired on a navy ship in Sittwe, killing and wounding several soldiers. The Arakan Army is an insurgent group that recruits from the mainly Buddhist ethnic Rakhine population and is fighting for greater autonomy for the state. The conflict has included use of heavy weaponry, airstrikes and helicopter gunships, with significant loss of life on all sides, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the U.N. Human Rights Council earlier on Monday. Rakhine state came to global attention after about 730,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed into Bangladesh fleeing a military crackdown in response to militant attacks in 2017. U.N. investigators have called for senior military officers to be prosecuted over allegations of mass killings, gang rapes and arson. The military denies widespread wrongdoing. A leading telecom operator, Telenor Group, said on Saturday that the Ministry of Transport and Communications had ordered a temporary shutdown of internet services in conflict-torn western Myanmar, where government troops are fighting ethnic rebels. It said the ministry had cited “disturbances of peace and use of internet activities to coordinate illegal activities,” but a military spokesman said the army had no information about the shutdown and was not behind it. Lee called on the government to end the mobile internet ban. Lee’s statement said the conflict between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw has been going on since late 2018 and has displaced more than 35,000 civilians.

myanmar
rights
rakhine
yanghee lee
michelle bachelet
rohingya
u.n .
ethnic cleansing


90% of foreign residents in Japan say they need more public support with living conditions, survey finds

Abstract: About 90 percent of foreign residents in Japan who responded to a government survey say they need more public support with their living conditions, with assistance in finding housing sought most, the internal affairs ministry said Tuesday. The survey of 375 foreign students and workers highlighted the pressure to enhance the living environment for foreign residents, which has increased due to April’s launch of a visa system to address chronic labor shortages. Asked about specific needs in a multiple-choice question, 63.7 percent called for more rentable residences for foreign nationals and information on them, and 44.0 percent sought more hospitals with services in English or their mother tongue, and information about them. In the survey, 43.7 percent said they would like the pension systems of Japan and their home countries to be connected, while 33.0 percent requested the promotion of multilingual administrative services. “Many rental properties in Japan are unavailable to foreigners and it took me about two months to find one,” said a respondent, while another said, “I wish there were government offices where even people who don’t speak Japanese well can check the rent and easily complete the procedure to move in.” On the other hand, 82.9 percent of respondents said they are “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with their living circumstances, citing public safety and substantial coverage by health insurance systems, among other reasons. In a separate survey by the ministry on companies hiring foreign workers, 38 out of 55 firms, or 69.1 percent, said public support is needed, with many calling for multilingual administrative services. “Documents sent by administrative bodies, such as reminders of pension premium payments, are written only in Japanese, which are hard for foreigners to fully understand,” said one company. Based on the survey result, the ministry underlined the importance of local governments in directly responding to the needs of foreign residents and called on relevant central government offices to publicize information on best practices. Among such efforts, Fukuoka Prefecture offers round-the-clock interpretation services by phone for foreign patients with medical emergencies in 17 languages, including Tagalog and Khmer. The number of users of the service doubled to 778 in fiscal 2018 from the previous year. The prefecture said it also dispatches interpreters for medical services due to strong demand from medical institutions. As for housing support, the city of Yokohama has teamed up with a local nonprofit organization and others to set up a body to help foreign nationals find places to live. In 2018, Hiroshima Prefecture created a website that provides disaster, child care and medical services tips in seven languages. Japan’s low birthrate and graying population prompted the government to launch the new visa program, under which the country anticipates receiving up to 345,000 foreign workers in 14 labor-hungry sectors such as nursing care, construction, shipbuilding and farming over the next five years.

survey
housing
foreign students
foreign workers


Sea Shepherd in Australia eyes measures against Japanese whaling

Abstract: SYDNEY - The Australian division of anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd is considering possible measures against Japan’s plan to restart commercial whaling in July after a hiatus of 31 years, according to a senior official. “Our goal is to see an end to whaling in the world’s oceans,” Jeff Hansen, managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia, said in a recent interview. “We are still looking at what we can do” against Japanese whaling. Sea Shepherd has used extreme measures against Japanese research whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, often attacking the whaling vessels from small boats. Citing countries such as Iceland and Norway in addition to Japan, Hansen said, “We still oppose all whaling” due to “the important role that whales play in the health of oceans and marine ecosystems.” “Their numbers still haven’t recovered from the days of whaling,” he added. Although Sea Shepherd is looking at measures against Japanese whaling activities, Hansen said the group has no detailed plan at this stage. Noting that he heard some Japanese lawmakers are opposed to whaling, Hansen said that a “good movement is coming from within Japan, which gives us hope.” He expressed his hope that Japanese people will “stand up for the protection of whales.” During the interview, Hansen said that the group is a marine conservation organization” with a focus on “illegal fishing, plastics and climate.” “We work with governments and provide information to Interpol,” Hansen said, stating that the group has exposed illegal fishing activities, which are a serious problem in Africa.

sea shepherd
australia
whaling
iceland
norway


Japan's ruling coalition aims to win majority of seats available in Upper House election

Abstract: The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito aim to win a majority of the seats up for grabs in the upcoming Upper House election, a senior ruling party lawmaker said Monday. “We will aim to win at least 63” out of the 124 seats to be contested, LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai said during an interview. “It won’t be difficult if we try hard.” The comments came after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who heads the LDP, said Saturday that the line dividing victory from defeat will be whether the coalition wins a majority of seats, without clarifying whether uncontested seats in the Upper House are included. The election is to be held as the six-year term for half the Upper House members will expire July 28. The LDP-Komeito coalition secured a sweeping victory in the 2013 Upper House race. Still, the ruling parties do not have a two-thirds majority in the House of Councilors, which is needed if Abe wants to pursue his long-cherished goal of amending the pacifist Constitution.

upper house
elections
komeito
ldp
toshihiro nikai
shinzo abe
diet


Abe Cabinet survives no-confidence motion in Lower House over handling of pension report

Abstract: A no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was voted down Tuesday in the House of Representatives, with the ruling bloc fending off opposition criticism about the government’s handling of a pension report. Opposition parties have launched a last-ditch offensive before the regular Diet session ends Wednesday, taking aim at what they say is the Abe administration’s failure to address public concerns about the sustainability of the nation’s pension system. The motion, submitted earlier in the day, condemned the Cabinet for acting “irresponsibly and extremely dishonestly over issues that directly affect people’s lives,” such as the pension report and the planned consumption tax hike in October. The opposition groups that submitted the motion include the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito control the Lower House. The recent furor came after Finance Minister Taro Aso refused to accept the report, which was penned by a panel of experts under the Financial Services Agency he oversees. The report contained an estimate that an average retired couple would face a shortfall of ¥20 million under the current pension system if they live to be 95 years old. Aso has insisted that the reason he decided not to accept the report was that it contradicted the government’s position. But opposition party members dismissed that argument, saying the government is seeking to put a lid on inconvenient truths ahead of a House of Councilors election set to take place in July. The opposition parties also took issue with what they say is the government’s reluctance to fulfill its responsibility to explain the pension issue to the public. They said they have been calling for the budget committees of both houses to hold sessions attended by Abe but to no avail. “Prime Minister Abe has refused Diet deliberations, and it’s ungraceful that he has been escaping accountability,” the opposition parties wrote in the motion. It is common for opposition parties to file a no-confidence motion before a Diet session ends. But some opposition party lawmakers had reservations about submitting the motion, fearing it may provide a reason for Abe to dissolve the powerful lower chamber for an election at a time when opposition forces still appear to be unprepared. Despite that concern, Abe had said recently that dissolving the Lower House is not on his mind. Koichi Hagiuda, the LDP’s deputy secretary-general, said at a press conference Tuesday that he sees no reason for the Cabinet to be denounced and urged to resign. A censure motion against Abe submitted by opposition parties was also voted down in the Upper House on Monday.


Trump muses privately about ending 'unfair' postwar U.S.-Japan defense pact

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump has recently mused to confidants about withdrawing from a long-standing defense treaty with Japan that he thinks treats the United States unfairly, according to three people familiar with the matter. Trump regards the accord as too one-sided because it promises U.S aid if Japan is ever attacked but doesn’t oblige Japan’s military to come to America’s defense, the people said. The treaty, signed more than 60 years ago, forms the foundation of the alliance between the countries that emerged from World War II. Even so, the president hasn’t taken any steps toward pulling out of the treaty, and administration officials said such a move is highly unlikely. All of the people asked not to be identified discussing Trump’s private conversations. Exiting the pact would jeopardize a postwar alliance that has helped guarantee security in the Asia-Pacific, laying the foundation for the region’s economic rise. It would also risk spurring a fresh nuclear arms race as Japan would need to find another way to defend itself against threats from China and North Korea. Under the terms of its surrender in World War II, Japan agreed to a pacifist Constitution in which it renounced the right to wage war. The president will make his second trip to Japan in a matter of weeks on Wednesday when he travels for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka. He’s expected to again meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who enjoys as good a relationship with the mercurial and unpredictable American president as any foreign leader. Yet as with many U.S. allies, there are growing tensions between the countries over Trump’s attitude toward trade. The president has said he may enact tariffs on imports of foreign cars, calling them a threat to national security — an allegation called preposterous by automakers and many U.S. lawmakers. It’s unsettled in American law whether the president can withdraw from a ratified treaty without congressional approval. President George W. Bush withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 without lawmakers’ consent. Trump regards Japan’s repeated efforts to move a large U.S. military base in Okinawa as a sort of land-grab, the people said, and has raised the idea of seeking financial compensation for American forces to relocate. Trump’s focus on the U.S. defense pact with Japan may foreshadow broader scrutiny of American treaty obligations across the world, two people familiar with the matter said. The president has said in private conversations previously that he has Japan’s back and is aware of the United States’ obligations under the treaty. But, as with his stance on other multilateral agreements, he wants the relationship to be more reciprocal. “The U.S.-Japan alliance has never been stronger,” Trump told sailors and Marines last month aboard the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship at the naval base in Yokosuka, shared by the U.S. and Self-Defense Forces. “This remarkable port is the only one in the world where an American naval fleet and an allied naval fleet headquartered side by side, a testament to the ironclad partnership between U.S. and Japanese forces,” he said. At the same time, the president has long expressed skepticism of arrangements such as NATO and the United Nations. He withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the Paris climate accord, both agreed by President Barack Obama, and has re-negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. defense treaty with Japan was first signed in 1951 along with the Treaty of San Francisco that officially ended World War II. The defense pact, revised in 1960, grants the U.S. the right to base military forces in Japan in exchange for the promise that America will defend the island nation if it’s ever attacked. For decades after the war, Japan refrained from developing offensive capabilities such as long-range bombers, aircraft carriers and nuclear weapons. But Abe, a relatively hawkish leader, believes his nation should take a more robust role in its own defense. He pushed through a controversial interpretation of the constitution to allow Japanese forces to come to the aid of allies. Japan is buying advanced F-35 fighter planes from the U.S. and will fly some of them off warships effectively refashioned as aircraft carriers, its first since the war. In May, the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party recommended the government eventually raise defense spending to about 2 percent of gross domestic product, in line with NATO recommendations for its members and a threshold Trump has said should be a minimum for U.S. allies. There are presently about 54,000 U.S. military personnel based in Japan, a permanent troop presence that allows the U.S. to more easily project force across the Pacific. U.S. Forces, Japan, calls the arrangement “the cornerstone of peace and security in the Pacific” on its website. It isn’t clear how those forces would be affected if Trump withdrew from the treaty. The president has frequently complained that U.S. allies hosting American bases don’t pay enough money for what he considers a privilege, and he could seek to negotiate a new or revised treaty that entails more Japanese financial support for the U.S. military presence. While the president did not refer to the base by name in his recent conversations, there has been a running dispute surrounding the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa. The American presence has been controversial for more than two decades, since three servicemen raped a 12-year-old Okinawan girl in 1995. Local people still attribute the presence of the base to higher rates of crime and accidents in the area, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Withdrawing U.S. forces entirely from Japan would hand a strategic victory to American adversaries China and North Korea. James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, said he doubts the U.S. will withdraw from the treaty with Japan. “There’s nothing that says we have to abide by treaties for all eternity,” Carafano said. “I just doubt we will revisit U.S. policy on the U.S.-Japan strategic alliance,” which he also referred to as the “cornerstone” of U.S. foreign policy in Asia. Abe reached a deal in 2013 with Obama to move the base out of Okinawa as early as 2022 if a replacement could be constructed. But Trump believes the land underneath the base is valuable for development, and has told confidants the real estate could be worth about $10 billion, the people said. He considers the situation another example of a wealthy country taking advantage of the U.S., the people said.

donald trump
military
shinzo abe
u.s. bases
budgets
u.s.-japan relations


Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan sets out social welfare-focused election platform

Abstract: The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the nation’s main opposition party, on Monday unveiled a set of pledges for this summer’s Upper House election focused on improving the country’s social welfare system to help people receive medical and nursing care without having to worry about their finances. The party said it will aim to create a society in which elderly people can feel secure even if they do not have a large amount of savings. The platform for the election, likely to be held July 21, was released as the government has faced strong public criticism over its estimate that, under the country’s pension system, a retired couple will face a shortfall of ¥20 million if they live to be 95 years old. The CDP, headed by Yukio Edano, said it will “strengthen the function of the minimum guaranteed pension” and introduce an upper limit on taxpayers’ combined medical and nursing care expenses. The CDP also vowed to freeze the government’s plan to raise the consumption tax from 8 percent to 10 percent in October, but said it will review the current corporate tax rates to secure funds to finance new programs worth up to ¥2 trillion. As for the Constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sought to amend, the CDP has said it is against such a revision. The Liberal Democratic Party, led by Abe, publicized its election platform, which has a strong emphasis on foreign and defense policies, earlier this month. The six-year term for half the members of the House of Councilors will expire on July 28, with 124 of the chamber’s 245 seats up for grabs. The CDP and other opposition parties, including the Democratic Party for the People and the Japanese Communist Party, have agreed to field one “unified” candidate in each of the total 32 single-seat constituencies to more effectively face off against ruling party candidates.

platform
opposition
upper house election
cdp
policies


Japanese government cites Trump as denying report he considered ending defense pact

Abstract: In Tokyo on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga quoted U.S. President Donald Trump as having denied a report that he had recently mentioned the possibility of terminating the post-war defense pact with Japan, which forms the foundation of the alliance between the two countries. The top government spokesman was responding to a report issued earlier the same day by Bloomberg News, according to which Trump had recently mused to confidants about withdrawing from the 1951 Japan-U.S. security treaty. The U.S. president had called the pact “one-sided,” according to the report. Quoting three unnamed sources, the report said Trump was particularly unhappy that the alliance does not oblige Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to come to America’s aid even though it guarantees U.S. aid in the event Japan is attacked. Under the treaty, Japan instead allows Washington to use vast territorial areas as bases for U.S. military forces. “There is no such talk as is mentioned in the report. We have confirmed with the U.S. president that (the report) is inconsistent with the American government’s position,” Suga told a regular briefing on Tuesday evening. The spokesman went on to reassert that the “Japan-U.S. alliance is the linchpin of our diplomatic and national defense policy,” emphasizing that the two allies are “closely coordinating” to preserve the peace and security of the international community. Experts interviewed by The Japan Times by and large questioned the seriousness of Trump’s reported remark, saying the odds are slim his administration is strategically contemplating the scrapping of the decades-old military alliance. Such a move “would be a huge decision that would require running roughshod over Congress, the bureaucracy and the military, which I’m sure would rather not lose its bases in Japan,” said Tobias Harris, an expert on Japanese politics at Washington-based consulting firm Teneo Intelligence. It’s more likely, experts suggest, that Trump’s private musing was deliberately leaked and exploited by his allies looking to finagle further concessions from Tokyo in ongoing U.S.-Japan trade talks. Yasushi Watanabe, a professor of American studies at Keio University, said Trump’s reported comment is in keeping with his old argument from the presidential campaign in 2016 that Japan is a “free-rider” on American largess under the alliance. It is likely that the president revisited the thought and somehow “blurted it out in the spur of moment,” Watanabe said. If true, Trump’s musing also appears to run counter to public statements he made during his visit to Tokyo last month that the U.S.-Japan alliance is “steadfast and ironclad.” The comments sound “too irregular to be taken seriously,” the professor added. “If we were to interpret his statement as intentional, it may have been the case that he was seeking to link security issues with the ongoing trade talks so he can pressure Japan and win a bigger deal,” Watanabe said. Trump has been “frustrated” by the fact that Washington and Tokyo have yet to ink a trade deal, which was reflected in his recent mention of August as a desirable deadline, U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty said recently in an interview with The Japan Times. Hirotsugu Aida, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and an expert in American politics, said there are two possibilities to consider: Either Trump expressed his frustration privately without any particular political intention, or he intentionally leaked the remark to Bloomberg to use it as diplomatic leverage against Japan ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit set to begin Friday in Osaka. “In the case of the latter, Trump meant that he would have some ideas in the security area if trade negotiations don’t proceed as he likes,” suggested Aida. Even if the U.S. does not actually intend to scrap the security treaty, Trump could ask for Japan to take on more of the financial burden of supporting U.S. forces in Japan by threatening to do so, Aida added. Since the 1990s, Trump has long criticized the unilateral obligation for the U.S. to defend Japan. He began making the argument after seeing conservative political commentator Patrick Buchanan gain huge popularity among some U.S. conservative voters during the 1992 presidential election campaign, Aida pointed out. “So it’s possible he just said what he is actually thinking to some close friends,” he said, noting that in practical terms it would be extremely difficult for the U.S. to overturn its long-standing policy of using the Japan-U.S. military alliance as the centerpiece of its strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. A similar view was echoed by Ryo Sahashi, an associate professor of international politics at the University of Tokyo. Given that Trump is set to visit Japan later this week to attend the G20 summit, “it’s possible that Trump’s allies in charge of economic issues used his comments politically by leaking them to the press,” he said. Trump, Sahashi said, is fundamentally an “independent actor” in his administration, whose mercurial remarks are often used by his aides to serve their own interests — whether in terms of relationships with China or Japan, Sahashi said. But despite the possible lack of seriousness in Trump’s comment, the report could still leave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe politically vulnerable ahead of the crucial Upper House elections, noted Harris. “Particularly after having gone to such great lengths to treat Trump well last month, it’s hard to believe that voters will show the same tolerance for Abe’s handling of Trump,” he said. “It certainly looks like a gift to the opposition ahead of the elections next month.”

donald trump
military
trade
shinzo abe
elections
u.s. bases
sofa
u.s.-japan relations


Setting record, 31.5% of those who passed Japan's public servant exam this year were women

Abstract: Women accounted for 31.5 percent of those who passed the career-track national public servant examination in fiscal 2019, topping 30 percent for the first time, the National Personnel Authority said Tuesday. Of the 1,798 who passed, 567 were women. The share exceeded by 4.3 percentage points the previous record high, which was attained the previous year. “Following seminars for female students and other efforts, the share of women among all applications increased, shoring up the number of female passers,” said an official at the government agency. The total number of applicants stood at 17,295, meaning 1 in every 9.6 applicants passed the exam. Successful applicants from the University of Tokyo numbered 307, accounting for the largest proportion of all who passed. Kyoto University came second with 126, followed by Waseda University with 97. Those from the prestigious University of Tokyo decreased by 22 from the previous year to the lowest level since records began in fiscal 1998. Many students seem to have opted for the private sector, where hiring interest remains strong, according to the agency. Successful applicants will be employed from next spring if they pass their interviews, which will begin Wednesday.


Graffiti found on stone wall near Emperor Naruhito's residence

Abstract: Graffiti was found Tuesday morning on a stone wall that surrounds the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo, where Emperor Naruhito and his family reside, police said. Red lines and writing in the Roman alphabet spanned dozens of meters on the east wall facing the sidewalk. The graffiti, which appeared to have been sprayed on, was reported by a passerby at around 5 a.m., they said. Similar markings were found on nearby trees and roadside traffic mirrors. Investigators are checking security camera footage in the area, police added.

graffiti
emperor naruhito
akasaka estate


Filipino worker with new visa category reflects on opportunities and challenges of living in Japan

Abstract: NAGOYA - Overseas workers in April took the first-ever exam for the newly introduced Specified Skilled Worker visa category. One of them — aspiring hotel worker Magil Farah Piastro, a Filipino woman who took the written and practical exam in Nagoya — said, “I want to work at reception someday.” The 28-year-old received a letter of acceptance for a position at a hotel in late May. Born and raised in the southern Philippine city of Davao, Piastro decided to come to Japan after seeing a pamphlet about studying and working here. Along with a friend, she arrived at Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture in October 2017 as a student after just one month of studying Japanese. When she arrived, Piastro recalls feeling anxious and cold wearing short sleeves and shorts in the chilly weather, finding Japan’s cooler climate to be quite different from the one she was used to. She soon began attending Japanese classes at a language school near her apartment in Nagoya while working part-time at an izakaya (Japanese-style pub) after her studies finished for the day. And after arriving home from work at around 1 a.m., she would study for another couple of hours. “It was embarrassing, as I could barely speak Japanese (compared to my friends),” she said. “(But they) were working hard, and I decided to put in as much effort as I could as well.” Not long after arriving, Piastro left the izakaya and began working at a new part-time job. But there were days when she found her work a struggle as she was often yelled at by her new boss. She endured that workplace for four months before changing jobs once again, this time to a hotel, where she found the atmosphere to be more friendly. She continued to work as a room cleaner until the time came to take the exam. Raised by a father who runs his own construction company, Piastro says her upbringing was “normal.” After studying accounting at university, she worked at a local bank in the Philippines. She says she did not decide to move to Japan because of any particular objection to her lifestyle in the Philippines, and noted that, since she was the youngest daughter in the family, her mother opposed her leaving. But people who work abroad are often regarded highly in the community, she said. “I considered going to the United States because I can speak English, but the terms to be accepted for immigration can be tough,” she said of her decision. “I can only be there for a short period, and it’s also fiercely competitive.” “Annual income in Davao is about ¥400,000 ($3,700),” Piastro said. “It took me two, three months to earn that amount working part time (here).” Noting the perks of being in Japan, she said, “I can also learn a new language. I like the nature here, but especially like how kind the people are.” “I already feel sad when I think about having to go back home,” Piastro said, as due to the conditions of her visa, she can only stay here for five years. “Once the issues with my status of residence are resolved, I’d ideally like to work for a bank in Japan,” she said.

filipinos
philippines
expats
foreign workers
filipino community


Talent agency suspends 11 comedians for accepting money from alleged organized crime group

Abstract: A major talent agency on Monday suspended 11 of its comedians for conducting “underground business” and attending a party hosted by a purported organized crime group without consulting with the company. Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. said it has determined that the comedians, including Hiroyuki Miyasako, 49, and Ryo Tamura, 47, accepted money for their attendance. The party in question, which was held around five years ago, was hosted by a group allegedly involved in money transfer fraud, the agency said. “Although (the comedians) were not aware it was a gathering hosted by an antisocial group, we still consider it a very serious matter that they accepted money from such a group,” the company said. The agency has already canceled its contract with another comedian, 42-year-old Shinya Irie, after finding that he brokered the transaction. In his public apology, Miyasako, who often appears on TV shows, said, “I deeply regret accepting the money, even if it was indirectly.” Broadcasters with variety programs featuring the suspended comedians have decided to either cut out scenes where they appear, substitute alternative episodes or put their shows on hiatus. Public broadcaster NHK has refrained from airing programs with the comedians since a weekly magazine reported the issue earlier this month.

comedians
organized crime
yoshimoto kogyo
hiroyuki miyasako
ryo tamura
yakuza
scandals


Kyoto court hands man suspended sentence for forcing women into sex trade to clear 'debts'

Abstract: KYOTO - On Tuesday, a court sentenced a 30-year-old man to 2½ years in prison, suspended for four years, for pushing women into the sex trade to pay off “debts.” The Kyoto District Court found Yutaro Ogawa, founder and leader of the group responsible, guilty of forcing two women into the sex industry, in violation of the Employment Security Law, in March and July 2017. “The extensive, systematic and occupational crime was highly malicious. There is no room for leniency due to the defendant’s motive for gain,” said Presiding Judge Satoshi Shibayama in handing down the ruling. Shibayama ruled that, as ringleader, Ogawa bears heavier responsibility than his accomplices, but gave a more lenient sentence than the unsuspended three-year term sought by prosecutors, deeming the way he recruited women did not rob them of their free will. The group, which had about 20 members, lured women in Kyoto into a bar with which the group had connections and charged them excessive bills for drinks which they could not pay, before pushing them into the sex trade to clear their “debts.” The practice — which ensnared hundreds of women, including university students — is believed to have pulled in more than ¥100 million since July 2012. The group had a training manual for recruiters, which included how to approach women on the street and how to decide which part of the sex trade to introduce them to. Several other group members have already been found guilty for their roles, including a man who replaced Ogawa as leader at the end of 2017.

kyoto
courts
women
yutaro ogawa
rights
prostitution
sex abuse


Man arrested after two men die in Nagoya stabbing incident

Abstract: NAGOYA - Two men have died after a man attacked them with a knife in Nagoya on Monday night, police said. Early on Tuesday police arrested Toshihiko Sato, 38, who had fled the scene, on suspicion of murder after detaining and questioning him, they said. The victims were identified by police as Eiji Akamatsu, 41, and Tomoyuki Ogasahara, 44, who worked for the same building management company. The cause of death for both victims was traumatic hemorrhagic shock. An emergency call was received at around 10:30 p.m. on Monday. The two unconscious men were taken to a hospital, before being pronounced dead, the police said. A resident in the neighborhood said loud voices, apparently from a fight between Sato and the two men, were heard, and that a thin man was seen standing near the two men, who had fallen down and were lying on the ground. The stabbing scene is located in a residential area approximately 2 kilometers west of Ajima Station on Nagoya Railroad Co.’s Komaki Line.


Japan to promote Okinawa to Indians as outbound wedding destination

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Japan is looking to promote Okinawa Prefecture in India as a wedding tourism destination as one of its initiatives to woo Indian tourists to the country. Setting its sights on India’s outbound wedding market, mainly driven by wealthy individuals in the country, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) is organizing a seminar to showcase Okinawa as a destination to local wedding planners. “We are planning to invite around 30 to 40 wedding planners from Delhi on July 6,” said Kenichi Takano, executive director of the Delhi office of the organization. “A team from Okinawa will be there to showcase Okinawa to the wedding planners.” Representatives from Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Okinawa-based hotels and resorts will be among those making presentations during the conference, according to JNTO. Recently, some Indian wedding planners traveled to Okinawa to explore the island prefecture’s potential to cater to India’s lucrative outbound wedding market. “Okinawa could be a dream destination for Indian weddings,” said Yogesh Khantwal, one of the wedding planners who visited the island prefecture in March this year. “Indian clients who choose to go as far as Europe for weddings could also explore this ‘exotic’ location,” said Khantwal. According to a report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, India’s wedding tourism market, in which bride and groom, as well as guests, travel to their dream location, is slated to grow to 450 billion rupees ($6.5 billion) by 2020 from 230 billion rupees in 2017 on the back of a rise in the middle class and growth in disposable income, among other factors. “This market is being driven mainly by wealthy Indians,” said Runeep Sangha, executive director of the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s India Chapter. IIFL Wealth Management Ltd., which defines the wealthy in India as anyone with at least 65 million rupees, or roughly $1 million, revealed last year that India is home to 284,140 wealthy individuals with a combined fortune of 95 trillion rupees, a figure that is estimated to grow to 188 trillion rupees by 2021. According to Khantwal, such individuals planning weddings outside India, especially in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, normally spend 25 million to 40 million rupees. “The budget can even go up to 100 million rupees,” Khantwal said. In a bid to boost bilateral tourism, the first Indo-Japan Tourism Council meeting was held in 2016 seeking to expand the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 700,000 by 2020 from the current level of around 370,000. To achieve the target, Japan is not only promoting its tourist destinations in India but is also focusing on increasing connectivity, with Japanese airlines recently announcing new direct flights between Narita airport near Tokyo and the southern Indian cities of Bengaluru and Chennai, making them the third and fourth Indian destinations with nonstop service to Japan, in addition to Delhi and Mumbai. “Tourism must be encouraged,” Kenji Hiramatsu, Japan’s ambassador to India, said during a seminar organized recently by the Indian federation.


Japan aims to provide one computer to every student by 2025

Abstract: Japan aims to make a computer terminal available to every school student by around fiscal 2025, the education ministry said Tuesday. The target is included in the ministry’s new plan to improve the educational environment through the use of technology. A ministry survey in March 2018 found that computers were distributed on average at a rate of 1 terminal per 5.6 students at public elementary and high schools across the country. By prefecture, Saga performed best with a rate of 1 terminal per 1.8 students, while Saitama saw the worst rate of 1 terminal per 7.9 students. To further increase the number of computers at schools, the ministry’s plan showed examples of how computers can be procured at lower costs. The ministry will also consider allowing students to bring their own computers to school.


Anniversaries loom for gum producer Lotte and the Yoshiwara red-light district

Abstract: In 1941, a 19-year-old Korean chemistry student named Shin Kyuk-ho traveled to Tokyo to study at a technical college. He remained in Japan following the war and, under the name Takeo Shigemitsu, founded Lotte Co. in 1948. The brand’s name was inspired by Charlotte, the heroine of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s autobiographical novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” This year, Lotte — now the world’s third largest producer of chewing gum — celebrates its 70th anniversary. A major international conglomerate with confections and other food products, hotels, recreational businesses and more, Lotte struggled in its early days and was anything but an overnight success. “In 1948, the year of Lotte’s founding, Japan had between 200 to 300 gum makers, so we were something of a latecomer,” Tetsuya Seki, vice-director of the company’s central laboratory, tells Weekly Playboy (Feb. 26). He went on to explain that the company’s first major success was fūsen (bubble) gum. Growth of its stick gum products then took off after Lotte procured large supplies of natural chicle — the same ingredient used in U.S. gum brands such as Wrigley — from Central and South America. The long-selling Lotte Green Gum, first introduced in 1957, was marketed as a breath freshener. Black Black, which claimed to ward off drowsiness, took the nation by storm in 1983. The Weekly Playboy article did manage to add one interesting aspect of the company not widely known to the general public: It employs an in-house “bubble gum master,” Mitsuteru Yamashita, who claims to have succeeded in producing simultaneous “quintuple bubbles.” When asked by the magazine’s reporter — who managed to generate two bubbles — the secret of producing extra-large ones, Yamashita replied, “You need twice as much gum.” It’s hardly rocket science. Among his many literary achievements, British journalist, poet and author Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is credited with having coined the phrase “the world’s oldest profession” in reference to prostitution. It was in “On the City Wall,” an 1889 short story set in the Punjabi city of Lahore, that he introduced a courtesan named Lalun as “a member of the most ancient profession in the world.” Later that same year, Kipling was to pay his first visit to Japan, and no doubt was able to add to his stock of data regarding the venerable profession. In 1889, Tokyo’s largest red-light district, the Yoshiwara Yukaku, was 271 years old; sometime this coming autumn — the precise date has proved hard to pin down — it will observe its 400th anniversary. When it first opened in the 11th lunar month of 1618, the quarters were situated in Fukiya-machi (modern-day Nihonbashi Ningyocho). Having proved a commercial success after 40 years, the Yoshiwara’s operators were granted approval to expand at a new location. Edo’s administrators were already planning to relocate the red-light district northwest of Asakusa, with about 50 percent additional land allocated for the construction, when, on March 2, 1657, a conflagration known as the Great Fire of Meireki broke out in Tokyo’s Hongo district, leaving some 70 percent of the city in ruins over the next three days. The rebuilt Yoshiwara district was soon back in business. It has since risen from the ashes after other major disasters, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1923 and the March 1945 firebombing by American B-29s. Despite promulgation of the Anti-Prostitution Law, which took effect from April 1, 1958, Yoshiwara — whose map location is Senzoku 4-chome in Taito Ward — is still very much being utilized for its original purpose. What were formerly brothels are now erotic bathhouses, referred to since 1984 as “soaplands.” Shukan Post (March 9) feted Yoshiwara’s upcoming anniversary with five tittilating articles and a sidebar in which Yoshihiko Sakai, operator of a website named “Girl’s Collection,” remarks: “Some elderly men enjoy visiting a soapland just to talk to the babes. It’s enough for them to be able to luxuriate in treatment that upholds a 400-year tradition and still pursues the esthetics of wabi-sabi (a world view centered on acceptance of transience and imperfection).” Meanwhile, the Hanamachi@Yoshiwara website leaves little to guesswork concerning the scale of activities that go on therein. As of Feb. 28, it listed that 140 erotic bathhouses in the district play host to 7,568 sex workers, with an average of 28 percent of the total reporting for duty on any given day (or 63 percent during any given week). During the year-end bonus season, scant news emanated from the Yoshiwara, but tragedy struck a bathhouse in the neon district close to JR Omiya Station in Saitama, when a fire at Kawaii Omiya on the afternoon of Dec. 17 resulted in four fatalities — two customers and two employees. The Public Affairs Department of the Saitama Prefectural Police was to issue a total of nine separate press statements. The March issue of Tsukuru, a monthly magazine that covers the mass media, considered whether, in such cases, victims’ privacy should be accorded precedence over the public’s right to know. In its dispatch on the evening of Dec. 19, Kyodo news agency reported that the three victims initially reported had been increased to four, of which three had been identified by the police. They included a female employee of the business in the building, resident of Shiki, Saitama Prefecture, age 29; another employee of Tokyo’s Toshima Ward, age 25; and a customer, a company worker residing in the city of Saitama’s Nishi Ward, age 42. Many other broadcast and print media outlets appear to have followed policies adopted by NHK and Kyodo in holding back victims’ names and other details, even when the data were provided by the police. These included the Super J-channel news broadcast on the TV Asahi network and affiliates, as well as the Asahi, Mainichi and Yomiuri newspapers. Noticing that the media also struggled with how to report the dismemberment murders of nine young people in Sagamihara a few months earlier, the author of the article, Kenichi Asano, considers how the media examines its own conscience before proceeding to name names.


Criminals in Japan are profiting from the public's fear of prosecutors

Abstract: A new type of transfer fraud in which perpetrators take advantage of their victims’ fear of prosecution has sparked concern among law enforcement officials in recent weeks. The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Metropolitan Police Department have issued a statement warning people about a “wire me the money” fraud that makes use of a fake web page modeled after the Public Prosecutor’s Office. To carry out such a crime, perpetrators call the victim and pretend to be a prosecutor or someone representing the police. Victims are told that their bank account has been used for fraud, and that those who have lost money have filed criminal charges. Victims are then directed to a phony web page to confirm the situation for themselves. The web page looks genuinely authentic, detailing the crime and listing the victim’s name as a “material witness.” Victims are then advised to cooperate with the investigation and temporarily transfer their savings to another account if they don’t want their deposits to be frozen. The perpetrators then give victims instructions regarding the transfer. According to the Tokyo Shimbun, four cases of such fraud have been lodged with the police to date. All four victims were women in their 30s and 40s, who have each lost at least ¥470,000 and, in one case, as much as ¥1.92 million. Total losses are estimated to be nearly ¥4 million ($37,000) and rising. Naturally, the Metropolitan Police Department has been telling the general public not to transfer money to anyone making themselves out to be a police officer or prosecutor. The practice appears almost identical to an attempt to swindle money that occurred in June 2015. “Neither employees of the prosecutor’s office nor prosecutors ask people to refer to our home page and wire money into an account,” the Public Prosecutor’s Office warned at the time. A former prosecutor expressed shock at the brazenness of such attempts. “There have been cases of people pretending to be prosecutors on the phone before,” the ex-prosecutor said, “but I’ve never known anyone to go so far as to make an elaborate fake copy of our website.” If at first you don’t succeed, try again? It’s worth noting that prosecutors are not the only ones who are being leveraged to defraud people out of money. In some cases, perpetrators pretend to be officers from the white-collar crime section and attempt to try the same thing. The Metropolitan Police Department posted a recording of one such call on its website on Feb. 8. Do such attempts reflect the fact that criminals don’t appear to fear law enforcement in Japan? I guess we’ll never know until they are arrested.


Japan's media out of step with mental health issues

Abstract: In January, a couple in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, were arrested for allegedly confining their daughter for at least 15 years before she froze to death in December at the age of 33 . The couple told police they had kept her in the tiny room where her body was found because she was mentally ill. They insisted they fed their daughter properly, but she weighed only 19 kilograms when her naked body was found in the unheated room. In an essay posted on the portal site Mag2 News, Tatsuya Hikichi, a journalist who specializes in mental health issues, called media reports of the mental illness “misleading.” All information had come from the police, and none of it elaborated on the nature of her illness and how her condition developed. The only aspect of the woman’s condition reported by the police was that she was “schizophrenic,” and that became the only context the public had with which to form a picture of her. According to Hikichi, media coverage invariably reinforced the negative image most people have of those who suffer from schizophrenia, especially given some accounts that said the woman was also “violent.” Hikichi stressed that the police only passed on information that would be helpful to the prosecution, but added that the media’s role, especially in such instances, is to verify what the authorities are saying. Hikichi believed the media had neglected its mission in this situation, since they failed to question the reasons for the woman’s confinement. He quotes various newspapers as saying the parents kept her locked up because they “didn’t want the neighbors to know” about her, or even to know she existed, the implication being that readers might sympathize with the parents’ actions. As if to confirm this suggestion, the Feb. 8 issue of the weekly magazine Josei Seven ran an article about a man whose son was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teen . Convinced his son’s condition was the result of “genes” or upbringing, he blamed himself, but in any case was unable to control his son’s unpredictable tendencies and fell into a state of despair. He understands how the Neyagawa couple felt. Hikichi finds this kind of reporting not only irresponsible but also dangerous. He says the word “schizophrenia” is a term used for the sake of convenience, and that it can describe a wide range of conditions. About 1 percent of the Japanese population exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia. It is a difficult illness to understand, but one thing almost all experts agree on is that people diagnosed with schizophrenia are treatable and can lead stable lives. It is a physical condition, but it is also closely related to environment in that the person’s emotional circumstances are affected by their family’s attitudes. By constantly repeating terms such as “mental disorder” and “violence,” the media makes the matter worse. In the wake of Hikichi’s essay, NHK aired a documentary on Feb. 3 about a 66-year-old man who spent most of his life in mental institutions . NHK has been covering the man — whom they call by his first name, Tokio — since 2014, when he was discharged from a facility in Fukushima Prefecture and started living on his own for the first time in 39 years. Until 2011, Tokio was in a hospital located 5 km from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. After the accident on March 11, the hospital’s residents were evacuated to another facility in the prefecture, where the head doctor re-evaluated Tokio and wondered what he was doing there. Of the 40 people under the doctor’s care, only two really needed to be institutionalized, he said. NHK tried to find out why Tokio, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a young man, was isolated for so long. Basically, NHK discovered, he was the victim of policy and opportunism. In 1951, the government, in developing its postwar economic recovery plan, determined that people with “mental disorders” cost Japan ¥100 billion a year in lost productivity, and not just with regard to their perceived inability to contribute. Their families would sacrifice employment in order to take care of them, so the idea was to remove the mentally ill from society. Then, in 1964, U.S. Ambassador Edwin Reischauer was attacked by a young man who was reported as being schizophrenic. Since then, the term has been closely associated with violence. The government encouraged isolation by rewarding hospitals for taking in mentally ill patients. NHK found that hospitals can make more money simply by accepting them and, as long as they remained in their care, the hospitals were guaranteed subsidies. Japan accounts for 20 percent of all the world’s beds reserved for institutionalized mental patients. This official approach helps explain the Neyagawa couple’s confinement of their daughter and the media’s lack of urgency in reporting it. The couple’s actions are seen as being, if not justifiable, then at least understandable. It also explains the government’s lack of accountability for its policy, carried out between 1949 and 1996, of sterilizing people diagnosed with mental illnesses — as well as people with other disabilities . The government will not apologize to or compensate victims because the practice was legal at the time. In an article that appeared in the Asahi Shimbun last June, science writer Junji Kayukawa said the government’s excuse for not owning up to this human rights violation is that it wasn’t doing anything that was illegal and many of the victims’ families gave their consent to the sterilization . Similarly, people diagnosed with mental illness were sent to institutions based only on requests from their families. NHK showed two instances of families refusing to allow relatives discharged from mental institutions back in their lives . According to Kayukawa, this idea that people who aren’t “normal” need to disappear still exists. Referring to the July 2016 murder of 19 people at a facility for people with disabilities , he wrote, “Remember the killings in Sagamihara.”


NHK puppet show offers a rare glimpse into unconventional lives

Abstract: Arguably the best interview show on terrestrial TV at present stars a bunch of puppets exploring the often unexamined corners of Japanese society. “ Nehorin Pahorin ” airs every Wednesday at 11 p.m. on NHK’s educational channel, wedged between English and Korean language shows. The 30-minute broadcast, which has aired since 2016, has become required viewing for many in Japan, who discuss its contents on Twitter while it airs using a hashtag of the program’s title in Japanese — an activity encouraged by “Nehorin Pahorin” itself. Get past a cast that consists entirely of felt creatures and the concept behind the show resembles that of many domestic interview programs. Two hosts — Ryota Yamasato and You, represented as moles — sit on one side of a couch and grill a special guest, represented as a pig (as are most of the nonstaff people on the show). The majority of interview-centric shows on major broadcasters, however, lean on celebrity appearances of the softball variety. The guests that appear on “Nehorin Pahorin,” on the other hand, are all regular people involved in interesting subculture spaces or activities that rarely get mainstream media attention. This season, which started last September, has focused on idol otaku , child actors and women obsessed with “boys love” comics , among others. Normally, people wouldn’t want to talk about these topics because of privacy issues. Yet “Nehorin Pahorin” circumvents this via its use of puppets (alongside voice modulation technology). The guarantee of anonymity enforced by the decision to turn every visitor into a pig prompts those on the show to go into greater detail about their story, whether they worked as a secretary for a member of the Diet or became addicted to host clubs . Topics that typically get discussed in rather broad strokes reveal new nuances — while others, for those not native to Japan, reveal all sorts of wrinkles, like the existence of “ circle crushers .” It helps that “Nehorin Pahorin” features two hosts perfectly suited to the social media age. Yamasato had been kicking around for years as a comedian and TV personality, but came into his own on Twitter . You, meanwhile, has been active since the late ’80s in almost every entertainment discipline. Both broke out on recent seasons of the reality show “Terrace House,” where they offer commentary between scenes of the show’s participants. While Western media have painted “Terrace House” as “ the nicest reality show on television ,” Japanese viewers seem drawn to You and Yamasato’s ability to mock the often boneheaded participants on the show. For the latest “Terrace House,” Yamasato even got his own spin-off YouTube show . The two — in human or fuzzy form — seem tailor-made for “Nehorin Pahorin.” They are as curious as most journalists, while at the same time being personable and good at connecting with their subjects. Neither hesitates to dig deeper into particular points, getting more interesting info along the way. Its status as an online hit owes a lot to the community that has sprung up around its hashtag. In real time, people log on to Twitter to comment on what’s happening, in much the same way people around the globe offer up “insta-takes” on award shows or sporting events. They post screenshots of interesting factoids or highlight the many pork-related puns lurking in the show’s details. The fact that the visual style of “Nehorin Pahorin” basically subverts the conventions of children’s programming makes it all the more surreal. Ultimately, however, it’s the information the show shares with the world that underpins its popularity. “Nehorin Pahorin” has become a favorite of matome sites, or online venues that basically sum up news and viral stories. Popular destinations such as Togetter practically summarize the best tidbits of each episode, while other sites effectively post transcripts of notable editions . It reminds me of a few years back, when American sites raced to post the opening monologue of comedian John Oliver’s weekly show . It’s entertaining, sure, but also revealing and downright educational. “Nehorin Pahorin” shows how a Japanese TV show can successfully utilize digital media. Despite the increasing relevance of YouTube, television still dominates. Just check Japan’s YouTube Trending corner and see how many uploads are of shows anyone can watch via a flat-screen TV. “Nehorin Pahorin” — alongside other favorite Twitter and matome series such as “ Matsuko No Shiranai Sekai ” (“The World Unknown To Matsuko”) and “ You Wa Nani Shi Ni Nippon E? ” (“Why Did You Come to Japan?”) — offers content that’s fun to talk about while it’s unfolding and reveals new information from perspectives often ignored elsewhere. It’s a format that perhaps more domestic networks would do well to consider adopting.

nhk
nehorin pahorin
twitter
japan pulse
talkshow


Japan Times 1993: Blacks face an image problem in Japan

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 17, 1918 Private Tokyo girls’ school in deep ferment Trouble is brewing among the students of the Girls Domestic Science School, a well-known private institution at Hitotsubashi, Kanda, which enjoys a good reputation in educational circles and has contributed greatly to the advancement of female education, the courses including sewing, embroidery and foreign-style cooking. The school recently received a monetary donation amounting to ¥13,000 from Mr. Kamesaburo Yamashita, the well-known “narikin” of Kobe, who has amassed a big fortune though the sale of steamers. Several days ago the girls school referred to had a visit from an aged lady, who was alleged to have been sent by Mr. Yamashita, the patron of the school, on the mission of selecting a prospective bride for the son or nephew of the narikin. The old lady was treated by the school faculty with marked respect, and as though she came with the object of inspection, the true purpose of her visit being hidden as far as possible. Madame Haruko Hatoyama, the widow of the late Dr. Hatoyama, ex-minister of justice and dean of Waseda who is the superintendent of the teaching staff of the school, ordered the class to stop the lesson and gave the visitor the privilege of leisurely examining the personal beauty of the girl students of the graduating class of a certain course. The dame went from one girl to another, scrutinizing the appearance of each, this lasting for about one hour. Some of the blue stocking were already engaged while others were married, and when the occurrence became known among the parents and guardians of the students great indignation naturally arose among them and the school faculty was severely blamed for having insulted the honor of the students. A few days later a rumour spread among the students that a Miss Okuyama of the graduating class who is famed for her charming beauty was the victim of the old lady’s scrutiny and was the nominee for the prospective bride of the son of the narikin. It was also reported that Miss Okuyama, who would ordinarily finish her course next July, will be graduated at the end of this month by special favor of the faculty. 75 YEARS AGO Monday, March 15, 1943 Yokohama factory opens marriage bureau Earnestly desirous of cooperating with the government’s wartime policy for increasing population by early marriages, the Nippon Kaihatsuki Manufacturing Co., Ichibacho Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, has lately set up a special marriage bureau. Its aim is to encourage young staff members and workers of the company over the age of 23 to marry and to give proper guidance and assistance in finding suitable mates and further to give financial support to newly married couples. When proper arrangements are completed, the bridegroom and bride will be married at a ceremonial hall selected by the company. The company will pay the expenses of the marriage ceremony, and one night’s honeymoon trip and also will be responsible for finding a house for the newly-weds. The company and the board of directors will give the newly married couple some suitable presents, and the co-workers of the bridegroom will be asked to present the groom with a monetary present. In order to encourage the newly married couple to acquire the habit of saving, they are to be presented a deposit passbook, in which one-twentieth of the groom’s monthly pay will have been entered. 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 14, 1968 ‘Too lucky’ student becomes unlucky A college fine arts student was arrested Wednesday and another was placed on the wanted list after they allegedly capitalized on their college-acquired skill to change unlucky numbers into lucky ones on horse race tickets. The students were identified as Takenori Kusubayashi, 22, and Takeshi Kawaguchi, 22, both juniors at Tama College of Fine Arts. The latter was on the wanted list. Police said the forgery came to light when Kawaguchi and another man in the ring attempted to draw a prize of ¥55,900 with what appeared to be a ticket with a lucky number at a horse race ticket window in front of Sobu Line’s Kinishicho Station on Saturday. A numeral “1” on the ticket was found to have been retouched into the numeral “2.” Police said the pair used a razor blade and coloring material to tamper with the ticket. Until the arrest, they were believed to have successfully used about 25 such tampered tickets to obtain about ¥1 million. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 4, 1993 Blacks face an image problem in Japan The images of blacks here are odious and never very subtle: A night club band performs in blackface and Afro wigs, a popular comic book exaggerates black men’s physical features and sambo dolls stare from shop windows. Black businessmen are often confused with athletes. “The Japanese have limited access to blacks here, they have not been told anything about blacks and in bookstores here there is nothing about African-American history and almost no African-American literature,” said Michon Jones, 26, a black English teacher from Detroit. “This is why the general population here tends to believe that black people are violent, that we are lazy and that we are thieves.” Many of the dozens of black professionals interviewed last week said they are still struggling to change the racist perceptions of blacks that shadow them wherever they go in this country. “When I first moved here, the Japanese wanted to touch my hair and my skin and I told them it wouldn’t rub off,” Jones said. Several Japan African-American Friendship Association members said the Japanese generally treat blacks as inferiors. Blacks are sometimes served last when sitting at a table with white friends. Store owners and salesmen will almost never hand black people change, they said. But they will always hand change to the Japanese as a sign of courtesy. “It’s a racist attitude here, but I think it’s a direct relation to the way blacks are treated in the United States,” said Yvonne Lee, 29, a junior high school teacher and a former prosecutor in a New York district attorney’s office. “If we are not respected in the United States, we will not be respected here either.” Sadao Izawa, a senior manager for Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., said Japan is not racist, because there are not enough black people in Japan to discriminate against.

marriage
wwii
fraud
gambling
racism
private girls school


Japanese support rate for Abe's Cabinet dips amid labor reform scandal in Diet

Abstract: The public approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet has dropped 2.7 points to 48.1 percent, with nearly 70 percent of respondents seeing no need for passage of a labor reform draft bill in the current Diet session amid a scandal over flawed data, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday. The support rate in the nationwide survey, conducted Saturday and Sunday, compares to 50.8 percent in the previous survey taken in February. The disapproval rate stood at 39.0 percent, up from 36.9 percent in the previous poll. The survey found that 69.1 percent of respondents said it is not necessary to pass a labor reform bill during the current Diet session, which runs through June, while only 17.1 percent said the bill should be enacted. Following the discovery of errors in government data, Abe said he would remove a key component of the bill that expands the system of rewarding workers based on fixed overtime work hours instead of actual hours worked. Ruling and opposition lawmakers are split over the labor reforms Regarding the government decision to remove the key component from the envisioned bill, 60.9 percent said it was a matter of course, while 20.6 percent said it was not necessary to take out the portion. Abe, however, insisted another component of the envisioned bill, exempting skilled professional workers with high wages from work-hour regulations, should be kept in the bill. The so-called white collar overtime exemption system has been sought by business lobbies, while opposition parties and labor unions criticize the system, saying it will lead to “zero overtime pay.” With respect to data compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare based on the 2013 survey, numerous errors were discover after Abe’s government insisted the average worker on a discretionary labor contract generally works shorter hours than a worker under a conventional contract. Regarding constitutional amendments, including changes to the war-renouncing Article 9, 48.5 percent of the respondents said they oppose the change under the Abe government, while 39.2 percent said they support the change. The Liberal Democratic Party is aiming for the amendments to the postwar pacifist Constitution, with Abe proposing to revise Article 9 by adding an explicit reference to the country’s Self-Defense Forces, while keeping intact the existing paragraphs of the article.

labor reform
diet
approval rating
shinzo abe


Slovak leader urges government changes amid crisis after reporter's slaying

Abstract: BRATISLAVA - Slovak President Andrej Kiska called Sunday for substantial changes in the country’s coalition government or for an early election to resolve the “serious political crisis” resulting from the slayings of an investigative reporter and his fiancee. His rival, Prime Minister Robert Fico, dismissed the president’s proposals. For his last unfinished story, 27-year-old Kuciak reported on the influence of the Italian mafia in Slovakia and its possible ties to people close to the prime minister. The journalist and fiancee Martina Kusnirova were found fatally shot in their house on Feb. 25. Tens of thousands of protesters marched in dozens of Slovak cities Friday to honor Kuciak, with some demanding the resignation of Fico’s government. “There’s a huge public distrust of the state,” Kiska said in a televised speech Sunday. “And many don’t trust law enforcement authorities. … This distrust is justified. We crossed the line, things went too far and there’s no way back.” A junior party in the ruling coalition and opposition politicians have called for Interior Minister Robert Kalinak to resign. Kalinak, who was linked to an earlier corruption scandal, has refused. Kiska says he will open talks with the country’s leaders in next days. Two coalition partners in government, the ultranationalist Slovak National Party and a party of ethnic Hungarians known as Most-Hid, said they were ready to meet Kiska. Hours after the president’s address, Fico said any changes in the current three-party coalition government would have to be approved by the coalition members and the president has no say in the matter. Fico said Kiska’s proposals denied the result of the 2016 parliamentary election. He charged that the president has sided with the opposition. “I cannot agree with what Mr. President said,” Fico said. An early election would have to be approved by parliament. Kiska said he thinks the investigators in the case were doing a good job, but added that “many believe that this tragedy in many aspects reflects the Slovak reality.” Earlier Sunday, Slovak authorities renewed their investigation of threats against Kuciak, who alleged last year that businessman Marian Kocner threatened him following the publication of a story about him. The reporter said he filed a complaint with police and alleged they failed to act. Kocner has denied any wrongdoing. During a debate Sunday on the TA3 news television, Prosecutor General Jaromir Ciznar acknowledged the previous complaint and said investigators will re-examine the threats. He added, however, that he personally didn’t believe the case had anything to do with Kuciak’s death. Ciznar said Italian experts will likely join the local investigators working on the case. The Slovaks previously have said the FBI, Britain’s Scotland Yard, Europol and police forces from Italy and the Czech Republic are helping them with the investigation. A former Italian anti-mafia prosecutor has said that Italy tried to warn Slovakia about the increased influence of the Italian mafia there.

italy
mafia
slovakia
investigative journalism
jan kuciak


South Korea shuts famed 84-year-old poet's exhibition amid sex harassment claims by rival

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea’s capital has closed an exhibition by poet Ko Un, long the country’s hope for a Nobel Prize in literature, amid allegations of sexual misconduct and the government is considering removing his work from textbooks. Ko Un, 84, who denied any “habitual misconduct” in a statement made through his British publisher, first faced allegations when fellow South Korean poet Choi Young-mi released a poem in December titled “Monster,” which describes harassment by an older male poet named “En.” South Koreans have widely interpreted it to refer to Ko, seizing on passages that match his biography, including references to the buzz surrounding the unnamed poet’s Nobel Prize chances. While not confirming the identity, Choi has not denied the public identification of Ko and last month she told a TV interviewer that she had been harassed by a famous poet who “repeatedly harassed female writers.” Neither Choi nor Ko’s publisher, Bloodaxe Books, responded to requests for comment. After Ko’s denial was reported in The Guardian on Sunday, Choi took to Facebook to post simply: “What I wrote in my poem ‘Monster’ is true.” The anti-sexual harassment #MeToo movement has taken off belatedly in male-dominated South Korea, where discussion of sexual misconduct has long been taboo, but it has ensnared a growing number of leading entertainment figures in recent months. The growing number of high-profile accusations has led President Moon Jae-in to urge law enforcement authorities to investigate reports of sexual abuse. Choi’s oblique allegations have been corroborated by other writers, including poet Lee Hye-mi, who said on Facebook that she witnessed “ridiculous behavior” while co-hosting a TV show with Ko. The controversy has led the Seoul city government to permanently shut an exhibition devoted to Ko’s work. Ko’s poems cover a range of subjects, from love and politics to daily life. The former Buddhist monk visited North Korea in 2000 as a special delegate for a South-North summit. An official at the textbook division of South Korea’s Education Ministry said it was discussing plans to remove Ko’s poems from school books. “We are taking the issue very seriously and issued a statement shortly after poet Choi’s claim became public, asking publishers how they would like to proceed with the issue and edit their textbooks with Ko’s works,” the official said.

south korea
ko un
choi young-mi
# metoo
sexual harassment
poetry
me too movement


2016 suicide of Nomura Real Estate worker said caused by overwork under discretionary labor system

Abstract: A local labor standard office has concluded that the suicide of a worker in his 50s at Nomura Real Estate Development Co. in 2016 was caused by overwork, sources close to the matter said Sunday. Although the real estate firm applied the discretionary system, rewarding workers based on fixed overtime work hours instead of actual hours worked, to around 600 workers, including the man, many of them were engaged in business operations that are not supposed to be treated under such a working style. The discretionary system is allowed to be applied to workers engaging in two types of work — the specific specialty type, such as lawyers and reporters, and the management planning type, including those who engage in surveys and analysis. The work-related suicide is likely to deal a further blow to the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as it has already come under fire over its labor reforms bill. Abe was forced to drop expansion of the discretionary labor system from the planned bill on Thursday amid strong opposition following the revelation of flawed data relating to overwork. The latest case of kar ȱ shi (death by overwork) is likely to fuel criticism of the Abe government’s proposal to expand the discretionary labor system to more types of jobs. According to the sources, the male worker at Nomura Real Estate Development committed suicide in September 2016. After his death, his family claimed worker’s compensation. The local labor office found that the man’s overtime reached 180 hours in a month and concluded last December that his death was work-related. After the company was found to have problematic working practices, the labor authorities asked its president to improve conditions. Nomura Real Estate Development said it will scrap the discretionary labor system in April. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is asking some 13,000 workplaces throughout the country to conduct checks on whether the discretionary labor system is properly managed.

suicide
nomura real estate
discretionary labor system
overtime
karoshi


Chubu Electric tests mobile payment app at coffee machine as prelude to building blockchain-based energy marketplace

Abstract: Chubu Electric Power Co. has developed a mobile payment app for virtual currencies, and has started testing it in-house with employees using it to purchase coffee. The company aims to make use of the ease with which individuals can make transactions using the app to develop a system where individuals can easily sell and purchase excess energy generated on their solar panels at home, although it remains to be seen whether this latest digital technology will promote effective use of renewable energy. For the experiment, the power utility has issued “Cafe Ene Coin” — its own virtual currency — to be used on the mobile app. One coin is worth ¥1 and the money can be used to buy coffee in the office. A group of 30 employees began the experiment at the company’s headquarters at the end of last year. To complete the transaction, employees simply have to use their smartphone to read a QR code printed on the menu page. It is also easy for them to trade the virtual currency among themselves, and they can charge up on coins using a credit card. “Unlike bank transactions, we can send money quickly and there is no transfer charge,” said Yutaro Tomoto, 32, a member of the Information Systems Department, which developed the app. Usage information, such as the number of cups of coffee purchased, is shared among users through blockchains (distributed ledger), which is a basic component of virtual currencies. The data is not managed centrally in a single server so it is difficult for people to hack in and alter the data history, thus ensuring transactions are managed correctly. Going forward, the company plans to look at whether the blockchain technology developed through the experiment can be applied to create an energy transaction system for individuals. The government started a feed-in-tariff scheme in 2009 for electric utilities to purchase energy generated from solar power generators at a higher price than the market rate. Contracts for initial users will end from 2019 onward, which has given rise to a “2019 problem” whereby a large number of households will no longer be able to sell their electricity at the current high rate. Chubu Electric hopes to create new business opportunities by providing a solution. The company is making use of the strength of virtual currencies, which allow individuals to make transactions easily. This way, households with excess energy can sell it to other households or companies. If individuals start trading energy among themselves the amount of energy sold by Chubu Electric will drop, but they hope to compensate for this by getting customers to use their blockchain technology. Chubu Electric is also planning on using the blockchain for other purposes, such as managing their company’s finances and storing facility inspection records. This system does not require a server to centrally manage high volumes of data, so the company could in the future be able to reduce the amount spent on data centers as well.

app
virtual currencies
chubu electric power co .