Brazil's Bolsonaro backs Trump wall, derides U.S.-bound immigrants as bent on doing harm

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro endorsed U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda on the eve of their first meeting at the White House, saying he supports a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and that most immigrants to the United States wish to do harm. Bolsonaro, a far-right congressman who rode to the presidency with a brash, anti-establishment campaign modeled on Trump’s 2016 run, has pledged a new era of pro-American policy in the Western Hemisphere’s second-largest country. Ahead of Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting, Bolsonaro waived a visa requirement for U.S. visitors to Brazil and later in a Fox News interview on Monday night threw his weight behind Trump’s immigration agenda, which includes a wall on the Mexican border. “We do agree with President Trump’s decision or proposal on the wall,” Bolsonaro said, in remarks translated to English by the broadcaster. “The vast majority of potential immigrants do not have good intentions. They do not intend to do the best or do good to the U.S. people. “I would very much like the U.S. to uphold the current immigration policy, because to a large extent we owe our democracy in the Southern Hemisphere to the United States,” he said. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, rose to power praising the U.S.-backed military government that ran Brazil for two decades before a return to democracy in 1985, echoing Cold War rhetoric in his presidential campaign about the need to fight a continued communist threat. Since his inauguration in January, Bolsonaro also has adopted elements of Trump’s presidential style, including taunting political foes on Twitter and denouncing media coverage he does not like as “fake news.” Although he did not get into specifics of his agenda in Washington, Bolsonaro said the presidents would discuss a deepening political and economic crisis in socialist Venezuela. Bolsonaro said Brazil is the country most interested in seeing an end to the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which he called a “drug trafficking dictatorship.” In addition to their shared political agenda, Bolsonaro spoke hopefully of a blossoming friendship with Trump. “I’m willing to open my heart up to him and do whatever is good, to the benefit of both the Brazilian and the American people,” Bolsonaro told Fox News.

brazil
immigrants
jair bolsonaro
donald trump
fake news
u.s .
u.s. border wall


One day before deadly crash, an off-duty pilot saved Lion Air 737 Max from malfunctioning flight-control system

Abstract: WASHINGTON/JAKARTA - As the Lion Air crew fought to control their diving Boeing Co. 737 Max 8, they got help from an unexpected source: an off-duty pilot who happened to be riding in the cockpit. That extra pilot, who was seated in the cockpit jump seat, correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system and save the plane, according to two people familiar with Indonesia’s investigation. The next day, under command of a different crew facing what investigators said was an identical malfunction, the jetliner crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 189 aboard. The previously undisclosed detail on the earlier Lion Air flight represents a new clue in the mystery of how some 737 Max pilots faced with the malfunction have been able to avert disaster, while others lost control of their planes and crashed. The presence of a third pilot in the cockpit wasn’t contained in Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee’s Nov. 28 report on the crash and hasn’t previously been reported. The so-called dead-head pilot on the earlier flight from Bali to Jakarta told the crew to cut power to the motor driving the nose down, according to the sources, part of a checklist that all pilots are required to memorize. “All the data and information that we have on the flight and the aircraft have been submitted to the Indonesian NTSC. We can’t provide additional comment at this stage due the ongoing investigation on the accident,” Lion Air spokesman Danang Prihantoro said by phone. The Indonesia safety committee report said the plane had had multiple failures on previous flights and hadn’t been properly repaired. Representatives for Boeing and the Indonesian safety committee declined to comment on the earlier flight. The safety system, designed to keep planes from climbing too steeply and stalling, has come under scrutiny by investigators of the crash as well as a subsequent one less than five months later in Ethiopia. A malfunctioning sensor is believed to have tricked the Lion Air plane’s computers into thinking it needed to automatically bring the nose down to avoid a stall. Boeing’s 737 Max was grounded March 13 by U.S. regulators after similarities to the Oct. 29 Lion Air crash emerged in the investigation of the March 10 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. In the wake of the two accidents, questions have emerged about how Boeing’s design of the new 737 model was approved. The U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general is conducting a review of how the plane was certified to fly and a grand jury under the Justice Department is also seeking records in a possible criminal probe of the plane’s certification. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration last week said it planned to mandate changes in the system to make it less likely to activate when there is no emergency. The agency and Boeing said they are also going to require additional training and references to it in flight manuals. “We will fully cooperate in the review in the Department of Transportation’s audit,” Boeing spokesman Charles Bickers said in an email. The company has declined to comment on the criminal probe. After the Lion Air crash, two U.S. pilots’ unions said the potential risks of the system, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) hadn’t been sufficiently spelled out in their manuals or training. None of the documentation for the Max aircraft included an explanation, the union leaders said. “We don’t like that we weren’t notified,” Jon Weaks, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said in November. “It makes us question, ‘Is that everything, guys?’ I would hope there are no more surprises out there.” The Allied Pilots Association union at American Airlines Group Inc. also said details about the system weren’t included in the documentation about the plane. Following the Lion Air crash, the FAA required Boeing to notify airlines about the system and Boeing sent a bulletin to all customers flying the Max reminding them how to disable it in an emergency. Authorities have released few details about Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 other than it flew a “very similar” track as the Lion Air planes and then dove sharply into the ground. There have been no reports of maintenance issues with the Ethiopian Airlines plane before its crash. If the same issue is also found to have helped bring down Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, one of the most vexing questions crash investigators and aviation safety consultants are asking is why the pilots on that flight didn’t perform the checklist that disables the system. “After this horrific Lion Air accident, you’d think that everyone flying this airplane would know that’s how you turn this off,” said Steve Wallace, the former director of the FAA’s accident investigation branch. The combination of factors required to bring down a plane in these circumstances suggests other issues may also have occurred in the Ethiopia crash, said Jeffrey Guzzetti, who also directed accident investigations at the FAA and is now a consultant. “It’s simply implausible that this MCAS deficiency by itself can down a modern jetliner with a trained crew,” Guzzetti said. MCAS is driven by a single sensor near the nose that measures the so-called angle of attack, or whether air is flowing parallel to the length of the fuselage or at an angle. On the Lion Air flights, the angle-of-attack sensor had failed and was sending erroneous readings indicating the plane’s nose was pointed dangerously upward.

lion air
boeing
indonesia
aviation
air accidents


Regulators said 'asleep at the wheel' in raising health alarm over Houston chemical conflagration

Abstract: HOUSTON - As a towering plume of black smoke billowed a mile above Houston for a third day, local officials said they don’t know how long the petrochemical blaze that sent orange fireballs into the sky will continue. Five tanks holding gasoline ingredients were still afire about 20 miles (32 km) east of downtown Houston on Tuesday and three have burned out, according to facility owner Intercontinental Terminals Co. However, previous expectations that the conflagration would exhaust itself by the middle of the week no longer hold, officials said. The fire that began early Sunday in an industrial suburb called Deer Park intensified overnight after a dip in water pressure interfered with firefighting efforts and two more tanks erupted in flame. The pressure drop has been rectified and additional help in fighting the fire was summoned. “Fuel has burned off and we’ve said from the beginning that may be what has to happen,” Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen said during a meeting with reporters. “I’m not going to give you a time because as we know overnight it has changed.” In the downtown Houston business district, the smoky smell that pervaded high-rise offices on Monday had eased. But in residential neighborhoods on the city’s north side, a chemical odor descended Tuesday morning on an otherwise clear day. An ITC spokeswoman said air pollution remained below health-concern levels. Since assuring residents of the fourth-largest U.S. city on Monday that there were no “immediate health concerns at ground level,” the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hasn’t issued any new advisories or assessments. The agency doesn’t know when it will issue an update, spokesman Brian McGovern said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. State regulators are “asleep at the wheel,” said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas arm of Public Citizen, which advocates for environmental protection. “They collect a wealth of data across Texas and Houston is certainly one of the most heavily air-monitored places on the planet. But they don’t use their channels to communicate with the public.” The Deer Park facility has a total of 242 tanks located near the Houston Ship Channel, one of the busiest ports along the Gulf Coast. Schools in Deer Park and neighboring communities that were shut Monday reopened Tuesday. The fire “demonstrates how chemical disasters happen far too often in our region, often due to lax regulatory oversight and enforcement,” said Stephanie Thomas, a Public Citizen researcher. She criticized the Trump administration for seeking to reduce funding to the Environmental Protection Agency and other government plans “which sought to bring greater safety to communities like Deer Park that are surrounded by the petrochemical industry.” Potential health effects of the smoke include coughing, difficulty breathing and irritation to eyes and throat, according to the One Breath Partnership, an organization that works to improve air quality. “You can really smell & taste it now,” real-estate agent Jon Gardella said on Twitter, referring to the black smog enveloping Houston on Monday morning. Prices for naphtha on the U.S. Gulf Coast rose 2.51 cents to $1.5253 a gallon Tuesday after adding 2.45 cents on Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The tank farm occupies 265 acres on the Houston Ship Channel east of the city. It can store more than 13 million barrels of chemicals, petroleum, fuel oil and gases. It serves marine, train and trucking transport with five tanker berths and its own rail spur.

health
houston
pollution
texas
environment
epa
chemical fire


Don't take this North Korea guidebook with you, warns publisher

Abstract: PARIS - A French publisher has produced a rare guide to North Korea, highlighting its history, cultural wealth and beautiful landscapes but advising tourists not to take the politically sensitive book with them. Tourism is one of the few remaining reliable sources of foreign income for North Korea, after the U.N. imposed sanctions targeting 90 percent of its $3 billion annual exports including commodities, textiles and seafood. Tensions over North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles spiked on the Korean Peninsula last year and there were fears of a U.S. military response to North Korea’s threat to develop a weapon capable of hitting the United States. “There are a lot of people that are interested in this country be it for nuclear and military reasons, but also economically so … it’s important to provide information,” said Dominique Auzias, president of the Petit Fute, which publishes some 800 guides. “As it’s a country that’s closed and forbidden everybody dreams of going there,” he said. Some 400 French tourists visit the country each year with trips costing about €2,000 ($2,267). The reclusive communist state has no official diplomatic relations with France. Talks in June last year between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provided a detente even if in recent weeks tensions have once again flared. North Korean authorities would probably confiscate the printed edition given some of the material, Auzias said. “You don’t go for adventure, but to discover,” he said. The guide, which took three years to put together, touches little on where to stay or eat because accessing the country as a tourist can only be done through specific travel agents who determine what visitors see. In some cases however they respond to requests and Auzias said the guide helps people decide what they would like to see. It makes clear it is imperative to stick to the country’s strict rules or face dire consequences as American student Otto Warmbier did in 2016 when he was sentenced to 15 years of forced labor for trying to steal a propaganda poster in his hotel. He was returned to the United States in a coma 17 months later, and died shortly after. A coroner said he died from lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. “The first time I went 10-12 years ago I was proud because I was one of the rare French citizens to get in … but my second moment of happiness was about three weeks later when I left because it was suffocating and mind-boggling,” Auzias said.


Geothermal plant 'triggered earthquake' in South Korea

Abstract: SEOUL - A rare earthquake in South Korea was triggered by the country’s first experimental geothermal power plant, a team of government-commissioned experts said Wednesday. The southeastern port city of Pohang was rattled by a 5.4-magnitude earthquake in November 2017 — the second-most-powerful tremor ever in the normally seismically stable South. The most powerful quake to date was a 5.8-magnitude tremor that struck Gyeongju, also in the southeast, in September 2016. A seismograph near the epicenter measured peak ground acceleration equivalent to magnitude 7.4. Poor subsoil around Pohang amplified the seismic waves passing through, making the overall damage somewhat heavier than the Gyeongju earthquake. The earthquake damaged about 2,000 private properties, the government said; 52 homes suffered severe damage and 157 had serious damage. Damage was also reported at 227 schools across the region. Dozens of people were injured and more than 1,500 were left homeless. A nationwide college entrance exam was postponed in an unprecedented move as authorities scrambled with recovery efforts. The College Scholastic Ability Test was delayed by a week both in order to change testing sites and to let people recover somewhat from the quake. The yearlong government-commissioned study has pointed to the geothermal power plant as the cause. The plant works by injecting high-pressure water deep underground to tap heat from the Earth’s crust, but the process produced micro-size seismic activity as a result, said Lee Kang-kun, who led the research. “And as time passed, this triggered the earthquake in Pohang,” he added. “We concluded that the Pohang earthquake was a ‘triggered quake.’ It wasn’t a natural earthquake.” Pohang residents filed a lawsuit against the government after the quake. Following the new report’s assessment, Seoul expressed its “deep regret.” The geothermal plant — which was temporarily suspended during the study — will be “permanently shuttered,” the trade, industry and energy ministry said in a statement. It cost around 80 billion won ($71 million) to build and test operations began in 2016. Unlike Japan, the Korean Peninsula rarely experiences significant quakes. Seismic activity is closely monitored to indicate whether North Korea has staged a nuclear test.

earthquake
south korea
geothermal power plant


South Korea's ruling party retracts critique of Bloomberg reporter

Abstract: SINGAPORE - South Korea’s ruling party withdrew personal criticism of a Bloomberg News reporter for writing an article about President Moon Jae-in, after international press groups warned the remarks threatened journalistic freedom and demanded a retraction by the party. The Democratic Party of Korea removed from a statement posted on its website last week language mentioning the reporter’s name and describing the Sept. 25 Bloomberg article about Moon’s North Korean policy as “almost like treason.” The move came days after journalists’ organizations said that the comments had resulted in serious threats to the reporter’s personal safety. “We would like to apologize to foreign journalists within South Korea, if we have caused any misunderstandings,” party spokesman Lee Hae-sik said in a statement Tuesday. “We do acknowledge that our rough expressions, due to a lack of knowledge and virtue, could have caused some discomfort for the reporter, and depending on the person, it could have provided a psychological shock.” Moments before Lee’s comments, Moon’s office had reaffirmed the president’s support for press freedom and issued a statement pledging “an appropriate countermeasure” against threats to any reporter’s safety. The controversy erupted last week after conservative lawmaker Na Kyung-won cited the headline of the Bloomberg story as part of an effort to criticize Moon’s foreign policy after the collapse of U.S. President Donald Trump’s talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Lee subsequently issued the statement naming Bloomberg and the reporter involved, using a derogatory term referring to ethnic Koreans who work for the foreign press. The headline in question described Moon as becoming Kim’s “top spokesman at UN” during a visit to the United Nations last year, when the South Korean leader said he had “tried to have people around the world see Chairman Kim Jong Un and what kind of person he is with their eyes.” On Tuesday, Lee reaffirmed his criticism of Na’s remarks and the article, describing them as something that “insults the president and insults the citizens.” On Saturday, the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club issued a statement expressing “grave concern” over the ruling party’s decision to single out a reporter, calling on the government to respect South Korea’s hard-won press freedoms. The AAJA-Asia and the Seoul subchapter of the Asian-American journalists’ group separately faulted the focus on the reporter’s Korean ethnicity in the statement. Moon’s office pledged to uphold press freedoms in its statement Tuesday. “We cannot accept any circumstances where a reporter’s personal safety is threatened, and we believe this should never happen in any situation,” the presidential office said. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, said in a statement that “we stand by our reporting and our reporter.”


Cockpit voice recorder of doomed Lion Air jet depicts pilots' frantic search for fix, sources say

Abstract: JAKARTA/SINGAPORE/PARIS - The pilots of a doomed Lion Air Boeing 737 Max scoured a handbook as they struggled to understand why the jet was lurching downward, but ran out of time before it hit the water, three people with knowledge of the cockpit voice recorder contents said. The investigation into the crash, which killed all 189 people on board in October, has taken on new relevance after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators grounded the model last week following a second deadly accident in Ethiopia. Investigators examining the Indonesian crash are considering how a computer ordered the plane to dive in response to data from a faulty sensor and whether the pilots had enough training to respond appropriately to the emergency, among other factors. It is the first time the voice recorder contents from the Lion Air flight have been made public. The three sources discussed them on condition of anonymity. Reuters did not have access to the recording or transcript. A Lion Air spokesman said all data and information had been given to investigators and declined to comment further. The captain was at the controls of Lion Air flight JT610 when the nearly new jet took off from Jakarta, and the first officer was handling the radio, according to a preliminary report issued in November. Just two minutes into the flight, the first officer reported a “flight control problem” to air traffic control and said the pilots intended to maintain an altitude of 5,000 feet, the November report said. The first officer did not specify the problem, but one source said airspeed was mentioned on the cockpit voice recording, and a second source said an indicator showed a problem on the captain’s display but not the first officer’s. The captain asked the first officer to check the quick reference handbook, which contains checklists for abnormal events, the first source said. For the next nine minutes, the jet warned pilots it was in a stall and pushed the nose down in response, the report showed. A stall is when the airflow over a plane’s wings is too weak to generate lift and keep it flying. The captain fought to climb, but the computer, still incorrectly sensing a stall, continued to push the nose down using the plane’s trim system. Normally, trim adjusts an aircraft’s control surfaces to ensure it flies straight and level. “They didn’t seem to know the trim was moving down,” the third source said. “They thought only about airspeed and altitude. That was the only thing they talked about.” Boeing Co. declined to comment on Wednesday because the investigation was ongoing. The manufacturer has said there is a documented procedure to handle the situation. A different crew on the same plane the evening before encountered the same problem but solved it after running through three checklists, according to the November report. But they did not pass on all of the information about the problems they encountered to the next crew, the report said. The pilots of JT610 remained calm for most of the flight, the three sources said. Near the end, the captain asked the first officer to fly while he checked the manual for a solution. About one minute before the plane disappeared from radar, the captain asked air traffic control to clear other traffic below 3,000 feet and requested an altitude of “five thou,” or 5,000 feet, which was approved, the preliminary report said. As the 31-year-old captain tried in vain to find the right procedure in the handbook, the 41-year-old first officer was unable to control the plane, two of the sources said. The flight data recorder shows the final control column inputs from the first officer were weaker than the ones made earlier by the captain. “It is like a test where there are 100 questions and when the time is up you have only answered 75,” the third source said. “So you panic. It is a time-out condition.” The Indian-born captain was silent at the end, all three sources said, while the Indonesian first officer said “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” a common Arabic phrase in the majority-Muslim country that can be used to express excitement, shock, praise or distress. The plane then hit the water, killing all 189 people on board. French air accident investigation agency BEA said Tuesday the flight data recorder in the Ethiopian crash that killed 157 people showed “clear similarities” to the Lion Air disaster. Since the Lion Air crash, Boeing has been pursuing a software upgrade to change how much authority is given to the Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, a new anti-stall system developed for the 737 Max. The cause of the Lion Air crash has not been determined, but the preliminary report mentioned the Boeing system, a faulty, recently replaced sensor and the airline’s maintenance and training. On the same aircraft the evening before the crash, a captain at Lion Air’s full-service sister carrier, Batik Air, was riding along in the cockpit and solved the similar flight control problems, two of the sources said. His presence on that flight, first reported by Bloomberg, was not disclosed in the preliminary report. The report also did not include data from the cockpit voice recorder, which was not recovered from the ocean floor until January. Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesian investigation agency KNKT, said last week the report could be released in July or August as authorities attempted to speed up the inquiry in the wake of the Ethiopian crash. On Wednesday, he declined to comment on the cockpit voice recorder contents, saying they had not been made public.

lion air
boeing
aviation
air accidents
indonesia


Japan urged to lift sterilization requirement for transgender recognition

Abstract: Japan should “urgently” revise a law that effectively requires transgender people to be surgically sterilized if they want legal recognition of their gender identity, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. Under a law introduced in 2004, transgender people who wish to change their official documents must appeal to a family court and meet a set of strict criteria. Applicants are required to be without reproductive capacity, effectively requiring most people to be sterilized to meet the criteria. They must also be single and without children under the age of 20, and undergo a psychiatric evaluation to receive a diagnosis of “gender identity disorder.” “Japan should uphold the rights of transgender people and stop forcing them to undergo surgery to be legally recognized,” said Kanae Doi, Japan director with Human Rights Watch (HRW). “The law is based on an outdated premise that treats gender identity as a so-called ‘mental illness’ and should be urgently revised,” she added. The statement accompanied a report by the rights group that includes interviews with 48 transgender people, as well as with lawyers, health providers and other experts on the issue. It criticized the law as based on a “pejorative notion that a transgender identity is a mental health condition” and blasted the requirement that transgender people “undergo lengthy, expensive, invasive, and irreversible medical procedures.” The report quoted a transgender man as calling the country’s requirements “humiliating.” “Why do we have to put a scalpel through our healthy bodies just for (the) sake of the country’s order?” the transgender man said. The World Health Organization has removed “gender identity disorders” from the “mental disorders” section of its new International Classification of Diseases, the rights group noted. HRW also pointed to comments made in 2013 by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, who said that transgender people being “required to undergo often unwanted sterilization surgeries as a prerequisite to enjoy legal recognition of their preferred gender” was a human rights violation. The Supreme Court in January rejected an appeal by a transgender man, Takakito Usui, who was seeking legal recognition without undergoing surgery. Japanese society has a growing awareness of sexual diversity but it is often superficial. Pressure for conformity forces many LGBT people to hide their sexual identity even from their families, and transgender people often face high obstacles to live outside traditional gender roles. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ultraconservative supporters have campaigned to restore a paternalistic society based on heterosexual marriages. Lawmakers in the ruling party have repeatedly been criticized for discriminatory remarks about LGBT people. One said earlier this year that “a nation would collapse” if everyone became LGBT, and another said last year the government shouldn’t use tax money for LGBT rights as such couples aren’t “productive.”


Vietnamese blue-collar workers in Japan seen facing risks as labor system opens up

Abstract: When a young Vietnamese woman found out late last year that she was pregnant after arriving in Japan on a technical trainee visa, she was given a stark choice: “Have an abortion or go back to Vietnam.” But returning home would leave her unable to pay back the $10,000 she borrowed to pay recruiters there. “She needs to stay to pay back her debts,” said Shiro Sasaki, secretary-general of the Zentoitsu (All United) Workers Union, who has advocated on her behalf and said such threats are common. Buoyed by hopes of higher wages but burdened by loans, Vietnamese youth — the fastest-growing group of foreign workers in Japan — will be among those most affected by a new project to let in more blue-collar workers that kicks off in April. “Trainees from China have been declining as wages there rise with economic growth, while in Vietnam unemployment is high for youth with high education levels, so many young people want to go abroad to work,” said Futaba Ishizuka, a research fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, a think tank. The technical trainee program is widely known as a back door for blue-collar labor in immigration-shy Japan. Reported abuses in Japan include low and unpaid wages, excessive hours, violence and sexual harassment. In Vietnam, unscrupulous recruiters and brokers often charge trainees exorbitant fees. Such problems will persist and could worsen under the new system, aimed at easing a historic labor shortage, according to interviews with activists, academics, unionists and trainees. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose conservative base fears a rise in crime and a threat to the country’s social fabric, has insisted the new law, enacted in December, does not constitute an “immigration policy.” That worries critics. “In fact, Japan is already a country of immigrants. But because they say it is not an ‘immigration policy’ and the premise is that people will not stay, they only take temporary steps,” said Japan Civil Liberties Union director Akira Hatate. “The needs of society are not met and the needs of the workers are not met.” The trainee system began in 1993 with the aim of transferring skills to workers from developing countries. But persistent abuses developed early on, experts say. Those issues were spotlighted last year during debate over the new law. Among the high-profile cases was that of four companies using trainees for decontamination work in areas affected by radiation after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Two firms, also accused of not paying appropriate wages, were banned from employing trainees for five years; the others got warnings from the Justice Ministry. A labor ministry survey published in June showed more than 70 percent of trainee employers had violated labor rules, with excessive hours and safety problems most common. That compared to 66 percent for employers overall. The Organization for Technical Intern Training, a watchdog group, was set up in 2017. This month, it issued a reminder to employers that trainees are covered by Japanese labor law, which specifically bans unfair treatment of pregnant workers. Harsh conditions led more than 7,000 trainees to quit in 2017, experts say, many lured by shady brokers promising fake documentation and higher-paying jobs. Almost half were from Vietnam. Because trainees are not permitted to switch employers, leaving their jobs usually means losing legal visa status. A few go to shelters run by nonprofit groups or get help from unionists, while many disappear into a labor black market. “The situation is completely different from what they were told back home,” said Shigeru Yamashita, managing director of the Vietnam Mutual Aid Association in Japan. “They have debts they cannot repay with their salaries at home, so the only option is to flee into the black market for labor.” The new law will allow about 345,000 blue-collar workers to enter Japan over five years in 14 sectors, including construction and nursing care, that face acute labor shortages. One category of “specified skilled workers” can stay up to five years but cannot bring families. A second category of visas — currently limited to the construction and shipbuilding industries — allows workers to bring families and be eligible to stay longer. Nguyen Thi Thuy Phuong, 29, left her husband and elementary-school-age child at home in Vietnam to work as a trainee in a knitwear factory in Mitsuke, Niigata Prefecture. The textile industry was not included in the new visa program after coming under fire for the high number of labor violations in its trainee programs. Now she wishes she could bring her family and stay longer than three years. “Life in Japan is convenient and the air is clean,” she said in careful Japanese during a break from work. For-profit employment agencies and individuals can register as liaisons between recruiters and employers. These “registered support organizations” will not need licenses. Immigration authorities will provide oversight of the new foreign workers, and the labor ministry’s immigration bureau will become an agency on April 1, a bureaucratic distinction that gives it more clout. On Friday, the Justice Ministry issued fresh rules for the new system, including a requirement that foreign workers be paid at least as much as Japanese employees. But Sasaki said the agency’s focus would be residence status, not labor conditions. Some companies have woken up to the risk of losing investors if they or their suppliers violate workers’ rights, said Japan Civil Liberties Union’s Hatate. But the rush to implement the new law has left local authorities worried that too little has been done to support and integrate more foreigners. “If there is not a proper framework to accept them and they are thought of as purely a way to fill the labor shortage, for certain there will be major problems,” said Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa.


Hayabusa2 detects minerals containing water on Ryugu asteroid

Abstract: The unmanned space probe Hayabusa2 has detected small amounts of minerals containing water on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu, a Japanese research team has said. The findings may provide a clue to solving the mystery of the origin of Earth’s water. Scientists say that at least part of the water came from asteroids and comets. Research from the Hayabusa2 mission was published through the online version of the U.S. journal Science on Tuesday. Ryugu is classified as a C-type asteroid containing water and organic compounds. After its arrival at Ryugu in June last year, Hayabusa2 surveyed 69,000 locations on the asteroid, covering 90 percent of its surface, by using a near-infrared spectrometer capable of detecting hydrated minerals. But the team said in August that year that its analysis of the observation data did not find anything indicating the presence of water. Later, the team redid its analysis after adjusting for measuring errors. The fresh analysis has found that hydrated minerals that are mostly uniform in composition exist on the surface at a rate of 1 percent or less, the team said. “The decision to choose Ryugu as the destination, based on the prediction that there is some water, was not wrong,” said Kohei Kitazato, an associate professor at the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture. In addition, comparing the rocks that make up Ryugu with meteorites indicates that they are likely to have been heated in the past, according to the team. Observation results obtained so far suggest the possibility that Ryugu originated from the parent body of the Polana or Eulalia asteroid family. Both families are in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Rocks that make up Ryugu are believed to have been heated inside its parent body, which was created 4.56 billion years ago, just after the solar system was formed. After losing water due to the heating, the rocks appear to have broken into smaller pieces and gathered again through collisions with other celestial bodies, the team said. Considering its volume and mass, the team believes Ryugu is made of rocks and stones aggregated together — in similar fashion to the asteroid Itokawa, which the first Hayabusa probe explored in a mission that ended in 2010. At present, Ryugu rotates over a period of 7.6 hours. But it used to spin much faster, with a rotation period of 3.5 hours. This caused its shape to bulge at an equatorial area due to centrifugal force, giving the asteroid the appearance of a spinning top. “Detailed observations of Ryugu are beginning to shed light on its history,” said University of Tokyo professor Seiji Sugita, a key member of the team. “We’d be able to collect precious samples that will help unravel what happened 4.5 billion years ago” if the Hayabusa2 mission succeeds in bringing the samples to Earth, said Nagoya University’s Professor Seiichiro Watanabe, another key member of the team.


In wake of Christchurch massacre, Australia asks Japan to arrange talks on social media controls at G20

Abstract: Japan has received a written request from Australia to arrange talks on tightening social media controls at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Twitter that he has sent the letter of request to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the wake of Friday’s deadly shooting attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The terror attack, which killed 50 people, was streamed live on Facebook by the attacker. “We utterly condemn this despicable terror attack and are firmly resolved to fight terrorism, together with New Zealand, Australia and the international community,” Suga said at a news conference. The top government spokesman, however, declined to immediately comment on how Japan will respond to the Australian request. At a separate news conference, Foreign Minister Taro Kono sounded cautious about G20 talks on social media regulations. “Social media provides convenience in some aspects of life, but causes trouble in others,” Kono said. In the letter to Abe, Morrison expressed his concern at the “continuing and unrestricted role played by internet technologies in this and other terrorist attacks.” He highlighted the need to “ensure that technology firms meet their moral obligation to protect the communities which they serve and from which they profit.” The G20 leaders “should work to ensure that there are clear consequences not only for those who carry out such horrific acts, but for those who facilitate them,” Morrison said.

christchurch
australia
social media
g20
scott morrison
mass shootings


Smiling may help Japanese election candidates win more votes, study claims

Abstract: With a spate of public office elections scheduled in the country this year, findings from a study by a university professor may offer good advice for those planning to run in the polls — smiling could earn candidates more votes. In an occasion that occurs once every 12 years, both unified regional elections, which include gubernatorial, mayoral and local assembly polls, and a triennial election for the House of Councilors will be held this year, in April and in the summer, respectively. Masahiko Asano, professor at Takushoku University in Tokyo, has been researching links between the smiles of election candidates on their campaign posters and how many votes they gain. He launched the study after being inspired by a report published in a foreign academic journal claiming that the more election candidates smile, the more votes they get. Using a special facial recognition system, Asano analyzed the smiles of some 6,000 people on their campaign posters, based on such factors as how widely their eyes and mouths are open and the state of wrinkles around their eyes, and rated them on a scale of zero to 100 points. The finding was that those that smile receive more votes, under certain conditions, according to Asano. His research covered six of the elections for the House of Representatives held between 1980 and 2017 — specifically, candidates in constituencies each with three to five seats for the 1980, 1983 and 1990 elections, and those in single-seat constituencies for the 2000, 2014 and 2017 elections. Asano collected the images of the posters of the some 6,000 people by taking pictures and obtaining official election documents from the National Diet Library. He found that the correlation was weaker for single-seat constituencies than for multiple-seat constituencies. The professor explained: “In multiple-seat constituencies, two or more candidates run from the same party, so voters tend to cast ballots based on the image of the candidates, including the extent of their smile, rather than on their policies. In single-seat constituencies, in contrast, candidates’ policies and political parties to which they belong, instead of their facial expressions on their campaign posters, could be factors determining voting behavior.” For 464 first-time candidates in single-seat constituencies in the 2017 election, meanwhile, he found that the more candidates a constituency has, the more effect a smile seems to have in obtaining votes. No links were confirmed between smiles and votes acquired for constituencies with two or three candidates. For constituencies each with four or more candidates, however, the share of votes won by a candidate tends to be several percentage points higher if they earn a full 100 points on the smile scale, compared with a case of zero points, after statistical treatment. “In the situation that many candidates from various political parties are running, it’s very likely that how they look influences voting decisions,” Asano said. But at the same time, Asano said: “I’m still at the stage of testing a hypothesis. I need to collect and analyze more data to examine to what degree a smile favorably affects the share of votes won.”

elections
diet
upper house
local government


Japan's ruling party grills Google over data protection as it looks to tighten regulation on tech giants

Abstract: The ruling Liberal Democratic Party questioned a Google LLC executive Wednesday over the company’s data protection and transaction practices as part of efforts to tighten regulation on information technology giants. The party headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also set to hear from Facebook Inc. on Friday as the nation’s antitrust watchdog and government ministries examine whether the market position of dominant tech companies, also including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., is hindering fair competition. “We need to compile transparent and fair rules to remove the negative impact while promoting technological innovation at the same time,” said LDP policy chief Fumio Kishida during the portion of the meeting that was open to the media. According to a participant in the closed portion of the meeting, an executive from Google’s U.S. headquarters took part and talked about the company’s accountability standards when handling personal data and business transactions. The executive also raised concerns that excessive regulation would hinder technological innovation, the participant said. The panel of the party’s Research Commission on Market Competitiveness Policy also questioned officials from Apple and Amazon Japan last Friday. The party is set to compile a proposal over the issue in April. Concerns have been raised that the companies are collecting their customers’ personal data without gaining sufficient consent and are not disclosing how the information is used. The Fair Trade Commission launched a survey late last month of the IT firms’ transactions to see if they are applying unjust pressure on individual sellers and smaller firms in violation of the Antimonopoly Law. Businesses using their platforms have also been asked to answer an online questionnaire and report any questionable trade practices. The antitrust watchdog’s survey also covers operators of major online marketplaces such as Rakuten Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. Amazon.com faced allegations that it violated the antitrust law when it revealed a new loyalty point plan last month that may force all vendors to offer their customers points even if sellers wish to opt-out. The vendors are also required to shoulder the cost of the plan. If Amazon Japan introduces the new program in May as scheduled, and without giving vendors the chance to negotiate terms, it could be deemed as an abuse of its superior bargaining position over a counterparty, which is prohibited under the Antimonopoly Law. The Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications are also working on new rules to ensure that transactions between companies and the IT giants are conducted in a transparent and fair manner.

google
facebook
apple
amazon.com
ldp
social media


Court tells Japan's government to pay damages to prize-winning author held and illegally arrested after Okinawa base protest

Abstract: NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. - The Naha District Court on Tuesday ordered the central government to pay ¥80,000 in damages to an award-winning author who was detained for entering a restricted area while protesting in Okinawa Prefecture. Shun Medoruma, 58, was held in U.S. custody for eight hours on April 1, 2016, after canoeing into the restricted area off the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago. The central government plans to build a facility at the site to take over the functions of the Marine Corps’ Futenma air station also in Okinawa. Medoruma, who won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1997, was arrested under a special law within the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement after being transferred to Japanese custody. He was not prosecuted. In the damages lawsuit, Medoruma sought damages of ¥1.2 million from the central government, saying he had been held in custody unjustly. Presiding Judge Kaoru Hirayama said it would have been possible for Japan Coast Guard officers to accept the transfer of the author from the U.S. military into Japanese custody within two hours, adding that there was no rational reason to justify the delayed transfer. The judge also found Medoruma’s arrest by Japanese authorities to be illegal. Medoruma said that the ruling reached by the court is “only natural.”


South Korea provincial officials propose 'war crime company' stickers for school goods made by some Japanese firms

Abstract: A proposal has been submitted to a South Korean provincial assembly to require the use of stickers on school products that were made by certain Japanese companies that used South Korean laborers during World War II, it was learned Wednesday. The proposed stickers are said to include the text “war crime company.” The proposal is expected to be submitted to a plenary session of the assembly of Gyeonggi-do, near Seoul, in early April, according to the Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean daily. According to the assembly’s website, the proposal was sponsored by 27 assembly members, including representatives from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The proposal says it is intended to recognize the attitudes of Japanese companies that have not made an official apology or paid compensation over their use of wartime forced laborers although they inflicted damage on South Korean nationals, and to establish a correct recognition of history among students. It targets companies from a list of firms announced by a committee of the South Korean prime minister’s office that are said to have caused damage to the lives and properties of South Korean people, mainly through wartime labor, naming 284 companies. Also targeted are companies that were established after the end of the war with funds from such firms, as well as shareholders in such firms.

south korea
stickers
gyeonggi-do
wartime labor


Nagasaki observes first cherry blooms of season in Japan

Abstract: NAGASAKI - Cherry trees came into bloom Wednesday in Nagasaki Prefecture, marking the first blooming of the Somei-Yoshino variety to be recorded in Japan this spring, according to the Meteorological Agency. Officials confirmed at around 10 a.m. that five flowers had started to blossom from a cherry tree at an observatory of the agency in the city of Nagasaki. The bloom was four days earlier than average but three days later than last year. The flowers will be in full bloom in a week to 10 days, the observatory said. “The warmer-than-usual weather has most likely led to the cherry tree’s early blooming,” a local agency official said. The average temperature in the city of Nagasaki was 2.1 degrees higher than usual in late February, at 10.8 Celsius, and 1.8 degrees higher, at 11.1 C, in early March, according to the weather agency. On Wednesday, temperatures rose throughout Japan, with the mercury hitting 20.6 C in Kameyama in Mie Prefecture, 19.4 C in Hitachiomiya in Ibaraki Prefecture and 19.1 C in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo. The weather agency made no mention of the blooming of Somei-Yoshino trees in Tokyo.


Japan marks first anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo sarin nerve gas attack since top cult members' executions

Abstract: Japan marked the 24th anniversary Wednesday of a deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subway system carried out by the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000 others. In a memorial ceremony at Kasumigaseki Station, relatives of the victims and employees of the subway operator observed a moment of silence at 8 a.m., around the time when the attack occurred on March 20, 1995. The doomsday cult’s founder, Shoko Asahara, and several of his former followers were executed for the crime last July. “After the executions, I came here with a different feeling than before,” said Shizue Takahashi, who lost her husband, Kasumigaseki assistant stationmaster Kazumasa Takahashi, in the attack. “Half a year has passed and I am thinking about the consequences of capital punishment more deeply.” Following prolonged trials, Asahara, 63, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, was convicted of numerous murders, including the 1995 sarin gas attack, and hanged along with 12 other former senior members of the cult. Immediately after the executions, Takahashi, 72, said her suffering had not stopped and that she was having a “very hard time.” But on Wednesday, she said she has started to think about how the executed death row inmates had spent their time in prison and how their families are doing. Stands for flowers were set up by Tokyo Metro Co. at Kasumigaseki and other stations where people fell victim to the attack. Kasumigasaki Station is in a district containing many ministerial and other governmental offices. The nerve agent was scattered in five subway cars during the morning rush hour under Asahara’s instructions, causing mayhem at the stations. With the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics approaching, the government is considering ways to further strengthen the safety of the country’s railway system. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry conducted an experiment at Kasumigaseki Station earlier in the month to check whether a body scanner can detect hazardous materials if a passenger tries to secretly carry them onto trains. The ministry hopes the device will enhance safety without affecting the convenience of railway passengers.

aum shinrikyo
sarin
kasumigaseki station
shoko asahara


Japan's Supreme Court gives approval for retrial of former nurse who served prison term over 2003 murder

Abstract: The Supreme Court has given its approval for the retrial of a former assistant nurse who was convicted of the murder of a 72-year-old male patient at a hospital in Shiga Prefecture and has already served a prison term. In making the decision on Monday, the top court’s Second Petty Bench rejected an appeal by public prosecutors and upheld the Osaka High Court’s ruling to reopen the case against Mika Nishiyama, 39. In the December 2017 verdict, the high court referred to the possibility that the patient may have died of natural causes. The Supreme Court’s decision was made unanimously by three justices. In the retrial, Otsu District Court in the prefecture’s capital is highly likely to acquit Nishiyama, who served her prison term until August 2017, sources familiar with the situation said. The male patient at Koto Memorial Hospital, in what is now the city of Higashiomi, was found dead by a nurse in May 2003. Nishiyama was in charge of taking care of the patient in her role as an assistant nurse. After quitting her job at the hospital, Nishiyama told law enforcement authorities during their investigations that she had removed an artificial respirator from the patient. She was arrested in July 2004. Although Nishiyama withdrew her confession during her trial, the Otsu District Court recognized, based on a medical examiner’s certificate and other materials, that the patient suffered acute cardiac arrest because of a lack of oxygen. In November 2005, the district court sentenced her to 12 years in prison for the murder of the patient, concluding that her confession was credible. The ruling was finalized by the Supreme Court in May 2007. In granting the retrial for Nishiyama, the Osaka High Court said that the male patient may have died naturally from lethal arrhythmia, citing a doctor’s certificate newly submitted by the defense. The high court also said that Nishiyama’s confession wasn’t credible. The court said her confession may have been guided by police, noting that her statements regarding the conditions of the artificial respirator had often changed. The high court thus overrode the Otsu District Court’s September 2015 rejection of her retrial plea, which was filed in September 2012. That was the second such plea by Nishiyama. She filed her first retrial petition in September 2010, but that was later dismissed. In a separate case, the Supreme Court in October 2018 approved a retrial for Koki Miyata, 85, who served a prison term over the 1985 murder of a 59-year-old man in Kumamoto Prefecture. In the murder trial, the Kumamoto District Court in 1986 sentenced Miyata to 13 years in prison, and the verdict was finalized by the top court in 1990. In his retrial, set to be held at the district court on March 28, Miyata is expected to be found not guilty.

supreme court
shiga prefecture
mika nishiyama


U.S. man arrested over stabbing death of Japanese wife in lobby of Tokyo court building

Abstract: An American man reportedly in the middle of a divorce with his Japanese wife was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stabbing her to death in the lobby of the Tokyo Family Court building, according to police. The 32-year-old husband was found in possession of several knives and bottles containing a liquid thought to be gasoline when he was apprehended by police shortly after fleeing the court building to nearby Hibiya Park, the police said. The woman, 31, who was stabbed in the neck at the court building around 3:20 p.m., was confirmed dead at a hospital, authorities said. The husband had cut his own wrists and was also taken to a hospital. According to the police, the wife and husband were meeting at the court for divorce proceedings that day. He had been sitting on a bench by the security check for the building, and ambushed her when he saw her arrive. Police said a motive was not yet known and the couple’s names were being withheld. The court is in the Kasumigaseki district of central Tokyo, which is dotted with government offices and near entrances to Marunouchi and Chiyoda line subway stations.

stabbings
divorce
tokyo family court
police
murder


Tokyo court dismisses request for retrial by former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Muneo Suzuki

Abstract: The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday rejected a plea for a retrial submitted by former lawmaker Muneo Suzuki, who served time in prison after being convicted on four charges including bribery and influence peddling. Suzuki’s defense team plans to file an immediate appeal. Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, Suzuki, a 71-year-old former House of Representatives lawmaker and head of New Party Daichi, described the court decision as “regrettable,” as he “had expected the court would uncover the truth.” “I’ll continue to fight,” he added. Regarding the defense’s claim that prosecutors forced companies that had bribed Suzuki to give false testimonies during the trial, Presiding Judge Kazunori Karei said that such firms and other witnesses had made the same confessions from the beginning of the investigation. Suzuki’s counsel had submitted new evidence, suggesting that the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office manufactured a pretext for the interrogation. The defense team claimed that the prosecutors pressured the firms and others to give their testimonies in line with this false scenario. According to the final court decision, Suzuki received a total of ¥11 million in bribes from the companies in return for playing a role as an intermediary between them and the Forestry Agency between 1997 and 1998, when he served as chief of the former Hokkaido Development Agency and deputy chief cabinet secretary. While Suzuki adamantly asserted his innocence during the trial, the Tokyo District Court in November 2004 sentenced him to two years in prison and imposed a fine of ¥11 million. In September 2010, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal submitted by Suzuki. He was incarcerated in December 2010, before being released on parole a year later. Suzuki filed the request for a retrial with Tokyo District Court in 2012.

muneo suzuki
tokyo district court
bribery
new party daichi


Restaurant chain operator Skylark to impose total smoking ban from September

Abstract: Restaurant chain operator Skylark Holdings Co. said Tuesday it will impose a total smoking ban at all of its around 3,200 outlets in the nation from September. The group, which operates the Jonathan’s and Gusto chains, “wants to prevent undesirable passive smoking, and cares about the health of customers and some 100,000 employees,” said an official of Skylark Holdings. Many Skylark group restaurants have smoking areas that are separated from nonsmoking areas. The group will remove the smoking areas.

restaurants skylark smoking gusto health


Museum devoted to 'visas for life' diplomat Chiune Sugihara to open in Tokyo

Abstract: A museum based on the life of Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986), a Japanese diplomat who issued transit visas to thousands of Jewish people during World War II to help them escape from Nazi persecution, is set to open Saturday in the Yaesu district of Tokyo. Items to be exhibited at the Chiune Sugihara Sempo Museum will include one of the “visas for life,” as well as manuscripts written by Sugihara. Sempo was Sugihara’s nickname when he was working at the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. The visa to be put on display was issued by Sugihara to the late Nathan Bluman on Aug. 9, 1940, allowing the Jewish Pole to escape to Canada by way of Japan. Bluman’s son George, who donated the passport that contains a transit visa written by Sugihara, was present at the museum’s opening ceremony held Tuesday. Chihiro Sugihara, 55, the grandson of Chiune Sugihara who heads the nonprofit organization “Chiune Sugihara. Visas For Life,” said: “Now we have a facility in Tokyo where people can learn about the Holocaust. I hope it can offer the opportunity for all the people to develop the imagination to live together.” The museum will be run by the organization and other entities. Madoka Sugihara, 52, granddaughter of Chiune Sugihara and vice chair of the organization, said, “We want visitors to understand the thoughts of a diplomat who saved many people by staking his life in the grueling days of the war.” Among the manuscripts to be exhibited will be a note, believed to have been written around the summer of 1978. It describes how Sugihara felt when he decided to issue transit visas to Jewish people in defiance of a Japanese Foreign Ministry order not to do so. “After struggle and anguish, I finally came to conclude that the most important thing is humanitarianism,” the note says. The original visa and manuscripts will be kept in secure storage, with replicas and copies to be put on display, along with other exhibits such as photographs and a panel listing the names of people to whom transit visas were issued by Sugihara. The museum will be open between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays, and will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The entrance fee will be ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for junior high and high school students. Admission will be free for elementary school students and younger children.

visas
chiune sugihara
nazis
lithuania
wwii
religion
history


Japan's exports slump again on weak external demand, putting central bank on notice

Abstract: Exports fell in February for the third straight month, a sign the trade-reliant economy is under growing strain and suggesting that the Bank of Japan might eventually be forced to offer more stimulus to temper the effects of slowing external demand and trade friction. Slower global growth, the U.S.-Chinese trade war and complications over Britain’s exit from the European Union have already forced many policymakers to shift to an easing stance over recent months. Japan is in a similar situation to much of the rest of the world, where factories have slammed on the brakes and business confidence has plummeted in the wake of rising global economic uncertainty. Finance Ministry data released Monday showed that exports fell 1.2 percent year on year in February, more than the 0.9 percent decrease expected by economists in a Reuters poll. That came on the heels of a sharp 8.4 percent year-on-year drop in January. Exports have seen drops in shipments of cars, steel and semiconductor production equipment. “Exports to advanced nations like the United States and Europe still held firm, but China- and Asia-bound shipments were clearly sluggish,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. “Exports will remain in a declining trend for the time being, which could curb capital spending and wages. The domestic economy will face a severe situation ahead of October’s consumption tax hike.” The trade data comes on top of a recent batch of weak indicators, such as factory output and a key gauge of capital spending, which have raised worries that Japan’s record run of postwar growth may come to an end. Some analysts say a recession cannot be ruled out. The BOJ last week cut its view on exports and output, while keeping policy unchanged. Yet, extended weakness in exports could put it under pressure to deliver more easing, especially as inflation remains well off its 2 percent target and pressure on businesses and consumers continues to rise. In the news conference following last week’s policy meeting, BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda acknowledged the challenges the economy faces but gave no indication there will be any additional stimulus. But Kuroda may have to change tack in the face of a run of weak economic indicators. Many in the BOJ expect the economy to emerge from the current soft patch in the second half of this year, assuming China’s stimulus plans can revive demand there. The biggest worry among BOJ policymakers is that weakening exports and output will hurt corporate sentiment, prompting firms to delay capital expenditure and wage hikes. The trade war between the United States and China — Japan’s largest export markets — has already curbed global trade. Monday’s trade data showed exports to China, Japan’s biggest trading partner, rose 5.5 percent year on year on shipments of semiconductor production equipment and cars, rebounding from a 17.4 percent drop in January. However, overall trade to the Asian giant remained weak, as even after averaging effects of the Lunar New Year holiday, China-bound shipments declined 6.3 percent in the January-February period from a year earlier. Seasonally adjusted overall trade values rose 6.7 percent month on month in February, the strongest rise in two years. Export volume fell 0.6 percent in the year to February after the previous month’s 9.0 percent decline. “Shifts in the timing of Chinese New Year partly explain the sharp swings in trade volumes at the start of the year, so the recent strength in export volumes may unwind before long,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics. “We still think that net trade will remain a drag on GDP growth both in the first quarter and throughout 2019.” Japan’s shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of its overall exports, fell 1.8 percent, down for the fourth straight month. U.S.-bound exports rose 2.0 percent, but imports from the United States grew 4.9 percent, resulting in Japan’s trade surplus with the country declining 0.9 percent year on year to ¥624.9 billion in February. Yet, Japan’s still-large surplus with the U.S. raises concerns among Japanese policymakers and auto exporters that Washington may impose hefty duties on its imports. Imports of Japanese cars account for about two-thirds of Japan’s $69 billion annual trade surplus with the U.S., making Tokyo and Beijing targets of criticism by Donald Trump. In February, Japanese auto exports to the United States rose just 0.5 percent year on year to 152,198 units in February, with the value of shipments down 6.8 percent.


Hundreds of firms may be demoted in Tokyo Stock Exchange shake-up

Abstract: As part of an effort to streamline markets and attract more investors, the Tokyo Stock Exchange may demote about a third of its largest listed companies and cut down the bourses it operates to three from four, according to media reports. A TSE advisory panel is expected to compile a report by the end of March after examining public comments on structural reforms for the $5.7 trillion equity market. The reported changes would demote hundreds of companies from the TSE’s first section, investors say. The exchange included 2,137 companies as of Friday, double the number in 1990, according to the exchange’s parent, Japan Exchange Group Inc. “It’s good to reduce the number of companies in the TSE’s first section,” said Kazuyuki Terao, the chief investment officer of Allianz Global Investors’ Japanese unit. “A lot of investors are using the Topix as a benchmark for their investments and the number of the constituents in the Topix is too many.” The TSE may raise the minimum market-cap requirement to remain listed on the first section to ¥25 billion from ¥2 billion, and require that companies disclose filings in English, the Nikkei financial newspaper said Friday. Kyodo News reported the panel plans to recommend reducing the number of exchanges. Satoshi Mimura, a spokesman for Japan Exchange Group, said no decision has been made. Roughly half of the Topix’s current members have market values below ¥50 billion. If the ¥25 billion market-cap threshold were to be implemented, it would cut the first board to a little more than 1,400 companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The panel is proposing categorizing TSE stocks into three sections — premium, standard and emerging, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. Currently the TSE has the first and second sections, the Mothers and Jasdaq startup exchanges. Companies currently in the first section that are near the market-cap threshold may seek mergers and acquisitions or management buyouts, Masahiro Suzuki, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc., wrote in a note dated Friday. Some investors see the reported changes as unwelcome. Masakazu Hosomizu, a Chicago-based portfolio manager at RMB Capital, said splitting the first section by market cap would “fundamentally alter the constituents of the Topix” and “force a massive sell-off by passive investors due to their portfolio rebalancing requirement.” Yoshinori Shigemi, a Tokyo-based global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said screening companies just by their market cap isn’t desirable. “The value of market cap will change depending on the conditions of the nominal economy, so screening by the market-cap value means they may need to change the criteria again in the future depending on the state of the economy,” Shigemi said. The TSE is scheduled to propose the ideas at a Financial Services Agency advisory committee meeting at the end of this month, the Nikkei said.

tokyo stock exchange
listing
companies
reform


Shared work spaces catch on with urban Japanese seeking a better work-life balance

Abstract: More companies in Japan are turning to shared office space to shorten employees’ commuting times and offer them a better work-life balance. Shared spaces are also expected to foster new businesses by providing budding entrepreneurs chances to network with people from different industries and come up with fresh ideas. “Before, I was forced to cut the time I spent working whenever I had to take my children to see the doctor,” said Mami Adachi, 35, who is trying to raise twin daughters while working at trading house Sumitomo Corp. “My time has been freed up since I started using a co-working space. I no longer have that feeling of irritation that comes from not being able to work even when I want to,” Adachi said. About once a week she works from NewWork Jiyugaoka, a shared office in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, close to her home. Slashing the two-hour round-trip commute to Sumitomo’s headquarters in Chiyoda Ward in the center of the city allows her to devote more time to work when needed or spend time with her 2-year-olds without cutting into office hours. NewWork Jiyugaoka is one of some 20 co-working spaces run by railway Tokyu Corp. The railroad contracts with companies to offer shared satellite offices within walking distance of major train stations mainly in greater Tokyo. Employees of the participating companies can choose where they want to sit but are prohibited from speaking loudly. Cellphone use is restricted to a designated area. “The atmosphere is like a library so I can really make progress with my work,” Adachi said. “There’s no colleague trying to talk to me and no business phone calls interrupting me.” Companies can also keep track of employees’ working hours because an card reader records when they enter and exit the facility. New York-based WeWork touts its support for creating new business opportunities by actively promoting networking among clients. WeWork Companies Inc. entered the Japanese market in February 2018 and has since opened more than 10 co-working spaces spanning Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka and other prefectures. Its open-plan offices display notices for workshops on various topics ranging from the ABCs of virtual currency to South African wines. Tea, coffee and light meals are available in the kitchen area, where people can easily interact. Offering its own take on the trend, Tokyo Metro Co. launched a Satellite Office Service in June 2018 that provides work booths in four subway stations, including Tameike-Sanno. Each cozy, one-person pod comes with a desk, chair, electrical outlet, LCD monitor and free Wi-Fi. One can book a booth online for ¥200 per 15 minutes. A Tokyo Metro official said the service makes life easier for people to call on a client toward the end of the day. “Many people go to the trouble of returning to their office to complete some simple task after visiting a client,” the official said. “Now they can go home directly if they finish their jobs quickly and easily in the station.”

entrepreneurs
co-working spaces
tokyu
wework


Dollar falls below ¥111.50 in Tokyo trading

Abstract: The dollar weakened below ¥111.50 in late afternoon trading Monday in Tokyo as investors retreated to the sidelines prior to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s two-day policy-setting meeting that starts Tuesday. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥111.48-48, down from ¥111.65-65 at the same time Friday. The euro was at $1.1349-1349, up from $1.1325-1325, and at ¥126.51-52, up from ¥126.44-45. After moving around ¥111.40-50 early in the morning, the dollar topped ¥111.60 toward noon on real demand-backed purchases. The greenback was also supported by the Nikkei 225’s extended rally, traders said. But the dollar lost steam and moved around ¥111.50 for most of the afternoon amid a dearth of major buying incentives. Players held active trading in check to wait for the outcome of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, an official from a major Japanese bank said. Another domestic bank official said the dollar-yen pair has been struggling for direction, with the dollar weighed on by lower U.S. long-term interest rates and the yen by higher U.S. and Asian stock prices. The market is cautiously watching developments related to Britain’s planned departure from the European Union, an official of a foreign exchange margin trading service firm said.


Tokyo stocks rise further on Wall Street advance

Abstract: Stocks gained further ground Monday, with investor sentiment brightened by rises in U.S. equities Friday. The Nikkei 225 average climbed 133.65 points, or 0.62 percent, to end at 21,584.50. On Friday, the key market gauge rose 163.83 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, finished 11.05 points, or 0.69 percent, higher at 1,613.68 after gaining 14.34 points Monday. The market surged from the outset on robust purchases of semiconductor-linked issues. This came after the U.S. chip sector led the Wall Street advance on a Chinese media report about substantial progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations, brokers said. Stocks maintained their strength throughout the day, though they failed to rise further due to selling on a rally, the brokers said. Higher Chinese stocks also helped the market extend its winning streak to a second market day, according to Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities Co. Tomoaki Fujii, head of the investment research division at Akatsuki Securities Inc., said investors bought stocks in anticipation of a “dovish” U.S. Federal Reserve at its two-day policy-setting meeting starting Tuesday. Meanwhile, the market turned top heavy as players increasingly became “vigilant” over the U.S.-China talks following a media report that a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping could be postponed to June, Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co., pointed out. Rising issues far outnumbered falling ones 1,695 to 385 in the first section, while 56 issues were unchanged. Volume dropped to 1.033 billion shares from 1.483 billion Friday. Chipmaking equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron and other semiconductor-related issues rose on buying by investors who took heart from major U.S. chip company Broadcom Corp.’s brisk earnings figures, brokers said. Also bought were cosmetics maker Shiseido, clothing store chain Fast Retailing and technology investor SoftBank Group. By contrast, convenience store operator FamilyMart Uny, mobile phone carrier KDDI and advertising agency Dentsu met with selling.

stocks
nikkei
topix
tokyo stock exchange


Japan Post Insurance eyes firms with tech edge in new ESG investment strategy

Abstract: Japan Post Insurance is shifting its approach to sustainable investing by picking companies with a technological edge for solving global problems, its investment chief said, in a move away from typical ESG selection criteria. With total assets of ¥74.5 trillion ($670 billion), the life insurer also known as Kampo is one of Japan’s biggest institutional investors and a major player in the world’s third-largest stock market. The firm plans to triple the portion of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments in its domestic stock portfolio to around ¥100 billion over the next couple of fiscal years, starting in April, Chief Investment Officer Atsushi Tachibana said. Kampo is taking a radically different approach compared with conventional ESG investments, he said. In recent years many ESG investors have focused on “somewhat superficial criteria,” such as the percentage of female managers, the average rate of paid leave taken by employees, or a company’s carbon emissions, he said. Kampo tries to identify companies it believes have a technological edge to solve global ESG issues and meet U.N. sustainable development goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals and 169 targets aimed at resolving social, economic and environmental problems troubling the world. “We look to what extent companies’ exposure to businesses or products that will contribute to solving ESG challenges are driving their growth,” Tachibana said. “That’s not something you can find in their public disclosure. We try to get an estimate through the 300 to 400 meetings and factory visits our analysts have with companies annually,” he added. Based on that strategy, Kampo’s ESG portfolio looks very different from other ESG funds, he said. The top 10 holdings in Kampo’s ESG-focused growth stock fund include FP Corp., a leader in manufacturing and recycling disposable food containers used in supermarkets, and Koito Manufacturing Co., which makes LED headlights for cars. The fund does not include common ESG names such as Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Corp. and KDDI Corp., which have heavy weightings in ESG indices such as MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders and FTSE Blossom Japan. Since its launch last April, the returns for Kampo’s ESG fund have beaten the benchmark Topix by 2.5 percentage points, MSCI Japan ESG by 0.5 percentage points and FTSE Blossom by 2.7 percentage points, as of March 8, Tachibana said. Kampo is the insurance arm of former state-owned conglomerate Japan Post Holdings. The insurer has increased investment in riskier assets since it was partially privatized in 2015. Previously, the firm has relied heavily on outside asset managers to oversee its mostly-passive stock portfolio, which rose in value to ¥2.118 trillion by last September from ¥997 billion in March 2015. It plans to double its in-house actively managed portion of the portfolio — which includes the ESG-focused growth fund and a high-dividend fund — to about 20 percent of total stock holdings, or about ¥400 billion, in the near future, he said. As for Japan’s stock market, he remains cautious despite a recovery since January. “We expect the global economic slowdown to continue a bit more, so we don’t plan to increase our domestic stock portfolio in the near term,” Tachibana said. “That said, their valuation is cheap and I think they can be good investments in the longer term.”

japan post
esg
investment
kampo
atsushi tachibana


Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi alliance needs simpler decision-making, French automaker chief says

Abstract: Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors need to streamline the alliance’s decision-making processes, Renault SA Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. The three automakers announced last week that they will establish a new management board consisting of their top leaders, including Senard, to decide alliance strategy. According to a report posted online by Le Figaro on Sunday, Senard said he wants the board to be composed of people who have the power to make decisions at each company. He also said the team around him is not working on boosting cross-shareholdings between Renault and Nissan Motor Co. Senard denied speculation about a conspiracy by Nissan related to the arrest by Japanese authorities in November of then-Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was also chairman and chief executive officer of Renault, for alleged financial misconduct. Nissan has not shown any intention to withdraw from the alliance, Senard said. Also Sunday, a Nissan committee tasked with improving the automaker’s governance said it will release a set of proposals March 27. The committee, formed after Ghosn’s arrest in November, said it will hold a news conference that day. The proposals will likely include increasing the number of outside directors on Nissan’s board, according to people familiar with the panel’s discussions. Based on the proposals, Nissan will speed up its process of forming a new management structure. The news conference is expected to be attended by lawyer Seiichiro Nishioka, the co-chair of the panel, and Sadayuki Sakakibara, a former chairman of Keidanren, the nation’s top business lobby. Nissan is considering naming Sakakibara as the chief of the board, sources familiar with the company’s reform have said.

nissan
renault
jean-dominique senard
mistsubishi motor


Twitter's former CFO joins SoftBank-backed farming startup Plenty

Abstract: Twitter Inc.’s former chief financial officer has joined SoftBank Group Corp.-backed Plenty Inc. in the same role as the indoor farming startup prepares for international expansion and improvements to its vertical growing technology. Mike Gupta helped take Twitter public in 2013 and left for Docker Inc. two years later. Earlier, Gupta was treasurer at gaming company Zynga Inc., helping to lead its initial public offering, and had previously spent about eight years in various roles at Yahoo. “It’s not new for me to be in hypergrowth companies that are entering unchartered territory,” Gupta said in an interview. “This is a very capital intensive business, so having someone who can think about how we raise and deploy capital in the long run will be very important.” Plenty has made several high-profile hires in recent years, including Tesla Inc.’s former battery director, Kurt Kelty, and the electric carmaker’s former vice president of engineering, Nick Kalayjian. Founded in 2014, Plenty boasts it can yield more produce in a given area than conventional farms, with only a fraction of the water. Its backers include funds that invest on behalf of Eric Schmidt, a director of Alphabet Inc., and Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc. Plenty is betting that with its technology and a previous $200 million investment from SoftBank, it will be able to scale its farms around the world. The startup is in the process of building a new version of its farms, called Tigris. Matt Barnard, a co-founder and chief executive officer of Plenty, said the new farm will be able to produce more than 40 times the amount of leafy greens that its current farms while using less energy. Plenty aims to roll out Tigris later this year. The company currently has 18,250 square meters of indoor space in south San Francisco but is only using a small portion for produce it sells. The majority of the space is used for testing, and research and development. Plenty, which has been delivering produce in the Bay Area since June 1, sells its food online and in neighborhood grocery stores. Vertical farming technologies have yet to revolutionize agriculture and several companies have shut down in recent years because they weren’t economically sustainable. While most vertical farms grow produce on parallel shelves, Plenty uses tall columns from which plants sprout horizontally. The company says the method allows it to more cheaply remove excess heat emitted by LED grow lights and reduce energy needed to deliver nutrients to the plants. Plenty has a team working on early stage development in China, and is in discussions with distributors and partners in Japan, Abu Dhabi and other regions.

softbank
farming
startup
plenty
mike gupta


Descente president likely to step down after successful hostile bid by Itochu

Abstract: OSAKA - Masatoshi Ishimoto, president of sporting goods maker Descente Ltd., is likely to step down after trading house Itochu Corp. successfully completed a hostile tender offer, according to informed sources. Itochu demanded changes to Descente’s management when senior officials of the two Japanese companies met in Osaka on Sunday to have their first talks since the completion of the tender offer, which was announced Friday. At the meeting, the officials exchanged opinions about the composition of Descente’s management team and other issues. While the likelihood of Ishimoto’s resignation increased, the officials remained apart on the board composition and failed to reach a conclusion, the sources said. Currently, the Descente board has 10 directors — six from the company, two from Itochu and two outsiders. Itochu has been proposing a reduction of the number of the internal directors to two. Descente has been refusing the cut. Now that its equity stake in Descente has been raised to 40 percent thanks to the successful takeover bid, Itochu plans to increase pressure on the company to accept its proposals.


New Seiyu CEO says Walmart not looking to sell its Japanese supermarket chain

Abstract: The newly appointed chief executive of Walmart Inc.’s supermarket chain Seiyu denied Monday that the business is up for sale, following reports last year that the U.S. retail giant is looking for a buyer. “I’m not here to sell a business,” Lionel Desclee told reporters in Tokyo in his first public remarks since his appointment Friday. “Absolutely not at all.” Japanese media reported last year that Walmart considered selling Seiyu, and that a sale could amount to around ¥300 billion to ¥500 billion. Desclee, who has worked for European food retailer Delhaize Group and was previously CEO of pet shop chain Tom & Co., said he is too new in the job to discuss strategy but is sure that a sale is not in the works. He joked of “sleepless nights” as he read media reports of a possible sale just as he was considering the Tokyo job. “Thanks to this article I did thoroughly discuss Walmart’s intentions,” he said, adding that officials in Bentonville, Arkansas, assured him that he was being hired to grow, rather than sell, the Japanese business. Walmart first entered the Japanese market in 2002 by buying a 6 percent stake in Seiyu and gradually built up its stake before a full takeover in 2008. Japan has proven a difficult market for many foreign entrants such as Tesco PLC and Carrefour SA. Consumers demand fresh food and high levels of customer service in a highly competitive industry where margins are razor thin after years of deflation. Under Walmart, Seiyu has closed unprofitable stores. It also launched an online grocery venture with Rakuten Inc. last year, though it faces tough competition from rivals that will include Amazon’s Fresh service.

seiyu
walmart
supermarkets
lionel desclee


One dead in possible terror attack on Dutch tram; massive police hunt for suspect

Abstract: UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS - Dutch police were hunting down a suspect after a shooting Monday on a tram in the central city of Utrecht that left one person dead and multiple people injured. Authorities immediately raised the terror alert for the area to the maximum level and said they are considering the possibility of a “terrorist motive” in the attack. Dutch military police went on extra alert at airports and at key buildings in the country as the Utrecht manhunt took place. Police, including heavily armed officers, flooded the area after the shooting Monday morning on a tram at a busy traffic intersection in a residential neighborhood. They later erected a white tent over an area where a body appeared to be lying next to the tram. Utrecht police said trauma helicopters were sent to the scene and appealed to the public to stay away. As the manhunt continued, heavily armed anti-terror officers gathered in front of an apartment block close to the scene. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the situation “very worrying.” Police spokesman Bernhard Jens said no one had been detained yet in the shooting, and one possible “explanation is that the person fled by car.” He did not rule out the possibility that more than one shooter was involved in the attack. “We want to try to catch the person responsible as soon as possible,” Jens said. A German police spokesman said German authorities near the border were initially told to look out for a red Renault Clio compact sedan but were later told it had been found abandoned in Utrecht. There was no immediate confirmation on that from Dutch police. The Netherlands’ anti-terror coordinator raised the threat alert to its highest level around Utrecht. Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said the “threat level has gone to 5, exclusively for the Utrecht province.” “The culprit is still on the run. A terror motive cannot be excluded,” he said in a Twitter message. After the shooting, Dutch political parties halted campaigning ahead of a provincial election scheduled for Wednesday that will also determine the makeup of the Dutch parliament’s upper house. In neighboring Germany, police stepped up their surveillance of the Dutch border. Heinrich Onstein, a spokesman for federal police in North Rhine-Westphalia state, said additional officers had been detailed to watch not only major highways, but also minor crossings and railway routes. German police are in close contact with authorities in the Netherlands and have a description of the suspect, he said, but would not elaborate for security reasons.


Britain opens far-right terrorism probe into stabbing

Abstract: LONDON - British police said on Sunday they had launched a terror investigation into a nonfatal stabbing attack “inspired by the far right” in suburban London. Counterterrorism police said a 50-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and racially aggravated public order offenses following Saturday’s incident in Surrey. “While this investigation is still in its infancy, it has hallmarks of a terror event, inspired by the far right, and therefore it has been declared a terrorism incident,” counterterrorism police coordinator Neil Basu said. “Police are committed to tackling all forms of toxic extremist ideology, which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.” Police said the suspect had been shouting racist abuse while walking down the street with a baseball bat. They later received a call reporting a man being stabbed. A 19-year-old was taken to hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. Police said the suspect carrying the baseball bat appeared to be one who stabbed the 19-year-old. British police are on heightened alert for extremist crimes following an attack on worshippers in two New Zealand mosque that claimed the lives of at least 50 people Friday.


Brazil leader Jair Bolsonaro in U.S. to cement an alliance with Trump

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Washington on Sunday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and cement a budding conservative-populist alliance that, in part, aims to ramp up pressure on Venezuela. The far-right leader flew out of Brasilia early Sunday with six ministers, among them Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and Justice Minister Sergio Moro, Brazilian media reported. They touched down at Joint Base Andrews, on the outskirts of Washington, at 3:40 p.m. “It’s the first time in a long time that a Brazilian president who is not anti-American, comes to Washington,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter after he arrived. It is Bolsonaro’s first trip abroad for a bilateral meeting since taking office on Jan. 1. He attended the Davos summit in Switzerland that month. Bolsonaro, who will also meet in Washington with the head of the Organization of American States (OAS), is scheduled to return to Brazil on Tuesday. Outside the White House on Sunday afternoon, dozens of demonstrators gathered to protest the visit — holding signs including one that accused Bolsonaro of being a “murderer” over apparent links to suspects in the killing of rights activist Marielle Franco. Police have said those ties are coincidental. A Trump-Bolsonaro bond could see the leaders of the Americas’ two most populous democracies working in concert on a range of regional issues. Most pressing is the crisis in Venezuela, where the United States and Brazil — and dozens of other countries — have recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president with the goal of pushing President Nicolas Maduro from power. The tough-talking Bolsonaro has long expressed his admiration for Trump. He echoes the U.S. leader in spurning multilateral organizations and leftist politics, while promoting businesses over environmental concerns at home. Their shared nationalist sentiment can be seen in another relationship: that of Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, who is a federal lawmaker, with Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon. Eduardo Bolsonaro announced in early February that he was part of the Brussels-based group known as The Movement, which Bannon set up to promote far-right nationalistic values and tactics. The older Bolsonaro announced Saturday that one main result of his trip would be the signing of an agreement under which the United States might gain access to a satellite-launching base in Brazil near the equator. But most eyes will be on developments surrounding Venezuela, which shares a border with Brazil. “Brazil and the United States together throw fear into defenders of backwardness and tyranny around the world,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter, which he is a prolific user of, like Trump. “Those who fear ties with a free and wealthy nation? That’s what we’ve come looking for,” Bolsonaro added. Previous Brazilian administrations took a friends-to-all approach to neighboring countries. But not Bolsonaro. The 63-year-old former paratrooper shares Trump’s hostility to the “dictator” Maduro, who took over after the death of socialist leader Hugo Chavez in 2013. Trump has repeatedly insisted that “all options are on the table” with regards to Venezuela, a phrase understood to include military action. But Bolsonaro, like other members of the mostly Latin American Lima Group, has ruled out military action in favor of a policy of tightening the economic and diplomatic pressure against Maduro. As well as a “private meeting” with Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Bolsonaro will sit down with OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro, and participate in various forums to promote economic opportunities in Brazil. The country’s economy is the largest in Latin America, and the U.S. is Brazil’s second biggest trade partner after China. Bolsonaro was scheduled to dine at the residence of Brazilian Ambassador Sergio Amaral with “opinion makers” including, according to press reports, Bannon and U.S.-based Brazilian writer Olavo de Carvalho, considered Bolsonaro’s ideological guru. Bolsonaro is staying in Blair House, the official U.S. state residence opposite the White House used for visiting dignitaries. After his return to Brazil, Bolsonaro is planning a trip to Chile and then, in late March, to Israel.

brazil
jair bolsonaro
donald trump
venezuela
u.s .