Japan passes controversial immigration bill paving way for foreign worker influx

Abstract: The Diet on Saturday passed a controversial bill to overhaul the immigration control law, adopting changes meant to provide the graying nation with a supply of foreign workers in what are often viewed as blue-collar sectors. The revised law marked a drastic policy shift in immigration-shy Japan, paving the way for an influx of an estimated 340,000 foreign workers in the five years after the new visa system comes into effect in April next year. But the bill, which dominated discussions in the current extraordinary Diet session, has elicited a fierce backlash from opposition lawmakers, who say it is void of key specifics. In its provisions they see an echo of the state-sponsored foreign trainee program, which is rife with allegations of human rights violations including below-minimum wages, bullying and sexual harassment by employers along with harsh working conditions. The last few days saw fresh details emerge over what many perceive to be exploitative aspects of the internship program. According to Justice Ministry data made available by Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Akira Nagatsuma, 69 foreign trainees died between 2015 and 2017, including six who took their own lives. The data, copies of which were obtained by The Japan Times, also showed that there were at least 11 trainees who fell victim to dangerous accidents while on duty, apparently underscoring the often hazardous nature of their jobs. Those accidents included getting crushed under a forklift, sliding off a scaffold, and falling into a well pump and drowning. They included people from China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, while their ages ranged from 18 to 44. “This is a devastating, cruel reality,” CDP lawmaker Yoshifu Arita told the plenary session of the Upper House prior to the bill’s passage. Arita particularly took issue with the fact that many specifics of the new visa system are expected to be mapped out via ministerial ordinances after the bill is officially enacted. “With no clear countermeasure in place, I’m sure the new system will entail similarly serious human rights violations,” Arita said. Many of those currently engaging in the Technical Intern Training Program are expected to transition to the envisaged visa system, a fact the opposition claims points to the inseparability of the two frameworks. Abe, however, has sought to dissociate the planned acceptance of foreign workers under the new arrangements from the current internship program, by repeatedly claiming the two are fundamentally different. On Friday, opposition parties resorted to a last-ditch effort to sabotage the bill’s passage, submitting a censure motion against Justice Minister Takashi Yamashita, who is overseeing the revision and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The delaying tactics pushed back related deliberations to well into the evening, but the bill was eventually voted on early Saturday. “The bill must be enacted swiftly based on thorough and efficient discussions at the Diet in an age when Japan grapples with serious labor shortages,” lawmaker Takamaro Fukuoka, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, told the Upper House ahead of the bill’s passage. Opposition parties had questioned not so much the prospect of a greater foreign influx, but the heavy-handed way the ruling coalition had pushed the bill through the Diet, spending just a few weeks deliberating the changes despite the magnitude of the impact they could have on society. Recent media polls, too, show that the public was more upset over the lack of discussions in the Diet than a potential inflow of foreign workers. A survey conducted by the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun last month, for example, found that 48 percent of its respondents supported accepting more foreign workers, versus 42 percent who opposed. But even so, an overwhelming 73 percent said the bill “doesn’t need to be enacted in this Diet session but should be deliberated more,” while 9 percent said it “should be enacted in this Diet session.” The current session ends on Monday. The envisioned visa system applies to some of Japan’s most short-handed industries, including construction, agriculture, fisheries, nursery and building cleaning as well as sectors such as food service and hotels Under the revised immigration law, two new official work visa statuses will be created. The first category, which targets lesser-skilled workers, will be renewable for up to five years and in principle will not allow those eligible to bring along their family members. The second category applies to what the government describes as more “seasoned” individuals. It would be renewable indefinitely for workers with valid employment contracts and, unlike the first category, would allow workers to bring along a spouse and children. The government has pointedly argued that the new statuses would not amount to Japan shifting toward accepting “immigrants,” out of consideration for concerns that an inflow of foreign workers could result in domestic workers losing their jobs or crime rates soaring.

immigration
foreign workers
diet
trainees
immigration law


Visitors wowed as Okinawa aquarium becomes world's first to exhibit giant oceanic manta ray

Abstract: At the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, a giant oceanic manta ray can be seen gliding effortlessly through the Kuroshio Sea attraction’s large ocean aquarium, drawing exclamations of delight from onlookers. In a world first, the aquarium in Motobu, Okinawa Prefecture recently announced the creation of a breeding and exhibition program for oniitomakiei — the giant oceanic manta ray — drawing an enthusiastic response from visitors. From Nov. 28, the facility has also been delivering presentations for aquarium visitors that feature its new star attraction. The giant oceanic manta ray is the world’s largest species of ray and measures 4.6 meters across — around a meter wider than the nanyōmanta — reef manta ray — that the aquarium had already been breeding. “You can’t see this in an aquarium anywhere else in the world,” 31-year-old exhibit guide Yukari Baba said proudly after completing the first presentation at 9:30 a.m. The giant manta ray, which was accidentally caught in a stationary net earlier this year, was transported to the facility from a live fish box off the coast of Motobu on Nov. 15, but the aquarium delayed its announcement in order to carefully observe the manta’s health. “This is the day I’ve been waiting for,” Baba said. “I’m so happy to finally be able to tell our visitors” about the ray, she added with a smile. Six-month challenge The groundbreaking manta breeding and exhibition program faced a series of obstacles, and the two aquarists at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium who overcame them were pivotal to the endeavor. For six months from the end of May, 36-year-old Yusaku Kanaya maintained a careful watch over the ray in a live fish box at the surface of the ocean, all the while devising ways to encourage the huge fish to become accustomed to being fed by humans. Meanwhile, 40-year-old Rui Matsumoto, responsible for the large ocean aquarium at the Kuroshio Sea attraction, set about leading the project to transport the manta from the site by boat. A splendid giant at risk The initiative began in earnest on May 29, when the aquarium received a call for assistance from the fishery cooperative in the Okinawa village of Yomitan saying they had found a large manta caught in a stationary net. Matsumoto and colleagues rushed to the village, and confirmed that the catch was indeed a giant oceanic manta ray. Giant manta rays move their fins in a wing-like motion to circulate blood throughout their bodies. If a manta stops moving it will quickly enter a perilous state. The journey from the stationary net in the sea off Yomitan to a live fish box in the sea off the town of Motobu would normally involve lifting the immense fish temporarily onto dry land and transporting it in a truck. But to reduce transit time, the team opted to make the trip entirely by sea. The fact that the aquarium had already made preparations for the possibility of an accidental manta catch soon bore fruit, as the plan could be put into practice straightaway the very next day. The next hurdle would be whether or not the fish could be coaxed to eat. Kanaya, who was responsible for overseeing the live fish box, swam with the manta and tried different methods of scattering food: concentrated in a small area, or spread across a wider one. Through trial and error, he finally succeeded in getting the fish to eat after 13 days. The final challenge was transporting the manta safely to the aquarium. To do so in the summertime, when the water is warm and the ray’s oxygen consumption rises, increases the risks. The team waited until October, but then a typhoon caused a further delay. They finally went ahead with the plan on Nov. 15. To avoid putting the manta through the ordeal of being lifted and lowered by crane into a ship, it was instead transferred to a newly installed, 25-meter-wide live fish box that was then towed by a vessel. Because the custom-made fish tank for use on the truck was too large to be transported during the day, the team waited until after midnight to bring the manta to the aquarium using an oversized trailer. In order to move the manta by sea, the aquarium mobilized a team of around 60 people that included designated researchers from the Okinawa Churashima Foundation. “Through our combined efforts, we were able to transport the fish in a way that was second to none,” said Kamiya, reflecting on their work. Figuring things out “No one knows how to breed giant manta rays,” said Matsumoto, who has a wealth of experience in the field and was the first person to successfully draw blood from a whale shark. Kanaya “worked hard to figure things out,” he added, praising his colleague’s efforts to bring the manta into captivity safely. After successfully transporting the manta ray, the pair spent the night in front of the Kuroshio Sea large ocean aquarium. “We were worried about whether or not the manta would be OK, but we were really happy, too,” he said, smiling. “I’d like lots of people to see how big it is, and I’d like them to know that there are amazing creatures living in the sea,” Matsumoto said. While visiting the aquarium with her husband, 65-year-old Yoko Hashimoto from Nara Prefecture said the manta’s “face is cute, and it has beautiful curves!” “I’d like it to live for a long time,” she added. “I’m so lucky to be able to visit the only such exhibit in the world,” said 32-year-old Yosuke Inagaki from Mie Prefecture joyfully. At the facility’s shop on the day of the launch, manta-themed merchandise, including plush toys and T-shirts, were put on sale. The new arrival is set to be promoted aggressively as the centerpiece of the aquarium’s collection. Until recently it had been thought that the two species of manta ray commonly referred to as “manta” were only one species, known as oniitomakiei. However, in 2009 it was confirmed that there are in fact two separate varieties. At that time, it was decided that the name oniitomakiei would be used to refer only to the larger variety, while the smaller was named nanyōmanta.

okinawa
manta rays
okinawa churaumi aquarium
tourism


Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn may be indicted as soon as Monday

Abstract: Three weeks after his arrest at a Tokyo airport, Carlos Ghosn is set to be indicted for financial crimes as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing to a head the case that has sent shock waves through the global auto industry. Prosecutors are also planning to re-arrest Ghosn on new charges not yet made public, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private. In the first sign of blowback from the scandal for Nissan, the carmaker is also set to be indicted for breaching Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Law by making misstatements on securities reports, the Nikkei newspaper reported. It is also thought that former Representative Director Greg Kelly, who is accused of aiding Ghosn to understate his income and misuse Nissan assets, will be indicted, the report said. According to sources close to the investigation on Thursday, Ghosn admitted to prosecutors that he signed documents on his post-retirement pay that were unreported in the company’s securities statements. The act of signing, which Ghosn allegedly denied shortly after his arrest on Nov. 19, is said to be seen by prosecutors as proof that the former chairman of the Japanese automaker violated the law by failing to report part of his remuneration. But the sources said the 64-year-old has argued that the signing of the papers was only to confirm his understanding of the documents’ contents, apparently maintaining that he did not commit financial misconduct. Representatives of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office have declined to comment on the allegations. An indictment would take the prosecutors’ pursuit of Ghosn, who was arrested on Nov. 19, to the next level. Nissan has since ousted Ghosn as chairman. While he remains at the helm of Nissan’s French partner Renault SA, he has been replaced on an interim basis. Tension within the Franco-Japanese partnership held together by Ghosn for two decades has all but exploded into the open since his incarceration. Nissan “identified serious misconduct related to the reporting of Mr. Ghosn’s compensation,” the company said in an emailed statement. “The company has been providing information to the … Public Prosecutor’s Office and has been fully cooperating with its investigation. We will continue to do so.” Ghosn’s re-arrest would be based on suspected underreporting of his income for the past three fiscal years, the people said. Thus far, prosecutors are said to suspect him of doing so for the five fiscal years ending in March 2015. Ghosn has been arrested on suspicion of violating the law by reporting only ¥5 billion ($44 million) of his ¥10 billion remuneration during the five years. Monday is set to be the last day of Ghosn’s current detention, which has already been extended once. If convicted, Ghosn could face up to 10 years in prison, prosecutors have said.

nissan
carlos ghosn
scandals
carmakers
courts


After failing to meet Abe, hibakusha activist Setsuko Thurlow urges PM to hear those with differing views

Abstract: Hibakusha Setsuko Thurlow, an iconic anti-nuclear activist who survived the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, has called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet with people whose views differ with his own after she was unable to secure a meeting with the leader on Thursday. Thurlow, who lives in Canada and works for the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), visited the Prime Minister’s Office, only to meet Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura. She had requested a meeting with Abe. At a news conference later in the day, Thurlow said Abe could have been too busy but also acknowledged that he may have avoided her intentionally. She said true leadership involves meeting people with differing views and continuing discussions with them. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a separate news conference that Abe was not able to meet Thurlow due to his tight schedule. During her meeting with Nishimura, Thurlow said it is heart-wrenching that Japan, the only atomic-bombed country in the world as well as her home country, has not joined the 2017 U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Thurlow handed Nishimura a letter for Abe in which she expressed her hope that Japan will end its reliance on U.S. nuclear weapons.

setsuko thurlow
atomic bombings
shinzo abe
nuclear weapons
ican


Netizens blast Singapore Miss Universe's Trump-Kim summit gown

Abstract: SINGAPORE - Singapore’s representative to the upcoming Miss Universe pageant plans to wear a dress depicting a key moment of the U.S.-North Korea summit that Singapore hosted earlier this year, but the design of her gown has raised hackles in the wealthy city-state. The outfit, which shows two hands draped in the flags of the United States and North Korea locked in warm handshake on an electric blue background lined with iconic tourist attractions in Singapore, has drawn flak on social media since it was unveiled late last month. An online petition has been launched to prevent the costume from being paraded by 23-year-old Singaporean model Zahra Khanum as a national costume at the pageant in Bangkok later this month, with many criticizing it as not representative of Singapore besides being ugly, gawdy and poorly designed. “It would truly be a sad day to have Singapore represented with the American and North Korean flags,” said the petition, which was started by Sandra Galistan, and has attracted more than 1,700 online supporters. “There is nothing about this distasteful costume that truly represents Singapore. It is totally non-representative, inappropriate and ridiculous to say the least.” However, Khanum has defended the costume and was quoted by the state-run Channel News Asia as saying that it is “just a representation of what Singapore stands for, which is world peace, and the fact that Singapore is reaching out to other countries to create positive relationships.” Moe Kasim, 48, the creative director of Moephosis Concepts (Singapore) who designed the costume, was undeterred by the criticism. “I’m a very positive person. I guess after designing and making national costumes for various pageants over the past 10 years, I’m mentally prepared for all kinds of responses,” he said in an email reply to Kyodo News. He said he was asked by the organizers to design something based on the historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which was held June 12 on Singapore’s Sentosa Island. “I believe the organizers wanted to highlight what was relevant, current and unique — something that was probably only going to happen once in our lifetime and in Singapore’s history,” he said. “I naturally thought of world peace and the elements of it, hence, the design,” he said of the costume, which also features two large feathery wings.

singapore
north korea
donald trump
kim jong un
u.s .
kim-trump summit


U.S. holds breath as ex-Boeing exec Shanahan, criticized for lack of foreign policy chops, takes Pentagon's reins

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Patrick Shanahan, who on Tuesday becomes the acting U.S. secretary of defense, takes the helm of America’s massive military machine at a critical time. Shanahan is moving up from his position as deputy defense secretary to the top spot following the resignation of Jim Mattis, who quit over long-running — and ultimately irreconcilable — disagreements with President Donald Trump. Little known outside business and Washington circles, Shanahan will be thrust onto the world stage at a time of tumultuous changes and unpredictable foreign policy moves under Trump. The president this month ordered the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Syria and, according to U.S. officials, a 50 percent draw down in Afghanistan — momentous decisions that have left lawmakers and international allies fearing for what comes next. Shanahan must now oversee the U.S. withdrawal from Syria and play a key role in helping Trump decide the pace of the pull out. Another consideration he must weigh is what, if any, protections should go to Kurdish forces that the U.S. military had been backing to fight Islamic State jihadists. Turkey views the Kurdish YPG fighters as “terrorists” and has vowed to attack them in northern Syria. While Shanahan has not always had day-to-day involvement in thorny geopolitical issues like this, Pentagon officials say he is ready to tackle them. “He’s had 18 months to observe all of these operations, he’s been in all of the meetings, he’s been in all the discussions, he’s briefed the White House,” Shanahan’s spokesman, Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, said. A Washington state native, the 56-year-old Shanahan spent more than three decades at Boeing, where he became senior vice president, worked on missile defense systems and was general manager of the 787 Dreamliner program. Trump announced Shanahan’s appointment in a Dec. 23 tweet that also brought Mattis’s planned departure date forward by two months. According to U.S. media, Trump was angry over news coverage of Mattis’s stinging resignation letter that laid bare his fundamental disagreements with the president. Despite a lack of foreign policy or military experience, Shanahan’s executive and technical knowledge made him well suited for the Pentagon’s number two position, which focuses more on the Defense Department’s business side. In his time as deputy, the soft-spoken Shanahan played a key role in helping Mattis and others develop vital policy documents, such as the National Defense Strategy, a sweeping review that highlights a new era of “Great Power competition” with Russia and China. He also has voiced support for Trump’s aim of creating a “Space Force,” a sixth branch of the military that still needs approval from Congress. Buccino pointed to the NDS as a key area for Shanahan’s focus. “He sees the national defense strategy as the blueprint, as the guide for all actions, directions, policies for the Pentagon,” Buccino said. Before starting at the Pentagon in July 2017, Shanahan’s lack of foreign policy chops got him in hot water with the late John McCain, the senior Republican senator who led the Senate Armed Services Committee. At his confirmation hearing, an irascible McCain said a lack of detail in some of Shanahan’s foreign policy answers was “almost insulting.” McCain also expressed concerns that putting a former executive from a defense industry giant in the Pentagon could be akin to putting a fox “back in to the henhouse.” International allies will look to Shanahan, as they did to Mattis, for reassurances about America’s commitment to longstanding alliances — even as Trump assails partner nations for not paying more for their defense. Shanahan must tread a careful line with the mercurial president, especially if he wants to get rid of the “acting” prefix of his job title. Trump has shown an aversion to listening to dissenting advice, and has parted company with many of the top aides to have challenged him. He fired secretary of state Rex Tillerson, former national security advisor HR McMaster resigned, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is on his way out the door. An official close to Shanahan said he would feel comfortable giving Trump an opposing opinion if necessary. “His entire adult life, Shanahan has provided a dissenting voice to leadership when needed,” the official said. “He would have no qualms doing that.”

pentagon
patrick shanahan
military
u.s .


Democratic Republic of Congo opposition, ruling coalition both say they have won chaotic election

Abstract: KINSHASA - Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition said Monday it expects one of its candidates to win the presidential election based on early vote tallies, but the ruling coalition said it was confident its candidate had won the chaotic contest. The competing claims followed a disorderly election day Sunday in which many Congolese were unable to vote due to an Ebola outbreak, conflict and logistical problems. The vote is meant to choose a successor to outgoing President Joseph Kabila after 18 years in power and could lead to the vast central African country’s first ever democratic transition. Any disputed outcome could lead to a repeat of the violence that followed the 2006 and 2011 elections and a wider security breakdown, particularly along Congo’s borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, where dozens of armed militia are active. Vital Kamerhe, the campaign manager to opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi, said early counting showed Tshisekedi and the other main opposition candidate, Martin Fayulu, were neck and neck, both with over 40 percent of the vote. He said the ruling coalition candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who is backed by Kabila, had only about 13 percent, although a significant part of the vote remained to be tabulated. The election is a first-past-the-post system with no run-off. Nehemie Mwilanya, Kabila’s chief of staff and a member of Shadary’s campaign, told a news conference Monday morning that he was confident Shadary had won, although he did not provide specific figures. “For us, victory is certain,” Mwilanya said. Fayulu’s camp has not yet provided specific numbers, but Fayulu said late Sunday that Shadary’s camp was “dreaming” if it thought it was going to win. The most recent opinion poll before the election, released Friday by New York University’s Congo Research Group, showed Fayulu, a former Exxon Mobil manager, leading the race at 47 percent. Tshisekedi had 24 percent and Shadary 19 percent. The first partial results are expected from the national electoral commission Tuesday. Election day was mostly peaceful despite several violent incidents, including an altercation at a polling place in the eastern part of the country in which at least three people were killed. More than 1.2 million Congolese were also unable to vote in three opposition strongholds, where the election commission canceled the poll last week, citing an ongoing Ebola outbreak and ethnic violence. However, in the Ebola hot spot of Beni, an opposition stronghold, residents staged a mock presidential election to show the authorities a decision to postpone the vote there due to health fears was unfounded.


Indonesia's latest deadly tsunami raises global questions over disaster preparedness

Abstract: CIGONDONG, INDONESIA/JAKARTA - As Indonesia reels from the carnage of yet another natural disaster, authorities around the globe are working on how they can prepare for the kind of freak tsunami that battered coasts west of Jakarta last month. The Dec. 22 tsunami killed around 440 people along the coastlines of the Sunda Strait, capping a year of earthquakes and tsunami in the vast archipelago, which straddles the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire. No sirens were heard in those towns and beaches to alert people before the deadly series of waves hit shore. Seismologists and authorities say a perfect storm of factors caused the tsunami and made early detection nearly impossible, given the equipment in place. But the disaster should be a wake-up call to step up research on tsunami triggers and preparedness, said several of the experts, some of whom have traveled to the Southeast Asian nation to investigate what happened. “Indonesia has demonstrated to the rest of the world the huge variety of sources that have the potential to cause tsunamis. More research is needed to understand those less-expected events,” said Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the University of Southampton. Most tsunami on record have been triggered by earthquakes. But this time it was an eruption of the Anak Krakatau volcano that caused its crater to partially collapse into the sea at high tide, sending waves up to 5 meters (16 feet) high smashing into densely populated coastal areas on Java and Sumatra islands. During the eruption, an estimated 180 million cubic meters — around two-thirds of the less-than-hundred-year-old volcanic island — collapsed into the sea. But the eruption didn’t rattle seismic monitors significantly, and the absence of seismic signals normally associated with tsunami led Indonesia’s geophysics agency (BMKG) initially to tweet there was no tsunami. Muhamad Sadly, head of geophysics at BMKG, later said that its tidal monitors had not been set up to trigger tsunami warnings from nonseismic events. The head of Japan’s International Research Institute of Disaster, Fumihiko Imamura, said he did not believe that Japan’s current warning system would have detected tsunami like the one in the Sunda Strait. “We still have some risks of this in Japan … because there’s 111 active volcanoes and low capacity to monitor eruptions generating a tsunami,” he said in Jakarta. Scientists have long flagged the collapse of Anak Krakatau, around 155 km (100 miles) west of the capital, as a concern. A 2012 study published by the Geological Society of London deemed it a “tsunami hazard.” Anak Krakatau emerged from the Krakatoa volcano, which in 1883 erupted in one of the biggest explosions in recorded history, killing more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunami and lowering the global surface temperature by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) with its ash. Broken warning system Some experts believe there was enough time for at least a partial detection of last month’s tsunami in the 24 minutes it took waves to hit land after the landslide on Anak Krakatau. But a country-wide tsunami warning system of buoys connected to seabed sensors has been out of order since 2012 due to vandalism, neglect and a lack of public funds, authorities say. “The lack of an early warning system is why Saturday’s tsunami was not detected,” said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Nugroho, adding that of 1,000 tsunami sirens needed across Indonesia, only 56 are in place. “Signs that a tsunami was coming weren’t detected, and so people did not have time to evacuate.” Nugroho said Monday that the death toll from the Dec. 22 tsunami had risen to 437, and the number of the injured had doubled to slightly over 14,000. He put the number of displaced people at nearly 34,000. Sixteen people were listed as missing. President Joko Widodo last week ordered BMKG to purchase new early warning systems, and the agency later said it planned to install three tsunami buoys on the islands surrounding Anak Krakatau. The cost of covering the country is estimated at 7 trillion rupiah ($481.10 million). That is roughly equivalent to Indonesia’s total disaster response budget of 7.19 trillion rupiah for 2018, according to Nugroho. But other experts say that even if this network had been working, averting disaster would have been difficult. ‘Worst-case scenario’ “The tsunami was very much a worst-case scenario for any hope of a clear tsunami warning: a lack of an obvious earthquake to trigger a warning, shallow water, rough seabed and the close proximity to nearby coastlines,” said seismologist Hicks. In the Philippines, Renato Solidum, undersecretary for disaster risk reduction, said eruptions from the country’s Taal volcano had caused tsunami before in the surrounding Taal Lake. He said that what happened in Indonesia showed the need to “re-emphasize awareness and preparedness” regarding volcanic activity and its potential to trigger tsunami in the Philippines. The United States has also suffered several tsunami caused by volcanic activity, including in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state, according to the national weather service. In Indonesia last year, a double quake-and-tsunami disaster killed over 2,000 people on Sulawesi island, and at least 500 more died when an earthquake flattened much of the northern coastline of the vacation island of Lombok. Another active Indonesian volcano, Mount Agung, erupted Sunday on Bali, belching ash high into the air and over nearby villages. Mount Agung has been erupting periodically since it rumbled back to life in 2017, when it grounded hundreds of flights and left 120,000 visitors stranded. In a country where, according to government data, 62.4 percent of the population is at risk of being struck by earthquakes and 1.6 percent by tsunami, attention is now focused on a continued lack of preparedness. “Given the potential for disasters in the country, it’s time to have disaster education be part of the national curriculum,” Widodo told reporters after the latest tsunami. For Ramdi Tualfredi, a high school teacher who survived last month’s waves, these improvements cannot come soon enough. He said that people in his village of Cigondong on the west coast of Java and close to Krakatau had never received any safety drills or evacuation training. “I’ve never received education on safety steps,” he said. “The system … totally failed.”

indonesia
tsunami
anak krakatau
japan
philippines
hawaii
u.s .


Shinzo Abe wants a 'specific discussion' with Vladimir Putin on a peace treaty at Moscow summit

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a radio program aired Sunday he hopes to have a “specific discussion” with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a peace treaty between the two countries when the leaders meet next month. Abe and Putin agreed in November to speed up peace treaty talks by finding common ground to resolve the territorial row over Japanese-claimed islands held by Russia. Asked if Japan can address Putin’s concern about the possibility of U.S. forces building a base on the islands if they are handed over to Japan, Abe said his government has “not yet” gained the consent of the United States to keep them free of any U.S. military presence. Tokyo and Moscow are seeking to make progress in peace treaty talks based on the 1956 joint declaration, which says Shikotan Island and the Habomai islet group — two of four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido seized by the Soviet Union after the end of World War II in August 1945 — will be handed over to Japan following the conclusion of a peace treaty. “President Putin has strong determination for signing a peace treaty,” Abe said in the Radio Nippon program recorded Tuesday. Abe plans to visit Russia around Jan. 21 for a summit with Putin, according to government sources. The focus of the Japan-Russia talks on the territorial issue has shifted in recent months to the status of the islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, after the two countries promoted confidence-building steps centering on economic cooperation.

shinzo abe
vladimir putin
disputed islands
russia-japan relations


Tokyo Medical University enrolled applicant at lawmaker's request

Abstract: Tokyo Medical University enrolled an applicant in its nursing school by passing over candidates with better scores at the request of a Diet member, according to a report by an independent panel looking into the university’s rigging of exam scores. Masahiko Usui, former chairman of the university’s board of regents, told a university employee to help an applicant get through the fiscal 2013 conventional exam, saying he was acting on a request from a lawmaker, the report disclosed Saturday showed. The applicant was picked as an alternate candidate, although other people scored better on the exam. The employee told the panel of receiving an instruction from Usui seeking special treatment for a specific applicant almost every year, adding that all such applicants got into the university. The report includes suspicions that several lawmakers and people related to the university’s alumni association had asked Usui to favor certain applicants. Former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Tsuneo Akaeda, who is also an alumnus of the university, said Sunday that he has requested Usui to take two to three students every year for about 10 years, as other alumni asked him to do so. But Akaeda said many did not seem to get in, so “it did not work,” adding he is not involved with the fiscal 2013 nursing school case. The university has been under fire since revelations emerged that it has been altering entrance exam results to exclude some women. The report also showed that a recommended applicant for the university’s school of medicine between fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2018 claimed at a cram school soon before the exam that he or she had acquired the exam questions. This applicant finished first in the essay exam. In the conventional entrance exam in the same year, an employee of the school affairs section informed an exam committee member by email of the essay question, standards for scoring and an answer example, according to the report. In questioning by the panel, an official of the university denied that any exam question has been leaked. The panel said there is reasonable suspicion that an exam question was leaked but stopped short of drawing a clear-cut conclusion.

tokyo medical university
masahiko usui
tsuneo akaeda


We'll have to wait until mid-April to learn the name of Japan's new era

Abstract: The government is likely to announce the name of the next era in mid-April, ahead of the May 1 change of the name from the current Heisei, according to informed sources. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make a final decision on the timing as conservative members of his ruling party insist that the next emperor should proclaim the new era name. Crown Prince Naruhito is scheduled to accede to the throne on May 1, the day after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicates. Abe has described 2019 as a year that will take Japan forward to the future beyond the Heisei Era. The government plans to narrow down candidates for the new name to one after hearing opinions from experts and Diet leaders. The Cabinet will then adopt an ordinance on the era name and the current Emperor will sign it for proclamation. The last name change was in 1989, from Showa to Heisei, after Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, died. The Heisei Era began on Jan. 8, the day after the name was proclaimed. The government plans to withdraw any candidate for the era name if it is reported by media before it is officially adopted, a senior official said. Cabinet members, who meet to adopt the ordinance on the era name, will be banned from carrying mobile phones to prevent leaks. The Prime Minister’s Office thinks there needs to be a lag between the proclamation of the era name and its implementation to allow for sufficient preparations, including computer system adjustments. A likely option is that the era name will be proclaimed after April 10, when a ceremony is scheduled to take place to mark the 30th anniversary of the enthronement of Emperor Akihito, the sources said. Conservative members of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party claim that the new era name should be proclaimed by the next emperor, because an era name essentially belongs to an emperor. The Prime Minister’s Office is against having the new emperor proclaim the era name, saying it could violate Article 4 of the Constitution, which bans involvement in politics by emperors. In addition, the Prime Minister’s Office argues that if the era name is proclaimed and put into use on May 1, the new and old era names will coexist that day, causing a hassle for the public.

heisei
abdication
reiwa
emperor naruhito


Number of new Japanese adults up slightly on New Year's Day

Abstract: The number of Japanese aged 20, the legal age of adulthood, on New Year’s Day will be 1.25 million, up 20,000 from a year earlier, according to a government estimate released Monday. But new adults will make up only 0.99 percent of the total population of 126.32 million, remaining below 1 percent for the ninth straight year. The figure was nearly half the 2.46 million in 1970, the most since officials began compiling comparable data in 1968. Within the shrinking population, the number of new adults has been declining since the mid-1990s after the “second baby boomers,” born between 1971 and 1974, reached adulthood. Of the 1.25 million, 640,000 are men and 610,000 are women, according to the statistics from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. With 2019 being the Year of the Boar under the 12-sign Chinese zodiac, the number of people born in previous such years in Japan totals 10.55 million. Notable figures born in the Year of the Boar include award-winning film director Takeshi Kitano, pop star Hikaru Utada and Yoshihide Kiryu, a member of Japan’s silver medal-winning men’s 4×100 relay team at the Rio Olympics. The age of legal adulthood will be lowered from 20 to 18 in April 2022, following a Civil Code revision. The minimum voting age was also reduced to 18 after a revised election law came into effect in June 2016.


Japan's denial of immigration reality echoes Germany's experience with 'guest workers'

Abstract: The recent sweeping revision to the immigration law opens a gateway for as many as 345,000 migrant workers to enter Japan in the next five years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, has repeatedly said the new visa system does not constitute an immigration policy. “This system is needed for talented foreign personnel to play bigger roles in Japan amid the nationwide labor shortage,” Abe said in justifying the revision at a Dec. 10 news conference. “We will clearly present a cap for the numbers and time frame for acceptance. This is not an immigration policy.” Experts say what his denial represents is much more than the Abe administration’s attitude toward immigration. Rather, they say, it epitomizes the contradictory realities surrounding it: Even though the government is essentially in denial of their existence, Japan has already brought in hundreds of thousands of immigrants, and the ratio of long-term foreign residents is expected to keep rising. Akihiro Koido, a sociology professor who studies immigration policies at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, said the law is an immigration policy regardless of Abe’s staunch denial. Koido compared the current state of immigration policy in Japan to Germany’s gastarbeiters , the guest workers adopted in the 1950s to boost its war-ravaged economy. When Germany concluded a labor treaty with its neighbors, Koido said, the premise was that it would receive migrant workers only on a temporary basis. “Back then, Germany denied that those guest workers were immigrants,” he said. “In reality, though, Germany had to change its interpretation of immigrants after having accepted many of them.” Koido explained that when Germany announced it would terminate the system in the 1970s, many feared they wouldn’t be able to enter the country again, which actually encouraged them to stay and have families, accelerating the growth of long-term settlers. Before that, the foreign population in Germany had already jumped from 686,000 in 1961 to 1.8 million in 1967, according to the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training. Germany eventually enacted a law in 2005 that focused on long-term residency and integration, reducing the number of residency types to two and specifying that applicants must learn the German language and culture as an important part of the process. The 2005 law is deemed significant in that it declared Germany as “a country of immigrants” half a century after the introduction of the gastarbeiter. Japan is actually following the early German policy that was unwilling to acknowledge gastarbeiters as immigrants, instead of devising more contemporary, progressive and effective policies, Koido said. During Diet deliberations, Abe kept insisting that the revision would not open the door for immigrants to settle in Japan permanently. The revised immigration law, however, will introduce two new types of working visas, one valid up to five years and the other renewable indefinitely with a legal employment contract. Those in the first category cannot bring their families with them. Those in the second category, which the government describes as for people with higher skills, are able to bring their families. “We are not thinking about adopting a policy that will accept a certain number of foreigners with their dependents indefinitely to sustain the country’s population,” Abe said last year. Political analysts have speculated Abe’s refusal to say the “I-word” is an effort to appease the part of his conservative base that’s skeptical of immigration, even though that stance puts him at odds with the part that desperately needs it — the business community. Koido said the government, even before the current administration, has been reluctant to acknowledge Japan was hosting immigrants. He cited 1990s immigration reform that widened the legal status for those seeking work and made it easier for foreign people, particularly those of Japanese descent, to come to Japan for work. The government at that time also refused to characterize the reform as immigration policy. “The Japanese government hasn’t actively defined immigration policy, but that doesn’t mean the country didn’t have immigrants in the ’90s,” Koido said. “The logic that long-term residents are not immigrants doesn’t make sense. Even though Japan didn’t automatically become a country of immigrants, an immigration policy essentially existed around that time.” The central government’s reluctance in acknowledging immigration shifted the strain of developing integration policies to the municipalities, Koido added. Yasutomo Suzuki, the mayor of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where about 20,000 foreign residents make a living, stressed that municipalities have proactively sought to accommodate immigrants. The Diet’s tug of war over the use of the term is out of touch with reality, Suzuki said. Justice Ministry data shows that 29 percent of all 2.56 million non-Japanese residing here with legal status — about 749,000 people — were permanent residents as of the end of 2017. In 1997, only about 82,000 out of about 1.48 million people were permanent residents.

immigration
immigration law
shinzo abe
akihiro koido


Carlos Ghosn's detention in Japan extended until Jan. 11

Abstract: The Tokyo District Court on Monday approved another request from prosecutors to keep former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn in detention for alleged financial misconduct. This extension should keep him behind bars until Jan. 11. Ghosn, who was initially charged twice for allegedly underreporting his remuneration, has been detained since November and was served a fresh arrest warrant Dec. 21 for allegedly transferring personal investment losses worth ¥1.85 billion to the automaker’s books in 2008. Ghosn has denied the allegations. The deadline for his current stretch of detention had been Jan. 1. The unusual confinement of Ghosn, credited with saving the automaker when it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s, has sparked criticism that Japan is engaging in so-called hostage justice, in which detention is prolonged indefinitely, and over the absence of lawyers to represent him during interrogations, which is the norm in Japan. Caroline Ghosn, 31, the eldest of his four children, said in an interview with The New York Times that his family has been told that his cell is unheated and he has repeatedly asked for blankets. He has been denied pen and paper and has lost weight, his San Francisco-based daughter was quoted as saying. Ghosn and Greg Kelly, his close aide and a former representative director of Nissan, were first arrested Nov. 19 on suspicion of understating roughly ¥5 billion of the former chairman’s ¥10 billion remuneration in Nissan’s securities reports during the five years through March 2015. They were then hit with the same charge but for a different time period. The two men and the automaker were indicted Dec. 10 for allegedly violating Japan’s financial instruments law. Although Kelly, who is an American citizen, was released on bail Tuesday, Ghosn’s detention was extended on Dec. 21 after he was served another arrest warrant on suspicion of aggravated breach of trust against Nissan. That allegation involves the transfer to Nissan of a derivatives contract between Ghosn’s personal asset management firm and Tokyo-based Shinsei Bank in October 2008. The transfer allegedly took place after the contract incurred an appraised loss of ¥1.85 billion resulting from the 2008 global financial crisis that prompted the bank to call for additional collateral, sources knowledgeable about the matter said. The contract was transferred back to Ghosn’s asset management firm after a Saudi acquaintance guaranteed credit, they said. In return, Ghosn is suspected of using Nissan’s subsidiary in the Middle East to pay the acquaintance $14.7 million from 2009 to 2012, according to the sources. Ghosn admitted to shifting the contract to Nissan but denied causing any real loss to the company, saying he temporarily needed the company’s creditworthiness and had no intention of using its funds to erase the loss, the sources said. He also admitted that payments were made to the acquaintance’s company but said they were made because some Nissan-related businesses had been outsourced, according to the sources.


Finance Ministry sets up compliance promotion panel to regain public trust

Abstract: The Finance Ministry has set up a compliance promotion panel to regain public trust that was lost due to scandals such as the alteration of ministry records related to a controversial state land sale to private school operator Moritomo Gakuen. In the wake of the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, in which land was sold at a steep discount to a private school operator once linked to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie, senior Finance Ministry bureaucrat Nobuhisa Sagawa resigned as head of the National Tax Agency in March, while officials involved in falsifying or destroying ministry records were punished. In an additional blow to the ministry, Vice Finance Minister Junichi Fukuda, the top bureaucrat at the ministry, stepped down in April amid swirling accusations that he had sexually harassed a female journalist. The panel, headed by Reiko Akiike, an adviser from the Boston Consulting Group, is tasked with transforming the ministry into a scandal-free organization by incorporating outside perspectives. In October, the panel compiled reform proposals featuring a “360-degree evaluation” system of reviewing bureaucrats’ work performance from multilateral viewpoints, including not only those of superiors but also subordinates and other colleagues, to check for problems such as improper instructions by senior bureaucrats and sexual harassment. The ministry will introduce the system at its head office on a trial basis in January and put it into full use later in 2019. The proposals also include a compliance education program for senior ministry officials and an upgrading of the whistleblowing system. Concerns continue, however, that the proposed reforms will end up as a pie in the sky. A ministry survey of some 9,400 officials, including those at local finance bureaus, found many complaints that past reform proposals had not been executed and that senior bureaucrats must take the initiative in reforming the ministry. In the meantime, Finance Minister Taro Aso maintains a noncommittal stance on the scandals, adding fuel to calls for his resignation from opposition parties. Aso voluntarily returned his one-year salary of ¥1.7 million as a Cabinet minister over the Moritomo Gakuen scandal in June. Asked by a reporter why the scandal had occurred, however, he said, “I wish I could know.” In the extraordinary Diet session convened in the autumn after Abe reshuffled his Cabinet, Aso rejected opposition parties’ calls for his resignation, saying, “I will fulfill my duties at full power.” As the minister in charge, Aso “should endeavor to offer explanations convincing to the public,” Hideaki Tanaka, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat and now professor at the Graduate School of Governance Studies of Meiji University, said, criticizing Aso for remarks taken to suggest that he has no intention of conducting further probes into the document-tampering. Noting that large companies have come to assign a considerable number of employees to governance policies and internal controls, Naohiko Matsuo, a lawyer familiar with such issues, said that the Finance Ministry “needs to establish an independent and high-ranking post for the promotion of thorough compliance.”

finance ministry
compliance
scandals
taro aso


French tech start-up offers darknet compass, but not to everyone

Abstract: LYON, FRANCE - For years criminal websites shrouded in secrecy have thrived beyond the reach of traditional search engines. But a group of French engineers has found a way to navigate this darknet — a tool they don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. “We insist on this ability to say ‘no,'” Nicolas Hernandez, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Networks, said at the company’s offices near Lyon, in the heart of France’s Beaujolais wine country. He said Aleph refuses 30 to 40 percent of licensing requests for its “Google of the dark web,” based on reviews by its ethics committee and input from its government clients. Most web users never venture beyond the bounds of sites easily found and accessed with casual web surfing. But people and sites seeking anonymity can hide behind layers of secrecy using easily available software like Tor or I2P. These sites can’t be found by searching. Instead, users have to type in the exact URL string of often random characters. In an authoritarian regime, a protest movement could use the secrecy to organize itself or connect with the outside world without fear of discovery. But the dark web is also ideal for carrying out drug and weapon sales, people-smuggling and enabling encrypted chat-room communications by terrorists. When Aleph co-founder Celine Haeri uses her software to search for Glock, the Austrian pistol maker, several sites offering covert gun sales instantly pop up. A search for cesium-137, a radioactive element that could be used to create a “dirty” nuclear bomb, reveals 87 dark sites. Another page explains how to make explosives or a homemade bazooka. “Some even advertise the stars they’ve gotten for customer satisfaction,” Hernandez said. Over the past five years, Aleph has indexed 1.4 billion links and 450 million documents across some 140,000 dark web sites. As of December its software had also found 3.9 million stolen credit card numbers. “Without a search engine, you can’t have a comprehensive view” of all the hidden sites, Hernandez said. He and a childhood friend began their adventure by putting their hacking skills to work for free-speech advocates and campaigners against child abuse while holding down day jobs as IT engineers. Haeri, at the time a teacher, asked for their help in merging blogs by her colleagues opposed to government reform of the education system. The result became the basis of their software for the mass collection and indexing of data. The three created Aleph in 2012. They initially raised €200,000 ($228,000) but had several close calls with bankruptcy before finding a keen client in the French military’s weapon and technology procurement agency. “They asked us for a demonstration two days after the Charlie Hebdo attack,” Hernandez said, referring to the 2015 massacre of 12 people at the satirical magazine’s Paris offices, later claimed by a branch of al-Qaida. “They were particularly receptive to our pitch, which basically said, if you don’t know the territory — which is the case with the dark web — you can’t gain mastery of it,” Haeri added. The ability to covertly navigate the darknet is a holy grail for security services trying to crack down on illicit trafficking and prevent terrorist attacks. The U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been working on a similar project, called Memex, for years. Aleph plans to soon add artificial intelligence capabilities to its software, which would recognize images such as Kalashnikov rifles or victims of child abuse, or alert businesses to potential copyright infringement. Its revenues are expected to reach around €660,000 this year, a figure it hopes to double in 2019. That has attracted the attention of investors as Aleph steps up efforts to add more private-sector buyers to its roster of government clients. But as more people and businesses start using Aleph’s search engine, the risk increases that criminal organizations or hostile governments will eventually gain access. The challenge will be to grow while setting out clear guidelines for handling the thorny ethical questions. But Hernandez insisted he would remain vigilant, comparing his role to that of the “protectors of the city” in ancient Greek democracies.

darknet france aleph drugs internet terrorism crime


CPTPP now a reality, raises bar for Japan's multiparty approach

Abstract: The creation by 11 Pacific Rim countries of a massive free trade zone brings with it a new test: Can and will the framework become a future magnet for additional members and, eventually, the United States and China? The odds appear against it for now as the world’s two largest economies are locked in an ongoing tariff war. But Japan has a crucial role to play as a stabilizing force that is tasked with enhancing the appeal of multiparty free trade agreements that U.S. President Donald Trump is not a big fan of, political and trade experts say. “The Japanese should … push ahead with RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, as well as keeping open the possibility for China as well as the United States joining the TPP-11,” Mike Mochizuki, associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, said. Japan is one of the 16 Asia-Pacific nations that are negotiating to create RCEP, which could be the world’s biggest trade bloc. “In many respects, the trade war between the United States and China is a reflection of this rivalry about the international order,” Mochizuki said recently in Tokyo, adding that Japan can serve as a “gyroscope” in the region. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership entered into force Sunday without the United States. It covers 13 percent of the global economy, much less than the approximately 40 percent share it would have had if the world’s largest economy had taken part. The lowering and elimination of tariffs, however, is expected to encourage the flow of goods within the 11 countries and intensify competition. After the United States withdrew from the original TPP in 2017 in pursuit of bilateral trade deals, Japan scrambled to rescue it from the brink of collapse. Tokyo also rushed to conclude a separate free trade agreement with the European Union that is now set to take effect in February. When combined with the impact of the accord with the European Union, Japan’s economy is projected to get a ¥13 trillion ($117 billion) boost, welcome news for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has promoted free trade. Domestic farmers worry about cheaper farm produce — ranging from beef and pork to fruit and cheese — flooding into Japan. Still, the deal could also give a fresh impetus to reform of the agriculture sector that officials and experts see as inevitable as the domestic market is shrinking. “You have to see that other markets (than Japan) are opening up as well,” said Martin Schulz, a senior research fellow at the Fujitsu Research Institute. “This is important because if they open up for a variety of products, moving away from U.S. products, then it opens the possibility for Japanese producers to go into those markets,” Schulz said. “The United States is becoming the biggest loser on this front.” Japan’s imported beef, for instance, comes largely from the United States and Australia. Under the CPTPP, the current 38.5 percent tariff will be reduced to 9 percent in stages over 16 years, giving Australia a more competitive edge. The same arrangement applies under Japan’s trade accord with the European Union when it takes effect. For Japan, though, not all is well as the CPTPP and the free trade agreement with the European Union cut both ways. On the one hand, the mega FTAs will bring economic benefits and send a message that trade-reliant Japan is what Abe has termed a flagbearer of free trade. But the United States — using the CPTPP and the Japan-EU accord as a baseline — may push for deeper concessions than under those deals when Tokyo and Washington start bilateral trade talks in early 2019. Junichi Sugawara, senior research officer at Mizuho Research Institute, said the first priority for the two countries is to determine and define the scope of their upcoming talks, where the auto and agriculture sectors will be in the spotlight. “What is worrying is the prospect of a cap on auto exports (to the United States) because it would have a huge impact on domestic production,” Sugawara said. Japan has promised it will contribute to increasing production and jobs in the U.S. auto sector, in return for Washington respecting Tokyo’s stance that no larger concessions than under the existing FTAs will be made. The Japanese political schedule points to the likelihood that drastic decisions will be difficult for Abe who, as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will need to garner public support in a series of national and local elections through next summer. If the United States fails to defuse the tension over trade with China, however, Trump may step up his rhetoric and shift his focus more to Japan, according to the trade experts interviewed. As a defense measure, Japan is expected to continue seeking a bigger united front with more countries. Britain and Thailand, both hosting many Japanese manufacturers and other enterprises on their soil, are seen having interest in the CPTPP. Mizuho’s Sugawara expects the pace of membership expansion may not be as fast as previously thought. “The significance of the CPTPP will be felt more if it morphs into one that would enable the United States to return and China to join,” Sugawara added.


German police seize 850 kilograms of fireworks stashed in man's apartment, cellar, vehicles

Abstract: BERLIN - German police said Sunday they confiscated 850 kilograms (over 1,870 pounds) of fireworks and firecrackers from a 23-year-old man in Hamburg, ahead of New Year’s festivities. Police were tipped off by the man’s neighbor that he was stockpiling a large quantity of pyrotechnics. Officers who went to the man’s home found the fireworks packed into his apartment, cellar and two vans, a police spokeswoman told national news agency DPA. The pyrotechnics contained around 80 kilograms of explosive substances — 80 times over the limit of fireworks that can be legally stored in a private home. Fireworks and rockets are an essential part of New Year’s festivities in Germany, with revellers firing off huge amounts of pyrotechnics from balconies or their lawns. They are sold on the last three days of the year. Last year, Germans spent €137 million ($156 million) on them. But Jan. 1 is also marked by casualty reports of individuals injured or even killed by fireworks. On New Year’s 2018, pyrotechnic mishaps left two people dead, a child injured and five people requiring amputations. This season, several injuries have already been reported even before New Year’s Eve, with two people, including a 14-year-old, losing fingers to firecracker blasts gone wrong, while an 18-year-old was hospitalized for severe burns.


Chinese lunar probe prepares to land on far side of moon: Xinhua

Abstract: SHANGHAI - A Chinese space probe is moving into position to land on the far side of the moon for the first time, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday, a mission seen as an important step as the country looks to push its space program forward. The probe, the Chang’e-4, entered a planned orbit on Sunday “to prepare for the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon,” the news agency said, citing the China National Space Administration. It didn’t say when the landing would occur. The moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet, so the far side is never visible from Earth. Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the moon, but none has landed on it. China launched the Chang’e-4 probe earlier this month, carried by a Long March-3B rocket. It includes a lander and a rover to explore the surface of the moon. Xinhua said that the probe had entered an elliptical lunar orbit at 8:55 a.m. Beijing time, which brought it at its closest point to just 15 km away from the surface of the moon. The Chang’e-4 first entered a lunar orbit on Dec. 12. The tasks of the Chang’e-4 include astronomical observation, surveying the moon’s terrain, landform and mineral composition, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side. China aims to catch up with Russia and the United States to become a major space power by 2030. It is planning to launch construction of its own manned space station next year. However, while China has insisted its ambitions are purely peaceful, the U.S. Defense Department has accused it of pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations from using space-based assets during a crisis. The space control center will select a “proper time” to land the probe on the far side of the moon, Xinhua reported. Its descent is being aided by a relay satellite, the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge).

moon space china planets astronomy change


New era approaches, but Japan's dwindling Imperial line clouds future

Abstract: As Japan prepares for the first Imperial succession in about 200 years involving a living monarch, it has yet to address concerns about the future of the Imperial line and the shortage of royals performing official duties. Emperor Akihito, 85, is set to abdicate on April 30, 2019, to be succeeded by his eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito, 58, the following day. The rare abdication was decided after the Emperor hinted in a rare public broadcast at his desire to step down due to his age and weakening health. A number of Imperial rituals are scheduled in the year, including a ceremony on May 1 in which the new Emperor will inherit the traditional regalia, the enthronement ceremony on Oct. 22 and the Daijosai , or Great Food Offering Ceremony, from Nov. 14 to 15. While the events are set to take place in a celebratory atmosphere, the succession means the Emperor and Empress Michiko, 84, will no longer be performing official public duties, leaving the remaining 16 royals to assume an increasing share of them. The issue has attracted fresh attention because Ayako Moriya, 28, the youngest daughter of the Emperor’s late cousin, gave up her Imperial title after marrying commoner Kei Moriya in October. The size of the Imperial family, which stands at 18, including 13 women, is expected to dwindle further as Princess Mako, the Emperor’s eldest granddaughter, is also planning to get engaged — to commoner Kei Komuro. According to the 1947 Imperial House Law, women cannot ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne and must leave the Imperial family if they marry commoners. The law stipulates that only males born to the male lineage of the Imperial family can ascend the throne. After the Crown Prince ascends the throne, there will be only three male heirs — his younger brother, Prince Akishino, 53, the Emperor’s only grandson, Prince Hisahito, 12, and Prince Hitachi, 83, the Emperor’s younger brother. “The size of the Imperial family is certainly going to shrink. Prince Hisahito is the only male heir in his generation but we don’t know whether he will have a son,” said Shinji Yamashita, a former Imperial Household Agency official and a journalist specializing in the Imperial family. He and his future wife would face “enormous pressure and burden” to maintain the bloodline of the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy and perform public duties as the symbol of the state, he said. To address the issue, the Diet adopted a resolution in June last year urging the government to start deliberating succession issues, including an option to allow princesses to retain their royal status and establish their own family branches after they marry commoners. The resolution was attached to the one-off legislation that was drafted to enable the Emperor to abdicate before death. But Hideya Kawanishi, an associate professor of modern Japanese history at Nagoya University, said there is little momentum for revising the Imperial House Law to let women retain their royal status after marriage due to opposition from conservatives, the core base of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “Conservatives are unsupportive of the creation of female branches, claiming it could pave the way for female members to ascend to the throne,” he said. “The resolution only came about as a result of a compromise between the ruling and opposition parties. Realistically speaking, we are unlikely to see major steps to address the issue in the foreseeable future,” Kawanishi added. Although there had recently been government debate about amending the Imperial House Law to allow female succession, it stopped after Prince Hisahito was born in 2006, giving the Imperial family its first new male member in 41 years. In 2012 the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan also considered ways to let women remain in the family even after marriage and establish their own branches. But the initiative faded after the Liberal Democratic Party, led by Abe, returned to power at the end of the year. With little prospects for an amendment, the family and the Imperial Household Agency are trying to devise ways within the current legal framework to tackle the mounting burden of having individual royals perform public duties. Those duties range from visits to disaster-hit areas, trips to mourn the war dead to participation in social, cultural and sports events. In addition, the Emperor is required to carry out state acts such as the promulgation of laws and convocations of the Diet. Imperial Household Agency officials and experts say some ceremonies could be attended by a single member rather than a couple, and events with similar themes could be consolidated, although state acts and some official activities cannot be curtailed due to constitutional requirement and in view of fairness. Ayako Moriya, who recently left the Imperial family, retains honorary titles at two organizations even after her marriage, in the first such case for female members who have married commoners. However, scholars say that this is just a temporary measure and that the root causes of the problems remain unaddressed. Yamashita says one solution would be to share public duties with members of 11 collateral branches that left the Imperial family in 1947. “If they are delegated to perform duties related to the Imperial household and such practices continue for a long time, the public may start accepting their return to the Imperial family, and ultimately could view male members as potential heirs of the throne,” he said. Similar arguments have been made by Abe and his supporters who believe that hereditary monarchy, which is said to stretch back more than 2,600 years with the throne consistently passed down the male line, should continue the same way. But Kawanishi believes such an idea is outdated and does not reflect the majority view of the public. In a Kyodo News opinion poll that randomly surveyed 3,000 men and women aged 18 or older across Japan in March and April, 83 percent said they support women ascending the throne. “The government should push forward legal revision to allow the establishment of female branches or Imperial succession by women. If the system is not in line with the present value promoting women’s social advancement, it will not be able to gain public support,” said Kawanishi. Of all 125 emperors so far, including legendary ones such as the first, Emperor Jimmu, eight women who were all born to the male lineage of the Imperial family ascended the throne.

emperor akihito
abdication
imperial family
royalty
emperor naruhito


Japan may lower Red List status of crested ibis as more live in wild

Abstract: Crested ibises in Japan are facing less risk of extinction amid efforts to reintroduce the birds to the wild, leading the government to consider lowering its status on the list of threatened species, government sources said Saturday. The crested ibis was classified as “Extinct in the Wild” on the Environment Ministry’s Red List in 1998 after all five remaining wild ibises in Japan were captured in 1981. Since then, the species’ rank has been the same for 20 years. Extinct in the Wild is the Red List’s second-highest rank after “Extinct” and means particular plants or animals only survive in captivity, cultivation or as a naturalized population outside their original habitat. While the last Japan-born ibises died in captivity in 2003, Japan succeeded in artificially breeding the birds in 1999, using a pair donated by China. Ten of the artificially bred birds were released into the wild for the first time in 2008, and natural breeding was confirmed in 2012. Those born in the wild also produced offspring in 2016. About 370 of the birds were believed to be living in the wild in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, and elsewhere as of October, according to an estimate by the Environment Ministry. The situation has led the ministry to consider lowering their status by one rank to “Critically Endangered,” according to the sources. Still, the lowered status goes to species facing an extremely high risk of becoming extinct in the wild in the very near future. To reclassify a species on the list, an observation period of at least five years is required, and conditions for reclassifying crested ibises may be met next April at the earliest, the sources said. The crested ibis, whose scientific name is Nipponia nippon, is about 75 cm tall and weighs about 1,600 to 2,000 grams. The birds, designated as a special national treasure in Japan, used to live broadly in the region but became victims of overhunting and habitat deterioration. Artificially bred birds in Japan have been trained at the rehabilitation station of the crested ibises protection center in Sado so they can survive in the wild after release. Placed in an enormous cage mimicking a natural environment, the birds get used to looking for food, such as loach and insects, by themselves and living with individuals in different age groups, according to the center. Experts warn, however, that the birds still face a critical situation, with one saying, “It’s crucial to continue the efforts.” Local people and volunteers have also been supporting the survival of crested ibises in the wild by turning deserted rice paddy fields into feeding grounds and reducing the use of pesticides when growing rice. “I think (the bird population) has recovered to this level due to cooperation by many people including local farmers. I hope the number of the birds will continue to increase,” said 78-year-old Takehiko Kera, head of a support organization in the city.


Decision to permit more foreign workers draws praise from big business, fear from municipalities

Abstract: Business leaders on Saturday welcomed Japan’s move to accept more foreign workers to ease the graying nation’s labor crunch, but some municipalities appeared unsure about how to brace for the influx. “We welcome the enactment that is to earnestly deal with the issue of securing supporters for social life and the industrial base as (Japan) faces a serious population decline,” Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation), said in a statement. The law, enacted in the predawn hours despite fierce resistance from opposition parties, creates a new visa system that effectively allows Japan to permit more workers into sectors desperately in need of labor, such as construction, nursing care and farming. Many of the non-Japanese currently employed in places like construction sites and convenience stores are so-called technical interns recruited from developing countries to purportedly acquire skills in Japan, and foreign students allowed to work part-time. The new visa system starting in April comes in response to growing calls from business circles for the government to do something about the nation’s acute labor shortage while the long-stagnant economy is in the midst of modest growth. “Our farming industry already depends on foreign laborers. We hope that the new system will enable them to work longer,” said an official from the village of Tsumagoi in Gunma Prefecture, known for its cabbage farming. An official at a Shikoku fishery cooperative in Kochi Prefecture, which has already accepted many technical interns from Indonesia, said it can no longer do without foreign workers and expressed hope they will stay longer by applying for the new visa. Technical interns will be able to obtain a new visa valid for up to five years without taking a test if they have stuck with the existing intern program for more than three years. “If they can extend their stay with the new visa, we’ll have more experienced workers and that will be helpful,” the official said. Municipalities also recognize the importance of accepting more foreign workers at a time when Japan’s population is shrinking. But some officials said they need financial assistance from the state to help them settle in Japan. The city of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where many foreign workers are employed by the automotive industry there, has organized Japanese classes taught by around 70 teachers. But an official said that the program is in fact “supported by (the volunteers’) good will and passion” and that there is “no guarantee we can always secure enough people” who will serve as teachers. Some individuals, meanwhile, said there is a need to educate the newcomers about Japan’s lifestyle and customs. In Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, one housing complex has seen growing numbers of foreign residents, particularly Chinese, arrive since the late 1990s. The increase, however, has created friction in the community because some throw garbage from their balconies or make noise late at night. “Without knowledge of Japanese ways of life, foreigners would risk being treated as troublesome, so the government and local municipalities should do their part and explain it to them,” said Hiroki Okazaki, a member of the residents’ association.

foreign workers
labor shortages
immigration
diet


China launches rover for first landing on far side of the moon

Abstract: BEIJING - China has launched a rover to the far side of the moon, a global first that would boost Beijing’s ambition to become a space superpower. The Chang’e 4 lunar probe mission — named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology — was launched on a Long March 3B rocket from the southwestern Xichang launch center at 2:23 a.m. on Saturday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The blastoff marked the start of a long journey to the far side of the moon for the Chang’e 4 mission, which is expected to land around the new year to carry out experiments and survey the terrain. Xinhua said the launch opened “a new chapter in lunar exploration.” Tidally locked to the Earth, the moon always presents the same side to us. The near side offers many flat areas to touch down on, but the far side is more mountainous and rugged. It was not until 1959 that the Soviet Union captured the first images of the heavily cratered surface, uncloaking some of the mystery of the far side. No lander or rover has ever touched the surface there, positioning China as the first nation to explore the area. “China over the past 10 or 20 years has been systematically ticking off the various firsts that America and the Soviet Union did in the 1960s and 1970s in space exploration,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “This is one of the first times they’ve done something that no one else has done before.” It is no easy technological feat — China has been preparing for this moment for years. A major challenge for such a mission is communicating with the robotic lander: Because the far side always points away from Earth, there is no direct line of sight for signals. As a solution, China in May blasted the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge) satellite into the moon’s orbit, positioning it so it can relay data and commands between the lander and Earth. Adding to the difficulties, Chang’e 4 is being sent to the South Pole-Aitken Basin, known for its craggy and complex terrain. The probe is carrying six experiments from China and four from abroad. They include low-frequency radio astronomical studies — aiming to take advantage of the lack of interference on the far side — as well as mineral and radiation tests, Xinhua cited the China National Space Administration as saying. The experiments also involve planting potato and other seeds. Beijing is pouring billions into its military-run space program, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and of eventually sending humans to the moon. The Chang’e 4 mission is a step in that direction, significant for the engineering expertise needed to explore and settle the moon, McDowell said: “The main thing about this mission is not science— this is a technology mission.” Chang’e 4 will be the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu (Jade Rabbit) rover mission in 2013. Once on the moon’s surface, the rover faces an array of extreme challenges. During the lunar night — which lasts 14 Earth days — temperatures will drop as low as minus 173 degrees Celsius (minus 279 Fahrenheit). During the lunar day, also lasting 14 Earth days, temperatures soar as high as 127 C (261 F). The rover’s instruments must withstand those fluctuations, and it must generate enough energy to sustain it during the long night. Yutu conquered those challenges and, after initial setbacks, ultimately surveyed the moon’s surface for 31 months. Its success provided a major boost to China’s space program. Beijing is planning to send another lunar lander, Chang’e 5, next year to collect samples and bring them back to Earth. It is among a slew of ambitious Chinese targets, which include a reusable launcher by 2021, a superpowerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a moon base, a permanently crewed space station and a Mars rover. “Our country’s successful lunar exploration project not only vaults us to the top of the world’s space power ranks, it also allows the exploration of the far side of the moon,” said Niu Min, a booster and expert on China’s space program. The project, he said in an interview with local website Netease, “greatly inspires everyone’s national pride and self-confidence.”


U.S. drops bid for December U.N. meeting on North Korean rights abuses, diplomats say

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS - The United States has dropped a push for the United Nations Security Council to hold its fifth annual meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea this month as it does not have enough support, diplomats said Friday. At least nine countries on the 15-member body need to back a request for the meeting, which Pyongyang ally China has unsuccessfully tried to block for the past four years. But diplomats said only eight members supported calling the meeting this time around. “It’s all about the numbers,” a diplomat said, suggesting that the minimum threshold of nine backers needed to proceed with a discussion in the chamber had not been met. Although there were hopes earlier in the week that nine countries could be secured, the goal no longer appears to be attainable. The United States did not officially confirm that the meeting would not be held, and expressed interest in pursuing it early next year if this month’s effort does not succeed. “If we are unable to hold this important discussion this month, we hope to revisit holding this meeting in the new year,” a U.S. official said. “The U.S. remains deeply concerned with the human rights situation in North Korea.” In a letter to the Security Council last week, North Korea accused the United States of trying to provoke and “stoke confrontation” by leading the request for the council meeting despite efforts by its leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump to work toward Pyongyang’s denuclearization. North Korea has repeatedly rejected accusations of human rights abuses and blames sanctions for a dire humanitarian situation. Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missiles and nuclear programs. The United States could try again in January when five new members rotate onto the Security Council. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington would likely have a better chance then of securing the minimum nine signatures needed to defeat any attempt to block the meeting. Since 2014, China has annually requested — and lost — a procedural vote to stop the discussion, which has always been held in December. “We continue to believe that discussions on human rights — and particularly concerning human rights abuses in North Korea — are a crucial part of the maintenance of international peace and security and worthy of the U.N. Security Council’s attention,” the U.S. official said. Some diplomats suggested the meeting could be postponed until after Trump and Kim have met again. Trump, who initially met the North Korean leader in Singapore in June, has said they are likely to meet a second time in January or February, with three sites for a summit under consideration. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is due to step down in the coming weeks, so the job of trying to organize the Security Council meeting on North Korea could fall to her successor. Trump announced on Friday that he would nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to replace Haley. A landmark 2014 U.N. report on North Korean human rights concluded that North Korean security chiefs — and possibly leader Kim himself — should face justice for overseeing a state-controlled system of Nazi-style atrocities. Then in 2016, the United States angered North Korea by blacklisting Kim for human rights abuses. “To our deep surprise and regret, the Security Council is about to swim against the current trend by way of seeking to … stoke confrontation, instead of encouraging and promoting the ongoing positive developments,” North Korea’s U.N. mission wrote to the council earlier this month.

north korea
rights
china
kim jong un
donald trump
u.s .
u.n .
nuclear weapons
south korea
north korea nuclear crisis


Flat level of research funding triggers alarm among Japan's top scientists

Abstract: STOCKHOLM - Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has highlighted an issue that has troubled many scientists in Japan: the country’s stagnant research funding, which trails that of its rivals. Shortly after receiving the news in October that he was being awarded the prestigious prize, Honjo discussed his idea to set up a fund to support young researchers. Earlier this week, as he left Japan for Stockholm to attend the Nobel Prize awards ceremony, the 76-year-old Kyoto University professor stressed that support for young researchers continues to diminish. Honjo is alarmed at the current situation, in which the nation’s research funding at universities has remained roughly flat — a fact that stands in stark contrast with many other major nations, where such funding has grown significantly. Honjo is not alone in his thinking. “It’s a terrible situation,” an associate professor at a national university in the Kansai region said. “Young researchers have no dreams or hopes. “If the situation carries on for the next 15 or 20 years, the landscape will be bleak.” Although the number of postgraduate students in the country has risen thanks to a policy shift in the 1990s, in reality many are unable to find stable jobs at universities, even with doctorates, and are making a living by renewing fixed-term assistant professorships and other posts. “Students can see their talented seniors struggling. In other words, even if they earn a post at a university, they spend too much time doing chores and can’t concentrate on their research,” the associate professor explained. “This is discouraging students from following the same path.” According to the government’s white paper on science and technology, the United States by far enjoys the largest research and development funding at universities. Japan held second place for many years, but fell behind China in 2011 and Germany in 2016, and currently sits in fourth place. Among major countries, Japan is the only one in which the number of research papers published has declined over the past 10 years. That figure serves as a barometer for research achievements. In terms of the number of papers in the top 10 percent cited in each field, Japan fell from an average of fourth place in 2003-2005 to ninth place in 2013-2015. Looking back on his research career, Honjo said he has always been supported by government funding. He stressed the importance of basic research, saying that his work on the development of cancer therapy by the inhibition of negative immune regulation, for which he won the Nobel jointly with University of Texas professor James Allison, proves that basic research can lead to practical applications. “Life science is an investment for the future,” Honjo said in regards to the need for bolstered research funding. “We’ll fall behind if funds are just spent on fields that are profitable right now,” he added. Toru Nakano, professor of molecular biology at Osaka University, pointed out that the life sciences field is becoming increasingly sophisticated, fast-developing and expensive. Still, Nakano emphasized the importance of investing funds in research that may not work. “Continuity is essential in research,” he said. “Once funding is discontinued, it takes a lot of effort to catch up.”


Super Golden Week a go: Diet clears 10-day Japanese holiday for Imperial accession celebration

Abstract: The Diet enacted a bill Saturday that will give workers and students 10 straight days off next year — from April 27 to May 6 — including the day of Crown Prince Naruhito’s accession to the throne. The Upper House approved the bill by a majority vote at a plenary session. The law is aimed at heightening the public’s celebratory mood relating to the Imperial accession. Under the law, May 1, the day the Crown Prince is set to accede the throne, and Oct. 22, when the Sokuirei Seiden no Gi ceremony is scheduled to take place to proclaim the enthronement, will be designated as one-off national holidays for 2019. The country’s holiday law stipulates that any weekday falling between national holidays becomes a holiday itself. With May 1, a Wednesday, designated a national holiday, April 30, which falls on a Tuesday, and May 2, a Thursday, will also become public holidays. April 29 is Showa Day and May 3 is Constitution Day. As Children’s Day on May 5 falls on a Sunday, May 6 becomes a substitute holiday under existing rules, completing 10 straight days off including weekends. The Upper House Cabinet Committee approved the bill Thursday with support from all parties except for the Japanese Communist Party. It also unanimously adopted an additional resolution urging the government to ensure that the series of holidays do not negatively affect people’s lives when it comes to access to medical institutions, child care facilities and other vital services.


Korean wartime labor rulings spark debate

Abstract: The 2017 South Korean film, “ The Battleship Island ,” has yet to receive a theatrical release in Japan, even though it’s set on Hashima, more commonly known as Gunkanjima, a former mining complex off the coast of Kyushu and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Given the current diplomatic tensions between Japan and South Korea sparked by two recent South Korean Supreme Court cases that ruled in favor of Koreans who sued Japanese companies they worked for during World War II, it probably won’t be released here anytime soon. The movie is about an uprising of Korean mine workers during the final days of the war. Japanese media have described the movie’s depiction of starvation and hellish conditions as distortions . The film’s director, Ryoo Seung-wan, has said he had no intention of stirring anti-Japan feelings: It’s an action blockbuster, not a polemic. As in most Korean films that take place during Japan’s colonial rule, the main villains are Korean collaborators. The Japanese characters, though they sometimes do awful things, are marginal. One of the questions at the heart of the Supreme Court cases is whether the plaintiffs were forced to work at the companies they were suing. In the film, some of the workers are recruited by Korean brokers with political connections. They sign up for what they believe are factory jobs in Japan but end up being sent to Gunkanjima, where they are treated as prisoners. The government has protested the court rulings , since the economic cooperation pact attached to the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea supposedly settled in perpetuity all claims stemming from Japan’s colonial period. On Oct. 31, Japan’s five main dailies published editorials in support of the government’s position with regard to the first ruling. However, the Asahi Shimbun also asked three scholars to weigh in on the matter for a Nov. 23 feature. Modern history researcher Yasuto Takeuchi focused on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Diet statement, in which he said that while some Korean workers may have been conscripted during the war, the plaintiffs came to Japan of their own free will. Takeuchi, however, sees it differently. There was a severe labor shortage in Japan by 1944 and, according to Takeuchi, the Japanese military directed the governor-general of Korea to mobilize Koreans for labor. Some were conscripted, but even those who were recruited didn’t know what they were getting into. The former employees who sued Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. were shipped to Japan but, once they arrived, their movement was restricted and they could not quit. As with the miners in “The Battleship Island,” the company withheld pay indefinitely to control the workers. Those who left the company premises were typically deemed criminals and arrested by the police. This was the general situation at many Japanese companies. As Takeuchi put it, the Koreans were by no means free laborers. Professor Osamu Ota of Doshisha University, an expert on Japan-Korea relations, tells the Asahi Shimbun that the 1965 pact was an agreement of economic cooperation between an industrially ascendant Japan and a military dictatorship. One of Japan’s goals was to avoid responsibility for any “damage” caused by its colonial rule, while the Korean leaders, many of whom had served under Japan during the war, wanted financial aid to develop their economy at the height of the Cold War. In return for money, they were willing to forfeit their citizens’ right to demand restitution. South Korea’s position changed with the end of martial law in 1987. Hideki Okuzono, associate professor of Shizuoka Prefectural University, says in the Asahi piece that his main takeaway from the Supreme Court decisions is that the legality of Japan’s colonial rule was never addressed in the 1965 pact, and so the agreement does not abrogate any Korean’s right to sue for “inhumane treatment.” The ruling was made possible by a change in the political climate. Since 1987, the courts in South Korea have shifted their regard from the authorities to the people, and the Supreme Court decision shows how the Korean legal system is “one step ahead” of its Japanese counterpart, which tends to align with the government. It helps explain why the government subsequently demanded that Seoul take immediate action to remedy what it believed was a breach of international law . In a democracy with true separation of powers, Okuzono says, the executive branch has no authority to affect an individual’s petition for justice, but Seoul might still bend to Tokyo’s will. In the weekly Aera, University of Tokyo professor Kang Sang-jung says he understands why Japan is angry at South Korea, but “ democracy respects the individual ,” and therefore the ruling was inevitable. He points out that, in 1991, Foreign Ministry official Shunji Yanai told the Diet that the 1965 pact only addressed “diplomatic protection,” meaning the right of a government to sue another government on behalf of its citizens. It did not eliminate the right of an individual to sue another individual (that is, a corporation). And while Japanese courts in subsequent lawsuits decided against Korean workers due to the treaty, judges commented that what the plaintiffs suffered at the hands of their Japanese overlords was “unbearable.” Similarly, according to attorney Shiro Kawakami in an interview in the weekly Kinyobi , due to China’s renouncement of wartime claims in the 1972 China-Japan Joint Communique, the Japanese Supreme Court in the 2007 Nishimatsu case ruled against Chinese plaintiffs who were forcibly brought to work in Japan. However, the judges also said the Japanese company should settle with the plaintiffs out of court, and the company did. In Kawakami’s view, whatever legal force the 1965 pact retains, Japan overreacted to the South Korean Supreme Court verdicts. The government’s principal concern seems to be pushing Japan’s colonial rule out of the historical memory. He also accuses the media of neglecting their responsibility by playing up the bilateral conflict and ignoring the human rights abuses suffered by the plaintiffs. It shouldn’t be about Korean intransigence, he says. It should be about doing the right thing.

wartime labor
south korea
gunkanjima
ryoo seung-wan