Comic-style poster warns Chinese of foreign spies with more than love on their agendas

Abstract: BEIJING - China is marking National Security Education Day with a poster warning young female government workers about dating handsome foreigners, who could turn out to have secret agendas. Titled “Dangerous Love,” the 16-panel, comic book-like poster tells the story of an attractive young Chinese civil servant nicknamed Xiao Li, or Little Li, who meets a red-headed foreign man at a dinner party and starts a relationship. The man, David, claims to be a visiting scholar, but he actually is a foreign spy who butters Xiao Li up with compliments on her beauty, bouquets of roses, fancy dinners and romantic walks in the park. After Xiao Li provides David with secret internal documents from her job at a government propaganda office, the two are arrested. In one of the poster’s final panels, Xiao Li is shown sitting handcuffed before two policemen, who tell her that she has a “shallow understanding of secrecy for a state employee.” The poster has appeared on local government public bulletin boards, targeting mainly rank-and-file state employees. A Beijing district government said in a statement that it will display the poster to educate its employees about keeping classified information confidential and reporting to state security agencies if they spot any spying activity. It said it will familiarize employees with ways to counter espionage. The central government’s inaugural National Security Education Day, last Friday, was meant to make people aware about security problems in China, and was marked by speeches and the distribution of materials.


U.S. big biz invested in South increasingly slamming states' anti-LGBT initiatives

Abstract: ATLANTA - Major corporations invested in Southern states have become some of the staunchest opponents of bills they consider discriminatory, facing off against Republican lawmakers eager to portray their states as the best home for global brands. The NFL, Apple and other behemoths have cajoled Republicans into rejecting or softening bills in recent years that supporters say protect people who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Companies are speaking up loudly again this year in states where such bills have been proposed as part of a backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized gay marriage. “As a company that is committed to the principle that everyone deserves to live without fear of discrimination simply for being who they are, becoming an employer in North Carolina, where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law, is simply untenable,” California-based PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement last week ending plans to hire 400 people for a new operations center in Charlotte. The decision is among the largest tangible effects of a new North Carolina law overruling LGBT anti-discrimination measures passed by local governments. Watchers of corporate America’s approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues said such public statements are only one way companies have been supportive, pointing to several years of efforts to win over LGBT employees and customers. CEOs sometimes take the lead, as in 2013 when Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told a shareholder who believed the company’s pro-gay marriage position hurt profits: “Not every decision is an economic decision.” Some companies have gone beyond what’s required by state or federal law for equal employment policies and benefits. The Corporate Equality Index survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign, which has graded companies’ environment for LGBT employees since 2002, gave 13 companies a perfect score that first year. This year’s survey reported 407 companies hit that mark. When Cindy Armine-Klein joined the payment technology company First Data in 2014, the firm had recently scored below 50 on the survey. CEO Frank Bisignano told Armine-Klein when she was hired as chief control officer that year to prioritize creation of LGBT programs. Since then, the company has added coverage of domestic partners to employee benefits, included gender identity in its anti-discrimination policies and created a group to connect LGBT employees around the country. When a bill shielding opponents of same-sex marriage cleared the Georgia legislature this year, concerns quickly reached executives through that network. The firm, headquartered in Atlanta, joined about 500 others opposing the bill. Bisignano made a personal call to thank Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal following his veto of the measure. “When you have the opportunity to bring your whole self to work, that creates happy, active, creative employees,” said Armine-Klein, who married her wife in 2011. “That is good for the employee; that is good for us as a company; that is good for our clients.” But firms also want to be on equal footing with competitors. Nearly 400 companies last March signed on to a court document filed with the U.S. Supreme Court during its review of several states’ gay marriage bans, three months before the justices effectively legalized the unions. Attorneys representing the broad coalition of companies, from online retailer Amazon to video game developer Zynga, wrote the “fractured legal landscape” of differing state policies on marriage harmed the companies’ ability to operate across state lines. M.V. Lee Badgett, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on LGBT issues, said companies have made the same argument about proposals moving through state legislatures this year. “The patchwork of laws on marriage wasn’t working for them,” Badgett said. “Now we’re looking at a new patchwork developing. That’s not going to work for them, either.” Prospective employees or current workers offered promotions may turn them down if they have to relocate to a state where laws aren’t considered LGBT-friendly, said Steve Bucherati, who retired in 2015 after more than a decade as Coca-Cola’s chief diversity officer. “Bluntly, companies exist to make money for share-owners,” he said. “And you can make more money for your share-owners if you can attract, develop and retain the best employees.” The pushback to bills proposed in several Southern states retreads ground from a 2014 Arizona clash. That state’s legislature approved a bill allowing business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and lesbians. American Airlines and Apple joined with state business groups to oppose the measure, while the NFL said it would reconsider selecting Arizona to host the next Super Bowl. Days later, then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said the bill “could divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine” and vetoed it. The pressure can run both ways. Conservative organizations including the American Family Association have urged people to cancel their PayPal accounts because of its opposition to the North Carolina law. And the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian organization, is asking supporters to write letters to companies opposing the law. In Georgia, a state senator said he won’t buy tickets to or watch any Atlanta Braves baseball games this year because the team “opposed modest religious freedom laws.” The Braves joined around 500 other companies, including the NFL, Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios, in opposing the Georgia bill. In 2012, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy drew rebukes from gay rights advocates when he said he supports a “biblical definition of family.” But the result was an outpouring of support for the Georgia-based company from conservatives, who helped set a single-day sales record by visiting the chain’s locations on a “Chick-fil-A day” organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an outspoken evangelical. Since then, though, the company has steered clear of such debates and has not commented on LGBT-related legislation in Georgia or elsewhere. “In a perfect world, a company would want its stance to be the same as its customers,” said Brandon Smith, a consultant on workplace environment and a professor at Emory University. “But if you’re a Coca-Cola, that’s impossible. They instead try to be very sensitive to anything that might be alienating. Their general play is always going to be toward acceptance.”

south
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republicans
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Child welfare centers overworked but efforts afoot to ease the strain

Abstract: Whenever a fatal child abuse case makes headlines, child consultation centers often come under fire for failing to take steps to prevent the death. The centers, however, are having increasing difficulty handling the surging number of calls by people alerting them to suspected child abuse. And when they are told in advance, a shortage of staff means child welfare officials are sometimes unable to focus on serious cases that need immediate help, experts say. Here are questions and answers on the expanding role of child consultation centers and recent moves by the government to address growing caseloads: What are child consultation centers? They are governmental institutions that assist in dealing with issues faced by families with children aged under 18. Initially set up in 1948 during the postwar turmoil to protect war orphans, today the centers deal with a variety of child welfare issues, including abuse, health problems, physical and intellectual disabilities, and truancy. When deemed necessary, center staff carry out investigations and can take children into temporary protective custody. The centers can obtain court permission to break in if parents refuse them entry into a home. Under the child welfare law, each prefecture and ordinance-designated major city must have at least one child consultation center. As of April 1 last year, there were 208 centers nationwide. How many child abuse cases have the centers handled? The number has increased every year since the welfare ministry started counting in fiscal 1990. In fiscal 2014, there were a record 88,931 cases, up 20.5 percent from 73,802 in fiscal 2013, according to the ministry. Compared to the 11,631 cases in 1999, the number surged by more than sevenfold in 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of child welfare caseworkers increased only 2.3-fold over 15 years, from 1,230 in 1999 to 2,829 in 2014. In fiscal 2013, 69 children died at the hands of abusive parents, including 33 cases where parents killed their children before killing themselves, ministry data showed. Among the victims, 16, or 44.4 percent, were aged under 1. Welfare center officials who handled the fatal cases each took on an average of 109 cases in fiscal 2013, including 65 cases of child abuse. What is behind the sharp increase in cases? The surge is attributed to various factors, including an expanding definition of child abuse and greater awareness by people who suspect abuse is occurring and notify officials after seeing news reports of fatal abuse cases, experts say. Also, with the enactment of the child abuse prevention law in 2000, people are obliged to alert authorities when they suspect children are being abused. Following a series of revisions to the law and ministry guidelines, the definition of child abuse that consultation centers must deal with include physical and sexual abuse, neglect as well as psychological abuse, including the effect on children of witnessing domestic violence or siblings being abused. Cases may rise after the welfare ministry set up a new 24-hour phone line last July to take calls from victims as well as alerts to suspected abuse cases. What actions do the centers take if they are alerted to suspected child abuse? Welfare officials are required to call families within 48 hours after receiving a report. This may mean officials have to give up holidays until they are able to meet a family face to face. After the meeting, they assess what level of support a family needs. If deemed necessary, children will be separated from parents and placed in the centers’ temporary shelters. During that time, officials counsel the parents to help them prepare to reunite with their children and rebuild relations. While some children eventually return home, others enter child welfare facilities or live with foster families. What measures are being taken to improve the situation? The government plans to beef up the authority and function of the child consultation centers as well as increase their numbers by amending the child welfare law and the child abuse prevention law. Under the bill, submitted to the current Diet session last month, the procedures for inspecting households where children are allegedly being abused will be simplified. The amendments will also allow the 23 wards in Tokyo to set up their own child consultation centers. Under the current law, only prefectural governments and major cities can set up the centers. Also, centers will be able to focus more on urgent cases, and ask local governments to handle less serious situations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration hopes to get the bill passed by the June 1 end of the current Diet session, aiming for the law to take effect in fiscal 2017.

welfare centers
child abuse
abuse
children


Questions and answers: The Kumamoto earthquakes

Abstract: The series of huge earthquakes and aftershocks that have been rattling wide parts of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures since Thursday have raised fears that other regions in the nation might be struck by similar jolts in the near future. Here are some questions and answers on seismic activity in Japan: What type of earthquakes struck Kumamoto? The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake is actually a series of quakes that are being caused by two plates slipping against each other along an active inland fault. The events take place at a relatively shallow depth and cause the destruction of bedrock. It is the same type as the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 that hit Kobe and surrounding cities, killing over 6,000 people. In contrast, the Great East Japan Earthquake that hit the Tohoku region in 2011, was caused by accumulated stress resulting from one tectonic plate being forced underneath another, resulting in what is called a “megathrust quake.” What is unique about the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake? Whereas often a huge temblor hits first, followed by smaller aftershocks, a number of strong quakes have occurred following the first magnitude-6.5 quake on Thursday. The shaking has affected much wider areas than other quakes in the past, experts said. The magnitude-7.3 quake that according to the Meteorological Agency was the main tremor struck the region 1½ days after the first one. Why did we see such big quakes in relatively rapid succession? Experts say the reason is not entirely known. Of the 2,000 active faults around Japan, some 100 are designated by the government as key active faults. The Futagawa and Hinagu faults, along which the recent quakes occurred, are among the 100 most active and dangerous faults in the country. The central government has conducted research on these 100 active faults over the past decade or so but was not able to predict the quakes that took place in Kumamoto, said Hiroyuki Fujiwara, a seismologist at National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention. Are the focal points of quakes moving or expanding? Fujiwara said the magnitude-7.3 quake on Saturday caught seismologists by surprise as they thought the initial quake — which turned out to be a precursor for Saturday’s — was an isolated tremor in a small section of the Futagawa fault. Other quakes then took place further east. Some researchers say quakes may take place in succession along the lines of long faults, but no solid theory to explain such a scenario has been found, Fujiwara said. Are these quakes precursors for others, especially along the Median Tectonic Line — the largest fault running from central Honshu to Kyushu? Experts are not sure. “We can explain what has happened, but it’s really hard to say what will happen,” Fujiwara said. Takeshi Sagiya, a professor at Nagoya University’s Disaster Mitigation Research Center and an expert on crustal movement, said it is too early to worry about such a scenario. Sagiya said he is more concerned about the southwestern side of the Hinagu fault in Kumamoto, where seismic activities appear to have been spreading in recent days. A level-6 quake on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 may hit the fault in the near future, Sagiya said. Is the small eruption of Mount Aso on Saturday related to the quake? The view of volcanologists, as well as the Meteorological Agency, has been that the eruption was not triggered by the Kumamoto quakes, as its characteristics are no different from small-scale eruptions that have taken place before. “There is probably no causal connection” between the earthquakes and the eruption, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Saturday. “But we will keep monitoring (the volcano).” Are the quakes in Kyushu and the magnitude-7.8 quake that hit Ecuador over the weekend — the largest since 1979 — related? Fujiwara said they are not. “The two locations are so far away from each other it’s impossible to suspect a link,” he said. Are nuclear power plants in Kyushu safe? Many citizens and anti-nuclear activists have expressed concern over the nuclear power facilities in Kyushu, in particular the two reactors running at the Sendai power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, the only commercial nuclear plant now in operation in Japan. The Nuclear Regulation Authority, however, has maintained that the Sendai plant does not need to be shut down because the strongest temblor registered at the plant since Thursday night was 8.6 gal (a unit used in seismology to express the acceleration of an earthquake), far lower than the safety level that would trigger an automatic reactor shutdown. The criteria was set between 80 to 260 gal, depending on the direction of a shake and the strength of key components in the Sendai reactors. All other reactors have been stopped in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown crisis, while power companies have applied for the NRA’s safety checks to restart many other reactors under the new safety standards drawn up after the Fukushima crisis. At the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, the strongest of the recent shakes was 20.3 gal. The reactors at the plant have long been shut down, but had they been active, they would be automatically shut down with a temblor of between 70 and 170 gal. The Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture, which is also undergoing safety checks, is right by the Median Tectonic Line. The three reactors there have not shown abnormal activity since the quakes, according to Shikoku Electric Power Co. and the Ehime Prefectural Government. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes
2016 kumamoto earthquake
faults


Osaka broadcaster apologizes after crew jumps to front of gas station line in Kumamoto

Abstract: OSAKA - A regional broadcaster apologized Monday after one of its news vans cut into a long line of cars in Kumamoto at a gas station in the quake-hit prefecture. The apology was prompted by a protest message that went viral Sunday on Twitter. The message, posted with a photo of a Kansai Telecasting Corp. van at a gas station, accused the driver of cutting in line and ignoring a woman who asked it to back off. The Osaka-based broadcaster issued a statement admitting that the van, carrying five journalists covering the quakes, drove to the head of the long line of cars and refueled at around 7:45 a.m. Sunday in an “impermissible” act amid the widespread suffering in the disaster area. It also promised to enhance training for news staff in charge of the coverage. Two large earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks since Thursday have caused serious shortages of necessities, forcing residents to line up for hours to get water, food, gasoline and other daily necessities. Kansai Telecasting serves Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Shiga and Wakayama prefectures. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

gas
2016 kumamoto earthquake
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Despite assurances, quakes prompt calls to switch off Japan's nuclear reactors

Abstract: OSAKA - Despite official assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside of Japan are growing to shut down the nation’s only two operating reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture. Since Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides. But despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early Saturday. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday morning it had confirmed there were no abnormalities at the Sendai plant or at the nation’s other nuclear facilities. It said the seismic intensity measured by the earthquakes was well below the level at which reactors should be switched off. In addition, the NRA said, no problems were reported with the spent fuel pools at the Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture, the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture. But with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage that could result in a nuclear crisis. An online Japanese- and English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate the plant. In Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are calculated. They also want the government to grant localities within 30 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject reactor restarts. The decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is also drawing criticism overseas. “Given the general situation on Kyushu — including the ongoing seismic and volcanic activity, the large number of evacuees, and the damage to the transportation infrastructure — I believe it would be prudent for the reactors to be shut down until conditions have stabilized,” Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists and an expert on nuclear materials and atomic power safety policy, said in an email to The Japan Times. In Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Electric hopes to restart the Ikata No. 3 reactor by this summer. But the revelation that the plant lies near the same fault line running through Kumamoto, the Japan Median Tectonic Line, the possibility of a disaster caused by a quake has locals concerned, especially about damage to infrastructure damage that would make it difficult to evacuate residents by either land or sea. In light of the continued quakes and concerns by locals, political leaders in the area who OK’d the restart are likely to face intense pressure to rethink their stance. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

nuclear power plant
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2016 kumamoto earthquake


Tohoku, Kobe and other areas hit by past quakes quick to send aid to Kumamoto

Abstract: Communities that have experienced strong earthquakes or floods in recent years, ranging from the Tohoku region to Niigata to Kobe, are taking quick action to support Kumamoto Prefecture and its surrounding areas hit by devastating temblors since Thursday night. The communities want to lend a helping hand not only with supplies but also know-how based on their own quake experiences. Sendai, which was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, on Saturday night sent trucks loaded with rice, disposable diapers and other vital supplies to the city of Kumamoto. It also dispatched two officials. “After the quake, we received help from Kumamoto. I hope we can repay them for their kindness,” said Satoru Hirabuki, a 36-year-old official in charge of Sendai’s crisis management. Japanese Red Cross Ishinomaki Hospital in Miyagi Prefecture acted on its own to send a team of 15 doctors and nurses to the city of Kumamoto on Saturday, based on its experience of supporting disaster-hit areas in the 2011 earthquake. “Local medical experts are also victims of the quakes. But we have to race against time, and we want to support them from an early stage,” one of the Ishinomaki doctors said. The city of Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, which was hit by the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004, sent a team of six officials Saturday to help prefectural governments in Kyushu. The team will instruct officials how to send out information to residents to lessen their worries and advise the prefectural governments about managing evacuation shelters. The team brought along four cardboard cubicles in which women to change clothes and breast-feed babies. “I’m happy if the rooms improve the environment at the evacuation shelters,” said Machio Adashi, president of the company that produced the cubicles. About 20 students from Kobe Gakuin University solicited donations on Kobe streets Sunday. “We received support from across the country at the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake (in 1995), some of which must have come from people in Kumamoto. This time, it is our turn to take action,” said Shota Ishibashi, 20, a third-year student at Kobe Gakuin University. The Union of Kansai Governments, which consists of seven prefectures in the Kansai region, sent 20 officials to set up a support office at the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. The union will send portable toilets and blankets that have been stored by its member prefectures. Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, which suffered heavy rain and floods last September, on Friday sent 1,500 2-liter plastic bottles of water and 2,000 water bags to the city of Kumamoto and 600 bottles of water to Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, where the first quake hit on Thursday night. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

kumamoto
earthquakes
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2016 kumamoto earthquake


Medical facilities to launch ovarian tissue bank for female cancer patients

Abstract: A Tokyo fertility clinic said Wednesday it will open the nation’s first ovary bank next month to help cancer patients conceive by removing and freezing their ovarian tissues before treatment. Ladies Clinic Kyono said it has enlisted a range of medical facilities that treat cancer patients to set up an ovarian tissue preservation network. Radiation treatment and chemotherapy often results in infertility, and removal and replacement of a young woman’s ovaries is often the only hope for her to conceive. Tissue removal will be conducted at facilities where cancer patients are treated. The fertility clinic is one of four facilities that will receive the ovaries and freeze them until the patients are ready to receive them back as transplants, clinic director Koichi Kyono said. Kyono told a news conference the aim is to offer patients a choice by “preserving their fertility” for the future. The success rate of such procedures is not high. Data released in 2015 from four fertility facilities in Europe showed only one in four cases of transplanted frozen ovarian tissue resulted in conception and birth. As of Wednesday, the project had 13 medical facilities on board, including St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo and Hyogo College of Medicine Hospital. The program will be only available for cancer patients who are aged 37 or less at the time of removal, and given the increasing risks of conceiving later in life, the ovaries should be reinserted before the woman turns 45, Kyono said. He underscored that women will not be able to ask for preserved ovarian tissue from another donor other than themselves. The cost of freezing and preserving ovarian tissue for the first year will probably be around ¥100,000, he said. Regulators have already given the project tentative approval, according to Kyono. The clinic has secured the assent of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s ethical committee and will file an application to the JSOG for formal approval to open the tissue bank by the end of May. The JSOG allows the freezing of ovarian tissue for cancer patients. Nationwide, 15 medical facilities have registered as venues for the freezing of ovarian tissue, according to the Japan Society for Fertility Preservation. But so far, only five or six of the 15 facilities have actually done so, Kyono said.


NHK chairman's order to follow government line on Kyushu nuclear reactors sparks outcry

Abstract: Outspoken NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii has found himself once again mired in controversy after news leaked he gave instructions that the public broadcaster should stick to the official government line when reporting on the nuclear reactor situation in quake-hit Kyushu. Momii later tried to defend the policy, saying it was aimed at preventing confusion among survivors of the quake who are being bombarded with a wide range of views and commentary. Still, for Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of media studies at Sophia University, Momii’s latest assertion carries very grave implications on many different levels and makes the broadcaster look like a mouthpiece for the government. “No authority or company wants to make available information that may work to their disadvantage, no matter how important it is to citizens,” Tajima said. That is why all citizens, including disaster survivors, he said, are entitled to the right to scrutinize various aspects of the information they are being presented and decide what they choose to believe. Denying citizens such a choice smacks of “dictatorship” and is even “criminal,” he said. The policy, Tajima added, risks leaving quake survivors in the dark, particularly if the government tries to hide critical information, and amounts to a denial on the part of NHK of the media’s role of being critical of the powers that be. Reports emerged last week that Momii had instructed NHK executives during an internal meeting on April 20 to ensure their reports on the nuclear reactors near the disaster-hit area are “based on official announcements.” He also reportedly said that presenting viewers with a flurry of different expert opinions would only confuse local people and spark anxiety. Speaking to a Lower House Diet committee Tuesday, Momii acknowledged the policy. “If, for example, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said reactors are safe or can operate as normal, we will report that announcement,” he said. In a back-and-forth discussion with Democratic Party lawmaker Soichiro Okuno, Momii said NHK will report on such things as radiation monitoring “based on facts … without adding various commentary.” “Keeping our coverage fact-based is what gives locals a sense of reassurance,” Momii said, adding his comment does not equate to Japan’s wartime propaganda, under which citizens were kept in the dark about the conflict’s progress. When asked to clarify what constitutes official information, Momii cited state-affiliated sources such as the NRA, the nation’s nuclear watchdog, and the Meteorological Agency, as well as Kyushu Electric Power Co., which operates the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture and the Genkai plant in Saga. The only two commercial reactors currently operating in the country are at the Sendai complex. Momii’s comments and policy mirror controversial remarks he made at his inaugural news conference in January 2014 where he insisted that NHK’s international broadcasting content should stick to the government’s position. “When the government says to go right, you can’t go left,” he said at the news conference. Momii’s latest controversy follows an annual report released by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders on April 20 that saw press freedom in Japan drop to No. 72 globally from No. 61 the previous year, exacerbating concerns over free speech.

nhk
katsuto momii
nuclear energy
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2016 kumamoto earthquake


U.S. deploys B-52 bombers in fight against Islamic State forces

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force on Saturday deployed Cold War-era B-52 bombers to bolster the fight against the Islamic State (IS)group in Syria and Iraq, stepping up efforts to defeat the extremists. The B-52 Stratofortress aircraft, which arrived in Qatar, were based in Saudi Arabia and last flown operationally in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, air force officials said. “The B-52 will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired air power effects,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command. The long-range planes will provide “flexibility and endurance” in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the jihadis, he added. “The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on (the IS group) and defend the region in any future contingency,” Brown said. The B-52, the first U.S. long-range heavy bomber, was developed to carry nuclear weapons and has been adapted over the years. It has been used in missions in the Vietnam War, the 1991 Gulf War and in Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear how many of the bombers have been deployed.


Small eruption seen on Mount Aso after latest quakes

Abstract: A small eruption occurred at Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday around 8:30 a.m. local time following a strong earthquake in the area, with smoke rising about 100 meters (300 feet) high, public broadcaster NHK reported. The Japanese Meteorological Agency kept its alert level at 2 on a scale of 5 for Aso, which has had eruptions in the past. It was unclear if the eruption was related to Saturday’s quake, but officials at the meteorological agency were looking into any links.

mount aso
earthquakes
volcanoes
2016 kumamoto earthquake


Abstract: The strongest quake in Japan since March 2011, registering 7 on the Japanese seismic scale, shook Kumamoto Prefecture on the evening of April 14 with another major quake striking in the early hours of April 16. Here is a selection of reactions and reports on social media. [ View the story “Eyewitnesses to Kumamoto quakes on social media” on Storify ] Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

kumamoto
social media
earthquakes
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2016 kumamoto earthquake


Matsui far from alone in pushing nuclear debate

Abstract: Out from the murky, quivering flames/ Of burning, festering Hiroshima/ You look so monstrous, but could not know/ How far removed you are now from mankind — Excerpted from Toge Sankichi’s “Hibakusha” (“A-Bomb Survivor”), translated by N. Palchikoff All eyes are now on whether U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima after next month’s G-7 Ise-Shima summit of leading industrial nations. If he does, one hopes it would be a journey that would close old wounds in both Japan and the U.S. To help convince the president to come, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at last week’s G-7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting that Japan was serious about getting rid of nuclear weapons. The message from ordinary Japanese, meanwhile, was that no apology was needed. They simply want Obama to come to Hiroshima to see what happened so as to reinforce his belief, which is also Japan’s belief, that nuclear weapons should be eliminated. A most worthy goal. But Kerry’s visit came just a couple of weeks after Osaka Gov. and Osaka Ishin head Ichiro Matsui, made some of the most tactless, ill-timed comments he has ever uttered when he said he supported having a debate on whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons. It would be tempting to dismiss Matsui as just another Osaka yokel who can’t be taken seriously. No doubt Japanese officials did just that following his remarks. However, it must be remembered that Matsui is an ideological soulmate (or pretends to be) of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Matsui’s the guy who — precisely because very serious people in Tokyo don’t take him seriously — has the freedom to utter what some of Japan’s most influential politicians are privately thinking. Abe, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, and powerful Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Tomomi Inada have all made statements of support in the past for at least having a debate on possessing nuclear weapons. However, being astute and ambitious, they can also read the larger political winds extremely well. With a possible Obama visit to Hiroshima, those winds are clearly blowing in favor of statements about the elimination, not accumulation, of nuclear weapons. All three are quick to recite Japan’s three non-nuclear principles of not manufacturing, possessing or introducing nukes, and there is no sign that Japan will abandon those principles anytime soon. Yet their past remarks show Matsui is anything but a lone voice. Of course, public support for maintaining the three principles remains strong. While the usual clucking claque of right-wing ideologues publishes on the “need for a debate” on possessing nukes (rather, the need to publicly convince more people they are needed), most, especially the A-bomb survivors who grow fewer in number with each passing year, are angered by anyone who would support having nukes. Obviously, charges of hypocrisy on the part of Kerry and the United States over calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and yet continuing to insist America needs them can be heard from many quarters. The critics have a point. But if Japan, at least, is truly serious about eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide, it will publicly and strongly disavow Matsui’s comments, and other similar comments made by political figures. If the No. 1 political priority now becomes Japan’s international image and striking the proper tone during a possible Obama visit rather than condemning those who, publicly or privately, advocate their use (as Kerry did when he attacked Donald Trump for suggesting Japan have nukes), it will demonstrate a failure of moral leadership that raises troubling questions about Japan’s own sincerity toward nuclear disarmament and demonstrates just how far removed from the rest of mankind Japan’s leaders have become.


Saluting Shakespeare's scientific legacy

Abstract: On April 23, the literary world marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. It’s a good excuse for a lot of fuss: Britain’s Royal Mint has produced a new £2 coin, the postal service has prepared a set of commemorative stamps depicting portraits of the Bard and thousands of theaters worldwide are expected to celebrate the anniversary. Japan is no exception. Shakespeare might have been born in Britain but he is truly a global citizen, loved in Japan as much as he is in Russia or Germany or the United States. In 2014, there were 180 theatrical performances inspired by Shakespeare in Tokyo alone. What’s more, Japan boasts not one but two reconstructions of the Globe — the 16th-century open-air theater where Shakespeare himself acted in many of his plays. I hardly need to champion Shakespeare’s qualities or his global appeal. What I do need to do, however, is explain why I’m talking about them in a science column. The reason is simple: Recent work has shown that Shakespeare may have been influenced by science. When Shakespeare was born in 1564, our view of the world was changing faster than at any point in history. Twenty years earlier, Copernicus had published his work showing that the Earth, far from being the center of the universe, revolved around the sun. Scholars have examined Shakespeare’s work, looking for signs that he might have incorporated this new understanding into his plays. In “Cymbeline,” for example, there are hints that he’d heard of Galileo’s evidence of the discovery of the moons of Jupiter. In “Hamlet,” which is set in Denmark, a star appears in the west before the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears. Astronomers looked into what would have been visible at the time and found it was more than likely a supernova that had been observed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The discovery was profound because, at least until then, the heavens were considered to be immutable and unchanging. In the play, Hamlet says he is a “king of infinite space,” which may also be a reference to the understanding of the universe at the time. Hamlet has also been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. He has incredible mood swings, and can be melancholic or violent one moment and elated the next. I won’t go as far as to claim that Shakespeare was a proto-scientist — of course he wasn’t. He was curious, however, and understood human behavior a lot better than most. I asked Erin Sullivan of the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, about the Bard’s understanding of how the brain works. Sullivan says it’s unlikely that Shakespeare intended his characters to represent actual descriptions of particular mental illnesses. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t still recognize in these characters elements of mental experience and disorder that still resonate with us today,” she says. Back then, people who had diseases were said to have an imbalance of the four fluids that comprised the body: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. What we now say is depression was characterized in Shakespeare’s time as an excess of black bile. “Even if Shakespeare understood a mood disorder like melancholia to be the consequence of too much black bile, that doesn’t mean that actors working now can’t choose to understand it and portray it as depression,” Sullivan says. “We can definitely see in Shakespeare the idea that what happens to us in our unconscious life affects our conscious existence.” In some ways, Shakespeare’s views on health remain influential. “Mind, body and soul were highly linked in Shakespeare’s time,” says Sullivan. “It was a very holistic view of health, and people certainly believed that pain and disorder in the body led to trouble in the mind, and vice versa.” Although scientists don’t believe that human bodies possess a soul anymore, we do know that the mind can influence the health of the body, as well as the other way round. I’m planning to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in two ways. First, I’m going to see the restored version of Akira Kurosawa’s epic film, “Ran.” When “Ran” was released in 1985, it was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made. Kurosawa based “Ran” on a fusion of old samurai tales and “King Lear,” but set the action in feudal Japan. Kurosawa replaced King Lear with Lord Hidetora (played by Tatsuya Nakadai), who played an elderly warlord with a history of violence. I’ll be interested to see how Kurosawa shows Lord Hidetora descending into madness. By the same token, many believe King Lear’s decline is one of the first descriptions of what we now know as the dementia sometimes associated with Parkinson’s disease. The other way I’m celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death will be to go to a church built in 1792 in East London. There, at the Church of St. John-at-Hackney, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will be performing his new album, “Take All My Loves,” on April 26. On the album, Wainwright has taken nine of Shakespeare’s sonnets and set them to music. I love Kurosawa but I think the sonnets will be a more fitting way to celebrate the enduring appeal of the world’s greatest creative talent.


Japanese defense chief orders ministry to consider U.S. offer of help amid ongoing disaster

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani ordered the Defense Ministry on Saturday to consider U.S. forces’ offer of help amid the ongoing disaster in the Kyushu region. The United States said it is prepared to extend support to Japan following a series of powerful earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture and other areas in the country’s southwest, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday. “We stand ready” to provide any and all assistance that the Japanese government may require, though Washington has yet to receive such a request from Tokyo, Kirby told reporters. A series of strong earthquakes since late Thursday, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 — an equivalent to the 1995 quake that devastated Kobe and claimed over 6,000 lives — continued to jolt a wide area of the Kyushu region, centering on Kumamoto Prefecture, preventing Japanese authorities from grasping the scale of damage yet such as the number of victims and building collapses. The U.S. government is monitoring the situation surrounding the devastation caused by the quakes and is “in touch with authorities in Japan,” Kirby said. The U.S. government and military mounted large-scale disaster relief “Operation Tomodachi” after the Tohoku region was hit by mega-earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

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2016 kumamoto earthquake


Kumamoto international center offering shelter, translation services for foreigners

Abstract: Kumamoto City International Center in the city of Kumamoto is offering shelter for non-Japanese residents affected by the current series of earthquakes, with multilingual translators available there to help. The center, located in Chuo Ward, has made English-, Korean- and Chinese-language interpreters available, and visitors can make use of translation services in other languages via telephone, Etsushi Ito, a worker at the international exchange center, told The Japan Times over the phone on Saturday. According to Ito, about 100 local residents have evacuated to the center, and about half of them are non-Japanese, mainly from other Asian countries. Although the center is only open until 10 p.m., evacuees will be allowed to stay overnight at nearby elementary and junior high schools, Ito said. The center has yet to receive any relief goods, but has distributed bottles of water or tea to each evacuee so far, Ito said. “Some evacuees here want to leave Kumamoto and travel to Fukuoka. But all taxis and rental cars have been reserved and it’s difficult to move,” Ito said. As of early Saturday afternoon, all local bus and train services had been suspended due to the repeated quakes, Ito added. The address of the center is 4-18, Hanabatacho, in Kumamoto city, and the direct telephone number is 096-359-2121. Additional information can be accessed at the center’s website . Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help


Understanding Heian nobles’ snobbishness

Abstract: Once upon a time — the fairy tale opening is apt, though it’s history we’re dealing with — peace lay so thick upon the land that war was inconceivable. The capital was a city named “Peace and Tranquility” — Hei-An (modern-day Kyoto). There was a ministry of war, but the war minister was no fighter; nor was anyone else who mattered. A war minister has a major role in the classic 11th-century novel “The Tale of Genji” — his name is Kaoru (fragrance). He is described as being as beautiful as a woman and in a state of unabashed terror on journeys along deserted paths to a remote village. Imagine him on the field of battle! But there was no field of battle to imagine him on. The Heian Period (794-1185) was not totally demilitarized. In contemporary literature soldiers are objects of pity and derision. “The more elegantly he tried to arrange things,” we read of one in “Genji,” “the more blatantly was his vulgar, boorish, countrified nature exposed. … He knew nothing of music and the other pleasant sides of life, but he was an excellent shot with the bow.” It’s a skill that demeans rather than dignifies. Four centuries of almost unbroken peace are an odd prelude to a martial tradition as fierce and courageous as any in the world. But so it was. The Heian aristocrat was not bred for war. He was — none more so than the fictional Genji, the “shining prince” — soft, refined, indolent, elegant, artistic, exquisitely sensitive; a poet, a calligrapher, a perfume-blender, a musician. He knew the beauty of things and he knew the sadness of things — knew, in short, that beauty, however beautiful, fades; that life, however fleetingly satisfying, is doomed. Why fight? What was there to fight for, in a world that was a mere “dream of a dream”? Heian nobles were embarrassed by power. They despised crudity, and power is crude. They wanted to rule and they wanted the perks of office — insisted on them, indeed. But naked power was not their chosen means to their chosen end. They had other tricks up their wide and flowing sleeves. Not everything about them or their time is appealing. Those who deplore today’s widening gap between rich and poor should consider Heian, whose nobility — the only people who counted — numbered perhaps 1,000 in a city of 100,000 and a country of 5 million. To the nobles, the common folk were scarcely human. The literary court lady Sei Shonagon (966 to circa 1017), in her “Pillow Book” of random jottings, mentions some carpenters at work on palace repairs. She happened upon them at lunchtime: “The way carpenters eat is really odd. … The moment the food was brought, they fell on the soup bowls and gulped down the contents. Then they pushed the bowls aside and polished off the vegetables. … I suppose this must be the nature of carpenters. I should not call a very charming one.” Later, more egalitarian ages found Heian snobbishness insufferable. They found its erotic laxity repellent. They were not amused, for example, by Genji’s cuckolding of his own father, a reigning emperor; the resulting child, assumed to be imperial offspring, ascends in due course to the throne, the awful secret known only to Genji. Disapprove by all means of what invites disapproval, but let’s give credit where it’s due. History is a wretched business — brutally violent, sadistically cruel. The proud boasts of ancient warriors (“And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and ass,” we read in the biblical Book of Joshua) finds its amplified echoes in our own time — in the 20th-century hells of world war, concentration camps and gulags, merging into the present century of random terrorism and heightened militarization with no end in sight. Perhaps it’s despair of the present that turns some of us back to Heian. For Heian has none of this. Its power politics are unsavory enough, but no insatiable cruelty darkens its memory. Power politics. A classic example dates to the close of the ninth century, roughly a century before Genji’s and Sei Shonagon’s time. “Even now in the 1970s,” wrote historian Ivan Morris, “every schoolchild in Japan is familiar with the name of Sugawara no Michizane.” So much the better, for he is the hero of our story — and what society in world history other than Heian would have made a hero of such a wan, cringing pawn as this scholarly court poet who wrote of his pathetic self as defeat closed in: “I have become mere scum that floats upon the water’s face”? Power at the time, and throughout Heian, was wielded by a branch of the great Fujiwara family. Emperors, mere children, were almost always Fujiwara grandsons or sons-in-law; their abdication before coming of age was a matter of course; a Fujiwara “regent” ruled behind the scenes. The system was rocked by Emperor Uda, a rare adult and non-Fujiwara claimant to the throne who, determined to rule as well as reign, appointed Sugawara, the leading scholar of the day, a poet prodigiously learned in the Chinese classics, as his chief counselor. The Fujiwaras were undone! Well, not quite. They could have murdered Sugawara; a vicious civil war could have erupted — but this is Heian, and nothing of the sort even threatened. Sugawara instead was falsely charged with treason and, tears his only resistance, packed off to exile in remote Kyushu, where he died of “a broken heart.” The end? No. A series of disasters in the capital terrorized the Fujiwara into striving to placate the supposedly furious spirit of this docile, feckless man who in life had been putty in their hands. Promoted above mortality itself, Sugawara was made a deity — the god of literature and calligraphy, worshiped, Morris tells us, by more devotees down the ages than any other Japanese god except Hachiman — the god of war.


Boaty McBoatface tops poll to name British polar research vessel

Abstract: LONDON - Boaty McBoatface has topped an online poll to name the U.K.’s newest polar research vessel, beating entries that honored scientists and explorers. Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council had asked for help finding a name that would reflect the £200 million ($284 million) ship’s mission and celebrate British naval history. The council asked for inspirational entries about environmental and polar science. But in the contest ending Saturday, Boaty McBoatface won with 124,109 votes — more than three times its closest contender. The vote was advisory and the name will be decided by the council. Former BBC radio host James Hand, who proposed the winning entry, has apologized for the controversy, though he still thinks it’s a “brilliant name.” He voted to name the ship after naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.

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With this rigatoni, I thee wed: New Zealanders hold world's first Pastafarian wedding

Abstract: AKAROA, NEW ZEALAND - The wedding rings were made of pasta, the ceremony was held on a pirate boat, and when it came time for the kiss, the bride and groom slurped up either end of a noodle until their lips met. New Zealand on Saturday hosted the world’s first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group, which began in the U.S. as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings. Saturday’s ceremony was all about having fun. The guests came dressed as pirates and shouted plenty of hearty “Aaarrrhs.” The groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head. The church claims that global warming is caused by pirates vanishing from the high seas, and that there is a beer volcano in heaven. “The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. We know that,” said marriage celebrant Karen Martyn, aka the Ministeroni. “We weren’t around then and we didn’t see it, but no other religion was around to see it either, and our deity is as plausible as any other.” The church has been battling to gain legal recognition around the world, with mixed success. It was formed in 2005 as a way to poke fun at efforts in Kansas public schools to teach not only evolution, but also “intelligent design” — the idea that the universe must have had a creator. Church founder Bobby Henderson said in an email that he thought it was odd that most weddings still have such an entanglement between religion and government. “It’s sad that so many people feel pressured to do the traditional Christian wedding even when they don’t relate to much of the religion,” he said. “If people can find some happiness in having Pastafarian weddings, that’s great, and I hope no one gives them any flack about it.” Ricketts, 35, a voiceover artist, and Fenn, 33, a lawyer and photographer, said they’ve been a couple for four years but decided just three weeks ago to get married, after another Pastafarian couple’s plans to be first to wed fell through. Ricketts said he found out about the church because he’s been making a documentary about why religions don’t pay taxes. Fenn said she grew up on a small New Zealand island where people had alternative ideas about how to lead their lives. “I would never have agreed to a conventional marriage, but the idea of this was too good to pass up,” Fenn said. “And it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate my relationship with Toby, but in a way that I felt comfortable with.” The wedding feast was an all-pasta affair, while the wedding cake was topped with an image of his noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Martyn said she hoped people could find happiness in eating, drinking, being with friends and being kindhearted. “That be what we’re all about,” she said.


Desperate race on to find Kyushu earthquake survivors; death toll at 42

Abstract: Search and rescue operations intensified in Kyushu on Sunday and a 61-year-old woman was found dead, which brought the death toll from the twin earthquakes that hit last week to 42. According to police, about 11 people are still missing, and thousands of rescuers continued their searches for them and other people possibly buried alive in collapsed structures. The woman was found near her collapsed house in Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture. She was identified as Rieko Katashima, according to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. Meanwhile, the number of evacuees, which hit 196,000 at the peak Sunday, fell to about 110,000 as many people went back to their homes later in the day. However, because of still-continuing aftershocks, there is no immediate prospect of many other evacuees being able to return home, and this means that their stay in the evacuation shelters may be prolonged, government officials said. According to the Meteorological Agency, 478 tremors of Level 1 or stronger on Japan’s quake intensity scale of seven were recorded between Thursday and 9 p.m. Sunday. As of Sunday morning, about 196,000 people had been evacuated. This includes about 183,900 in Kumamoto Prefecture and 12,400 in neighboring Oita. Later the same day, the total number of evacuees in the two prefectures fell to about 110,000. About 250,000 households were without water and 100,000 without gas in Kumamoto Prefecture as of Sunday evening. As of 9 p.m., some 39,000 households were without power. Saturday’s 7.3-magnitude temblor killed at least 33 people and injured about 1,000 more, while causing widespread damage to houses, roads and bridges. It was the second major quake to hit the prefecture in 48 hours. The first, on Thursday evening, left nine people dead. On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo has welcomed a U.S. offer of assistance in which military forces and resources will help transport personnel and relief supplies to the disaster-hit areas. Earlier, Abe had said Japan did not immediately need such assistance. “We’d like to carry out (joint operations) as soon as we finish coordination for transportation needs,” Abe told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office. Later in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft may be used to facilitate relief efforts. Many anti-U.S. military activists, in particular those in Okinawa, oppose the Osprey, claiming it is dangerous given the number of fatal accidents that occurred during its development. Tokyo and Washington deny these accusations, noting accident rates are not particularly high now and are comparable with other aircraft used by U.S. forces On Sunday Abe said the central government will also make every effort to help transport food supplies to disaster-hit areas by the end of the day, including about 700,000 meals. “We have been carrying out search and rescue missions day and night, but still some people are missing,” Abe said. As heavy rains fueled worries of more landslides, thousands spent the night in evacuation centers. Firefighters handed out tarpaulins so homeowners could cover damaged roofs, but many have simply been abandoned. The indiscriminate nature of the destruction saw some houses reduced to piles of rubble and smashed roof tiles while neighboring homes were left standing. “I felt strong shaking at first, then I was thrown about like I was in a washing machine,” said a Tokai University student who remains trapped in the village of Minamiaso. NHK showed footage of people being rescued by helicopters after they were stranded by a collapsed bridge. Self-Defense Forces troops set up tents for evacuees as water trucks were sent to the area. The government said about 190 of those injured in Saturday’s quake were in serious condition. Japan, which sits on the seismically active “ring of fire” that circles the Pacific Ocean, has strict building codes aimed at helping structures withstand earthquakes. Saturday’s quake was centered near the city of Kumamoto at a shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage. However, no irregularities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the area, a senior government official said. The city’s 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle was badly damaged, its walls breached after having withstood bombardment and fire during its four centuries of existence. Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, speaking at a G-20 event in Washington, said it was too early to assess the economic impact, but bank operations in Kumamoto were proceeding as normal. The USGS estimated there is a 72 percent likelihood that economic damage will exceed $10 billion, adding that it was too early to be specific. Major insurers have yet to release estimates. Electronics giant Sony Corp. said a plant producing image sensors for smartphone makers would remain closed while it assessed the damage from the quakes. One of its major customers is Apple, who uses the sensors in its iPhones. Operations at Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd were also disrupted. The region’s transport network suffered considerable damage with one tunnel caved in, a highway bridge damaged, roads cut or blocked by landslides and train services halted, the media reported. Kumamoto airport was also closed. There have been 378 aftershocks of at least a level 1 on the Japanese scale since Thursday’s quake, NHK reported. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help


Cars offer dry respite as rain menaces evacuees of two-punch Kumamoto quakes

Abstract: OZU, KUMAMOTO PREF. - The wooden home barely withstood the first earthquake. An even stronger one the next night dealt what might have been the final blow — if not to the house, then to the Tanaka family’s peace of mind. The Tanakas joined about 50 other residents of the town of Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture, who were planning to sleep in their cars at a public park Saturday after two nights of increasingly terrifying earthquakes that have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500, flattened houses and triggered major landslides. “I don’t think we can go back there. Our life is in limbo,” said 62-year-old Yoshiaki Tanaka, as other evacuees served rice balls for dinner. He, his wife and his 85-year-old mother fled their home after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck Saturday at 1:25 a.m., just 28 hours after a magnitude-6.5 quake hit the same area. Army troops and other rescuers, using military helicopters to reach some stranded at a mountain resort, rushed Saturday to try to reach scores of trapped residents in hard-hit communities near Kumamoto, a city of 740,000. Heavy rain started falling Saturday night, threatening to complicate the relief operation and set off more mudslides. “Daytime today is the big test” for rescue efforts, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said early Saturday. Landslides had already cut off roads and destroyed bridges, slowing down rescuers. Nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity, Japanese media reported, and an estimated 400,000 households were without running water. Kumamoto prefectural official Riho Tajima said that more than 200 houses and other buildings had been either destroyed or damaged, and that 91,000 people had evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of people lined up for rations at distribution points before nightfall, bracing for the rain and strong winds that were expected. Local stores quickly ran out of stock and shuttered their doors, and people said they were worried about running out of food. Police in Kumamoto Prefecture said that at least 32 people had died from Saturday morning’s earthquake. Nine died in the quake on Thursday night. More than half the deaths were in Mashiki, a town on the eastern border of the city of Kumamoto that was hit hardest by the first quake. Kyodo news agency reported that four people were missing in Minamiaso, a more rural area farther east of Kumamoto where the landslides were triggered by the second quake. One landslide tore open a mountainside in Minamiaso from the top to a highway below. Another gnawed at a highway, above a smashed house that had fallen down a ravine. In another part of the village, houses were hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth. About 1,500 people were injured in the two earthquakes, said Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman. He said the number of troops in the area was being raised to 20,000, while additional police and firefighters were also on the way. In Mashiki, where people were trapped beneath the rubble for hours, an unconscious 93-year-old woman, Yumiko Yamauchi, was dragged out from the debris of her home Saturday and taken by ambulance to a hospital. Her son-in-law, Tatsuhiko Sakata, said she had refused to move to shelter with him after the first quake Thursday. “When I came to see her last night, I was asking her: ‘Mother? I’m here! Do you remember me? Do you remember my face?’ She replied with a huge smile filled with joy. A kind of smile that I would never forget. And that was the last I saw of her,” Sakata said. Japanese TV showed a collapsed student dormitory at Aso city’s Tokai University that was originally two floors, but now looked like a single-story building. A witness said he heard a cry for help from the rubble. Two students were reported to have died there. The area has been rocked by aftershocks. The Meteorological Agency said the magnitude-7.3 quake early Saturday may have been the main one, with the one from Thursday night a precursor. Tanaka, the man spending the night in his car with others in Ozu, had spent Friday starting to clean up the mess from the first earthquake, hoping the aftershocks would gradually subside. “Then came the big one, which was so powerful I couldn’t even stand on my feet. It was horrifying,” he said, adding that when he left, his house was tilted at an angle. David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in Britain, said Saturday’s quake was 30 times more powerful than the one Thursday. “It is unusual but not unprecedented for a larger and more damaging earthquake to follow what was taken to be the main event,” he said. Rothery noted that in March 2011, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake in northern Japan was followed two days later by the magnitude-9.0 quake that caused devastating tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. Mount Aso, near the village of Minamiaso, erupted Saturday for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 100 meters (328 feet) into the air, but no damage was reported. It was not clear whether there was a link between the quakes and the eruption. The 1,592-meter (5,223-foot) -high mountain is about a 90-miniute drive from the epicenter. The second earthquake seriously damaged historic Aso Shrine, a picturesque complex near the volcano. A number of buildings with curved tiled roofs were flattened on the ground like lopsided fans. A towering gate, known as the “cherry blossom gate,” collapsed. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

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2016 kumamoto earthquake


In pictures: After the Kumamoto quakes

Abstract: What was thought to be the strongest quake in Kyushu, registering the maximum intensity on the Japanese shindo seismic scale, turned out to be a preshock of the earthquake that rocked Kumamoto on Saturday morning. The magnitude-7.3 quake and continuous series of aftershocks triggered a number of landslides as well as the collapse and cracking of major roadways in the mountainous region of Minamiaso. The death toll from both quakes currently stands at 41 people, with at least 11 missing. Saturday morning Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, due to the approach of heavy rain, there would be “not a moment spare,” in the rescue efforts to save people trapped in collapsed buildings and to move the survivors to evacuation centers. Here is a selection of photos documenting the extensive damage, the rescue efforts and the difficult situation facing thousands of local residents who have had to leave their homes. Water dislodged by a landslide pours onto a road in Kitakyushu City on April 16. The tracks of the JR Hohi Line, which runs beside the road, were also washed away. | KYODO Photographs of the village of Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, taken before and after the April 16 earthquake show the damage caused by landslides. | KYODO Members of rescue team and their dogs patrol the homes around Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Sataurday, following a series of strong earthquakes that began on April 14. | AFP-JIJI A man clears the debris of a broken wall in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI A member of a rescue team runs on a cracked street in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI Students from Tokai University receive instructions from a Self Defense Force member before being evacuated by helicopter from the village of Minamiaso, where one of their dormitories reportedly collapsed in the quake, on April 16. | KYODO ‘SOS’ written on a sportsground within the Miyaji Elementary School in Aso City, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Evacuees receive riceballs from Self Defense Force members in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Saturday. | KYODO Women direct evacuees to queues for handouts of drinks, sweets and other foods in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO A doctor tends to an elderly woman at an evacuation center in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Evacuees queue for food supplies at an entrance of the Kumamoto City Hall on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI Local residents wait in line for food and goods at a distribution center in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture as storm clouds gather on Saturday. | AP As blackouts continue, a family prepares for another night at an evacuation center in Takamori Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

kumamoto
earthquakes
2016 kumamoto earthquake


Rescued residents recount horror of being buried alive

Abstract: KUMAMOTO - People rescued from collapsed houses and other buildings Saturday described the terror they felt after barely escaping Kumamoto’s second deadly quake in less than 48 hours. “The house started to shake, so I grabbed my cell phone and was about to run when it came down,” said Fumio Iwamoto, 54, who managed to survive in a small pocket of rubble that used to be his two-story home in Minami Ward. Iwamoto was sleeping on the ground floor when the magnitude-7.3 quake hit but was extracted by rescue workers roughly 30 minutes later. “It (the rescue) felt so long. I’m so thankful that at least I’m alive,” Iwamoto said. In the village of Minamiaso, Koki Shibata, a 21-year-old student at Tokai University, got buried when his two-story apartment building collapsed but was rescued about an hour later when his neighbors and the owner located him by calling his name and broke through the debris with hammers and crowbars. Shibata said the ceiling of his first-floor unit fell on him after two big jolts. “I could not stand, and the next thing I knew, I was buried,” he said. “My friends encouraged me (to hang on) so I didn’t feel (the rescue) took a long time,” Shibata said. “I’m really grateful and glad to be alive. But I am worried as some of my friends seem to be still trapped in the apartment.” Most of the building’s residents are Tokai University students. A woman living across the street saw at least five students rescued but said there still seemed to be people trapped underneath. Tokai University said six apartment buildings near its Aso campus, including the building where Shibata lived, had been damaged and two students were confirmed dead. In the town of Mashiki, which was heavily damaged by a magnitude-6.5 temblor Thursday night of maximum intensity, the houses half-destroyed by that quake were flattened by Saturday’s jolt and the subsequent aftershocks. Many residents got buried after returning home after the first quake, when they found out power was restored. “That was the final blow,” a local firefighter said of Saturday’s powerful quake. “With all these aftershocks, there is really no safe place anymore, including shelters.” Megumi Sugita, 35, who took refuge with her family, said, “I can’t relax due to the repeated aftershocks. I hope (the quakes) will stop soon.” Near Minamiaso, the Aso Ohashi bridge and a tunnel connecting the area with the city of Kumamoto also collapsed, paralyzing traffic and isolating some 60 guests at hot springs inns, a local inn association said. At a park in Kumamoto’s Chuo Ward, several hundred evacuees screamed and trembled every time an aftershock hit. Covered in blankets, some were seen providing support to others with comforting words. In neighboring Oita Prefecture, residents and travelers visiting the Yufuin area, famous for its hot springs, also spent a sleepless night in shelters after the earthquake destroyed homes and other buildings. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help


Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

Abstract: Starting with a magnitude-6.5 quake on April 14, a series of major earthquakes have hit the central Kumamoto area of Japan, causing deaths, injuries and widespread damage to the area’s residences and infrastructure. As aftershocks continue, tens of thousands of people have moved into evacuation centers which are doing their best to support the evacuees’ needs. Here is a list of info for people in the area and ways you can help the survivors. Evacuee services Kumamoto City International Center The center is offering shelter to non-Japanese residents, plus multilingual translation assistance. Kumamoto Volunteer Center (Japanese language) Bath facilities free to evacuees (Japanese language; note; many have had to close) Communications/info Google person finder Lost touch with someone? Find them here or register your whereabouts. Free Wi-Fi spots in Kumamoto Japan’s three major carriers are participating. Safety tips from Japan Tourism Agency Free calls on Line app Line Out allows free domestic calls for up to 10 minutes. Shelter List of public shelters on Yahoo Airbnb offers free lodgings Financial donations Multiple charities are accepting donations to go toward various forms of aid and support. Please consult the organizations’ FAQs carefully before donating. The Japan Times has no official relationship with any of these organizations. Association for Aid and Relief, Japan Civic Force (Japanese language) Global Giving Japanese Red Cross donation (Japanese language) Kumamoto Japan Earthquake Bitcoin Relief Fund Second Harvest Kumamoto Earthquake Relief Support Peace Winds America The Nippon Foundation (Japanese language) Yahoo Japan donation (Japanese language) Other ways to show show your support Ginza Kumamoto-kan Kumamoto Prefecture’s official flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo, has been swamped with customers since the quake, as Tokyoites have sought to demonstrate their support for the quake-hit prefecture by buying Kumamoto produce.

earthquakes
charities
aid
2016 kumamoto earthquake


Rescued castaways spelled 'help' with palm fronds on remote Pacific island beach

Abstract: HONOLULU - The men rescued in this tale of three castaways were not named Tom Hanks, or Gilligan, or Robinson Crusoe. Though they might as well have been. In a scene straight from Hollywood, or a New Yorker cartoon, a U.S. Navy plane spotted the word “help” spelled out in palm fronds on a beach on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. The three men, missing for three days after a wave overtook the skiff they were traveling in, were found waving their orange life jackets on the tiny Micronesian island of Fanadik, several hundred miles (kilometers) north of Papua New Guinea, officials said Saturday. The men’s families reported them missing Tuesday after they failed to show up at the Micronesian island of Weno, where they were traveling from their home island, Pulap. “Fortunately for them, they were all wearing life jackets and were able to swim to the deserted island,” U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said. A local boat picked the men up and took them to a hospital. McKenzie said she didn’t have information on the men’s condition Saturday, but officials told The Washington Post they were not injured. Two bulk carriers searched a combined 17 hours for the men as part of AMVER, a U.S. Coast Guard voluntary search and rescue program. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and ask them to help. In the last two weeks, 15 people have been rescued in the Pacific with the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

rescue
robinson crusoe
pacific ocean
papua new guinea
u.s. navy
u.s. coast guard
micronesia


In campaign, Israeli Army begs former soldiers to bring back weapons, bullets, gear

Abstract: TEL AVIV - The Israeli Army is searching for hundreds of weapons and tens of thousands of munitions — from its own former soldiers. It turns out that many soldiers have ended their service by walking away with memorabilia. The military is now pleading with them to bring back their boots, sleeping bags and cold-resistant suits — not to mention guns, grenades and ammunition. No questions asked. A month-long campaign is underway across the country with the motto “Clear out your closet — Return equipment to the army,” stressing there is no risk of prosecution. Officials have opened 100 collection points at bases and police stations. Outside an army headquarters in Tel Aviv, three soldiers were positioned on the sidewalk while men and women of various ages arrived with cardboard boxes or plastic bags. Some avoided getting out of their cars, apparently too ashamed for making off with the items or having neglected returning them for so long. Nearby, a bucket gradually filled with equipment and uniforms. De-miners were ready to intervene in case any of the deliveries still posed a danger. In three weeks, “thousands of people have done their duty,” the commander of the operation, Brig. Gen. Yoram Azulai, said. “And I can assure you that we have not taken one name,” he quips. An army spokesman said so far the collection has yielded 220 firearms, 20,000 parts of uniforms, 700,000 bullets or grenades, 1,000 explosives and 1,300 pyrotechnic devices — particularly popular at weddings for fireworks. Some of the items could even be worthy of a museum. “A kibbutz decided to give up the cache of illegal weapons it held for decades,” said Azulai. “An officer who served during the War of Independence returned a gun dating from 1948, while we also recovered weapons from the Yom Kippur War” in 1973. Azulai said the danger of an accident or of weapons being stolen are serious concerns. “In everyday life, it is very common to come across people who use military equipment for leisure,” he said. “But in Israel and in an enhanced security environment, this is a very bad idea.” “(A man) could blow up his house, endangering the lives of his children and other civilians. And of course, this material could fall into the wrong hands, those of criminal or terrorist organizations,” Azulai said. The issue resonates because military life touches nearly all Israelis. Men are conscripted for 32 months and then spend years in regular reserves duty, while women serve two years. Many have found post-military uses for their gear. A one-piece, cold-resistant “Hermonite” suit can be used in winter, the rugged olive green uniforms and boots are perfect for gardening and outdoor work, and comfortable military sleeping bags are popular for camping. Infantry helmets have been put to use for weekend motorcycle rides. Those who hold onto of such gear tend to fall into three broad types, said Azulai. They include the “nostalgic” who wants to hang on to memories; the “cautious” who feels under-equipped, especially in case they are again called up for reserve duty; and those who simply neglect to return the gear. A previous collection campaign in 2008 led to the retrieval of equipment worth a reported 7.5 million shekels ($2 million), with the army able to re-use goods worth 4.5 million shekels. But “when you see the defense budget (60 billion shekels), it is a drop in the sea,” Azulai said. Israel “does not rely on what people bring to win the next war.”

soldiers
tel aviv
military
grenades
israel


Duck lives to see another day thanks to 3-D printer used to make new feet

Abstract: CEDARBURG, WISCONSIN - A duck that lost its feet to frostbite is waddling again thanks to a U.S. school teacher and a 3-D printer. Vicki Rabe-Harrison rescued Phillip the duck and, after watching a video of a 3-D printer online, turned to South Park Middle School teacher Jason Jischke in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for help. Rabe-Harrison told WBAY-TV that she was planning to put Phillip down when Jischke called to say he and his class were working on the project. It took them six weeks of trial and error to get the prosthetic feet just right. Phillip was a bit wobbly when he first tested his new feet, but has now joined other birds and animals at a sanctuary north of Milwaukee. Autumn Farm Sanctuary co-founder Alyssa Herbst says Phillip is now getting used to his new feet.


Half-mile Tijuana-San Diego tunnel turns up, along with ton of cocaine, vast pot trove

Abstract: SAN DIEGO - U.S. authorities said Wednesday that they discovered a cross-border tunnel that ran a half-mile from a Tijuana house equipped with a large elevator to a lot in San Diego that was advertised as a wooden pallet business, resulting in seizures of more than a ton of cocaine and seven tons of marijuana. It was the 13th sophisticated secret passage found along California’s border with Mexico since 2006, including three on the same short street in San Diego that runs parallel to a border fence with a densely populated residential area on the Mexican side. The unusually narrow tunnel was only about three feet wide, equipped with a rail system, lighting and ventilation. The tunnel was unusual because it was used for cocaine, not just marijuana, said Laura Duffy, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. Tunnels are often built for marijuana because its bulk and odor make it more difficult to escape border inspectors’ scrutiny than cocaine and other drugs. The elevator, which was big enough for eight to 10 people, was located in the closet of a Tijuana house whose floors were strewn with mattresses, Duffy said. The tunnel zig-zagged for 874 yards to the fenced commercial lot in San Diego, where the exit was covered by a large trash bin. Other tunnels that have ended in California were inside houses and warehouses. “It’s a rabbit hole,” Duffy told reporters. “Just the whole way that it comes up and that it comes up out right into the open, it is a bit ingenious, I think, and it’s something completely different than what we’ve seen.” Investigators didn’t know when the tunnel was completed. Margarita Ontiveros, who works at a law office next to the San Diego lot, said the tenants arrived about a year ago and often bought and sold wooden pallets. “They loaded and unloaded a lot of pallets,” Ontiveros said. “They sold very cheap.” Investigators began to monitor the lot daily last fall after Border Patrol agents assigned to the area saw heavy traffic and grew suspicious, said Duffy. The prosecutor said she was “fairly confident” that the first drug load was sent earlier this month but didn’t rule out the possibility that some got through undetected. Six people were arrested in the San Diego area Friday on drug- and tunnel-related crimes, including one U.S. citizen, two Cubans who were granted asylum and three Mexicans who were legally entitled to be in the country, Duffy said. Authorities saw a trash bin forklifted on to a truck at the San Diego lot on April 13 and followed it to a parking lot in San Diego, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations investigator said in a criminal complaint. Two days later, San Diego County sheriff’s deputies stopped a truck after it left the parking lot, seizing 2,240 pounds of cocaine and 11,030 pounds of marijuana. Marijuana found in the tunnel and trash bin brought the total pot haul to more than seven tons, authorities said. The discovery demonstrates the enduring appeal of tunnels to smugglers, despite the significant time and money required to build one. Dozens have been found along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, mostly in California and Arizona. Many are found incomplete. The San Diego-Tijuana region is popular because its clay-like soil is relatively easy to dig with shovels and pneumatic tools, and both sides of the border have warehouses that provide cover for trucks and heavy equipment.

tijuana
san diego
tunnel
cocaine
marijuana
border patrol


Enthusiastic artist gets granular with Taiwan's president-elect

Abstract: TAIPEI - A Taiwan artist has refused to see the big picture and instead captured the likeness of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, to celebrate her inauguration next month, on a single grain of rice. Chen Forng-Shean, who has also sculpted the face of China’s late Chairman Mao Zedong on rice, said the staple was a fitting medium for his work because it met the basic needs of ethnic Chinese. “Rice gives nourishment to the proverbial belly of the ethnic Chinese people. I used rice (as a medium) to encourage Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, hoping that she can take care of the common people, so they don’t need to endure hunger, and improve their financial situation,” he said. He outlined the facial features and accompanying Chinese characters with a needle-point pen onto the surface before carving and then dabbing black paint into the grooves. It took three months and more than 10 tries to get the sculpture to Chen’s satisfaction. Visitors to his cluttered workshop near the capital Taipei can view more than 150 of his works using a magnifying glass. Chen reminded Tsai, who will take office on May 20, that she pledged in her acceptance speech in January to work for the people of Taiwan. ” ‘(Be) modest, modest and even more modest.’ I wrote this sentence of hers onto this grain of rice.”


Shindo: Japan's earthquake intensity scale

Abstract: On April 15, the day after the first earthquake struck Kyushu, all of the nation’s major newspapers carried the same headline: “Shindo 7 in Kumamoto.” No further explanation was needed. When Japan’s earthquake-battered populace feels the ground shake, it looks to its TVs and Twitter feeds to check not only the magnitude, but the shindo , or shaking intensity. On every TV channel, digital overlays report the region hit and show waves of numbers rippling away from the epicenter: one area might register as shindo level 3, defined as “felt by most people in that zone,” another as level 4 (“most people are startled”). The first magnitude estimates typically come later. A level 7 — the maximum on Japan’s earthquake intensity scale — is a panic-inducing event that has been recorded only four times. On each of those occasions people were killed. While the intensity scale may seem baffling to some, by communicating the intensity of the shaking felt in a specific area, it offers a far more immediate indication of the potential for damage than does the magnitude scale. Magnitude, which is the value of the energy released at the source of an earthquake, can be a poor indicator of the impact on the surface: A quake of a large magnitude striking deep underground will do far less damage than a smaller one hitting at a shallow depth. “Earthquake waves are attenuated as they propagate,” said Prof. Robert Geller, a seismologist at the University of Tokyo. “They don’t attenuate much when the quake is only a few kilometers deep, right underneath a populated area.” As magnitude is inferred rather than directly measured, he says, there are discrepancies between the magnitude assigned by different agencies — the 1995 Kobe quake that killed more than 6,000 people was a magnitude 6.9 according to the United States Geological Survey, but a magnitude 7.3 according to the Meteorological Agency in Japan. The magnitude scale is logarithmic, indicating a difference in energy release of almost four times between the two readings. Unlike magnitude, shindo is a relative, arbitrary measure of the intensity of the shaking in a specific location. The shindo right above the epicenter will typically be the highest, with the level receding as distance grows from the epicenter. Japan’s intensity scale runs from zero to 7, with levels 5 and 6 confusingly sub-divided into “upper” and “lower.” The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, which spawned the giant tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, was felt nearly nationwide. The shindo readings ranged from 7 in part of Miyagi Prefecture and upper 5 in parts of Tokyo to a barely perceptible 1 in Kyushu. There have been only four occasions when a level 7 was recorded, data from the Meteorological Agency going back to 1923 show — the March 2011 quake, the Kobe quake in 1995, the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake that killed 46 and derailed a bullet train, and last week in Kumamoto. At level 7, the Meteorological Agency says, it is “impossible to remain standing.” People may be “thrown through the air,” wooden buildings may fall, and even reinforced concrete walls may collapse. Until 1996, shindo was mostly measured by the agency’s staff stationed around the country, who for more than a century reported how strong they felt the shaking and then surveyed the extent of the damage left behind, according to documentation on the agency’s website. Now a network of seismographs spans the country, measuring the initial P-waves when an earthquake strikes. Agency computers collate the data and almost instantaneously issue estimates of its size and likely location. This network is crucial to informing Japan’s early-warning alert system. When an earthquake of a certain size is detected, warnings are issued to iPhones, TV screens and factory lines. Trains automatically halt, and people are given time to prepare before the more damaging S-waves strike. The warning system has become a source of pride, hailed in government pamphlets as a unique example of national ingenuity. “It’s useful but not perfect,” said Geller, “because it gives warnings that let them stop trains for distant quakes but not for quakes right under the track.” In 2013 the agency was forced to apologize after mistakenly warning of an impending magnitude-7.8 quake in the Kansai region that never materialized.

shindo
earthquakes
magnitude
2016 kumamoto earthquake


Cat island draws tourists; residents regret loss of tranquility

Abstract: FUKUOKA - With two islands populated by large numbers of stray cats, Japan has a new tourist craze: sea cruises to visit the felines. Ainoshima, also known as Cat Heaven Island, is a 20-minute ferry ride from Shingu port near the city of Fukuoka. It has seen a startling change of late as groups of women, foreign tourists and other feline-fanciers visit the fishing village to see the cats. But although island welcomes the economic boost, there have been complaints about visitors’ behavior: They ignore signs telling them not to feed the cats, they drop litter — and they block the toilets. About 100 cats live on the island, which is a little less than 6 km around and has a population of roughly 280 people. It was only about a year ago that the tourist boom began here. In the past, locals say, only anglers would visit. The town office, which had done nothing to promote the cats on the island, could not figure out why so many people were arriving until it became apparent that Ainoshima, along with Tashiro Island in Miyagi Prefecture, had been featured in the news. TV network CNN named Ainoshima and Tashiro islands as one of “six places where cats outshine tourist attractions” in 2013, and the Japan Times published an article about Ainoshima in 2014 titled “ The feral felines of Cat Heaven Island. ” Little by little, the cats of Ainoshima have acquired global fame, and now, instead of Abenomics, the talk of the town is nekonomics (cat-nomics). The cats are everywhere, lying about and frolicking when visitors disembark at the port. The visitors’ faces light up as they snap photos and bend down to stroke the cats. On one clear March day, a ferry that makes round trips from the Kyushu mainland was packed with visitors. It can carry up to 150 passengers. “On days like consecutive holidays we can’t accommodate them unless we employ extra vessels. It’s an amazing change,” said ferry captain Kiyokazu Mifune, 46, who lives on the island. The visitors love what they find. “All of the cats are friendly and playful. I’m glad I came here,” said Haruka Izu, 26, a vocational student from the city of Miyazaki. Kiriko Chinen, 25, from Okinawa, agreed: “The atmosphere with the cats living on this tranquil island is wonderful. I want to come again.” Business has been booming for Ainoshima’s sole dining facility. The economic impact from the influx of tourists has been considerable. But the enthusiasm is tempered. Islanders complain of tourists littering, stopping up public toilets and feeding the cats. Foreign visitors especially are cited as causing headaches. “It’s great that our island has become famous, but it’s no good if they disrupt our tranquil way of life,” said a man in his 60s. The town of Shingu has posted signs in Japanese, English and Korean that say do not feed the cats. “We want to make sure everyone can coexist so there is no friction between the islanders, the cats and the tourists,” said an official of the town’s industrial development section.

cats
ainoshima
tourism
fukuoka prefecture


Can police successfully keep a lid on gang violence?

Abstract: When the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi broke up in August last year, many expected a turf war to erupt as the country’s largest crime syndicate battled for territorial control against a newly formed group called the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi that was founded by expelled gangsters in the aftermath of the split. Until last month, police have struggled to keep a lid on the tensions that exist between the groups. Skirmishes between rival gang members have escalated since August, with crimes across the nation ranging from violent acts and shootings to vehicular rammings of offices. Given the escalating violence, it’s a little surprising that it took police until April 15 to designate the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi as a crime syndicate. “So long as they’re only killing and hurting each other, it makes our job easier,” a veteran cop told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Admitting that we’re in the middle of a gang war forces the police to put more officers on the streets and, ironically, they then have to protect rival factions from each other. Who wants to baby-sit gangsters?” Until it was officially designated as a crime syndicate, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi held a tactical advantage over its rival in the battle for territorial control. While police had been on high alert, they were generally unable to move against the newcomers. Unlike its fledgling rival, the Yamaguchi-gumi has already been designated an organized crime syndicate. A group must meet certain criteria before it can be given such a designation: it must procure capital through violence, contain members holding criminal records and be overseen by a top-down organizational hierarchy in which subordinates take orders from a leader. Empowered with the crime syndicate designation, police have had the authority to arrest Yamaguchi-gumi members for extortion and fraud. Police can also order the group to stop demanding money and goods, and to limit the use of its offices. On April 15, though, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi lost its tactical advantage. The Hyogo Safety Commission officially announced that the group, headed by Kunio Inoue and located in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture, had also been designated an organized crime group. As a result, both groups can now be raided and harassed by the police. They compete on equal footing and face equal consequences for their actions. What’s more, Yamaguchi-gumi associates have privately said they have been instructed by superiors to avoid any major conflicts until the G-7 Ise-Shima summit has been concluded in Mie Prefecture at the end of May. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi is believed to have handed down similar orders to its members. The groups fear that police would crack down on their activities if they embarrassed the government by engaging in violence in the leadup to the global event. As a result of the recent developments, the skirmishes between gangs have, for the most part, halted. Police should have been relieved but the situation may have become a little murkier now that a wild card has been thrown into the mix. Tadamasa Goto, a former leader of an affiliate group in the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, returned to Japan last month for the first time in five years. Could his visit ruffle some feathers? According to the April 23 issue of weekly magazine Friday, Goto is believed to hold around $100 million in financial reserves. He is also believed to be on friendly terms with Inoue, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi leader. In contrast, Goto’s relationship with the Yamaguchi-gumi appears to be a little strained. He is believed to have promised to trade information on his associates with federal agencies in the United States in exchange for a visa to receive a liver transplant in 2001. The syndicate expelled Goto in 2008 after he was accused of attempting to overthrow the leadership of the group with 10 other members, according to Katsumi Kimura in “Goodbye Yamaguchi-gumi.” It appears Goto has some unfinished business to sort out with the Yamaguchi-gumi and the financial resources to do so — $100 million buys a lot of molotov cocktails. Goto may be 73 years old but he’s in good shape thanks to the efforts of a surgeon in the United States. Depending on his actions while he is back in the country, it may not be long before gang violence escalates again.

gang violence
yamaguchi-gumi
kobe yamaguchi-gumi
kunio inoue
tadamasa goto