Working moms in Japanese politics juggle hectic life, aided by outside support

Abstract: Being a politician is taxing enough. But juggling that job and being a mom is hectic, to say the least. As the government takes various measures to encourage more women to work, the realm of politics has yet to become a friendly environment for working moms. The story of Ryoko Fujita, a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblywoman with three sons, apparently says it all. Fujita, 43, starts her day at 4 a.m., checking her email and creating documents while her family is still asleep. She and her 48-year-old husband, Toshiro, share the housework, with her taking care of the laundry and Toshiro, a hospital clerk, in charge of breakfast and taking the children to day care. The couple have a 7-year-old son in the first grade and two younger sons ages 3 and 5. Dinner is made courtesy of Fujita’s 68-year-old mother, who lives in the neighborhood. Fujita, a member of the Japanese Communist Party, at times takes to the streets to make speeches. One day in September, she delivered a speech to passers-by in front of a train station at 7 a.m., calling for a reduction in national health insurance premiums to make it easier for people to go to the hospital. It’s a routine she conducts twice a week. The health and welfare committee she belongs to holds discussions from 1 p.m. that can sometimes last until around 11 p.m. She is particularly busy when preparing her questions, gathering information from people involved and finding the relevant statistics and examples to build her case. At times, depending on how long it takes to coordinate with the relevant offices, she doesn’t get home until 2 a.m. On top of that, she holds gatherings of supporters to explain her assembly activities and stumps for fellow members during election campaigns. Working on weekends is also the norm. “This is a job I cannot take on without the support of people around me. I am able to continue because I am blessed with having a husband and mother who help out,” Fujita said. Although Fujita’s husband said he didn’t expect his wife to return home late every day and be so busy, he stands by her decision. After having worked as a nurse for more than 20 years, Fujita entered the world of politics in the hope of building a better society. But she feels that female politicians are unlikely to increase unless the country’s long-entrenched tradition of working long hours and late into the night changes. Asked if she has any qualms about balancing work and raising her children, she said she tries to find quality time during her busy schedule by, for example, spending half a day with her family each week and taking her children to a nearby park whenever she can. “It’s not easy to go on an outing. But what is important is not the money we spend or where we went,” she said, referring to the simple moments of joy with her loved ones. A World Economic Forum report on the global gender gap, released on Nov. 2, found that of the 144 countries gauged, Japan ranked 114, partly due to its smaller ratio of female legislators and Cabinet members. This makes Japan the worst-ranked on this issue among the Group of Seven industrialized countries. Kumiko Yuki, a 40-year-old Liberal Democratic Party politician in the Minato Ward Assembly, has a different story to tell. With two sons, ages 1 and 3, Yuki has no relatives nearby to depend on, relying on day care and baby-sitters. Yuki is known to be the ward’s first assembly member to give birth. “I had my workload reduced while I was pregnant, but I was worried that I might lose in the next election,” she recalled. At the same time, the assembly’s support and understanding regarding child-rearing increased after she gave birth. Demonstrating one of the changes, the assembly shortened its hours for plenary sessions by deciding to wrap them up at around 5 p.m. instead of around 8 p.m. “By having a child myself, I became more passionate about changing the policies on child-rearing. I want to draw on my experience,” she said.

women
ryoko fujita
gender
kumiko yuki
jcp


Bee research may redefine understanding of intelligence

Abstract: The brain of a honeybee is tiny — the size of a pin head — and contains less than a million neurons, compared to the 85 billion in our own brains. Yet with that sliver of brain, bees can do some extraordinary things. They can count and interpret abstract patterns. Most famously, bees have the ability to communicate the location of flowers to other bees in the hive. When a foraging bee has found a source of nectar and pollen, it can let others in the hive know by performing a peculiar figure-of-eight dance called the waggle dance. The information contained in the waggle dance was first decoded by Austrian biologist Karl von Frisch, who picked up a Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1973. The dance in itself is not as complex as true language, but it’s remarkable in that it’s a symbolic form of communication. Recently, Hiroyuki Ai at Fukuoka University has made another breakthrough in our understanding of this extraordinary behavior, by investigating the neurons that allow bees to process the dance information. Bees get information from hearing the dance, as well as seeing it. During the dance, bees vibrate their abdomens as they run in a figure-of-eight pattern. These vibrations send out pulses that are picked up by an organ on the antennae called Johnston’s organ. Johnston’s organs are equivalent to our ears. Ai maintains hives of honeybees on the campus of Fukuoka University. (Incidentally, he says they have monthly meetings to discuss their research with students, after which they have tea parties and eat the honey produced by their bees.) Until recently, there has been very little understanding of how the bee brain deciphers the information encoded in the waggle dance. The reason, he says, is that bees only perform the dance in the hive, and it’s difficult to get them to do it in the laboratory. It makes sense that the bees pay attention to sound. “In a dark hive, they can’t see the dance,” Ai says. “Honeybees hear the dance.” Honeybees are very sensitive to vibration, so mimicking the noise of a waggle dance can cause bees to journey to the same place indicated by a real dance. Ai and his team recorded the vibrations made by the waggle dance, simulated the noises and applied the vibrations to the antennae of bees in the lab. This allowed them to track which neurons fired in response to the waggle dance, and follow their route in the insect brain. The team discovered three different types of “interneurons.” These are connecting neurons that allow communication between different parts of the brain. Ai, along with team members that include Thomas Wachtler at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, and Hidetoshi Ikeno of the University of Hyogo in Himeji, traced the path of interneurons in the part of the brain concerned with processing sound. They found that the way the interneurons turn on and off is key to encoding information contained in the waggle dance about distance. This mechanism of turning on and off — in neuroscience it is called “disinhibition” — is similar to one used in other insects. For example, it’s how crickets listen to the songs of other crickets as well as how moths assess the distance from the source of a smell their antennae have picked up. Ai and his team suggest there is a common neural basis in the way these different species do things. Communication is the key to forming complex societies. It’s what allows the honeybee to perform such extraordinary behaviors. And, naturally, language is a key factor in human success. Intelligence is required for both these things, so does this mean honeybees, with a minuscule brain, are intelligent? It’s a tricky quality to define. One attempt, from the American Psychological Association Task Force on Intelligence, defines it as the ability “to adapt efficiently to the environment and to learn from experience.” Bees are able to do this. There are six different kinds of dance, for example, and bees are able to learn and change their behavior accordingly. If bees encounter a dead bee at a flower, they change the pattern of dancing they perform back at the hive, suggesting they can perform a risk/benefit analysis. Both bee and human language are a consequence of intelligence, and research such as Ai’s forces us to rethink what we mean by intelligence. “There might be a common brain mechanism between humans and honeybees,” he says. What it certainly shows is that you don’t need a big brain to be smart. As with many things, Charles Darwin realized this, writing in 1871: “The brain of an ant is one of the most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man.”


U.N. body urges Japan to improve protection of press freedoms amid secrecy law concerns

Abstract: GENEVA - A U.N. body on Thursday called on Japan to take steps to better protect press freedoms as concerns about the country’s laws aimed at curtailing leaks of state secrets could hinder the work of journalists. In another of the 218 nonlegally binding recommendations on Japan’s human rights record released by the U.N. Human Rights Council’s working group, Tokyo was urged to apologize and pay compensation to “comfort women” forced to work in Japan’s wartime military brothels. The recommendations reflected the views of some 105 countries. Of the issues raised, the U.N. council will adopt those that have been accepted by the country in question at a plenary session around March 2018. In relation to freedom of the press in Japan, the recommendation called on the country to amend Article 4 of the broadcasting law that gives the government authority to suspend broadcasting licenses of TV stations not considered “politically fair.” Japan had already attracted criticism, in particular from David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, over its law called the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, which came into force in 2014. Under the law, civil servants or others who leak designated secrets could face up to 10 years in prison, and those who instigate leaks, including journalists, could be subject to prison terms of up to five years. In his report, Kaye noted that the law may be arbitrarily enforced as subcategories under which information may be designated as secret are “overly broad.” On the issue of the comfort women, raised at the request of South Korea and China, the recommendation urged Japan to promote fair and accurate historical education, including the women’s stories, and to apologize and compensate the victims. The recommendation also said Japan should abolish or suspend the death penalty, reflecting calls from European Union countries, and continue to provide support to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear crisis caused by the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami. In particular, a directive to address health issues faced by pregnant mothers and children was noted. The U.N. Rights Council is mandated to “undertake a universal periodic review” of whether countries are meeting their human rights obligations and commitments. The examination is conducted on all 193 members of the United Nations in periodic cycles of a few years. The latest review was the third for Japan.

japan
press freedom
secrecy law
comfort women
south korea
china
u.n .


Survey shows households' financial assets increasing helped by Abenomics

Abstract: An improving job market driven by Japan’s economic recovery and booming stock prices helped increase households’ net worth this year, a survey showed, suggesting the benefits of Abenomics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economics policies, are broadening. Households’ average financial assets rose 6.8 percent from a year ago to ¥11.5 million in 2017 thanks to a 25 percent rise in stock prices, an annual survey by the Central Council for Financial Services Information (CCFSI), a body administered by the Bank of Japan, showed Friday. But uncertainty over social welfare provisions being maintained among a rapidly aging population prevented households from turning to riskier investments, underscoring the challenge the central bank faces in nudging the country’s risk-shy population to invest rather than save cash in accounts. The ratio of households who made ends meet as expected or felt better-off rose to 30.7 percent from 29.2 percent in the previous year, as more people joined the workforce amid a tightening job market, the survey showed. But 54.1 percent of households’ financial assets were held in savings and bank deposits, with only 8.9 percent held in stocks, the survey showed. When asked how they choose which financial assets to hold, 46.6 percent said they would prioritize security such as a guarantee of principal, with only 18.7 percent saying they focus on profitability. In a worrying sign for the consumption outlook, a record high 43.2 percent of single households said they had no plans to own a house, more than double the ratio 10 years ago. While it was unclear from the survey why households preferred not to own a house, it may be because more day care and other facilities catering to seniors are becoming available in the country’s aging society, said Kengo Kato, deputy director-general of the CCFSI. “More people may be feeling they don’t necessarily need to own a house” in preparing for retirement, he told a briefing. Thanks to robust exports and consumption, the economy likely expanded for a seventh straight quarter in the July-September period, a Reuters poll showed. The Nikkei average hit a near 26-year high this week on expectations of strong corporate earnings, while the jobless rate slid to levels the BOJ considers as close to full employment. But inflation and wage growth remain subdued, casting doubt over the long-term sustainability of the recovery. The survey targeted 8,000 households nationwide from June 16 to July 25, with 47.1 percent replying.


Alone in the bunker: Trump apparently unaware of Abe's sand trap tumble

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his round of golf with visiting President Donald Trump was a good chance to relax and discuss difficult issues. It also was an opportunity to display some nimble gymnastics, according to TV Tokyo. The television network flew a helicopter over the Kasumigaseki Country Club on Sunday to capture the highly anticipated informal game. It broadcast a video showing a player identified as Abe trying repeatedly to hit his ball out of a steep bunker. As he finally made the shot, Trump began walking away, and Abe ran up the side of the bunker to catch up. But just as the 63-year-old prime minister stepped onto the grass, he slipped, making a backward flip down into the sand. He quickly stood up and picked up his cap. Trump apparently never noticed the flip as he walked away, his back to Abe. An attendant raking the sand also continued his work. Japanese widely shared the video on Twitter on Thursday. “Don’t miss Abe’s rolling-down-the-bunker video,” many of the tweets said. Some called the flip “cute.” Tabloid magazines raised questions over whether the two leaders really talked during the game. The popular Nikkan Gendai said they had little conversation, with Abe often falling behind Trump, who reportedly spent much of his time chatting with a third player, renowned pro Hideki Matsuyama. After the golf, Abe told reporters that he and Trump had a deep discussion on serious issues, but added that their scores were secret. The two leaders also played golf when Abe visited the U.S. in February.


U.S. drafted request to deploy nukes on Honshu in 1960s, documents show

Abstract: WASHINGTON - The U.S. government weighed its chances of convincing Tokyo in the late 1960s to allow the deployment of nuclear weapons in Japan if a crisis in East Asia were to break out, according to newly declassified documents. The idea, which was never proposed because its chances of success were apparently considered “very slight,” offers a look into how Washington sought to expand its military footprint in the region after World War II and the Korean War. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had left the Japanese public with a strong aversion to nuclear weapons, with the prohibition of their possession, manufacture and introduction in Japanese territory — first outlined in 1967 — coming to form the core of Japan’s nuclear policy. The documents, dated June 26, 1969, are composed of drafts of a joint communique by the leaders at the time — President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. The documents outlined the role of the U.S. military after the return of Okinawa to Japanese administration in 1972. One of the drafts noted that if the two countries agreed that if a “state of emergency existed in East Asia threatening imminent armed attack” on Japan, steps would be taken to “enable the U.S. forces in Japan to introduce the necessary forces and equipment to meet the danger.” While the two countries eventually made a secret agreement allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons to the southern islands even after the handover, the documents reveal for the first time that the U.S. government had a desire to deploy part of its nuclear arsenal in Honshu, according to Masaaki Gabe, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. The draft, written by the U.S. State Department, is labeled as “including all of the points desired by the U.S. . . . whose chance of full acceptance by the GOJ (government of Japan) is very slight.” Gabe obtained the previously top secret documents from the U.S. National Archives. The documents also include a separate draft of the joint communique that the State Department saw as “possibly more acceptable” to Japan.

nuclear weapons
history
u.s.-japan relations


In pitching 2025 Expo bid, Osaka must sell itself over Paris, and Africa may hold the key

Abstract: OSAKA - Imagine you’re in Osaka in 2025. After arriving, you’re welcomed by people on the streets, where you stop by a takoyaki vendor for a quick octopus dumpling snack before heading out to see the sights. Walking around Osaka, you’ll feel safe in the presence of police officers offering snappy salutes and small robots that look and sound like extras in a “Star Wars” film. Just the droids you’re looking for. On Yumeshima Island, only about 20 minutes from central Osaka, you’ll be able to visit the Osaka-Kansai Japan World Expo and enjoy not only attractions with zero waiting times but also interact with people from diverse backgrounds to cocreate in organic harmony. All with an eye toward helping achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. That’s the vision in anime form that Osaka’s leaders presented to the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions earlier this month for their World Expo 2025 bid. With one year until the BIE awards the expo, Osaka is gearing up to launch a domestic and international marketing campaign next year in the hope of winning a majority of the 170 delegate votes that will be cast. Officially, there are four candidates for the 2025 Expo. But Baku, Azerbaijan, and Ekaterinburg, Russia, are considered, at least by Osaka, to be long shots. The competitor that local officials and the central government are most concerned about is Paris, where local enthusiasm for the expo, especially among younger people, is far more visible than in Osaka. Domestically, one basic strategy is to heavily rely on the Osaka-based Yoshimoto Kogyo entertainment group to use its talent and influence with the television media nationwide to promote Osaka’s bid. But to win over the BIE delegates and gain international support, Osaka and the central government need to appeal to African and Latin American nations, where almost half of the BIE delegates hail from. African delegates alone account for 49 votes. That could be extremely difficult. Privately, many involved with Osaka’s bid say it’s highly unlikely Osaka will win many votes from African Francophone countries. Still, the message sent to the BIE delegates earlier this month by Osaka and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized Japan’s social and economic connections not only with Africa but also other parts of the world. It also highlighted Japanese technologies that can help countries meet the U.N. development goals, especially for human health. “We have a community of people around the world who share the same goal. Expo 2025 will be such an opportunity,” said Chieko Fujita, a spokeswoman for Osaka-based Nippon Poly-Glu Co., a maker of water purifying technology that has deep connections in dozens of African and Asian countries. She was followed by Joachim Rutayisire from Rwanda, who studied at a university in Kobe and spoke about how important Japan was to Rwanda’s development. Osaka officially introduced its bid in Paris as the “Osaka-Kansai Japan Expo 2025” bid. Both Abe and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry are heavily involved in the bid, and the aim is to emphasize Japan’s public and private economic ties, and potential economic opportunities, if Osaka is awarded the expo. “Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai will set the stage for this cocreation to work even more closely with BIE member countries towards 2025,” the narrator of a video shown to the delegates says, as footage of an August 2016 meeting in Nairobi on Japanese private-sector investment in Africa is shown. “Japanese firms have had requests from various countries to enter their markets. The influence of Japan’s corporate world in these countries is something that can be relied upon,” Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui told reporters in Osaka just before departing for Paris. There were also inquiries in Paris, Osaka officials said, about how much the Japanese government, in the form of official development assistance, might budget for projects in African and Asian countries next year. Beyond questions of whether promises or hints of further Japanese government and private investment in BIE member countries would be an effective form of lobbying, there still lies the reality that Osaka is up against Paris. Given that Paris is one of the world’s major international media centers, the city can easily reach out to the world’s major wire services, newspapers, and TV stations with bureaus there. By contrast, Osaka, where there is virtually no foreign media presence, must bring in Tokyo-based international journalists for occasional press tours and rely on Tokyo to promote its bid overseas. Next year, BIE officials will visit Osaka to conduct a technical review of the city’s expo plan. It’s expected to receive a very positive assessment and could well be judged to be the best of the four candidates. But winning international events like the Olympics and expos is often more about politics, and economics, than technology and engineering. Whether Osaka and the central government can develop an international media relations strategy and BIE lobbying strategy that overcomes the built-in advantages of Paris and realize the 2025 Expo dream it displayed on a video screen earlier this month remains to be seen. But the clock is now ticking.


'Diplocat' takes office in Jordan as British Embassy's newly appointed chief mouser

Abstract: AMMAN - At the British embassy to Jordan, a former rescue cat is settling into his new position as chief mouser — as a traditional well established in the ministries of London goes global. “Lawrence of Abdoun” is a fluffy black-and-white tom who, according to his Twitter feed, reports directly to the Foreign Office’s Palmerston, a cat that delights his 57,000 followers with regular updates from the ministry in Whitehall via @DiploMog. Lawrence, named after T.E. Lawrence, a British military officer who fought alongside Arabs against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, has already gained 2,500 followers since being adopted from an animal shelter last month. Abdoun is the neighborhood of Amaan where the embassy is located. “Apart from his mousing duties, he reaches out to followers on Twitter. What’s quite interesting is the British public are seeing the U.K. embassy in Jordan in a different light,” said Deputy Ambassador Laura Dauban. “Through Lawrence’s Twitter account we’re trying to show a different side to Jordan, what it is really like, a peaceful, prosperous country that British tourists should come and visit.” Tweeting under the name @LawrenceDipCat, Lawrence has discovered the perils of social media, and has even been fat-shamed by trolls. “He’s been a bit upset because some people have said he looked a bit fat in the last tweet he did, so he’ll be doing some exercises and posting to sort of rectify that situation,” Dauban said.


Secrets and wives: Gay Chinese hide behind 'sham marriage'

Abstract: LIAONING, CHINA - When Xiaoxiong and her lesbian lover wanted to hide their relationship from their parents, they decided to find men willing to marry them. They had a specific type in mind: Gay. Searching out suitors for such a marriage of convenience proved difficult, so she created an online matchmaking forum to help others like her conform with family and societal pressures in China, where same-sex marriage is not legal and homosexuality remains taboo. “I was so relieved that there was a way to please my parents without getting trapped in a marriage with some poor straight man,” said Xiaoxiong, self-described tomboy, who did not want to give her surname to protect her privacy. “Some of us wish we could trick ourselves, too,” the 35-year-old added. She lives with her partner, Xiaojing, 36, their dog and two cats in Shenyang, the capital of northeastern Liaoning province, one of China’s more conservative regions. But during holidays and special occasions, they separate to be with their husbands’ and families, pretending to be traditional wives. In China being openly gay is still fraught with difficulties. Dressing a certain way or public displays of affection can draw stares and lead to family turmoil. Some Chinese parents have even brought gay children to “conversion” clinics for treatment. Homosexuality was classified as a mental illness in China until 2001 and a crime until 1997, and authorities have arrested gay rights activists. Around 90 percent of 20 million gay men in China are married to women who are usually straight and do not initially know their husband’s real sexual orientation, according to a 2012 study from Qingdao University. The study did not look at lesbians’ behavior. But gay men and women are increasingly marrying each other in so-called “cooperative” marriages. There are no estimates on the number of gay-lesbian marriages, but several websites dedicated to them have popped up in recent years. The largest one, Chinagayles.com , says it has amassed more than 400,000 users and facilitated more than 50,000 cooperative marriages in the past 12 years. “When I turned 25, my parents started to really pressure me to get married. So I searched the internet for ideas,” Xiaoxiong said. She started her own forum on the popular QQ social media platform to help gays like herself find an ideal fake spouse in northeast China. Some of the men she spoke with had unrealistic expectations, such as wanting her to grow out her buzzcut or move to a different city to live in the same house as in-laws. In 2012, she married a high school math teacher 10 years her senior whose laid-back demeanor immediately made her feel comfortable. But she cringes at the wedding photos of herself in a white gown and curly black wig. The video makes her “want to vomit,” she concedes. Within weeks of the ceremony, Xiaojing, her partner for eight years, had also wed a gay man. The two women run a traditional Chinese medical practice together, but they dedicate several hours each week to answer questions on the online matchmaking forum. But Xiaojing warns people interested in cooperative marriages to be prepared for potential complications. “Some people rush into a marriage with someone they barely know,” she said. “But just like real marriage, it only works between people who agree on important things like where to live and whether to have children, and who genuinely care about each other.” But some gay rights activists frown upon such arrangements. “By pretending to be straight and enjoying the social benefits, they are abandoning other LGBT people to face the pressure alone,” said Ah Qiang, a prominent activist who leads China’s PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) group. “I think a reason homophobia is still so strong in China is that many straight people don’t know any openly gay people,” he said. Xiaoxiong and Xiaojing believe their families likely know the truth about their relationship, but nobody wants to acknowledge the obvious. “We don’t wish for much,” said Xiaoxiong. “When we are home, when we are sitting side by side, we just feel so peaceful and happy.”


Only known war memoirs by Emperor Hirohito to go up for auction in New York

Abstract: What may be the only existing copy of Emperor Hirohito’s account of World War II and the era leading up to the conflict is set to go on the auction block in New York next month. The 173-page, two-volume document — known in Japan as “Showa Tenno Dokuhakuroku”(“Emperor Showa’s Monologue”) — was dictated by the Emperor to several of his aides soon after the war and transcribed word-for-word by senior diplomat Hidenari Terasaki. It was published by the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine in 1990, causing a national sensation. Emperor Hirohito is posthumously known as Emperor Showa. London-based auction house Bonhams said on its website that the volumes will be auctioned in New York on Dec. 6, with the document expected to fetch an estimated $100,000 to $150,000. “Bonhams is thrilled to have been given this opportunity to sell the only extant copy of a document that is critical to our understanding of 20th-century world history,” Joe Earle, Bonhams Senior Consultant for Japanese Art, said in a statement. The Emperor’s recollection of the turbulent time period was recorded in preparation for the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the Tokyo Trial, historians say. In 1946, five aides recorded the Emperor’s account from March 18 through April 8. The tribunal started in May the same year. Parts of the memoir were translated into English and submitted to the postwar Allied Occupation forces. The Emperor discussed topics such as Japanese politics at the time, Japan’s assassination of Manchuria warlord Zhang Zuolin in 1928 and the nation’s surrender at the end World War II in August 1945. The Emperor’s frank discussion about the history of the war has caused heated debate among historians, including how much the leader himself was responsible for key political decisions during Japan’s wars and conflicts in the 1930s and 1940s. “His aides tried to prove the Emperor was a peace-loving leader to prepare for the Tokyo Trial. That was their biggest motivation,” historian Ikuhiko Hata told The Japan Times on Tuesday. “So you have to carefully read the text, but the account is very interesting.” Bonhams didn’t say who currently owns the document. The document was originally discovered in Terasaki’s belongings held by his daughter, Mariko Terasaki Miller. Her mother, Gwen Harold Terasaki, born in Johnson City, Tennessee, was the author of a best-selling war memoir “Bridge to the Sun,” which was also made into a move and detailed her family’s experiences during the war. According to Hata, historical records suggest at least another two aides to the Emperor separately transcribed his accounts of history on different occasions. The government should disclose those records if they still exist, Hata said.

emperor hirohito
auctions
world war ii
history


'Donald & Shinzo' chumminess aside, Trump leaves empty-handed on trade as Abe digs in

Abstract: They autographed baseball caps emblazoned with “Donald & Shinzo.” They played nine holes of golf with a Japanese sensation often compared to Tiger Woods and didn’t keep score. They shared an intimate dinner and repeatedly showered each other with praise. But for all the apparent chumminess between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it hasn’t resulted in much concrete action to address Trump’s main complaint: fixing what he sees as an unfair trade relationship with Japan. For Trump, more known for shoving a fellow leader aside than embracing one, the relationship with Abe is a way to show he can work with his peers around the globe. The two men also agree on a hard-line approach to North Korea. But throughout Trump’s two-day visit, Abe publicly ducked any talk of major trade concessions even though Trump kept bringing it up. The only major investment cited — a $1 billion project in Tennessee from auto parts maker Denso Corp. — was old news, contrasting with Trump’s plan to announce billions of dollars in deals on his stop in China later this week. Trump all but pleaded with Japanese carmakers to build more factories in the U.S., or let a few more American cars into Japan. Invest in the U.S., Trump said, and he promised to make sure they speed right through the approval process. Yet Abe’s deflections showed Trump that it won’t be that easy to narrow the $69 billion trade deficit with Japan, driven largely by U.S. imports of cars and electronics. One major problem for Abe is that he’s not sure what exactly the U.S. wants, according to Hiroyuki Kishi, a professor at Keio University and a former trade ministry bureaucrat. On autos, for example, Japanese officials argue the market isn’t closed to American cars — consumers just don’t want to buy them. “Trump is saying these things because he believes them and they are among his pledges,” Kishi said. “Looking at the actual reasons and what should be done would take negotiations. I don’t know whether we can actually reach that stage. Just talking generalities won’t change anything.” For the U.S., the Japanese trade deficit is second only to that with China. Trump has made clear that he tends to see the numbers as a sort of fairness scorecard, and any figure with a minus for the U.S. almost automatically means the other side is somehow breaking the rules. “Right now our trade with Japan is not fair and it isn’t open,” Trump told business leaders in Tokyo on Monday. But Abe hasn’t forgotten that it was Trump who pulled out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, a move the U.S. president once again defended Monday. Abe spent significant political capital to back the trade pact, particularly among farmers who don’t want to see tariffs on agriculture lowered. Japanese officials also say the TPP would have helped narrow the trade gap. Japan hasn’t ruled out the sort of bilateral partnership with the U.S. that Trump seeks but is spending most of its energy on a process known as “TPP 11” — an attempt to keep the framework intact without the U.S. Abe is also reluctant to put Japan’s highly protected agriculture sector further at risk in a bilateral deal. Still, the White House is eager to find ways to loosen barriers to exporting American agriculture and livestock. U.S. producers are concerned they’re losing market share, and would like reduced tariffs on beef, pork, dairy, fruit and vegetables, among other foods. Japan is eager to leave the trade talks to Vice President Mike Pence and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, a formulation that allows Trump and Abe to focus primarily on defense. Pence has urged Japan to roll back its emergency import restrictions on U.S. frozen beef, which saw tariffs rise to 50 percent from 38.5 percent. That’s led to a monthly drop in U.S. frozen beef exports. The Trump administration also wants Japan to expand its use of U.S. liquefied natural gas, hoping exports could cut into the trade deficit. Gary Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, has voiced support for a terminal in the U.S. Northwest that would send tankers full of LNG to Asia. The White House is also hopeful that it can boost ties between the countries’ transportation sectors by coordinating infrastructure development and maintenance projects. Trump on Monday talked up recent Japanese purchases of defensive military equipment designed to blunt the threat of North Korea’s nuclear program. Abe listed several missile defense systems Japan is planning to buy as well as Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35A fighter jets. Yet all the deals had previously been announced. For Trump, one key accomplishment was showing a united front with Japan on North Korea. “No Japan-U.S. summit meeting has been so seriously focused on the security situation in Asia in the past few decades,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat and now visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University. “I would say this is very, very epoch-making in the sense that the two leaders of Japan and the U.S. are looking to jointly tackle their issues of concern in this part of the world.” On trade, Trump took what he could get, even if he is largely leaving Japan empty-handed. And while he called Abe a “very tough negotiator,” he also talked up perceived outcomes at every opportunity. “One of the things I think is very important is the prime minister is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should,” Trump said with Abe by his side. “It’s a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for Japan.”

trade
donald trump
shinzo abe
tpp
u.s.-japan relations
trump in japan


South Korea invites wartime 'comfort woman' to state banquet for Trump

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea announced Tuesday that a wartime ‘comfort woman,’ who has spoken widely of her suffering due to being forced to work in a wartime Japanese military brothel, had been invited to attend a state banquet for U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s office made the announcement before his talks in Seoul with Trump, who arrived earlier in the day from Tokyo as part of his five-nation Asian tour. Inviting the 88-year-old Korean woman, Lee Yong-soo, to the banquet may complicate South Korea’s relations with Japan, which could impact their joint efforts with the United States to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Japan and South Korea reached an agreement aimed at “finally and irreversibly” settling the comfort women issue in 2015. Another potential flashpoint came on the dinner menu itself. “Dokdo shrimp,” which come from waters around a pair of islets at the center of a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea. The South Korea-controlled, Japan-claimed islets are known as Takeshima in Japan. Japanese government officials are said to be puzzled over South Korea’s decision to raise such thorny political issues during Trump’s visit, at a time when ties between Tokyo and Seoul have been improving. In Tokyo, Japan’s top government spokesman expressed frustration over South Korea’s banquet arrangements. “We will continue to take every opportunity to resolutely appeal to South Korea to steadily implement the agreement,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a routine news conference. “We have explained our position to South Korea through diplomatic channels,” Suga said, while noting that the agreement has been praised by the international community. The spokesman had a stronger response to the choice of using the shrimp saying, “I wonder about that.” “At a time when stronger coordination between Japan, the United States and South Korea is required to deal with the North Korea issue, and when President Trump has chosen Japan and South Korea as the first stops on his trip, there is a need to avoid making moves that could negatively affect the close coordination between (the three countries),” he said. Trump is the first sitting U.S. leader in 25 years to come to Seoul in the format of a state visit. Lee is one of about 70 guests invited to the banquet, and is set to be seated at the same table as White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and others, according to Moon’s office. In addition to visiting foreign countries to talk about her grim experience, Lee has criticized the Japanese government and South Korea’s previous administration for striking the deal on the issue, a protracted sticking point in bilateral relations. The dispute over comfort women — a euphemism used to refer to the women and girls recruited mostly from Asian countries to provide sex to Japanese soldiers before and during the war — has been one of the major issues that have frayed Tokyo’s ties with Seoul. Lee and others have slammed the 2015 agreement as not reflecting the feelings of former comfort women. Japan has asked Moon’s administration to uphold the accord, under which Tokyo provided money to a fund to assist the women and Seoul promised it would strive to settle the issue in consultation with civil society organizations at home.


Hong Kong activists slam eviction of Beijing's 'low-end population' and razing of their dwellings

Abstract: HONG KONG - Activists from dozens of labor rights groups marched in Hong Kong on Wednesday to protest the destruction of housing in Beijing for tens of thousands of migrant workers and eviction of the “low-end population” from the capital city. The Beijing municipal government launched a city-wide fire safety inspection of buildings in migrant-inhabited areas following a fire in one such neighborhood that killed 19 people on Nov. 18. Civil rights and labor activists claim the municipal government is using the tragedy to now tear down buildings deemed unsafe and evict tens of thousands of migrant worker families as part of a 40-day campaign launched last week. “Respect laborers’ rights! Stop the persecution of underclass workers! Shame on the Beijing government!” the protesters chanted as they marched toward the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre, where the acting mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining, was expected to attend the Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Cooperation Symposium. Police barred the about 50 protesters from entering the venue but allowed them to stage a rally outside, and Chen did not attend the event, local media reported. The South China Morning Post has reported that more than 100 scholars and social activists in mainland China have also signed an open letter urging the authorities to stop the “discriminatory” approach. Their letter says “Beijing has an obligation to be grateful towards all Chinese citizens, instead of being forgetful and repaying the country people with arrogance, discrimination and humiliation — especially the bottom income group,” according to the Hong Kong daily. Laborers have been migrating from the countryside to the capital for years in search of a better life. But many end up working in small shops, restaurants and factories for low pay, and living in migrant worker ghettos packed with shabby but cheap housing. The term “low-end population” has been used for years by Beijing municipal officials to refer to the capital’s teeming population of migrant workers, whose presence in the capital has been increasing problematic as China’s economic growth has slowed over recent years, and as pressure to alleviate deadly pollution has increased.


Japanese court rules provision allowing only men to file lawsuits denying legal fatherhood is constitutional

Abstract: KOBE - A court on Wednesday found constitutional a legal provision that allows only men and not women to file a lawsuit denying the legal fatherhood of a child, dismissing a claim filed against the state by a family for damages related to the accuracy of their legal paternity. The ¥2.2 million damages suit was filed with the Kobe District Court by a woman in her 60s living in Kobe, as well as the woman’s two grandchildren and her daughter who is in her 30s. The plaintiffs argued that the Civil Code provision allowing only men to deny legal fatherhood is discriminatory and unconstitutional. They plan to appeal to a higher court. Presiding Judge Kazuhiko Tomita, however, said the legal provision is reasonable as it represents a compromise between the need to match biological and legal fathers, and ensuring stable paternal relations by determining them promptly. The lawsuit was the first court challenge over constitutionality of the legal provision, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. According to the suit, the woman lived apart from her husband because of his violence and had a baby girl with a different man in the 1980s. She then filed to register the birth of the daughter with the second man only for the birth report to be rejected, due to another Civil Code provision specifying that children carried by married women are “presumed” to have been fathered by their husbands. The Kobe woman considered asking the former husband to file a lawsuit to reject his legal paternity of the daughter, but decided against it as she wanted to stay away from him. As a result, the daughter and her two children were placed outside the official family registration system until last year. The plaintiffs claimed they suffered mental anguish and other disadvantages. For example, the daughter was not able to get married legally and her children did not receive notifications for enrollment in school or medical checkups. They argued such a situation could have been avoided if wives and children were also allowed to file lawsuits concerning legitimacy under the Civil Code. In the ruling, the judge highlighted the need to develop legal institutions to safeguard privacy in judicial proceedings and protect women from violence, adding that wives could otherwise find it difficult to file lawsuits for paternity denial even if they are granted the right to do so. According to the Justice Ministry, 715 residents across the country were unregistered as of Oct. 10. Their birth notifications had not been submitted to local governments due to their parents’ circumstances and other reasons.


Syria to join Paris climate accord, leaving only U.S. on outside

Abstract: BONN - The United States is now the only nation staying outside the Paris Agreement, after Syria told the U.N. climate talks in Bonn on Tuesday that it would join the landmark treaty. “We are going to join the Paris Agreement,” the Syrian delegate, speaking in Arabic, told a plenary session at the 196-nation talks, according to Safa al-Jayoussi of the NGO IndyAct. The United States ratified the 2015 pact but President Donald Trump announced this year that he would pull out, saying the pact does not serve U.S. interests. “It is our understanding that the government of Syria announced today their intent to join the Paris Agreement,” said Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the U.N. climate body. Nuttall identified the Syrian delegate as Wadah Katmawi, the deputy minister of the ministry of local administration and environment. Syria must submit their “instruments of ratification” at the U.N. headquarters in New York before their adherence becomes official, he added. According to the Syrian parliament website, a bill was passed on Oct. 22 to ratify the Paris accord, “in accordance with the Syrian Constitution which stipulates the protection of the environment.” Other parties at the 12-day negotiations, tasked with elaborating and implementing the agreement, welcomed the news. “Syria joining the Paris Agreement will be a good thing,” said South Africa’s chief negotiator, Maesela Kekana. Chai Qimin, a climate negotiator from China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said, “They were the last party to the U.N. Convention to sign the Paris Agreement,” referring to 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the bedrock treaty for U.N. climate talks. “That leaves only the one who announced their withdrawal.” War-torn Syria would be the 197th country to sign on to the climate pact, which vows to hold global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Openly isolated on the climate issue at the Group of Seven and Group of 20 meetings earlier this year, the United States said it intended to withdraw “unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers and taxpayers.” The Trump administration has not said what those terms might be. “This means Trump is in splendid isolation. No one wants to be in his company,” said Alden Meyer, a veteran climate analyst at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. Paula Caballero, director for climate change at the World Resources Institute, said: “With Syria on board, now the entire world is resolutely committed to advancing climate action — all save one country. This should make the Trump administration pause and reflect on their ill-advised announcement about withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.” Signed in Paris in December 2015, the treaty entered into force on Nov. 4, 2016. According to its terms, no country can formally submit its intent to withdraw until three years after that date. It then takes one year to fully withdraw. This means the earliest the United States could officially withdraw is the day after the 2020 election. “When even Syria — with all its problems — can see the sense of a global climate agreement, it really shows how ideologically wedded to climate denialism the U.S. Republican Party has become,” said Mohamed Adow of International Climate Lead for Christian Aid.

syria
climate
paris agreement
donald trump
climate change
u.s .
u.n .


Car kills New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern's famed cat, Paddles

Abstract: WELLINGTON - Paddles, the New Zealand prime minister’s ginger cat, had six toes and a wide social media following but has run out of lives. Jacinda Ardern, the charismatic new leader, announced the death of the “prime moggy” on Wednesday after Paddles was hit by a car the previous evening, prompting an outpouring of grief on social media. Paddles’ rise to social media fame matched her 37-year-old owner’s meteoric ascent to the prime ministership after only taking over as leader of her Labour Party in August. A “First Cat of NZ” Twitter account was set up by an anonymous user last month, with regular tweets about the photogenic cat’s famous “mummy,” Ardern. It quickly attracted 11,000 followers. People from around the world posted messages such as “rest in peace” and “gone too soon” with the hashtag #paddles. The polydactyl cat’s feats included being able to hold a pair of glasses with her opposable thumb. She featured regularly in photos of Ardern at work. “To anyone who has ever lost a pet, you’ll know how sad we feel. Paddles was much loved, and not just by us. Thanks for everyone’s thoughts,” Ardern wrote on Facebook. Ardern’s rise to power has generated intense interest in her personal life and drew comparisons with other youthful trailblazers such as France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Justin Trudeau. According to Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, Paddles often played her part in affairs of state, even interrupting the premier’s first call with U.S. President Donald Trump in October. “As the call was transferred our cat (yes that bloody cat) came flying through the cat-flap,” Gayford, a television presenter, wrote in a column for the Spinoff news website. “She leapt up onto the chair next to Jacinda and began announcing her very squawky arrival,” he wrote.

new zealand
jacinda ardern
pets
animals
elections
offbeat


Ukai shares up after leaders dine at Ginza restaurant

Abstract: As policy experts scramble to interpret the significance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Japan, there’s already one standout winner in the stock market. Ukai Co., which operates an upmarket restaurant chain, surged as much as 7.3 percent on Monday following a local media report that Trump had dinner with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at its flagship Tokyo store in the glitzy Ginza area on Sunday. Trump and Abe were accompanied by their wives, and had dinner at Ginza Ukai Tei, a restaurant known for teppanyaki , a cuisine popular among tourists where meat and vegetables are grilled on an iron griddle in front of customers. The guests were served a “special menu” that included grilled Hokkaido scallop, the restaurant’s “best quality” steak and a chocolate sundae, an Ukai spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Trump sparked a feeding frenzy on social media Monday when he was photographed dumping a box of fish food into a pond of Japanese carp. Trump and Abe began by delicately spooning out the food into the pond to the waiting koi, which had been rounded up by a clapping Japanese aide. But some said Trump apparently lost patience with this method and upended his entire wooden box into the pond. The incident caused outrage among fish lovers on Twitter, with many pointing out that fish cannot consume such a large amount of food at one time. Other users, however, pointed out that Trump was only following the lead of Abe, who also chose the short-cut in emptying his box. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, standing just behind Trump, appeared to break out in laughter at his boss’s no-nonsense approach to koi feeding.

donald trump
shinzo abe
teppanyaki
u.s.-japan relations
trump in japan


To bow or not to bow: Trump passes tricky protocol test with Emperor

Abstract: To bow or not to bow: That was the question when U.S. President Donald Trump engaged in a closely watched meet-and-greet with the Emperor that was laden with potential protocol pitfalls. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama sparked a firestorm of criticism during one trip to Japan when he was photographed in an almost 90-degree bow to diminutive Emperor Akihito. U.S. conservatives chided Obama for the act of deference to the monarch, who is the son of Emperor Hirohito, the wartime emperor in whose name Japanese troops fought in World War II. He is posthumously known as Emperor Showa. So all eyes were on the meeting in famously polite Japan, where bowing is a way of life. But the gaffe-prone Trump appeared to plot a respectable middle ground, slightly inclining his head upon meeting the 83-year-old despite towering over him. The two couples were then led to a room where they engaged in deep conversation with the aid of interpreters. Afterward, Trump shook hands with the Emperor again, and tapped his arm repeatedly with his left hand. “Thank you for the great meeting,” he said. “I’m sure we will meet again.” Japanese guests are not supposed to touch the Imperial Couple or shake hands, but foreign guests often do. Hillary Clinton shook hands and air-kissed the Empress on both cheeks, then took her hand as they entered the palace when she met the pair as secretary of state in 2011, a month or so after the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster hit northeastern Japan in March.

donald trump
emperor akihito
u.s .
trump asia trip
trump in japan


Trump touts solidarity with Japan but refuses to shy away from trade

Abstract: Hailing ties with Tokyo as the closest ever, U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday emphasized America’s “solidarity” with Japan against “the North Korean menace,” but at the same time made no secret of his dissatisfaction with what he considers an unfair trade relationship with its top Asian ally. Trump’s comment came as he stood together with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a joint news conference designed to showcase what the two leaders touted as an unprecedented level of Japan-U.S. solidarity. Trump, who was in Japan on the first stop of his five-nation trip to Asia, was scheduled to finish his three-day stay in Tokyo on Tuesday morning when he flies to his next destination, South Korea. After the summit, two high-ranking Japanese officials called the overall outcome a success, with one noting that Trump had not, as feared, pressed Abe too hard on the trade front. The prime minister, for his part, said the two leaders “completely agreed” that the allies must continue to take a hard-line approach to nuclear-armed North Korea, a strategy that involves heaping “maximum pressure” on the regime. As part of this, the Japanese leader revealed that Tokyo will further tighten the screws on Pyongyang by putting a fresh freeze on assets controlled by 35 organizations and individuals in North Korea. “The United States of America stands in solidarity with the people of Japan against the North Korean menace. History has proven over and over that strong and free nations always prevail over tyrants,” Trump said. “We stand together to defend the security and sovereignty of both of our countries.” Reiterating the “era of strategic patience” has come to an end, Trump added: “Some people say that my rhetoric is very strong, but look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last 25 years.” Both Trump and Abe claimed that Japan-U.S. ties had reached a historic level. “At no time in the history of the Japan-U.S. alliance did the leaders of our two nations spend a year building so deep and tight a relationship as we have,” Abe said. Trump, too, noted the strong bonds. “There has never been such a close relationship” between the two nations’ leaders. The U.S. president, however, made it a point to note his dissatisfaction with the trajectory of Washington’s trade ties with Tokyo. “I’m committed to achieving a fair, free and reciprocal trading relationship,” Trump said. “We seek equal and reliable access for American exports to Japan’s market in order to eliminate our chronic trade imbalances and deficits with Japan.” Trump has pushed for a more favorable bilateral trade deal with Japan in lieu of the multinational Trans-Pacific Partnership accord, which he pulled out of in January as one of his first priorities as president. On Monday, as he met with a circle of Japanese business leaders in Tokyo, he stood firm on his anti-TPP stance, saying it was “not the right idea.” “We will have more trade than anybody ever thought of under TPP, that I can tell you,” he was quoted by the White House as telling the business leaders. “Ultimately I’ll be proven to be right.” Abe, for his part, tried to shift his emphasis from bilateral trade to his efforts to create a “fair and effective” economic order in the Asia-Pacific region. Abe also boasted that the two leaders agreed there was a need to work further to create a “free and open Indo-Pacific region,” a key diplomatic goal upheld by Tokyo as it seeks to promote an international maritime order — a move widely seen as an attempt to counter China’s growing assertiveness. In a moment perhaps typical of Trump’s braggadocio, the U.S. leader also said that Japan should be able to “easily” shoot down missiles fired by North Korea once the nation completes the purchase of a “massive” tranche of military gear from the U.S. The U.S. president had earlier questioned in a conversation with leaders from Southeast Asian nations why Japan, as a country of “samurai warriors,” didn’t intercept two missiles that flew over the archipelago earlier this year, according to reports. “One of the things I think really important is that the prime minister of Japan is going to be purchasing a massive amount of military equipment, as he should,” Trump said. “We make the best military equipment by far. … It’s a lot of jobs for us and a lot of safety for Japan.” Abe responded by confirming that Japan will indeed amplify its defense capabilities by introducing equipment, including F-35A fighter jets, from the U.S. Japan also plans to introduce the U.S. land-based Aegis Ashore system to counter the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

trade
donald trump
north korea
shinzo abe
u.s.-japan relations
trump in japan


Ahead of 2019 Rugby World Cup, Japan attempts to drum up enthusiasm from female fans

Abstract: With the 2019 Rugby World Cup coming to Japan in two years, local governments hosting the event in the Chubu region are eagerly working to promote the sport, especially among women. They are hoping the epithet ragāru — combining the terms “rugby” and “girl” — will do for the sport what sūjo (female sumo fans) and kāpu joshi (female fans of a professional baseball team Hiroshima Toyo Carp) did for sumo and baseball. Some municipalities are organizing rugby game-watching tours that explain the rules and offer opportunities for female fans to interact with players. “It looks painful, but it’s really powerful,” a female fan said in surprise after watching rugby players tackle each other aggressively. In late September, the Shizuoka Prefectural Government invited 33 women in the prefecture who have never seen a rugby game to watch a Japan Rugby Top League match held at Shizuoka Stadium, one of the venues for the Rugby World Cup. They were accompanied by Kosuke Endo, 36, a former member of the Japanese national rugby team who used to play for Toyota Verblitz. He explained the basic rules, including fouls such as the knock-on or throw-forward. “I’ve always stayed away from rugby because I didn’t understand the rules, but it’s interesting once you learn them. I want to come to watch a game again,” said Terumi Matsushita, 37, an office worker from Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture. “Word spreads fast among women, and I hope they will come to see the matches repeatedly. We want to see the stadium packed during the World Cup,” said Kenji Takakura, head of the prefectural government’s 2019 World Cup promotion division who planned the group tour. The Toyota Municipal Government in Aichi Prefecture, which will host the World Cup matches at Toyota Stadium, launched a female-only fan group Litzgirl this spring. The group is organizing tours to watch Toyota Verblitz games in the Top League and creating pamphlets. “One of the highlights of the Top League is that fans get a chance to interact closely with the players after the matches. We want them to see their strong muscles,” said a municipal official. The Fukuoka Prefectural Government, another host of the World Cup matches, set up a “Ragāru Day” last month during the Top League season and held rugby lessons for women. Japan’s historic victory over the powerful South African team in the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and the popularity of fullback Ayumu Goromaru of Yamaha Jubilo contributed to increasing the percentage of female fans among the total Top League spectators to 40 percent, up from the previous 30 percent. “But the percentage is still low compared to soccer or baseball,” said a Japan Rugby Football Union official. The organizers for the 2019 Rugby World Cup aim to attract 2 million people in total, or approximately 40,000 people per game, but the difficulty lies in getting people to go and see matches that don’t involve the Japanese team. The match dates and venues were announced on Thursday and tickets will go on sale next year. “The most important thing is to get people interested in rugby first,” said a Toyota municipal official. The Rugby World Cup will be held in Japan, the first time in Asia, in 2019 between Sept. 20 and Nov. 2. A total of 48 matches will be held in 12 cities with 20 teams participating.

2019 rugby world cup
women
shizuoka
toyota


Philippines' Duterte ditches peace process with Maoist rebels

Abstract: MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has terminated the on-again, off-again peace talks with Maoist-led rebels as hostilities have continued despite the negotiations, the president’s spokesman said on Friday. Ending the nearly half-century long conflict, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, was among Duterte’s priorities since he took office in June last year. “We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement late Thursday. “The president, as we all know, has always wanted to leave a legacy of peace under his administration. He has, in fact, walked the extra mile for peace,” Roque added. The president signed on Thursday the proclamation terminating the peace talks, which were being brokered by Norway. In May, government peace negotiators canceled the fresh round of formal talks with the Maoist-led rebels in the Netherlands as guerrillas stepped up offensives in the countryside. Revolutionary forces now have no choice but to intensify guerrilla warfare in rural areas, the Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), said in a statement. NDF, the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas, said it regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms.

philippines
rodrigo duterte
conflict
insurgencies


Aki Higuchi's mission: Giving Japan's young minds a global outlook and confidence to speak out

Abstract: Aki Higuchi, 28, grew up in a multicultural home, where university students from different countries came five days a week to look after her and her younger sister up until she turned 18. On Monday it was a Turkish student, then a Bulgarian on Tuesday, followed by a Canadian, a South Korean and a Taiwanese, who came to work for the family after seeing a help-wanted ad put up by Higuchi’s working parents at university dormitories for international students. They picked Higuchi and her younger sister up from school, played with them, prepared meals and dined together. At the dinner table, her Japanese father and Chinese mother often debated with the students about controversial international issues like the interpretation of history. And her father always urged Higuchi and her little sister to voice their opinions even when they didn’t have much knowledge about the subject being discussed. “It was like learning about the world from home. They broadened my perspectives and made me realize that there are so many different cultures and ways of seeing things,” Higuchi said. Hoping to provide children with similar opportunities to meet people who could be role models and expand their life choices, Higuchi founded Selan Inc. in Tokyo in 2015 and launched a baby-sitting and English tutorial service staffed by fully bilingual tutors. Called OmSister — “om” being short for omukae , which means to pick up — the tutors pick children up from schools and provide English lessons in the home with an emphasis on cultivating presentation skills. The service became a hit with working parents, and the number of children they look after has grown quickly — to more than 200 in just over two years. “Children’s communities can be quite small. They often have only schoolteachers or their parents as their role models,” Higuchi said. “I want to expand such communities, and provide them with chances to meet tutors who could change their lives. “I know firsthand how important it is to have such opportunities when you are young,” Higuchi said. In October, in a bid to expand its reach, the company opened a liberal arts weekend school for elementary school children in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward. Named dot.school , the school teaches children subjects ranging from diplomacy and philosophy to human rights and business with classes in English. “These are really difficult subjects. So we are breaking them down to make it easy for children to understand,” Higuchi said. For example, in a diplomacy lesson, children are asked to think about and discuss the best ways to solve a territorial dispute between two countries without waging war. Children are encouraged to speak up, and regardless of what they say the teachers always praise students when they present their opinions, she said. “What we want is for them to obtain crucial abilities to survive in the 21st century, and become people who can live happily anywhere in the world,” Higuchi said. “After all, we never know what the future holds for them,” she said, noting that Japan’s population is estimated to fall below the 100 million mark in 2053 while the world population is projected to increase from the current 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050. In the near future, Higuchi wants to expand the school to other countries with the goal of eventually creating a “borderless classroom.” “I want to connect classrooms in different countries to create a global learning environment,” she said, adding that one possible approach could be to connect them via the internet using big screens. “Then you can see a class in China on a screen in front of you, and America at the back and the Philippines on the right,” she said. Higuchi’s passion for global education stemmed not only from her experiences as a child but also from the few years she spent in the United States and China, where she was encouraged to voice her opinions. But even for Higuchi, who grew up in such an environment, it was tough to compete with her Chinese peers in debates when she went to study at the prestigious Peking University, after she quit her university course in Japan in order to challenge herself more. Even when the topic of a debate was about Japan, she said she was no match for the Chinese students, who often had deeper knowledge. Such experiences made her realize the lack of liberal arts education in Japan, as well as the necessity to train students to think for themselves and articulate their opinions. Uniformity, after all, is still praised in Japan’s education system, and students are often discouraged from being different or unique, she said. “If we are to compete with those people in the world, I thought we have to nurture the ability to think for oneself from a young age,” she said. “I want them to be tough, and to have skills and the mindset to compete with people who are educated — to think and voice their opinions from an early age.” One challenge Higuchi is facing is that her educational programs currently come at a price, which means not every child can benefit. The monthly fee for dot.school is ¥16,000, and for OmSister the cheapest course is ¥22,800 a month. “I want to reach children whose parents don’t have much interest in education, or those who can’t afford the fees,” Higuchi said. “I eventually want to cooperate with public elementary schools to offer our programs there, to make them accessible to more children.” Another of Higuchi’s goals is to launch a scholarship program for elementary school students. “Currently there is no scholarship for elementary school students. I want to create financial support programs to help those who are eager to study and receive special education that nurtures a global mindset,” Higuchi said.

aki higuchi
children
english
bilingual
education
babysitters
selan inc .


With two patents under her belt, Aichi junior high school girl looks to help other inventive kids

Abstract: Asuka Kamiya, 14, a second-year student from Meisho Junior High School in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, has established with her father a company to help elementary and junior high school students apply for patents and commercialize their inventions. By using her experience in patenting her own invention two years ago, she hopes to help turn other students’ unique ideas into products. When she was a fifth-grader, for a science project she conducted over a summer holiday, Kamiya created a can-recycling bin that uses a magnet to automatically separate steel and aluminum containers. Kamiya applied for a patent at the recommendation of her father, Toyoaki, 42, who runs a liquor sales consulting firm and had obtained a patent himself for an invention related to wine. She was granted the patent for her “low-cost can-recycling bin” when she was a sixth-grader. After she entered junior high school and joined the basketball team, she discovered the importance of teammates supporting one another and she was reminded of the people who helped her apply for a patent and spread her idea. In June, she received her second patent for devising a way to separate plastic bottles as well. Then she thought it was her turn to help others, she said. Under the advice of Yasuteru Nimura, 38, chief coordinator of Anjo Business Concierge — a support base for small and medium-size companies in Anjo — she started the company Yaku ni Tatsu Mono Tsukuro (Let’s Make Something Useful) in September, with herself as the president and her father as the managing director who oversees day-to-day operations. The office is located at the premises where her father runs his company. Next April, Kamiya plans to start selling her patented can-recycling bin. The company collaborated with Hekikai Pack, a cardboard processing company in the same city, to produce a trial kit made of cardboard. The price for the kit is not yet decided, but profits will be used for the company’s operating funds. Children who purchase the kit can experiment by placing the magnet in different areas and work through the same trial-and-error process that Kamiya went through. The company is collecting funds to manufacture the kit through the Readyfor crowdfunding service. The goal is to collect ¥1.5 million, and the crowdfunding campaign runs until Nov. 13. The firm plans to gather ideas from other children through its website and sales of the learning kit. Then, with the cooperation of local firms, it will provide support to commercialize and apply for patents. “I want to support her ideas,” Kamiya’s father said. “I hope that children can cultivate their ability to think.”

patents
aichi
inventions
asuka kamiya
anjo


Taiwan says it was shut out of U.N. climate talks due to China pressure

Abstract: TAIPEI - Taiwan said its environment minister has been prevented from attending an annual U.N. climate meeting even with credentials as a non-governmental participant due to pressure from China. It represents the latest case of self-ruled Taiwan not being able to take part in an international event because of opposition from China, which objects to the island it claims under its “one-China” stand being accorded anything akin to the status of an independent state. Environmental protection agency minister Lee Ying-yuan had hoped to attend a U.N. climate change meeting in Germany, the island’s foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday. “Due to China’s interventions, environmental protection minister Lee was unable to enter the UNFCCC meeting,” it said, referring to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Relations between Beijing and Taipei have nosedived since Tsai Ing-wen was elected the island’s president last year. China believes she wants formal independence for Taiwan, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan’s democracy and security. Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Andrew H.C. Lee, told a news conference in Taipei the president believed climate change was an important issue and the island would endeavour to take part in international meetings to address it. In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China’s position was very clear. “On the matter of Taiwan participating in international events, China’s position is very clear; that is, it must comply with the One China principle,” Geng told reporters, without elaborating. Since 2009, when Taiwan announced its intention to participate in U.N. climate change meetings, the government has helped officials get credentials for talks as non-governmental observers to attend the international meeting. Taiwan participated last year with a lower-level delegation. Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, having lost the seat it held in China’s name in 1971 when the Communist government in Beijing assumed the position. Under the previous Taiwan administration of the China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou, Beijing permitted Taiwan to attend some U.N.-related events, including getting observer access at the annual U.N. World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva. This year, Taiwan was shut out of the health assembly, which the island also said was due to China’s coercion and threats. China has previously blamed Taiwan for its exclusion from international events, saying it is due to Taipei’s refusal to accept the “one China” principle. Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.


Chinese barber deftly wields straight razor to give customers eyelid shaves

Abstract: CHENGDU, CHINA - Chinese street barber Xiong Gaowu deftly scrapes a straight razor along the inside of his customer’s eyelid. “You should be gentle, very, very gentle,” said Xiong, who performs traditional eyelid shaves at his roadside location in Chengdu, the capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan. Customers swear by the practice of “blade wash eyes,” as it is known in Mandarin, saying they trust Xiong’s skill with the blade. “No, it’s not dangerous,” said 68-year-old Zhang Tian. “My eyes feel refreshed after shaving and I feel comfortable.” Xiong, 62, said he learned the technique in the 1980s and serves up to eight customers a week, charging 80 yuan ($12) per shave. “It was difficult at the beginning, but it became a piece of cake afterward,” he said. The technique appears to unblock moisturizing sebaceous glands along the rim of the eyelid, said Qu Chao, an opthalmologist who works at a nearby hospital in Chengdu. “Patients will feel their eyes are dry and uncomfortable when the glands are blocked,” she said. “When he is shaving, it is most likely that he is shaving the openings of these glands.” She said there is a risk of infection if the equipment is not sterilized. “If he can properly sterilize the tools that he uses, I can still see there is a space for this technique to survive,” Qu said. While customers insisted their eyes felt better after a shave, onlookers cringed at the sight of Xiong wielding his razor. “I am afraid to do it,” said He Yiting, 27, who winced as she watched.


'Crappiest apartments of 2017' hashtag bemuses Twitter users

Abstract: ALYSSA, I. SMITH - Anyone who’s been living in Japan for any length of time has probably seen their fair share of perplexing apartment layouts. Microscopic storage spaces, unfathomably low kitchen sinks and shared bathroom amenities immediately spring to mind. A hashtag that started trending on Twitter on Nov. 14 took this one step further, giving people an opportunity to share the year’s most ridiculous living spaces. The hashtag #クソ物件オブザイヤー2017 ( kuso bukken obu za iyā , which can loosely be translated as “crappiest apartments of the year”) had the internet in stitches as it added examples of head-scratching layouts, cramped living spaces and, naturally, awkward bathroom or toilet placements. Standout entries in this year’s list are as follows: • @ebiebieshrimp posted an image of a layout that boldly placed a toilet in the middle of the apartment . Not only is the toilet accessible by every room in the apartment through separate doors, it’s also the only route to enter the apartment from the genkan (entryway). The post garnered more than 18,000 retweets and 20,000 “likes.” It’s also worth noting that combined size of the entrance and shoebox was almost as large as either the dining/living space or the bedroom, with @m_and_ora saying, “More than the toilet, my eye goes straight to the genkan/shoebox that is too spacious .” #クソ物件オブザイヤー2017 全室トイレからアクセス可能。 pic.twitter.com/bOoh6kSNRC — 朱里＠海の底 (@ebiebieshrimp) November 14, 2017 • @otto_morgen posted an entry on Nov. 14 titled “The Conspicuous Bath Unit” . The post included photographs of a listing in which the bath unit is positioned in the middle of the apartment’s only room and is only accessible through the toilet. @otto_morgen’s accompanying comment notes: “The see-through bath is a favorite (design choice) for architects, but this apartment has a see-through unit bath in the middle of the room. The best part is a caption that accompanies the listing. The apartment is so strange that the only way even the realtor with a rich Osaka vocabulary [read: sense of humor] could describe it was with a one-liner: ‘It’s unique!'” The post received more than 10,000 retweets and close to 10,000 likes. Twitter user @SeriousMoonliGT admired the horror movie-esque starkness of the apartment, saying, “ It looks like a room from ‘The Fly’ or ‘Saw .'” • @Mrbr3R’s entry was another favorite, with the post showing a mind-boggling apartment layout with rooms nestled inside another like matryoshka dolls . However, astute Twitter users were quick to point out that the image is a hoax. @KurokoTail writes, “ Excuse me for barging in but … this is 100 percent a developer tool in Chrome ” and added a cute animal emoji. Still, the post attracted more than 11,000 likes. • @jdf825 doubted the credibility of a supposed rotenburo (outdoor bath) in an apartment in Nishi-Nippori . While such facilities certainly sound luxurious, a closer examination of the photo shows it’s really just a standard bathtub and shower unit on a balcony. Most Twitter users were concerned about how cold it would be in the winter. • Last, but not least, @Range1116 posted a listing of single long room that is 4½ tatami mats in space that has a toilet at the end furthest from the entryway. This apartment is listed at ¥96,000 per month.

apartments twitter humor architecture rent accommodation


Japan tourism group builds social media presence with new Instagram account

Abstract: The Japan National Tourism Organization is finally turning to Instagram to attract overseas travelers amid an unprecedented tourism boom. A late adopter of the popular social media app, the government-backed organization this week launched its official Instagram account called Visit Japan International . On the account, it’s asking users to post Japan-themed pictures with the hashtag #visitjapanjp . JNTO said it will post one picture a day from the hashtag entries. It will also participate in a hashtag campaign Instagram started this month called #UnknownJapan . The account will also feature images taken by photographers from Tokyo Camera Club, Japan’s largest curated online photo gallery. Government tourism agencies have long embraced social media to lure travelers. Tourism Australia, the Australian government’s tourism promotion arm, already has 2.7 million followers on Instagram. As of Wednesday afternoon, Visit Japan International’s Instagram account had around 1,400 followers. “Maybe we should have opened an account sooner, but Instagram has 800 million monthly active users and is still growing. I don’t think we’re too late,” a JNTO official said. JNTO has been expanding its digital presence as the nation sees a surge in inbound visitors thanks to a weaker yen and the easing of visa requirements. Last month JNTO launched a free multilingual smartphone app that allows users to look up destinations, restaurants and train routes as well as free Wi-Fi spots. Japan saw 13.4 million visitors in 2014, 19.7 million in 2015 and 24 million last year. JNTO said the number of international travelers to Japan reached a record 18.9 million in the first eight months of 2017. The arrivals in August reached 2.48 million, up 20.9 percent from the same month last year and marking an all-time high for the month. The government hopes to see the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan reach 40 million a year by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic Games. Diamond Rising. Photo by Hidetoshi Kikuchi. Visit Japan’s official account is now open! We will be delivering the beauty and highlights of Japan through fascinating photos and videos. Also, we will be sharing photos of Japan posted with “#visitjapanjp” and its location. We look forward to your participation! #Japan #Photo #travel #travelgram #traveling #japantrip #ilovejapan #explore Follow: @visitjapanjp A post shared by Visit Japan International (@visitjapanjp) on Oct 1, 2017 at 8:43pm PDT


Firms pitch part-time work-at-home as way to ease leave-takers' return to office life

Abstract: Michika Kato, 27, a mother of a 1-year-old boy, works for up to two hours on her computer at home while her baby is playing on his own or sleeping. Kato, who works at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. and is currently on maternity leave, can’t find a slot at day care for her son so she has no clue as to when she can return to work full time. The shortage of day care slots remains a serious problem, leaving many children on waiting lists. “It is a good opportunity to have a glimpse at how everyone in the office is doing,” Kato said. Kato is one of 10 Mitsui Sumitomo employees who work for a few hours at home during leave. The company started asking its employees on child care leave in April whether they are interested in helping out, such as by making sales brochures during busy periods. “It’s aimed at ensuring their smooth return to work but it also helps us with our work,” said a Mitsui Sumitomo official. More companies are offering similar schemes to help employees maintain their work skills while on leave to facilitate their return to work. Still experts warn that companies need to make sure they aren’t forcing them to work. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. also introduced a similar program in January. Satoko Watanabe, 30, used to spend an hour or so at home for data entry work before returning to work in April. “I didn’t feel pressured when I started the work. It helped me remember how I used to work,” Watanabe said. Both companies said the new scheme helps those on child care leave keep in touch with their supervisors and colleagues and make it easier for them to come back to work. The government provides the child care leave benefit equivalent to up to 67 percent of a worker’s monthly pay. Those wishing to work at home can do so as a temporary job for up to 80 hours a month. The pay from the temporary job is added to the benefit unless the total amount exceeds 80 percent of a worker’s monthly pay. The maximum period of child care leave was extended to two years from 18 months starting this month, given that more than 26,000 children are awaiting enrollment in day care facilities. Kimie Iwata, chairman of the Japan Institute for Women’s Empowerment and Diversity Management, said extending the leave period could make it difficult to return to work and providing a wider range of options for ways of working should help reduce the difficulty. Shingo Tsumura, a 37-year-old employee at a technology company, did a similar short-hour job for about two months from last December while he was on child care leave. It’s because there was work he wanted to tackle on his own. “It was tough. But I found it helpful because I wanted to continue with my project while taking care of my child,” Tsumura said. Yuri Tazawa, president of telecommuting consultancy Telework Management Inc., said short-hour work fills a gap in work style between full time work and being idle. But Tazawa also warned that the new work style should not be used as an excuse to force people on leave to work. “Based on employees’ requests, some (work) conditions, such as strict monitoring of their working hours to prevent overwork, are necessary,” Tazawa said.

mitsui sumitomo insurance
day care
sompo japan nipponkoa insurance


Britain caught in crossfire, says it will fight to protect jobs amid Boeing-Bombardier row

Abstract: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Britain, caught in the crossfire of a damaging trade dispute between plane makers Boeing and Bombardier, said on Sunday it would fight its corner to protect thousands of jobs put at risk in Northern Ireland. Trade minister Liam Fox said Britain was working to find a resolution after the United States last week responded to a complaint by Boeing by imposing a 220-percent preliminary duty on Bombardier’s CSeries jets, whose wings are made in Belfast. “We’ve said that we will fight our corner,” Fox told the annual Conservative Party conference. “We’ve been caught in the crossfire of a much larger dispute.” “It worries me that we’re seeing a rise in protectionist behavior … the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) itself has pointed out protectionism always ends badly. If we can get them to have a resolution, which is what we are trying to do quietly, so much the better.” The tariff, which will take effect only if the U.S. International Trade Commission backs Boeing in a final decision expected in 2018, has dealt a major blow to the Canadian company’s flagship project. It has also cast a huge shadow over Northern Ireland, where Bombardier is by far the most important manufacturer and a pillar of Belfast’s economy, employing 4,200 people and supporting thousands more in the supply chain. And it also undermines the assurances by Brexit campaigners such as Fox that free trade and London’s close ties with Washington will drive Britain’s prosperity and global influence after it leaves the European Union in 2019. James Brokenshire, the British minister for Northern Ireland, echoed Prime Minister Theresa May in saying that Boeing was not behaving in a way the British government would expect a long-term defense partner to behave. May and other senior ministers have been highly critical of Boeing, suggesting it could miss out on future defense contracts, after the row put into jeopardy the local economy in Northern Ireland, home to a small party that May relies on to govern in Westminster. “I say to Boeing this case is unjustified and unwarranted. This action is not what is expected of a long-term partner to the U.K. They need to get round the table and secure a negotiated outcome to this dispute quickly,” Brokenshire said. May has warned that Boeing was undermining its commercial relationship with Britain and has spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump on the issue. However, May is unlikely to retaliate against Boeing, which says the firm and its suppliers account for more than 18,700 jobs in the U.K. Fox implied the government was working behind the scenes to find a resolution. Northern Ireland is the poorest of the United Kingdom’s four parts and is mired in political difficulties after emerging from decades of armed sectarian conflict. Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, says it is upholding trade rules and not trying to damage the CSeries. It accuses Canada and Britain of unfairly subsidizing Bombardier and says Bombardier has illegally dumped its products in the U.S. single-aisle airplane market out of desperation. “The support that the U.K. provided to the Bombardier operation in Belfast was and remains compliant with international requirements,” Brokenshire said.

britain
boeing
bombardier
brexit
theresa may
donald trump
u.s. tariff


Three U.S. scientists awarded 2017 Nobel Prize for studies about body clocks

Abstract: STOCKHOLM - U.S. geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young have been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for shedding light on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living things. The team’s work revealed the role of genes in setting the “circadian clock” which regulates sleep and eating patterns, hormones and body temperature, the Nobel Assembly said Monday. “Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions.” All life on Earth is tuned to the rotation of our planet. Scientists have long known that living organisms, including humans, have an internal timekeeper that helps them anticipate and adapt to the rhythm of the day. Hall, 72, Rosbash, 73, and Young, 68, “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings,” the Nobel jury said. They identified genes that regulate the clock, and the mechanism by which light can synchronize it. Rosbash told Swedish Radio he was rattled when the committee’s call woke him from his sleep at 5:10 am. “I was called on the landline next to my bed which never rings unless someone has died or something of this magnitude happens,” he recounted. “I was restless, both literally and figuratively. My wife said: ‘Please start to breathe.’ “ The circadian clock is what causes jet lag — what happens when our internal clock and external environment move out of sync as we change time zones. It also regulates sleep, which is critical for normal brain function. Circadian dysfunction has been linked to depression, bipolar disorder, cognitive function, memory formation and some neurological diseases. Studies have indicated that a chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and circadian clock — irregular shift work for example — may be associated with an increased risk for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders and inflammation. Scientists are working hard on methods to alter the rhythm of errant clocks as a means to “improve human health,” said the Nobel team. Using the fruit fly as a model organism, this year’s laureates isolated a gene that controls the daily biological rhythm, called the period gene. “They showed that this gene encodes a protein that accumulates in the cell during the night and is then degraded during the day,” the Nobel team said. “Subsequently they identified additional protein components of this machinery, exposing the mechanism governing the self-sustaining clockwork inside the cell.” The trio will share the prize sum of 9 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million). “Just about every facet of our body changes predictably over the course of the day and night and these changes are driven by this internal timing mechanism,” said Michael Hastings of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. “Every dimension of our health, every dimension of our personality or reactions to medicines, our reactions to disease are variable and are on the very precise program set by this internal body clock.” The medicine prize is traditionally the first Nobel to be announced. On Tuesday, the physics prize laureates will be revealed, followed by those for chemistry on Wednesday. The literature prize will be announced Thursday, the peace prize on Friday, and the economics prize will wrap things up Oct. 9. There are no short lists for the prizes and the committees are tight-lipped ahead of the announcements, sparking rampant speculation. For the literature prize, the Swedish Academy is expected to turn the page on last year’s surprise choice of U.S. singer songwriter Bob Dylan, which divided the literary world. This year it is expected to go for a more conservative pick, with the same names recurring in the speculation as in previous years: Italy’s Claudio Magris, Kenya’s Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, Syrian poet Adonis, Philip Roth and Don DeLillo of the U.S., Israel’s Amos Oz and Haruki Murakami of Japan. A newcomer dominating the rumor mill is Chinese novelist Yan Lianke. As for the peace prize — the only Nobel to be awarded in Oslo — a total of 318 nominations have been submitted this year. Last year, it went to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to bring peace to a country ravaged by a half-century of conflict. Anti-nuclear efforts could take the prize this year, some have suggested. Tensions have escalated between Washington and Pyongyang after North Korea’s sixth nuclear test, and there is growing uncertainty over the Iran deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up. Two key orchestrators of that accord, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, are seen as strong contenders by the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, Henrik Urdal. Others believed to be on the list include Syria’s White Helmets rescue service, Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege, jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and Edward Snowden, who revealed the scope of America’s NSA electronic surveillance program.


New H7N9 bird flu strain in China has pandemic potential, U.S.-Japanese lab studies find

Abstract: CHICAGO - Lab experiments on a new strain of the H7N9 bird flu suggest the virus can pass easily among animals and can cause lethal disease, raising alarms that it has the potential to create a global human pandemic. The H7N9 virus has been circulating in China since 2013, causing severe disease in people exposed to infected poultry. Last year, human cases spiked, and the virus split into two distinct strains that are so different they no longer can be treated with existing vaccines. One of these has also become highly pathogenic, meaning it has gained the ability to kill birds, posing a threat to agriculture markets. U.S. and Japanese researchers studied a sample of this strain to see how well it spread among mammals, including ferrets, which are considered the best animal model for testing the transmissibility of influenza in humans. In the study, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues tested a version of the new H7N9 strain that was taken from a person who died from the infection last spring. They found that the virus replicated efficiently in mice, ferrets and nonhuman primates. It also caused even more severe disease in mice and ferrets than a low pathogenic version of the virus that does not cause illness in birds. To test transmissibility, the team placed healthy ferrets next to infected animals. The virus spread easily from cage to cage, suggesting that it can be transmitted by respiratory droplets such as those produced by coughing and sneezing. Two out of 3 healthy ferrets infected in this way died, which Kawaoka said is “extremely unusual” and suggests that even a small amount of virus can cause severe disease. “The work is very concerning in terms of the implications for what H7N9 might do in the days ahead in terms of human infection,” said Michael Osterholm, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota. Since 2013, the H7N9 bird flu virus has sickened at least 1,562 people in China and killed at least 612. Some 40 percent of people hospitalized with the virus die. In the first four epidemics, the virus showed few changes. But in the last flu season, there were 764 cases — double the previous level. “The whole world is worried about it,” Osterholm said. A new risk assessment tool from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks H7N9 as the leading animal flu strain with the potential of causing a human pandemic. The most recent global pandemic was the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak, which infected millions and killed more than 200,000 globally. Some researchers are concerned that the highly pathogenic strain could cause even more severe disease and higher death rates, but mortality from the low pathogenic strain is already “alarmingly high,” said Dr. Timothy Uyeki, a CDC flu expert. Existing H7N9 vaccines are based on the 2013 strain. The CDC has developed a new vaccine based on the low pathogenic strain of the mutated virus, Uyeki said. The low pathogenic strain accounted for most of the human infections last year. Uyeki believes the vaccine would likely also offer protection from the new highly pathogenic H7N9 strain, but it needs to be tested in people. In February, China gave the go ahead for clinical trials of H7N9 vaccines developed by state-owned Beijing Tiantan Biological. The company said in a filing that it was developing four vaccines against the H7N9 virus.

h7n9
bird flu
china
pandemic
poultry
ferrets
u.s .
japan