Importance of China trade not lost on Kansai leaders

Abstract: Judging by the frequent overheated rhetoric coming out of parts of the Japanese media, you’d think Japan and China were heading toward war. Of course, none of those now beating the drums for war will ever be drafted to fight. They are confident that, whatever happens, they’re part of the privileged class that will still be alive, and prospering, when the shooting is over. This is not to imply the warmongers are correct. However, given the rise in alarmist rhetoric of late, it’s clearer than ever that relations with China are far too important to be left to the likes of the Foreign and Defense ministries, let alone politicians or the media. For historical and cultural reasons, this is something Osaka understands. Anyone who deals with official Osaka will notice that the kind of crude, intense hatred toward China one finds in other parts of the country is often muted, or lacking entirely. Indeed, it’s more likely that opinions in Kansai on China and the Chinese people are more nuanced and subtle. Given China’s economic importance to the Kansai region as a whole, this is not surprising. It’s the destination of nearly a quarter of Kansai’s exports, and the source of nearly a third of its imports. One-third of Kansai International Airport’s 900-plus international flights this past summer went to China, whereas a mere 5 percent headed to the United States and Europe. Rule No. 1 in business is that you do not antagonize your best customers. Politically, local leaders have always had an “Asia first” policy, and you don’t get elected without the support of the China-centric, or at least Asia-centric, business community. Both the Kansai Economic Federation and the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives regularly send trade missions to all corners of China. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto have made numerous trips to China and hosted senior leaders at home. New Komeito, which is quite strong in Osaka, has long pushed for good relations with China. Liberal Democratic Party politicians and their supporters in the region are often silent or accent the positive aspects of China. There is not, it seems, much political advantage in being seen as rabidly anti-China. What this means is that, despite the media rhetoric, Kansai leaders remain committed to better relations through trade, negotiation and compromise. They usually avoid provocative political statements and actions, instead engaging in behind-the-scenes discussions among Japanese and Chinese business partners who can then pressure their political leaders to tone things down. Yes, Hashimoto may at times make insensitive remarks about historical issues. But, compared with the more extreme members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet, Hashimoto’s record shows he is not instinctively anti-China. Given that many of his supporters are upper-middle-class Japanese in their 30s and 40s who are frustrated with the old men who run the nation and look upon the success of young Chinese entrepreneurs with envy, this is hardly surprising. Is this “Osaka method” of China diplomacy doomed to failure, a victim of its own naivety, an amateur production of merchants who think that because they sell products to China they can run the Japan-China relationship better than the professional diplomats? Perhaps, but one needs to start somewhere. Many hope the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing this November will include a summit between Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping. APEC is a forum ostensibly about trade, the perfect pretext for a businesslike tete-a-tete between the two leaders that can be built upon by those in Osaka and elsewhere who would rather talk about the benefits of trade and investment than the possibility of conflict. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.

china
trade
kansai
ichiro matsui
toru hashimoto


Arab ambassadors say Japan's media covers region poorly

Abstract: Members of the Council of Arab Ambassadors in Tokyo said Monday they plan to help Japanese media give a more accurate picture of the region, with a special focus on life in the Arab world and on Arab nations’ exchanges with Japan. Japanese coverage of the region tends to focus negatively on recent political turmoil with insufficient analysis of the background leading up to it, said four of the council’s members during a visit to The Japan Times in Tokyo. They were Algerian Ambassador Sid Ali Ketrandji, Bahraini Ambassador Khalil Hassan, Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdul-Rahman Al-Otaibi and Ambassador Waleed A. Siam, representative of the Permanent General Mission of Palestine. They said long-standing friendly relations between Japan and Arabian countries give hope for increased collaboration with Japanese media, and they spoke of plans for a media seminar in March.


SDP's Takako Doi, first female leader of major political party in Japan, dies at 85

Abstract: Takako Doi, a former House of Representatives speaker and onetime head of the Social Democratic Party, died of pneumonia on Sept. 20, the SDP said Sunday. She was 85. Doi, who served as a Lower House member for 12 terms from 1969 to 2005, led the predecessor of the SDP from 1986 to 1991 as the first female leader of a major Japanese political party. She again took the helm of the party in 1996, when it renamed itself, and continued in the post until 2003. A constitutional scholar, Doi was regarded as one of the highest-profile female pioneers in the male-dominated field of Japanese politics. In the July 1989 House of Councilors election, she played a key role in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party losing its majority in the chamber, as her tough, straight-talking manner appealed to voters, especially women. In that vote, Doi spearheaded a campaign opposing the introduction of the unpopular consumption tax that year, at a rate of 3 percent. “The mountain has moved,” she said after the election, a phrase that would be widely circulated among the public and symbolize the emerging power of women in politics and the weakening of the LDP. “Ms. Doi has passed away. . . . (She) persuaded me to run (for a Diet seat) in 1998, and I decided to run to defend the Constitution,” Mizuho Fukushima, an Upper House member and former SDP chief herself, tweeted Sunday. “It’s really shocking, as if my mother in politics has died.” Doi graduated from Doshisha University’s Graduate School of Law and was the first woman to become speaker of the powerful House of Representatives, a position she served in from 1993 to 1996. In 1996, she again became head of her party, but resigned in 2003 to take responsibility for the its trouncing in that year’s general election. After failing to win a seat in the 2005 Lower House election, Doi retired from politics. The SDP, once the country’s most powerful opposition party, was a driving force behind social democratic and pacifist movements, but its fortunes have waned in recent years and it is now a minor opposition party with just a handful of Diet lawmakers.


Chilean officials say man died while handling bomb

Abstract: SANTIAGO - A man handling a bomb died when the device exploded in downtown Santiago on Thursday, officials said, adding to a string of blasts in Chile’s capital. Prosecutor Claudio Orellana said the unknown young man “had been manipulating a homemade explosive artefact, and in those circumstance, it blew up on him” at about 1 a.m. Witnesses posted online photos of the man in flames before he was taken to an emergency clinic where he died. Doctors at the clinic said the man was gravely injured as well as burned. He was not identified, but was believed to be about 30 years old. Officials say anarchist cells have planted some 200 bombs around Santiago over the past decade, and 30 so far this year. The only other fatality was also a man believed to be planting an explosive. President Michelle Bachelet, who was visiting the United Nations, described the bombings as “terrorist acts, but isolated.” The explosion comes two days after three alleged anarchists appeared in court and were ordered held on suspicion of planting at least four bombs, including one that injured 14 people at a shopping area near a subway stop this month. Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said that the design of new bomb appears to differ with that used in the subway blast.

chile
bomb
anarchist
fatality
michelle bachelet
terrorist


Mihama viewed as test case for Japan's aging nuclear reactors

Abstract: In recognition of Japan’s rapidly aging nuclear plants, Kansai Electric Power Co. has begun discussing the possibility of decommissioning the Mihama No. 1 and No. 2 reactors, now more than 40 years old, in Fukui Prefecture. While Kepco officials insist no decision has been made, scrapping them instead of applying for a two-decade extension could set a precedent for other prefectures where older plants that went online in the 1970s and early 1980s, like the ill-fated Fukushima No. 1 plant, now face more stringent safety regulations, posing huge expenditures for any utility interested in keeping them. The two Mihama reactors in question went into service in 1970 and 1972 and generate a combined 840,000 kw, a small amount compared with modern atomic units, which can generate over 1 million kw each. Japan’s maximum operating life span for a reactor stands at 40 years. After that, utilities can apply for a one-time, 20-year extension or commence a decommissioning process that can take up to three decades. It’s a tough choice, one that effects not only consumers, but also the municipalities hosting the plants and the utilities running them. Keeping reactors online beyond 40 years is expected to become extremely expensive. In addition to the basic costs of meeting the new safety standards that took effect last year, the places hosting them are sure to place additional demands on utilities and the central government — demands that will require further funding and negotiations that will further delay reactivation. In the case of the Mihama reactors, though, even if a 20-year extension were granted, it’s unclear whether the cost of running them would be recouped by the time the reactors reach the age of 60. If not, that means more red ink on Kepco’s bottom line, and pressure on the government to pass off the losses to the end users in the Kansai region. Time is running out to make a decision. Accordng to the government, any utilities wishing to continue running reactors past the 40-year threshold as of July 2016 will have to undergo an extra inspection, for which applications must be submitted by July 2015. Utilities that apply will have to calculate the financial and political costs over the next two decades. If they end up receiving state approval for an extension, they have to hope that the electricity from the reactors will generate enough revenue to cover all of the additional costs, both projected and unforeseen, without significantly denting their bottom line. Otherwise, they will have to start the dismantling process. Yet decommissioning also involves big money. Utilities estimate that scrapping a single reactor will cost at least ¥50 billion, assuming that all goes as planned. By 2016, all three of Kepco’s Mihama reactors, as well as two of its four reactors at the Takahama plant, also in Fukui Prefecture, will be over 40 years old. This means Kepco must choose whether to dismantle or try to extend the lives of five of its 11 operating reactors. On top of that, its No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Oi power station in Fukui will reach the 37-year mark in 2016, requiring another decision in the next couple of years. For its part, the government has said it will provide some form of financial support to the utilities if reactors become subject to decommissioning or fail safety inspections and remain shut down. “The utilities will decide whether to decommission individual reactors, but the government will support a smooth decommissioning process along with the restart of reactors whose safety has been guaranteed,” new economy, trade and industry minister Yuko Obuchi said earlier this month. Whatever decision Kepco arrives at, it will have a huge impact on Fukui Prefecture, where all 11 of the utility’s reactors are situated. Since the mid-1970s, Fukui has received around ¥400 billion in nuclear power-related subsidies from the central government. Of this, about ¥190 billion has gone directly to towns such as Mihama that rely on the money to build roads, bridges, dams and sewage systems as well as community centers and other social welfare facilities. Officials visiting the host municipalities for regular inspections by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, the industry’s new watchdog, as well as utility personnel, help fill local hotels, inns and restaurants, and support a variety of local service industries. Concerned about what a future without nuclear subsidies might mean, Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa met with Obuchi on Sept. 9, just days after she was appointed industry minister, and asked her for additional funding for a variety of infrastructure projects, as well as a guarantee that atomic-related funding would ensure that reactors are completely decommissioned and removed. “It’s up to the central government to explain how it will take responsibility for securing a storage facility for the spent fuel from decommissioned reactors, for building a disposal facility for their radioactive waste, for ensuring the physical safety of the area hosting the reactor, and for dealing with the industrial and economic effects of decommissioning,” Nishikawa said. While Fukui is concerned, others in Kansai who have long worried about the reactors, especially their age, greeted the news of possible decommissioning with relief. Aileen Mioko Smith of Kyoto-based Green Action, an anti-nuclear group, said tearing down the reactors would set a good precedent but added that it is critical to include local participation in the process. “Local communities should be given the opportunity to enter the decommissioning business rather than again become subcontractors to huge conglomerates,” she said, referring to the general contractors that built the plants.


Politicians discuss plan B in nuclear power push: underground reactors

Abstract: For more than four decades, the Kansai region has relied on Fukui Prefecture’s nuclear power plants, including 11 operated by Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco), to keep the region powered up. But now that a growing number of plants are nearing or have reached the end of their 40-year life cycle, the question is: What’s next? While most of the discussion is focused on whether to continue running or decommission them, there is an interesting — to be polite — school of thought among certain politicians that says they should be replaced with underground reactors. Don’t laugh (or cry). The idea has intrigued some very influential people, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He, along with several other prominent politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), formed a Diet group in May 2011 to study the issues involved. One of the most ardent backers is LDP Lower House member Taku Yamamoto. He represents Fukui Prefecture’s second district, where several towns host nuclear power plants. His wife, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi, has also participated in the Diet group on underground reactors. “The accident at Fukushima No. 1 wouldn’t have occurred if the plant had been underground,” Yamamoto told a press conference in June 2011. “Even if we suppose it had occurred, the damage would have been minimal. Natural energy is ideal, but we can’t guarantee sufficient electricity generation with it using today’s technologies,” he continued. “In order to maintain Japan’s international competitiveness, underground nuclear reactors are necessary.” Aside from the obvious questions — such as “Are these people crazy?” and “Who are the contractors specializing in underground construction that are funding them?” — lies the question of whether the idea is even remotely realistic. Technologically, the answer seems to be yes. In an interview with The Associated Press in April, William Magwood, new head of the Paris-based Nuclear Energy Agency, an intergovernmental entity organized under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, suggested using small underground reactors to produce fractional amounts of electricity at a much cheaper cost. In the United States, the Energy Department has spent $450 million trying to convince U.S. firms to develop small underground reactors, and the idea even has the support of people like Microsoft founder Bill Gates. But concerns about funding, regulation and fears of nuclear proliferation have all slowed the effort. All of these issues, and more, apply to Japan, and the conventional wisdom might be that the idea is far too bizarre to be taken seriously. But given the interest in the Diet, the fact that many important people in Fukui and Kepco want to keep nuclear-related subsidies flowing, and given that other prefectures with aging plants are also worried about the future, underground nuclear power plants might just become one of those crazy ideas that find enough influential backing to become reality. What could possibly go wrong?

underground reactor
kansai electric
kepco
taku yamamoto
sanae takaichi
nuclear energy
internal affairs ministry


Three Chiba cities will store radioactive waste if state fails to build final disposal site, NHK says

Abstract: Three cities in Chiba Prefecture that were heavily contaminated with radioactive materials as a result of the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant will build facilities to store incinerated radioactive waste in their own municipalities if the central government fails to find a final waste disposal site, NHK reported Monday. The Chiba Prefectural Government is now temporarily in charge of “designated waste” — incinerated ash and other kinds of waste that contain more than 8,000 becquerels of radioactive materials per 1 kg — produced by the cities of Kashiwa, Matsudo and Nagareyama in northwestern Chiba. The three cities have produced a total of 526 tons of such waste, according to NHK. While the central government is supposed to build final disposal facilities for designated nuclear waste, the prefectural government is also asking the three cities to bring the waste back to their own municipalities and dispose of it on their own, if the central government fails to build a disposal facility by next March, the broadcaster reported. The three cities have agreed to the prefectural government’s request. The city of Kashiwa plans to submit a ¥410 million budget request to the municipal assembly this month in order to build a waste storage plant and transport the waste there, NHK said.

chiba
radioactive waste
fukushima no . 1
kashiwa
matsudo
nagareyama


Japan guns now bear on Kiaochou; German Army enters Poland; Olympic Village opens; agency seeks funds to compile Emperor's annals

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 13, 1914 Japanese guns now bear on Kiaochou The officers and men of the warships, engaged in the naval blockade of Tsingtao have suffered great hardships struggling with the heaviest of seas since Sept. 8. To make matters worse, there is no natural shelter for the ships near the zone of the blockade, so that they have to be kept at a fixed point and held steadily to windward to avoid being caught by the strong gales from either side. The destroyers are engaged in their blockade duty amid intense difficulties, seeming to an untrained eye to be almost at the mercy of the angry waters. It is all the more satisfactory, therefore, to record that not one of the vessels has suffered any damage to speak of. The seas have been swept of mines to within 10,000 meters of Kiaochou (Jiaozhou) Bay, so that the bay is within range of the Japanese guns, the Tokyo Mainichi reports. The Siege of Tsingtao, in which Japan and Britain attacked the German-leased territory of Kiaochou Bay, marked Japan’s entry into World War I. The Japanese and British forces prevailed on Nov. 7, 1914. 75 YEARS AGO Sunday, Sept. 3, 1939 German Army enters Poland, controls air The General Headquarters of the German Army at 5:45 p.m. today announced that German troops from East Prussia had advanced deep into Poland, while the Reich air force is in complete mastery of the air. The advance of German troops in Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia is proceeding according to all expectations, the communique said. Troops entering Poland through Silesia are advancing near Czestochowa, approximately 20 miles (32 km) from the border, while German units are nearing Nake, on the Nteze River, 80 miles inside the frontier. Heavy fighting is going on near Graudenz, while forces advancing from East Prussia are fighting far into Polish territory, the communique stated. Meanwhile the German air force has bombed and destroyed numerous airports. With normal transportation at a standstill and the streets empty of people, complete darkness reigned over Berlin tonight as protection against surprise foreign bombings. Officials of the German Air Raids Precautions, while issuing instructions in the event of bombings, announced that all those who failed to obey instructions would be arrested. The Ministerial Council for Defense tonight issued its first decree prohibiting the population from listening to foreign news broadcasts under penalty of hard labor. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Sept. 16, 1964 Olympic Village opens ahead of 1964 Games The main Olympic Village in Yoyogi and four branch villages opened Tuesday morning. About 1,300 Japanese and foreign Olympic officials, athletes and interpreters were present at the official opening of the main village. The Olympic fanfare was sounded under the flags of the 98 nations taking part in the games, which will commence next month. Speeches were given by Daigoro Yasukawa, secretary-general of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee; Ichiro Kono, state minister in charge of Olympic affairs and others. Seven helicopters loaded with photographers droned overhead during the ceremony, often drowning out the speakers. Among those attending the ceremony were 51 foreign Olympic delegates, who were the first to enter the 66-hectare main village. Eventually, some 8,000 foreign and Japanese Olympic athletes and officials will live there for the games. The main village, which had been occupied by the U.S. Forces in Japan as one of their housing areas (Washington Heights) for 17 years until last December, is only a stone’s throw from the Olympic Indoor Stadium and about 2 km from the main stadium in Yoyogi. The village will remain open until Nov. 5. After the opening ceremony, participants had an “Olympic lunch” at the village’s Fuji Dining Hall to get a taste of what Olympic athletes will eat during the games. At noon, the Olympic Milk and Ice Cream Bar was formally opened at the village. The first Olympic Milk and Ice Cream Bar was established at Squaw Valley during the 1960 winter Olympic Games. Simultaneously with the Olympic Village opening, the Metropolitan Police Department opened its special Olympic security headquarters within the MPD office Thursday morning. During the 52-day period the village is open, the MPD will mobilize an average of 5,000 policemen for security and traffic control for the Olympics. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 1, 1989 Agency seeks funds to compile Imperial annals The Imperial Household Agency will request nearly ¥47 million in fiscal 1990 to start compiling the official biographical record for Emperor Hirohito (known posthumously as Emperor Showa). Officials said the official biographical record will take 16 years and will be completed in 2005. The record will consist of 18 volumes and will cover all 87 years of his life. Emperor Showa reigned for 62 years until January 1989. Ten officials of the Compiling Division of the agency’s Archives and Mausolea Department will interview people who were close to Emperor Showa and use various documents in the possession of the agency to write the record. Compilation work for the official record of Emperor Meiji, who reigned 45 years from 1867 to 1912, started in 1915 and ended in 1933. The 13-volume record was published in 1967. The first eight years in the project will be spent gathering former chamberlains’ diaries, court physicians’ medical records and the records of Emperor Showa’s travels. The next five will be dedicated to writing the record and the following three years to editing and revisions. After two extensions, the annals were completed this year and are due for disclosure in September.

poland
tsingtao
tokyo olympics
emperor hirohito
germany
world war ii
imperial family
world war i


Obama: No nation gets 'free pass' on climate change

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS - In a forceful appeal for international cooperation on limiting carbon pollution, President Barack Obama warned starkly on Tuesday that the globe’s climate is changing faster than efforts to address it. “Nobody gets a pass,” he declared. “We have to raise our collective ambition.” Speaking at a United Nations summit, Obama said the United States is doing its part and that it will meet its goal to cut carbon pollution 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. He also announced modest new U.S. commitments to address climate change overseas. The summit aims to galvanize support for a global climate treaty to be finalized next year. But Obama’s strongest comments came as he sought to unify the international conclave behind actions to reduce global warming. “The alarm bells keep ringing, our citizens keep marching,” he said. “We can’t pretend we can’t hear them. We need to answer the call. We need to cut carbon emission in our countries to prevent worse effects, adapt and work together as global community to tackle this global threat before it is too late.” He said the U.S. and China as the largest polluters have a responsibility to lead. But, Obama added, “No nation can meet this global threat alone.” More than 120 world leaders gathered on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to organize support for a global climate treaty to be finalized next year in Paris. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the summit’s host, asked representatives of nations to come to New York with specific pledges in hand to mitigate climate change, as a way to show they’re serious about ambitious emissions reductions in the treaty. Obama’s goals at the summit: to convince other nations that the U.S. is doing its part to curb greenhouse gases, and make the case that other major polluters should step up, too. “It’s very clear to the international community that the president is extending considerable political capital at home in order to implement his climate plan, and that’s true,” said Nigel Purvis, a U.S. climate negotiator in the administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. “The hope is that when we take action, others will do so as well.” Some of the tools the U.S. will offer developing nations were developed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey and are intended to help communities use data modeling, forecasting and science to anticipate the effects of climate change and make decisions about the best way to deal with it. Secretary of State John Kerry also announced that the U.S. would contribute $15 million to a World Bank program designed to stimulate funding for projects that reduce methane pollution. But the commitments were modest compared to what some had hoped the U.S. would put forth to show its commitment. By midmorning, other nations attending the summit had pledged at least $5 billion to help the world become more sustainable. And the development organization Oxfam argued that the U.S. Agency for International Development already incorporates climate change resiliency in its programs. The one-day climate summit isn’t formally part of the ongoing negotiations toward the climate treaty, which leaders hope will be more muscular than a lackluster agreement reached in Copenhagen in 2009. The idea is that by involving heads of state early, rather than leaving it to negotiators until the very end, prospects will improve for reaching a strong deal. In another attempt to increase political pressure on leaders to take action, tens of thousands of activists, including prominent actors and former Vice President Al Gore, demonstrated in New York on Sunday.

climate
pollution
barack obama
emissions
u.n .
environment


Banker nabbed looking up girl's skirt with mirror in store

Abstract: TSU, MIE PREF. - A banker was arrested Sunday for allegedly looking up the skirt of a female high school student at a bookstore in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, police said. Hisashi Zenke, a 47-year-old employee of Mizuho Bank, is suspected of using a hand mirror to look inside the girl’s skirt from behind while she was browsing at around 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police said. A guard at the bookstore noticed the man’s suspicious act and reported to police. Zenke was caught red-handed, they said.


Tokyo's storied Nihonbashi raises profile to promote historical role

Abstract: The Nihonbashi district prospered as Japan’s financial and trade center after shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu moved the capital to Edo, the old name for Tokyo, in the early 17th century. Its geographical advantage contributed to fast-track development. Nihonbashi was the starting point of five major roads at the time, which linked the new capital to outlying regions beyond the Kanto plain, allowing the district to thrive as businesses built footholds in the area. Now that more than 400 years have passed, Nihonbashi is trying to maintain its relevance by making efforts to transform the old merchant center into a place where tourists can learn about Japanese culture and traditions. Coredo Muromachi, a shopping complex that opened this spring near Mitsukoshimae subway station, showcases outlets of long-established stores that market local delicacies and other merchandise from around the nation. The complex has foreign staff on standby to assist foreign tourists. On July 19, two of the guides, Alia Carter, a 26-year-old American, and Spaniard Paloma Free, 28, helped foreign tourists while dressed in traditional kimono. Carter is working after finishing her JET program, and Free is attending Japanese school. Three other foreigners are part of the team. Two of the visitors that day were Terrie Wright Chrones, a 62-year-old food writer, and English teacher Charles Robert Hixon III, 61, both from the United States. Both are fans of Japanese cuisine. After a 90-minute tour of the complex, each said the guides’ detailed explanations helped them better understand Japanese culture and get a feel for “omotenashi,” Japan’s brand of customer hospitality. The English tours of Coredo Muromachi start at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturdays, cost ¥1,000 and last about 90 minutes. Souvenirs are included. For more information, call 03-3242-0010 or email guide@nihonbashi-info.jp.

nihonbashi
japanese culture
coredo muromachi
foreign tourists
tourism


Emperor, councilors weigh war declaration; simplified Japanese created for foreigners; Russian musicians defect; foreigners' office hears thousands of problems

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Sunday, Aug. 16 1914 Emperor, councilors weigh war declaration The Emperor of Japan, his councilors and his Ministers met yesterday in the Grand Council Chamber of the Palace to consider the most momentous question such august councils are ever called upon to decide. For the third time in the history of Japan, the discussion turned upon whether Japan should declare herself in a state of war or whether further effort should be made to find some honorable way to avoid it. For the last week, Dame Rumor has had the stage to herself. In official circles something more than what is commonly called a discreet silence has been maintained. The newspapers have openly stated that “on good authority it is said that Japan is going to declare war upon Germany,” but no confirmation or denial of those statements has been forthcoming. The grand council went into session at four o’clock, with the Emperor himself presiding. It adjourned around six o’clock. The faces of those who came and went were grave, but beyond this there was no indication that Japan is on the eve of a declaration of war. Japan officially entered World War I on Aug. 23, when it declared war on Germany, citing its commitments to Britain as set out in the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Aug. 4, 1939 Simplified Japanese created for foreigners A system of basic Japanese, employing 1,776 words, was recently evolved by linguistic experts at the National Language Society, enabling foreigners to learn the tongue with more ease. Almost anything can be expressed by the new system, though complicated matters have to be put in a roundabout way because of the limited vocabulary. Yoshimi Ishiguro, an Esperantist who is on the Basic Japanese Committee of the National Language Society, rewrote Kan Kikuchi’s famous play “Father Returns” using just 1,700 words. Dictionaries and other books are being edited under the new system by the linguistic society. Mr. Ishiguro considers it more advisable to send abroad books written in basic Japanese than translations in English or other European languages. Because the system is easy to learn for foreigners, books in basic will serve to popularize Japanese abroad as well as to acquaint the foreigners with things Japanese more directly than through translations. The Basic Japanese Committee was organized in March last year with the assistance of the Education Ministry. The 1,776 words were selected after a careful survey of words used in magazine, newspaper articles and books. The committee held discussions to select most representative words from groups of synonyms. 50 YEARS AGO Sunday, Aug. 16, 1964 Russians defect, seek help at U.S. Embassy Two Soviet musicians, missing since Friday, defected Saturday and asked the U.S. Embassy for help in seeking asylum. The two Russians, members of the Bolshoi Variety Troupe now touring Japan, were reported inside the U.S. Embassy, but an embassy spokesman would neither confirm nor deny this. Nathaniel Thayer, embassy press attache, said in a statement late Saturday night: “Two Soviet citizens, Igor Berucshtis and Boris Midney, have informed the officers of the American Embassy they do not wish to return to the Soviet Union and desire to seek refuge elsewhere.” Soviet Embassy officials went to the U.S. Embassy at about 8:30 p.m., Kyodo News Service reported, but neither embassy would comment on any conference that took place. This was the second defection involving a Soviet citizen in Japan since the end of World War II. In 1954, Yuri Rastvorov, considered the chief spy at the Soviet Embassy, sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy and was taken out of Japan secretly, which caused an uproar here. The U.S. later offered apologies. The two men were reported missing early Saturday morning by the Cultural Exchange Association, the private organization sponsoring the Bolshoi Variety’s tour here, to the Takanawa Police Station. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department identified the two men as Igor Berecshtis, 31, contrabassist, and Boris Midney, 28, drummer. There was no known reason for the defection. The men were granted asylum and issued travel documents with which they left Japan, bound for Europe, on Aug. 16, 1964. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Aug. 1, 1989 Foreigners’ office hears thousands of problems The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s foreign residents’ advisory center received a total of 2,173 inquiries in the year since it was set up in July 1988. By the end of June, foreigners from 56 countries had come to the center with their problems. Among the foreigners who sought advice from the center by telephone, mail or visit, 537 were Americans, 172 were Chinese and 95 were Canadians. The center also handled the inquiries of 148 Japanese who had problems with foreign residents. Common inquiries brought to the center concerned immigration regulations, job contracts, driver’s licenses, the tax system, housing regulations, Japanese-language schools, and marriage and divorce, according to a spokesman for the center. Sachiko Yamamoto, an English-language advisor, said language-school teachers are prone to encounter problems involving job contracts because “many of them make contracts carelessly and assert many rights once a problem occurs.” “They should accept the Japanese way of giving in and not asserting their rights all the time. Otherwise, it makes the matter worse,” she said.

defections
world war i
immigration
tax
marriage
divorce
russia
japanese language


How much do you know about dengue fever?

Abstract: The health ministry has confirmed the first domestic dengue fever case in Japan in nearly 70 years. A Saitama Prefecture teen girl was found Wednesday to have contracted the virus through a mosquito in Japan, followed by news that two more people — a man and a woman in Tokyo — have also been infected. More than 200 dengue cases are reported in Japan each year, but those are of patients who contracted dengue virus abroad. The World Health Organization estimates the number of infections across the globe to be 50 million to 100 million per year. While the news has led to widespread fears that a pandemic outbreak might have arrived, experts are quick to deny such a scenario, while offering some advice on what measures people can take to minimize their exposure. Following are some basic questions and answers regarding the infectious disease and measures that can be taken to prevent infection. What is dengue fever and what causes it? Dengue fever is a tropical viral disease, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever or break-bone fever, which is caused by dengue virus. It is said that dengue fever can be caused by any of the four closely related types of dengue virus: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. So far, it is not clear which of the four types that the three latest patients in Japan contracted, though the three probably came down with the same virus type, according to Koichi Morita, professor of virology at the Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine. While its origin remains unclear, the disease was named “dengue” as early as in 1801, according to Scitable, an online science education portal run by the Nature Publishing Group. The word dengue is Spanish for “affectation,” “careful,” or “fastidious,” and was probably used to describe the cautious, stiff movements of patients suffering from the muscle, bone and joint pains, Scitable said. How is the virus transmitted? Dengue viruses are carried and transmitted to humans by several species of female mosquitoes. The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical climates, is deemed the primary vector of dengue. It can be transmitted by Aedes albopictus, also called the Asian tiger mosquito, which is prevalent in Japan. Although the viruses cannot be transmitted directly from humans, transmission is possible through the bite of an infected mosquito. What are the symptoms? The main symptoms observed in patients diagnosed with dengue fever are high fever, joint and muscle pain and rash. They can be accompanied by headache, weakness, nausea, vomiting and bleeding. The incubation period ranges from two or three days to two weeks, but in most cases symptoms develop within a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Because the symptoms are often confused with those caused by influenza or other viral infections, milder symptoms in patients can go unnoticed, Morita said. A 46-year-old woman from Tokyo, who was diagnosed with dengue fever about 20 years ago upon returning from a trip to Thailand, said it is vital for people who travel abroad not to neglect symptoms and, upon their return, to undergo quarantine checks at the airport in Japan if they are feeling sick. Because she waited until she came back to Japan to see a doctor, she said she suffered from severe symptoms and needed to receive a blood transfusion. She said she now regrets not visiting a doctor in Thailand while she was there. What treatments exist? Currently no vaccines or effective drugs exist, and most patients are only given drugs to lower their fever. Morita said, however, the recovery from infection by one of the virus’ serotypes provides lifelong immunity against that particular serotype. If patients are left unattended, they could later develop more severe symptoms, such as internal bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage. What are the measures to prevent from infection? Given the significant increase in dengue infections worldwide plus the number of imported cases, Morita emphasized the importance of defending against dengue-carrying mosquitoes on an individual basis. Because transmission is likely in all areas of the country, it is important to protect one’s skin with long-sleeved shirts and full length pants, or by using insect repellent.

dengue fever
dengue virus
world health organization
infectious diseases


What kind of life could live in the clouds?

Abstract: Do you remember seeing clouds from an airplane for the first time? Even if that first time was as an adult, you were probably struck by the appearance of solidity. Seen from above, a cloudscape looks like a landscape — it looks like a place where things might live. At school we learn that clouds aren’t solid: They are just made of water vapor. And when the amount of water in a cloud reaches a certain point, it becomes too heavy to stay suspended in the air, and falls down: It rains. The process, we are told, is a physical one. Condensation, cooling, saturation, precipitation. How thrilling, then, to learn that the world is a more complicated place. To a whole range of organisms, clouds are places to live. To microbes, clouds are not just landscapes: They are ecosystems. Even more than that, precipitation — the act of rain and snow falling out of the sky — seems to be biological. Rain, you could say, is bacteria’s way of getting out of the sky. Kim Prather at the University of California, San Diego, studies these aerial ecosystems. She and her team fly in special research planes over the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States. You may have seen biologists chasing butterflies and dragonflies with insect nets; what Prather is doing is the equivalent in a cloud. Her team takes samples of clouds and analyzes the content. “We’re seeing lots of biological components such as bacteria and molecules associated with microbial life,” she says. It’s not the first time microbes have been found to be present in the atmosphere. A few years ago I interviewed Brent Christner of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He had collected fresh snow from diverse locations in the United States, France and Antarctica, and in all samples he found evidence that bacteria were not only present, but that they had been influential in actually causing the snow to fall in the first place. How on Earth can that be? Rain falls when something “seeds” the development of ice crystals in a cloud. Tiny particles cause ice to form and grow, and eventually it will fall. If it warms up enough as it falls, it will be rain. Sometimes ice crystals themselves are the catalyst for growth, and sometimes ice grows around tiny particles of dust. Prather’s group is directly sampling from the clouds over the Pacific to find out more details. Last week she presented her work at the American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco. Her starting point is the understanding that the atmosphere is chock-full of dust and other particles, and that bacteria, algae and fungi live there too. Understanding the exact chemical makeup of the dust and the biological molecules on it helps understand and predict how rain and snow fall from clouds. How, when and how much — crucial information for farmers, and for us all. “The standard belief is the more ice you have in a cloud, the more likely you will get precipitation out of it,” Prather says. “Our goal is to catch the first stages of ice forming and find out what exactly the chemical constituents are that the ice is forming on.” What they have found is that the ice crystals have biological markers. They have proteins that can’t be derived from dust particles in the air, but that are signatures of bacterial life in the atmosphere. “We’ve learned that not all of the particles in the air at high altitudes have the same influence on clouds. We’re starting to think that these differences contribute to how rain gets distributed,” says Prather. Most of the dust that Prather’s team detects in clouds and precipitation originates in deserts in Asia. It gets swept westward by the jet stream, where it mixes with other airborne particles, including smoke and spray from the sea. Prather says that each of these types of particles — collectively known as aerosols — has its own, distinctive impact on clouds. But living on the particles are varieties of microbes. The microbes make proteins, which lace water molecules together. The water forms a pattern similar to an ice crystal’s lattice, which encourages ice to form. Ice crystals then grow in the normal way, and rain — or snow — falls. A long-term goal of Prather’s research is to improve cloud-seeding technology. This was most publicly used just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to ensure clear skies for the opening ceremony. But the techniques are not always reliable. “Mother Nature has developed very effective ways to seed clouds, so perhaps we could take some tips from her,” says Prather. Evidence, if any more was needed, of the extraordinary power of natural selection. All organisms need to be able to disperse and find new areas to live. After staying alive and reproducing, dispersal is the third most important item on any organism’s to-do list. It seems a range of organisms have found a way to manipulate weather systems to help them do that. There are occasionally reports of masses of frogs raining out of the sky, or of fish falling in the desert. In Kerala, in southern India, there was an infamous occurrence of red rain, which had some people speculating that alien life forms had rained down from space when a meteor exploded in the atmosphere. It turned out to be red algae that had been swept into the air after a storm, just like when frogs and fish are swept up on freak air currents. But the finding that there are organisms that live for at least part of their life cycle in the atmosphere — that is as wonderful as stories about magical creatures that live in the clouds, and all the more impressive for being true.

ecosystems
weather
environment
cloud seeding


Kepco: the monstrous 500-pound gorilla of Kansai

Abstract: Last month, Chimori Naito, a 91-year-old former vice president at Kansai Electric Power Co., admitted what was hardly a secret but which put the utility under intense media scrutiny. Naito said in a series of interviews with the Asahi Shimbun that he supervised under-the-table cash payments to seven prime ministers and key politicians in the ruling and opposition parties between 1972 and 1990 to ensure favorable policies, especially nuclear power policies. Naito guessed Kepco’s annual payoffs were in the hundreds of millions of yen. Kepco got its money’s worth. Prior to March 11, 2011, Japan relied on nuclear power for about a third of its electricity needs. But half of Kepco-supplied electricity came from nuclear power. Fukui Prefecture became home to 11 Kepco reactors, the largest concentration in the country and, perhaps, the world. And it was Kepco’s two Oi reactors that were switched back on in the summer of 2012 despite massive public opposition. In terms of local economic presence, Kepco is the 500-pound gorilla. The company employs more than 22,000 people directly (and, indirectly, thousands more), has nearly 40 affiliated firms, and owns shares in about a dozen local public-relations facilities. These often take the form of “educational museums” that promote nuclear power. It also has small investments in Kansai-area television and radio stations. All of this makes Kepco similar to Japan’s other utilities. But over the past two decades, as other Kansai firms moved to Tokyo or overseas, Kepco has consolidated its power and influence over regional politics and policymaking to a degree unprecedented elsewhere, and in ways not always obvious to outsiders or Kansai residents. Senior Kepco officials serve as top representatives of hugely influential organizations such as the Kansai Economic Federation, which draws up regional political and economic strategies, and serves as a de facto political lobbying group in Tokyo. A Kepco chairman has led the federation for 27 of its 68 years, and Shosuke Mori, Kepco’s current chairman, presently heads it. Many of Kansai’s failed public works projects funded by Osaka were strongly backed by the federation. In addition, why was the barely used second runway at Kansai airport constructed despite criticism it was a waste of public funds? You can thank a local airport promotion group headed by Kepco’s chairman. Given that Kepco has long provided direct election support, in the form of company “volunteers,” to local LDP candidates, the fact Kepco-favored plans usually become reality is hardly surprising. Ideas promoted by Kepco-led organizations have several common traits. First, they tend to result in massive physical structures (buildings, transportation systems) that, obviously, require Kepco-generated electricity to run and maintain — nuclear-generated electricity, of course, not renewables. Second, they are often based on the “Kepco School of Management,” a mixture of top-down, centralized planning among a select few men over the age of 60 who decide what’s best for the local economy — and for themselves. The result of this Kepco-influenced Kansai economy since the mid-1990s has largely been one of stagnation, an accelerated shift to Tokyo of local money and talent, and a sense the gap between Kansai and other regions in East Asia in particular is growing. This is a major reason why Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto hates Kepco and publicly criticizes it. But Kansai’s 500-pound gorilla remains as strong as ever, and despite the recent media attention, looks set to remain so for years to come. Which makes one wonder: Will we be reading, in 30 years, about how some Kepco official paid off Liberal Democratic Party officials to help ensure the return of Shinzo Abe and the LDP? View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.


Glimpses of Ryogoku, Japan's sumo wrestling mecca

Abstract: Home to the Kokugikan sumo stadium, Tokyo’s Ryogoku district in Sumida Ward has long been known as the mecca of the sport. Around the stadium, where three of the six national tournaments are held every year, are stables where rookie and veteran wrestlers alike engage in rigorous daily practice. The area’s history as a tournament venue dates back to 1833, when the nearby Eko-in Temple hosted one to help raise funds for a public construction project. Nearly 200 years on, the traditional ambience still permeates the district. In addition to Kokugikan, tourists flock to the Edo-Tokyo Museum, which has recently seen a jump in foreign visitors interested in the capital’s history. Volunteer guides at the museum help explain its displays in English, German, Spanish and Chinese.

ryogoku
sumo
kokugikan
tourism
edo tokyo museum


Ex-Myanmar beauty queen accused of stealing crown

Abstract: YANGON - A Myanmar beauty queen who was stripped of her title for allegedly being rude and dishonest has run off with the $100,000 jeweled crown, a South Korea-based pageant said Friday. Myanmar, which only recently emerged from a half century of military rule and self-imposed isolation, started sending contestants to international beauty pageants for the first time in decades in 2012. May Myat Noe was crowned Miss Asia Pacific World in Seoul in May 2014. But, according to David Kim, director of media for the Seoul-based pageant, the 18-year-old was a disappointment from the start. Attempts to reach May Myat Noe for comment were unsuccessful Friday and her Myanmar phone was switched off. According to the online edition of Eleven Media, a Myanmar newspaper, she was back in the country and would address a news conference soon, although it wasn’t clear when. Following her success, the organizers said they were arranging singing and video deals for her. But they also wanted to change the looks of the 5’7″ (170-cm) teen, Kim said. “We thought she should be more beautiful . . . so as soon as she arrived we sent her to the hospital to operate on her breasts,” he said. “It’s our responsibility,” he said, adding that sponsors picked up the $10,000 tab, as they have for past winners. “If she has no good nose, then maybe, if she likes, we can operate on her nose. If it’s breasts, then breasts.” Kim said that the troubles started from there. The beauty queen brought her mother with her to Seoul for what was supposed to be a 10-day visit, but that quickly turned into three months, incurring extra costs for the organizers, he said. She “lied” and “never had respect for the main organization, the national director, the manager, media or fans who made her the winner,” organizers said in a statement. May Myat Noe was notified earlier this week that she would have to give up her title and the crown, Kim said. She was also given an airplane ticket back to Yangon, but never showed up, with Eleven Media reporting that she got on an earlier flight. Kim said she absconded with the bejeweled Swarovski tiara — valued anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000. “Everyone knows she is no longer the queen, but she thinks as long as she keeps this crown she’s the winner,” he said. “She’s not.”


In India, rice replaces ice in charity bucket challenge

Abstract: NEW DELHI - The famous “ice bucket” challenge is inspiring thousands of Indians to follow suit, but with a twist- they are replacing ice with rice in a bid to help the country’s vast population of poor, hungry people. The challenge, going viral on social media, involves donating a bucket of rice to someone in need and clicking a picture to share online, with a tag #RiceBucketChallenge, to raise awareness. Started by 38-year-old journalist Manju Latha Kalanidhi in the southern city of Hyderabad, the movement’s Facebook page ( on.fb.me/1tASxph ) defines it as a “local challenge for local needs” and has clocked more than 52,000 ‘likes’ so far. The inspiration was drawn from the “ice bucket” challenge, in which people pour a bucket of ice-cold water over their heads to encourage donations for research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease. Celebrities such as software tycoon Bill Gates and tennis great Roger Federer have participated. “I felt (the ice bucket challenge) was a little bizarre … hunger is a disease anybody would connect with,” Kalanidhi told Reuters. Kalanidhi’s project has started to draw mass support. Students of the Indian Institute of Management in the southern state of Kerala posted a video ( bit.ly/1pp3uer ) after donating rice, while budget airline AirAsia India said its chief executive and senior management will participate on Monday. Mass hunger, much of it poverty-induced, continues to haunt India. The country last year ranked 63rd on a list of 78 countries tracked by the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index. China ranked sixth. Tackling poverty is high on new Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda. On Thursday, he launched a banking-for-all scheme that he said should end “financial untouchability” and help lift people out of poverty. India is the world’s second-biggest rice consumer, with reserves of 21.2 million tons of the grain by July 1. It was the world’s biggest rice exporter last year.


Osaka merger drags on Hashimoto's return to Nagatacho

Abstract: OSAKA - Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto may be moving forward with plans to once again become a notable player in Nagatacho by tying up with Yui no To (Unity Party). But back in Osaka, he, and his local political group Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), the largest party, find themselves unable to make headway on the very reason for Hashimoto’s political existence: the integration of the Osaka municipal and prefectural governments. Last month, angry at the way Hashimoto was attempting to override opposition in both the city and prefectural assemblies, where the opposition parties hold the majority, both legislative bodies passed resolutions that effectively declare Hashimoto’s merger proposal null and void. Without the assemblies’ cooperation, putting the merger plan to a public referendum is impossible. The staunch opposition of the other parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, Osaka Ishin’s nominal coalition ally, creates a bind for the pro-merger camp, especially the younger legislators in Osaka Ishin who entered politics because of Hashimoto and rode his coattails to victory. Lacking deep connections, a popular base of support, name power and, most importantly, big war chests, many of Hashimoto’s young municipal and prefectural assembly members face tough re-election bids next spring unless a referendum on the merger — or a clear schedule for one — can be set by then. One of the fundamental problems for the local opposition parties, especially the LDP and New Komeito, is that a merger is certain to redraw electoral districts, creating uncertainty locally and in the Diet. Meanwhile, opinion polls are split, with some saying a slight majority of the public favors the merger and others showing most Osakans are uncertain how the plan will affect their lives. Hashimoto, in other words, heads into autumn faced with the monumental task of convincing voters, and the opposition, to agree to his plan even as he makes attempts to return to the national stage.

toru hashimoto
yui no to
osaka ishin no kai


Police have 'leads' in search for two Amish girls

Abstract: OSWEGATCHIE, NEW YORK - Police have received “numerous leads” concerning two Amish girls abducted at a roadside stand in northern New York, where searchers scoured the countryside near the Canadian border for the missing children, authorities said Thursday. Deputies, state troopers, forest rangers and U.S. Border Patrol agents were part of the ongoing search for 7-year-old Delila Miller and 12-year-old Fannie Miller, St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells said. Officials issued special alertt for the two girls after they were abducted around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the rural town of Oswegatchie. The girls went to wait on a customer at the family’s roadside stand, officials said. A witness saw a passenger in a vehicle put something into the back seat, and when the vehicle drove off the children were gone, police said. Both girls were wearing dark blue dresses with blue aprons and black bonnets. Because the Amish tend to shun modern technology, police had no photographs of the girls, Wells said. The rural county is home to New York’s second-largest Amish population, which has grown by some 10,000 upstate over the past decade, drawn by productive land and property prices lower than in Pennsylvania. Wells said the local Amish community was helping law enforcement by getting the word out despite a culture that avoids modern conveniences. “You’d be surprised how quick word spreads,” Wells said. The sheriff said police are looking for a white four-door sedan a witness reported seeing at the farm stand when the girls disappeared.

police
amish
oswegatchie
new york
border patrol
u.s .
kidnapping


‘People’s Pope’ takes to streets in Kia Soul, fascinates South Koreans

Abstract: SEOUL - Pope Francis’ choice of wheels during his five-day South Korean visit has surprised many in this painfully self-conscious country, where big shots rarely hit the streets in anything but expensive luxury cars. After his arrival Thursday, the pope left the airport in a compact black Kia that many South Koreans would consider too humble a conveyance for a globally powerful figure. In a live television broadcast, the pope climbed into the backseat of the boxy Kia Soul, rolled down the window and waved. Surrounded by a few bigger black sedans, the pope’s compact car headed toward Seoul. Francis’ frugality and humble demeanor have received wide coverage in South Korea, a fiercely competitive country that celebrates ostentatious displays of status and wealth. This national trait can be seen in booming industries such as private tutoring and plastic surgery. The images of the smiling pope in his little car struck a chord online, with many playing on the car’s name. One South Korean user tweeted: “The pope rode the Soul because he is full of soul.” For the man called “The People’s Pope” the choice makes sense. He has eschewed the bulletproof “popemobiles” that his predecessors used on foreign trips and urged priests around the world to travel in low-key cars. Inside the Vatican City, the pope prefers a blue Ford Focus, or when he’s out in St. Peter’s Square, a white open-topped vehicle that allows him to literally reach out and touch the masses. South Korean media widely reported that the pope requested the smallest South Korean car during his visit. The Soul is Kia’s second-smallest model and reportedly provides more leg room than other compact cars. Though not everyone loves the Soul’s funky design, it appeals to a niche of young, practical drivers. It has never, however, been a car of the rich and powerful. Already bubbling with excitement over the first papal visit in 25 years, South Koreans appeared fascinated by the humble papal car. “I feel honored that Pope Francis will not be in a bulletproof vehicle,” said Shon Cho-eun, a 22-year-old Christian student. “I hope he arrives safely and delivers good messages to us.”

kia soul
south korea
south koreans
pope francis


Teacher in Shizuoka reportedly urged student to commit suicide

Abstract: SHIZUOKA - A teacher at an elementary school in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is facing discipline for abusive treatment of one of his pupils that allegedly included urging him to commit suicide. The 41-year-old teacher allegedly told his second-grade student on July 17, “Do you have (a purpose to) live? If not, then jump from the window,” sources familiar with the matter said Thursday. The teacher at the city-run Shirawaki Elementary School also reportedly physically abused the 8-year-old boy by grabbing his arm and pushing him. The boy hit his back against another pupil and fell to the floor, the sources said. The Hamamatsu board of education is considering punishment against the teacher, determining that an apology he offered to the boy and his parents isn’t enough, the sources said. The teacher reportedly told the board that he became angry with the boy because he didn’t follow instructions. Board member Yasuo Sasahara said the city is taking the matter seriously and is investigating the teacher’s past behavior as well. According to other sources, he once reportedly told a non-Japanese pupil to “go back to your country.”

teachers
shizuoka
students
schools
hamamatsu
education
violence
child abuse


Robin Williams fondly remembered by Japan's film industry

Abstract: It was an open secret among Japanese film distribution companies that Robin Williams, who died at his California home on Monday in an apparent suicide, was a “yobitai sutaa” (“a want-to-invite star”). Unlike other Hollywood celebrities, Williams was famed for two things: He never complained, and he was always appreciative. Add to this a deep and sincere love for Nintendo (Williams even named his daughter after Princess Zelda from Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda”) and what the distributors had was a Hollywood guest from heaven. “Honestly, he was the nicest guy, ever,” says Atsushi Hirayama, who looked after Williams when he came to Tokyo on a promotion tour for “Bicentennial Man” in 2000. At the time, Hirayama was working for a major film distribution and advertising company. He recalls that of all the A-list stars he encountered between the mid-1990s and 2004, when he left the industry, “Robin-san was the most gracious person you could ever hope to meet. He was totally different from everyone else. “He never put on airs or made impossible demands or anything like that. In the mornings when I picked him up at his hotel, he was always spruced up, ready to go and concerned about how I was feeling that day. A real gentleman,” he said. One legendary Robin Williams episode goes like this: On one of his promotion tours, he was driven around Tokyo for a week by the same chauffeur. At the end of his stay, he presented the man with a pair of Louis Vuitton leather driving gloves because he loved the fact that “all the drivers in Tokyo wear white gloves. I can’t imagine anyone in the U.S. doing such a thing. You people live in an amazing country!” The chauffeur was so moved by Williams’ gesture that he wept. Williams also went out of his way to delve into Japanese culture, particularly anime. In an interview he gave The Detroit News in 1996, Williams talked about how taken he was with Japanese animation, specifically “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell.” He had already seen “Princess Mononoke” in Japan, and described it as a picture “almost Greek in sophistication,” though it would be another three years before it opened in the U.S. “Japanese culture can be very dark,” Williams said in a Tokyo press conference in 2000. “It’s the contrast between the darkness and the brightness and humor and precision that I see so much of, that’s what makes it thrilling for me to be here.”


Kagoshima volcano erupts, warplanes fly over Tokyo, exhibit shows Okamoto's bold side, Emperor dies

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Jan. 13, 1914 People flee as volcano erupts near Kagoshima A terrible eruption on Sakurajima, an island in Kagoshima Bay having an active volcano, occurred yesterday at 10 a.m. Up to that time, since the night of the 10th, more than 70 earthquakes had been experienced in Kagoshima. With thundering sounds, the eruption was visible from all sides of Kagoshima. Columns of dark smoke cover the sky over the island. It would seem the people in the island are flying to the seashore for their lives. The latest report from the Home Ministry says that telegraphic communications between Kagoshima and Sakurajima have been cut off as the result of the eruption, and nothing can be known of the conditions in the volcanic isle. The eruption of Sakurajima on Jan. 12, 1914, caused 58 deaths and the destruction of more than 2,000 houses. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Jan. 6, 1939 Warplanes to fly in formation over Tokyo More than 400 airplanes of the Imperial Army and Naval air forces will fly over the capital Friday morning and afternoon in spectacular formation. The epochal undertaking, it is stated, was planned by the authorities in order to respond to the earnest support rendered by the people on the so-called “home front” as well as to demonstrate the activities of the military air forces. According to an announcement by the Information Bureau of the War Ministry Wednesday afternoon, approximately 240 craft of the Army air force will gather over the Telegraphic Corps in Nakano in a great formation at 11:15 a.m. After appearing over Yasukuni Shrine, Kudan, via the Akabane and Fukagawa aerodromes, the participating machines are expected to circle over the city for about half an hour. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Jan. 22, 1964 Exhibition shows Taro Okamoto in full force Open and direct expression of idea and personality is still a rarity in Oriental art. Still rarer are exuberance and humor in any art that aspires to “seriousness” and monumentality. The fact that Taro Okamoto’s art contains the qualities of exuberance and bold expression is not to be attributed to his decade of studies in Paris, for many other Japanese artists have returned from France without such liberation. His character is more likely derived from his parents, from a father who was a renowned cartoonist and a mother who was a poet. If Taro does not fit the Japanese pattern, neither does he conform to any precise category or styles. His Parisian studies took place in the 1930s, in the decade of fashionable surrealism. Everything Taro says is emphatically delivered. There is much to anger him in this troubled, confused, stupid, irrational, belligerent yet cowardly world. He senses the surrounding chaos with an artist’s sensibility and the soapbox orator’s vehemence. The years immediately after the war aroused his greatest indignation. The very titles of his paintings are embattled — as in “Man Atomized,” “The Disfigured One” and “Law of the Jungle” — or else sardonic, as in “Sunrise” (over chaos) and “Blue Sky” (with only a smidgen of blue in evidence). The long-awaited peace had brought new terrors, keener competition, aggravated hates, more powerful modes of destruction, and against these threats Taro finds only hypocrisy, shilly-shallying, cowardice. He strides forth to combat these devils, singlehandedly if need be. His tools are strident color, dynamic rhythms, violent oppositions, sharp contrasts, complex entanglements and diagonal crossings. Taro Okamoto is thus a “rara avis” among Japanese decorative artists. He has something to say and insists on being heard. Taro Okamoto’s giant mural “The Myth of Tomorrow” (1969), an imagination of the moment the atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is installed at Tokyo’s Shibuya Station. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, Jan. 8, 1989 Emperor dies of cancer at 87; Heisei Era begins The Emperor — who personified Japan during its conquest of its Asian neighbors and its surrender to the Allied powers, during war-inflicted devastation and the dramatic postwar economic recovery — died of cancer Saturday at the age of 87. His death, at 6:33 a.m. in Fukiage Palace of the Imperial Palace, ended the Showa Era. The 55-year-old Crown Prince immediately succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne in accordance with the Constitution and the Imperial House Law. The late Emperor reigned just over 62 years after acceding to the throne Dec. 25, 1926. He reigned far longer than his grandfather, Emperor Meiji, whose reign of 45 years and seven months had previously been the longest in Japan’s history. At an extraordinary Cabinet meeting later Saturday, the government chose “Heisei” as the new era name. It takes effect today. In announcing the name, Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi explained that it was taken from the Chinese classics and meant “achievement of peace both at home and abroad in heaven and earth.” The Emperor’s death was announced by the Imperial Household Agency at 7:55 a.m. Shoichi Fujimori, grand steward of the agency, made the first official announcement of cancer as the cause of death. He told reporters the late Emperor had been suffering from glandular cancer of the duodenum, with complications including inflammation of the bile duct, obstructive jaundice and uremia. Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita issued a statement of mourning. The statement expressed the hope that with the new Emperor’s ascension to the throne, the bonds that bind the Imperial Family and the people will become even stronger and good will towards other nations deeper.

kagoshima
tokyo
taro okamoto
showa
emperor hirohito


Expiry dates

Abstract: Dear Alice, My teenage daughter recently turned into a food-label tyrant, apparently convinced that her doddering old parents aren’t up to the job of maintaining a safe kitchen. She patrols our refrigerator daily, fiercely checking every label. If the date on a package has passed, she tosses it in the trash. We’ve had fights about this. I’ve explained that manufacturers set those dates conservatively, so food is still safe to eat for a while past expiry. She insists we’ll die if it’s even one day over. So, what’s the truth? What the heck do those dates really mean? Sam T., Kumamoto Dear Sam, It’s hard when our children decide we’re past our prime, but old dogs can learn new tricks. Let’s prove we’ve still got a little shelf life by sorting out an admittedly tricky subject. First of all, there are two distinct types of dates used on food packages in Japan: shōhi kigen (消費期限) and shōmi kigen (賞味期限), which mean different things and are used on different foods. The two look confusingly similar in roman letters but are a little easier to distinguish when written in Japanese. For reference, both are visible in the photograph accompanying today’s column. I started my research at the Consumer Affairs Agency in Tokyo, where officials were sympathetic about your troubles. “Date labeling is confusing for Japanese consumers, too,” one assured me. “Many people don’t understand the difference between sh ō hi kigen and sh ō mi kigen, and they don’t know how to use the information.” That’s partially because the system is relatively new. Until 1995, companies were required to label foods with the date of manufacture. But consumers had no way of knowing how long after manufacture a product was safe to consume, and a lot of perfectly good product was returned or discarded. The current labeling was adopted to address that problem and to bring Japan’s labeling into line with international standards. Now, as part of an effort to reduce shokuhin rosu (food loss), various government agencies are making a renewed effort to help consumers use date-labeling correctly. Let’s do our part by learning the terms, starting with “sh ō hi kigen,” which you can see on the rice ball in the left side of the photo. It’s the four characters in front of the date. It means “limit for consumption” and is equivalent to the “use by” wording on food labels in English. “Sh ō hi kigen” is used for highly perishable products, including bento box meals, sandwiches and cakes made with fresh whipped cream A sh ō hi kigen should be taken seriously, because any product that warrants this labeling goes bad quickly after its “use by” date. The government states it this way: “ Kigen ga sugitara, tabenai hōga yoi .” (“If the date has passed, it’s better not to eat it.”) Adjusting for the less forceful way of expressing things in Japanese, they’re telling you to pitch it. Now look at the four characters on the snack package on the right in the photo. They read “ shōmi kigen ,” which corresponds to “best by” and “best consumed by” in English. The government defines “sh ō mi kigen” as, “ Oishiku taberu koto ga dekiru kigen” (“The limit for best taste”) adding, “ Kono kigen o sugitemo sugu taberarenai toiu koto wa arimasen .” (“That doesn’t mean the product can no longer be eaten as soon as the date has passed.”) This labeling is used on products with a long shelf life, including potato chips, instant noodles and canned food. Here, the date is more a reference to quality than safety. You might find the flavor off in out-of-date product, and the nutritional value may not be what it once was, but you’re unlikely to come to any harm if you consume it. But be aware that there are also moderately perishable foods, including milk, eggs, ham and tofu, that are labeled with sh ō mi kigen (“best by”) rather than sh ō hi kigen (“use by”). All these products are safe to eat for some days after the date on the package. It’s difficult to say exactly how long, but fortunately it’s pretty obvious when one of these foods goes bad. The government advises you to rely on your senses, checking for off colors and smells, and even taking a little into your mouth to make sure it’s right. You are absolutely correct that manufacturers set their “best by/use by” dates conservatively. In fact, government guidelines tell them to do so. The industry term for this is “ anzen keisū ,” which is expressed as “factor of safety” in English. The guidelines don’t specify what factor of safety should be used, but most food manufacturers in Japan use a 0.8 or 0.7 factor of safety. Here’s how that works, using an example I found on an industry website. If, for example, testing on a product shows that bacterial levels are within safe limits even five days after the date of manufacture, a company may use a 0.8 factor of safety (five days × 0.8 = four days) to set the sh ō hi kigen at four days. Throwing out good food is not only hard on your pocketbook, it’s also bad for the environment and a shame when so many people in the world are hungry. And given that Japan depends on imports for 60 percent of its food, it could be dangerous in times of crisis. Nevertheless, every year Japan produces more than 18 million tons of food waste, much of which is believed to still be edible. Some of this waste originates in industry practices, but an estimated half comes from households who buy more than they need and throw out food that is still safe to eat. So, is this enough information to convince your daughter to relax her guard? I do hope she’ll work with you to strike a balance between safety and the wise use of food. And maybe she won’t put you out to pasture just yet.


Cooperation vs. competition in space

Abstract: Shadows of winter clouds Run over the ocean Just before sunset It’s a pretty haiku, but it becomes quite extraordinary when you learn that it was written aboard the International Space Station (ISS) by astronaut Koichi Wakata, who tweeted it to his 50,000 followers on Jan. 9. That’s the same Wakata, of course, who spoke with his companion Kirobo on the ISS in December last year in what was the first human-robot interaction in space. In 2000, Saitama-born Wakata — whose Twitter alias is @Astro_Wakata — flew on the 100th mission of NASA’s Space Shuttle, and was the first Japanese to help build the ISS. Perhaps less notably, he revealed on returning from a monthlong Shuttle mission in 2009, he wore the same underpants the entire time. To be fair, they were a high-tech pair designed for long-term use. Right now, the extraterrestrial celebrity is nearly halfway through a six-month stay at the ISS as its first Japanese commanding officer. No doubt he welcomed the U.S. announcement last week that it intends to extend the life of the ISS until 2024. It’s an expensive commitment — costing NASA $3 billion a year — and the Americans are hoping other countries will pitch in. Science and Technology Minister Hakubun Shimomura said Japan — which, with the European Space Agency and Canada, is a major supporter of ISS funding — should positively consider the U.S. proposal. If the life of the ISS is not extended past its current end date of 2020, then in six years time it will be “de-orbited” and allowed to crash into the South Pacific. By most measures, the Americans don’t want that to happen. Quite apart from the scientific and engineering work conducted on the ISS, there is national pride. Or, put another way: If the U.S. winds down the ISS, the Chinese will take control of space. Some U.S. politicians view this as a national-security issue. That was one reason the U.S. blocked China’s initial approaches to join the ISS project: It feared it would improve China’s ability to develop space weapons. Tokyo may also prefer to continue supporting the U.S. effort in order to stop China making the running. But it’s only a matter of time — and Beijing is arguably already making the running. Last month it landed a rover on the moon — the first such “soft” landing there for 40 years. And the Chinese want to establish a space station by 2020. All astronauts speak in similar ways about how it made them feel to look down on Earth from space. They talk of a new and profound understanding of the fragile beauty of our planet, and of the need for different nations and religions to work together for the greater good. Canadian Chris Hadfield, who also commanded the ISS and has spent 166 days off-planet, said being in space “helps you recognize the unanimity of our existence.” Grimy politics usually gets in the way of such ideals. In 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a law prohibiting NASA from, among other things, hosting Chinese astronauts and scientists at its facilities. But there are signs that relations are thawing. On Jan. 11, Xu Dazhe, the new boss of China’s national space agency, said he wants to encourage international cooperation in space. And a few days earlier, at an International Space Exploration Forum at the U.S. State Department, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns expressed hope that the countries could work together. “The question is whether we can muster the courage and political will to advance space exploration and ensure cooperation continues to trump competition,” he said. As a strong Chinese presence off-planet looks certain, it makes sense to cooperate — and for inspiration we need look no further than at Ants in Space, an experiment that has just been delivered to the ISS by a rocket, Cygnus, operated by private company Orbital Sciences. It aims to research how ants — which in nature have no master plan or commanding officer — cooperate to explore new territories and work together to forage and build a nest. Entomologist Deborah Gordon of Stanford University in California has designed an experiment involving a capsule of worker ants delivered by the Cygnus craft that school students worldwide can take part in. The ants will be allowed to forage in special arenas on the ISS and schoolkids will be able to see how they operate in micro- gravity and test theories about the deceptively simple rules ants use to work together. Sounds like a promising metaphor for space cooperation among nations. Just beware one thing: The ant species being used is the Pavement ant (Tetramorium caespitum) , a nasty and invasive pest.

international space station
koichi wakata
kirobo
space shuttle
hakubun shimomura
european space agency
chris hadfield
william burns


In Jomon and Heian, the times weren't a-changin'

Abstract: “Man the change-maker.” That is one definition of Homo sapiens. Other creatures are changed — by Nature, by evolution — over vast expanses of time measured in hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Humankind consciously generates change. We innovate, build, invent, destroy, build again. Even our earliest civilizations, ploddingly slow by present standards, far outpaced Nature as agents of change. Modern change, of course, knows no bounds; there’s never been anything like it. Last week’s science fiction is yesterday’s reality and today’s artifact. We’ve conquered space, conquered time — very soon, say some futurists (Raymond Kurzweil, most famously), we’ll conquer death, translating our mortal “selves” into immortal algorithms living on into cybereternity. To some this is exhilarating; to others, harrowing. Even the most progressive among us must at times long for a little rest, a brief pause, a quiet interval of contemplation: Where are we going? To what purpose? Are we headed in the right direction? Japan today is as frenetic as any other advanced society, but its past is long, and long stretches of it were surprisingly — astonishingly — changeless. Time stood almost still. Hundreds, thousands of years went by without life altering its course sufficiently to startle an imaginary observer who, having known the beginning, returned to see the end. Two periods in particular come to mind: the Jomon and Heian. They are not usually thought of together. The Jomon Period began roughly 12,000 years ago and lasted until about 300 B.C., making it one of the most enduring cultures in world prehistory. The Heian Period (794-1185) is an eye-blink in comparison, but by civilized standards long enough — and yet 794 and 1185 seem, culturally, economically and technologically, more similar than different. Nothing in 1185 would have left anyone in 794 speechless. What can neolithic hunter-gatherers, locked in a brutal and often losing struggle for mere survival in a harsh and untamed world, have in common with the dandified aristocrats of the urban, literate, musical, indolent, elegant, hyper-refined Heian Period? A few things. Changelessness, for one. We can’t penetrate the Jomon mind as we can, to some extent, the Heian. Jomon people left us no writing, as Heian people did, in profusion — “The Tale of Genji” most notably. “Genji” is a long (1,000-page-plus) novel, arguably the world’s first, by a sometime court lady called Murasaki Shikibu (born circa 975, death date unknown). Her prime concern was with the thoughts and feelings (mostly feelings) of her characters, some 430 of them. We get to know them and their small, narrow world very intimately. Of how many ancient societies can we say the same? They had everything, those Heian grandees — wealth, leisure, love, art, exquisite sensitivity, all the material satisfactions — and yet they were not happy. The dominant mood was melancholy. Their overdeveloped sensitivity was the problem. It showed them beauty’s beauty — but also its poignancy. Beauty blooms but also fades. The cherry blossom was Heian’s symbol par excellence — so beautiful and yet so fleeting! That visible truth reinforced their one overriding philosophical concept, derived originally from Buddhism — that the world was illusory. It was smoke; it was a wisp of cloud; you clung to it in vain. Better let it go — “leave” it if you can, not by suicide but by taking holy orders and becoming a monk or a nun, absorbed in prayers and visions of the next world, hopefully a more “real” world than this one. If this world is not real, why, or how, strive to change it? Not once does even a single character in the vast and populous “Genji” reflect on the possibility that human energy and creativity can change the world for the better. The Heian people were not change-makers. They were, ideally, world-transcenders. How different in that respect from us! We too have everything and are not happy — but we will be happy, so we seem to believe, if we can only produce just a little more of everything … and then a little more still. Heian Japan knew no corresponding hope. Jomon folk were artistic too. They produced not literature but pottery and sculpture — wildly primitive, shockingly beautiful ceramic sculpture, much of it representing pregnant women. The earliest figurines, called dog? , are some 12,000 years old, and thousands of years passed from then before experts can point to changes in style and technique. A nonexpert might sum up one change thus: For the first several thousand years, what seems most expressive in the dogū are not their faces but their bellies, source of life and sole defense against rampant, ever-present death. The odds of a newborn surviving infancy were surely very low and maybe, some archaeologists hypothesize, the dog? were a form of prayer on behalf of fertility and life. Conditions eased little by little across the millennia, accounting perhaps for an apparent shift in emphasis from belly to facial features. Though inconceivably harsh by civilized standards, the Jomon environment was not unkind as prehistory went. Archaeologists have discovered some 600 types of Jomon food, including a “bread” made from bean skins. Most neolithic cultures graduated from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Jomon didn’t. Why not? Evidently starvation, though widespread, was never urgent enough to demand or stimulate radical improvement. Contentment with the status quo — or perhaps an instinctive certainty that the status quo is all there is and all that is possible — infuses both the cultures of the Jomon and Heian. Their inertia baffles and disconcerts us, whose insatiable craving for change, for more, for better, hurtles us forward into an unknown future. Would they have envied us? Do we, in some secret corner of our 21st-century hearts, at odd moments in our busy, harassed, restless days, envy them?

jomon period
heian period
murasaki shikibu


Ishin's Osaka wing hopes Tamogami loses in Tokyo

Abstract: To the frustration — and rising panic — of nuclear village chieftain and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo’s gubernatorial election next month is shaping up to be a contest not about “local” issues like the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or even perennial complaints such as the lack of economic reform. Barring some last-minute change or surprise, it’s now a contest about the future of nuclear power in Tokyo and Japan. But in Osaka, the real question is what effect the entry of an old far-right-wing nationalist known for his inflammatory comments — who has the support of an old, far-right-wing nationalist also known for making inflammatory comments — will have on the political fortunes of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party). In one corner of the campaign, we have former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, considered a moderate but, in reality, a conservative who, prior to March 11, 2011, argued for nuclear power. Since then (surprise, surprise) he has kept rather quiet. In another corner sits former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. He’s backed by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Both oppose nuclear power, and Hosokawa is under attack by Abe and the most entrenched members of the nuclear village, particularly economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari. Among older Osakans, Hosokawa is known less for his stance on nuclear power and more because he hails from Kumamoto Prefecture, where, as governor, he learned firsthand how impoverished Japanese politics and society had become in a Tokyo-centric nation — a message that resonates well in Osaka and Kansai. Meanwhile, Masuzoe appeals to younger Osakans who are less-focused on a rivalry with Tokyo and more interested in a TV-friendly candidate with a slight populist bent who seems like a rich, successful version of themselves. However, it’s a third candidate who is getting the most attention in Osaka’s political world, especially because his entrance may further drive a wedge between the Tokyo and Osaka factions of Nippon Ishin: Toshio Tamogami. The former chief of staff of the Air Self-Defense Force, fired in 2008 for defending Japan’s wartime aggression, advocates a nuclear-armed Japan against China and all of the usual political and social agendas favored by ultranationalists and right-wingers. Needless to say, Tamogami’s biggest political supporter is Nippon Ishin co-leader and former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara. Earlier this month, Ishihara hinted he would support Tamogami’s bid, but only personally. Hashimoto and most in Nippon Ishin’s Osaka faction have no use for Tamogami. Younger Osaka party members derisively refer to Ishihara and the elderly Tokyo nationalists as “old garbage,” and Hashimoto is not pleased with Ishihara’s latest move. He and the Osaka faction wanted the party to back someone more in tune with Nippon Ishin’s local economic and bureaucratic reform agenda, but couldn’t find anyone. Thus, the party will not officially endorse a candidate. However, ideology aside, the move by the Osaka faction is good politics. With the Olympics coming, the same Tokyoites who didn’t much care when Ishihara, as their governor, made racist comments and provoked the United States, China and South Korea by trying to purchase the Senkakus are suddenly all nervous smiles, anxious to forget the past and move on by electing a governor who will not embarrass them internationally over the next four years. Hashimoto, and the Osaka faction, know Abe and the central government feel the same way. Even if many around Hashimoto share Tamogami’s views privately, they recognize that, politically, the smart move now is to keep quiet and not upset the ruling party. Ishihara and his allies can be dealt with once Tokyo voters chose either Hosokawa or Masuzoe.

toru hashimoto
yoichi masuzoe
morihiro hosokawa
toshio tamogami
shintaro ishihara


Flu menace again reaching peak

Abstract: While this year’s influenza season is predicted to peak around early February, anybody of any age group, sex or nationality is at risk of infection all the way through March. While 210,000 children under age 10 accounted for almost a third of the 660,000 flu cases reported in the week of Jan. 13 to 19, another 200,000 patients were made up of people in their 30s and 40s, according to data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. Following are questions and answers on how to prevent the flu and what measures to take if you do come down with it: How does influenza differ from a normal cold? A cold is generally triggered by different kinds of viruses, and involves such symptoms as sore throat, nasal discharge and coughing, but normally these aren’t severe, and a fever, if present, isn’t so high. Influenza is caused by the influenza virus and normally comes with a fever of over 38 degrees and the sudden appearance of systemic symptoms such as a headache and joint and muscle pain. People who develop any of these symptoms should consult a doctor as soon as possible, as the flu can sometimes cause complications such as acute encephalopathy in children and pneumonia in the elderly or those with low immunity to diseases. Does the flu vaccine prevent infection? The vaccine reduces the chances of getting sick after infection. It can also reduce the severity of symptoms when a person does come down with the flu. As the vaccine doesn’t take effect for about two weeks after inoculation, the best time to get a shot is around mid-December. What measures can be taken to prevent infection? Lately, products have come on the market billed as having “a chlorine dioxide generator” with the ability to kill viruses and bacteria. The products include room dispensers, devices you wear around your neck and sprays for face masks. More orthodox measures are washing hands after going out, sanitizing hands using an alcohol formula, spending as much time as possible in adequate humidity (50 to 60 percent) and avoiding crowded places. What should you do if you’re diagnosed with influenza? Take adequate medication prescribed by a doctor, get plenty of rest — sleep is especially important — and try to take lots of liquids.


Number of influenza patients rising rapidly

Abstract: With the influenza season approaching its peak this winter, the number of patients reached about 660,000 nationwide in the week of Jan. 13 to 19, almost doubling the 340,000 tallied the previous week. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry issued a warning last week that the outbreak has reached epidemic proportions and that the peak won’t be reached until early February. The health ministry said Okinawa Prefecture, followed by Miyazaki, Gifu, Oita and Fukuoka, are the hardest-hit areas. Close to 700 schools for all age groups were closed from Jan. 13 through 19, and the number is expected to rise. Although the epidemic has spread mainly in western Japan, it was also expanding in the Kanto region, including Tokyo and Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures. Large numbers of cases appeared in early December in Saitama and then spread to Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba in the week of Dec. 16 and expanded through the third week of January, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Infectious Disease Surveillance Center. “The epidemic is bound to spread even further in the next few weeks,” said Yoshiyuki Sugishita of the center. Although the flu peak varies from year to year, it usually occurs between late January and early February. The health ministry said that during last winter, the number of patients increased from 800,000 in the week of Jan. 7 to 13 to 1.4 million the following week and then to 2.14 million in the week of Jan. 21 to 27. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases said that almost 50 percent of the cases were due to Hong Kong A-type virus, followed by H1N1 swine flu, accounting for about 30 percent. Sugishita said the reason for the resurgence in swine flu, which became a worldwide epidemic in 2009, has not yet been discovered. “Influenza is expected to approach its peak in the next week or two, so countermeasures such as not getting close to anyone who has the flu, washing your hands thoroughly and wearing a mask become necessary,” he said.

patients
infectious disease surveillance center


Unions to demand robust pay rises

Abstract: Unions are adopting robust demands for this spring’s annual “shunto” wage talks, with those of Toyota Motor Corp. considering an average ¥2.3 million annual bonus and the electronics industry its first basic pay hike in five years. For the talks, the 600,000-member Japanese Electrical, Electronic & Information Union, or Denki Rengo, said Tuesday it will demand a monthly pay-scale hike for the first time since 2009 of ¥4,000 or more for engineers. The 63,000-member Toyota Motor Worker’s Union is expected to decide Feb. 6 on a bonus demand equivalent to 6.8 months of wages, up ¥300,000 from the previous year, along with an average ¥4,000 hike in the pay scale. The electric industry union, comprising workers of mainly electric machinery makers, is a key member of the nation’s largest labor union federation, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). It has decided to demand a hike in the minimum monthly wage by ¥3,000 to ¥158,000 for an 18-year-old worker in the industry. “A basic pay hike is necessary for these (spring) talks. Otherwise, it won’t contribute to a virtuous cycle in the Japanese economy,” said Shoji Arino, leader of the industry union. Last year it demanded only the maintenance of the pay scale, under which individual workers get seniority-based raises without an increase in total labor costs for the industry.