Venezuela's army blocks aid shipment, calling it prelude to invasion to install Guaido as president

Abstract: CARACAS - Venezuelan military officers blocked a bridge on the border with Colombia ahead of an anticipated humanitarian aid shipment Tuesday as opposition leader Juan Guaido stepped up his challenge to President Nicolas Maduro’s authority. The opposition-dominated National Assembly had warned the armed forces, which make up much of Maduro’s power base, not to cross a “red line” by blocking aid. Guaido, who proclaimed himself acting president on Jan. 23 — sparking an international crisis — claims that up to 300,000 people face death if the aid is not delivered. “You know there’s a red line, you know well there’s a limit, you know that medicines, food and medical supplies are that limit,” lawmaker Miguel Pizarro said in a message to the military. Maduro said humanitarian aid would be the forerunner of a U.S.-led invasion, insisting that “nothing will enter, not one invading soldier.” Venezuelan military officers used a tanker truck and huge shipping container to block access to the Tienditas bridge, which links the city of Urena to Cucuta, Colombia. Franklyn Duarte, an opposition lawmaker from the border state of Tachira, said troops from the armed forces were blocking the crossing. The aid delivery was being coordinated by Guaido, who now enjoys the backing of some 40 countries as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Maduro, 56, has repeatedly accused the United States of fomenting a coup. The U.S., which has not ruled out a military intervention in crisis-racked Venezuela, was the first to recognize him as acting president, followed by a dozen Latin American countries. Britain, France, Germany and Spain were among 20 EU nations to side with Guaido this week after Maduro ignored their demands that he announce new presidential elections by Feb. 3. Guaido is trying to force Maduro from power, set up a transitional government and hold a new presidential election. He thanked his EU supporters “for supporting all Venezuelans in this struggle we undertake to rescue our nation’s democracy, freedom and justice.” But Russia,a key Maduro ally, slammed what it called interference in the oil-rich but now poor Latin American country, calling it an attempt to “legitimize usurped power.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the EU of trying to “topple the government by violence and ruse” and berated the U.S. for treating Venezuela like “one of your states.” Guaido, 35, claims his legitimacy from the constitution and has been ramping up pressure on Maduro by calling his supporters out into the streets. The next mass demonstration is due for Feb. 12. Guaido must still find a way to bring in the humanitarian aid, given the military’s loyalty to Maduro. He accused the military on Monday of planning to divert aid being stockpiled in Colombia, Brazil and an unidentified Caribbean island, in order to distribute it through the socialist government’s subsidized food program for its own supporters. The National Assembly said the military must decide whether it is on the side of the people or “the problem.” Guaido knows he needs the armed forces on his side to dislodge Maduro. He was boosted on Saturday by the defection of a top air force general. His fledgling alternative administration will hold talks in Washington on Feb. 14 on responding to “the largest hemispheric humanitarian crisis in modern history.” Eurasia Group analysts say the humanitarian crisis “represents a lose-lose gambit for Maduro,” who will either have to allow the goods to enter the country — further bolstering Guaido — or force the military to block their entry, risking a backlash in the streets. Maduro, though, remains steadfast. “Venezuela doesn’t have to beg to anyone,” he said. “If they want to help, then end the blockade and the sanctions.” Under Maduro’s stewardship, oil-dependent Venezuela has plunged into an economic crisis, suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine. Eurasia said U.S. oil sanctions are “set to have a broad impact” with the government facing “the prospect of running out of gasoline, which could serve as another social catalyst.” Guaido branded Maduro illegitimate over his re-election in May, which the opposition boycotted after several of its leaders were either jailed, barred or forced into exile. The U.S. and EU dismissed the elections as a fraud. Maduro has flatly rejected demands for new elections, telling Spanish television he would not “cave in to pressure.” He has supported plans for a meeting of Latin American and EU states in a “Contact Group” in Montevideo on Thursday, though. The United Nations said 40 people were killed in clashes with security forces in a week of protests last month, coinciding with Guaido’s self-proclamation as acting leader. Local NGO Foro Penal said almost 1,000 people were detained between Jan. 21 and 31.

venezuela
juan guaido
nicolas maduro
elections


Trump says second summit with North Korea's Kim set for Feb. 27-28 in Vietnam

Abstract: U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will hold their second summit in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28, the American leader said during his State of the Union speech Tuesday — a highly symbolic choice that offers something for both sides as they seek to kick-start deadlocked denuclearization talks. “As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Trump said, lauding the return of Americans held by the regime and a 15-month halt to nuclear and missile testing. “Chairman Kim and I will meet again on Feb. 27 and 28 in Vietnam,” he added without immediately revealing where in the Southeast Asian nation the talks will be held. Hanoi, the nation’s capital, and Da Nang, a coastal resort town, have both been floated as possibilities. “Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one,” Trump said. Practically speaking, Vietnam was an obvious choice for the meeting. It is relatively close to North Korea, which means Kim can travel there without the need for a layover or borrowing a plane that can travel long distances. It is also nonaligned and has diplomatic relations with both North Korea and the U.S. The announcement came as the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, Stephen Biegun, was set to meet with his North Korean counterpart on Wednesday in Pyongyang. Biegun said last week that he hoped the meeting with Kim Hyok Chol would map out “a set of concrete deliverables” for the Kim-Trump summit. Biegun, who held talks with South Korean officials in Seoul on Sunday and Monday, said in a speech at Stanford University in California on Thursday that he would be aiming for “a roadmap of negotiations and declarations going forward, and a shared understanding of the desired outcomes of our joint efforts.” Trump and Kim met in Singapore last June in the first summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, a meeting that resulted in a vaguely worded pledge “to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Pyongyang has yet to take concrete steps in that direction, observers have said, and nuclear talks had been effectively deadlocked in the months after the Singapore summit. The North has repeatedly blasted the U.S. for doing little to reciprocate for the actions it says it has taken to dismantle and destroy some nuclear weapons facilities, demanding that punishing U.S.-led sanctions be lifted and urging a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War. In his speech last week, Biegun said the United States had told North Korea it was prepared to pursue commitments made in Singapore “simultaneously and in parallel,” and that Washington is willing to discuss “many actions” to improve ties and entice Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

north korea
vietnam
donald trump
kim jong un
kim-trump summit
nuclear weapons
u.s .
north korea nuclear crisis


From coup-maker to candidate? Thailand junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha considers election run

Abstract: BANGKOK - Thai junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha is known for losing his temper in public, but recently he has displayed a softer side amid speculation he may run for office in the first elections since the army seized power in 2014. The general-turned-prime minister has appeared on state television cooking a chicken curry for villagers and riding a tractor with farmers. Last month, he released one of his trademark ballads, which has been played repeatedly on the radio. “Don’t let anyone destroy things like in the past. … Hold our hands sincerely and go forward together,” goes the song, which was written by the 64-year-old leader himself. Prayuth, in short, has been acting a lot like a politician — even as he keeps the country waiting to hear if he will be a candidate in a long-delayed general election to restore civilian rule, now set for March 24. The election is seen as a battle between voters loyal to ousted populist prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck — both deposed in military coups — and establishment-minded traditionalists who accuse the Shinawatras of corruption. A pro-military party, Palang Pracharat, last week asked Prayuth to be its prime ministerial candidate. Prayuth, however, says he needs time to think. Technically, he has until Friday, the deadline to register candidates. Most presume he will not be able to resist entering the race. Under a new constitution ratified in 2016, the military has a powerful sway over who will be prime minister. A combined majority of the 250-seat Senate, entirely appointed by the junta, and the 500-seat House of Representatives chooses the prime minister. So a candidate who can count on the support of the Senate would only need 126 votes in the lower house to have an overall majority. Even if he doesn’t stand in the election, Prayuth could still return as a last-minute “outside” prime minister if parties cannot agree on any of the candidates listed before the vote. Love, not fear Despite the built-in advantages, Prayuth’s transition from coup-maker to candidate may not be easy. Since taking power, he has often shown flares of temper. He once threatened to throw a podium during a news briefing and at another time mused he could “probably just execute” a roomful of reporters. He drew fire from rights groups for a ban on political activity and internet censorship, and for detaining and summoning hundreds of activists and dissidents for “attitude adjustment.” Now, Prayuth must act less authoritarian, said political scientist Prajak Kongkirati, who lectures at Bangkok’s Thammasat University “Prayuth needs people to love him now because to win an election you cannot use fear,” Prajak said. “He knows he cannot be a dictator forever.” In Thailand’s deeply divided politics, Prayuth appeals to the royalist, military and middle-class opponents of Thaksin, who is seen as corrupt demagogue for policies that included subsidized health care and support for rice farmers. Both Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup, and his sister, Yingluck, forced from office in 2014, live in exile. Both have been convicted of corruption, which they deny. For many in the elite, Prayuth’s 2014 coup was necessary — and they might vote for him to extend his tenure, said Pongphisoot Busbarat at Chulalongkorn University “Prayuth has been doing well for the elite, big businesses and royalist allies,” Pongphisoot said. “His grumpy character may appear a liability to his image for many voters, but for his supporters it is his strength.” ‘Uncle Tu’ Prayuth was born in 1954 to a military family in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, and his military career was forged during a turbulent period. He was in pre-cadet school in 1973 when student protests brought down a military regime, ushering in democratic rule. Three years later, he was at the prestigious Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy when right-wing mobs massacred dozens of left-leaning student protesters leading to another military takeover. In the army, Prayuth was known for his decisiveness and devotion to the revered monarchy. This year’s election comes just six weeks before the coronation of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who assumed the throne after the death of his father, who reigned for 70 years. Prayuth rose in the ranks to become army chief, and in 2014 staged Thailand’s 13th successful military coup. His reputation for testiness came almost immediately. There are also more eccentric moments that endear Prayuth, known by his nickname “Uncle Tu,” to his supporters, like his ballads and when he kissed a frog in 2017. “It’s like he has two personalities,” said Wassana Nanuam, a veteran journalist who has followed Prayuth’s career since 2003. “He also knows how to use humor which people know isn’t fake.” Prayuth, whose office did not respond to requests for an interview, spends most of his private time with his wife and twin daughters, in their 30s, at his home at a military base. One leisure activity he has had to give up is riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle. “Sometimes he just starts his Harley up at home because he can’t go out. He hasn’t been able to ride outside since he became army chief, because he would require security to follow him,” said government spokesman Lt. Gen. Werachon Sukhondhapatipak. After nearly five years in power, Prayuth is not acting like a man ready to ride into the sunset. “I am a soldier, so if you criticize me a lot I will get angry,” Prayuth told reporters in November. “But I have to adjust myself now because I have to be patient to be a politician.”

coups
thailand
prayuth chan-ocha
elections
military
_asia


Radio Free Asia says Vietnamese blogger has vanished in Thailand after associate saw him get 'arrested'

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A Vietnamese blogger for Radio Free Asia has vanished after fleeing to Thailand, the news organization said Tuesday, as rights activists voiced fear that he had been abducted. Truong Duy Nhat — a weekly blogger for the Vietnamese service of Radio Free Asia, which aims to provide news to countries that lack press freedom — last made contact with editors on Jan. 26, a day after he applied for refugee status with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok, the U.S.-funded network said. “We are extremely concerned about the safety and wellbeing of Truong Duy Nhat,” Radio Free Asia President Libby Liu said. “We hope to hear from him as soon as possible about his whereabouts and to be assured that he’s not in any danger,” said Liu, whose organization has alerted the U.S. State Department and lawmakers. Bui Thanh Hieu, a Vietnamese blogger who lives in Germany, alleged in a Facebook post that the Hanoi government felt threatened enough to abduct Nhat. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders called on Thailand to investigate, saying the case sent an “absolutely terrifying” message to a community of Vietnamese bloggers who have based themselves out of Bangkok. If Thai authorities turn up nothing, “that means that Vietnamese agents no longer bother with international law and violate the sovereignty of a partner country to hunt down critical voices,” said Daniel Bastard, an Asia expert for Reporters Without Borders. Nhat served two years in prison starting in 2014 after blog posts critical of Vietnam’s communist leadership. He last blogged for Radio Free Asia on the prospects for change in Vietnam in light of major anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela. Radio Free Asia quoted an unnamed associate of Nhat as saying he was “arrested” as he went to an ice cream shop inside Thailand’s massive Future Park shopping mall.

radio free asia
vietnam
thailand
truong duy nhat
bangkok
u.s .


U.N. envoy Angelina Jolie urges Myanmar to end violence against Rohingya Muslims

Abstract: COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH - Angelina Jolie on Tuesday urged Myanmar to show a genuine commitment to ending violence and displacement in its Rakhine state, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh for safety. Jolie, a special envoy for the U.N.’s refugee agency, spoke as she visited sprawling camps in Bangladesh that are home to 1 million Rohingya refugees. More than 700,000 have arrived since August 2017, when Myanmar’s army led a violent crackdown following attacks on security posts by a Rohingya insurgent group. Jolie is visiting for three days before launching a global appeal for $920 million, chiefly to support the refugees’ needs for 2019. She met and talked with refugees, including children and rape victims. “It was deeply upsetting to meet the families who have only known persecution and statelessness their whole lives, who speak of being treated like cattle,” she told reporters at the Kutupalong refugee camp. Jolie added: “They have been denied their most basic human right: citizenship in their country of birth. And some still won’t even call the Rohingya by their rightful name.” She thanked Bangladesh for hosting the refugees despite being over populated, and urged the international community to provide more resources for the refugees. “Bangladesh is a generous country rich in culture and history, but with limited resources. And it cannot be left to shoulder the responsibility of hosting Rohingya refugees alone,” she said. Jolie said Myanmar must ensure safety for the Rohingya to return home. “They have an absolute right to return home, but only when they feel safe enough to do so voluntarily and they know that their rights will be respected,” she said. Bangladesh attempted to start repatriation of Rohingya in November last year, but the country postponed the process after no Rohingya came forward to go back voluntarily. The U.N. and other global human rights groups have said no Rohingya should be forced to return. Bangladesh authorities said they will send them back only if they are willing to go back and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged international community to put pressure on Myanmar for ensuring safety in the country for making their voluntary return possible. Most people in Buddhist-majority Myanmar do not accept that the Rohingya Muslims are a native ethnic group, viewing them as “Bengalis” who entered from Bangladesh centuries ago. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, as well as access to education and hospitals.

angelina jolie
myanmar
rohingya
bangladesh
rakhine
refugees
u.n .
genocide


Mouse kidneys grown in rats could pave way for human transplant options

Abstract: Japanese scientists said Wednesday they had successfully used mouse stem cells to grow kidneys in rat embryos, using a technique that could one day help grow human kidneys for transplant. But the researchers cautioned that their success was only a first step and that “serious technical barriers and complex ethical issues” remain before the process could be used for human organs. The technique has previously been used to grow mouse-derived pancreases in rats, but the new study is the first evidence that it could one day provide a solution to the massive shortage of donor kidneys for people with renal disease. The research, published Wednesday in the Nature Communications journal, began with the development of a suitable “host” in which the kidneys could be grown. The researchers collected rat embryo structures that had been genetically modified so they would not develop kidneys on their own. The embryos were then injected with pluripotent stem cells from mice and implanted into rat wombs so they could be carried to term. Pluripotent stem cells are a kind of “master” cell that can develop into any of the cells and tissue that make up the body. The researchers found that the mouse stem cells produced apparently functional kidneys in the rats. But the same did not hold when rat stem cells were injected into similarly modified mouse embryos. “Rat stem cells did not readily differentiate into the two main types of cells needed for kidney formation,” said Masumi Hirabayashi, an associate professor at Japan’s National Institute for Physiological Sciences who supervised the study. Conversely, “mouse stem cells efficiently differentiated … forming the basic structures of a kidney,” he told AFP. The reason for the difference is still not entirely clear, but the researchers believe “environmental cues” inside the mice are likely to blame, rather than the stem cells or the technique. But even in the rat embryos, the technique was not without problems. While the rats developed apparently functional kidneys, including with proper connections to the ureter — tubes that link the kidneys to the bladder — they died shortly after birth because they did not suckle properly. It is thought that removing the genes that allow kidneys to develop in utero also removed their sense of smell, so the newborns failed to detect milk and died. Their short lives meant limited testing could be done on their kidney function, but Hirabayashi said the organs appeared functional “based on anatomical observations.” There are other concerns: growing a kidney in a host from another species could lead to “contamination” of the organ with cells from the host. And the process of growing human organs in animals poses an ethical conundrum because human stem cells could develop into brain or reproductive organ cells in the host. “The main ethical concerns are the risk of consciousness and/or gamete (reproductive cell) production,” said Hirabayashi. “There are serious technical barriers and complex ethical issues that must be discussed and solved before producing human organs in animals,” he added. In the short-term, additional research is likely to focus on ways to genetically modify host rats without lethal side effects. If successful, researchers will then want to run more tests on the stem cell-derived kidneys, and try to transplant them from the hosts to other animals. Eventually, tests could involve trying to grow human organs. Pigs are usually considered the best hosts for human organ regeneration, but pig embryos only develop for 25 weeks, unlike the 40 weeks that human babies grow, meaning the species might not be suitable for growing organs in embryos. Cattle, with a 40-week gestation, could be another option. Hirabayashi said he was hopeful he would see human organs grown in animal hosts in his lifetime. “I don’t know exactly the end of my lifetime — tomorrow? Thirty years? But I very much expect to hear news regarding the practical application of animal-hosted organs.”

kidneys
rats
humans
transplants
masumi hirabayashi
cattle


Abe seeking to work with Trump ahead of second U.S.-North Korea summit

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that Tokyo will work closely with Washington to tackle challenges related to North Korea in the run-up to the second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this month. “It may be difficult to hold (direct) summit talks (with Trump) due to tight schedules, but through a phone conversation, we will closely coordinate our policies over the issues of nuclear weapons, missiles and abductions, the latter of which is the most important for Japan,” Abe told an Upper House committee, referring to past abductions of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang. Trump took up the matter during his first summit with Kim in Singapore in June at Abe’s request. The prime minister has voiced his readiness to meet with the North Korean leader in person in an attempt to achieve a breakthrough on the issue. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that the government hopes that agreements between Trump and Kim in June, including North Korea’s commitment to working toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, will be fully and swiftly implemented. “There is no change in our position that Japan will continue to cooperate with the United States and South Korea, while closely collaborating with the international community, including China and Russia, to implement U.N. Security Council resolutions” imposed on the North for its nuclear and missile programs, the top government spokesman said. Trump said in his State of the Union address in Washington on Tuesday that he will meet with Kim on Feb. 27 and 28 in Vietnam. During the Diet committee session, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he is arranging a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo before the upcoming U.S.-North Korean summit. “The U.S. side has sounded out a foreign ministers’ meeting. It is undecided where we will meet, but we’d like to coordinate our policies firmly,” Kono said. They were expected to meet in mid-February on the sidelines of an international forum in Germany but dropped the plan after Pompeo canceled his European trip, a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said. The ministry will send Kenji Kanasugi, director-general of its Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, to Seoul on Friday and Saturday for talks with Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, ministry sources said. Biegun is staying in Pyongyang to discuss summit arrangements and the country’s denuclearization with North Korean officials. The U.S. envoy is scheduled to travel to the South Korean capital afterward.

north korea
shinzo abe
donald trump
nuclear weapons


Abenomics under heavy fire after dodgy data hid apparent drop in wages across Japan in 2018

Abstract: At Tuesday’s Lower House Budget Committee session, opposition lawmaker Kazunori Yamanoi looked furious. It may have been posturing, but Yamanoi, of the Democratic Party for the People, perhaps had good reason to be angry: the government is refusing to publicize the average real wage of workers in the nation last year, one of the most fundamental economic indicators used to gauge the economic conditions of millions of employees across Japan. “We don’t know if the real wage, which is the most important (economic indicator), was positive or negative (last year),” said Yamanoi. “There are no other developed countries like that, are there?” he continued. “What on earth is going on here?” This week, debates in the current Diet session heated up. At stake is the credibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s critical signature policy: Abenomics. Last month the labor ministry admitted it had secretly revised the statistical methods used for the monthly wage survey — one of the most fundamental statistics used to gauge the nation’s economic status — from January last year. The adjustment led to sudden spikes in nominal wages throughout 2018. The revelations have prompted speculation that Abe’s government may have intentionally manipulated statistical formulas to boost nominal wage data and thereby trumpet the success of — or hide a failure of — Abenomics, according to opposition lawmakers. Abe has strongly denied the allegation. Abenomics is centered on the ultraloose monetary policy of the Bank of Japan, which has pledged to spark sustainable inflation of 2 percent a year and thereby reinvigorate the reportedly sluggish Japanese economy. Raising wage levels is considered a key prerequisite to spark the sustainable, healthy inflation envisioned in the Abenomics theory. But the credibility of the most fundamental wage survey has now been heavily damaged by the undisclosed revision of the statistical method used, economists have said. “These monthly wage statistics are the most fundamental surveys to show wage levels on the macroeconomic base,” said Hisashi Yamada, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute in Tokyo. “Now the credibility of this survey is being questioned. The problem is very grave,” Yamada said. In response to Yamanoi’s questions, labor minister Takumi Nemoto, somewhat sour-faced, pointed out that the government has already publicized real wage data for last year, or the nominal wage value adjusted for inflation or deflation. It showed a 0.05 percent fall from the previous year on average. But using another set of nominal wage data collected and adjusted based on a different statistical method, Reuters has estimated the average real wage to have declined 0.4 percent on average from January through November last year compared with the same period previous year, which is a drop much larger than that of Nemoto’s data. Opposition lawmakers also separately estimated the average real wage last year as having fallen 0.53 percent. Economists say that for the comparison of real wages in 2017 and 2018, data used by Reuters is more appropriate because they are based on the same sample businesses for both years. Half of Nemoto’s samples, meanwhile, were replaced with new ones. The wage data Reuters used is called the sankochi (reference values), and had been published by the labor ministry for use as reference material. The labor ministry has refused to estimate real wages based on these reference values. “Yes, sankochi is better when you compare 2017 and 2018 because the samples are in common,” said Yutaro Suzuki, an economist at Daiwa Institute of Research Group. However, both Yamada and Suzuki said it would probably be going too far to suggest that Abenomics has been a total failure just because the average real wage sank in 2018. Since the launch of Abenomics in spring 2013, the nominal wage continued to slowly rise over several years, Yamada pointed out. Real wage growth in 2018 was apparently pushed into the red because of a rise in the prices of imported oil products and other items, Yamada said. Suzuki, too, said he will not revise his overall view of the effects of Abenomics because wages have kept slowly rising since Abe launched Abenomics in 2013. But it is still not known why the labor ministry made the statistical errors and didn’t announce the revision to the public, he said. He declined to comment when asked if he believes bureaucrats may have intentionally manipulated the figures. “An investigation into the cause is needed. Otherwise you can’t say this statistical problem is resolved,” he said. So what exactly was the undisclosed change made by the labor ministry when it revised the statistical data? When surveying nominal wages across the nation each month, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is obliged to check wages and salaries at all businesses with 500 employees or more. But when questioned by economists the ministry admitted it had only surveyed a third of such firms in Tokyo from 2004 through 2017, in a possible violation of the Statistics Act. The data collection shortfall resulted in the average wage appearing lower than it actually was. In January 2018, the ministry started correcting the sampling data so that it would be closer to the figures that would have been seen if the survey been conducted in full, but this correction was made without any public announcement, according to labor ministry officials. Meanwhile, wage data in the 2018 survey was corrected with a set of benchmark data from a separate 2014 census survey, to reflect the actual component ratio of workers by industry. This also pushed up the nominal wage average in the 2018 survey when compared with the 2017 wage survey because the 2017 data was corrected with different benchmark data from a 2009 census survey, labor ministry officials said.


Japan to accept unofficial talks on Sea of Japan name as South Korea pushes 'East Sea'

Abstract: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga indicated Wednesday that Tokyo is ready to accept unofficial talks among member countries of the International Hydrographic Organization on a review of the body’s guidelines that would include discussion over the name for the Sea of Japan. South Korea, which is also expected to participate in the talks, insists that the body of water should be called the East Sea. Noting that the IHO has called for unofficial discussions among interested member countries, Suga said at a news conference that Japan plans to “contribute constructively” to the talks “as a responsible member” of the organization. Still, the top government spokesman underscored Tokyo’s rejection of South Korea’s demand, adding, “The Sea of Japan is the only name that has been established internationally, and there is no need or reason for changing it.” Japan will firmly reiterate its stance at the envisaged unofficial talks, Suga said. The IHO guidelines, “Limits of Oceans and Seas,” have used only “Japan Sea” for the Sea of Japan since the first edition was published in 1929. South Korea has urged the IHO to change the name to “East Sea” or use both.


Over five years, 372 boats thought to be from North Korea have reached Japan, with 77 bodies

Abstract: The number of cases in which wooden boats believed to be from North Korea were found either adrift off the Sea of Japan coast or washed up on Japanese shores totaled 372 over the five years from fiscal 2013, the government has said. A total of 77 dead bodies of apparent crew members and 19 survivors were confirmed, the government said Tuesday in a written response to a query from Upper House lawmaker Yoshifu Arita of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. According to the government, the number of such cases totaled 87 in fiscal 2013, 44 in fiscal 2014, 61 in fiscal 2015, 50 in fiscal 2016, and 130 in fiscal 2017. The incidents were recorded in 13 prefectures. Of them, Niigata had the highest number, at 80, followed by Ishikawa, at 72, Akita, at 34, Aomori, at 24, and Shimane, at 23. Regarding the treatment of survivors, the government explained that it is “appropriately handling them under related laws and ordinances,” adding that it covers all related disposal costs for such ships for local municipalities. While the central government does provide funds to subsidize the entire cost of the removal, the process for applying for the additional funds takes a considerable amount of time. If removal work starts prior to the approval, the full cost falls to the local government, making the incidents difficult to resolve quickly. As a result, many boats remain where they wash up along the Sea of Japan coast. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Monday that the central committee of the country’s Red Cross Society has expressed gratitude to Japanese authorities, saying that the country provided humanitarian support over the past several years to North Korean crews who had been adrift so that they could return home safely.

boats
north korea
sea of japan
niigata
ishikawa
akita
aomori
shimane
fishing


Japan's K supercomputer, once the world's fastest, to retire in August

Abstract: KOBE - Japan’s supercomputer K will retire in August to give way to a cutting-edge successor, government-backed research institute Riken said Wednesday. The first supercomputer in the world to achieve a computing speed of over 10 quadrillion computations per second is set to end operations after nearly seven years and will be replaced by the successor, which is still under development, in around 2021 or 2022 at the same research center in Kobe. The K went into full-scale operation in September 2012 after about six years of joint development by Riken and computer maker Fujitsu Ltd., at a cost of some ¥111 billion ($1 billion). Fujitsu is also involved in the development of the next-generation replacement supercomputer, which will have a computing capacity 100 times that of its predecessor. The new computer is expected to contribute to a variety of projects including earthquake and tsunami damage projections and analysis of big data. The K has been used for data calculations in various fields, such as weather forecasting, semiconductor development and medical research. But from Aug. 16, outside researchers and private businesses will be unable to use it, with the entire system shutting down by the end of the same month, according to Riken. Much of the old supercomputer will be scrapped, the costs of which is expected to reach a few hundred million yen. In June 2011, the K (or kei , which means 10 quadrillion in Japanese) ranked first in the world in computing speed. It then did so again in November that year even before the start of its operations at Riken. According to the Top 500 list of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, compiled biannually by researchers, the United States ranked top with its supercomputer Summit in November 2018. China had held first place from 2013 until June 2018, when the United States regained the top spot. The K supercomputer became the subject of controversy in 2009 as then-ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Renho, who was at the time a member of a government panel seeking to cut spending for less urgent items in the national budget, questioned whether Japan needed to pursue the No. 1 position amid an economic crisis. Her remark led to a panel decision that the project should be frozen, but the move triggered a storm of criticism from domestic scientists including Nobel laureate in chemistry Ryoji Noyori, a former president of Riken. The government rescinded the panel’s decision in its budget for fiscal 2010, allowing the project to continue.


Father held after daughter's death allegedly forced her to write false letter retracting claim of abuse

Abstract: CHIBA - The father of a 10-year-old girl who died last month at their home near Tokyo forced her to write a letter stating he did not hit her so that she would be returned home, a child welfare center said Tuesday, revealing more apparent missteps by authorities in protecting her life. The father, Yuichiro Kurihara, presented the letter written by his daughter Mia in February last year when the welfare center was considering whether the girl — who was residing with a relative to escape suspected abuse by him — should return home, according to the center. “I lied that I had been hit by my father. I said that to my elementary school teacher without thinking and caused lot of trouble to my father, mother, sister” and the relative, the letter signed by the girl reads. “I am sorry.” Two days after the letter was presented by Kurihara as a basis to demand her return home, the child welfare center, which also serves as a temporary shelter for children, decided in a meeting to have Mia leave the relative’s house and resume living with her parents and 1-year-old sister. After she returned to her house in Noda, Chiba Prefecture last March, the girl told a center official at her school that her father had actually made her write the letter, which also stated she wanted to live with her parents and younger sister and did not want to meet child welfare center officials anymore. Mia initially said in a school questionnaire on Nov. 6, 2017, that she was being “bullied” and hit by her father. Because of the report, and the discussions with her teacher that followed, she was sent the next day to the child welfare center in Kashiwa, near Noda, for her protection, and remained there for seven weeks. Hitoshi Nihei, head of the center, said officials at the center thought it was highly possible that the father had forced the girl to write the letter, but they did not ask her if she was forced to write it before they decided to allow her to return home. “Our role is to protect children’s lives. We truly feel sorry,” Nihei said at a news conference. The action by the welfare center follows revelations that the Noda Board of Education gave Kurihara a copy of the school questionnaire at his insistence when he demanded Mia’s return home — an action feared to have aggravated his abuse of the girl. Explaining why they gave him the copy, officials at the education board said recently they were frightened by his “intimidating demeanor.” Tetsuro Tsuzaki, a former head of a child welfare center, said abusive parents “often apply pressure to children to say things they don’t mean.” “Therefore, the (Kashiwa) center needed to confirm her feelings in a safe place without the presence of her parents,” he said. Jun Saimura, a professor of children’s welfare at Tokyo Online University, said the center officials “might have wanted to avoid getting in trouble with the father.” “But people working in a child welfare center must have a sense of mission to protect the children till the end no matter what, as well as the ability to see calmly and objectively,” he added. In cases where they cannot avoid difficulties developing with parents, “coordination with police becomes important,” Saimura said. The center ended what it classified as the girl’s protection in late December 2017, on the condition that she would live with the relative. A center official then met with her father in February the following year at the relative’s home to decide whether she should return home. Mia was found dead on Jan. 24 this year in the bathroom of the family’s home, with bruising to her body. Her father was arrested the next day on suspicion of assault, but an autopsy failed to determine the cause of the girl’s death. While she was not severely underweight, the autopsy revealed there was almost no food in her stomach, indicating she had not been fed sufficiently, according to investigative sources. The girl’s mother was sent to prosecutors Tuesday following her arrest a day earlier for allegedly failing to stop her husband from assaulting their daughter. The mother told police her husband had insisted that food not be given to their daughter in the days before her death, the sources said.


Three former JR Hokkaido officials found not guilty in data falsification case

Abstract: SAPPORO - The Sapporo Summary Court found three former senior officials of Hokkaido Railway Co. (JR Hokkaido) not guilty Wednesday in a case over the falsification of data on track inspections conducted after a freight train derailment in Hokkaido in 2013. Public prosecutors had demanded that the three, including Yoshihito Okushiba, 56, then the deputy head of the company’s engineering department, pay ¥200,000 to ¥400,000 in fines over the alleged violation of the railway business law. Meanwhile, the Sapporo court fined JR Hokkaido ¥1 million, as sought by the prosecutors. In the incident, which occurred on Sept. 19, 2013, a freight train came off a sidetrack at Onuma Station, on JR Hokkaido’s Hakodate Main Line, in the town of Nanae. In March 2016, a different summary court fined 13 of the company’s workers in charge of track maintenance for manipulating data on track inspections conducted at the derailment site after the incident. The three officials had been indicted for allegedly conspiring with the maintenance workers to report the falsified track inspection data to the transport ministry and the Japan Transport Safety Board. In the trial, the three former senior officials denied they were a part of the scheme. Presiding Judge Shinichiro Yuki at the Sapporo court said that it is “natural and reasonable” for the former officials to have thought that there were errors in original inspection data and that they had been corrected by the maintenance employees later. While it was possible for the maintenance workers to notice abnormalities in the inspection data, the three officials were busy with work related to restoring services after the train derailment and were thus unable to fully examine the data, Yuki said. “We’ll take an appropriate response after examining the ruling and consulting with a high prosecutor’s office,” said Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, deputy head of the Sapporo District Public Prosecutor’s Office.

jr hokkaido
sapporo
accidents
rail
scandals


Japan's government warns of 'extremely serious situation' as swine fever spreads to five prefectures

Abstract: NAGOYA - A swine fever epidemic is continuing to spread in Japan, with local authorities in five central and western Japan prefectures saying Wednesday they are struggling to contain the highly contagious pig virus that was first reported in September. “We are facing an extremely serious situation,” agriculture minister Takamori Yoshikawa told a meeting at his ministry in Tokyo while instructing officials to take thorough countermeasures. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also set up a special task force in Gifu Prefecture to step up containment efforts. Spilling over from farms in Gifu, the classical swine fever (CSF) virus was newly detected by prefectural and local authorities at farms in neighboring Aichi as well as in Osaka, Shiga and Nagano prefectures. The total number of pigs to be culled at affected farms is expected to reach 15,000. “It worries me that we don’t know how the disease is spreading,” said a pig farmer in Iida, Nagano Prefecture. “The only thing we can do is to thoroughly manage hygiene.” The disease does not affect humans even if meat from an infected animal is consumed, but it is fatal to pigs. Around 130 wild boars in Gifu and Aichi prefectures have tested positive for infection despite experts’ initial assumption that it would not spread among the animals, which typically do not live in large herds. The World Organization for Animal Health suspended Japan’s status as a CSF-free country after the outbreak in September. Although there is a vaccine to counter the disease, using it could prevent Japan from regaining the CSF-free status and hinder the nation’s plan to expand pork exports. Yasuhiro Ozato, a senior vice agriculture minister, expressed reluctance to use the vaccine, saying, “We will seek to resolve this by adhering to hygiene control standards.” The Aichi Prefectural Government began culling around 6,600 pigs at a farm in the city of Toyota with the help of the Ground Self-Defense Force, while banning shipments from six farms located within 10 kilometers of the farm. The farm in Toyota had shipped pigs to six facilities in Nagano, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga and Osaka prefectures since January. The ministry has not detected the virus in Mie. The farm in Toyota reported to the prefectural government Monday that its pigs were showing symptoms of infection, including loss of appetite, and the prefecture detected the swine fever virus in five pigs the following day. Detailed tests by the state government confirmed the infection on Wednesday. The Aichi Prefectural Government said the farm in Toyota shipped pigs to a Nagano Prefecture farm Tuesday morning, even after noticing hog cholera symptoms among them, as prefectural authorities suspected another illness and did not stop shipments. Of the 80 pigs brought to the farm in Miyada, Nagano, 79 were found to have been infected with the virus, according to the Nagano Prefectural Government. A man involved in pig farming who lives near the Toyota farm said, “There was a vet at the company (managing the farm). I thought they were taking thorough preventive measures.” Swine fever was detected at a farm in the city of Gifu in September, the first such discovery in Japan since 1992, and has been found in over 100 wild boars across Gifu and Aichi prefectures.


Thirty years after U.S. curbs on exports to China were eased, two giants' politics and tech collide

Abstract: LONDON - “U.S. eases curbs on exports to China” read a Reuters headline on March 1, 1989, when Washington lifted long-standing restrictions on technology shipments to China. On that day, U.S. commerce officials talked warmly of improving ties with China and of the need to help its economy — then about half the size of Italy’s — to grow, despite the objections of military strategists at the Pentagon. Friday not only marks the 30th anniversary of the decision, but it is also the deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for a deal to end the seven-month trade war with China, now its biggest economic rival. A different kind of technology transfer is at the center of the trade tussle that is likely to play a big part in defining the path of the world economy in the years to come. The United States has accused Beijing of forcing U.S. companies doing business in China to share their technology with local partners and hand over intellectual property secrets. More broadly, the dispute over trade has produced tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods, disrupting manufacturing supply chains and weighing on the global economy. Without a deal, U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods are scheduled to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent, although Trump has said he may be flexible on the deadline if he sees progress being made. Trump said on Friday there was “a very good chance” the United States would strike a deal with China and that he was inclined to extend the deadline and meet soon with Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. and Chinese negotiators met for over seven hours on Saturday in Washington and were to meet again on Sunday morning as they race to seal an agreement. Saturday marked the fifth straight day of the negotiations. The Chinese delegation is scheduled to leave for Beijing on Monday. This is the fourth round of negotiations since Washington and Beijing agreed to a cease-fire in their trade war. Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Friday that U.S. and Chinese officials had reached an agreement on currency issues, but did not give details. U.S. officials have long argued that China’s yuan is undervalued, giving it a trade advantage and partly offsetting U.S. tariffs. Trump said he did not like memorandums of understanding because they are short-term in nature, and he wanted a long-term deal. There is no agreement on the enforcement mechanism, either. The United States wants a strong mechanism to ensure the Chinese reform commitments are followed through, while Beijing insists upon what it calls a “fair and objective” process. Negotiators are drawing up six memorandums on structural issues: forced technology transfer and cybertheft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and nontariff barriers to trade, sources said. Failure to reach a deal would have big consequences, and not only for the world’s top two economies. In a full-blown trade war with 25 percent tariffs on all goods flowing in both directions, China could lose up to €171 billion ($194 billion) in exports to the United States — around a fifth of the current annual total — according to a new report from EconPol Europe, a research network founded by Germany’s Ifo Institute. The United States would lose around €51 billion of exports going to China. The winner — at least in the terms of crude mercantilism favored by some — could be Europe. “Trump may claim victory as the U.S. manufacturing sector grows while the Chinese one shrinks and the bilateral trade balance of the U.S. with China improves,” EconPol Europe researchers Gabriel Felbermayr and Marina Steininger said. “However, with the EU it deteriorates and Europe’s trade (surplus) with the U.S. becomes even larger,” they added, since the United States would turn to Europe to substitute at least some of its Chinese imports. And that could stoke further antagonism from the United States directed at the European Union, Felbermayr and Steininger said.

china
tech
trade
trade war
intellectual property
tariffs
u.s .


India proposes new e-commerce regulations with focus on data rules

Abstract: NEW DELHI/MUMBAI - India outlined a new draft policy for its burgeoning e-commerce sector on Saturday, focusing on data localization, improved privacy safeguards and measures to combat the sale of counterfeit products. The proposed overhaul, which would likely increase operating costs for the sector, comes two months after the country modified regulations governing foreign direct investment in e-commerce. That forced retail giants Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart to restructure their Indian operations, and the latest reforms spell further upheaval. “In the future, economic activity is likely to follow data,” the widely expected draft policy document said. “It is hence vital that we retain control of data to ensure job creation within India.” The new rules call for the housing of more data centers and server farms locally, amid a broader push for data localization by the South Asian nation, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing online markets. India’s central bank in 2018 forced payments providers such as Mastercard and Visa Inc to store Indian users’ data locally. “Steps will be taken to develop capacity for data storage in India,” the draft e-commerce rules said. “A period of three years would be given to allow industry to adjust to the data storage requirement.” Flipkart and Amazon said they were going through the draft rules and will share their inputs with the government. The proposed rules also seek the creation of a “legal and technological framework” that can help impose restrictions on the cross-border flow of data generated by users, moves that may affect not just e-commerce platforms but also social media firms such as Google and Facebook. India also plans to mandate all e-commerce firms to provide access to their data stored abroad whenever official requests are made. The rules, which come as New Delhi works on a broader data privacy law, also forbid companies from sharing data stored abroad with other businesses even with user consent. Other proposals include mandating all e-commerce websites or apps operating in India to have a locally registered business entity, and increasing liability of e-commerce players to ensure products sold on their platforms are not counterfeit or pirated. “Lot of issues covered, bold decisions,” the All India Online Vendors Association, which represents more than 3,500 online sellers, said in a tweet. New Delhi has invited comments on the proposed rules by March 9, after which the rules are likely to be formalized.

india e-commerce internet smartphones trade computers


Iceland gives industry the OK to hunt up to 2,130 fin and minke whales over five years

Abstract: REYKJAVIK - Iceland’s whaling industry will be allowed to keep hunting whales for at least another five years, killing up to 2,130 baleen whales under a new regulation issued by the Nordic nation’s government. The five-year whaling policy was up for renewal when Fisheries Minister Kristjan Juliusson announced this week an annual quota of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales for the next five years. While many Icelanders support whale hunting, a growing number of businessmen and politicians are against it based on the island’s dependence on tourism. The Icelandic Travel Industry Association on Friday criticized the move, saying the government was damaging the country’s economic interests as well as its international reputation to benefit a small whaling sector that is struggling to sell its products.

iceland whales whales nature oceans animals endangered whaling


Sudan's al-Bashir names new PM, while protest leaders say imposing emergency shows he is weak

Abstract: KHARTOUM - President Omar al-Bashir named a new prime minister Saturday as he pressed on with a shake-up at the top, even as protest leaders dismissed his move to impose a state of emergency across Sudan to quell nationwide demonstrations. Al-Bashir’s three-decade rule has been rocked by two months of protests that a deadly crackdown has failed to suppress. On Friday, he imposed a nationwide state of emergency and dissolved the federal and provincial governments. In a televised speech to the nation, the veteran leader pledged to form a government of technocrats to address Sudan’s chronic economic woes, which have been the driving force behind the protests. On Saturday, al-Bashir sacked his vice president and longtime ally Bakri Hassan Saleh, replacing him with Defense Minister Gen. Awad Ibnouf. In a separate decree, he appointed Mohamed Tahir Ela, former governor of the agricultural state of Jazeera, as prime minister. But protest organizers and their supporters in the political opposition dismissed the reshuffles. They said the state of emergency showed that al-Bashir’s rule was weakened and only its overthrow would now satisfy the protesters. “Imposing a state of emergency shows the fear within the regime,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change said. “We will continue with our people to take to the streets across all towns and villages until our demand has been achieved.” The National Umma Party, whose leader Sadiq al-Mahdi was Sudan’s elected prime minister when al-Bashir seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, said the protests against his successor’s iron-fisted rule would carry on until he quits. “Dissolving the government and imposing a state of emergency is nothing but a repetition of this regime’s failures,” it said. “Nothing will satisfy the people who are taking to the streets except the overthrow of this regime.” Late on Saturday, crowds of protesters took to the streets in Omdurman, the capital’s twin city, and in a district of Khartoum, witnesses said. Demonstrators chanted their rallying cry of “freedom, peace, justice,” but were quickly confronted by riot police who fired tear gas to disperse them, witnesses said. Analysts said the state of emergency was an act of desperation in the face of public anger. “The declaration of emergency powers only makes it less likely that the economy can be revived,” said Eric Reeves, a senior fellow at Harvard University, who has tracked Sudan’s politics and economy for two decades. “The regime has never understood economics. … That’s why they are in the mess they are.” Sudan has been hit by a chronic shortage of hard currency to pay for imports that has worsened since South Sudan became independent in 2011, taking with it the bulk of oil earnings. The resulting shortages in basic goods have fueled spiraling inflation that has devastated the purchasing power and living standards of ordinary Sudanese from agricultural laborers to middle-class professionals. The immediate trigger for the demonstrations was a government decision last December to triple the price of bread, but the protests swiftly mushroomed as they fed into wider grievances. The Sudanese Professionals Association — an umbrella group of teachers, doctors and engineers — has taken the lead, using social media to organize daily rallies. It was only afterward that the political opposition joined in, forming an alliance with the SPA. “The imposing of emergency unfortunately suggests that things will get worse before they get better,” said Murithi Mutiga of the International Crisis Group think tank. “It concentrates powers in Bashir’s hands and sets the stage for a confrontation with the protest movement, which may become more violent than it has been.” Human Rights Watch says at least 51 people have been killed, while Sudanese officials say 31 people have died in protest-related violence since the demonstrations began on December 19. Hundreds of protesters, opposition leaders, activists and journalists have been jailed in a crackdown led by the feared National Intelligence and Security Service. And the crackdown shows no sign of easing. Soon after he imposed the emergency, prominent newspaper editor Osman Mirghani was detained by security agents for comments he made in a television interview criticizing the move. Al-Bashir told Sudanese he understood the scale of the economic crisis facing the country. “The economic issue needs to be tackled by qualified people and for this I will form a government made of people of quality,” he said. The protest alliance, which also includes the political wings of rebel groups in Sudan’s three domestic war zones, has united around a platform that promises radical reforms, including an end to huge military spending on the conflicts.

sudan
protests
omar al-bashir
corruption


Israel arrests senior Muslim cleric after Jerusalem holy site unrest

Abstract: JERUSALEM - Israeli police in Jerusalem arrested on Sunday a senior Muslim cleric attached to the sacred compound in the Old City, two days after he re-opened a mosque sealed by Israel during a Palestinian uprising in 2003. Sheikh Abdel-Azeem Salhab, who sits on the religious council appointed by Jordan to oversee the Islamic sites at the compound, personally reopened the gate leading into the Bab al-Rahmeh mosque on Friday, and hundreds of Muslims went inside to pray for the first time in years. It followed days of tension between Israeli police and the Muslim religious authorities over access to a corner of the 35-acre sacred compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary. In the build up to Friday prayers police arrested 60 people they suspected would incite violence, and boosted the security presence in the Old City. But the day passed without serious incident. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Salhab and another person were arrested on Sunday morning, two days after the incident, for breaching an order, and that they were being held for questioning. Salhab’s lawyer said that Israeli police had banned him from accessing the compound for seven days, but there was no immediate comment from the police on whether they had issued such an order. The small Bab al-Rahmeh mosque that Salhab opened lies on the eastern side of the compound, which is revered by Jews as the site of the Jewish temples of antiquity. Muslims call it al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary, and regard it as the third holiest site in Islam. Its present-day skyline is dominated by two Muslim shrines, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, denounced the arrests “in the strongest terms” and demanded their immediate release. Jordan’s minister in charge of the Waqf and Islamic affairs, Abdul Nasser Moussa Abu al-Basal, called it “an unacceptable and dangerous escalation that impacts Jordan’s role as a caretaker of Jerusalem’s holy sites.” Because of the religious sensitivities over the site the king of Jordan retains a role in ensuring the upkeep of the Muslim holy places in the city and Jordan appoints the Waqf Council which oversees compound. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. The United Nations regards East Jerusalem as occupied, and the city’s status as disputed until resolved by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

israel
muslim cleric
jerusalem
police
sheikh abdel-azeem salhab
bab al-rahmeh mosque
religion


Exodus from last IS enclave overwhelms Syria force

Abstract: Omar Oil Field, Syria - US-backed Syrian forces warned Sunday they were struggling to cope with an outpouring of foreigners from the Islamic State group’s imploding “caliphate,” urging governments to take responsibility for their citizens. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the jihadi redoubt since Wednesday, moving closer to retaking the last sliver of territory under IS control. “The numbers of foreign fighters and their relatives that we are holding is increasing drastically,” Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar said. “Our current infrastructure can’t handle the mass influx,” he said. Syria’s Kurds have repeatedly called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens, but most have been reluctant to allow battle-hardened jihadists and their relatives back home due to security concerns. At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islamic law across territory straddling Syria and Iraq that was roughly the size of the United Kingdom. But more than four years after IS declared a cross-border “caliphate,” the jihadis have lost all but a tiny patch of land in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border. After years of fighting IS, Syria’s Kurds say they hold hundreds of suspected IS fighters and their relatives. “As thousands of foreigners flee Daesh’s crumbling caliphate, the burden which is already too heavy for us to handle is getting even heavier,” SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said on Twitter late Saturday, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “This will remain as the biggest challenge awaiting us unless governments take action and fulfill their responsibilities for their citizens,” he said. No evacuations were reported from the enclave on Saturday, but the two batches that left on Wednesday and Friday included Europeans, Iraqis and nationals of former Soviet countries, according to the SDF. Around 46,000 people, including a large number of foreigners, have streamed out of IS’s shrinking territory since early December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. While civilians are trucked north to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, suspected jihadis are sent to SDF-controlled prisons. Omar said SDF “detention centers can’t accommodate all the fighters” coming out of the last IS pocket. The evacuation of men, women and children has put a strain on Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, especially the Al Hol camp, which now shelters more than 40,000 people. “There is a lot of pressure on us, especially in Al Hol, where in addition to the relatives of IS fighters you have a large displaced population,” Omar said. On Thursday, nearly 2,500 evacuees arrived at Al Hol, compounding already dire conditions inside the crammed settlement, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordination office OCHA said. “Thousands more are expected in coming hours/days at Al-Hol camp, putting a further strain on basic services,” it tweeted Friday. “This sudden influx presents huge challenges to the response — additional tents, non-food items, water and sanitation and health supplies are urgently needed.” The International Rescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, had died on the way to Al-Hol, or shortly after arriving in past weeks. The battle for Baghouz is now the only live front in Syria’s war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since 2011. The SDF say they are trying to evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with a battle to crush the jihadis unless holdout fighters surrender. Some 2,000 people are believed to remain inside Baghouz, including foreigners, according to the U.S.-backed force. Many European countries are now confronted with the dilemma of whether to bring back their citizens who traveled to join the group and prosecute them at home, or bar them from entry over security concerns. On Friday, the family of Shamima Begum, 19, said it would challenge the British government’s decision to revoke her citizenship. Begum, who traveled to Syria in 2015 aged just 15, faced being left stateless after Britain revoked her citizenship, and Bangladesh, where her parents are from, said it did not want her. On Thursday, the father of Hoda Muthana, 24, sued to bring her home after President Donald Trump’s administration declared she was not a U.S. citizen.

is
syria
war
islamic state
kurds
iraq
refugees


Yemen's Houthis to quit two ports Monday under peace deal: sources

Abstract: DUBAI - Iranian-aligned Houthi forces have agreed to draw back from two Yemeni ports on Monday while withdrawal from the main Hodeidah port will occur later alongside a retreat by coalition-backed forces massed outside the city, U.N. and Yemeni sources said. Houthi forces will withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from the ports of Saleef, used for grain, and Ras Isa, an oil terminal, as a first step agreed with the internationally recognized government, three sources said. The Houthi withdrawal from Hodeidah port and the pull-back by coalition forces 1 km away from the city’s “Kilo 7” eastern suburb would take place as a second step, they said. An orderly troop withdrawal from Hodeidah, now a focus of an almost four-year war, is key to U.N.-led efforts to avert a full-scale assault on the port and pave the way for political negotiations. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. The United Nations has been trying to salvage a truce deal agreed at peace talks in December between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. That process has stalled over who would control of Hodeidah, a Red Sea port used to feed Yemen’s 30 million people. Hodeidah is held by the Houthis while other Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition loyal to ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are positioned on the edges of the city. Hadi’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani, said the initial Houthi redeployment must be verified before further progress can be made and humanitarian corridors reopened. “This is what was agreed by the Yemeni government: we verify the first step before implementing the second,” he told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published on Sunday. A small team of U.N. observers arrived in Hodeidah after the cease-fire went into effect on Dec. 18 to oversee troop redeployments by both sides. The deal calls for local authorities to assume control of Hodeidah but did not detail the process, leaving it open to interpretation. The Western-backed Sunni Muslim coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore Hadi’s government after it was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. The conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been locked in military stalemate. The Houthis, who say their revolution is against corruption, control most urban centers including Sanaa. Hadi’s government holds the southern port of Aden and a string of coastal towns.

yemen
houthis
peace deal
iran
war
united nations


North Korea state media slams U.S. critics of Trump-Kim summit

Abstract: SEOUL - Pyongyang’s state media on Sunday slammed U.S. critics of the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un a day after the North Korean leader boarded an armored train en route to the summit venue in Vietnam. The two leaders are due to meet next week in Hanoi after their groundbreaking first summit in Singapore last June, which produced a vague statement on the “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” Senior officials from Washington and Pyongyang are holding preparatory talks in Hanoi — which are expected to be largely focused on establishing the agenda for the summit. Stephen Biegun, the U.S. Special Representative on North Korea who is leading the American delegation, acknowledged last month that Pyongyang and Washington did not have a “shared agreement of what denuclearization entails.” The lack of progress since the first summit has fueled skepticism in Washington over the North’s intentions, with Trump’s own intelligence chief saying Pyongyang was unlikely to completely give up its weapons program. But in a sharply-worded commentary issued Sunday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency slammed U.S. critics and urged the Trump administration to seize “the rare historic opportunity.” “The U.S. administration must not forget last year’s lesson when it plunged the bilateral negotiations into a stalemate, being swayed by the opponent forces,” it said. “If the upcoming DPRK-U.S. negotiations end without results as wished by the opponent forces, the U.S. people will never be cleared of the security threats,” it added. Pyongyang is seeking relief from punishing U.N. sanctions and rejects demands for what it calls its “unilateral” disarmament. Washington insists that the measures must stay in place until North Korea gives up its nuclear arsenal. Experts say tangible progress is needed in Hanoi to avoid the talks being dismissed as a publicity stunt.

north korea
media
kim jong un
vietnam
north korea nuclear crisis
kim-trump summit


China aims to 'optimize' spread of controversial Confucius Institutes

Abstract: BEIJING - China plans to “optimize” the spread of its controversial Confucius Institutes, the government said, institutions to promote Chinese language and culture that have been criticized by some for spreading Communist Party influence. In 2004, China began setting up the government-run bodies, whose stated mission is to satisfy soaring global demand to learn Chinese. But they have drawn criticism, especially in the United States, for being little more than a propaganda arm of the ruling Communist Party, assertions denied by both the institutes and the government. The Confucius Institute will remain a key government policy, a document on modernizing China’s education system issued late on Saturday by the party’s Central Committee and the Cabinet showed. “Optimize the regional distribution of the Confucius Institute, strengthen its abilities and building, and fully raise its educational standards,” they said in the statement, released by the official Xinhua News Agency late on Saturday. “Strengthen work on the teaching of Chinese internationally,” they added, without giving details. Such broad statements are typically followed weeks or even months later by more detailed policy documents that focus on implementation. Some U.S. legislators, including Florida Sen. Macro Rubio, have been critical of the more than 100 Confucius Institutes hosted at universities across the United States, calling them a vehicle of Chinese influence on international higher education. Some major U.S. colleges, including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Chicago, have cut ties with the institute after professors complained its programs were Chinese propaganda wrapped in culture and language education. The document added that China would improve educational opportunities for students from countries in the Belt and Road initiative, speeding up the grooming of international talent and helping foreign students return home to better job prospects. China opened its first so-called Silk Road School last year in Suzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu. About 100 students from countries in the initiative received scholarships as they study China’s economy, politics, law and culture. Students from Belt and Road countries such as Pakistan and Nepal are also eligible for scholarships to other universities in China. The “Belt and Road” initiative, championed by President Xi Jinping, aims to link China by sea and land with southeast and central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, through an infrastructure network on the lines of the old Silk Road. Aside from boosting trade and investment, Xi aims to boost exchanges in areas such as science, technology, culture and education.

china
confucius institutes
language
propaganda
schools


North Korean media makes first mention of second Kim-Trump summit after leader sets off

Abstract: HANOI - North Korea’s state-run media on Sunday broke the silence on this week’s meeting between leader Kim Jong Un’s and U.S. President Donald Trump, reporting that Kim had departed for the second summit between the two countries. Kim left Pyongyang by special train on Saturday afternoon, the Korean Central News Agency said in a report early Sunday. His sister and close aide, Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Yong Chol, a senior ruling party official who held talks with Trump last month, were among those accompanying Kim, it said. Other senior North Korean officials, such as de facto chief of staff Kim Chang Son and Kim Hyok Chol, the negotiations counterpart to U.S. envoy Stephen Biegun, were already in Hanoi to prepare for the summit. If Kim travels all the way to Vietnam by train, the journey of thousands of kilometers through China could take at least 2½ days. Beijing has given no details of Kim’s trip through China. Travel by train has been a favorite mode of transport for Kim, as it was for his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung. When Kim Il Sung visited Hanoi in 1958, he traveled from Pyongyang to Beijing and then southern Guangzhou by train, finally flying to Hanoi in an aircraft provided by China. In his meeting with Trump, experts say, Kim will seek a U.S. commitment for improved bilateral relations and partial sanctions relief while trying to minimize any concessions on his nuclear facilities and weapons. While Kim wants to leverage his nuclear and missile program for economic and security benefits, there continue to be doubts on whether he’s ready to fully deal away an arsenal that he may see as his strongest guarantee of survival. Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi. A train apparently carrying Kim crossed the border into China via the city of Dandong late Saturday night. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Kim will make an official goodwill visit to Vietnam but did not mention the dates and itinerary of his trip. According to a tweet by the ministry, Kim will be visiting at the invitation of President Nguyen Phu Trong. Kim and Trong are expected to hold talks during Kim’s visit. Kim’s train will reportedly take him to the Vietnamese border station of Dong Dang, after which he will proceed by car to Hanoi, with local authorities planning to close the stretch of road on which he will travel to the capital. Kim will be the first North Korean leader to visit Vietnam since Kim Il Sung did so in 1964.

north korea
media
kim-trump summit
kim jong un
vietnam
rail
north korea nuclear crisis


There's so much that bonobos and chimps can teach humans

Abstract: About 6 million years ago in Africa there was an ape species that would change the world. We don’t know much about that animal — we assume it was similar to the modern-day chimpanzee — but we do know that one population separated from the rest and would eventually evolve into our species, Homo sapiens. The rest of the species stayed together for another few million years. Then, between 1 million and 2 million years ago, this group again split in two — separated by the physical barrier of the Congo River. The formerly single species would go on to evolve into chimpanzees on one side of the river, and bonobos on the other. Six million years sounds like a long time, but in evolutionary terms it’s rather short. We are still closely related to both of those cousin ape species, and slightly more closely to bonobos than to chimps. Understanding them, therefore, is hugely important to learning about our own biology and behavior, and work at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University has been vital. Decades of study in the wild has told us that chimps tend toward violence, and bonobos tend toward love and peace. There are exceptions, and we’ll come back to a shockingly gruesome finding that has just been reported by the Kyoto group, but in general chimps use violence to settle disputes, whereas bonobos, where females dominate society, use sex. Humans can’t be so easily categorized. We are both violent and peaceful; we seem to have blended characteristics of both chimps and bonobos. I’ve been thinking about this recently, reading primatologist Richard Wrangham’s new book “The Goodness Paradox.” Wrangham is a professor of anthropology at Harvard University, and argues that since we split from chimps and bonobos, humans domesticated themselves. A species becomes domesticated, Wrangham says, if it changes genetically and becomes tame. The key was when sophisticated language evolved, which enabled conspiracies and cooperation to flourish. This change in our ability to communicate seems to have occurred between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. It meant, Wrangham argues, that weaker individuals could join forces and plan to attack and remove — kill — violent, stronger leaders. As the ferocious and violent males were gradually removed from the population over hundreds of thousands of years, our species as a whole become less violent. We became tame. Incidentally this gradual reduction in the use of violence against members of our own species has continued in modern times, as documented brilliantly by another Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, in his book “The Better Angels of Our Nature.” Like everything, language itself evolved from simple forms. A recent analysis of the gestural language used by chimps and bonobos shows that there are many similarities — if the two apes ever met up, they would probably be able to understand each other. Takeshi Furuichi of Kyoto University, and a team of international colleagues, recorded 33 different gestures made by bonobos and compared them with those made by chimps. “Bonobos and chimpanzees share not only the physical form of the gestures, but also many gesture meanings,” the scientists say. For example, an arm extended in front of another animal means “climb on me” in both bonobo and chimpanzee language; scratching of the arms means “groom me,” and stroking the mouth means “fetch that object.” Some gestures were different, however. If a bonobo stands up it means “let’s have sex” — but the signal doesn’t exist for chimps. You might expect that there are more signals designed to encourage sex in a species where sex is used socially. Lest we get carried away with the idea that bonobos are completely loving and that their society is some sort of sexual utopia, let’s just review some more of Furuichi’s work with wild bonobos in Congo. Be warned this is quite stomach churning. Furuichi’s team observed two cases of female bonobos eating their own offspring. Maternal cannibalism is very rare in apes, but the observations by Furuichi and another case in Congo suggest it is a normal part of bonobo behavior. It’s not known whether the mothers killed their own children first. Kirsty Graham from the University of York, U.K., is one of Furuichi’s collaborators. “In future, we hope to learn more about how gestures develop through the apes’ lifetimes. We are also starting to examine whether humans share any of these great ape gestures and understand the gesture meanings, so watch this space.” It’s worth noting that both bonobos and chimpanzees are endangered species, with populations declining toward extinction in the wild. We can’t let this happen. It’s wrong in its own right to let these animals go extinct and, if we do, we will lose the opportunity to gain huge insight into our own evolution.

bonobos bonobos animals chimpanzees evolution primates monkeys bonobo


More than 70% in Okinawa vote no to relocation of U.S. Futenma base to Henoko

Abstract: NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. - More than 70 percent of voters in Okinawa on Sunday voted against a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to Henoko — a coastal area in the northeastern part of the main island — in a closely watched prefecture-wide referendum that was the first of its kind on the issue. According to the Okinawa Prefectural Government, turnout hit 52.48 percent, topping the 50 percent threshold — a line seen by observers as lending legitimacy to the referendum. The prefectural government said the number of “no” votes stood at 434,273 or 72.2 percent of the total voters, and surpassed 396,632, the figure Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki garnered in last September’s gubernatorial election when he campaigned on a platform of blocking the relocation plan. Some 19.1 percent voted in favor of the plan while 8.7 percent voted “neither” in the referendum. “This is a big step for the development of democracy in Okinawa. I want the central government to respect the will of the Okinawan people,” Jinshiro Motoyama, who led the effort to hold the referendum, said as the votes were still being officially counted late Sunday. Voters in all of Okinawa’s 41 cities, towns and villages were asked if they support the bilateral plan, oppose it, or neither. With more than a fourth of eligible voters, or roughly 290,000 people, the vote must be respected by Tamaki and reported to the central government and the United States. Tamaki now has such a mandate, as the “no” choice secured more than a quarter of all eligible voters. Among those who voted against the plan, about 82 percent polled by Kyodo News said they want the central government to respect the outcome of the referendum. Despite the rejection, the outcome is legally nonbinding. The central government, pushing hard to complete construction of an offshore replacement facility beside Camp Schwab, has said it will ignore the result and go ahead with construction. However, with most voting “no,” the result is likely to embolden the anti-Henoko faction led by Tamaki and potentially lead to further efforts by the prefecture to use legal means to delay or halt construction. The central government began landfill work for the project in December. The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito had been hostile to the idea of a referendum, which was supported by Tamaki and the majority of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly. Last month, five LDP-friendly cities, including Ginowan, indicated they would not participate in the referendum unless the third option of “neither” was put on the ballot. They cited the complexity of the issue, saying it was not black and white for many of their residents. After the referendum, proponents agreed to include the “neither” option, the five cities agreed to participate and the referendum took place in all cities, towns and villages in the island prefecture. The first prefecture-wide referendum on the relocation plan came about two decades after the United States and Japan agreed to relocate Futenma air base to Henoko, a contentious policy that has been stymied by entrenched opposition from Okinawan anti-base activists, politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders over the years. In 1996, a nonbinding referendum was held on the more general issue of consolidating U.S. military bases in Okinawa. While 53 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in favor of consolidation, over a third abstained. In 1997, another nonbinding referendum was held in Nago specifically for the relocation plan. A majority opposed relocation, but the plan moved forward anyway. Since taking office in 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration has insisted, in line with previous LDP administrations, that the Henoko plan is the only option for relocating Futenma.


Emperor reflects on Japan's past, future and his 'endlessly long' quest to pin down role after 30 years on throne

Abstract: Emperor Akihito said Sunday he has dedicated the past 30 years of his reign to an “endlessly long” quest to fathom out his role as the symbol of the state, expressing hopes that his successors will pick up where he left off and update the idea as they adapt to the changing times. Looking back on the past 30 years of the Heisei Era, the Emperor also suggested Japan’s days as a complacent island country are coming to an end, noting that globalization is placing pressure on the nation to adopt a more outward-looking posture and to “sincerely” approach relations with other countries. Heisei means “achieving peace.” The Emperor was speaking at a government-sponsored event at the National Theatre in Tokyo held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his enthronement. It also coincided with preparations for his coming abdication. “Ever since I ascended the throne, I have spent my days praying for the peace of the country and the happiness of its people, as well as contemplating how I should behave as a symbol,” the Emperor said. After the war, the Emperor was defined by the Constitution as “the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people,” and stripped of any political power. Under the prewar Constitution, he was deified and defined as Japan’s head of state with whom all sovereignty resided. “The journey to figure out the idea of a symbolic emperor, as defined by the Constitution, has been endlessly long, and I hope my successors in the next eras to come will keep exploring an ideal form of this symbolic role and build on the version from this departing era,” he said. The Emperor also commended Heisei for being the “first period in modern history where Japan did not experience war,” but at the same noted it was fraught with “unexpected challenges” such as climate change, natural disasters and a rapidly graying population. The changing landscape of society, he said, begs the question of how Japan should respond. “As an island country, Japan has enjoyed relative advantage in cultivating its own unique culture, but amid growing moves toward globalization, I think it is being expected to open itself more to the outside, use its wisdom and power to establish its own position and sincerely work on building relationships with other countries.” Emperor Akihito is scheduled to relinquish the throne on April 30, paving the way for his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, to take over the following day. The abdication will be the first in about 200 years because Imperial successions in modern history have been preceded by an emperor’s death. The Emperor hinted at his desire to step down early during a rare, nationally televised video message in the summer of 2016 in which he said his advanced age was interfering with his ability to carry out public duties “with my whole being.” Addressing the crowd, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for his part, said the Emperor has fulfilled his role as a symbol of the state and the people by aligning himself closely with the public, citing the numerous trips he and Empress Michiko have taken over the years to areas ravaged by natural calamities, and giving evacuees “courage and hope.” Abe also said their official visits to 35 countries over the past 30 years contributed to “deepening Japan’s friendship with other nations.” The ceremony, attended by about 1,100 people — ranging from lawmakers, bureaucrats, ambassadors, business executives and NGO representatives — was punctuated by musical performances to rev up the celebratory mood. Pop singer and dancer Daichi Miura was tapped to perform “Utagoe no Hibiki” (“Resonance of the Singing Voice”), a song written by the Emperor and composed by the Empress after their first-ever visit to Okinawa in 1975, when they were the Crown Prince and Crown Princess. Miura is an Okinawa native. Sunday also saw the government’s first use of facial recognition technology at a state-organized event to reduce waiting times and improve security. An official said the government plans to use the system — which it claims can identify human faces with an accuracy of more than 99 percent — for large-scale Imperial events in the future, such as the enthronement ceremony in October. The Japanese Communist Party, however, boycotted the ceremony. Keiji Kokuta, the Diet affairs chief for the JCP, told reporters Wednesday it was going to do so on the grounds that government-organized event amounted to “using the Emperor for political purposes.” At his regular press briefing Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government is “fully prepared” for the abdication. In fact, as part of the preparations, Abe took the highly unusual step Friday of visiting the Crown Prince at the Togu Palace for a face-to-face “explanation,” as a government official put it. Although Suga declined to disclose the details of their conversation, speculation is rife that Abe was briefing the Crown Prince on Japan’s state of affairs at home and abroad to better prepare him for his new role. “I think it’s a matter of fact the prime minister would want to explain the situation abroad to the Crown Prince because he will be swamped with diplomatic duties the moment he becomes the Emperor,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit Japan in late May, possibly becoming the first foreign leader to be granted an audience with the new Emperor.

emperor akihito
heisei
anniversaries
shinzo abe
imperial family


Donald Keene, lauded scholar of Japanese literature, dies at 96

Abstract: Prominent U.S.-born Japanese literature scholar Donald Keene , who introduced a roster of talented writers from Japan to the world, died of cardiac arrest at a Tokyo hospital on Sunday. He was 96. Keene obtained Japanese citizenship in 2012 after seeing the struggle faced by those hit by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami disasters that devastated coastal regions of Tohoku. He became close friends with a number of Japanese authors and scholars, including the late novelist Yukio Mishima, Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata and writer Junichiro Tanizaki. Considered a giant among scholars who studied Japanese literature and culture, Keene published hundreds of books in English, Japanese and several European languages, including his multivolume history of Japanese literature — written over nearly two decades. His translations included both classic and contemporary works, including numerous noh plays and modern novels. Born in New York in 1922, Keene became fascinated with Japanese literature at age 18 after he read an English translation of “The Tale of Genji” at Columbia University. “The Tale of Genji,” written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, is a love story featuring the son of an emperor. It is generally considered the world’s first novel. “I turned to ‘The Tale of Genji’ and it was such a relief from the newspapers and the world around me,” Keene told The Japan Times during an interview in 2009 , referring to the war that was taking place in Europe in 1940. “It moved me very greatly, not only because of its interesting story and interesting characters but because it seemed so civilized compared with the world I was actually living in,” he said. Keene’s interest in contemporary Japan grew while as he served as a Japanese-language interpreter for the U.S. Navy during World War II, interrogating a number of Japanese prisoners and translating diaries left by Japanese soldiers. “As a pacifist, I had no desire to go to war, but I envied students who, as the result of joining the Navy, could devote their full energies to learning Japanese,” Keene wrote in his autobiography “On Familiar Terms,” published in 1994. In 1953, he entered graduate school at Kyoto University to study Japanese literature. He later taught at Columbia University in New York but frequently visited Japan. Keene translated several contemporary works by Japanese novelists into English, becoming close friends with them. “I have been happiest when I thought I had discovered some work not fully appreciated by the Japanese themselves, and as an enthusiast, I have not tried to keep my discovery to myself but to ‘publish’ it,” Keene wrote in the 1994 memoir. “I am glad that I had the chance to contribute to a basic understanding in the West of Japanese literature, and of Japanese culture in general,” he wrote. Keene was a professor emeritus of Japanese literature at Columbia University. “Professor Keene played the leading role in the establishment of Japanese literary studies in the United States and beyond,” the university said in a statement posted by its Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture. “Through his scholarship, translations, and edited anthologies, and through the work of students he trained and inspired, he did more than any other individual to further the study and appreciation of Japanese literature and culture around the world in the postwar era,” the university said. Further reading Donald Keene reflects on 70-year Japan experience Donald Keene: A life lived true to the words Famed Japan scholar Donald Keene, 93, reflects on golden era as he pens works from Tokyo home Keene shares his love for Tohoku Eschewing the cheerlessness of modern-market memoirs

donald keene
literature
translation
obituaries


The week ahead for Feb. 25 to March 3

Abstract: Monday and Tuesday No major events. Wednesday Tokyo District Court to rule on case concerning death of Hitotsubashi University law student who was outed as gay. Thursday Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to release preliminary industrial production index for January. Friday Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry to release unemployment rate for January. Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry to release ratio of job offers to job seekers for January. Cabinet Office to release survey on consumer trends for February. Japan Automobile Dealers Association to release new motor vehicle sales for February. Tokyo District Court to rule in trial of former Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems officials accused of bribing Thai public servant over power plant project. It is the first case in Japan to make use of a plea bargain. Major firms to begin recruitment events for university students graduating in March 2020. Mercian Corp. to lower prices for European wine imports by up to 20 percent. The move reflects the removal of tariffs under the economic partnership deal with the European Union that took force in February. Major ice cream producers to hike prices due to rising ingredient and distribution costs. Japan Association for University Athletics and Sport to be established. The governing body, modeled on the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association, was formed after a string of incidents involving problematic coaching practices. Saturday No major events. Sunday Tokyo Marathon. Three high school girls representing an anti-nuclear weapons civic group to visit Oslo to meet with Nobel Committee. The Hiroshima- and Nagasaki-based group is known for sending a student delegation to the United Nations every year to advocate for nuclear disarmament.