Signs seen of road widening for futuristic mobility

Abstract: Japan is about to take a step into the future of personal mobility by easing government regulations so that Segways and similar vehicles can be driven on public thoroughfares. Once the rules ease, which is expected in a week or so, people might see more gyroscope-based devices become part of the daily traffic scene. Let’s take a closer look at personal mobility, the devices involved and what their proliferation will mean for standard commuters. What exactly are personal mobility devices? Generally speaking, these can be any device that improves one’s mobility, particularly in public. The transport ministry says they should be less than 150 cm long, 70 cm high and go no faster than 10 kph. A prime example is the Segway, the two-wheel, self-balancing device made by U.S.-based Segway Inc. that is steered simply by shifting one’s weight. Toyota Motor Corp. followed with the similar Winglet. Both are driven standing upright while holding a hand control. Honda is developing a variation called the Uni-Cub that resembles a stool with wheels, though it is more suited for indoor use. Are they allowed on public thoroughfares? In Japan, they can only be used under tight restrictions, as opposed to many U.S. states and Europe, including Germany and France. Here, the Segway is considered a special motor vehicle that would require mirrors, turn signals and brakes if operated on the street, with drivers requiring licensing. The only places they can be driven right now are in areas that have been designated by the central government as special structural reform zones, at the request of municipalities. But such zones aren’t established simply for allowing Segways and Winglets. They are based on comprehensive plans for energizing the economies of the communities they are in. According to the transport ministry, there are only two areas — Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture and Toyota in Aichi Prefecture — where people can ride Segways and Winglets. Why is the government easing the rules, and where? “In 2011, it became possible to run (personal mobility devices) on public roads in the special reform zones. Various experiments, like Segway tours, have been conducted with no accidents or (traffic) rule violations,” said ministry official Masaru Miyashita. “This means it is possible for areas with similar conditions” to seek permission to test the devices in public, he said. Miyashita added that easing regulations will make it possible for people to ride such devices without being in a special reform zone. Although permission to ride the devices will still be needed from local transport bureaus and police, the new rules will actually allow people, companies and other organizations to request that permission. As for where, Tsukuba has been hosting Segway tours on sidewalks at least 3 meters wide so as not to interfere with pedestrian traffic, and taking security staff along to prevent accidents. Drivers are restricted to a maximum speed of 6 kph and must have a license. The National Police Agency has not announced rules for a nationwide test, but it plans to allow the devices to ply sidewalks less than 3 meters wide simply because that is the reality in many busy urban areas. Will the use of personal mobility devices explode? Dai Akimoto, vice president of Segway Japan Ltd., a Yokohama-based distributor, said city tours using Segways have become increasingly popular in the U.S. and Europe, and Japan might join the trend once deregulation takes place. Cities including Kyoto, Yokohama and Naha in Okinawa, as well as certain parts of Tokyo around the Imperial Palace and the Jingu district, are suitable for Segway use, Akimoto said. There are many people who want to run Segway tours but can’t because of the regulations, so Akimoto said Japan will probably be seeing a good number of Segway-based tour operators flourish in the coming years. Although Segways may not be good for long distances, they are handy for getting around town and might lend themselves to sharing services in the future, like car-sharing, he said. Are they safe? Akimoto said the Segway test in Tsukuba has logged about 20,000 km without incident, demonstrating a certain degree of safety. But similar tests overseas have been much shorter, he said, leaving Japan behind. The Segway also inspired unproven imitations that could pose a risk if they manage to spread in Japan, he warned.


Japan seen seeking U.K. help to best German bid for Aussie sub deal

Abstract: A Japanese government team is in talks with at least two top British firms to help a Japanese consortium land one of the world’s most lucrative defense contracts, sources in Tokyo said, a $50 billion project to build submarines for Australia. Germany’s ThyssenKrupp (TKMS), a rival bidder, is wooing anxious members of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s ruling Liberal Party with the economic and political benefits of its proposal. Two Japanese government officials and a company source in Tokyo said Babcock International Group and BAE Systems had approached the consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries with offers of help. Other British defense contractors may also be involved, they said. All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Both Babcock and BAE declined to say whether they would work with the consortium, the builders of Japan’s 4,000-ton Soryu diesel-electric submarines, on the Australian project. A spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Tokyo said the Japanese bidders were responding to Australia’s desire to have as much local participation as possible in the project. “With Mitsubishi Heavy taking the lead, we are gathering information from both Japanese and foreign companies in regard to Australian industry but we are unable to disclose any specific names,” the spokesman said. Both Babcock and BAE Systems are well established in Australia. Industry sources in Europe said any decision by Babcock to work with the Japanese bid could unsettle TKMS and France’s state-controlled naval contractor DCNS, which is also in the fray for the submarine contract. Babcock does maintenance work on Australia’s Collins-class submarines, including the torpedo tubes and other parts of its weapons system. BAE Systems, which builds the U.K.’s nuclear submarines, employs 4,500 people in Australia. It’s biggest project there is the construction of Australia’s two new 27,000-ton Canberra-class amphibious assault ships, the largest ships ever to be operated by the Royal Australian Navy. “Japan is arguably ahead of the Germans and French in regard to its technology but lags in terms of doing business in Australia and organizing an industrial package there,” one of the sources in Japan said. Japan may also seek cooperation from Saab by tapping the engineers at the Swedish company who built and still help maintain the Collins-class submarine fleet, the sources said. Saab also declined comment. Parliamentary colleagues of Abbott have told Reuters that the fear of a serious blow-back from failing to choose the winner of the contract wisely is one of the most hotly debated topics within the ruling party. The bidders were well aware of this, they said. According to a company document seen by Reuters, the German bidder TKMS will train local contractors using advanced German manufacturing and production technology and help establish Australia as a naval shipbuilding and repair hub in the Asia-Pacific region. The document is to be shared privately with Australian government ministers as part of the proposal. That is an attractive proposition for a country still reeling from the decision by Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co. to halt local production in 2016. Two TKMS executives told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that the Australian government would struggle politically to turn down the economic incentives built into their proposal. “There’s an awful lot of politicians across the board … that will not be very politically happy if this (50 billion Australian dollar) life cost sophisticated program goes to solve Japan’s deficit problem,” TKMS Australia Chairman John White told Reuters. Senator Sean Edwards — chairman of the economics committee in the upper house of Australia’s parliament — said that no government could say yes to any proposal that did not offer significant economic benefits for Australia. “I think it’s compelling (to build the submarines in Australia). And I think this is a problem for Japan,” Edwards told Reuters. However, Australia’s Abbot has described Japan as his country’s “closest friend in Asia.” With the United States also keen to spur friendlier ties between its two key allies in Asia, Tokyo has Washington’s backing for made-in-Japan submarines packed with American surveillance, radar and weapons equipment, sources familiar with Washington’s thinking told Reuters earlier. Each of the bidders have been asked to provide three estimates; one for construction overseas, one for a partial assembly in Australia and one for a full build in an Australian shipyard. A recommendation is likely in November.

japan submarines australia germany babcock bae france britain mhi khi


January-June visitors from abroad rise to record 9.14 million

Abstract: A record 9.14 million foreigners are estimated to have visited Japan from January to June this year, a 46 percent increase from the same period in 2014, as the country continued to attract tourists from China, Taiwan and elsewhere, government data showed Wednesday. The surge in foreign passenger arrivals, which greatly eclipsed the previous high set last year, came on the back of a weaker yen and government measures such as easing visa rules and expanding the scope of duty-free shopping, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. The figures are the latest sign that the government is moving closer to achieving its goal of increasing the annual figure to 20 million by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympics and Paralympics. Shigeto Kubo, commissioner of the agency, told a press conference that he expects around 18 million foreign passenger arrivals this year, up from about 13.41 million last year. In June alone, the number of foreign passenger arrivals jumped 52 percent from a year earlier to 1.60 million, said the Japan National Tourism Organization, a body overseen by the agency. By countries and regions, Chinese traveler arrivals more than doubled to 462,300, the largest share of the total and a record for a single month, followed by 345,200 from Taiwan. South Korean travelers were third at 251,500, hitting an all-time high for June. But a year-on-year increase sharply slowed amid the recent MERS virus outbreak in South Korea that has made people reluctant to leave their homes. The organization expects a lot more visits in July, the start of the summer vacation season. More than 40 cruise ships from East Asia are set to make port calls in Japan, it said. For the first half of the year, the number of Chinese travelers more than doubled from a year earlier to 2.18 million, followed by 1.82 million from South Korea and 1.79 million from Taiwan. The government has been stepping up efforts to attract foreign visitors to prop up the economy amid Japan’s shrinking population. In October, the government abolished a rule limiting duty-free products to electrical appliances and fashion goods, and allowed everything from cosmetics to food and alcohol to be eligible for exemption from the nation’s 8 percent consumption tax. Such measures appear to have further encouraged shopping by tourists. Chinese on shopping sprees dubbed “explosive buying” have become a familiar sight in areas such as Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. Despite concerns over China’s economic slowdown, the tourism agency’s Kubo said he currently does not see any negative impact on organized tours to Japan. Between January and June last year, the overall number of foreign passenger arrivals stood at 6.26 million, a record at the time.

china
taiwan
south korea
foreign visitors
jnto


People spending more time surfing the Web, less time watching TV

Abstract: The TV has long been the dominant media source in Japan, but people here, especially younger ones, are now apparently opting to spend more time online instead, according to a recent survey by NHK. The latest survey on people’s attitudes toward TV, which is conducted every five years by NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, says the number of people who watch TV for 30 minutes to two hours daily or “short-time viewers” increased. “Long-time viewers” — those who watch for four hours or more a day — decreased for the first time since the poll began in 1985. Respondents were asked how many hours they watch TV daily. Viewing on public holidays and watching DVDs was excluded. The survey, released last week, says that the number of short-time viewers was 35 percent in 2010 but that increased to 38 percent this year. The ration for those who don’t watch TV at all also grew to 6 percent from 4 percent. The number of long-time viewers was at 37 percent, down from 40 percent five years ago. By age, people in their 20s to 50s are watching less TV, while those in their 60s and 70s are spending more time watching their favorite programs. The decline in TV viewing is apparently connected to the Internet, as younger people like to watch videos that way. Still, the poll shows that more than 80 percent of people in all age groups think having a TV is necessary. NHK surveyed 3,600 people across the country who were 16 years old or older in February and March, and received valid answers from 2,442 of them.


America still rules the world of Japan's theme parks

Abstract: On July 15, Universal Studios Japan celebrated the first anniversary of its Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey attraction, which lets visitors “experience” flying with the famous boy wizard using 4K-resolution 3-D imagery. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the theme park’s management expected the new ride to increase attendance by 2 million over the subsequent year, but actually, admissions between July 2014 and June 2015 were up by more than 3 million. The number of visitors to the Osaka park in June was 28 percent higher than it was a year earlier. In the past year, 13.5 million people bought tickets to USJ. As impressive as this number is, it hardly compares to last year’s attendance for Tokyo Disney Resort, which incorporates the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks. TDR logged 31.3 million visitors in 2014, an increase of 0.3 percent over the previous year and the third year in a row it has set a new record for attendance. It’s almost certain that 2015’s numbers will set another record since a new attraction based on last year’s hit Disney animation feature, “Frozen,” opened at Tokyo Disneyland in January for a limited time. These two establishments together account for more than half the theme-park admissions in Japan, which would seem to reinforce the notion that Japanese people love American culture, even though USJ, which long ago abandoned its reliance on attractions exclusive to Universal Studios, features a ride based on the popular Japanese anime “Yokai Watch.” The overwhelming popularity of the two parks compared to Japanese equivalents also has something to do with their business models and the way they’ve exploited their appeal to certain demographics. In essence, they don’t really have any competition. The No. 3 theme park in Japan (not counting the Kariya Highway Oasis service area outside Nagoya, which, because it has a ferris wheel, sometimes shows up on these lists), with 5 million admissions last year, was Nagashima Spa Land in Mie Prefecture, which is more of a big hot-spring resort with an amusement park attached than a standalone theme park. Tokyo Disneyland has 39 distinct rides, and Tokyo DisneySea 26. The price of a daily passport for either is ¥6,900 for an adult (less if you enter the park later in the day), and ¥6,000 and ¥4,500 for teens and children, respectively, which is reasonable when you compare it to the price of a passport at one of the Disney-related parks in the U.S. There the one-day ticket price starts at $99 (¥12,300) for anyone over the age of 9. Taking the whole family to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, or the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, is very expensive, but for Americans, going to Disneyland is more or less a once-in-a-lifetime thing. In Japan, theme park success is built as much on repeaters and couples as it is on families, which is why Tokyo Disney Resort also offers a yearly pass for either of its parks for ¥59,000. A combination pass for both parks is ¥86,000. The use of these passes is limited during certain times of the year. USJ started out strong when it opened in 2001 but struggled after that for a number of years as it went through a series of safety-related scandals. The key to its success was that it started adding new attractions regularly after Goldman Sachs invested heavily in the park, and USJ kept its prices affordable enough that whole families, including grandpa and grandma, could go more than once a year. Much has been made of the fact that USJ has raised its prices twice in the last year — it’s now ¥7,200 for an adult — but the increases did not stunt admissions at all. USJ also has yearly passes: ¥19,800 for a limited pass, and ¥28,800 for an unlimited VIP pass. And while USJ’s fortunes were built on local repeaters, it has also seen admissions of people from outside the Kansai area increase steadily over the years, including visitors from overseas, mainly Asia. In the last year, the number of foreign visitors increased by 60 percent. That’s why local management at both theme parks are slightly nervous: Universal Studios will open a new park in Beijing by 2019 and Disney is doing the same in Shanghai. USJ will compete aggressively by launching more new rides in the near future, as well as opening a new hotel, the Park Front, on Aug. 1, whose theme is “Trip ot the USA,” featuring decor that is meant to remind guests of Las Vegas or New York or some other iconic American city. For its part, Oriental Land, the Japanese company that operates TDR, plans to spend ¥5 billion on improvements aimed at attracting more Asian tourists. If competing with other outlets of the same brand sounds counterproductive, it’s no skin off the back of Disney Enterprises. The company takes 7 percent of all revenues at TDR as royalties. USJ is not a listed company, so what portion they pay to Universal Studios is not public record, but it’s probably about the same. In other words, once they license the brand to local endeavors, Disney and Universal practically print money, which is why the U.S. is so keen on pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with its emphasis on licensing and intellectual property rights. American culture still travels well in this part of the world. It just has to adapt.


Alaska woman steals police car with husband handcuffed on back seat

Abstract: JUNEAU, ALASKA - An Alaska woman accused of stealing a police car with her husband handcuffed in the back seat faces several charges including theft and hindering prosecution, troopers said Friday. The woman slipped into the patrol car on Wednesday and drove off while a state trooper was engaged with a passing motorist on an unrelated topic, a trooper dispatch report said. Authorities found the car not far from where it was stolen in Big Lake, a lakeside community of 3,500 people about 65 miles (100 km) northwest of Anchorage. The following day, troopers arrested Amber Watford, 28, and Joshua Watford 38, in a home in Wasilla, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Anchorage. Joshua Watford was first arrested in Big Lake on Wednesday for failure to appear at court-ordered, alcohol-related classes from a previous driving under the influence charge, State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said. Not long after his arrest, Watford’s wife made off with the patrol car, and the couple remained at large for about 30 hours, the trooper report said. No one else was charged in connection with the incident, Peters said.

alaska
police
theft
u.s .
alcohol
marriage


Gang split may end with a whimper, not a bang

Abstract: A detective who specialized in organized crime once told me a dark joke: What type of crime occurs when a member of the yakuza kills another gangster? Answer: destruction of property. The joke perhaps reflects an unwritten premise of law enforcement in Japan: as long as gangs confine their conflict to other gangs, it’s no big deal. However, when the Yamaguchi-gumi — the country’s largest organized crime syndicate, with about 23,400 known members at the end of 2014 if quasi-members are included — split into two factions on Aug. 27, the police were understandably concerned. Would a bloody gang war break out? According to a report by the National Police Agency, when the Yamaguchi-gumi last broke up in 1984, a violent battle erupted that claimed the lives of at least 25 people and resulted in more than 70 injuries. The warfare took place on an epic scale: gun battles erupted on the street, assassinations were carried out and trucks were driven into the houses of rival members. In 1985, Yamaguchi-gumi members were arrested in Hawaii on suspicion of attempting to purchase 100 handguns, five machine-guns and at least one rocket launcher — ostensibly to knock off their rivals. Seventy-three-year-old Yamaguchi-gumi leader Kenichi Shinoda, who is also known as Shinobu Tsukasa, began his criminal career in the Kodo-kai group, which is based in Nagoya. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Shinoda had indicated he wanted to move Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters from Kobe to Nagoya. The Yamaken-gumi, which is based in Kobe, opposed Shinoda’s plan, and 13 affiliate gang leaders in Kansai failed to attend a meeting on Aug. 27, the Asahi Shimbun said. As a result, the affiliated gang leaders who skipped the meeting were expelled Tuesday. The rift appears to be partly historical. In July 1989, Yoshinori Watanabe, who was head of the Yamaken-gumi syndicate, became the supreme leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi group at a ceremony in Kobe. Shinoda inherited the position in 2005 and is believed to have promoted members of his Kodo-kai syndicate to top positions in the Yamaguchi-gumi. The Yamaken-gumi syndicate watched its power dwindle with discontent, and the Kodo-kai syndicate’s loyal treatment of kowtowing factions is believed to be another reason for the split, according to NHK. A mid-level Yamaguchi-gumi member, who refused to be named, told this reporter that the Kodo-kai syndicate had also been singled out because of its belligerence to the police, which had led to tightening laws that restricted the group’s activities. Indeed, the National Police Agency cracked down on the Kodo-kai syndicate in September 2009. The United States, which had sanctioned the Yamaguchi-gumi and its executives in 2012 and 2013, blacklisted the Kodo-kai and its current leader in April this year. Law enforcement agencies in Japan and the U.S. are unlikely to be too unhappy at news of the split. While the National Police Agency warned the break-up could erupt in a bloody war, some are expecting the split may end not with a bang but with a whimper . Atsushi Mizoguchi, Japan’s leading expert on the Yamaguchi-gumi group, told NHK he expected the odd skirmish between syndicates but ruled out a massive war. Gang wars aren’t what they used to be, Mizoguchi says. For one thing, they’re expensive and a syndicate’s usual activities — extortion, blackmail, bid-rigging, etc. — is quickly disrupted. These days, leaders of organized crime syndicates fear of being held accountable for their employees’ activities. In November 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that organized crime syndicates were essentially corporations and, as such, their leaders were liable for any damages that occur as a result of one of their member’s actions. A Yamaguchi-gumi leader was ordered to pay ¥80 million to the family of a police officer who was killed in a gang war. Tadamasa Goto, who led the last unsuccessful rebellion in the Yamaguchi-gumi in 2008 after he was expelled from the group, is perhaps a classic example of why gang leaders prefer not to engage in violent conflict. According to the Asahi Shimbun, several of Goto’s men were convicted for the murder of a real-estate agent. The real-estate agent was killed in 2006 for blocking the sale of a building worth $20 million that Goto’s gang wanted to control and sell at a steep profit. Goto himself was never criminally prosecuted. The family of the deceased, seeking justice in civil court, sued Goto and Shinoda for damages in 2012. Shinoda, who was locked up in solitary confinement in 2006, certainly couldn’t have ordered or condoned the hit. Reaching an out-of-court settlement, Goto apologized to the family of the victim, paid them $1.2 million and then fled to Cambodia. Crime, as the old adage goes, always pays, but sometimes it seems gangsters have to pay a little back for their crimes. At the time, however, it was a valuable lesson: Killing people can cost a lot of money. Organized crime syndicates in modern times are less concerned with honor or loyalty. For them, it all boils down to the bottom-line: money. Warfare brings down heat. If a civilian is killed, the police enact new laws and business dries up. For organized crime syndicates, the worst-case scenario in the wake of the split is that the Diet finally passes a criminal conspiracy law that would allow police officers to make arrests all the way up the food chain, close down gang headquarters and arrest syndicate leaders for all crimes committed by their subordinates, including murder. Nobody wants that, right? There will be no winner in such a war — except, perhaps, the police. The National Police Agency can claim success in reducing the power of the Yamaguchi-gumi group and weakening the Kodo-kai syndicate. If the war isn’t particularly bloody and the involved parties only kill each other, then business will continue as usual. Everyone in the underworld understands that one thing holds true in modern times: Crime does pay, gang wars almost certainly do not.

organized crime
yakuza
yamaguchi-gumi
kenichi shinoda
kodo-kai
nagoya
kobe
yamaken-gumi


Accord reached with French Indo-China; Tepco reveals atomic power generation plans; Tokyo civil servants get reusable chopsticks

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Sept. 22 1915 War creates dividends for shipping company The Toyo Kisen Kaisha has to be congratulated on the prosperity of its business brought about by the war. The company, which had long been in straitened financial circumstances, is now able to declare a dividend of 12 percent on new shares and 7 percent on old shares for the first half-year term just closed. The withdrawal of the British and German steamers from the Oriental service consequent upon the war and the subsequent discontinuance of the Oriental line of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. account for the sudden turn for the better. With no rival foreign steamship concern extant, the Toyo Kisen Kaisha has come practically to monopolize the San Francisco line. Mr. Shiraishi, managing director of the company, says the company was able to redeem ¥1.4 million of an ¥8.7 million loan made at the end of the last term, and supposing the favorable business conditions are to continue for some three years or so, the company will be able to clear all of its liabilities, which now stand at ¥7.3 million. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Sept. 24, 1940 Accord reached with French Indo-China Japanese forces entered French Indo-China early today, in accordance with an agreement between the Japanese and French (Vichy) authorities. Although the place of entry was not disclosed, it was presumed to be from Kwangsi Province. Announcement of the agreement came from an Army, Navy joint communique from the Imperial Headquarters and the Foreign Office. It stated: 1. That the Japanese and French governments have concluded an agreement of military importance. 2. That, despite the agreement, a skirmish occurred when the forces entered presumably because of a misunderstanding on the part of the local French Indo-Chinese troops. Although no details of the agreement have been revealed, it is understood the French authorities, as a result of negotiations conducted both here and at Hanoi since some time last month, are to offer facilities for Japanese military operations in Indo-China. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, Sept. 21, 1965 (Supplement published on the occasion of the ninth IAEA Conference, held in Tokyo) Tepco reveals atomic power generation plans The sources of energy used for the generation of electric power in Japan have been progressively switched from hydraulic power to coal and then to heavy oil. The country is now preparing to develop nuclear energy as a new source of energy from the standpoint of economically securing fuel required for steam power generation. The demand made on Tepco is expected to reach 17.89 million kw by 1973. Tepco’s program for nuclear power generation calls for the development of about 2 million kw by 1975. The move is expected to result in the conservation of about 3 million kiloliters of heavy oil, or about one-fifth of the total amount of crude oil needs. Tepco has constantly kept busy making preparations, doing research and conducting other studies since setting up an atomic energy generation section in 1955. A land area of about 2 million sq. meters was acquired for this purpose in November of last year along the coast stretching from Okuma-machi to Futaba-machi of Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture. Plans have been made to install the first and second reactors at this point. The enriched uranium light water model is scheduled to be used as the first reactor. The Fukushima Research Center was established last December for the purpose of conducting on-the-spot research. In order to collect enough data needed for ensuring the safety of the atomic power plant and its construction, the center is now busy at work on meteorological observation, geological and oceanographic surveys along with seismographic and subterranean observations — all of which are broad and time-consuming projects. A study is underway to determine the water pumping formula for the cooling system, but a tentative plan calls for the acquisition of water directly from the sea through the construction of breakwaters. A new committee, an advisory organ to the president is headed by Naojiro Tanaka, an executive director. It is in charge of drawing up blueprints for the atomic power plants and for making other arrangements necessary for launching the construction. Another committee was organized this past July, also under the chairmanship of Tanaka, to work on the problem of earthquake-proofing and other technical matters regarding the construction. This committee is made up of academic and engineering experts, both inside and outside the company. Thus busily engaged, Tepco is moving steadily ahead toward its goal. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Sept. 15, 1990 Tokyo civil servants to get reusable chopsticks The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will adopt a policy of using plastic chopsticks instead of wooden ones at restaurants inside its new office building in Shinjuku next March, when the high-rise opens. The move is designed to reduce waste and conserve natural resources, a metropolitan government official said. According to the official, over 2,500 pairs of wooden chopsticks are discarded daily at three public restaurants for government employees in the current office building at Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward.


Sano stands by Olympics logo, denies plagiarism, retracts design 'to protect family, staff'

Abstract: Kenjiro Sano, whose logo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was scrapped Tuesday, stood by his design but said he decided to retract the logo because he felt his design did not have the support of the public and was marring the image of the Tokyo Olympics. “I swear my design did not involve copies or plagiarism,” Sano, 43, said in a statement on his website late Tuesday. “Any attempt of suspected copying or plagiarism should never be permitted.” He apologized to artists and other involved parties over some of his works unrelated to the Olympic logo, while blaming some media for giving him a “bad image” and reporting “as if all of my designs were copies.” “I made the decision (to retract the logo) after judging that it is difficult to let this situation continue, to protect my family and staff from persistent attacks and bashing over the ruckus,” Sano said, adding that the privacy of his family has been breached with their pictures exposed online. “I feel the situation has become unbearable as a human being,” the statement said. Sano now will not be paid the ¥1 million prize for winning the design competition. The latest suspicion surfaced over the weekend, when he was alleged to have taken a photo from someone else’s website in materials used in Olympic logo presentations, including one at its launch, apparently without permission.

logo
kenjiro sano
2020 tokyo olympics
tokyo olympics emblem


Japan no stranger to emblem, logo controversies

Abstract: Incidents related to official emblems for public institutions and events in Japan, like Tuesday’s retraction of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo, are nothing new. In the case of Expo ’70 held in Osaka, the selection committee chose a design from 48 applications in 1966, but the decision was retracted after objections were raised by the organizer’s board of directors, which said the design was too abstract and did not have popular appeal. The committee launched a competition again to select a new design. In 2011, the Consumer Affairs Agency modified its official logo after a nonprofit organization in the United States claimed that it resembled the group’s registered trademark. The agency changed the number of lines in the logo, as well as the thickness and color of the lines. Recently, an emblem printed on the fire engines of a fire bureau covering the western part of Saitama Prefecture drew controversy, as many pointed out on the Internet that the design depicting the name of the city of Tokorozawa looks similar to the official logo of well-known rock singer Eikichi Yazawa. Fire bureau officials said they did not intend to imitate Yazawa’s logo, characterized by an extended “Z,” adding that they have no plans to change the design.


Nearly 70% of Japan Inc. unready to safeguard nation's new ID numbers

Abstract: Most of the nation’s companies are struggling to find a way to securely store My Number — the new 12-digit social security key that will be used to access everyone’s income tax and bank account information starting next year. The search for security is making life especially difficult for small and midsize firms, which account for about 99 percent of all companies in Japan. “It’s a great burden on us,” said Masanori Okamura of ICT-Leasing, Inc., a Tokyo aviation firm with 15 employees. “We are collecting information about how to accommodate the My Number system, like how to store data safely,” said Okamura, who started studying it late last month. According to a survey by the nonprofit Japan Institute for Promotion of Digital Economy and Community, nearly 70 percent of the 3,386 firms who responded to the March to May survey had not begun preparing for My Number’s debut. This was especially true at small and midsize firms outside Tokyo. Proponents of My Number hope the system will speed up Japan’s notoriously slow administrative customs with a comprehensive, streamlined ID system. But most companies say it will only generate more work. My Number “will not benefit most companies” in light of the time and energy needed to prepare for it, said Masami Komatsu, a senior manager in the ID Business Promotion Division of computer maker NEC Corp., which is holding seminars to teach companies about My Number. State guidelines stipulate that all employers must designate a special area for handling the sensitive ID numbers and restrict access to it. They also must eliminate any data related to them completely after a certain period of time once it becomes unnecessary, and maintain an access log to record who accessed which employee’s information, when, and for what purpose. If personal data containing the ID numbers is leaked, the leaker will face up to four years in prison or a ¥2 million fine — about twice the penalty for leaks of other personal information. Given this burden, it will be easier for companies to store the ID numbers digitally, rather than on paper, Komatsu said. “What’s not good about paper is anyone can instantly take a photo with their smartphone and share it online, without even leaving a record,” Komatsu said. “But if stored electronically, access to personal information can be restricted and recorded in a log automatically so it’s easier to detect and prevent unauthorized access.” But storing data electronically may put personal information at risk of being stolen by hackers. In June, the hacking of the Japan Pension Service resulted in the public release of 1.25 million people’s pension data. While this caused a delay in Diet deliberations on the new ID system, the My Number bills cleared the Diet in early September anyway. In addition to installing a security system, companies will need to raise employee awareness and hammer out new regulations to ensure the data won’t get into the hands of strangers, Komatsu said. “My Number isn’t just something that involves only a certain department within a company. It’s something that involves the entire company” he said.

companies
security
my number
cyberattack


Will bureaucrats stymie Kyoto's bid to lure central government bodies out of Tokyo?

Abstract: KYOTO - Every decade or so, it seems talk arises in Japan about relocating the functions of the central government outside the capital. The reasons given are economic (it’s cheaper outside Tokyo and hosting a government agency will improve the local economy), cultural (Japan is too Tokyo-centric and relocations will revitalize local culture), and logistical (given all the earthquakes and constant warnings about the ‘Big One’ in Tokyo, doesn’t it make sense to decentralize before it’s too late?). The result has usually been a brief period of intense discussion, often accompanied by architectural plans for a gleaming new Diet building or ministry headquarters in the middle of some prefecture you’ve never heard of, followed by platitude-laden speeches from politicians about the need to get the bureaucrats out of Tokyo. The discussion then ends in silence, as bureaucratic opposition and political indifference lead to inertia. But with Kyoto’s current attempts to lure the Cultural Affairs Agency and seven other public organs to the area, this time might be different. Last month, prefectural and city officials from Kyoto, as well as the Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, all backed a formal, detailed proposal that would see Japan’s ancient capital host the modern government organs that manage Japan’s cultural heritage. The proposal’s centerpiece is the agency, which would move from Tokyo to Kyoto. Other Tokyo-based bodies it is interested in hosting include the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, the National Museum of Art, the Japan Arts Council and the Japan National Tourism Organization. In addition, Kyoto Prefecture is proposing that parts of three scientific research institutes, including the National Institute for Radiological Sciences (based in Chiba), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Tokyo), and Riken (Saitama), be relocated to the Kansai Science City area in the southern part of the prefecture. “If the Cultural Affairs Agency is relocated to Kyoto, it can create a new relationship between history and culture,” Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Sadakazu Tanigaki, who represents a district in Kyoto Prefecture, told local media earlier this month. Kyoto’s efforts to lure the agency are long-standing but part of a larger, more recent effort by Tokyo to revitalize rural economies by relocating these bodies to other prefectures. On Sept. 1, regional revitalization minister Shigeru Ishiba, viewed as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s strongest interparty rival, announced 42 of the 47 prefectures had submitted proposals to host 69 such organs. A panel will be set up to examine the plans, with a final decision expected by April. Despite political backing from both Tanigaki and Ishiba on the Cultural Affairs Agency’s shift to Kyoto, bureaucratic opposition remains. Many in the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which oversees the agency, fear the move will cause communication problems with lawmakers and other ministries. In Kyoto’s plan, it’s assumed agency bureaucrats will need to make about 20 annual trips to Tokyo to give Diet testimony. As the land being offered is next to Kyoto Station and Tokyo is only about two hours away, the prefecture says, any inconvenience is limited. “Bureaucrats will offer 2,000 reasons why relocation is not possible. The government needs to demonstrate whether or not it’s really serious,” Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada, who heads the national governors’ association, told the group at a recent meeting. Will Kyoto or any of the other prefectures seeking to host central government bodies succeed? Or will Tokyo’s bureaucrats again defeat the latest effort to oust them? Kyoto’s plans for the cultural agency are more advanced and have more prominent support than many of the other plans submitted. But paralysis by analysis is a sport Tokyo bureaucrats are particularly adept at, and it would not be a surprise if, come next spring, it’s announced that “further study” is needed on moving central government functions outside Tokyo.

kyoto
government
cultural affairs agency


For Hashimoto, much at stake in name of new national party

Abstract: OSAKA - What’s in a name? If you’re Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and trying to form a new national party that will represent the region but could also become a powerful political player on issues of interest to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pretty much everything. On Oct. 1, Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) co-founders Hashimoto and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, along with some 20 to 25 of the party’s Diet members, are expected to launch a new national party. The move effectively splits Ishin, with 51 members at present, between the Osaka faction loyal to Hashimoto and Matsui, and the faction led by Lower House lawmaker Yorihisa Matsuno. Who will join Hashimoto, stick with Matsuno, or leave for another party has been the subject of intense speculation in and out of Osaka in the past few weeks. At the moment, roughly two dozen Diet members have signaled they will follow Hashimoto. Another 22 originally joined Ishin as allies of Matsuno, a former member of the Democratic Party of Japan, while another 10 had joined as followers Kenji Eda, who led the small party Yui no To. But the real question is what will happen to the dozen or so other members who don’t have strong loyalties to either faction. Their final decision is likely to rest not on the policies Hashimoto’s new party espouses, but on what it names itself. The clear front-runner and most likely choice is “Osaka Ishin no To,” with Osaka spelled in hiragana. “I’m partial to ‘Osaka Ishin no To.’ We’re going to use ‘Osaka’ as a word symbolic of changing politics from the local level,” Hashimoto told supporters at an event earlier this month. The only problem with that plan is that many other Ishin Diet members, as well as local politicians and political groups around Kansai allied with Hashimoto, do not want to see another new party called Osaka Ishin. Instead, they are hoping for a name that will reflect the region in a broader sense. Ishin no To Diet members from other Kansai cities recently met in Osaka to express those concerns to Hashimoto, but he remained firm in his choice. At present, Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) is the name of Hashimoto’s local party. “If they don’t like the name ‘Osaka,’ they don’t have to join the new party,” Hashimoto said. But Ishin Diet members not in “Hashimoto’s Dozen,” the nearly 12 lawmakers from Osaka, aren’t the only politicians concerned with names. Over the past few years, Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga have strengthened their ties with Hashimoto and Matsui, who belonged to Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party before linking up with Hashimoto. Any new national party led by Hashimoto and Matsui will find itself being courted by Abe on issues ranging from educational reform to constitutional revision. This is especially likely if Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, takes big losses in next July’s Upper House election due to lingering resentment from its support base — Soka Gakkai, Japan’s biggest lay Buddhist group — over the security legislation the ruling bloc rammed through the Diet earlier this month. “Abe understands how important promoting the integration of Osaka is to Hashimoto, but there are also concerns about whether an ‘Osaka Ishin no To’ would end up with enough winners in the Upper House election to make it a useful party to the LDP,” said one Hashimoto adviser who asked not to be named. Even if “Osaka Ishin no To” is not the final choice, it’s clear the new party will not be called anything that sounds infantile, unnatural or silly when translated, or anything that makes headline writers at English-language news outlets groan or grin. Hashimoto is not the type to sign off on a name like Smile Party, People’s Lives First Party or Rise Up, Japan! Yet the name could also turn into unwanted baggage if Osaka Ishin-backed candidates lose in a Nov. 22 double election for the Osaka governor and mayor. Such a loss would make an “Osaka Ishin no To” or even a “Kansai Ishin no To” a poor tool for recruiting candidates for the Upper House election. “If we are defeated in either election (by a candidate from one of the established parties), we won’t be able to make a plan for integrating Osaka,” Matsui told reporters a couple of weeks ago. That, in turn, would raise serious questions about whether either Hashimoto or Matsui could draw enough followers to a new party that states its primary goal at the national level is to integrate a city where political power is now in the hands of an anti-Hashimoto, anti-Osaka Ishin mayor. As for a potential “Kansai Ishin no To,” even something like that could now have trouble drawing ambitious politicians who share Hashimoto’s goals for the region. In a clear bid to win back regional voters who gravitated toward Hashimoto because of his efforts to revive the local economy, Toshihiro Nikai, the LDP’s powerful general council chairman, recently unveiled plans to form a “Kinki Mega Region.” Nikai’s plan centers around bringing about two rail projects near and dear to Kansai business leaders and bigwigs: extension of the magnetically levitated shinkansen line (now under construction) from Nagoya to Osaka, and of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line to Osaka via Kyoto or another route. As a former transport and economy and trade minister, a Diet veteran like Nikai has the connections and experience needed to make such projects happen. Hashimoto dismissed Nikai’s plan as a purely political ploy, saying that what’s been announced so far is vague enough to fit on a sheet of paper. But if Abe is no longer prime minister during the Upper House poll, Hashimoto, even if he runs and wins, could find that voters elsewhere in Kansai prefer an LDP candidate over one of his own because they think Nikai’s plan is more politically realistic than Hashimoto’s, regardless of what his new party’s manifesto might promise — or what its name turns out to be.

osaka
toru hashimoto
shinzo abe
ishin no to
ichiro matsui
ldp


Dating apps fire back at billboards linking them STD spread

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - An AIDS health care group is defending an ad campaign in Los Angeles that links popular dating apps with the spread of sexual transmitted diseases. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation targets Tinder, a location-based dating app, and Grindr, a similar site for gay men, in billboards and bus benches that are aimed at reminding users about the risks of casual sex and offering free STD tests. “In many ways, location-based mobile dating apps are becoming a digital bathhouse for millennials wherein the next sexual encounter can literally just be a few feet away — as well as the next STD,” Whitney Engeran-Cordova, senior public health director for the foundation, said in a statement. Billboards show a silhouette of a man labeled “Tinder” face-to-face with a woman’s silhouette labeled “chlamydia.” A silhouette of a man labeled “Grindr” faces a male silhouette labeled “gonorrhea.” Reaction from the dating apps was swift. Within two hours of the first billboard going up, Grindr pulled commercials that the foundation pays for on the dating site to promote free STD testing, the foundation said. In less than 24 hours, Tinder sent a cease and desist letter claiming the campaign falsely associates the dating app with the spread of venereal diseases. “These unprovoked and wholly unsubstantiated accusations are made to irreparably damage Tinder’s reputation in an attempt to encourage others to take an HIV test offered by your organization,” a lawyer for Tinder wrote. The foundation sent a letter to Tinder denying that it disparaged the company and saying it would not remove the reference to the app. The campaign is intended to draw attention to rising STD rates that the foundation said coincides with the popularity of the sites that make hook-ups easier, said Michael Weinstein, the foundation’s president. “It’s logical, if you can be hooked up with someone in an urban area within minutes,” he said, “of course you’re going to have more STDs.” Email messages sent to Tinder and Grindr for comment were not immediately returned. The signs are currently on a dozen billboards in Los Angeles and 45 bus benches, Weinstein said. The Los Angeles-based foundation, which provides health care to HIV and AIDS patients and free sexual disease testing, plans to also put them up in New York City, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

sexuality
diseases
u.s .
internet
offbeat


U.S.-Japan environmental agreement on U.S. bases flawed, experts say

Abstract: A newly signed agreement between Tokyo and Washington allowing Japanese officials access to U.S. military bases in Japan to conduct environmental surveys has flaws, experts said, questioning its effectiveness due to vague wording in the bilateral documents. The accord, signed between Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday in Washington, supplements the existing Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement governing the use of U.S. bases in Japan. Hiromori Maedomari, a professor at Okinawa International University who has authored a number of books on the SOFA, said Tuesday the accord was only half a step forward. Maedomari noted the wording in the accord did not guarantee Japanese officials access to U.S. military facilities to conduct surveys in case of environmental incidents. A document stipulating procedures for access to the U.S. military bases says the Japanese government or local municipalities “may request” permission from the U.S. side to conduct surveys. The document goes on to say the U.S. will “give all due consideration to the request” and “respond as promptly as practicable.” It adds the Japanese side “may also request to take samples” in relation to on-the-spot surveys. “If the U.S. did not accept the request, it would be impossible for the Japanese side to carry out the survey,” Maedomari said. “It’s totally up to the U.S. side whether the request would be accepted,” which would make the situation no different to before the new agreement. Maedomari, a former chief editorial writer for the Ryukyu Shimpo newspaper in Okinawa, said there were cases in Okinawa where it took a long time for local municipalities to be allowed to enter the U.S. military facilities for surveys when accidents occurred. In a 2013 U.S. military helicopter crash near a dam in Camp Hansen in Ginoza, local officials, who suspected environmental contamination, received samples half a year later and entered the area one year after they submitted their requests. Masami Kawamura, director of Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa, has been leading efforts to ensure Tokyo and Washington are more transparent about the environmental impact of U.S. bases on Okinawa Island. “The new pact has been described as a way to reduce Okinawa’s military burden but it will do nothing to solve environmental problems. The wording is vague and it still gives the U.S. strong discretionary powers. USFJ (U.S. Forces Japan) and Tokyo ought to prioritize the rights of the people affected by contamination,” she said. Professor Maedomari said the pact wouldn’t contribute to reducing the base-hosting burden unless it was actually proven to work. “Unfortunately, empty promises won’t lead to easing those burdens,” he said. To give teeth to the agreement, Maedomari stressed that provisions placing obligation on the U.S. were necessary. “Without provisions requiring the U.S. side to comply with the request promptly, the pact won’t have effectiveness,” Maedomari said. He also suggested establishing a punitive clause for the U.S. side in the event that it caused a serious environmental spill. It is important for Japan to establish measures now to prevent environmental issues, Maedomari said. The Japanese government should demand that the U.S. “disclose information or report in advance regarding the use of military facilities and its assets that could pose a danger to the environment,” he noted, adding that such a clause was lacking in the agreement. Regarding the timing of environmental surveys for land expected to be returned to Japan, which was stipulated as “no more than 150 working days prior to the return date,” Maedomari said such surveys should be carried out immediately after Tokyo and Washington agreed on a return. As it stood, the time frame was too short for the local government to address the environmental issues and to come up with plans for its use, Maedomari said. Freelance journalist Jon Mitchell contributed to this report

fumio kishida
okinawa
sofa
u.s. military bases
u.s.-japan relations


Japan, U.S. sign new environment pact allowing municipal checks at U.S. military bases

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Japan and the United States on Monday signed a new pact allowing local officials to enter U.S. military bases in Japan to conduct environmental surveys. Under the accord, the U.S. can also give permission for Japan to conduct soil and other relevant surveys about seven months prior to the expected return to Japanese control of land used for U.S. bases. The agreement was signed between Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter when they met Monday during Kishida’s five-day trip to the U.S. that started in Washington. It is the first time a pact of this kind, which supplements the existing Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement governing the use of U.S. bases in Japan, has been drawn up, a senior Foreign Ministry official said. The agreement came into effect immediately. Kishida said at the signing ceremony that the environmental pact “has great significance and will enhance local communities’ trust” in the management of U.S. military bases in Japan. “We are mindful about being good neighbors, which includes realigning our bases and being aware of any concerns that local communities might have about our operations,” Carter said. The agreement “represents a big step forward in our alliance,” he added. The preexisting SOFA had no clause allowing municipalities to conduct environmental surveys on the bases, thereby requiring prefectural and municipal officials to obtain U.S. permission to enter facilities. The new deal, which covers all municipalities hosting U.S. bases in Japan, is part of what the central government sees as measures to ease the base-hosting burden of these municipalities, particularly in Okinawa Prefecture. The government is hoping that taking such a step will help move forward a controversial plan, being pushed by the central government and U.S., for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to relocate within Okinawa, Japanese officials said. The relocation plan remains a source of tension between the central and local governments, with local authorities and communities in Okinawa demanding that the base be moved outside of the southern island prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces in Japan. Okinawa and other base-hosting prefectures have long been asking for such environmental surveys, fearing possible pollution and requesting that surveys be carried out long before land is returned so that they can plan ahead for how to use it, the officials said. But whether the new accord will satisfy Okinawa and other communities hosting U.S. bases remains to be seen amid their demands that environmental surveys be carried out three years before the return of land. Last October, Japan and the U.S. reached a “substantial agreement” on the pact but details as to the extent to which Japan would be ensured the right of access to U.S. facilities were not decided. The new agreement addresses the establishment and maintenance of procedures for Japanese authorities to have appropriate access to U.S. facilities and areas in two cases. One is when an environmental or spill incident occurs within a base, while the other is when field surveys, including cultural asset surveys, are needed for land expected to be returned to Japanese control. When an incident occurs, Japan can request on-site inspections and ask for samples of soil and water believed to be contaminated. The U.S. will then promptly respond to the request under the deal. The new pact also says the Japanese and U.S. governments will share available and appropriate information, and that the U.S. will continue to abide by the Japan Environmental Governing Standards. Conducting environmental surveys for land expected to be returned can also be done earlier than the time frame of 150 days, should Tokyo and Washington reach a separate agreement, the ministry official said. Japan and the U.S. decided to drop a section under which Japan would pay for the costs of environmental protection projects, as agreed last October, the official said.

environment
fumio kishida
ash carter
sofa
u.s. bases


Home-sharing services on the rise in Japan as owners cash in on tourist boom

Abstract: For foreign tourists to Japan, staying at traditional ryokan inns is a popular way to enjoy their trips, but home-sharing services are growing as an alternative form of accommodation. Legally speaking, some home-sharing services fall in a gray zone because existing accommodation rules were drafted before such services began on the Internet. Following are questions and answers about home-sharing services in Japan. What has prompted the rise in home-sharing services in Japan? The rising popularity can be traced to the fast-growing U.S.-based agency Airbnb Inc., which mediates between “hosts” offering to share their homes and “guests” seeking to stay in them. Founded in 2008, Airbnb provides its services from its website, which has about 50 million users and lists 1.5 million homes in more than 190 countries. In Japan, 16,000 homes — a threefold increase on last year — are registered with the service, the firm said, while the number of foreign tourists who used the service in Japan shot up fivefold in the same period. Tokyo-based venture minma Inc. launched a similar site called Roomstay in April, while another, Tomarina, is run by Tokyo-based Tomareru Inc. The growing demand for home-sharing may be attributable to the rapid increase in inbound tourists, as many users who book stays via Airbnb are foreign travelers, according to the company. In 2013, the number of foreign tourists exceeded 10 million for the first time and is still growing. The country is expected to see about 19 million visitors this year. What advantages are there in home-sharing? By staying at local homes, “travelers can enjoy real local experiences as if they were living there,” instead of the perspective travelers have when staying in hotels, Airbnb said in an email. Hosts can benefit by offering vacant rooms for profit. Airbnb’s global research shows that 70 percent of homes registered on its site are located outside hotel-concentrated areas. Thus the economic effects of tourism can be distributed over wider regions, the company said. How does home-sharing fall in a legal gray area? The Inns and Hotels Act states that those who accommodate guests for a fee on a regular basis must obtain permission from their local government. Those violating the law can face a maximum ¥30,000 fine or up to six months in prison. In fact, a British male who failed to receive such permission was reportedly arrested in May for earning profits from people who stayed at his home. Media reports said authorities had warned him many times. In that sense, people who register their homes to matching websites, including Airbnb, could be operating such services illegally if they don’t have permission from authorities. Airbnb said it asks people who seek to become hosts to follow local regulations. Asked if the firm checks to ascertain if its listed hosts have legal permission to operate, Airbnb would only say it asks them to follow the rules. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi Koyanagi, a spokesperson at Tomareru, said Tomarina made sure that hosts had permission. Tomarina has about 500 listed homes, mainly in country areas and catering mostly to Japanese customers, he said. Koyanagi added that the current situation was unfair, as some other service operators seemed to not apply the same diligence. He said the government should publicly announce whether or not it intends to crack down on people sharing rooms illegally. An official at the health ministry, which oversees the Inns and Hotels Act, said even though some people registered with home-sharing services may be violating the law, it is a hard issue to investigate. This is because operators of such services are only middlemen that are not regulated by the Act, so authorities cannot directly ask those service operators to give out information on who is listing their homes, the official said. What downsides are there to home-sharing? The All Japan Ryokan Hotel Association, which has 16,000 registered members in Japan, said home-sharing can be risky to travelers because safety and security are not backed by law. Masato Kiyosawa, executive director of the association, said that to accommodate visitors, hotels need to clear various requirements, including sanitary conditions and disaster prevention preparation. For example, hotels must have a front desk and rooms must have fire-proof curtains. It is doubtful all of those who share their dwellings through home-sharing websites have cleared such standards, he said. In addition, authorized hotels must make guest lists and copy visitor passport numbers. This helps authorities keep track of who stayed where in the event, for example, that tourists have an infectious disease or are a terrorist threat. It is also unclear whether people who profit from sharing their homes are paying taxes properly. Troubles can also arise between hosts and guests, who are unknown to each other. Yet Airbnb said guests can check detailed profiles about hosts and their places and other people’s reviews before booking, while hosts can also do the same, which improves safety and security. Is the government planning changes to home-sharing regulations? The central government has only just begun looking into the home-sharing situation in Japan, so it is unlikely regulations will be relaxed anytime soon. But even government officials see home-sharing as a viable alternative to address the growing need for accommodations as concerns grow over a lack of hotels amid the explosive growth in inbound tourism. For their part, home-sharing services hope the rules will be changed to fit the new way of traveling. “We ask our hosts to follow the laws and regulations if they want to register their homes, but it is unclear whether the existing rules apply to those who share their places only occasionally” rather than regularly, said Airbnb. “We’d like to communicate (with the authorities) to make rules that reflect the trend of home-sharing and is simple for the general public to understand.” In some countries and cities, including France, Portugal, London, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, rules have already been changed to adapt to the growing trend of home-sharing. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and Paralympics Committee has chosen Airbnb as an Official Alternative Accommodation Service.

home-sharing accommodation airbnb tomarina tourism


How grandma drives human evolution

Abstract: Speak to professionals from various disciplines and you will notice something funny: Even when they are off duty, they tend to view the world through the lens of their professional background. For example, a psychiatrist at a dinner party might pause to think a bit about the possible neuroses of the guests. A police officer might scrutinize an ordinary scene — and the people present — for any sign of illegal activity. It’s not that they will do anything about it or even speak their mind, but I bet that’s what goes on in their heads — it’s the same with evolutionary biologists. A dinner party is a rich source of observations of animal behavior and a biologist automatically categorizes human activity according to what we’ve learned from animals. Try it next time you’re at a party or in a bar. One of the most obvious behaviors shown by men is what biologists call “mate-guarding.” This occurs when a man (or a male of any species) has reason to believe their mate may attract the attention of a rival. Females have many reasons why they might actually want to interact with other males but, for now, let’s consider the male point of view. Men have various tactics for discouraging the attention of other men. You might see a man standing close to his partner, his arms folded in order to display his muscles. Sometimes you’ll see men staring down potential rivals who approach, or drawing their mate away from areas where single men are clustering. In this way, the man is attempting to enforce a buffer zone around the woman to prevent her from interacting with other men. Until recently, the evolutionary explanation for this behavior has been straightforward: Once you’ve gone to the effort of attracting and securing a mate, you don’t want some other male to come along and steal her. This guarding happens in various ways in animals as diverse as dung flies, dogs, birds and humans. Now, however, it seems there is a more nuanced explanation. Kristen Hawkes at the University of Utah developed an idea that grandmothers help increase our life span by helping women have their next babies sooner. The reasoning — borne out by computer simulations — is that a grandmother helps feed the offspring and this frees up women to get pregnant again. This then leads to an evolutionary increase in life span, since long-lived grandmothers can help feed more grandchildren. OK, you ask, but how does this lead to mate-guarding? The answer is simple: As life span increases, you get a surplus of older men. This leads to stronger competition for young, fertile women. And it means men have to guard their mates more closely. “This male bias in sex ratio in the mating ages makes mate-guarding a better strategy for males than trying to seek an additional mate, because there are too many other guys in the competition,” Hawkes says. “The more males there are, the more their average reproductive success goes down.” Hawkes says that this is also the reason that humans form pair bonds, when our closest relatives, chimpanzees, don’t. “Human pair bonds have the characteristic of male proprietary claims on females,” she says. That’s not all. Hawkes says that when women started having babies closer together, the mother naturally became less committed to each new infant. “Where before infants had mom’s full commitment as a birthright, now infants (that are) better at actively engaging their mothers and grandmothers were much more likely to survive,” she says. This means there was natural selection on infants to become sensitive to their social environment, to become more willing to interact and more responsive. So when grandmothers started helping raise their own grandchildren, the argument goes, certain key human traits — including longer life span and pair bonding but even increased brain size, cooperation and empathy — started to evolve, too. It’s certainly an ambitious idea. “We’d hypothesize all that follows from ancestral grandmothering,” Hawkes says. The new study that has led Hawkes to this conclusion is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hawkes and her team ran computer simulations of human evolution with and without grandmothering. The simulations showed that societies gradually became male-dominated. This is not the case in real-life populations of chimps, which have more fertile females than fertile males. The authors say the excess of older males competing for mates is a likely source of men’s preference for young women. “This is different than what you see in chimpanzees, where males prefer older females,” Hawkes says. As the “grandmother factor” kicked in, human longevity increased. That leads to lots more old guys. “So you have an increasing number of males in the paternity competition, and the only way you can become a father is with a fertile female, which means younger females,” Hawkes says. “So males who had preference for younger females were more likely to leave descendants.” The idea of the grandmother effect originated from observations of the Hazda people in Tanzania. I saw these people myself once on an unforgettable trip to Africa. They are hunter-gatherers, living without livestock and without farming, living an extremely basic life similar to the one Western societies lived some 100,000 years ago. Anthropologists noticed that in Hazda society, the older women dug tubers and fed the young in the group. Infants and young children aren’t strong enough to dig their own tubers. “Human infants — blobs that they are — are nevertheless remarkably socially precocious,” Hawkes says. Grandmothers are incredibly helpful — I can testify firsthand to that — and it’s fascinating to think that they might have had such an influence on our evolution.


Government's affinity to the universe, religion

Abstract: Supposing we think of the universe this way: there is Heaven and there is Earth; nothing else — no other worlds, no gods. “Heaven” is roughly analogous to what we moderns call “Nature.” Heaven’s laws, however, unlike Nature’s, are moral, not physical. Two substances pervade this universe: ki and ri . Ki, roughly, is matter and energy fused. Ri, equally roughly, is “principle.” Every material thing in the universe is composed of ki; every phenomenon is governed by ri. Modern education doesn’t prepare us for this kind of thinking, but in 17th- and 18th-century Japan, as in China for thousands of years until very recent times, it came more or less naturally. The corollary is that according to Confucian philosophy — for that is what we’re dealing with — good government is government in harmony with the universe. Misrule is not. Misrule riles Heaven. Airy stuff — but the intellectual discord it sparked shook premodern Japan and reverberated deep into the 20th century. The fall of the shoguns in the 1860s, the descent into war in the 1930s — we’re peering into the cauldron of generation. Those who stirred it little knew what they brewed. The three representative philosophers of the time are Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) and Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) — Hakuseki the fundamentalist, Sorai the rebel, Motoori the unwitting revolutionary. “This year,” wrote Hakuseki in 1708, “draws to a close with no end of heavenly portents and natural calamities.” A natural calamity was a heavenly portent — of heavenly ki out of whack; of the ruler’s moral unfitness. If the ruler is good, the people are good and happy; evil and unhappiness among the people prove the ruler’s depravity even without natural calamities such as the eruption of Mount Fuji in 1707, or the drought that in December 1708 was parching Edo (present-day Tokyo) — more than parching it; Edo was a metropolis built of wood; the risk of fire was terrifying. The shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, could not but be implicated. Just and wise government does not “disturb ki” — volcanoes do not erupt; rain falls as needed. Tsunayoshi died on Feb. 19, 1709. “That day,” Hakuseki noted with satisfaction, “it rained toward nightfall.” Hakuseki, rising in influence under Tsunayoshi’s successor, Ienobu, steered Japan into a reign of “rites and music.” Why did natural calamities abound? Why had both Tsunayoshi and his predecessor failed to produce heirs? Because, said Hakuseki, “at present rites and music are not properly practiced, and there are places where the ki of Heaven and Earth is disturbed.” The reforms that followed, of official dress, official ceremonies and the music performed on official occasions, strike us as shockingly pettifogging, but thinking was different then, and Hakuseki’s aim was as high as the cosmos. Suitable rites and music, he taught, would rectify the government. Rectified government would purify the morals of the lower orders. “The ki of Heaven and Earth” would be appeased. And Heaven once more would smile on Japan. Nonsense, fumed Sorai. Sorai never acquired the political clout Hakuseki wielded, but Hakuseki himself soon fell from grace, Ienobu dying in 1712 and subsequent shoguns proving less amenable to Hakuseki’s brand of Confucianism. Sorai made his mark more as a teacher than as a government counselor — but it was a very deep mark indeed. What he did in effect was detach government from “Heaven.” The Way of Confucius was inherent not, as Hakuseki supposed, in the cosmos but in the human heart. Confucius himself had said so 2,000 years earlier, as Hakuseki would have known had he not been distracted by the neo-Confucianism originating in 12th-century China, an altogether more abstract — more “cosmic” — line of thought. What Sorai urged, in effect, was a movement back to Confucius. And he urged the study of poetry — ancient Chinese poetry primarily, but Japanese poetry, too, for “these poems are the ones to which people of ancient times responded with joy and sorrow.” Moral principles are drawn not from the cosmos but from human “joy and sorrow.” The poets knew that better than anyone, and knew better than anyone how to express it. “Abstract theories are irrelevant here,” said Sorai in a sly dig at Hakuseki. Was not the “Book of Odes” (or songs, or poems) one of the ancient Confucian classics? Of course it was. Why, then, had Hakuseki neglected it? Norinaga, the third actor in our little drama, born two years after Sorai’s death, rose to prominence in the 1760s as a disciple of Sorai’s. He, too, revered poetry; he, too, respected human feeling above all else — far above all else. His famous concept of mono no aware (the pathos of things) seems at first blush a variation on Sorai’s ninjo (human emotions). Perhaps it was at first, but Norinaga went to extremes Sorai would not have contemplated. He was led at last to renounce Confucianism altogether in favor of an ecstatic nativism whose role, two generations after his death, in the overthrow of the shoguns in favor of the divine Emperor would no doubt have pleased him — but what would he have thought of the strutting militarists of the 1930s, many of whom strutted with his name and his poetry on their lips and in their hearts? It’s hard to know what to make of Norinaga. He seems beautiful and repulsive at the same time. He wrote, “If we constantly devote ourselves to the way of poetry … our hearts will naturally become polished and gentle. … We will be captivated by the flowers and birds, and our eyes will be delighted by the moon and the snow.” He also wrote, “Our august country is the august country of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami. It is the beautiful and magnificent august country superior to all other countries. … In foreign countries, though, there is no correct transmission of the age of the gods. … Instead they … believe that everything is established through reason. This is very foolish.”

government
religion
arai hakuseki
ogyu sorai
motoori norinaga
politics


Inevitable looming consumption tax hike keeps the LDP awake at night

Abstract: A funny thing happened on the way to the consumption tax hike. The government, it appears, has lost its nerve. Several years ago when the Liberal Democratic Party, with the urging of the Finance Ministry, adopted the previous ruling party’s plan to increase the tax from 5 to 10 percent in two stages, it sounded like both a no-brainer and an inevitability. At the time, the resurgent LDP launched the easy-money policy known as “Abenomics,” and for a while the economy picked up, so it wasn’t difficult to convince the electorate that the tax hike was for its own good. However, when consumption sank after the first phase of the hike went into effect in April 2014, the government balked and postponed the second phase from October 2015 to April 2017. More significantly, the LDP’s coalition partner, Komeito, promised its supporters during last year’s Lower House elections that it would exempt food and beverages from the next phase. So the LDP is in a tough spot. On one side, it is watching its public support dwindle due to various policies, including the tax hike, that people don’t like and, on the other side, it’s got the Finance Ministry, which says it isn’t going to budge on the final move to 10 percent. As a result, the Finance Ministry has come up with a refund plan for lower-income consumers that no one seems satisfied with. But maybe that’s the point. On a recent installment of the Bunka Hoso radio program “Golden Radio,” economist Takuro Morinaga explained how the government has proposed that these low-income consumers use the upcoming My Number system to register at point-of-purchase (POP) locations for consumption tax refunds of food and nonalcoholic beverages. The groundwork for the introduction of the My Number system starts next month, with every Japanese resident receiving an identification number for tax and social security purposes. In January, everyone receives a card with the number recorded on an IC chip, although at this stage it’s optional. When the second tax hike goes into effect in April 2017, consumers who make less than a certain amount of money can use the cards at retailers to register for the tax refunds. As Morinaga pointed out, almost nobody thinks this system will work, and he himself predicts it will be “impossible” to carry out. First of all, the cost and trouble of setting up the system will be prohibitive: Retailers will have to install POP devices to read the cards. Then there’s the inconvenience: The consumer does not receive the refund at the POP, but only registers it and then must apply for the refund separately at a later date. And even then, they can only receive a maximum refund of ¥4,000 a year (which may be increased to ¥5,000, according to at least one report) regardless of how much food and drink they bought in that period of time. Then there are miscellaneous problems that haven’t been addressed yet: What about vending machine sales? What sorts of measures should be put in place to prevent criminals from stealing people’s numbers and using them for their own benefit? There are several theories for why this unwieldy solution has been proposed. One says that the My Number system has already proven to be unpopular — according to a Cabinet survey, only 24 percent of the people will opt to receive cards, a portion that may increase if people think they can use them for refunds. But as Morinaga points out, the inconvenience factor may overshadow whatever monetary advantages the system offers. In fact, he thinks the Finance Ministry made the system purposely inconvenient so that people wouldn’t use it. It’s more trouble than it’s worth, and since the ministry wants as much of the ¥1.32 trillion a year it projects it can collect after the tax rises to 10 percent, it is making it as difficult as possible for people to request refunds. It’s a classic “top-down” plan that’s typical of the Japanese bureaucracy, in which people at the bottom have to make an effort to go to the people at the top to get what’s rightfully theirs. After all, if the Finance Ministry is only going to return ¥4,000 a year, why not just give poor people ¥4,000 a year outright and forget about the My Number system? The LDP may have agreed to the plan just to buy time. The next Upper House election is scheduled for July, and there’s a feeling that if the party is desperate, it may postpone the consumption tax hike yet again in order to gain instant support from the electorate, even though the Finance Ministry would never countenance such a change. But the argument over exempting food from the consumption tax hike is a smokescreen. True, the lower your income, the more regressive it is as a tax, but the main problem with Japan is that consumers here are already paying indirect taxes to protect food producers even before the consumption tax is added at the cashier. As researcher Kazuhito Yamashita outlined in a Sept. 15 article in Asahi Shimbun’s web magazine Webronza, the stated reason for the ministry’s reduced tax plan for necessary foods is to “ease the painful tax feeling” for those people who feel that pain acutely, meaning the poor. In order to maintain artificially high prices for Japanese wheat, the government levies a 100 percent tariff on imported wheat. The government also has a complex and ever-changing subsidy system for rice farmers that effectively doubles the retail price of rice. Domestic butter, which has been in short supply for more than a year due to loss of production facilities and bad weather, is protected by a tariff that keeps imported butter expensive. The list goes on. Yamashita estimates that these and other protection measures, which are political in nature and not really enforced to “ensure food security” — an aim that would require an overhaul of the agricultural sector — cost Japanese consumers about ¥1 trillion a year, so if the government really wanted to reduce the “painful tax feeling” while still being able to collect a perfectly reasonable consumption tax of 10 percent, it could start with this indirect tax that people have been paying more or less since the end of World War II.

consumption tax
tax
liberal democratic party
finance ministry
komeito
my number
retailing
tax rebates


The ups and downs of water taps

Abstract: D ear Alice, Do you take plumbing questions? I ask because there is something very quirky about the faucets in the house I rent here in Japan. They are the type that mix the hot and cold water, and are controlled by a single lever. In the kitchen, you lift the handle to start the flow of water, which I consider the normal order of things. But in the bathroom, you have to push down to start the water. When I asked my landlord why, he said it’s because of earthquakes. So, what the heck is that? Mary M, Suita, Osaka Pref. Dear Mary, Believe me, you aren’t the only one dealing with this. Many Japanese homes, including mine, have a funny combination of what are called age-tome (lift to stop) and sage-tome (depress to stop) faucets; the nomenclature focuses on the how the water is stopped rather than how it is started. My situation happens to be the opposite of yours, which is to say the lift-to-stopper is in the kitchen. It’s definitely confusing having both in the same home. I’ve also heard this has something to do with earthquakes, but before I plumb into that, let me offer up a little faucet history. Once upon a time, sinks had separate taps for hot and cold water, controlled by separate handles. But in the 1950s, an inventor in California dreamed up a ball valve that mixed hot and cold water while also modulating the volume of flow. Even better, he found a way to control both functions simultaneously with a single lever. He sold his invention to a man who improved the design and called it the Delta single-handle mixing faucet. Today, Delta Faucet Company sells more than a million faucets a month worldwide. In Japan, this design is called a shinguru rebā (single lever) kongōsen (mixing faucet), and was first introduced in the late 1960s for wash basins in hotels and fancy office buildings. It was only later that they were adopted in homes. Some manufacturers went with the same lift-to-start design developed in the U.S., but others felt it was more intuitive to press down when you want water, since that’s the direction the water will flow. For several decades the two styles co-existed in the market, and often in the same home. But in 1997, a decision was made to cease production of the age-tome type, which lifts to stop, over a period of three years. If you ask someone why, you’re likely to hear the same explanation your landlord was getting at, which is that the age-tome faucet was scrapped because of lessons learned in the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. In that disaster, there were reports that objects dislodged by the earthquake fell against the levers of age-tome faucets, turning on the water at a time when no one was around to turn it back off. As a result, some residents who fled the shaking returned to find their homes flooded, and in the middle of a disaster that left 1.3 million households without water. It was this experience, people will tell you, that convinced Japan that the age-tome faucet had to go. But according to Masaya Sasaki of the technical department of the Japan Valve Manufacturers’ Association, that theory doesn’t hold water. “It’s not true,” he told me, when I visited for a faucet briefing. “Although many people believe that lift-to-stop faucets were abolished because of the Kobe earthquake, and you’ll see that story repeated in many places on the Internet, in actual fact, it is a total toshi densetsu (urban legend).” To prove what he was saying, Sasaki pulled out a copy of the Japanese manufacturing standard that relates to faucets, ball taps and flush valves. In section 6.2, c of Japan Industrial Standard (JIS) B 2061: 1997, he pointed to a clause stating that production of lift-to-stop faucets would cease by March 31, 2000. JIS standards are reviewed and revised by committee every five years, he explained, and the committee in charge always prepares a kaisetsu (explanation), that becomes part of the written record. “Which means that anyone,” he said, “can look up the reason for a revision.” That was an opportunity I definitely wanted to tap, so we looked together at the kaisetsu for the 1997 revisions. Consumers had been complaining for years that it is confusing and inefficient to have both types of faucets within the same home, it explained, and were pushing for standardization. The committee, while acknowledging that they could have chosen either type, decided in favor of the push-to-stop type because “nearly all overseas products” had adopted that system. “You see? There’s no mention of earthquakes,” Sasaki said. “People make that connection because the standards happened to be revised a few years after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, but really, it’s just a coincidence. The real reason for choosing sage-tome over age-tome, and the only reason, was to bring Japanese production into line with international conventions.” If, by now, you’re considering a standardization effort of your own, I would encourage you to check out replacement faucets with the new, government-approved “ setsuyu ” (hot-water saving) mark. These products include innovative features that reduce energy use by as much as 36 percent, by helping consumers use less hot water when bathing or washing up. An example is a one-touch stop/start button placed at the head of a hand-held shower, so users can temporarily halt the flow, say when lathering up during a shampoo. One word of warning, however: Although anyone may buy a faucet in Japan, you will be breaking the law if you attempt to install one yourself. This is because the Water Supply Act ( Suidō-hō , 1996 revision) stipulates that faucets may only be installed by a shitei suidō kōji-sha (licensed water-supply contractor). Sunday plumbers, beware!


Increase in natural disasters causes fire insurance premium hike in October

Abstract: In response to a number of large-scale natural disasters in recent years, which some experts attribute to climate change, there will be a hike in fire insurance premiums from October. The move comes after the General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (GIROJ), a nonprofit body of nonlife insurance companies, decided in July 2014 to raise benchmark rates used by member firms when setting fire insurance premiums by an average of 3.5 percent to cope with growing payouts. It will be the first hike in fire insurance premiums since April 2007. What follows are basic questions and answers on fire insurance, which compensates for property damage from natural disasters as well as fires. How extensive will the expected premium hike be? Fire insurance premiums by major insurers will go up by an average of 2 to 4 percent in light of the decision by the GIROJ. Member insurers are not obliged or legally bound to set premiums in accordance with GIROJ’s benchmark, but they usually make revisions in accordance with it. The rate of premium increase will vary among insurers and will be based on the location and the type of dwellings being insured. Many firms plan to introduce discounted premiums covering newly or recently constructed dwellings, to ease the hike. What kind of damage does fire insurance cover? Although the label “fire insurance” naturally brings to mind losses caused by fires, in fact it covers damages from a wide range of natural disasters, including lighting, typhoons, flooding and heavy snow. Properties, including furniture and electric appliances, can also be covered, but customers need to buy insurance specifically for such items. Fire insurance also covers damages sustained from water leaks and property damage and loss of assets through theft. Damage from earthquakes, however, is not covered by fire insurance, but rather by earthquake insurance, which also covers damage from tsunami and volcanic eruptions. But earthquake insurance cannot be purchased without having first bought fire insurance. In July last year, earthquake insurance premiums for housing rose 15.5 percent on average. Why did GIROJ decide to raise the benchmark rates? The organization cites increasing payouts due to natural disasters and water damage in recent years. While average annual payouts for damage caused by typhoons between fiscal 1989 and 2003 stood at about ¥80 billion, it increased to some ¥100 billion on average over an eight-year period from fiscal 2004 to 2012, according to figures compiled by the GIROJ. Similarly, payouts for losses caused by wind gusts, tornadoes and hail have increased to about ¥140 billion during the fiscal years from 2010 to 2012, compared with around ¥50 billion from fiscal 2007 to 2009. Furthermore, total payouts from damages caused by water leakage were ¥16 billion in fiscal 2011, up from ¥10.5 billion in fiscal 2009 and ¥13 billion in fiscal 2010. Does the benchmark rate vary depending on the location? Yes, it varies depending on which prefecture the property is in, and the type of structure. Typical natural disasters and their frequency differ from prefecture to prefecture, which contributes to calculations of the benchmark rate for each prefecture, a spokesman for the GIROJ said. For example, prefectures in Kyushu are prone to typhoon damage, while Hokkaido and prefectures along the Sea of Japan tend to be hit by heavy snow, he said. The rates also change in accordance with three categories of housing: condominiums with reinforced concrete; single-family dwellings with fireproof structures, including reinforced concrete; and wooden structures, including apartments. After the October premium hike, how much will customers pay? For example, the yearly premium for a ¥20 million annual policy covering a single-family wood home in Tokyo, underwritten by a major nonlife insurer, will cost ¥35,510, up from ¥35,270; The same coverage will cost Osaka residents ¥37,380, down from ¥41,730, and residents in Fukuoka will pay ¥64,730, up from ¥50,810. Reinforced concrete condominiums annually insured for ¥10 million will cost Tokyo and Osaka residents ¥4,510, up from ¥3,650, while residents in Fukuoka will have to pay ¥4,800, up from ¥3,650, according to the firm. Have payouts for damages caused by fire increased? The GIROJ does not reveal payout figures, but says the amount has decreased over the years, given that fires have been declining, the spokesman noted. Fires in buildings have generally decreased over the years, according to a 2014 report by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. There were 35,186 fires in 1989, but only 25,053 in 2013. Is global warming affecting the premium hike? Yes. The GIROJ said prospects for natural disasters are becoming increasingly uncertain, citing reports on global warming by international organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Reflecting its stance that long-term calculations are becoming difficult, the GIROJ said in July last year that the new benchmark rates would be applied for up to 10 years. Previously no time limit was placed on the benchmark rates. As such, the longest contract period offered by nonlife insurers will be shortened to 10 years from the current 36, which was set in accordance with the payment period of home loans.


Chinese 'princess' farmer guilty of fraud

Abstract: BEIJING - A farmer who pretended to be a princess descended from the Qing dynasty to swindle people out of more than 2 million yuan ($315,000) has been sentenced to 13½ years in prison for fraud, a court said. Wang Fengying and her co-accused Yang Janglin said she was called “Princess Changping” and persuaded people to lend them money to help them get back assets worth billions of dollars held by authorities, the Lianhu District Court in Shaanxi province said. They promised high returns on the investments and the fraud lasted two years until a victim went to the police, the court said in a statement Tuesday. In the meantime, Wang had bought a sedan car and put a down payment on an apartment. Police seized 41 gold bars, thousands of fake dollars and treasure maps that Wang offered to investors as collateral. Co-defendant Yang was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and both were fined 500,000 yuan ($80,000) in court Monday.


Chance photograph launches Tajik gardener into local fame

Abstract: DUSHANBE - A city gardens worker in the capital of Tajikistan has become a local celebrity through a chance picture taken by a visiting Romanian photographer. Internet and local TV reports about 19-year-old Munira Mirzoyeva’s inclusion in the Atlas of Beauty — an online compendium of the diversity of feminine beauty around the world — has made her readily recognizable on the streets of Dushanbe, where she plants flowers. She hopes this newfound fame will help rescue her from relative poverty. She wants to resume her studies so she can get a job better suited to supporting her family in the former Soviet nation in Central Asia, where she shares a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and four younger siblings. Mirzoyeva’s dream is to become a doctor, although she was forced by poverty to stop her education while still in elementary school. Following her improbable rise to fame, online groups have sprung up to raise money to send her back to school, sparking a hope that appeared remote until only a few weeks ago. “If the chance presents itself, I will definitely continue my studies, because that is my biggest dream,” Mirzoyeva said. “I like my job as a gardener, but because I don’t have the opportunity, I cannot study. But if I get the chance, I will definitely do it.”


3,000 Philly Naked Bike Riders photo-bomb wedding shoot

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA - Here comes the bride all dressed in white. And, don’t look now, but here come thousands of bicyclists not dressed in anything. Nude and body-painted participants from this year’s Philly Naked Bike Ride cruised through the wedding day photo shoot of lovebirds Ross Cohen and Blair Delson. The couple, who got married Saturday evening, spent the afternoon before their wedding taking photos at romantic spots around the city. Their wedding photographer, JPG Photography studio owner Joseph Gidjunis, was snapping photos of them in Dilworth Plaza, next to City Hall, when they heard the buzz of about 3,000 bicycles approaching. Delson and Cohen decided not to wait for the cyclists to pass before continuing with their photos. She grabbed handfuls of her tulle and lace dress and scurried toward the cyclists half a block away, and he followed. “We saw them,” Delson said Monday, “and I sprinted in my heels and my wedding gown and decided to get in on the action.” Cohen lifted Delson and twirled her around, and together they high-fived the nude cyclists, who serenaded them with cheers. “We thought it was hilarious,” Delson said. Gidjunis, who used to take news photos and now primarily does events and portraits, took about 100 photos, many while bike riders were stopped at a red light. Cohen and Delson loved them. “They captured the moment perfectly,” Cohen said. The cyclists, some nude and others in body paint or underwear, seemed to have a good time, too, smiling and flashing peace signs for the couple. Organizers of the annual bike event, which is related to the World Naked Bike Ride movement, say they hope it encourages people to bike more and to embrace nudity as a normal and enjoyable part of life. Cohen and Delson, who are headed to Hawaii on Tuesday for their honeymoon, said they already know how they’ll explain the R-rated wedding photos to their kids one day: “When it’s your day,” Cohen said, “just love life and embrace the moment.”