Untouched ocean habitats shrinking rapidly, study says

Abstract: SYDNEY - Shipping, pollution and overfishing have reduced areas of “wilderness” to just 13 percent of the world’s oceans, a study showed Friday, warning that untouched marine habitats could completely vanish within half a century. International researchers analyzing the impact of human activity on underwater ecosystems — from fertilizer runoff to increased sea transport — have mapped the dwindling zones considered pristine. The bulk of remaining ocean wilderness, classed as “mostly free of human disturbance,” was found in the Arctic and Antarctic, and around remote Pacific islands. “Improvements in shipping technology mean that even the most remote wilderness areas may come under threat in the future, including once ice-covered places that are now accessible because of climate change,” said lead researcher Kendall Jones, from the University of Queensland. Just 5 percent of the wilderness areas are in protected zones, leaving the rest vulnerable, according to the study published in the journal Current Biology. It called for greater international coordination to regulate the world’s oceans, clamp down on overfishing, limit destructive ocean-mining and reduce sediment runoff. “Marine wilderness areas are home to unparalleled levels of life, holding massive abundances of species and high genetic diversity, giving them resilience to threats like climate change,” said James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “These areas are declining catastrophically, and protecting them must become a focus of multilateral environmental agreements. If not, they will likely disappear within 50 years.” Last year, the United Nations began negotiating its first conservation treaty for the high seas, which would be a legally binding act governing the sustainable use of oceans outside national maritime boundaries.

oceans pollution water endangered environment


Viral content: vaccine scandal tests Beijing's grip on information control

Abstract: SHANGHAI/BEIJING - A Chinese vaccine scandal has laid bare a new challenge Beijing faces in its long battle for information control: blogs and online articles by independent writers capable of unleashing a storm of public fury. Outrage over safety lapses by Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd. in some of its vaccines for children came six days after the issue was flagged in regulatory filings, triggered instead by a July 21 article posted on the popular WeChat messaging platform. Titled “Vaccine king” and posted to a WeChat account managed by former journalists, it critiqued business practices by Changsheng’s chairwoman and was read tens of thousands of times before being deleted the next day. Even then, myriad links and copied versions circulated on China’s internet. Some even used blockchain technology to preserve the story. The enormous impact of the “ zi meiti ” (“self-media”) article marks a threat to efforts by the ruling Communist Party to tighten its grip over content online. “This is a guerrilla war. The government cannot tackle it just like it does traditional media,” said Fang Kecheng, a Chinese media researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, adding that while one zi meiti account could be shut down, many others would spring up in its place. The article touched a nerve in a country already scarred by a long history of drug and food scandals. A day later Chinese social media were ablaze. Mentions of “Changsheng” neared 100 million that day, according to a WeChat index — a 2,500 percent rise in a day. One hashtag conversation about the scandal on the popular microblog site Weibo has now been read over 820 million times. For Shenzhen-listed Changsheng, judgment was swift. Authorities launched multiple investigations. Its chairwoman and 14 other people have been detained by the police, and President Xi Jinping has called the scandal “vile and shocking.” The case leaped to the top of the national agenda as parents and other consumers vented their anger and frustration at manufacturers and the regulators tasked with supervising them. The government said a problematic rabies vaccine did not leave the factory where it was produced and was not put up for sale. But anger and fear over the failures were quickly exacerbated by additional revelations: The company’s vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) had also failed to meet quality standards, with 250,000 doses sold to Shandong province last year. Changsheng, which has publicly apologized, has lost more than half of its market value since mid-July and has flagged that it could be delisted. “The vaccine scandal came out a week ago, and there was just a fine of several hundred thousand. After the ‘Vaccine king’ spread, 15 people, including the boss, have been detained,” one person wrote on Weibo. “The impact of just one article is pretty scary.” The WeChat account that posted the story is one of many zi meiti groups not affiliated with a media organization. It is known for controversial coverage of China’s property firms, the stock market and acquisitive conglomerates. Its articles are not bylined, carrying only the name of the group, Shou Ye. Writers earn money through donations from readers. For China, keeping a tight grip on the flow of information is seen as key to maintaining social stability. As the scandal unfolded, many on social media initially complained their critical posts were being taken down. Later, however, it seemed China’s censors — who play a constant role regulating the country’s internet — had loosened the reins. Some people took the opportunity to dig into the firm’s and the chairwoman’s past. There were even fake posts pretending to be U.S. President Donald Trump. “It is UNFAIR and DISGRACEFUL that our great American pharmaceutical companies are excluded from Chinese market, where dozens of lives could be saved. UNJUST. THIS MUST CHANGE!” said one parody circulating on WeChat. The tension, however, between allowing a free and unruly discourse and a censorship apparatus that routinely monitors and controls topics, was not far from the surface. An editorial by the state-run Global Times on Monday warned there were “destructive forces” looking to “stir up havoc” and that if online discourse was left uncontrolled, the country could be led toward chaos. For Chinese citizens who shed light on scandals, especially on sensitive medical safety issues that could flare up and lead to social unrest, consequences can be harsh. Lawyers Tang Jingling and Yu Wensheng, who represented parents in separate vaccine scandals, are currently in jail. Journalist Wang Keqin was removed from his post in 2011 after writing about a case involving mishandled vaccines. When criticism is allowed, it is also often vetted, human rights experts said. “Amid the current scandal, while netizens are free to condemn the drug company, news articles and social media posts that showed the Chinese government in a critical light continue to be censored,” Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in a post. The rise of self-media, however, has created a new dynamic. Media researcher Fang said Chinese authorities could now look to make their own use of zi meiti, having seen its impact. “What people should be alarmed about is that after realizing how powerful this medium is, the government might use it as a propaganda tool itself,” he said.

vaccines
scandals
china
social media
medicine
disease


Thousands rally to protest LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita's remark calling LGBT people 'unproductive'

Abstract: Thousands of angry protesters rallied on Friday night in front of the headquarters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, calling for the resignation of junior lawmaker Mio Sugita, who had earlier branded the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community “unproductive.” Sugita is facing nationwide criticism over an article she contributed to in the latest issue of conservative magazine Shincho 45, in which she argued that taxpayer money shouldn’t be invested into policies supporting same-sex couples because “these men and women don’t bear children — in other words, they are ‘unproductive.’ ” Many joined the rally after a hashtag went viral on social media encouraging people to gather and unite in a show of protest against the two-term lawmaker. Participants wielded an array of signs and placards featuring rainbow colors — a symbol of LGBT pride — and chanted slogans demanding that Sugita quit, saying: “We don’t need a lawmaker who disregards human rights!” Yumi Moriya, a representative of the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation, one of the groups involved in organizing the rally, claimed the turnout topped 5,000. ” ‘Unproductive’ is not a word you use to describe human beings — LGBTs or not,” said Rina Matayoshi, 26, who said she is a lesbian. Matayoshi said the fact that the LDP has yet to unequivocally call out Sugita — let alone take punitive measures against her — is tantamount to the party condoning her remark. When asked about a backlash against Sugita earlier this week, LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai neither supported nor criticized her, saying “different people have different views.” In the magazine, Sugita said the recent media tendency toward celebrating sexual diversity risks instilling in those “capable of enjoying normal romance” a misguided notion that “they have an option of going homosexual” and therefore increasing the number of “unhappy people.” “So what, is she saying we’re abnormal or something?” Matayoshi said. Another participant, 26-year-old Ame Kondo, said she was so hurt by Sugita’s comment — which she thought completely disregards the human rights of LGBT people — that “I couldn’t sleep well for a few days.” “It felt like I was being told that I don’t deserve to be alive,” Kondo, who was born male, said, adding she is currently undergoing hormone therapy. “The fact she can say these things so blithely means that she is denying the very existence of LGBTs.” Mariru, a 21-year-old university student in Tokyo, said the productivity — or the lack thereof — shouldn’t be cited to determine the value of a human being in the first place. But she said she took notice of the disappointing way some people reacted to Sugita’s remark on social media. “I realized some people were arguing that LGBT people, too, are contributing to the Japanese economy because they work and pay taxes like anyone else. But that way of thinking is actually the same as Sugita’s,” said Mariru, who wished to be identified only by her first name. Huge applause broke out at one point during the hours-long protest when a woman came forward and shouted from the top of her lungs. “I won’t let anyone stop me loving a woman!” the woman, who said she was a 22-year-old lesbian, screamed into the microphone. “Everyone deserves to be alive! Everyone deserves to be loved unconditionally!” she said. “I have the freedom to live the way I want.”

ldp
mio sugita
lgbt
rights
discrimination


RIP: World's Ugliest Dog dead at age 9

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Zsa Zsa’s 15 minutes in the limelight are over: The copiously drooling English bulldog — named the World’s Ugliest Dog just weeks ago — has died. The 9-year-old canine died in her sleep Tuesday morning, owner Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minnesota told U.S. media. “I’m in shock still,” Brainard told CNN sister network HLN. “I haven’t even processed her winning and fame.” The dog won the ugliness title at a contest last month in Petaluma, California. Brainard told CNN then that the dog slobbered a lot because it had trouble keeping its tongue in its mouth. Its upper teeth were almost horizontal and it also had a pronounced underbite.


Abe and LDP under fire for holding party amid torrential rain warnings

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling party came under fire from opposition parties Tuesday for holding a social gathering last week even as warnings were being issued in western Japan for torrential rains that subsequently brought about one of the worst natural disasters in the country in decades. The private party, held by Liberal Democratic Party members Thursday, was also attended by Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who two days earlier ordered the executions of Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara and six of his followers for a series of crimes including the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attack. The executions of the seven death row inmates were carried out the day after the gathering. The torrential rains that devastated southwestern and western Japan have left over 150 people dead, with dozens still missing. The party drew attention as some of its participants posted photos and descriptions of the cheerful gathering on social media. Opposition parties lashed out at Abe and the LDP, with a senior official of the main opposition, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, saying the roughly 50 LDP members at the gathering were irresponsible. “It was the night the meteorological agency was issuing warnings. I never thought (ministers) would do such a thing,” said Renho, the CDPJ’s House of Councillors secretary general, who viewed Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera’s attendance as particularly problematic given his role in overseeing Self-Defense Forces rescue operations. Liberal Party President Ichiro Ozawa said, “It shows (the LDP members) do not attend to their duties from the viewpoint of protecting citizens’ lives and livelihoods.” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga defended Abe and other participants, claiming the prime minister’s office was “properly responding” to the disaster that caused widespread flooding and landslides. LDP officials have said it was difficult to foresee the impact of the rain at the time of the gathering, and there was very little information about whether disasters were occurring then. The party has been held regularly, and Abe attended it for the first time in a move apparently aimed at garnering support in the run-up to the LDP leadership election in September.

rain
prime minister shinzo abe
aum shinrikyo
liberal demoractic party


Smart bots: China's sex doll makers jump on AI drive

Abstract: ZHONGSHAN, CHINA - Amid Beijing’s push to turn the country into an artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse and embed the technology in all facets of life, some Chinese entrepreneurs are taking the expertise to a new frontier: sex dolls. WMDOLL, one of China’s biggest sex doll makers, which is based in the southeastern province of Guangdong, launched what it calls AI-powered dolls at end of 2016 that offer features ranging from simple conversation to moving eyes, arms and torsos. Customers can personalize their dolls by choosing various appearance options including height, hairstyle and eye color. AI features on the dolls are still very basic: they can answer questions but cannot hold longer conversations. The doll uses vocabulary by connecting to a database supported by Chinese tech giant Baidu. The firm admits improving the features has been difficult partly because experts aren’t interested in putting much effort into developing AI technology for adult products. “Of course we’re not expecting to make our AI dolls that human-like, after all we’re just making adult products,” said Liu Ding, WMDOLL product manager. “But we will surely add more advanced technologies … for example making the limbs move more naturally.” WMDOLL says it has sold more than 20 of the AI dolls, which are priced between 10,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan ($1,470 to $7,350), compared with their annual sales of 20,000 dolls. The company hopes the AI dolls will eventually take off with overseas customers, including those in the United States — exports account for 80 percent of their sales, and half of their overseas shipments go to the United States.


JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai ponders life out there after six-month stay on ISS

Abstract: JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai came back to earth last month but is still dreaming of space, especially after the discovery of an underground lake on Mars brought mankind one step closer to unraveling the mystery of whether life exists on the red planet. “I was so excited about the news,” the 41-year-old doctor with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in an interview Friday, calling it “a major discovery that inspires dreams.” International astronomers on Wednesday announced they had detected the largest body of liquid water ever found on Mars, a breakthrough that may hold clues to whether life has ever formed on the planet or even exists today. Kanai, who spent 168 days on the International Space Station, is firmly convinced that we’re not alone in the universe and there is life out there. “I believe there is,” he said. “In the vast universe, anything could be possible. I have high hopes that finding extraterrestrial life forms could open a new page in learning.” The soft-spoken spaceman, nicknamed “Nemo” for his background as a diving medical officer in the Maritime Self-Defense Force, blasted into space for the first time in December. Following in the footsteps of other media-savvy astronauts, he tweeted about his stay at the space station in Japanese. But his social media foray came with some growing pains: He was forced to apologize and issue a correction after mistakenly claiming he had grown by nine cm just weeks after arriving. When a colleague suggested the growth was unlikely, despite the fact that astronauts’ spines do extend in the zero-gravity environment of space, Norishige had himself remeasured. It turned out a mix-up over centimeters and inches was to blame, and he said Friday that he had in fact grown by just two to three cm during his stay. He has been shrinking since he returned to Earth on June 3, but is still a centimeter taller, he said. “It’s interesting to see how long it will take to get back to my original height.” Kanai, whose Twitter profile depicts him in cartoon form with a broad grin, concedes he wasn’t always the likeliest candidate to join JAXA, though he is now the agency’s youngest astronaut. He was a “reserved, cautious” boy, rather than adventurous. “I was a granny’s boy,” he said. “When she was sewing, we did it together. I had a rather ‘girlie’ childhood.” But one of the skills he picked up as a child turned out to have a surprising application during the strict JAXA screening process. In the final selection stage, 10 candidates spend a week in a capsule performing various tasks including folding paper cranes, which the agency says tests patience and steadiness under stress. Luckily, Kanai excelled at origami from childhood. “I don’t know if it gave me an advantage … but I knew how to do it. I’m dexterous and like to do repetitive small tasks. That task was easy for me,” he said. Even as he spoke, he deftly folded a piece of origami paper into a crane, without so much as leaning on a table for support. He so enjoyed making small cranes that he folded more than 100 of them in the test capsule. While Kanai now belongs to an elite group of astronaut alumni, he is eager to see space become more accessible. “I think space is not only for astronauts and space-related corporations but is for everyone,” he said. “I welcome the idea of ‘enjoyable’ space or interesting ideas of private companies to use space.” He doesn’t yet know if he’ll be chosen for new missions, and admits that he had mixed emotions as he headed back to Earth last month. “I felt sorry that it was ending. But I was also happy that I was finally going back to Japan, because six months is a long time. “I had complex, half-happy, half-sad feelings.”


Following Tokyo's lead, more cities eye tougher rules against passive smoking

Abstract: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s decision to introduce measures against passive smoking that are stricter than the central government’s has inspired more cities to do the same, a survey has found. Of the 20 ordinance-designated cities surveyed, Chiba, for example, plans to draft its own ordinance against passive smoking, and Hamamatsu, Osaka and Sakai are considering joining prefecture-level efforts to tighten related regulations, the Jiji Press survey of municipality chiefs, which also covered cities and wards in Tokyo, shows. In June this year, Tokyo, as the host city for the Olympics, enacted an ordinance to introduce tougher smoking regulations for restaurants and bars than the watered-down law enacted by the state for the Olympics. While the state law permits smoking in restaurants with up to 100 sq. meters of customer space, Tokyo’s ordinance imposes a smoking ban on all eateries with employees, in principle, regardless of the amount of floor space. Kobe said the state should introduce measures that are stricter than Tokyo’s, such as a total smoking ban for all restaurants and bars. Chiba and Kawasaki will also urge the state to toughen its rules. They want to prohibit indoor smoking at eateries with employees just as Tokyo does. Hiroshi Yamato, professor at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan, said it stands to reason that Tokyo took a tougher line than the state because it is effectively hosting the Olympics. “Efforts by many municipalities may eventually move the state,” Yamato said. In Tokyo, a combined 41 wards and cities, or 85 percent of all municipalities in the metropolis, said they have enacted ordinances or taken measures to prevent smoking on the street, the survey shows. In the meantime, only seven municipalities said they are positively considering setting up outdoor smoking areas to cope with the tightening of indoor smoking rules. Twenty wards and cities said they will carefully examine whether street smoking will increase. Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward showed concern about the possibility of smokers flowing outdoors, while the city of Hachioji called on the state and the metro government to work on creating a system that can ensure the prevention of passive smoking.


Greenhouse gas education program developed by Aichi professor proves popular both at home and abroad

Abstract: An environmental education program developed in Aichi Prefecture, designed to help children deepen their understanding of climate change through measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in places around them, has been introduced at a number of schools in the Tokai region and also in Taiwan. The program, which is the brainchild of Masakazu Ito, 59, professor at Nagoya Sangyo University in Owariasahi, Aichi Prefecture, is also expected to be offered to audiences in China, the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter by volume. Ito developed the program in 2003 for elementary to high school students. In elementary schools, students walk through the school grounds and surrounding areas with instruments that measure the presence of carbon dioxide and create a concentration map using different colors to show the varying levels of density of the gas. By seeing that carbon dioxide density is higher in crowded places or near streets where there are exhaust fumes from a lot of vehicles — and that it drops near plants, which absorb the gas — students can learn about one of the factors that contribute to climate change and the role played by green plants in mitigating its effects. In junior and senior high schools, students will be offered carbon dioxide density data that the university regularly collects from 28 locations it monitors at home and abroad. Based on concentrations of the greenhouse gas and climate information at each location, students analyze how accumulation of the gas changes according to wind directions and other conditions. The university staff visit schools to adjust the program in order to meet each institution’s needs. So far, 37 schools in Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures have adopted the program. In Taiwan 28 schools have started using the program after a Taiwanese student attending the university through an exchange program introduced it in their home country. Educational material for adults was also published at the end of last year. Jiangsu University in China, known for its top-class environmental research, is also preparing educational materials in order to introduce the program to Chinese citizens. It plans to distribute the materials next year. Zheng Minxue, 50, an associate professor at the university, says it is very meaningful to introduce such a program in China and hopes that it will help curb carbon dioxide emissions in the country. “I hope the program will provide an opportunity (for people) to think of environmental problems from a global perspective, using data close to them,” Ito said.

education
carbon dioxide
masakazu ito
nagoya sangyo university
environment


Can dolphins teach humans how to come up for air?

Abstract: In May this year in Honduras, Sayuri Kinoshita held her breath, dived into the ocean — and disappeared. Swimming in the undulating manner of a dolphin, she had vanished down into the darkness. Kinoshita was taking part in the Caribbean Cup free-diving competition. She was attempting to beat her own world record for the depth reached, in a category of diving where you are not allowed to wear fins to help you swim, nor to pull yourself down with the aid of a rope. This category — constant weight no fins (CNF) — is considered one of the most challenging of the disciplines of free diving because not only must you hold your breath while descending, but you must also put in immense physical effort to propel yourself downward. Kinoshita, born in 1988 in Nagasaki (she now lives in Okinawa) didn’t break her record at the Caribbean Cup, but then no one has yet broken her record of 72 meters that she set in 2016. Kinoshita became interested in this extreme sport after reading about the success of another Japanese free diver, Hanako Hirose, and says the sport is growing in popularity in Japan. It’s a modern version of the traditional ama divers of Japan, mostly women, who dive to collect pearls and seafood. These women swim in the same undulating way — like a “mermaid,” says Miku Higuchi, who at age 20 is perhaps the youngest of the traditional divers in Mie Prefecture. The key problem, from a physiological point of view, is to get enough oxygen into the blood to supply the body and to avoid decompression sickness, also known as the bends, when coming back up. The ama divers try to counter sickness with a technique called isobue (ocean whistle). When they resurface they emit the air in their lungs in a long, piercing whistle that is thought to help prevent the bends. Perhaps a look at new dolphin research will help both free divers and ama divers. Andreas Fahlman of the Oceanographic Foundation in Valencia, Spain, compared populations of dolphins that live in different areas: one population that lives near the coast and makes short dives to less than 10 meters when hunting, and another that lives in Bermuda and dives very deep — to 400 and even 1,000 meters, spending up to 13 minutes underwater. “How can a single species have such extremely different lifestyles?” asks Fahlman. “We wanted to measure what kind of differences are responsible for these huge variations. This allows us to determine how far the physiology can change within a single species and understand the threat that stressors may have on these deep-diving dolphins.” For humans who practice extreme diving, there may be some clues as to how their physiology changes with practice, too. Fahlman’s team found that the deep-diving dolphins had greater oxygen storage capacity. This allows them to dive for longer durations. But the mechanical action of the lungs and the metabolism of the two populations were not different. “This was unexpected, as past studies have suggested that compression of the lungs was the main adaptation to avoid taking up excessive nitrogen at depth and getting the bends,” says Fahlman. “The lack of differences in the lungs between the shallow and deep divers suggest that the dolphins may use other means to avoid diving-related problems.” What other means might these be? Fahlman suspects deep-diving dolphins maintain elevated heart rates. “Not only during surface intervals, but also during shallow dives in-between deep dives to allow sufficient restoration of oxygen stores,” he says. Keeping the blood flow elevated between deep dives helps reduce time spent at the surface and enhances recovery time. This seems to help dolphins avoid decompression sickness, which occurs if ascending too rapidly after diving. Nitrogen bubbles that form in the blood and tissues when deep underwater don’t have time to diffuse back into the blood and that can be painful, even life-threatening. “This hypothesis provides new and exciting research opportunities to understand how mammals can dive to extreme depths on a lung full of air without any of the related problems that humans experience,” says Fahlman, whose work is published in Frontiers in Physiology. The work may have implications for understanding how the ama divers may have adapted to repeated dips underwater. Perhaps they too have increased blood flow at the surface. It is difficult to say for sure, says Fahlman, but “they could certainly have adapted to do something similar if they dive for long (periods of time) and need to increase the rate of recovery at the surface.”

dolphin
diving
ama diver
decompression sickness
the bends
nature
science


Aum executions fail to end debate over cult's motives

Abstract: The execution of 13 members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo in two rounds on July 6 and 26, including the group’s 63-year-old leader, Shoko Asahara (whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto), for the 1995 subway sarin attack and other crimes, was hardly a shock. Several months ago, after exhausting their appeals, some of the Aum members on death row were moved, thus suggesting that executions were imminent. Executions are never announced beforehand, but the press seemed to know what was going down. NHK was at the Tokyo Detention House on July 6 on the morning Asahara was hanged and filmed witnesses to the execution going into the facility. The footage turned out to be the perfect introductory image two days later for the special program NHK aired . It had obviously been in the works for some time. Although the public is relieved that the two-decades-plus Aum ordeal is finally over, news outlets are still obsessed with it, citing a lack of closure regarding motives for the crimes, which they claim victims still desire. As one of the judges at Asahara’s trial said during the program, his job was to try to pry information from the defendant about the reason for the killings. However, the guru never explained his actions or those of his followers, so in that sense, the judge said, he failed in his duties. In the special, NHK offered new information about these motives, taken from transcripts of conversations between Asahara and his lawyers that had never been made public, as well as from letters that Aum executives had written from death row to various groups. The lawyers’ transcripts, which covered the eight-year trial of Asahara starting in 1996, showed that he was relatively talkative in the beginning and admitted, up to a point, that he had ordered the murder of Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in 1989 after the attorney tried to help parents who wanted to remove their children from the cult . However, at another point in the transcripts he implied that the order was a “joke” and the murder was the idea of one of his senior members, Kiyohide Hayakawa. None of these statements were entered as evidence during the trial. Hayakawa admitted in a letter that it was “wrong” to kill the Sakamotos, but that he was only carrying out what he felt was Asahara’s will. Over the years, much of the media coverage was built on determining why the men closest to Asahara carried out such heinous crimes. They were the best and brightest of their generation, graduates of Japan’s finest universities. They left college when Japan was at the height of its economic power, and could have had any jobs they wanted, but instead decided to follow an acupuncturist who turned a yoga business into a hybrid religion with more than 4,200 followers. According to letters from Tomomasa Nakagawa, Asahara had “two faces”: a beneficient one he showed to the bulk of his followers and a more calculating one he presented to his inner circle of elites. He did not have confidence in any member whom he perceived was not sympathetic to his militant ideas, which held that the world needed to be “reset” by means of violence. However, Nakagawa said Asahara never sufficiently “explained” his thoughts about the “end of the world.” Asahara’s conviction turned on a conversation that supposedly occurred during a limousine ride from Tokyo to the Aum compound in Yamanashi Prefecture several days before the subway sarin attack. His inner circle was present, and NHK’s recreation of the conversation followed court transcripts, showing that Hideo Murai proposed the attack as a countermeasure to police pressure against the cult. Asahara agreed and asked Seiichi Endo to make enough sarin for the plan. In the lawyers’ transcripts Asahara claimed he was against the attack but that it had already been set in motion by Murai and Yoshihiro Inoue and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Letters from various members contradicted this version and, as Nakagawa pointed out, followers would never act without the guru’s blessing. The confusion is not surprising. Although Asahara had been characterized in the press as having become catatonic as the trial progressed, at an early stage he deflected responsibility like any murder suspect. Likewise, the men who carried out the attack tried to protect themselves by claiming it was Asahara’s idea all along. Lawyer Yasuhiro Yasuda, who was set to represent Asahara at a retrial requested after new evidence about the limo conversation came to light, said during a discussion on the web program DemocraTV that an unnamed person in the limo said that Asahara was asleep during the whole ride and so couldn’t have approved the attack. Since that conversation was the basis for Asahara’s conviction, a new trial should have been called, but the government ignored Yasuda’s request. Reportedly, the government wanted to end the Aum matter before the ascension of a new emperor next year. Left in the lurch for a motive, the media turned to the usual suspects. In an Asahi Shimbun column, Genichiro Takahashi, who started covering Aum in the 1980s, wondered how Asahara’s banal teachings could have been taken seriously by such men , and compared their self-destructive loyalty to that of the nation before and during World War II, not to mention the idealistic youths who joined the Japanese Red Army in the 1970s and then proceeded to slaughter one another. In the Mainichi Shimbun, religious scholar Hiromi Shimada wrote that Aum “reflected on a special generation” that came of age during a time when “subcultures” associated with science fiction and the occult were popular . The judge interviewed by NHK said it was important to clarify the motive for Aum’s actions so that they would never be repeated but, according to Shimada, Aum’s crimes were the product of specific circumstances of the times in which they took place, and those circumstances no longer apply.

aum executions
aum shinrikyo
shoko asahara


Soaring temperatures force Japan to confront entrenched ideas on handling the heat

Abstract: A heat wave has gripped Japan over the past week or so, peaking with the highest temperature ever recorded in the country on Monday . According to government data, the heat wave has killed at least 77 people and sent more than 30,000 to hospitals in the two-week period through July 22. It’s been an unusually scorching summer so far — and experts argue that it’s probably the “ new normal .” Whether it’s because they can picture the catastrophes that global warming could cause or just because they are sweltering , Japanese online users have commented on the current situation from angles that go way beyond the standard “ Atsui desu ne ” (“It’s hot, isn’t it”). Most noticeably, the current high temperatures have prompted netizens to challenge long-standing ideas about how to handle the heat. The most important matter on the mind of those online? Air conditioners. Specifically, using them despite the longstanding idea held by many older people that, since they didn’t have to use them in the past, they don’t need to use them now. Many griped about hearing this rationale, while others recounted visits to hospitals only a decade ago only to find minimal air conditioning in place. Comedian Kazuya Kojima tweeted how he rushed out to buy his parents an air conditioner after finding out they didn’t own one … even if they got into an argument about it afterward, as they were worried about their monthly electricity bill. Some tried to explain that many buildings didn’t use air conditioning owing to existing regulations. This did not go down well . Arguing with older people about using air conditioners has become something akin to the American online tradition of dreading Thanksgiving dinner with your conservative uncle (to the point where there are now articles offering advice on various arguments you can throw at them). Some netizens stated that places such as gymnasiums needed air conditioners , while others reminded us that the world didn’t have ambulances or pension programs back in the day either. Others shared a very valid concern : that grandparents raised in such a way might not even realize that leaving a child in a car could be disastrous. Hot stuff: A display shows the temperature in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, reaching 41.1 degrees Celsius — the highest-ever logged in Japan — on Monday. | KYODO Concern about children became central to this online debate, as the bulk of discussion centered on schools not using air conditioners . Users shared quotes from experts arguing that it wasn’t a financial matter but rather an institutional problem stemming from schools wanting students to persevere through inconvenience, prompting further discussion . Self-described high school staff member @TNTO8698 recounted a time when the school invited the PTA to a classroom lacking an air conditioner, and the heat within promptly resulted in a “defeat” of the old guard. Hard data proved most effective. Twitter user @hirokilexis shared Tokyo temperature information from July and August 1976 — with the numbers being way more tolerable than 2018. Charts popped up a lot on social media, and the dominant mood from the pro-air-conditioner side was realism: This is the future , and it is vital to adapt to these environmental changes . These changing times also inspired some surprising progressive viewpoints. “ Higasa danshi ” (“parasol boys”) is an unlikely trend that’s emerged this summer, with things really taking off as temperatures soared. J-cast reports that the term started popping up on social media sites in late June, with young men deciding it was so hot they would buy a parasol. It’s an item typically associated with women, but it’s so hot that men threw goofy shame aside in favor of avoiding heatstroke. And dudes embraced it , showing off umbrellas both regular and creative , with sites such as Huffington Post Japan even trying it out . Plenty of talk about the far-off future came up, but one event that’s a bit closer also became central to online heat discussions over the past two weeks. The 2020 Olympics are set to happen around this time, and that is raising concern . Not helping matters was a Nikkan Sports interview with Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori, who said the heat might be key to a successful games. Netizens thought he was offbase to say the least. Adding fuel to the fire was a 2015 Yomiuri Shimbun article about “heat measures” for the Olympics. Suggestions include uchimizu (sprinkling water on the ground) and wearing yukata (summer kimono). The article — and the ideas presented within it — got dunked on . Uniting all these trends, however, is an acceptance that the old ways of beating the heat aren’t going to be sufficient moving forward, and that Japan needs to drop old-fashioned approaches to roasting temperatures as the mercury continues to rise. It might just be better to turn on the air conditioner and deal with the bill when the time comes.


Manga starting to feature elderly characters

Abstract: Japan is starting to embrace a new genre of manga featuring elderly people as the leading characters. “Sanju Mariko” is a story about Mariko, a widow and writer who at the age of sanju, Japanese for 80, sets out from the home she has shared with her son, his wife and extended family, including her great-grandchild. Her new life begins as an “internet cafe refugee” after she is unable to secure other accommodations. The decision to leave home is prompted by a feeling of alienation brought on by disagreements with her family over a plan to rebuild the house she had thought would be her final home, as well as a sense of loneliness after learning that a friend has died alone. She even ponders whether her family is hoping that she’ll die soon. The story incorporates a variety of problems elderly people might encounter, such as driving the wrong way on a highway or having their home turned into a “garbage dump” by hoarding items they consider treasures and do not want to part with. Other themes in the work include love affairs between the elderly and the onset of senile dementia. “Sanju Mariko” has been serialized in Be Love, a manga for women published by Kodansha Ltd. since 2016. As an independent comic book, the seventh volume is due to be released this month. Kodansha has received comments from many readers in their 40s and 50s who say the tale strikes a chord with them as they imagine they themselves might experience similar situations as they get older. But while Mariko worries about her situation, she also stays positive and actively pursues new challenges as she forms relationships with others. The author of “Sanju Mariko,” Yuki Ozawa, 53, empathizes with the anxiety about the future felt by people of her generation. But she says “there are more elderly people who frequent gaming arcades, and it seems people of my generation, who experienced the bubble economy when they were young, still have the curiosity of youth.” Mariko “in a sense is my ideal and I feel as if there will be more elderly like her,” Ozawa said. “Oya-san to Boku” (“The Landlady and Me”) is another popular comic book in the genre, based on the life experiences of Taro Yabe, a 41-year-old comedian who lodges on the second floor of a house in Tokyo owned by a woman in her late 80s. The landlady divorced when she was young and lives alone in the house until Yabe moves in. The two develop a warm and personal relationship. Yabe’s story has drawn a large following, with 410,000 copies having been published by Shinchosha Publishing Co. Many readers in their 30s and older write that they “yearn” for such a relationship. To them, the landlady, who finds a happy daily existence through sharing warm moments with a person from the younger generation, seems to represent their ideal image of an elderly person. “Tasukeaitai: Rogo Hatan no Oya, Karoshi Line no Ko” (“A Wish For Mutual Help: Parents Broken After Retirement, Offspring on the Verge of Death From Overwork”), published by Akita Publishing Co., is a manga about a married couple in their 70s. After retirement, they experience small daily pleasures such as gardening, but the husband suffers a stroke and finds himself in need of nursing care. As a result, the couple and their children are driven into a corner, both emotionally and financially. “Nursing care not only affects the elderly but also children and grandchildren. It is not someone else’s problem,” the author, Mako Saiki, 57, says. “Individuals and families can hardly shoulder everything. Through the manga, I hope people will learn ways of overcoming difficulties such as by utilizing social security to address financial concerns.” The popularity of manga with elderly central characters appears to reflect anxieties shared by all people about how to make post-retirement life meaningful and cope with nursing care and other issues unavoidable in old age. These stories allow readers to identify with such characters and think about social problems they themselves will face in old age, and consider the ideal model for the elderly, experts say. “Manga magazines have changed in content along with the aging of generations who were acquainted with them in childhood,” said Kyoko Tominaga, an associate professor of sociology at Ritsumeikan University. “Featuring the elderly as leading characters, rather than in supporting roles, has shed light on details of what they worry about and struggle with,” she said. “I think it is the concreteness of this content that allows readers to empathize.”


Tokyo to provide free housing for those displaced by floods in western Japan

Abstract: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has said it will provide free public housing for victims of the torrential rains and floods that recently inundated western Japan, and will start accepting applications from prospective residents Wednesday. Although Tokyo is several hundreds kilometers away from the area hit by extreme weather earlier this month, the capital is offering 220 residences located in council housing blocks for those who have lost their homes to the severe flooding. As of Monday, there are still 4,700 evacuees. Asked whether victims would be motivated to move away from their homes to Tokyo for free housing, “we understand that some victims would have family in Tokyo. We thought it would help for the victims to have a safe place to stay near their family in Tokyo,” said Shunro Miyazaki, an official at the Urban Development Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Rent, deposit and other costs such as parking will be covered by the metropolitan government for up to six months. However, residents will have to cover their own bills for gas, electricity and water. Although the initial contract for the housing will only be for six months, it will be possible to renew the contract for another six months, with free accommodation being provided for up to a year. Applicants need a certificate issued by their local government, proving that their original residence was at least partially destroyed, in order to apply for the free housing. However, victims will not have to provide the certificate right away, given that it may take time for local governments to issue the necessary documents, Miyazaki told The Japan Times. Applications will be accepted by telephone from Wednesday until the following Tuesday. The 220 residences set aside for flood victims are all currently available, and applicants will be able to move into their new housing as early as a week after the paperwork is accepted. As of Tuesday about 110,000 residences, ranging from council housing to privately rented houses, have been made available across Japan for victims of the flooding, according to figures made public on the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry website. However, the figures also show that housing for victims is not plentiful for areas hit hardest by the flooding, namely the prefectures of Hiroshima and Okayama.


Major Japan firms dish out 2.53 percent wage hike on average during spring labor talks

Abstract: Major companies agreed to raise monthly employee pay by ¥8,539, or 2.53 percent, on average for unionized workers in this year’s shunto spring labor-management talks, a survey showed Tuesday. The average pay hike topped 2 percent for five years in a row and exceeded ¥8,000 for the first time since 2015, the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) said in its final shunto tally. But the average hike fell short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s call for 3 percent or more. The average pay hike in the hotel industry came to 3.3 percent, the highest among the 17 sectors surveyed, followed by the construction industry, with 3.21 percent, and the automotive sector, with 2.69 percent. The tally covered 116 companies. Subject to the survey are companies with 500 or more employees listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.


Long way home as Przewalski's horses fly to Mongolia

Abstract: TAKHIN TAL, MONGOLIA - Their violent kicks rattle the small army plane flying over Siberia as it transports the four rare horses from Prague to the vast Mongolian steppe where the once near-extinct species slowly recovers their numbers. Known as Przewalski’s horses, the ancient species has narrowly avoided extinction thanks to worldwide zoo breeding programs and is now gradually being re-introduced to a wildlife reserve in its original homeland. However, Finnish sisters Helmi and Hanna, German mare Spes and Yanja from a Swiss zoo are not enjoying one bit their 30-hour trip confined to wooden boxes on their way to their new home. “The plane trip is the toughest part,” Prague Zoo chief vet Roman Vodicka said over the constant drone of the twin-engine propeller plane. “The horse might make a wrong move, get stuck and lie down, stopping the blood flow to the legs. If this happened on the truck, we might release them for a run in nature, but you can’t do that on the plane,” he said. Prague Zoo, which has bred Przewalski’s horses since 1932, tracks all new births and keeps the world genealogy book for the endangered species, launched a project to reintroduce the animals to Mongolia in 2011. The four round-bellied, short-legged, sandy-beige mares are set to join wild herds in Takhin Tal (meaning the wild horse steppe), where 220 Przewalski’s horses now gallop free. In 1969, there was just one. “These horses are getting a chance others won’t have. They’ll return home,” said Jan Marek, a Prague Zoo curator in charge of hooved mammals. But, for the moment, they are restless after a busy day, which started at an acclimatization center on a Prague Zoo farm, south of the Czech capital. Before being enclosed in the transport boxes, they were put to sleep, tested and treated by vets. Then they were taken by truck to a military air base on Prague’s outskirts and loaded onto the plane. Marek and Vodicka monitor the horses throughout the trip, trying to calm them by talking and whistling, or with hay and pheromones. Keeping them cool also helps and the plane is air-conditioned to 15 to 19 degrees Celsius (59 to 66 Fahrenheit). After landing on the dirt runway in the western Mongolian town of Bulgan Sum, the mares take a bumpy journey by truck to the remote Takhin Tal reserve, where they are finally able to gallop into an enclosure to find their hooves in their new home. In the first half of next year, they will be released into the wild to join either a lone stallion, or be part of a harem — a group of around a dozen horses led by a dominant stallion — in Takhin Tal, which is part of the Great Gobi B protected area spanning over 9,000 square kilometers (3,600 square miles). “Harem organization is a very nice social structure, everybody has his own role,” said Ganbaatar Oyunsaikhan, Great Gobi B director. Rangers able to discern a stallion or harem at a distance when it is barely visible to the untrained eye, even with binoculars, will monitor the mares as they explore their new home. Prague Zoo has released a total of 31 Przewalski’s horses into the Mongolian wilderness, with funding for the project provided by zoos from across the globe. “I decided to do this after the ‘dzud’, or very severe winter of 2009-2010, which had cut local (Przewalski’s) horse numbers by two-thirds to about 50,” said Prague Zoo director Miroslav Bobek, standing outside a yurt in the Mongolian steppe. First documented by Russian scientist Nikolai Przhevalsky in 1881, the species was nearly extinct in the 1960s and is still listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Bobek said the current population stands at around 2,400 horses, with 800 in the wild including in other parts of Mongolia and in China. “All the living Przewalski’s horses come from a genetic bottleneck of about 10 animals,” he said. Zoologists hope the four new mares from different zoos will improve the genetic mix of the Mongolian herd. “If we only brought Czech horses, it would be the same blood. We’re trying to make the population as diverse as possible,” Marek said. New genetic research has suggested that the stocky horses that inspired dreamy pre-historic cave paintings are not the world’s last remaining wild horse as had been thought. The journal Science reported in February that, despite their prehistoric looks, Przewalski’s horses were actually domesticated animals that escaped their human owner in the Botai area of northern Kazakhstan around 5,500 years ago. Bobek described the study as “very interesting,” but is cautious. “It could have been the other way round; the wild Przewalski’s horse could have been the source for Botai breeders,” he said. “In any case, the uniqueness of Przewalski’s horse is obvious. We’ll carry on.”


Emergency personnel respond to record number of calls as heat wave kills 10 more in Japan

Abstract: Exhaustion and heat stroke caused by scorching summer temperatures on Thursday killed 10 people in seven prefectures and sent 2,605 people to hospitals, according to the latest figures. Extremely hot weather is predicted continue on Friday, as the Meteorological Agency urged people to drink sufficient water to prevent heat exhaustion. A total of 246 people were rushed to hospitals in Aichi Prefecture, 241 in Osaka, 190 in Saitama and 131 in Tokyo. Temperature rose to as high as 40.7 Celsius in Gifu Prefecture. Tokyo rescuers responded to more than 3,000 emergency calls Wednesday, a one-day record, as a deadly heat wave continued to grip Japan, preliminary data from the city’s fire department showed Thursday. A total of 317 people, from a 1-year-old infant up to a 105-year-old, were taken to hospitals in the capital Wednesday. The number of emergency calls broke the previous record of 2,900 set the previous day. The education ministry instructed local education boards and universities nationwide to take thorough measures to prevent heat stroke. A 6-year-old boy died Tuesday after attending an outdoor class at his elementary school in Aichi Prefecture. The ministry warned that people could suffer from heat exhaustion even with temperatures of 25 to 30 degrees, depending on humidity and other conditions. The mercury continued to hover well over 35 C in many areas of Japan on Thursday, with Kyoto registering 39.8 C, the city’s highest-ever recorded temperature. The Meteorological Agency warned of extremely high temperatures and called on people to take precautionary steps such as drinking water and adjusting room temperatures.


Crime in Japan dips to lowest postwar level through first half of 2018

Abstract: The number of recorded crimes in Japan continued to decrease through the first half of 2018 to a level unseen in the postwar period, mainly due to falling theft rates, preliminary police data showed Thursday. The total number of crimes recorded over the period stood at 398,615, down 52,054 from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Police Agency. Thefts accounted for more than 70 percent of all registered crimes but the number of cases continued to decline. The proliferation of security cameras was seen as a cause in the falling number of thefts. However, the number of reported sex crimes rose in the first six months. The increase comes after the penal code was revised last July to eliminate a requirement that a victim must file a complaint before rape or sexual molestation can be prosecuted. The revision also broadened the definition of rape to include male victims. The data showed that police had to deal with many crimes targeting children and cases of fraud involving increasingly sophisticated methods. In May, a 7-year-old girl in the city of Niigata was abducted on her way home from school before being killed and abandoned on a railway track. The murder has led to nationwide checks of routes taken by elementary school students. In the half-year period, police took enforcement actions in 152,799 cases against 100,579 people, down 8,379 and 5,115, respectively, from a year earlier. The number of people included 11,689 juveniles. Excluding serial thefts and other crimes perpetrated by the same culprit, police took enforcement actions in 99,763 cases, of which 17,289 resulted from voluntary police questioning and 8,746 from footage recorded by security cameras and other devices. The number of reported crimes hit a postwar low in 2017.


Japanese veggie prices shoot up amid heat wave; inmate dies in Aichi

Abstract: Vegetable prices have spiked as much as 65 percent amid a grueling two-week long heat wave that drove temperatures Wednesday to records in some regions, including areas where recovery and cleanup efforts are underway after devastating floods and landslides. An agriculture ministry official in Tokyo warned against “pretty severe price moves” for vegetables if predictions of more weeks of hot weather hold up. “It’s up to the weather how prices will move from here,” the official said. “But the Meteorological Agency has predicted it will remain hot for a few more weeks, and that we will have less rain than the average.” Temperatures in the cities of Yamaguchi and Akiotacho, Hiroshima Prefecture, reached record highs of 38.8 and 38.6, respectively, on Wednesday afternoon. In Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture, one of the areas hit hardest by this month’s flooding, the mercury reached 38.7, just 0.3 degrees off an all-time high. As many as 65 people died in the week to July 22, up from 12 the previous week, government figures show. In Miyoshi, Aichi Prefecture, a prisoner in his forties died of a heat stroke. The room, like most in the prison, had no air-conditioning and the temperature on the floor of his cell was found to be 34 degrees shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday. Authorities who found him unresponsive sent him to a hospital outside the prison, but he was soon pronounced dead, a prison official said. “It is truly regrettable that an inmate lost his life,” Kiyoshi Kageyama, head of the prison, said in a statement. “We will do our utmost in maintaining (prisoners’) health, including taking anti-heatstroke steps.” On the Tokyo stock market, shares in companies expected to benefit from the hot summer, such as ice-cream makers, have risen in recent trade. Shares in the Imuraya Group, whose subsidiary sells popular vanilla and red-bean ice cream, were up nearly 10 percent on the month, while Ishigaki Foods, which sells barley tea, surged 50 percent over the same period. In neighboring South Korea, the unremitting heat has killed at least 14 people this year, the Korea Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention said. The heat wave was at the level of a “special disaster,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday, as electricity use surged and vegetable prices rose.


Female leaders encourage women to be confident and believe in themselves at Tokyo conference

Abstract: With “womenomics” often touted as a key policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government has been working to increase women’s participation in the workforce, politics and other areas in recent years. However, change has been slow in Japan, which ranked 114th in last year’s Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum. Despite the odds in this male-dominated society, what can be done to empower women in Japan? Over 800 people gathered in Tokyo’s Odaiba district on Sunday to discuss the issue and share their personal struggles and triumphs at the 23rd International Conference for Women in Business. Hosted by consultancy ewoman, Inc., this year’s conference featured panel and roundtable discussions on topics ranging from health and new working styles to multinational management and workforce diversity. Speakers at the conference, sponsored in part by The Japan Times, discussed how they need to ‘live strong’ — which was this year’s theme — and drew on their own experiences to drive home how important it is for women to be confident and believe in themselves. “What does it mean to ‘live strong’? I think it’s all about believing yourself,” said internal affairs minister Seiko Noda, the minister in charge of women’s empowerment. “Sometimes we have to give in to stronger forces. But if there is something that you know you have worked harder for than anyone else . . . then it is important to believe in yourself, through and through,” she said. Indeed, lack of confidence has often been cited as one reason why women around the world have struggled to achieve the same kind of success as men. A Cornell University study by Joyce Ehrlinger and David Dunning in 2003 had students take a scientific reasoning test and rate their own performance on it without knowing how they actually did. The results showed that women rated themselves significantly more negatively than men, even though their actual scores were about the same. Women were also more likely than men to decline invitations to a science competition after the test. The study found that their refusal rate was linked to how well they thought they performed, rather than how well they actually did. In a separate study on women’s leadership conducted by auditor KPMG in 2015, a survey of over 3,000 women in the United States found that 92 percent were not confident about “asking for sponsors,” and that 73 percent lacked confidence about “pursuing a job opportunity beyond their experience.” McDonald’s Japan CEO Sarah Casanova also felt confidence issues might be preventing women from reaching their potential. “We did an internal survey and asked women, ‘What holds you back from wanting to be promoted?’ Sixty percent of our female employees said, ‘the lack of confidence,’ ” she said in her speech at the conference. Casanova herself has had moments of doubt, especially when she was asked by a senior employee at McDonald’s to leave her native Canada to join the marketing department of the McDonald’s franchise in Russia. “I’m picturing Russia as cold and dark and scary, and nobody speaks English and I’m like ‘I can’t do that.’ But somehow I mustered up the confidence to go for it,” she recalled. “We think we need to be perfect, we need to check all the boxes before we move forward, with confidence. Look at it this way — when someone opens a door for you they think you have what it takes, and you should, too,” she said. Marin Minamiya, a 21-year-old university student who climbed Mount Everest at the age of 19 and went on to become the youngest person ever to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam — the Seven Summits plus the North and South Poles — echoed how important confidence was in achieving her goal. Minamiya spoke of how her father refused to provide any financial support for the Everest attempt, meaning she had to ask countless companies to sponsor her undertaking. She was also discouraged by a Japanese alpinist who had already reached the top and dismissed her for even thinking about it. “He said: ‘There’s no way a little girl like you can climb Mount Everest. The very fact that you’re thinking about doing it is an insult to me,’ ” Minamiya recalled. To make things worse, Minamiya took a 250-meter fall during a preparatory climb in Nagano Prefecture. But she survived. Calling the incidents ‘invisible mountains’ she had to scale to attain her goal, she said: “If I had given up at any point when facing these three mountains, I wouldn’t be here. “In the end it’s all about believing yourself. That’s what is most important. Can you be your own best supporter? How many ‘invisible mountains’ can you scale? This is the key to living strongly,” she said. But it can be hard to get the motivation to persevere and build confidence alone. The KPMG report noted that some 67 percent of the respondents in its survey claimed they needed more support to feel confident enough to become a leader. “Governments can certainly help by setting the agenda, but they can’t do it alone. Companies can’t do it by themselves either. The key catalyst is the attitude of women,” Casanova said in her speech. “And if women are unwilling to step up to lead because they lack confidence, we need to give them the encouragement and support that they need. We need to work together to live strong,” she added. “The bottom line is this — as women, we have to support one another. When you find yourself in a position of influence, no matter what level . . . bring other women along. It’s not us against the men, it’s us together, both men and women, working together,” said Zambian Ambassador to Japan Ndiyoi Muliwana Mutiti. In a panel discussion, Mutiti had explained how she had to learn how to say ‘I am the ambassador’ in Japanese when she came to Japan because she would often be referred to as the ambassador’s wife. “When a woman does well, give her the accolade she deserves. And when you are doing well, bring other women along,” she said.

international conference for women in business


Japan sends last six Aum death row inmates to the gallows

Abstract: The six remaining Aum Shinrikyo cult members on death row were executed Thursday morning, the Justice Ministry said, with all 13 of the cult members sentenced to death now having been hanged over the span of three weeks. The executions followed the hanging of Shoko Asahara, the founder of the doomsday cult, and six former senior members of the group on July 6. The six hung Thursday were Satoru Hashimoto, 51; Toru Toyoda, 50; Kenichi Hirose, 54; Yasuo Hayashi (later named Yasuo Koike), 60; Masato Yokoyama, 54; and Kazuaki Okazaki (later named Kazuaki Miyamae), 57. Hayashi and Okazaki changed their surnames after they were imprisoned. The 13 high-level Aum members were sentenced to death for committing crimes including those involving the cult’s sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway system in 1995; another sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994; and the murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in 1989. It is rare for the government to execute this many death row inmates over a short period of time. Until now, the shortest time span between executions since November 1998, when records of executions were made public, was 47 days. Media outlets have speculated that the Justice Ministry wanted to close the curtain on the shocking crimes and dramatic events before the end of the Heisei Era, which began in 1989. The era is set to end next year as Emperor Akihito plans to abdicate on April 30. The cult had attracted many young people, including those who were highly educated at top-level universities. Some followers were believed to have become disillusioned with the materialism seen amid the euphoria of the bubble economy in the 1980s. The indiscriminate murders by Aum, in particular those in the Tokyo subway attack, deeply shocked the nation and are still remembered as key events that damaged a long-held sense of security felt by many in postwar Japan. “The majority of the public believe that there is no other option than to execute those who have committed brutal crimes,” said Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa during a news conference in Tokyo. Polls have long shown a majority of Japanese people support capital punishment. Kamikawa declined to reveal if any of those executed Thursday had been calling for the reopening of their trials, as has been reported by some media outlets. Aum Shinrikyo split into three smaller religious groups after the arrest of Asahara. Local residents living around those groups’ facilities are worried, believing some of the followers still worship Asahara and the senior Aum members who were executed. “The incidents that happened in the Heisei Era have finally ended. But for local residents, (their worries) won’t end unless (successor groups) are disbanded,” Hisashi Mizukami, 73, who heads a group of local citizens in Tokyo who live near the main office of Aleph, one of the successor groups, was quoted as saying by Kyodo News. Human rights activists argue that those calling for retrial should not be executed unless all pending legal processes have been completed. The executions immediately drew condemnation from activists calling for the abolition of capital punishment. Kamikawa said that the Justice Ministry does not believe that an execution should be delayed because an inmate is seeking a retrial. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has long called for the abolishment of the death penalty, arguing for lifetime imprisonment without parole instead. JFBA President Yutaro Kikuchi issued a statement on Thursday protesting Thursday’s execution. “Criminal punishment should not be given just as retaliation but for something helpful in preventing the recurrence of a crime, such as achieving the rehabilitation (of a criminal) into society,” Kikuchi said. Hiroka Shoji, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, wrote on the group’s website, “This unprecedented execution spree, which has seen 13 people killed in a matter of weeks, does not leave Japanese society any safer. The hangings fail to address why people were drawn to a charismatic guru with dangerous ideas.” Asahara founded the precursor of Aum Shinrikyo in 1986. Many members of the group were featured on TV shows numerous times in the 1990s to passionately defend the cult in public. In March 1995, Aum Shinrikyo members released sarin gas inside subway cars during Tokyo’s morning rush hour, killing 13 and injuring thousands. That was soon followed by a police raid and the arrest of Asahara at the cult’s facilities in Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture. The murders highlighted the dangerous nature of the cult, some of whose members would be willing to kill if ordered to by Asahara. All the trials related to members of the cult were finalized in January this year, causing the media and the public to speculate that the death sentences would be carried out shortly.

aum shinrikyo
executions
shoko asahara
death penalty
aum shinrikyo in focus


Japanese justice minister's 16 execution orders the most since end of death penalty moratorium in 1993

Abstract: With the hangings of six former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult Thursday, Yoko Kamikawa became the justice minister who has ordered the most executions, 16, since Japan lifted its 40-month moratorium on the death penalty in 1993. Thirteen of the 16 executed individuals were former members of the doomsday cult. Aum founder Shoko Asahara, who masterminded the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system and other heinous crimes, and six others were hanged earlier this month. Kamikawa ordered one execution during her yearlong stint as justice minister from October 2014. Since resuming the position in August last year, she has ordered two executions in December and 13 this month. All of the orders were under the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Japan implemented a moratorium on the death penalty between November 1989 and March 1993 due to increasing international pressure to abolish capital punishment. Justice Minister Masaharu Gotoda, during the administration of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, lifted the moratorium and executions have taken place roughly every six months to a year since then. Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura, a lawyer-turned-politician, did not greenlight any executions during his 11 months in office between October 2005 and September 2006 under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, citing his Buddhist beliefs. His successor, Jinen Nagase, took the opposite approach and ordered executions for 10 death row inmates before he stepped down in August 2007. Nagase’s successor Kunio Hatoyama further accelerated the pace of executions by carrying them out roughly every two months, sending 13 inmates to the gallows by the time he left office in August 2008. The Asahi Shimbun daily dubbed him the Grim Reaper. When the Democratic Party of Japan came to power after defeating the Liberal Democratic Party in a 2009 general election, the pace of executions slowed. Nine death row inmates were hanged by justice ministers of DPJ administrations up until the LDP retook power in 2012. Keiko Chiba, the first justice minister under the DPJ administration and a lawyer who belonged to an anti-death penalty parliamentarian group before assuming the post, initially took a cautious stance on executions, but eventually ordered hangings of two inmates in July 2010. In an unusual move, she witnessed the executions and allowed members of the media to visit the execution chamber at the Tokyo Detention House the following month in a bid to stir public debate over the death penalty. After the LDP came back to power in December 2012, justice ministers ordered executions periodically, with Sadakazu Tanigaki sending 11 inmates to the gallows, Mitsuhide Iwaki four and Katsutoshi Kaneda three.

justice minister
death penalty
aum
yoko kamikawa


Aum executions reignite debate over Japan's death penalty

Abstract: Thursday’s executions of six Aum Shinrikyo cultists — the second set of hangings this month following the executions of seven on July 6 — have reignited debate over the nation’s death penalty system, marked by its opacity and the absence of prior notice to the public, while some continue to back the practice as a necessary measure to bring justice. The latest executions took place only three weeks after Shoko Asahara, former guru of the doomsday cult, was sent to the gallows along with six of his disciples in what many perceived as a conclusion of the decadeslong Aum saga that culminated in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. After Thursday’s hangings, all 13 Aum cultists that had been sentenced to death have now been executed. “It is probably unprecedented in the history of postwar Japan for as many as 13 death-row inmates to be executed within a month,” said lawyer Yuji Nakamura, who has long followed the Aum-related cases closely and supported victims of the cult’s crimes, at a packed news conference in Tokyo. Shizue Takahashi, whose husband, Kazumasa, was killed in the subway attack, said that she had long been waiting for the day justice would be served. “As far as Aum death-row inmates are concerned, it’s inconceivable not to execute them,” she told the news conference. But even so, Takahashi voiced frustration with the current system, which is notorious for its secrecy, and said the Justice Ministry should be more forthcoming with information on the lives of death-row inmates and about granting them visitations. “At the moment, so little information on the death penalty is made available that we can’t even begin to discuss the system,” Takahashi said. The widow said she found an encouraging sign of progress with the fact that a Justice Ministry official personally called her Thursday morning to specify the names of the Aum cultists being sent to the gallows. “I hope tiny little steps like this will eventually evolve to a point where the cruelty of capital punishment can be more openly discussed,” she said. Thursday’s development also prompted various human rights groups to issue statements condemning the executions and what they perceive to be systemic flaws in the way Japan conducts capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, Thursday’s executions marked the first time since 2008 that the annual number of hangings has topped 10 in Japan. It is “extremely rare” for two rounds of hangings to take place within a month, the group said. “No one can deny that the crimes committed by former members of Aum Shinrikyo were abhorrent, but the death penalty in Japan — at times conducted when an inmate is seeking retrial coupled with the last-minute notice to inmates before the actual execution — is an irreversible and inhumane punishment,” said Human Rights Watch program officer Teppei Kasai. “The executions of former Aum Shinrikyo members conducted today aren’t exceptions,” he said. Others lamented that the latest hangings effectively dashed what little hope they had of the imprisoned Aum inmates coming forward with new testimonies and shedding light on enigmatic aspects of the doomsday cult. Takeshi Ono, who heads a group of lawyers following Aum-related cases and supporting crime victims, wrote in a statement that the series of Aum incidents are particularly worth re-examining in that “many talented young minds joined the cult and did a huge amount of harm to society, and their activities remain alive today even though the cult itself has disbanded.” Ono’s group had long called for a suspension of the hangings for the 12 disciples of Asahara whom it has described as “bearing important witness” to the inner thinking of the mysterious cult. The executions have “brought a closure” to the Aum saga, but at the same time made it virtually impossible to “comprehensively investigate and analyze” atrocities committed by Aum, Ono said. Meanwhile, VS forum, a Tokyo-based lawyers’ group supporting crime victims, issued a statement defending Thursday’s executions. Lawyer Masato Takahashi, a representative of the group, hit back at the criticism that the latest hangings fly in the face of a “global trend” toward abolishing capital punishment, saying the death penalty constitutes the foundation of Japan’s public order and that opinions of the global society shouldn’t take priority. “Whatever capital punishment system we adopt doesn’t affect other countries. It’s a matter over which Japan should have sole say,” Takahashi said. According to Amnesty International, more than 140 countries around the world have either abolished the death penalty or effectively shelved the practice. Japan, the United States and South Korea are the sole Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members that continue capital punishment, though Seoul has not executed anyone since 1997. Takahashi also denied that Japan is disregarding the human rights of the accused by upholding the death penalty, saying that — unlike some other countries — criminals here are rarely shot to death by police at the scene of a crime. In this sense, “nowhere around the world are human rights of the suspects and defendants being cherished more than in Japan, where the death penalty is scrutinized very carefully in trial, after trial, and sometimes even rescinded by a higher court,” Takahashi said.

aum
executions
death penalty
shizue takahashi


A chronology of doomsday cult and its founder

Abstract: The following is a chronology of events related to the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult and its founder, Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto: March 2, 1955 — Matsumoto is born in Kumamoto Prefecture. February 1984 — Asahara forms group Aum Shinsen no Kai. July 1987 — Aum Shinsen no Kai is renamed Aum Shinrikyo. November 4, 1989 — Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer helping people with complaints against Aum, is slain along with his wife and 1-year-old son at their Yokohama home. February 1990 — Asahara and 24 other members of Aum run in a House of Representatives election. All of them lose. June 27, 1994 — Aum members release sarin in a residential district of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people and injuring about another 600. March 20, 1995 — Aum members release sarin on Tokyo subway trains, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000. May 16, 1995 — Asahara is arrested. April 24, 1996 — The trial of Asahara begins. February 2000 — Aum renames itself Aleph. March 13, 2003 — While being questioned for the first time in court, Asahara refuses to speak. April 24, 2003 — Prosecutors demand Asahara be given the death penalty. February 27, 2004 — Tokyo District Court sentences Asahara to death. September 15, 2006 — Supreme Court finalizes Asahara’s death sentence. May 2007 — Former Aum spokesman Fumihiro Joyu launches splinter group Hikari no Wa. June 2008 — Law enacted to provide Aum victims and relatives with government benefits. December 31, 2011 — Aum fugitive Makoto Hirata surrenders to police. June 2012 — Aum fugitives Katsuya Takahashi and Naoko Kikuchi are arrested. January 18, 2018 — Supreme Court rejects Takahashi’s appeal, settling his life sentence and ending all trials related to the cult. March 14-15, 2018 — Seven of 13 former Aum members on death row are transferred from a Tokyo detention center to other facilities. July 6, 2018 — Asahara and six other Aum members on death row are executed. July 26, 2018 — Six remaining former Aum members on death row are executed.

aum shinrikyo
shoko asahara
chizuo matsumoto
death penalty
executions
religion
murder
terrorism
tokyo sarin gas attack
aum shinrikyo in focus


Ratio of working moms in Japan tops 70% for first time

Abstract: Working moms accounted for 70.8 percent of all mothers in 2017, breaking the 70 percent line for the first time, according to the labor ministry. The ratio rose 3.6 points from 2016, setting a record high, the ministry’s comprehensive survey of living conditions showed Friday. The ministry noted that more companies are adopting child care leave and shorter working hours, encouraging the number of working moms to grow in line with the government’s policy of drawing more women into the workforce as the population shrinks. Of the moms, 24.7 percent were regular workers, 37 percent were nonregular workers and 9.1 percent were executives, part-time staff or in other situations, the survey showed. It also revealed that 23.3 percent of all households in the country had children in 2017 — about half the 46.2 percent logged in 1986. Average household income in 2016 rose 2.7 percent from the year before to ¥5,602,000, up for the third consecutive year. Median income stood at ¥4.42 million, with 61.5 percent of all households earning less than the average. In the meantime, 55.8 percent of people said they were leading a hard life in 2017, down for the third year in a row. The results of the survey, conducted in June and July last year, were based on answers from 46,399 households queried about their household composition, and on answers from 6,541 households asked about their income and other subjects.


News outlets in Japan question belated flood response

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe probably regrets attending a drinking party thrown by some Liberal Democratic Party colleagues on July 5 . Even if he didn’t suffer a hangover, as some reports implied, he was forced to dodge media brickbats over his colleagues’ seeming inability to “read the air,” as the Japanese say. Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, the designated “hostess” of the party, had two days earlier signed off on the execution of seven members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo, including leader Shoko Asahara, which took place the next morning. It looked to members of the press as if the politicians were celebrating the hangings, even if the public seemed relieved that the two-decade-long Aum ordeal was over. More significantly, the Meteorological Agency held an extraordinary news conference on the afternoon of July 5, announcing that western Japan would be hit by “unprecedented” rain for several days. Even before the partygoers hoisted their glasses, around 200,000 people in Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were “warned” to evacuate. It seems obvious that there were enough indications of impending disaster to give Abe and his friends reason to monitor the progress of the storm that night, but according to freelance writer Satetsu Takeda during a discussion of the matter on a Bunka Hoso talk show on July 10, they didn’t. Even worse, their reaction to the scope of the disaster was slow. Indeed, it wasn’t until 9 a.m. on Sunday that an emergency response was finally approved by the government, a full 66 hours after the Meteorological Agency’s news conference. The LDP and its supporters have since blasted opposition parties and the press for blaming the government for something that “couldn’t be predicted,” which sounds awfully similar to the situation following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, when the then-opposition LDP attacked the ruling Democratic Party of Japan for its insufficient response to that disaster. In this case, however, there were so many layers of responsibility that it seems short-sighted to make Abe and his fellow revelers the primary scapegoats. Or is it? In its in-depth coverage of the disaster on July 8, the Mainichi Shimbun’s Osaka edition pointed out that the heaviest rain fell at night . Local authorities in the worst-hit areas initially issued hinan kankoku (evacuation advisories), which many people ignored. It wasn’t until after nightfall that these notices were changed to hinan shiji (evacuation orders) but, as it turns out, people didn’t evacuate then either. The city of Kure in Hiroshima Prefecture didn’t issue an evacuation order until 9 p.m. Traveling to evacuation centers in the dark was going to be difficult for many people, especially the elderly. In hindsight it seems obvious that Kure should have issued the order earlier, but local governments, who are responsible for such notices, often hesitate to do so because if a disaster doesn’t materialize, residents might become angry. This sounds like blaming the victims, and in many of the Mainichi stories it seems residents didn’t take the situation seriously enough. One man in his 30s living in Kurashiki said he ignored the order because he wanted to watch the soccer World Cup. Fortunately he was rescued by boat the next morning. Others weren’t as fortunate. One man in Kure went out to inspect the river at 8 p.m. and saw two elderly people get swept away. Since they were walking in the opposite direction from the evacuation center, he assumed they had tried to go there but gave up when the rain became too intense. This failure to evacuate in time was the main theme of NHK’s disaster coverage in a special program aired July 12 . Millions of affected people were ultimately ordered to evacuate but, according to NHK, only 40,000 made it to shelters. Given that these kinds of weather events are projected to increase in frequency, experts on the show said residents must be made to understand that an advisory means to get out as soon as possible. What the experts didn’t discuss is why people are so reluctant to do that. Attorney Osamu Omae, writing in the July 10 issue of Gendai Business, points out that local governments are in charge of evacuation facilities , and they almost always put evacuees in school gymnasiums, where they sleep on floors in cramped conditions with no privacy or air conditioning, and with insufficient sanitation. Other countries have permanent countermeasures in place to deal with natural disasters. In 2009, Italy set up thousands of six-person tents with air conditioning for victims of an earthquake within 48 hours that provided enough bathroom and kitchen facilities for 18,000 people. Remaining victims were put up in hotels. Omae stressed that these resources were provided by the Italian government. Local governments in Japan don’t have the money or resources to handle disasters of this magnitude and always have to improvise. Following the Kumamoto earthquake of 2016, 95 people reportedly died in evacuation facilities or in their cars . Former lawmaker Nobuhiko Suto, who has lobbied for better disaster preparedness for 30 years, said on the July 14 edition of the web news program DemocraTV that Japan must establish a full-time emergency management agency. As it stands, emergencies are handled by various ministries who never work together properly because of their respective vertical structures. The government has said it must respond to local calls for stronger anti-disaster infrastructure, but dams and levees are not always effective. A dam completed in February to stop mudslides in Hiroshima’s Aki Ward didn’t prevent 20 houses from being buried . Evacuation measures are the only solution in a disaster-prone country such as Japan and, according to Suto, only the central government can make them happen. Abe and his fellow partygoers can’t be blamed for not properly responding to the budding disaster on July 5, because they had no tools with which to effectively respond. However, that doesn’t mean they’re not responsible.


Plight of 'Mizuho refugees' stirs debate on banking services in Japan

Abstract: Imagine wrapping up a tough work week and jumping into a three-day weekend. Maybe you just plan on lounging around at home with the air conditioner on at full blast. Or perhaps you’ll hit the road and head out of the city to get a welcome break from urban life. At some point you’ll probably need to withdraw some cash for the weekend, so you venture down to your nearest ATM … and find out the whole system is down until the following Tuesday. That was reality over the Marine Day holiday weekend, at least for those using Mizuho Bank. Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the parent of Mizuho Bank and one of the country’s largest financial institutions, halted ATM and online banking services over those three days to conduct data transfers. This move left many without a way to withdraw funds. Other banks, including Prestia, also limited service, but Mizuho attracted significant online attention. Luckily for them, social media never shuts down, offering a place to commiserate with others and complain about Japan’s cash-centric society, which continues to persist in 2018. So many people ended up affected that a popular buzzword emerged online — “ Mizuho nanmin ” (“Mizuho refugees”), which spread across Twitter and other social network platforms. It was an episode of inconvenience that showed how internet users in Japan gripe, and a rare moment when many voices came together around a shared topic to vent. Like most viral frustrations in 2018, Mizuho did offer plenty of advance warning on this one. The bank’s website laid this info out along with future dates where services will be shut down (make your notes now). It was also advertised on TV and on trains across the country, but it could be understandable that someone could miss the spot airing and, uh, not pay attention during their commute. Mizuho also sent plenty of emails and letters announcing the news to users, however. My sources for this? My inbox, both digital and physical. When the holiday weekend arrived, social media started buzzing. A fair amount of users offered up warnings to others, reminding them to take out money or risk having no cash until Tuesday, with some even sharing lessons learned from before. Others used the moment to joke about just how much dough they were taking out. As Saturday rolled around, however, the “ Mizuho refugees ” started emerging . People checked their wallets and realized they were now in a pinch . Some folks, after multiple failed attempts to find a machine that would spit out some money, celebrated the fact they had a piggybank on hand for just this moment (or, in one case, a total of ¥221 ). The majority, though, did not . Others bought ice cream first before realizing they had just put themselves in a pickle, or arrived in Niigata with only change in their pocket. And then the complaints really revved up. Some declared a desire to change banks or at least cancel the account they have , while others shifted blame to Japan as a whole . Trending instances like this give those who aren’t directly impacted chances to jump into the fray as well. Some Twitter users reported watching young people stare slackjawed at signs placed on ATMs in train stations. Others documented purported “refugees” in the wild. Twitter user @hikosaemon made the history of Mizuho’s internal workings sound like popcorn-movie material , while others took the chance to make some real goofers about the situation (which at least one person used to praise India). It was a moment to shine for the nation’s pawnshop association masco t (but it ultimately didn’t really work). Plenty of others kept reminding the void that, actually , plenty of ads and notices had been put out by Mizuho. The Mizuho stoppage also gave people a chance to push the argument that Japan should embrace more cashless methods of consumerism. Simply complaining about an inconvenience is Web 1.0 — now highlighting a solution alongside griping is the de rigeur. A fair amount of popular tweets wondered why credit cards and other noncash options weren’t bigger in Japan, and hoped this might spur a discussion . Some people celebrated places that took cards . Odds are pretty good that this single incident shared online won’t move the issue on. If nothing else, the one thing that everyone should get out of this whole “Mizuho refugee” incident is that anyone banking with this company should prepare accordingly for Sept. 8, 9 and 10 — the date the system is scheduled to go down once more for maintenance. Print out the bank’s list , and if you put your money somewhere else, make sure they won’t be pulling anything similar soon. It might also be smart to take out a few hundred thousand yen just in case of an emergency — ATMs might not be available in the event of a disaster and, even then, turning to Twitter won’t get you very far.


Kawagoe: From Edo standout to tourist draw

Abstract: Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, is less than an hour’s train ride from central Tokyo. But in this city full of history, one would feel a sense of nostalgia in the streets thanks to a number of traditional Japanese kura warehouse buildings from the Edo Period (1603-1868). A 15-minute walk to the north from JR Kawagoe Station will take visitors to the city’s main street lined with kura warehouses, which feature giant tiled roofs and black plastered walls. These warehouses have been turned into shops and restaurants catering to a steady stream of visitors. In the middle of the main street, the 16-meter tall Toki no Kane (Bell of Time) wooden tower stands out among other structures. The landmark of Kawagoe, the tower’s bell rings four times a day (at 6 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.), helping the local residents keep time for as long as 390 years. During the Edo Period, Kawagoe thrived as a town of merchants and craftsmen. Called “Little Edo,” the townspeople shipped crops and merchandise to Edo (present-day Tokyo) by the Shingashi River, and absorbed new culture and technology from Edo in return. In the 1960s, however, Kawagoe faced a crisis as shops moved to more convenient locations around the Station. Some of the historical buildings were on the verge of being torn down. However, thanks to the tireless efforts by local shop owners and residents, the city managed to stay alive, and gradually regained its vigor. In 2016, the Kawagoe Matsuri festival, which features huge traditional floats, was designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. With other festivals and events, along with well-preserved architecture, Kawagoe has now turned itself into a popular sightseeing spot that draws around 7 million visitors a year. This 16-meter tall wooden tower, called Toki no Kane (Bell of Time), rings four times a day and has done so for 390 years. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Tourists in kimono walk down the main street of Kawagoe on July 8. The 8th, 18th, and 28th of every month are designated as kimono days, with some shops offering special discounts visitors taking part. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Colorful wind chimes are seen during the Enmusubi Furin Fetival (wind chimes festival for prayers of love) at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Kitain Temple is one of the popular sightseeing spots in Kawagoe. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Kitain Temple has 540 statues, attracting visitors as a popular photo spot. | SATOKO KAWASAKI


Canadian woman breaks silence on alleged groping by Justin Trudeau

Abstract: OTTAWA - A former journalist broke her silence on Friday to stand by her allegation that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau groped her nearly two decades ago. “I issue this statement reluctantly, in response to mounting media pressure to confirm that I was the reporter who was the subject of the Open Eyes editorial, published in the Creston Valley Advance in August of 2000,” Rose Knight said in a statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp . She was referring to the original Canadian report on the allegation, which said that Trudeau, who was 28 at the time and not involved in politics, had apologized to the reporter in question. In that story he was also quoted as saying “I would never have been so forward” had he known she was a reporter. “The incident referred to in the editorial did occur, as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day. I did not pursue the incident at the time and will not be pursuing the incident further. I have had no subsequent contact with Mr. Trudeau, before or after he became prime minister,” said Knight. Knight said she will not be commenting further on the issue, according to CBC. The statement came a day after avowed feminist Trudeau again defended himself against the allegation that he had groped a journalist during a music festival in the western British Columbia city of Creston in 2000. “I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way, but I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently,” said Trudeau. Trudeau was asked whether he intended to open an investigation into the issue, given his party’s policy of zero tolerance on sexual assault. He did not respond to that question directly, but repeated several times that he does not believe he acted inappropriately. Trudeau also stressed that “it’s not just one side that matters” in such cases and that society should reflect on this issue. “Often a man experiences an interaction as being benign or not inappropriate and a woman, particularly in a professional context, can experience it differently. We have to respect that,” he said. When he came to power, Trudeau formed a Cabinet with an equal division between men and women.

justin trudeau
women
harassment
canada
sex abuse